Smittle Cave, Wright CO, MO

[Chads93GT]

I realize that, but that same line of thought would lead one to assume that the Moore's in this area own the 3rd longest cave in the state of Missouri and that isn't so.

[jsniffin]

Moore is also a more common name than smittle though... just sayin.

I get your point...

[Chads93GT]

Yeah I know, but what I mean is simply that land changes hands. there are 700 caves in my county and several of them have changed ownership hands throughout the years and no longer reflect the original landowner name given to them.

[jsniffin]

there are apparently caves in my county here... unfortunately I have no clue where they are.

[Chads93GT]

Ahh yeah, ive worked in your area. Are there any grottos in little rock, or an arkansas speleogical survey?

[boogercaver71]

Ahh yeah, ive worked in your area. Are there any grottos in little rock, or an arkansas speleogical survey?

Cobra Grotto is in Batesville, and Little Rock Grotto is in of course Little Rock

[jsniffin]

I live in white county and am a poor college student so for now I'm sticking to one of two caves I know of. and supposed to be meeting with some people from COBRA this weekend. thanks. I also heard from somebody.. maybe Tim. up at Ennis that there were caves in White county.

[whetstone]

Before they were closed, I explored both Little Smittle (say it fast five times!) and Lowell Cave on several occasions. Lowell Cave was the first cave I took my daughter into, when she was 8 yrs old. Both were very accessible, with some beautiful formations. I have some great pictures from Lowell, never bothered to take a camera into LS. I never imagined that MDC would cut off access . Anyway, to confirm, all three caves are owned by the MDC, and all three are closed to the public. The larger Smittle has been closed as long as I can remember, the other two were closed last year.

[milamber]

Hello All,

I am sorry that I am about 10 years too late on this reply, but my great-grandparents use to own the Smittle caves. They were indeed Smittle's :) Some of them still live in the county or neighboring counties and many have moved away including myself. My Great-Grandma Daisy (Smittle) use to live very close to the caves. I do recall when the farm was being sold to the government and that it was indeed due to WNS. I had only been in the caves a couple times as I was fairly young and had moved away. I regret not seeing the caves more back then. My mother and her sisters spent a lot of time in those caves and I had heard a few stories. One of them was about the medicine man that lived in there long ago. Others were more tangible like them partially damning the cave entrance so that more water was inside which allowed them to use boats for tourism.. that wasn't so great so they built walkways instead. However, the farm needed more attention so they closed up the tourism part. There is more to the story on that one, but will save it for another day :)

Hope all is well.
P.S. - in my searches I have seen that you can apply for a permit to go into the caves, but surely over the past 10 years you have seen that too

[ohiocaver]

Thanks for the update! Hope to see you underground again one of these days.