Is a cave worth saving?

[David Grimes]

I have a small pit cave on my property that is filled with trash from people using it as a dump before I owned the property. My question is more just seeking opinions but there are a few leads none of them are particularly promising but they may lead to more cave. The leads a mostly covered by trash so I cannot tell if they will lead to anything more but I am struggling to decide whether it is worth the effort to remove the trash or not. My inner caver says every cave is worth saving but realistically it will probably never be anything more than a very small pit. I have only noticed a couple bats using the cave and the real issue with cleaning it is the location it is a good distance back from any road in the woods with the largest trails not being big enough to accomodate a small trailer for trash removal and there would be tons of trash the bottom probably has 6' of trash in it. There is a video of the cave on online cavers that shows the trash in the bottom it is titled "Grimes Pit June 1, 2008" please let me know your opinions if you think it is worth the effort or not.

[SpeleoRover]

I think any cave is always worth saving - even if it means little more than hauling out trash from a shallow depression in the ground. I think active cleanups in well-known "sacrificial" caves are important from a conservation education standpoint, too.

I say go for it!

[caveflower]

Dave if were me and I had a nice little pit cave like in the video I would like to clean it up. Maybe you can get some help from your grotto. Shoot if gas prices wasn't so high my family would come down and pitch in. If its so far off the beaten path how did people get all the trash in there? Can you make the path a bit bigger to get maybe a atv back there. that might make getting the trash back to the road with sleds or something like that easier. I bet if you let people know you can get a lot of people to help you out. There is a bunch of cavers that have done clean ups like this here in Indiana I'm sure they will be more than willing to give some advice.

[David Grimes]

There are ATV trails going up to about 500ft from the cave. The trash was actually brought in from a property that is in front of the cave that was an apple orchard so it is all clear. The worst part is that is the obvious path they took to throw the trash in and the cave was never even part of their property so not only were they so disrespectful that they threw all their trash there they were also trespassing. I actually would just ask for permission to go through the orchard since it ownership has changed hands since the trash was dumped there but the current owner is very hostile toward anyone asking permission to visit their property. I will probably clean the trash out anyway I do appreciate the suggestions it just may be a long term project over the next year or so.

[wyandottecaver]

hmmmm, well I have some old historic looking vellum. I could make a crude map with the right amount of tidbit clues, and then "leak" the story to the local papers how during Morgan's Raid near there, a large amount of jewelry, family silver, and other loot worth an estimated 1 million in todays dollars was stashed in "orchard pit" but the Confederates weren't able to return. I could causually mention my research had narrowed the area down to (insert topo dot) a remote trash filled depression.

Then you could just sit at home watching cable while people snuck in to dig for "treasure"