by Liz Wolff
The geologic and early human history…
In the crepuscular light of a far distant dawn, plate tectonics was unknown to mankind, but was having its way with the earth of the Shasta region. Limestone from the sea floor was being raised into mountains of marble and limestone, while voids were being dissolved out of the rocks and decorated with calcite; volcanoes were erupting, lava was flowing, and other caves were forming.
In the crepuscular light of a later dawn, long after the formation of the Medicine Lake Caldera, bands of intrepid natives went out to caves for manhood rituals. Young men crawled into the caves as far as they could go without light and left an arrowhead or spear point as proof of their bravery. To the Shasta, Pit, Klamath and Modoc tribes, caves with springs were sacred as the openings into the under-world of the gods. They were used for water, protection, and storage. In some caves rare crystalline salts were collected.
In the crepuscular light of more recent dawns, while expeditions were exploring the continent, bands of intrepid trappers and settlers entered the same mountain ranges and valleys to hunt for beaver; loggers went out to fell trees to build houses. They stumbled upon caves, a lot of caves, on the south side of Medicine Lake, north of Mt Lassen, along the Sacramento River and in mountainous areas. Trail blazers established roads with stops at caves, and they became famous, or infamous, or were used for more mundane purposes like refrigeration, shelter or protection from hostile natives and the weather. A few were used as reliable water sources for mule skinners and travelers of the day. Two hotels were built near an ice cave in a semi-arid lava area. Ranchers raised cattle, horses, sheep and hogs on the lava badlands of the northern lava beds and used cave water for their animals.
In the crepuscular morning light of far more modern dawns, researchers and scientists heard of the caves and converged from Sacramento, San Francisco and Seattle to seek reported caves in limestone and in lava, and the reputed treasures they contained. Scientists visited the caves finding paleontological remains of extinct animals, making finely detailed or rudimentary maps of the caves; but found none of the reputed gold hoards robbed from stage-coaches. An unknown snail, Monodenia troglodytes troglodytes was discovered in 1973 by researchers around Shasta Lake; these snails, along with the Shasta salamander (Hydromantes shastae) are locally common within a very concentrated and limited range in the limestone terrane. (critter photos?) Interest in our particular caves began in 1954 with a researcher seeking “cave” notations on topo and Forest Service maps.
Long after the crepuscular dawn light, in the mid 1970’s, NASA began researching ways to locate possible lava tubes on the moon and Mars using magnetic resonance. Research into geo-thermal explorations in the Medicine Lake caldera was begun, and several wells drilled, capped off and the project put on hold in the early 1990’s. During their efforts the interests of Bay Area and Stanislaus cavers, some with ties to the USGS and NASA, was piqued. The different groups of cavers found many caves, named the caves, and renamed caves as they re-found them, leaving some confusion behind; locals had their own names for the same caves. Some were mapped, but few of those maps exist today. An example is today’s Ice Plug Cave, also known as Crystal Waterfall Cave and Baker’s Ice Hole; or today’s Three Level Ice Cave, also known as 1-2-3 Cave and Mummy Cave. Discoveries of new caves continued into the 1970’s, and to this day.
Shasta Area caving prehistory, grotto organization and personalities…
In 1978, Tom Hesseldenz, while working on his Master’s thesis on natural resources in the McCloud Limestone, found caves on private lands. Later in 1978, Arley & Sharon Kisling, Jim & Liz Wolff and Steve Knutson moved to the area to work for the Forest Service. These six, based in McCloud, CA, got together to talk caves and formed an informal group calling themselves the Gaping Holes Gang. The Gang had three main caving areas: Shasta Lake limestone, the Marble Mountains, and the Medicine Lake lavas. Of the three, the lavas received the most attention, being closest to town. Artist Arley produced an airbrushed t-shirt. (Sara tshirt pic?) The Gang checked out the caves NASA and the SFBC had mapped and began to discover more, many more caves. Mapping efforts were made in the ‘new’ caves; previous survey training helped in this endeavor.
