Connection

As of Saturday February 11th, the two caves(Binkley and Blowing Hole) have been connected! Through the hard work of many volunteers and a core group, the ISS was able to extend the Binkley cave system to be 34.72 miles long. It is the 11th longest cave in the United States!

Binkley Cave

Binkley is big - - no, wait: big is an understatement. Before the connection with Blowing Hole was realized, over 27 miles of passages had been surveyed, making it currently the longest known cave in Indiana. Seven miles were surveyed by the Bloomington Indiana Grotto in the late 1950s/early 1960s, and the ISS started working in the late 1960s, bringing the length up to 22 miles by 2006 or so. Efforts since 2009 have brought the cave to its current length, including the recent connection to Blowing Hole, which now brings the combined length to 34.72 miles.

Blowing Hole Cave

The cave is sort of like a big stormwater drainage tube. Nearly two miles were surveyed around the same time the ISS started working in Binkley (in the late 1960s), but working conditions in the cave made it difficult in those days. Modern lighting and wetsuits have meant all the difference in the past three years, which during that time brought the length of the cave to 7 miles before it was recently discovered to be one and the same as Binkley. It is believed that the Blowing Hole section has many secrets waiting to be discovered, especially since so far, only one short segment of upper level passage has been found.