New caves near skylight in ash grove?

Urban exploration in Springfield, Missouri
shooter64738
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New caves near skylight in ash grove?

Post by shooter64738 »

I made my first trip to the Skylight caves in Ash Grove this weekend. We had 5 in our group, and we had a pretty good time. I was marking things along the path by Sac River, in hopes that we might find a location where the creek that runs into the sewer entrance, makes it’s way out into the river somewhere. We found something really interesting that so far I haven’t seen mention of.

Taking the long way around you park on the corner at F highway where it turns straight south. Walk along the road until you get to the Sac River Bridge. Walking along the rivers edge,(on the north side of the river) you will see a small water cave to the left after about 100 yards from the highway. Thats a nifty place, and I’m sure many people have found it. But continuing on, about ½ mile further up river, we found a water fall. The entrance to the water fall is tiny, about the size of a 5 gallon bucket. There are several lose stones around the front of it. They aren’t man made. They look like naturally cracked lime stone. I stuck my arm in it, and the water is very thin, as if it drops off a ledge above the hole, with a void behind the water. I was tempted to poke my camera in there and snap a picture, but I was a little afraid the box it was in would leak. I’m quite certain the water was emptying into the sac river, as we were only 4 feet from the rivers edge on the path.

As we continued on to Skylight, I was wondering if that muddy muddy hill far in the back of the cave, leads to a passage that this water was coming from. I have dome water dye, and would be interested in finding out, but I couldn’t get up the mud hill to crawl through the small passage. My son made it up, but I was a little leary of him going down the mud slide on the other side without someone up there that could help him back out.

On another note, the passage that heads generally east from the skylight has some very old formations in it, and it was MUCH colder than the other passages we were in. The odd thing is, the river entrance and the sewer entrance merge together at the Y in the cave, but the passage to the east eventually turns north/north east but as far back as we went in there or in either the sewer passage or the river passage it obviously doesn’t connect. So does it go above/below the sewer and river passages? If anyone knows I would like to find out. I plan to return while it’s pretty dry with some survey gear and see where above ground we are in the cave. I’m convinced the waterfall, and the next smaller cave we went to up the river, are connected to the skylight passages. If they aren’t then there are at least 2 other caves in the rock that I haven’t heard of. I took some GPS readings of the waterfall, and the next cave we came too. They weren’t real accurate because of the canopy, but I’ll mark them on my map, and see if anyone knows about it.
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Here is a rough map I made.
Here is a rough map I made.
Last edited by shooter64738 on Tue Aug 14, 2007 2:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.
junkman306
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RE: News caves near skylight in ash grove?

Post by junkman306 »

I've yet to go to skylight cave. Your potential new discovery does sound interesting though. :D
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Re: News caves near skylight in ash grove?

Post by BROUSER »

Sertile? Your area of expertise. With the many branches, and holes, and hideaways in Skylight, I wouldn't be at all surprised concerning other entrances, either outflow or even another sinkhole entrance at some point. Those tires in the back after you crawl through the formations (up the mud hill) and back down into the lower passages had to come from somewhere, and I really, really doubt they came through the formations.
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Re: New caves near skylight in ash grove?

Post by Sertile »

Hmm... there very well could be other entrances, as evidenced by the plentiful tires in otherwise hard to get to passages, but as far as I can tell they're aren't accessible from within the main body of the cave. However, that doesn't mean they don't exist. The ones you've mapped are further north along the Sac River, and I admittedly have not traced the river's course far past the River Entrance. I've bathed there plenty of times, but that was the extent of it.

I'd like to go back some time so I can show whoever wants to come the other 1/3 of the cave we missed the last time. I'll scout around for those other entrances too, if I get the chance.
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RE: New caves near skylight in ash grove?

Post by Former User #2 »

Hey was the water really high at the skylight entrance? While on a clean up trip last month we had to swim just to get to the formation passage and the other passage was under water.
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Re: New caves near skylight in ash grove?