In 1980 Claude Smith of Washington State’s Cascade Grotto and New Mexico’s Sandia Grotto, moved to Redding, CA. He contacted the Wolff’s and began organizing a grotto, working to get it chartered with the National Speleological Society; it was chartered in March 1982. Other Redding area cavers joined in the effort to create the Shasta Area Grotto (SAG). Charter members of the grotto were Arley & Sharon Kisling, Jim & Liz Wolff, Steve Knutson, Tom Hesseldenz, Claude & Mary Belle Smith, Ron & Beth Rogers, and Joe Molter. Soon after, Dan Bryant, Glen & Berenice Everest, Glen Malliet, Cris Meyer, Roger Jones, Mark Fritzke, Dick LaForge, and Mark Stoute joined SAG. By giving cave presentations, creating museum exhibits, and inviting people interested in caves to join SAG, we gained members: Ray Miller, Jim & Bea Kottinger, Clarence Horner, George & Dorothy Reel, and Robert Nixon (who designed our first website), Nancy Fuller, Don Quinton, Neils Smith, Russ Yoder, Bill & Cheryl Kenney, Chris Kennedy, and Jed Medin. Several others joined the grotto but stayed only a short time. During the 1990 NSS convention held in Yreka CA we were joined by cavers Bill & Judy Broeckel and Melanie Jackson. As more caves were found in the Shasta Lake area Dave & Ellen Pryor, Steve Hobson and James Newell joined SAG, then formed a new grotto, the Shascade Caving Society. They helped design cave management plans and protocols for the Shasta Lake caves with Brad Rust, a caver and Keeper of the Caves with the Shasta-Trinity National Forest (S-TNF).
Geographically, active SAG members live in the real northern California, southern Oregon and northwestern Nevada; lately though we have gained members from surrounding grottos who like our easy, welcoming vibe; most are not very active with SAG due to their distance from the Shasta area. Our members come from many different backgrounds and occupations: teachers, medical, retired military, professional surveyors, musicians & artists, railroaders, Forest Service workers, computer whizzes, mechanics, etc. The interests vary just as much: survey & cartography, photography, exploration & cave hunting, writing, conservation, geology & cave formation, cave politics; but all want to see SAG prosper, and the members varied interests and abilities get the job done. Meetings have always been held in members’ homes or in camps close to the cave areas. (area map?)
Chasing old rumors and even older newspaper articles we searched for the reported, but elusive, deep pits and caves on Tombstone Mtn. Even though a “not-for-the-faint-of-heart road” gets you right up to the base of the scree, it’s still a long brushy hike up to the flattish top of the limestone. One deep pit was found in a different area from the newspaper articles’ description; it was named Packrat Pit and is deeper than it is long. One double-barreled entrance on a cliff-face, was seen from the air and later visited and mapped. Claude found a dirt filled sink and immediately started digging into the depression at the bottom, while others kept searching for the old reported deep pit, which was eventually found with old cans in the bottom of the pit. Snowmelt and rain filled Claude’s dig in with dirt yearly, so it had to be re-dug every year. Small tubes were encountered but no going cave. (pic of dig/road/limestone?)
The grotto has published a newsletter, the SAG RAG, from the beginning. The first edition, Vol. 1 Nos. 1-4, was published in August 1982 and included a list of grotto officers, grotto notes (rope, carbide, film & flashbulbs, logo contest), a trip report and a membership list with 20 members. The first editor and SAG chairman, was Claude Smith, who opined: “The chairman thinks we need a newsletter for communication. To be of any timely value, it should be published bi-monthly. … Anyone interested in becoming the editor or co-editor should contact the chairman.” The RAG has contained copies of the grotto’s vertical training guide; the constitution and bylaws and its’ revisions; the necessary items for a first aid kit; a LOT of trip reports; SAG’s early involvement with the Forest Service and their timber program that could have negatively impacted local caves. Or caves negatively impacting road or logging equipment! The original constitution and bylaws were modeled on the NSS samples and revised in 2018 adding ‘job descriptions’ for the executive committee positions, creating auxiliary positions of webmaster and newsletter editor, and a few provisions that were becoming politically expedient.
To date, there have been only six editors of the RAG, with Bill & Judy Broeckel the longest serving; Dave Mundt and Dave Smith are the current co-editors. In 2012, a list server was established by Doug Viner to keep the grotto members in touch by announcing cave trips and other events and news. Around 2020 Mike Spiess revamped the website to sync with the newer formats of the NSS and the world in general. CJ McKinley established and maintains a facebook page for the grotto. We have gained some new, younger members from fb contacts. We’re getting into the 21st century! (business card?, web & fb addresses?)
