cave gated in oregon county missouri

[Chads93GT]

http://www.fs.fed.us/r9/ssrs/story?id=5412

Just worked in this area the past 2 days and stumbled on this article. For once I can see why and agree with gating this cave. Rednecks riding 4 wheelers into the cave, lol. Friggin idiots. Definately some unique people down there. Fo. Sho.

[KsCaver22]

I helped with the work on this gate. It took a large team of people 5 days to get that gate up!

Has anyone heard whether the gate has been attacked? The Forest Service people said they would check it occasionally. It would be interesting to know how it has stood up over the last year.

[Chads93GT]

I don't know Bill. I don't know where that cave is, but I did see the gate in Turner Spring Cave and it was intact, but I was looking at it from the cliff face. Didn't feel like getting wet and crawling up to the gate to see how sound it was. If I knew where this cave was, I probably would have checked it out as well to see if the gate has been damaged, but..............im back in st louis.

[Teresa]

Another place my husband has seen that I never will. It's so sad. I think some of these "gotta gate it" fanatics are highly mistaken. The problem isn't the cave. It's the lack of prosecution of the perps. More cameras, more permits, fewer gates. I've argued for years to no avail that if people had to have a modestly priced caving permit...similar to a fishing or hunting permit certifying nothing...where someone had your name and address, the incidence of vandalism would decrease. Won't go to zero, just as poaching hasn't but it will go down...the argument I get is that there aren't enough cavers to justify it. Well, Missouri only has 1500 trappers, and they have a permit system. I'm glad I'm on the dark side of 50, and feel sorry for all the younger people we've failed.