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To celebrate 125 years of discovery, listen in as we spend an hour each month through 2025 discovering Jewel Cave and the Black Hills with special guest speakers.

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May 31, 2025

Bats of Jewel Cave

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Transcript

 Hello and welcome to Jewel Cave National Monument's 125 Years of Discovery Podcast Discovery Hour. Join us this episode as we listen to a presentation on the bats of Jewel Cave. Presented by ACE Education Member Olivia, recorded on May 31st, 2025. A transcript of this episode is available on our website, www.nps.gov/jeca. Thank you for listening.

All righty. Well welcome everyone to Jewel Cave Discovery Hour. Let's see, so today's presentation is going to be about bats. I do want to plug that next month on June 13th at 2:00 PM in this exact location, we will be hearing from the Black Hills Parks and Forest Association about their Field Notes. So make sure to stop on by for that. It should be really exciting. Yeah!

Well, let's get on going into the world of bats. Before we get started, I do want to say my name is Ranger Olivia, or Education Member Olivia, technically. I have been working at Jewel Cave for the past six months as an Education Member helping to set up either school programs or, you know, virtual meetings with groups such as libraries and schools in the area. I've also been helping to lead tours, and I'll be here for another six months of that. So a full year in total. My prior experience has been working as an intern in Colonial Williamsburg, as well as at the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park in Fredericksburg, Virginia. So a little bit different kind of history, but I really like caves and I love bats. So, it’s right up my alley.

Let's get started with the bats. I do want to point out, first off, that this intro slide has quite a few images of the bats, specifically bats in Jewel Cave. We have a few that are hanging on to the title itself. Those are both Townsend’s big-eared bats. They're most notable for their very large ears.Helps them to hear quite a bit. We'll learn more about them later on.

And then hanging from the top, we have what seems to be a little brown bat, maybe a large brown bat. In the corner, we have one of our northern long-eared bats. And then finally in the lower right corner, we have one of the hoary bats. They're very memorable with their nice white fur. They look like they have frosted tips. The eighties as a bat.

So what are bats? Now, you might have heard of them, but you may not know the specifics, so I do like to go over it a little bit. So the Latin name for bats is “chiroptera”, which translates roughly to “hand wing” because their wings are composed of their hands. So imagine your fingers being really long and spread out, and then in between each finger you have a flap of skin. And using that, they're able to build a wing.

They are part of an order of eutherian mammals, which are mammals that have a placenta. So bats give birth to live young. And then there are over 1,400 species of bats that have been discovered thus far worldwide. Mainland USA and Canada are home to 47 species, and due to being the only mammals that can achieve true flight, they're able to inhabit many ecological niches. They're a very specialized animal. So we have another bat hanging down from the upper left corner of this slide as well. There'll be a lot of bats in this presentation. I’m a big fan. Just, you know, to give an estimation of how many bats there are in regards to the rest of the mammals in the world, bats make up approximately 20 to 21% of all mammals on Earth. And so looking at this nice pie chart I have over to the left, you can see that the largest order of mammals is Rodentia, which are rodents, followed right after by Chiroptera, which are bats. And then that's followed by Soricomorpha, which is kind of an older classification for what you would call, possibly, shrews. And then after that is primates.

So bats make up a huge portion of the animals on Earth, and because of that, they have a lot of importance within our planet. However, quite a few people don't really see them as that vital. So today we're going to talk a little bit about why they matter. So, why should we care about bats? Approximately 70% of all bats worldwide are insectivores. They help to keep bug populations in control so we can enjoy items such as coffee, cacao, rice, corn, citrus, all those nice produce items. In the USA alone, bats save U.S. farmers at least $3.7 billion yearly, with some estimates increasing that to $53 billion yearly. I have heard some estimates for the higher number are in regards to the forest or logging industry. A lot of bugs will lay eggs or larvae that burrow into wood. If bats eat the bugs, we can then use the timber. So it helps to save a lot of wood for use. And then also by eating insects like mosquitoes, bats are helping to reduce the chance of us contracting diseases such as West Nile virus and malaria. They're also helping to reduce diseases. The other 29.998% of bats are nectarivores or frugivores, which help to pollinate and disperse seeds of produce like agave for tequila, as well as bananas, avocados, and mango.

