Drought restores passable route to cave bottom

| Wednesday, September 15, 2004

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HOT SPRINGS — Drought has drained a small lake in Wind Cave, opening up access to the deepest levels of the cave for the first time in five years.

Wind Cave National Park employees on a routine work trip on Aug. 19 discovered that a small lake that previously blocked access to the deepest level of the cave had drained enough to squeeze past it. Once through the tight, wet passageway, the personnel were able to climb, crawl and walk to the Lakes, the deepest area of Wind Cave at 490 feet beneath the surface.

Cavers were last able to get to the area in July 1999, according to a news release from the park office.

"Since this small body of water named ‘What the Hell Lake' suddenly appeared five years ago, we have been unable to reach a significant section of Wind Cave," Marc Ohms, trip leader and physical science tech for the park, said in the release. "Now that the route is open, we can continue collecting baseline data of our local aquifer in a time when more and more users are starting to draw from this body of water."

Even with recent rains, Wind Cave National Park is still 4.8 inches below its50-year annual rainfall average. Over the past 11 years, water levels in the lakes have varied by as much as 20 feet. With the route now open, the cavers returned to the Lakes on Sept. 2 and recalibrated the gauges used to record water levels.

"This is the only place in South Dakota where it is possible to see the water table," Ohms said. "This unique situation makes it easier to collect data, such as the water level, quality and even the age of the water.

"It also provides information about recharge rates and the lasting effects of droughts such as the one we are currently in."

For years, the U.S. Geological Survey maintained a gauging station in the cave that has since been replaced by monthly trips to the Lakes by park employees to gather the data.

The first lake was discovered by Herb Conn of Custer and David Schnute of Hot Springs in 1968. Since then, seven large bodies of water, all part of the Madison Aquifer, have been discovered.

Wind Cave is the sixth-largest cave in the world and is also the most complex three-dimensional maze cave in the world, according to the news release.

Although the Lakes area is closed to the public due to the difficult and dangerous access route, more than one mile of cave is open to touring.