IKC UPDATE No. 76 PAGE 3 MARCH 2005

ANNUAL BUSINESS MEETINGSATURDAY, MARCH 19th, 10 AM

GREENWOOD, INDIANAGREENWOOD PUBLIC LIBRARY

The Annual Business meeting is for the explicit purpose of Board elections. Annual reportsfrom the IKC Cave Patrons and Property Managers are also presented. And as always, themeeting is for members and other interested persons to have an open forum for talking aboutcave and karst conservation and related topics. Past, present, and future IKC projects are dis-cussed to solicit comments and input from our members and the caving community as a whole.The meeting is informal, and everyone is encouraged to attend and participate. The IKC Boardwants your input.

Preliminary Agenda Items: Elections; Cave Patrons/Property Managers annual reports; Briefrecaps of last quarter’s activities; Upcoming workday at the Sullivan property; Under-EarthDay at Robinson Ladder; Robinson Ladder Cave Preserve discussion; other Land AcquisitionCommittee activities, HNF inventorying project; and more....

Following the meeting (approximately 1 PM), we will most likely socialize/de-brief over lunch ata nearby restaurant.

Meeting directions: See page 21 (inside back cover) for directions and map.

ACTIVITIES CALENDAR

10 MAR = IKC ANNUAL BUSINESS MEETING, Greenwood (see above)26 MAR = LOST RIVER TOUR, Orleans (see page 20)16 APR = SULLIVAN PROPERTY WORK DAY, Springville (see page 5)30 APR = INDIANA CAVE SYMPOSIUM, Mitchell (see page 10)30 APR = ACCA SPRING SINKHOLE CLEAN-UP, Horse Cave, KY14 MAY = UNDER-EARTH DAY/ROBINSON LADDER, Milltown (see page 5)04 JUN = LOST RIVER TOUR, Orleans (see page 20)07 MAY = TAKE PRIDE IN AMERICA/HNF WORKDAY (see page 5)?? MAY = TREE MAINTENANCE AT SULLIVAN PROPERTY (see page 5)?? MAY = TREE MAINTENANCE AT BUDDHA PROPERTY (see page 5)?? JUN = WAYNE PROPERTY WORK DAY, Bloomington?? JUN = IKC QUARTERLY MEETING, Bloomington

For more information on the Indiana Karst Conservancy, visit our web site at http://www.ikc.caves.org or write to our PO box.Membership to the IKC is open to anyone interested in cave and karst conservation. Annual dues are $15. Please see insideback cover for the membership application form or to make a much appreciated donation.

The IKC Update, distributed for free, is published quarterly for members and other interested parties. The purpose of this news-letter is to keep the membership and caving community informed of IKC activities and other news related to cave/karst conserva-tion. Submission of original or reprinted articles for publication is encouraged.

IKC Update (ISSN 1076-3120) copyright © 2005 by the Indiana Karst Conservancy, Inc. Excluding reprinted material and indi-vidually copyrighted articles and artwork, permission is granted to National Speleological Society affiliated organizations to re-print material from this publication, with proper credit given to the author/artist and the IKC Update. Articles do not necessarilyrepresent the opinions of the Indiana Karst Conservancy, the National Speleological Society, or their respective members.

IKC UPDATE No. 76 PAGE 7 MARCH 2005

Bob Sergesketter posing in the entrance sink of Robinson Ladder Cave on the IKC’s newest preserve.

Keith Dunlap peering into the unknown of the other small cave on the property. Photos by James Adams

IKC UPDATE No. 76 PAGE 9 MARCH 2005

ROBINSON LADDER CAVEby D Black, S Frushour, D Stahl

reprinted from the BIG Newsletter, Vol 14#4 (August 1979)

DESCRIPTION

The entrance to Robinson Ladder Cave islocated in a small sinkhole on the west sideof a large ridge. At the bottom of this sink-hole a canyon passage can be seen. To reachit one must do a 13-foot climbdown on aflowstone wall. A handline makes this climbeasier. Once on bottom, one walks a shortdistance through the canyon to a dome. Onthe right, 15 feet off the floor, is a passage.To reach it one must climb another flowstonewall. This is the main passage of the cave.It starts as a hands and knees crawl, butsoon enlarges to walking dimensions.

Halfway through the cave one encounterstwo dome-pits that intersect the left wall ofthe main passage. At the bottom of the firstare three passages. The left-most passageleads to a low, muddy breakdown room. Theright-most passage is a crawl that takes oneto another dome-pit. Past this dome-pit thepassage continues and intersects the seconddome-pit off of the main passage. The mid-dle passage leads to a 10-foot climbable pit,at the bottom of which is a 44-foot pit. Theentrance to this pit is a narrow slot thatimmediately opens up into a nice pit. Thereare no leads at the bottom as reported by thefew people that have descended. The bottomof this pit is still 100 feet above base leveland some small overlooked canyon could leadto another drop and a stream passage.

To continue past the dome-pits one mustcrawl through a hole in breakdown. Thisopens into walking passage. The passagecontinues as walking and crawling until aroom is reached. A tight crawl of six feetleads to the terminal room. This room is 10feet in diameter with enough head-room tosit up. A breakdown filled canyon continuesfrom here. This is the best lead in the caveand should (with a lot of digging) lead tomore upper level cave [editor’s note - diggingwill likely not be permitted under the man-agement plan].