Scientists are also studying bats to see if their ability to tolerate DNA damage, viruses, and parasites could help us to create treatments and/or cures for things like Ebola, malaria, coronavirus, and certain kinds of cancer that can damage DNA. Bats are very good at surviving. The images we have here to the left of the slide, on the top, we have a common big-eared bat that is currently eating a large bug. They eat quite a few variety of bugs. And then on the bottom we have a lesser long-nosed bat who's currently covered in pollen. Likely got a little bit lost in the sauce as it was pollinating a flower. Now we're going to head into Jewel Cave. So we're going to follow this nice ranger on the screen as he heads into the Historic Entrance, which is where the majority of our bats hibernate, or at least roost during the warmer seasons.

So the first bat that I'm going to talk about today is the big brown bat, which in Latin is Eptesicus fuscus

The order that I'm going to present the bats in really has to do from least concern to most concern when it comes to conservation. So the beginning bats are going to be the ones that either we have a lot of within the United States, or ones where populations are relatively stable. And then the ones we'll be ending with are the ones that are the most concern for conservationists right now. I will say though, in general, most bats are at risk, either due to humans, disease, loss of environment. So it is always good to think of all bats as needing some sort of conservation, but this list is going to go from least concern to most concern. For the big brown bat, its Latin name translates roughly to “somber” or “dusky house flyer”. As far as conservation, they are Least Concern, so they're quite abundant. They weigh about one-half to three-fourths of an ounce, or 14 to 21 grams, which is about the weight of a slice of white bread from a packaging. Wingspan is about 13 to 16 inches, so they are quite sizeable as far as our bats go. They're a light brown to more of a medium brown with the dark black muzzle. And as far as prey goes, they're known for eating mostly small beetles, but they're not very picky. And so they will eat a variety of winged insects across a variety of different biomes. You can find them in fields, forests, over water, they're not too picky. And then lifespan, they can live up to 20 years. However, it tends to be much shorter in the wild because they do come into contact with quite a few predators. As far as range, where you can find big brown bats is virtually any habitat across North America from lower Canada to the southern tip of Mexico, but they’re most abundant in deciduous forests and mixed agriculture areas. As far as roosts, they tend to hibernate between early December and March during the coldest parts of the winter, and they'll either roost in the warmer seasons alone if they're males, or in larger colonies of females and pups, up to 300 bats per roosting colony. So quite big groups. The roost can vary from under tree bark and crevices to man-made structures, but the roost has to maintain a stable 32 to 41 degrees Fahrenheit, so they are quite picky about temperature. Due to their larger size, these bats don't have to worry too much about cold temperatures. They're able to stay active for longer than other bat species during the colder months, so that helps them to have a little bit more of an ecological niche when it comes to hunting. And then, fun fact, big brown bats can fly up to 40 miles per hour. They're quite speedy.

The next bat we're going to talk about is the long-legged bat, which is Myotis volans. Name translation is roughly “mouse-eared flyer.” It is Least Concern. Weight is about five to 10 grams or two to four pennies, so very small. Wingspan is about 10 to 12 inches. Color: they're brown with notably dense fur underneath the wing membrane, which connects the elbows to the knees. So if you can think of your arm spread out, it's connecting those two.

And their prey is mostly moths and flying insects that are often flying over water and vegetation that are bridging dry to wet land. So kind of an in-between area. And lifespan is up to 21 years in the wild. So bats can live for quite a long time depending on if they're able to, you know, survive predators. I do also want to note that each of these slides I go through for the bat species, to the right of the slide is an image of the bat itself. So I am showing visuals as we're going along with the information. And then as far as the slides with the maps, I am showing a visual of the map to the left, with the information to the right, so it’s just kind of flipped, but it also has an image. So the range for this bat species is mostly mountainous Western North America from south of Canada down into California, and along the Sierra Madre Occidental in Mexico.

As far as roosting, they like to hibernate in caves during the winter and they can roost within buildings cliff crevices and in hundred-plus year old trees underneath the bark. They're most commonly found on the edges of coniferous and pinyon-juniper woodlands, or with enlarged clearings at elevations around 4,000 to 9,000 feet, in order to receive the maximum amount of sunlight per day, so they're very into sunning.