The SAG cave databases have recorded over 825 caves in lava areas and nearly 100 hundred limestone caves to date, not counting the Marbles (records kept by the KMCTF) and Lava Beds N.M. caves; more caves are being added sporadically. We are not generally forthcoming with cave locations to people we don’t know, but if they come to regular trips, may get some locations. In the last few years activity has expanded into Tehama County, based on the Lassen National Forest (LNF) documentation of potential bat caves on their lands, and Dave Smith and Logan Hellein’s ground pounding to find and document new entrances. Great potential exists on Ice Cave Mountain! SAG visited limestone caves in Trinity County, making maps of several well-known caves plus some remote ones. This includes a cave in a very remote pod of limestone called French Creek Cave. Recently, Joel Despain has re-surveyed many of the limestone caves since the earlier maps were inadequate and incomplete. (both FC maps?)
Since our original gps work was done in the 1990’s using the then-common NAD27 datum and its’ built in inaccuracies, we have been updating the data bases. GPS units of the day were the size and weight of a brick and needed to be calibrated to road junctions each time they were used. SAG has been gradually switching over to the NAD83 system causing us to relocate & re-document ‘older’ caves. Thanks to Dave Smith’s efforts to gps and photograph all, or most all, cave entrances in the larger complexes of caves, we have sorted out entrance from entrance and even cave from cave.
In 2002, for our 20th anniversary we held an informal reunion at the Hat Creek Campground with several of the charter members present, including some of the grown children of the charter members. Our 25th reunion was held at Lava Beds National Monument with only a few of the original cavers present, and a few grandchildren of charter members; 2024 finds three charter members still somewhat active in SAG 42 years after the founding of the grotto. (pics, 25th t-shirt?)
Interactions with the NSS, the Western Region and other grottos…
SAG, chartered in 1982, hosted the 1983 Western Regional at Salt Creek Campground on Shasta Lake. The next regional we hosted was at Harris Springs Campground in 1991; the third was held at the Hat Creek Campground in 1999; the fourth at Lava Beds National Monument in 2010. The regional meetings we hosted were well attended and popular as there was always a lot of caving completely new to most of the regions members. The footprint of the western region has changed greatly since 1983 with the melding of the Northwestern Region and Nevada grottos into the Western Region; a rather unwieldy land mass to join into a cohesive whole.
In interactions with the national caving organization, Western and Pacific Northwest regions, and internationally, we hosted a region-wide ‘Speleo-Ed’ training session; arranged cave trips for two national caving meetings in 1990 and 2021, and internationally in 2018. We provided cave maps, descriptions, guides and local info for the NSS 1990 and 2021 convention guidebooks. In 2018 SAG led field trips during the International Vulcano-speleology Symposium held near Lava Beds National Monument.
In the late 1980’s and early 90’s we had many trips and trainings with the Jefferson State Grotto of Ashland OR. Later in their history most of the original members had moved on and the grotto was renamed the Southern Oregon Grotto by the chairman who had no idea what the State of Jefferson was. It was short lived. For the last several years SAG has hosted a ‘dry camp’ caving event, named for our favorite campsite, hosting the Oregon High Desert grotto at an early one. Our Dry Camp has around 100 caves within one mile, including three large complexes of caves. Later camps were held at the dry camp site, and at a lower elevation camp called Bee Camp (named for the obvious). The 2024 camp was held at Hat creek with cavers from Cascade, SFBC, Mother Lode, Willamette, and Oregon grottos, and visiting Lava Beds employees. At these camps we have shared some of the 800 or so caves under the Southern Medicine Lake Highlands and the Hat Creek Valley. The volcanics are nearly continuous between Medicine Lake and the Hat Creek Valley with many, many caves. (SMLH & Hat Cr map?)
