GroundquestMSA wrote:I would guess that Van Buren and White Counties, TN, rank quite highly, but it's been a while since I walked around and counted the caves. Again, this is only a guess. I had a look at my atlas, and Van Buren County is only about an inch big. Jackson is about four times it's size. I've been in about 8 caves in VBC, not too bad for one square inch, that's at least around 32,115,916,800 per square mile. Too bad VBC is so small...
Also, I wasn't reading this forum thirty-seven years ago when this topic was active, but since I'm mouthing off now I'll mention that the 216 number from Ohio is far too small. The problem (a genuine real-life tragedy) is that in states with no official survey, the "data custodians", if they exist, may not be actively seeking input from cavers, or may not be known to cavers. How many "known" caves? Depends on who you ask. I don't know what the NSS files for Ohio consist of, but I personally know of more than 216 Ohio caves, and have toured about 150 of them, including 100+ in one county alone.
Sounds like a great project for you to take on; ie, start up an Ohio Cave Survey (OCS) group. You already have a large amount of data in your personal files, which would be a good starting point. Look at what other state survey groups do, how they are set up as far as rules and guidelines, etc., and solicit advice from their officers. I'm sure Lin Guy with the ACS would be be glad to offer some ideas, as would most of our other cave survey officers.
I know it would be a big project, but at least you could start off on a good foundation. With the AL Cave Survey, we have many years of faulty data to contend with, whether it be faulty locations, or erroneous lengths and descriptions, not to mention probably a number of duplicate entries. With today's GPS technology, you could at least be pretty confident with the reported locations.
That's something to keep in mind when calculating cave densities and number of caves per state. No one really has any idea how many of Alabama's 4500+ caves are actually legit; same deal with Tennessee's 9000+ caves. And then you have the added caveat that TN uses a different (and less stringent) standard as to what qualifies as a "cave." That might explain why they have so many more caves than their neighbors.
GA uses an even less stringent standard, but with a lot less cave-rich areas, they still only boast of around 600 caves.
Trogman
Edited to correct number of cave in TN.