Fun fact, the long-legged bat is also known for its notable keel, which is a flap of skin on its calcar, which is a spur of cartilage that causes the wing to stretch along, and so it stretches along the side of the foot rather than directly to the ankle. So it kind of goes off a little bit. According to studies as to why these calcars or keels are developed, it has to do more so with allowing for larger wingspan or potentially increased lift when they're flying, so it can help them with going farther for longer distances. Next bat is the eastern red bat, Lasiurus borealis. I don't know why the other parentheses disappeared. Alright. Name translation is the “shaggy-tailed northern bat”. So these bats are Least Concern conservation wise, but more concern for eastern colonies. They worry about 0.4 to 0.5 ounces, or around 11 to 15 grams, which is around four to six pennies. The wingspan is 11 to 13 inches. The males tend to be much brighter red, while the females appear more frosted or gray. And the prey is moths, crickets, beetles, and cicadas. So a lot of flying insects. That's kind of a common theme for a lot of our bats. Lifespan can be up to 12 years, so a little bit shorter than the other ones. As far as where you can find eastern red bats, they mostly live east of the Rocky Mountains from Canada and down south into central Florida, making them America's most abundant tree bat. They're very all over the country. Due to their coloration, this species is well-suited for tree dwelling. They'll actually use the reddish complexion to blend into pine cones and dead leaves, and they're also solitary so they can be commonly found roosting alone in south-facing trees.

During the winter, most of these eastern red bats migrate to warmer locations along the Atlantic seaboard, like birds. So it used to be described, you could see giant groups of bats, almost like birds in the sky as they migrated. However, nowadays, we have quite a few less of the eastern red bats, and so we don't really see those huge migration groups anymore. But there are records of them existing. For those in the more northern areas, they may experience periods of torpor, and they utilize their fur in order to survive the cold. So they don't necessarily hibernate like the other species, but they do go into periods where they have lower energy levels in order to conserve their fat and their water.

Fun fact, female eastern red bats typically have two to three young, but they can care for as many as five at a time, and that makes their litters uncharacteristically large compared to other bat species, which tend to only have about one pup per season, and the females have four mammary glands in order to support all of their pups. They are also known for sometimes leaving their pups while they go hunt for food, and they can also move them if need be. I imagine five pups would be kind of hard to fly with. They're a very cool bat.

Now we have the Hoary bat, Lasiurus cinereus, which roughly translates to “shaggy-tailed ashen bat.” As you can see from the coloration, it has these nice frosted tips. It does kind of look like the bat was dipped into ashes.

Conservation status is Least Concern on the mainland, but the Hawaiian subspecies, L. c. semotus, is endangered, and colonies on the East Coast are in need of conservation, so this one is a little bit more spread out as far as location. They weigh about 0.7 to 1.2 ounces, or 19 to 35 grams, about four to seven nickels. Wingspan is 13 to 16 inches. This species has unique banding on its colors, going from kind of a darker black-brown underneath, and then as you go up to the top of the bat, it has more of a white frosting at the tips and yellowish fur around the face. Their prey is larger insects because they do need to eat quite a bit more, so they hunt moths, true bugs, mosquitoes, and crickets. And then lifespan, it can vary from two to 12 years, depending on location and predation. So these bats don't live as long as the other species in comparison. That could largely be because of their range, and also the amount of predators they come in contact with. They are America's most widespread bat, ranging from southeastern Canada to Hawaii, and they go all the way down into South America, a little bit into Brazil, and then down, kind of into Peru, a little bit more down that way. They are a solitary species and they prefer to roost in tree foliage around 10 to 15 feet above the ground. When they're roosting — Howdy folks! [Hello.] We're talking about some bats if you'd like to learn about bats. [Yeah, excellent. Thank you!] No problem. So right now we are talking about the hoary bat. So, I'm going through all the bat species of Jewel Cave National Monument. Feel free to come right on in. I will say, for reference, this is what the hoary bat looks like. Howdy folks. [Hi.] Welcome right on in. Hi! Welcome right on in.

So I'm doing a presentation on bats for this month's Discovery Hour, and so I'm going through each species of bat you can discover at Jewel Cave. We have 10 total, and right now we're on the hoary bat, which is known as the most widespread bat species within the Americas. And so you can find them all the way from within Canada down into southeastern Canada, down into Hawaii, as well as down into South America. So they are all across the Americas.