Conservation and governmental agencies…
About 95% of SAG’s caves are located on federal lands, requiring interactions with the local entities. The Federal Cave Resource Protection Act of 1988 requires federal land managers to manage their underground resources. Involvement with local governmental agencies, the cave owners, is important, and maintaining good relationships with them is also important but can be difficult due to bureaucracy and personnel turnovers. Being accommo-dating and sharing info, survey data and maps, and checking out caves brought to our attention, helps do this. SAG has helped formulate management plans and strategies to protect caves, bats and other biota from vandals and thoughtless acts. For our four local forests, cave management was/is a must as they all have many caves. At a 1999 federal cave management planning session held in Yreka CA, with the Forest Service (FS), Bureau of Land Management (BLM), cavers and local tribes attending, a plan for managing the county’s caves was discussed and came to a grinding halt when the tribes attitude was ‘just don’t enter them.’ Since their input was specifically requested and their agreement was also required, no uniform action was able to be taken, but individually, management plans were made. Cave management became a big part of our federal interactions. We worked with four National Forests with varying degrees of success: Klamath (KNF), Modoc (MNF), Lassen (LNF), and the S-TNF. National directives regarding caves and management plans were taken seriously, or in one district ignored, so that our relationships varied greatly. Management skills were learned both through NSS cave management seminars and the school of hard knocks.
Bats need protection from thoughtless and fearful people. Bat gates were constructed on Bat, Barnum and Sand Caves to protect both hibernating and maternity bat colonies. Recently SAG repaired two bat gates that had been breached with a cutting torch and again diverted roadside runoff from going into Sand Cave, this time cementing rocks and dirt in place before trenching and covering it all over with gravels. One November the KNF called about hundreds of dead bats in Pluto’s Cave. Jim & Liz Wolff and Melanie Jackson went with KNF biologist Sam Cuenca to collect the dead bats, and shotgun shells. Over 250 Tadarida brazilensis were collected. If the shooting had taken place during the summer several thousand bats could have died needlessly. (pic of dead bats, gate repair & building?) Two privately owned caves near Pluto’s housed large maternity colonies of Townsend’s big eared bats. SAG had permission to monitor the populations, but in the last few years with ownership changes and large numbers of pot growers moving into the area, that monitoring lapsed. Once, during our twice yearly bat count, we were interrupted by an escaped felon who was camping in a privately owned cave and robbing the locals of mostly tools. The Sheriff’s Department cleaned many weapons and other stolen property out of the cave and later caught the felon.
The Modoc NF contacted the grotto for help documenting some of their in-cave archaeological sites and biologically active caves; we documented the caves, producing several maps for them. And then found several new caves. Bill Broeckel maintained the relationship for several years after the initial push, finding some amazing caves.
The “Shasta-T” hasn’t wanted to be bothered with caves, just let them know if their work sites would be impacted by a cave, or if it’s a fantastic limestone cave. To be fair, their timber planners and wild-life biologist were interested in how caves might impact or enhance their programs; but being loose with location data, we didn’t share much with them. During the significant cave nomination period, many caves were nominated for significance, but only one was signed off as significant. Just lately, SAG member Daniel Hewitt has been named Keeper of the Caves for the S-TNF replacing Brad Rust. Daniel is still learning the job and is enthusiastic to be able to affect the caves for the better.
A few years ago we found that a large amount of building materials, trash and debris had been dumped into a deep pit cave on the S-TNF. It took two long weekends, about 25 cavers using a haul system and several truck and trailer loads to remove about 98% of the trash. The rest of the paper material is melting into the dirt at the bottom of the pit. The cave receives several trips a year now and no new dumping has occurred. In late 2023 Brad Rust reported to us that a hole had opened up in a logging landing. Due to the snow pack we were unable to get to it until April 2024 to explore and map. It is a short vertical cave with unstable breakdown. The survey totaled 41 feet in length, 17 feet in depth, and has two unstable, and unsurveyed, pits in breakdown, each about 20 feet in depth. Loose rocks sluffed into the pits when we tried to get close enough to look into them.
The Lassen NF was interested in what was out there beyond Christmas Tree Cave, be it cave, bat or bugs, undertaking detailed inventories and studies of hundreds of caves. They reported cave finds to SAG to be mapped. The LNF had biologists out to find cave bat habitats on their forest; they came up with several hundred caves, mostly surface tubes, but deep enough to maintain the damp environment that fosters fragile bugs that require a damp habitat, and they found a few bat caves as well. Over the years, SAG has mapped and documented over 250 caves for the Forest.
The Klamath NF along with the NSS’ Klamath Mtns Conservation Task Force (KMCTF) has managed the caves of the Marble Mtns since the 1980’s. across the valley, the KNF had one remote known lava tube and came late to lava cave management when they acquired three heavily visited caves in the Shasta Valley in a land swap. Conservation efforts in the Shasta Valley included building bat gates and trash clean ups. Clean ups have been held in Sand, Barnum, Pluto’s, Windy and the privately owned Devil’s Kitchen since the pot growers moved into the valley and threw their trash into cave entrances.
