Cave Regions of the Ozarks and Black Hills | Page 5

Missouri Geological Survey.
CAVES DESCRIBED IN THE STATE REPORTS.
Although many unknown caves must yet be discovered in the
imperfectly explored portions of the vast Ozark forests, these finds are
already so numerous as to seldom attract attention according to their
just desserts.
One of the comparatively recent of these discoveries is Crystal Cave, at
Joplin, described on page 566, Vol. VII., Missouri Geological Survey
Report 1894.[1] It was opened in the lower workings of a shaft of the
Empire Zinc Company, and "The entire surface of the cave, top, sides
and bottom, is lined with calcite crystals, so closely packed together as
to form a continuous sheet and most of them of great size, and well
formed faces. Scalenohedra as much as two feet long are sometimes
seen, and others a foot or more in length are common. Planes or crystal
ghosts, sometimes with pyrite crystals, marking stages of growth in the
calcite crystals, are often distinguishable. The entire absence of
anything like stalactites is noticeable, and together with the presence of
the crystals, show that the cave was completely filled with water during
their growth." In the same volume, all those counties in the extreme
southwest corner of the state, whose geological age has not heretofore
been considered positively determined, are mapped as Lower
Carboniferous, and Lower Silurian, with the Coal Measures covering

portions of Barton and Jasper and appearing in a few small, scattered
spots in Dade, Polk, Green and Christian counties, and some scanty
lines of Devonian fringing the edges of the Silurian in Barton and
McDonald.
Other State reports make mention of many caves and fine springs, and
also several natural bridges worthy of special notice. In Mr. G.C.
Broadhead's report for 1873-1874, he gives a short but interesting
chapter on caves and water supplies, in which he says that "Caves
occur in the Third Magnesian Limestone, Saccharoidal Sandstone,
Trenton, Lithographic, Encrinital and St. Louis Limestone."
"In Eastern and Northeast Missouri there have not been found many
large caves in the Encrinital Limestone, but the lower beds of this
formation in Southwest Missouri often enclose very large caverns;
among the latter may be included the caves of Green County with some
in Christian and McDonald. Those in McDonald I have not seen, but
they are reported to be very extensive and probably are situated in the
Encrinital Limestone."
Under the head of "Special Descriptions" he says: "On Sac River, in the
north part of Green County, we find a cave with two entrances, one at
the foot of a hill, opening toward Sac River, forty-five feet high and
eighty feet wide. The other entrance is from the hill-top, one hundred
and fifty feet back from the face of the bluff. These two passages unite.
The exact dimensions of the cave are not known, but there are several
beautiful and large rooms lined with stalactites and stalagmites which
often assume both beautiful and grotesque life-like forms. The cave has
been explored for several hundred yards, showing the formations to be
thick silicious beds of the Lower Carboniferous formations."
"Knox cave, in Green County, is said to be of large dimensions. I have
not seen it, but some of its stalactites are quite handsome."
"Wilson's Creek sinks beneath the Limestone and appears again
below."
"There are several caves near Ozark, Christian County, which issue

from the same formation as those in Green County. On a branch of
Finly Creek a stream disappears in a sink, appearing again
three-quarters of a mile southeast through an opening sixty feet high by
ninety-eight feet wide. Up stream the cave continues this size for a
hundred yards and then decreases in size, and for the next quarter of a
mile further it is generally ten by fourteen feet wide. A very clear, cool
stream passes out, in which by careful search crawfish without eyes can
be found."
"There is another cave a few miles south of Ozark, and another ten
miles southeast occurs in the Magnesian Limestone."
"In Boone County there are several caves in the Encrinital Limestone.
Conner's, the largest, is said to have been explored for a distance of
eight miles."
"In Pike and Lincoln there are several small caves occurring in the
upper beds of Trenton Limestone, which are often very cavernous. On
Sulphur Fork of Cuivre, there is a cave and Natural Bridge, to which
parties for pleasure often resort. The bridge is tubular with twenty feet
between the walls, and is one hundred feet long."
"At J.P. Fisher's on Spencer Creek, Ralls County, there is a cave having
an entrance of ninety feet wide by twenty feet high. The Lower Trenton
beds occupy the floor, with the upper cavernous beds above. On the
bluff, at a distance of one hundred and fifty yards back, there is a
sink-hole