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I was saddened to hear about the deaths in the caves. And wanted to share my experiences, in hopes that it may help find a better solution than the ones previously implamented.
I grew up in so. mpls. and used to go caving all the time. My sister called me a river rat, because spent so much time by the river. First cave I explored we used to call dead mans cave, under the va, where minnehaha creek meets the mississippi. It was a typical sandstone river cave. They tried several times to seal the cave, but sand stone is so easy to dig through, only short deleays in access nothing long term until the caves were destroied. A friends parents had a house boat docked at watergate marina so of course I also caved the spery univac caves all the time. Of course they sealed the entrences with 30 yards of concreate, but it was a sandstone cave. so every couple months you had to dig if you wanted to go caving. For a few years we used a broken storm sewer to access the cave, that worked undetected until someone dug an air shaft out over the last concrete fill.
I guess the caves are some type of torist attraction at least at holloween, but have never been back since I was a teenager.
Now some want to talk education. I'm all for that and was tring to remember where I learned how to survive caving. It was from the older cavers I ran into when we talked about cave locations and caving. It was in these convesations that I learned to use electric lighting, and only use flares and laterns, candles for emergencies to get out of the caves, and not for exploring. Because you will die from lack of oxygen long before the fire does. Then theres the problem with CO.
But with all the river bluffs along the mississippi, trying to close them all, when new ones are being dug all the time, and blocked accesses are being tunneled around is going to be imposible. and filling the entrance with dirt and twigs a waste of good compost. So trying to identify and educate the people that will not pay attention to the signs, and in fact may be there because of the signs, and the danger, is the next best hope
Arno A. Karner West 7 th. st. < 300 ft. NNW of GSE
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