After the KNF acquired the local party cave, Pluto’s Cave received yearly clean ups – an ‘under-earth’ conservation weekend with skiing after the cleanup. The first few years garnered nearly a full dump trucks-worth of trash, which included tires & rims, burned out mattresses, discarded clothing, paint cans, hundreds of pounds of broken glass and beer cans, and in these later years, plastic water bottles. If they can haul it in full, why can’t they take it out empty? The yearly cleanings have left the cave far cleaner than when we started; recently we have retrieved a scant garbage bag of trash at each cleaning – a definite improvement! Casual spelunkers have told us they appreciate our efforts to keep the cave clean when we meet them in the cave during the cleanups. A new map of Pluto’s Cave was done to include the extensions that have been opened up. The new end of the cave lies under a shallow sink that is choked with breakdown and breathes cold air. (new Pluto’s map & graffiti photos?)
Now for the spray paint: Pluto’s Cave has some very old graffiti, but far newer paint has ‘blossomed’ all over the cave since the easy availability of spray paint. Over the last 15 to 20 years, different people have tried different methods for removing the years-old graffiti. The lacquer spray paint can be chemically removed but that is toxic to bats and other organisms; all the eco-friendly and non-toxic “paint removers” we have tried were ineffective; they just made the old paints brighter; wire brushing leaves an obvious scraped patch on the rock and destroys the few remelt surfaces we have found. The Oregon Grotto has ‘sand blasted’ graffiti successfully with dry ice; we have contemplated borrowing or renting their equipment to clean Pluto’s Cave.
Millwright JD Howard discovered around 200 caves before writing many letters asking for the northern lava badlands to become a National Monument which was established in November 1925. Several of our members are involved with the Cave Research Foundation in finding, assessing, naming and mapping caves in and around Lava Beds National Monument. Some SAG members are active with CRF in other areas and states.
SAG became active with Oregon Caves National Monument in 1990. During several winter trips SAG cleared construction blast rubble from unlikely hiding places inside the cave; repaired a few broken formations; cleared old wiring and lumber; and, when asked, talked about lighting changes to cut down on moss and algae growth. Working in the ‘off’ season, we didn’t have to dodge tourist groups as cave surveyors did in the 1970’s; the Wolff’s and Steve Knutson were involved with those re-survey efforts. SAG received three Certificates of Appreciation and were nominated for a national BLM award.
In our caving activities SAG has visited caves in other states. In 2002 we had a trip to Humboldt County, Nevada for a fine, but not very long, limestone cave named Handprint. A copy of the map we published was requested for the Nevada Department of Natural Resources by caver and state geologist Alvin McLane. The cave had had an archaeological survey in 1987 but no cave map was produced. More recently, SAG members successfully worked with Rogue River NF in Oregon to document caves and ways to exclude cattle from a karst basin in the Red Buttes Wilderness Area. (Handprint map?)
Over the last 30 years there has been a collaboration between the Pit River tribes, local conservation societies and the federal government to create Sattitla Highlands National Monument. It would take in parts of the KNF, MNF and S-TNF. The area is a designated Native American Traditional Cultural District, having a geologically unique and ecologically significant landscape. It will protect Native sacred sites and pure underground waters from geothermal development. SAG members attended the one advertised public scoping and comment meeting that was held but it appeared the designation was a done deal, waiting only for Presidential signature. January 7, 2025 the President signed the Monument into existence.
The monument area includes our Dry Camp and about 120 documented caves. What impact will this have on our caves and caving? Will cave & bat info will be demanded or the public directed to caves? Will restrictions be put in place limiting caving and other recreation? The monument is to be administered by the Forest Service, so it is likely that little to no impact will occur as they have very little funding for their current work, let alone to manage or monitor a National Monument as well. SAG caver and Keeper of the Caves, Daniel Hewitt ofthe S-TNF, comments that management plans for the monument are still being formulated, and with recent layoffs, no action is currently happening on the management front. (SHNM map?)
