Has anyone heard of Three Bears Cave in Anderson Mo?

[kylekoontz86]

Wow thank you so much this gives me more hope for finding the place and a new excitement that it is a real place even if the stories of it is made up some I still would love to go explore it I have been facanated by the cave since i was about 9 years old

[SubLunar]

The reason I looked in that area is based on the account of how the children found the cave. I was looking only in reasonable walking distances from town. It would be highly unlikely that persons on foot would have walked all the way down that direction, which I believe is downstream, and then ran all the way back to the main street in Anderson MO. The location you have pointed out is closer to Noel MO. Furthermore that's a different river than the one that runs through Anderson.

[kylekoontz86]

I am going to do more research on both locations and hopefully turn something up thanks again for posting i never though i would get any responses

The reason I looked in that area is based on the account of how the children found the cave. I was looking only in reasonable walking distances from town. It would be highly unlikely that persons on foot would have walked all the way down that direction, which I

[RedRook]

True, the distance is probably the absolute furthest I'd expect them to get. My five year old seems to top out at a 5 mile walk, but at 16, I was running 8-10 miles a day, and a 15-20 mile hike on a weekend wasn't unheard of for me and my 14 year old sister when river walking. That's about 15 miles round trip. If it was rougher terrain, I'd say it was too far, but I think it's still plausible for that age.

If they walked like an average old person, they'd take about 5 hours round trip. If they walk with the speed of a non-couch-potato teenager, I'd expect them to take a little over 1 1/2 hours to get out there, then a worn out 2 1/2 hours to get back when they realized they've gone too far.

[RedRook]

Not to mention, Panther Cave is about 20 miles round trip from Anderson, they only have to stay going down stream, instead of switching to upstream on Elk River to get to it. If they had walked to Panther Cave along the river, this would have actually been an easier walk, and as kids I expect them to remember details a little off. The caves really aren't right next to each other, but to kids walking the same creek to get to both caves, they may have seemed to be closer together than they actually were. It also explains why they might not directly know the owner. If it was right outside of a tiny town like Anderson, I'd expect them to know exactly who owned the cave.

[RedRook]

In fact, I think I'll check out both places tomorrow. That's about twice as far as I was planning to go, but it's the exact same direction, so what the hell.

[kylekoontz86]

In fact, I think I'll check out both places tomorrow. That's about twice as far as I was planning to go, but it's the exact same direction, so what the hell.

Please pm me and let me know what you find

[RedRook]

Well, being on the ground changed my perspective quite a bit. For one, a quick look at the map had me mistaking a railroad for a road. There is a dirt road that follows along beside it, but the brush is extremely thick along the bluffs, and I saw no obvious caves. I might go back in fall to try to find one at where I saw this description:

"Polar Bear Cave This cave is situated about a mile downstream from Noel, along Elk River and on the south side of the valley. Farrar reports 5000 feet of penetration, very fine rooms, and a wonderful hallway. The entrance is 8 feet wide and 6 feet high. "

I did chase down a train on the roads which was fun, because I had to cross the tracks.

So I'm less sure they made it this far. The terrain is a lot rougher than I thought. So I turned to the locals. I went to Cotton Eyed Joe's BBQ which has great BBQ, not so great fries. They thought that Polar Bear Cave was just down the street from them here:
Cave Location

There is a cave on private property there, which I included one picture of. It's right off the road, so you might track down the owner before going here, you can't hide that you are there. The picture with mostly trees and brush in the way is the small cave entrance. The outside of the cave is a mortared stone wall. It was full breadth water across the entrance today. You can't enter without getting wet.

Along the way, I saw countless signs for Bluff Dweller's Cave. I figured I might as well stop by since I have time. It's a small tour about 30 minutes long. But it's a nice cave cleared out during prohibition during the 20's. They also have a strange collection of things including Uranium and a petrified bird's nest.

And then finally on the way back, I tried one last time to make a big unknown find. I tried SubLunar's suggestion just north of Anderson. Unfortunately, Nicotti was right. It looks like they used the clay to do a sloppy job at grading that gravel road and then poured gravel on top. Mystery is solved there as well. So I didn't find any unknown massive caves or indian statues, but it was a nice relaxing day, I even took my little raft out for a bit on the river. The trip was well worth it, and talking to the lady at Bluff Dwellar's she was saying the area is full of caves. The cave mappers are down there for different caves a lot according to her. In fact she had a second cave she let me poke around in a bit as well, but both of her caves are well south of Noel and clearly not the caves this thread was originally about. But who knows, maybe the 8 foot wide 6 foot high entrance is waiting out there somewhere. It'll probably be easier to see without the green vegetation wall out there this summer.

[SubLunar]

excellent work

[BlueDot]

you are a crafty bastard.

[sulfurburner]

There are stories of a lot of caves in that area. We go down there a couple times a year and have been to 5 so far. Polar bear that I know is the one near the BBQ joint.

In Lanagan there's Truitt's cave which is now a bar.

In Jane there's at least two along the highway you can access.

There's Mt. Shira cave which I believe is owned by one of the outfitters there now and not accessible.

the one that has eluded me most is Ozark Wonder Cave. Another one of Truitt's former show caves long closed. I believe I have the location pinpointed but have not had a chance to investigate further.

I haven't spent much time poking around Anderson but if I'll be sure to ask next time I'm in the area.

[paul06660]

I thought it looked like a mine as well, but people often call mines caves and with the way the rest of the facts in this story went, I wouldn't be surprised if it actually was a mine after all.

No, I meant a cut into the hillside that they take top soil from, not an actual underground mine. I don't think there is an opening in the shadow.

Eh, I don't know. if you look at all the different roads and various hardware scattered around, I'd think they would have made more progress than a tiny little chunk taken out. That stuff looks like it's been there a while. Also there are various ridges and cliff edges visible in the area. I put my money on that being an underground sort of mine. Specifically a child hating, virgin sacrificing, naked Native American worshiping religious/esoteric voodoo cult sort of underground mine.

This.
You dont go fucking around in places where Native American magic is involved. For it is the most powerful of all magic.

[Nicotti]

The Magic 8 Ball is the most powerful magic, do you know how often that thing is right?!?!?!?!!!