19 October 1998
Tongue River Cave, WY
Caver fall, injury and aid

Accompanied by seven companions, Mark Black,19, made his fourth trip into the cave to videotape the falls area in the back. The group traveled about 4,000 feet to the back of the cave, where they found and filmed the waterfall area. Black was climibing back up from a lower room when his pack "got hooked on a rock" causing him to loose his grip and fall. He was knocked unconscious by the impact, but came to after a few minutes. His friends pulled himout of the water and dried him off. After resting, Black was able to complete the climb and start out of the cave. The friends sent runners for help. Search and rescue team members arrived and found Black about halfway back to the entrance. They placed him in a litter and carried him out of the cave.  He was taken to a hospital where he was treated and released.

1. Larque Richter, Sheridan Press, 21 October1998
2. John Gookin, Incident Report, 13 April 2000.

Gookin writes: Tongue River Cave gets a lot of use by local flashlight-wielding adventurers and church groups. The first half mile of the cave is benign, but the back half has 30-60' of exposure over a passage with a stream at the bottom. Accidents in this area are becoming common. The USFS has discussed closing the cave, but there are other more sensitive caves in the area this might put pressure on. One lesson learned from these accidents is that untrained novices can get into trouble when they go caving. Another lesson is that inadequate medical care (no stabilization) sometimes works, but may eventually result in a tragedy.