Rescue Training…
SAG became active with the Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Department in cave Search and Rescue training around 1985, holding nearly yearly cave trainings when SAG caver Dave Nicholson was in charge of SAR. (pic of early practice rescue?) Honest appraisals of their personnel, training and equipment were made, whether they liked the appraisal results or not. At the time, the Sheriff’s department ‘good old boys’ were mainly interested in getting into Bigfoot Cave and not really concerned about other caves. We burst their bubble and advised them to call the National Cave Rescue Commission in case of a Marble Mtns rescue.
Marble Mtn rescue preparedness was first discussed among cavers in December 1991, and plans for training sessions made. Training began among the cavers that next summer and a rescue cache established. Vertical rescue techniques and haul systems were practiced by cavers at least one summer in the Marbles. Even small, light-weight cavers can raise several hundred pounds of rescu-ee with rescue-r and gear up cliffs or pits with the mechanical advantages of different haul systems. Only one rescue from the Marbles required help from the CHP helicopter, when Bill Kenney’s leg was pinned by a 600 pound boulder. In the larger caving world, SAG cavers Steve Hobson, Glen Malliet and Dick LaForge took part in the four day long rescue of Emily Davis Mobley from Lechuguilla Cave.
SAG trained Siskiyou SAR personnel in proper cave and rescuer equipment, safe caving, cave search procedures, the cave environment, and the importance of equipment management. They have learned that fire “turn-outs” are not appropriate in caves, how to move through a cave without damage to the cave or themselves, about hypothermia and its danger to the rescuers and patient, litter passing techniques to cause no damage to the patient or cave, and just how abrasive lava can be to clothing and skin. They have had a couple of call outs for rescues, alerting SAG that rescues were needed in Pluto’s Cave, but managed to find and extricate the lost or injured with minimal help. We took them to a ‘back-country’ cave for a two day search to get them accustomed to being away from roads; out where most of our caves are located, in a truly complex cave. The exercise had limited success as they had trouble with GPS usage and completely missed one of the “lost” cavers in a side passage. The next time we took them to a remote cave they did better with the gps and finding the cave.
SAG has had two rescue trainings with Lava Beds NM. The first one, several years ago, introduced the rescuers to working in tight spaces. Not all caves are nice and walking sized, but contain much smaller passages. In 2004 two kids from a school group got lost in Catacombs Cave. The Park and Siskiyou SAR spent most of a day and night searching the cave, but wouldn’t enter “too small” passages. SAG was called, several cavers responded, a protocol established for the search, and the kids were found and extricated within three hours. This rescue initiated a survey project due to the Park’s inadequate maps. A second training in June, 2023 trained mainly 24 LABE personnel, including the Park superintendent and Tule Lake firemen as well. This three day training included only two SAR people and 10 SAG members, one who was taking the class.
… Research
While SAG has not initiated scientific research, we have cooperated with researchers. Modern research efforts are focused on either bats, bugs, or finding new caves. Base-line bat population studies began in Siskiyou County early in 1987 with bat researchers Dr Dixie Pierson and Dr Bill Rainey of the University of Berkeley contacting the grotto for bat cave locations to study. Members helped with river, forest, cliff and cave studies, ultimately documenting seventeen species of bats in Siskiyou County from all habitats. (include bat list?) Being retired, Ray Miller was the main participant in these activities. The ranges of at least a few species were extended northward. For some bats it was unknown if they hibernated or migrated long distances or in elevation. During SAG’s participation in these studies, CalTrans requested confirmation on a bridge design that would enable bat populations to flourish; this required monitoring for about a year to do exit counts from their bridge design, which SAG did. It was a successful project.
White Nose Syndrome fungus showed up in Siskiyou County in 2024. There are no known active cases of the disease, it is possibly only a matter of time before it begins decimating hibernating bat populations. If the Townsend’s big-eared bats here are as resistant to the disease as they are back east, only the big brown and little brown bats of our three species of cave hibernators may be affected.
The ranges of some cave specific insect and arachnid species have been extended into the SAG region by other discoveries. Entomologists with Sacramento State University and the US Forest Service have been taken to biologically active caves to collect cave specimens. The activities of Dr G.O. Graening in several Hat Creek Valley caves extended the known ranges of several cave bug species. A species of pseudoscorpion unknown to science (Parobisium petilum) was discovered by Lassen NF biologists and SAG members Tom Rickman and Tyanna Blaschak in Elisha Cave. At first the LNF’s focus was on the Hat Creek Valley, but investigations have spread out from there and proposals are being considered that could extend the biological studies to the southern Medicine Lake highlands. Funding and permission is being sought.
