For cavers, poking their heads into dark places can often lead them into new passages. And at Jewel Cave National Monument in South Dakota, that sort of poking around recently led to more than a mile of charted cave.
The volunteers entered Jewel Cave on Friday, February 13, for a four-day exploration trip to discover new passages. By Sunday evening, February 15, they had surveyed enough footage to extend the cave's 175-mile length.
On average, park staff say, about five miles of new cave are mapped and surveyed each year. Yet, this recent milestone extends the continued excitement of exploration and discovery at one of the longest caves in the world.
The cavers focused their efforts near a new camp site, established in the western branch of Jewel Cave this past fall. Over the past few months, cavers have been finding many large passages heading off the current "edge" of the map into unknown territory. The objective of this recent trip over Valentine's Day Weekend was to continue mapping in this new area beyond a constriction point called "The Southwest Splinter."
The cavers spent four hours on the first day hauling 15-pound camp packs into West Camp. Splitting into two groups, they spent the remainder of the day mapping nearby passages. The following day, the cavers explored a section of cave two-to-three hours south from West Camp, in areas named Crosscut Boulevard and Crushing Deep. Due to the holiday weekend, the group named one of the newly discovered passages "The Heartland Express."
On day three, one team continued to explore an area about three hours south of West Camp and found the passages too tight for human entry or the passages ended abruptly. Yet, this same group discovered a new "low point" for Jewel Cave, measuring 677 feet. The second team found an interesting wall of crystalline stalagmite "fins," which was aptly named "The Great Wall."
John Black, the monument's acting superintendent, said, the exploration "reflects the significance of Jewel Cave. Not only does the mapping and surveying lengthen the cave's overall mileage, but the new discoveries extend its relevance as one of the great frontiers in the natural world."
The total surveyed amount for the trip was 6,557.65 feet; the actual cave length is officially 175.175 miles. However, there are still more than 100 passages (leads) left to be explored in this new area.
Jewel Cave National Monument is currently open Mondays through Fridays from 8:30 a.m.'4:30 p.m., during the winter months and early spring season.
Comments
Jewel Cave is a real jewel. (Sorry 'bout that . . . ) It's fascinating to think that such a complex underground maze exists anywhere. It's also wonderful that there are people who are adventurous enough and tough enough to do the work necessary to extend our knowledge of places like this. I did a little cave crawling in West Virginia when I was young and know how very difficult and uncomfortable it can be.
The article expresses distances in hours and not feet or yards. When you stop to think that much of that time was probably spent crawling on hands and knees or slithering in cold, narrow, wet, muddy passages, you have to take your hat off to these explorers.
Is there a chance that someday in the future, these spelunkers will share more photos and tales with Traveler readers?