Attachment B-2
EVP Note: Contact person:
Mark Deebel (NSS #37025) is project coordinator
440 E. Chippewa Ave.
South Bend, IN 46614-2621
I don't know how much you know about the Lost River in Indiana, so here is some background (from the 1973 Convention Guidebook):
"The Lost River area has many classic examples of subterranean drainage features, including swallow holes, dry bed or overflow channels, blind valleys, semi-blind valleys, karst valleys, sinkhole ponds, gulfs, subterranean cut-offs, cave springs and artesian of alluviated cave springs. The entire Lost River drainage basin contains about 355 square miles, but the topogaphic basin upstream from the Rise of the Lost River contains about 163 square miles within the Mitchell plain and Crawford Upland. The Mitchell plain is a low karst plateau underlain with limestone bedrock of Mississippian age which is dipping slightly westward to unlie the Crawford Upland.
"Lost River heads into Orange County, and flows westward as a normal surface stream until it reaches the eastern margin of the sinkhole plain. Here it sinks into the carbonate bedrock and flows through solution conducts to a resurgence some 7 miles to the west. Between the river's sink and resurgence are some 22 miles of meandering 'dry bed.' This section of the river's channel contains no water except during extremely wet periods. Lost River is the largest sinking stream in the state with over 48 square miles of drainage disappearing underground at the sink.
"Some notable features of the Lost River area include the Wesley Chapel Gulf, Rise of the Lost River and the Orangeville Rise. The Wesley Chapel Gulf is a typical example of a gulf formed by the collapse of a cavern roof above a network of cavern passages. It is a collapse sinkhole with an area of 8.3 acres and a rim perimeter of 2,700 feet The rim ranges in height from about 25 feet on the northwest to 95 feet on the southwest. The gulf is over 1,000 feet long and averages about 350 feet wide.
"The Rise of the Lost River and Orangeville Rise are about 1 mile apart and do not have hydrology connection. The Orangville Rise is thought to drain over 40 square miles of basin to the north of the Lost River. It's flow ranges from a minimum of about 9 cubic feet per second (cfs) to a maximum of 185 cfs measured at bank full stage. The Rise of the Lost River is much harder to determine. As one walks down the dry stream bed , it slowly begins to become wetter and wetter until there is surface water. It is not nearly as impressive as the Orangville Rise."
(If you already knew that, sorry)
Anyway, in 1996 the Wesley Chapel Gulf property became part of the Hoosier National Forest and we began a survey of all of the caves around the gulf. In 1998 we found a major extension through another entrance which led to miles of virgin cave. What we found became the Lost River Cave Sytstem and is currently 15.14 miles long with about 300 leads in the cave and has three entrances. We are also working on surveying other caves in the area, and have had good luck finding virgin passage. The Lost River is very significant in terms of its geology and hydrology, and is a good example of a karst terrain. No much is known about the caves in the area, though, and our best resource is the work done by Clyde Mallot (an IU professor) back in the 1930s and 1940s. We think that the Lost River system will be the longest cave in the state, and we are very motivated to prove it.
Most of the people involved live in northern Indiana, and it is a four-hour drive for us to get to the caves. It has been primarily a project of the St. Joseph Valley Grotto, but some of our friends from all across the state have been involved, to date 52 people so far. I have nearly 100 survey trips into Lost River Cave personally (not to mention the various other caves) and drive about 500 miles in a weekend.
I have been the project coodinator from the start, and would like to have a little more structure to the project, get more people involved, and would be happy to have this recognized as an official project of the NSS. We have caves that we are currently surveying, caves that we have found but have not surveyed, and caves that we know of but have not found, so there is still a lot to do. We are primarily surveyors, but have had a couple of biologists and a geologist in Lost River Cave to do research, and would be open to helping with research in the future. We will continue to do this project whether or not we are recognized by the NSS, but I think both organizations could benefit from a future relationship.