Perry County Caves

Urban exploration in Missouri
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azr3al
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RE: Perry County Caves

Post by azr3al »

Nice! I want to go sometime. They sound awesome.
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DeathByMoth
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Re: RE: Perry County Caves

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azr3al wrote:Never heard of Rope cave. where is it at?
It is one of the 'Hall of Fame caves'. There is at least one thread in the 'Springfield' section about them, although you may need to go in a few pages. If you still cannot find them and would like to see them, send me a PM. I'll stand at the entrance and check the GPS to give you more precise coordinates. They are roughly near the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame, just past the Hall, on the right side of the road. The entrances are hard to see, in the face of the exposed rocks created by the dynamite used to clear space for the highway below. You have to walk through the clump of evergreen trees to get to them, and then downhill, towards the highway. You'll need to search a bit, as they are not easy to find. Rope cave's entrance appears to be nothing more than a small crevice in the rock, ladder cave's entrance appears to be a low, overhanging crack.

Good luck finding them, it can be a real bitch...
- Y U NO LIKE RANDY?!?!
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RE: Perry County Caves

Post by liesreality »

yes, watch your step, LOL>
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Re: Perry County Caves

Post by moffster120 »

If your interested in caves join cave chat. They have a whole blog on Crevice Cave that was a good read. I am not new to the site but will start posting more frequently. I have been to roughly 40+ caves now and am definitely an enthusiast. I am going to start going through a grotto to get access to longer adventures. Gear is expensive but totally worthit.
If at first you don't succeed, destroy all evidence that you tried.
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RE: Perry County Caves

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Welcome to the site. :)

Sent you a message.
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Re: Perry County Caves

Post by The Count »

Oh yeh so we went to Berome and tom moore, its kinda wack cuz at the entrance they meet if you go left its tom and right is berome, don't know why it ain't just one cave. But me and my two friends who been down there before, theyre on real good terms with the owners, we went down there and it was fun. The cave is huge and theres a main path to follow, well, I don't do main paths so I was crawlin up every rock to see what was up there and some places I went had new openings, then I found a lot of unmarked wholes that were big and led places, these were all places my friends had no clue about, but I frickin check everything cuz climbing is one of my favorite things to do. So I found a lot of fun places down there, then we got to "base camp" and there was a map of the cave, and holy boy that cave is huge. I had a lot of fun.
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Re: RE: Perry County Caves

Post by liesreality »

azr3al wrote:So...... how do we get in those perry county caves?
I know this is an older topic, but thought i would add some more information.

Berome Moore Cave I found is being maintained by the SPG. They own part of the cave, and the other parts they have access to it. One of them informed of different projects they have going on and showed me some before and after pictures (have them for anyone who wants to see some of them) of thier work in restoring the cave from vandals.

I was invited to return and explore with them on a new cave they now have access to, when they go in the fall to document it.

Just wanted to give anyone who was attempting to get into this cave a heads up that they are there.
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Whitepanther
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Re: Perry County Caves

Post by Whitepanther »

Bumped for follow up purposes. The story of the Moore Cave System and it’s history. Tom Moore & Berome Moore.
Oh yeh so we went to Berome and tom moore, its kinda wack cuz at the entrance they meet if you go left its tom and right is berome,

This might have been a slight misunderstanding. The entrance has a fork in it and to the right side is the path to get to base camp roughly 1/4 mile in. The left side is a dead end.

don't know why it ain't just one cave.
Tex Yoakum was the man responsible for finding this cave system. After surveying Tom Moore Cave to a total length just under 5 miles, Tex was still convinced there was more to this cave system. Don’t ask me how a recreational caver could be so intuitive but that was Tex’s forte.

Sometime in the late 60’s early 70’s Tex gained approval from the land owner of an adjacent farm to inspect a sinkhole and “check for a cave” (with a pick axe - and knowing Tex he might have left that part out when getting permission because that’s how you get things done). As the legend goes, told by those who were with him that day “Tex dug like mad until he had a hole big enough to enter and he shot off like a cannon into virgin passage”. Tex finally found the missing portion of the Moore Cave System. This was named Berome Moore Cave and was surveyed to a length of 18.5 miles. Total length after dye tracing confirmed the two caves to be hydrologically connected was a total of 24.5 miles. It’s kind of convoluted and perhaps should be called the same cave but entering Tom Moore requires the use of a different entrance. There is however a very very small opening at the bottom of the first breakdown room on the way to base camp that opens to Tom Moore and it’s only been successfully passed through once to my knowledge. Much of the tedious labor that went into running electric and building a base camp with running water and a stove and a bridge and as odd as it sounds even a latrine was done by geology students Tex drummed up as volunteers SEMO in the 70’s. The following three decades were at times a tenuous relationship with the farmer who owned the land and for the entire time he was asked to sell the entrance but refused. Finally in 03 MCKC successfully negotiated a purchase and established a land trust of the entrance to Berome Moore. Around 2012 a locking bat gate was built at the entrance to the cave that was not a naturally occurring entrance - to me it’s just as silly as it sounds.
So I found a lot of fun places down there, then we got to "base camp" and there was a map of the cave, and holy boy that cave is huge. I had a lot of fun.
Base Camp will seriously mess with your mind if your in there alone long enough. You’ll hear all sorts of things like footsteps every five minutes and it’s all just your imagination. Sleeping overnight in Berome requires earplugs. You haven’t truly heard someone snore until you’ve heard it echoing off cave walls.

Just adjacent to base camp is perhaps what Berome is best known for. There’s hundreds of fossilized footprints in the Cat Track Passage which were from an extinct American Jaguar that wandered into the cave where it likely died.
PANIC! on the Titanic wrote:While I haven't been to these, I do know that you probably don't want to do these caves if there's any rain in the forecast.
PANIC! is spot on. Caving in Perry County with any precipitation in the forecast will result in a recovery mission not a rescue operation.
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Re: Perry County Caves

Post by Nicotti »

Thanks for the update!

Whitepanther wrote:Tex was still convinced there was more to this cave system.

“Tex dug like mad until he had a hole big enough to enter and he shot off like a cannon into virgin passage”.
Doesn't always work out that way. Check out Johnny Morris's dig into the Top of the Rocks golf course sinkhole in Branson. A sinkhole drained a pond on the golf course in 2015. He says the water that drained came out of one of the caves on the property, so he started excavating to find the connection. Hasn't found it yet.

Surface Width: Originally 70 feet wide, now 350 feet wide.
Surface Length: Originally 100 feet long, now 600 feet long.
Depth: Originally 40 feet deep, now 200 feet deep.
An estimated 25,000 truckloads of rock and soil removed.

It's like his own personal Oak Island.

He is, of course, trying to recoup some of his loss on the venture by promoting it as a tourist destination.
More online investigation than onsite exploration these days.

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Whitepanther
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Re: Perry County Caves

Post by Whitepanther »

Nicotti wrote:Thanks for the update!

Whitepanther wrote:Tex was still convinced there was more to this cave system.

“Tex dug like mad until he had a hole big enough to enter and he shot off like a cannon into virgin passage”.
Doesn't always work out that way. Check out Johnny Morris's dig

It's like his own personal Oak Island.[/url].
This really is an amazing project. I remember reading some of it a few years ago and didn’t realize how far along they’ve gotten with it!

I’m just sayin UO could solve Oak Island in like a weekend. You all do almost the same thing with several million less at your disposal, and far less to gain. That’s the norm for this crew. :D
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