HISTORY

Robinson Ladder Cave has been knownand explored for nearly a century. The ear-lier explorers left a record of these visita-

tions by leaving their signature and date ofvisit. The earliest period of visitation wasfrom 1882 to 1885. Totten, whose familylent their name to the nearby bridge over theBlue River, visited the cave in 1883.

The next period of visitation was in 1920-1930 with only a few dates. Then in the1960’s, the Schotter family visited the caveseveral times, leaving their names in theGraveyard, an area in the main passagewhere people have piled up slabs of rock tolook like tombstones.

Mr. Guthrie, the current owner of thecave, reported that an average of two groupsa year have visited the cave in the four yearsthat he has owned the property [editor’s note- Walter and Aleta Guthrie sold the propertyto Mel and Dianna Carver on January 4th,1988 who then sold it to the IKC on March4th, 2005].

GEOLOGY

Robinson Ladder Cave is developed in theSte Genevieve Limestone member of theBlue River Group. The main passage showstwo stages of development, a phreatic tubeapproximately two feet high and 10 feet wideand a canyon downcutting from this tube.The depth of this canyon increases to theeast. A third stage of development is dem-onstrated by the dome-pits which accidental-ly intersected the main passage.

The cave, because of its elevation andphreatic development, must have helped todrain the valley to the west in an earlierstage of valley development. When the BlueRiver was lowered, conditions changed fromphreatic to vadose and a free running streamstarted to form a canyon. When anotherunderground route for draining the valleydeveloped, the stream abandoned the upperlevel of the cave.

With the retreat of the sandstone cap onthe ridge, dome-pits started to form. Thesedome-pits, are in the entrance area andhalfway through the cave. In both areas,water enters the cave during heavy rainfalland immediately sinks into breakdown. Thiswater should come out of the northernmostspring shown on the topo overlay.

IKC UPDATE No. 76 PAGE 10 MARCH 2005

INDIANA CAVE SYMPOSIUM 2005by Keith Dunlap/Dave Everton

The thirteenth annual Indiana Cave Sym-posium will be held on Saturday, April 30that the Scenic Hills Camp, a few miles east ofSpring Mill State Park. A hot-dog/brat/hamburger cook-out will begin at 4 PM EST(5 PM if Indiana adopts daylight-savingstime) and talks will begin promptly at 6 PM(7PM EDT). Please bring a covered dishand/or dessert to share. The hot-dogs/burg-ers, sandwich fixings, soft drinks, paper andplastic ware, and ice will be provided.Camping is available at nearby Spring Mill.The Indiana Karst Conservancy and IndianaCave Survey are co-sponsoring the event.

The purpose of the symposium is to as-semble the active caving groups to share anddiscuss their projects, and for cavers andcave researchers to network. Presentationswill cover exploration, surveying, science,and conservation projects. At this time,there are nine presentations on the schedule,not necessarily in this order:

Wayne Cave Property Update - Severalimprovements have been made during thepast year to the property containing thisclassic Monroe County cave now owned bythe IKC, and property manager RobertSollman will update us on them.

Carcass Crypt Pit Cleanup - Althoughthe cleanup took place in 2003, Brian Lea-vell will finally show us how it was allpulled off in this nice southern Indianapit. A last-minute situation preventedhim from doing so in 2004, but he’s agreedto try again in 2005.

To Be Announced - Brian Killingbeckalways seems to have his hands in somegreat survey project, and he promises toshare some of his survey exploits of thepast year with us, which of course involvesIndiana caves!

HNF 3-year Biology Project - JerryLewis had a scheduling conflict last yearand was unable to present, but he’s backagain in 2005, eager to give an overview ofhis recently-completed 3-year biota studyof caves in the Hoosier National Forest.

The 2005 Winter Bat Census - VirgilBrack, Keith Dunlap, and company havebeen at it again, this past winter being one

for the biennial bat survey. Hear Keithexplain the details of how many Indianabats were counted in which caves, and howthe figures compare to those of previoussurveys.

Lost River System Project Update - Ithas been two years since we’ve gotten thisprogram due to Tony Cunningham’s busy-ness, and although he can’t make it again,SJVGer Kim DeCero has volunteered tostep up to the podium and deliver an up-date on this massive spaghetti-bowl typeof cave system that just won’t stop grow-ing in hard-earned mileage.

HNF Cave Inventory Update - BruceTrotter will be telling about the progressthat he, Ray Sheldon, Jerry Walker, andothers have been making at improving thequality of cave data (locations and re-sources) for the caves and karst features ofthe Hoosier National Forest, which hasproved to be a formidable task on this200,000 acre property.

Jake’s Water Bowl Cave - Dave Blackhas been at the survey helm as usual, andwill treat the group to the story of the ex-ploration and survey of a (in his ownwords) ‘‘nice little 5000-foot long cave eastof Palmyra.’’

The Roberts Digs: Caves East ofSpring Mill State Park - Have you everdreamed of opening a 4700-foot, mainlywalking cave in Indiana? Forget aboutopening one then; how about surveyingsuch a cave? Thanks to owner Willie Ro-berts’ digging persistence and hospitality,cavers have recently had the privilege ofbenefiting from his efforts, which include acouple of other caves he has opened on hisproperty in addition to the ‘‘big’’ one. SeanLewis and Dave Everton will have thepleasure of presenting on the area caves,including participation from Willie.

For more information, contact Dave Ever-ton at (812) 824-4380 or e-mail DEverton-@indiana.edu Also visit the ICS’s website(www.caves.org/survey/ics) for the latest in-formation and location map.