Mincy Conservation Area

[RedRook]

I'm off on a "treasure" hunt this weekend. I've been researching everything I can about Alf Bolin for the fun of wandering around his supposed treasure site. I don't honestly believe there is any findable treasure after a century and a half, but it'll be fun to look around the area. Here is the library snippet describing the story of the treasure.

http://thelibrary.org/lochist/periodica ... /w74a.html

As I put in another thread, you can find the murder rocks in this article near the end of "Murder Rock Trail" coming from the Murder Rock Golf Course near where it meets JJ. Beware it is on private property. It looks like you can find ruins of Melva and old mines as well. I firmly believe that cave marked on the golf course map is not the one this article mentions. If you aren't aware, there is a fun resource called GeoStrat.

http://dnr.mo.gov/geostrat/

From the map below can see the Mincy Conservation area south of Mincy could have up to 3 caves, 2 springs, and 1 abandoned mine. A friend of mine from Boy Scouts that now works for the USGS has confirmed that all three caves in that quadrangle are in the conservation area, but only one is something you can enter. The other two he'd describe as pits.

http://extra.mdc.mo.gov/documents/area_ ... 401map.pdf

On that map you can see Bear Den cave, which is on the Fox Creek from the article with the right section, the right range, and the right township according to the article. The only difference from the article is that it is 1 mile south and barely west of the end of J in Mincy, where the article puts the cave 2 miles southwest. I think this is the cave in the article. The Google earth map will be deceiving as well. It makes it look like the Conservation Area is broken up by private land. It is not. I've checked the Taney County assessor map. That area marked as park land, and the area between the two sections is public park land. The map I posted is smaller than reality.

There is also the interesting fact that the 200 pound Mincy Meteroite was found out here at these coordinates:
36° 33'N, 93° 6'W

The thing is now in New York, but meteorites don't tend to stay in one fragment, so there is the tiniest of chances you might find space rocks connected to this 1857 find.

http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/permane ... pace/mincy

I'll update this thread with pictures, most likely just of the cave. The chances of finding a space rock or a treasure that probably never existed are slim, but I'm going to go wandering around anyway. Let me know if you know of any cool spots to check out in the Mincy area while I wander around down there.

[Nicotti]

Since you're going to be in the area, you should check this out nw from the Hwy 86/Hwy 65 intersection. There's a guard shack blocking the road so you'll have to walk thru the trees down to it.

[RedRook]

Holy shite, I'll see what I can do. It looks active.

[jammer_smith]

In the map you linked, the MDC one, I wouldn't describe that cave as being "on fox creek" at all, it's like a quarter mile back off of it. There is still some potential for another cave there if your descriptions say 2 miles SW of Mincy overlooking the creek.

[RedRook]

Good point. I'll be looking. I've done all I can do at this point without actually being there.

[Nicotti]

Holy shite, I'll see what I can do. It looks active.

I know the are developing the area as a golf course and resort like Murder Rock. I think they put a spiffy road and bridge past the opening, but idk if they are still working over there though.

[RedRook]

I ended up with my daughter for the full day, so adventurous options were not on the menu for this weekend. I wasn't even going to let her in the cave, but that is one very tame cave. It is standing room most of the way for 100 meters. It is relatively dry. There was only one side passage that only went in about 10 meters and never gets big enough to stand in.

It is obvious this cave is visited often. A single cigarette butt was the only trash, but the cave is covered in names people have scratched into the walls.

The picture is a little deceiving. It is nearly impossible to miss this cave if you approach from the north. You are just barely out of sight of the gravel road before this obvious sink hole goes straight up to the trail. At the bottom, you have what looks like a tiny cave, but it opens up fast on the inside leaving plenty of room to stand.

It's a pretty nice area in general. There seems to be exactly the type of landscape you would expect to find more than one cave in. The limestone is abundant. The water is crystal clear and ice cold with at least two known springs. Exposed limestone drop offs are everywhere. The elevation change of stream beds is relatively large. It'll take some time to explore though, and I'm not doing that with a little one. I'll come back and give an update if I ever find a different cave on a different weekend.

[jammer_smith]

So is this the Bear Cave marked on the map, or did you find this overlooking Fox creek, as a potential match for Bollins Cave? Whereabouts was it?

[RedRook]

It's the Bear Den Cave marked on the Mincy Conservation Area map. I didn't try to push through along the Fox Creek ridge that didn't have trails and may or may not cross onto private land, because I had a young kid with me. I'll do that sometime in the near future when everything isn't covered in snow. If it turns out there is no other cave in the area, then this might be the cave with the description of it's location simply being partly inaccurate. I find it hard to believe there is no other caves in that area with as much water is going to be cutting through limestone there. I'm hopeful I'll find something else.

[jammer_smith]

In that part of the world, or in the Springfield area for that matter, throw a dart at a map and you're either over a cave or within a half mile of one, virtually guaranteed.