Shasta Caverns Cave Manager and SAG member, Dave Mundt has participated with researchers from Vanderbilt University in climate studies in Lake Shasta Caverns for the past 10 years. Speleothems are repositories of climate data, and scientific analysis can help reconstruct past climates. Analysis of the oxygen and hydrogen isotopes from water samples taken inside the cave (at specific locations during each precipitation event over several years) and strategically placed glass plates where calcium is grown by proxy, helps interpret the oxygen isotope data from the speleothems. This helps to link current climate data to climate cycles in ages past.
Many trips were taken into the Marble Mountain Wilderness beginning in 1979, before the KMCTF was formed with the NSS. Bigfoot Cave was the most visited, with continuing survey taking place nearly every weekend. As trips into Bigfoot became more grueling, interest spread to other caves of the karst area. A system of reference points (RP) was established all over the main and Black Mtn karsts; signs were nailed to trees on the karst. New discoveries are still made every year; the cave highest on the karst was named Apogee Cave; Claude, being a digger, opened a pit into over a mile of cave before his death.
… And Education
Educational presentations on caves and bats were given for several years to school children and garden clubs, pre- covid. Most teachers were thrilled to have a bat and cave presentation in the fall with a cave trip to follow. A strong conservation message was given on the fragility of the bats and the extreme fragility of cave eco-systems. The kids learned a lot about bats through activities and games of being a bat and hunting for their buggy dinners. (Ray presentation pic?) Garden clubs wanted to know how to attract bats and about building bat houses. At Lake Shasta Caverns, thousands of middle school students visit every year for field trips. Each of the children not only have fun and learn about caves, they learn about cave conservation from their guides, trained by SAG’s Dave Mundt – take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but footprints, kill nothing but time.
Yearly pre-covid, Lava Beds N.M. held an educational program called Timeline Living History. Two SAG members, Bill Devereaux and Liz Wolff, have portrayed JD Howard, “Father of Lava Beds,” and Polly Merrill, early resort owner at a cave in the Lava Beds. They were only two of the seven presenters for the three day event. Their characters, the most modern in the Lava Beds history gave talks to school children with displays of artifacts, equipment and processes of the day. Their talks were well received on the day it was opened to the public each year. ‘Polly’ has met descendants of the cave resort and ranching Merrill family on the public day. ‘JD’ spoke of his discovering 120 caves, and led trips into Mushpot Cave as part of his historical talk on the public day. Most of JD’s journals, maps and writings are housed at the Oregon Institute of Technology Library.
In collaboration, Federal and California State Fish & Wildlife Services host educational outings for the public each summer and fall, this included a “Bat Walk” held at Barnum Cave. Bat biologists, SAG and the KNF make presentations on bat physiology, habitats, life cycle, habits, feeding preferences of bats in general, and cave dwelling bats in particular. Following the presentations a trip is led into the cave where volcanic geology and conservation are discussed. This particular nature walk was very popular with the public; over 60 people would attend the chilly evening event before the covid shut-downs in 2020. (pic of Ray & Sam?)
Conclusion
Some love lava, some love limestone & marble, some love extreme caving, some are loners out by themselves, but all contribute to and further the knowledge of the caves we love. Finding new caves has been an ongoing activity with many cavers beating the brush of the Marble Mtns, Hat Creek valley, Medicine Lake highlands and Shasta Lake region for holes in the ground. Many caves and systems of caves, have been found during the hours/ days/weeks/years of systematic reconnaissance. We have researched old maps and writings as sources of cave location info. Many old maps & writings note ‘caves’ for mines and rock overhangs; many miles of walking recon have been done to find and document potential caves. A tool to find entrances in lava country is google earth; many lava caves show up as well-defined sinkholes.
SAG remains active in our interactions with governmental entities and other caving organizations. We will be hosting the Western Regional in 2027 which will center on SAG history. SAG has been gaining younger members who need to know what has gone before and how both grotto and cave management work, as well as the fun and comradery of caving with cavers. A group of them are rediscovering the caves we did in the early 1980’s and having a good time doing it. They are also finding new caves of their own, learning new skills and putting them into use. Their enthusiasm is contagious, but the fact is that us ‘old timers’ aren’t getting any younger; it is about time to pass the torch on to the younger generation.