Post by cobcob »

Hey Sterile, I'd like to come along this time round... let me know when you're headed out
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shooter64738
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RE: New caves near skylight in ash grove?

Post by shooter64738 »

There were no passages blocked when we were there. The river entrance had about 12" of water in front of it, the sewer entrance was bone dry, and the sky light looked as if it had never been wet. The only place we found much of any water, was well passed the Y of the sewer and skylight tunnels, on the right side passage where it gets lower. I came out pretty much clean other than mud up to my ankles on my boots. My brother in law was with me, he's a much smaller guy, and he thought the wet passages on the other side of the mud room looked dryer, but it's so hard to tell with darkness all around. Right now might be the best time to go.

I'm up for going again, and I've read around on here enough that sertile would probably be the guy I would want to meet up with. Although I would like to find the owner and talk him before I go again. I thought I had this last weekend, turns out it was the wrong land owner. I'm still not sure where the autograph room is, and I wish I could find the map that SMS is supposed to have.

I took over 250 pictures. Most of them turned out pretty good, even after I dropped my camera, busted it open, and put it back together.

As dry as it has been, I would say now is a great time to go. But if those other northern areas are connected to the cave, then there must be water stored in there some place. They could just be small water pockets too. But it sure made sense that they would connect to it.
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RE: New caves near skylight in ash grove?

Post by Former User #1 »

Uhh... It's been mapped almost in it's entirety very nicely... why not just look at the existing map???

By the way, kudos on asking permission from a landowner! :D It really helps us other cavers out when people do that instead of trying to trespass!
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Re: RE: New caves near skylight in ash grove?

Post by shooter64738 »

tiamat wrote:Uhh... It's been mapped almost in it's entirety very nicely... why not just look at the existing map???

By the way, kudos on asking permission from a landowner! :D It really helps us other cavers out when people do that instead of trying to trespass!
Can't find the map. Looked all over on line. The caves do go by another name though, and I might try looking for that map too. I mentioned it in my post above hoping someone would know where I might find it.
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RE: New caves near skylight in ash grove?

Post by Former User #1 »

I know where you can find it. Join a grotto or the MSS. In not much time at all, you'd have access to all the maps you'd ever want, including that one. If you like surveying (and you're obviously pretty good at it), you'd have a blast. Most maps we do are incredibly detailed... down to the last breakdown block. They're done in both plan & profile, complete with cross sections.
shooter64738
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Re: New caves near skylight in ash grove?

Post by shooter64738 »

Can anyone PM me the info for the land owner I could contact for entrances to Skylight/Mason's cave? The guy I talked to last week wasn't the right guy. I looked it up on the assesors map last week and got a phone number, and when I called today, they gave me the same info. It's apparently not the right guy.

I'll even settle for someone that knows someone that knows the guy. If I can just get a number. :)

Thanks! :mrgreen:
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Re: New caves near skylight in ash grove?

Post by Former User #2 »

shooter64738 wrote:Can anyone PM me the info for the land owner I could contact for entrances to Skylight/Mason's cave? The guy I talked to last week wasn't the right guy. I looked it up on the assesors map last week and got a phone number, and when I called today, they gave me the same info. It's apparently not the right guy.

I'll even settle for someone that knows someone that knows the guy. If I can just get a number. :)

Thanks! :mrgreen:




Gimme a few minutes to go through my files and ill find it for ya.
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Re: New caves near skylight in ash grove?

Post by Sertile »

The Ash Grove/Skylight/Whatever Cave map IS in the Map Room of MSU's Meyer Library... or at least it was. It should be in the Greene Co. section. If you can't find it, try asking the map keeper. I've got a full size copy rolled up at a home.
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Re: New caves near skylight in ash grove?

Post by HandMan »

if anyone is going back anytime soon, let me know. id really like to see it.
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Re: New caves near skylight in ash grove?

Post by shooter64738 »

Soon as I find out the owners contact info, I'll be going. I'll post an invite up here for anyone who wants to go with me.

Here are a few pics of the innards.. :)
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