And they are a solitary species. They prefer to roost in trees and foliage around 10 to 15 feet above the ground. When they're roosting, they use their tails to wrap around themselves to kind of form a little cocoon or a blanket. And they hang by one foot, which can help them to blend in with the leaves around them, so they kind of rustle with the wind a little bit. Instead of hibernating, they are also migratory, so they fly south to warmer climates when avoiding the cold. Fun fact, during migration, hoary bats have been recorded as flying as fast as 13 miles an hour and up to 8,000 feet. They are very fun. All righty.

Now, we have the western small-footed bat, which is Myotis ciliolabrum. So the name translation is roughly the “mouse-eared whiskered-lip bat”. So conservation status, they're considered a species of concern depending on the region where you're at. They weigh about 0.17 to 0.25 ounces or around five to seven grams, about two to three pennies. Wingspan can be eight to around 10 inches. And the color is usually a yellow or a buff, which is kind of a tone of yellow, it's a bit more beige. And subspecies can also be white, and they have a black face mask, which helps to tell them apart from the California myotis. They're very similar in appearance. And then as far as prey, most western small-footed bats consume a variety of flying insects, specifically moths, true bugs, caddisflies. But where there is competition for food from other bat species, they can specialize in either hunting beetles or moths specifically. They're very good at adapting.

And then their range is quite small. So western and southwest Canada down into the USA is where you can find the species, and due to relying on flying insects for food, they tend to live near bodies of water and forage within less than a mile from where they are roosting, so very small area. And for roosting, they prefer rocky outcroppings and cliff faces, typically roosting alone or in groups no larger than 19, so they're relatively solitary. And for hibernation, they prefer cracks and crevices and caves, with no more than six bats per hibernating location. So they don't want to be in a big group for hibernating. Fun fact, in some, but not all western small-footed bats, their tail will actually protrude past their uropatagium, which is the flap of skin that connects the end of the ankle down to their tail. So they can have a little bit longer tails, which also helps to tell them apart from their, I guess, lookalike species, the California myotis. Alright. We are halfway through the bats. So like this bat on the rock, hold on. We're almost there. So that is actually a photo taken from within Jewel Cave. A little bat hanging on the top of the rock. As far as species go, that is probably one of the brown bats. It's not a Townsend’s, its ears are quite small. I'd go probably little brown bat or big brown bat. It's just hanging out.

Alright! Now we go little brown bat, which is Myotis lucifugus. Sorry for my Latin, I guess. Yeah, it's not great. Name translation for this bat is roughly “mouse-eared light-fleeing,” which is aptly named. They don't like the light. Conservation status: they're stable, but subject to review, and current population is declining in the Northeast, and so this is one of the species where if you look on the government website, they are currently resubmitting it to see if they can get them at a higher status.

The weights, they weigh about 0.2 to 0.5 ounces or five to 14 grams, so less than six pennies. Wingspan eight to nine inches. Color is more of a cinnamon or a dark brown with a gray fur underneath, and they're not known for being picky with their prey. They consume a wide variety of flying insects. And you know, it can vary a little bit depending on if they're in regions with less flying insects. They are also known to eat arachnids, so a lot of fun bugs. Lifespan, they average about six and a half years, but they can live for up to 30 years. The range is across North America, from Alaska, down all the way to Newfoundland, and then down a little bit more towards Mexico, but not many within Mexico. And then for roosting, which is just a fun term for bats hanging out during the warmer season when they're not hibernating, they like to roost within caves and man-made or cave-like structures, and they tend to hibernate from late fall to the beginning or early parts of spring and summer. And during the summer, the females tend to stay within larger colonies. So they'll be in attics and bat boxes with up to a hundred bats per area, while the males tend to roost underneath dead and live tree bark. So they'll find little holes and they'll crawl in there, make a little home for themselves. And then fun fact, the oldest known little brown bat was first banded in 1975, and then was rediscovered in Alberta, Canada around 2009, so it was at least 35 years old. The bats can live for quite a while depending on if they are able to survive.

Now we have the silver-haired bat, which is Lasionycteris noctivagans. Name translation: about “night-wandering hairy bat.” Conservation status: it is common across the USA, but somewhat rare in portions of their South Dakota habitat. So according to the state of South Dakota, these ones are in need of conservation. They weigh about one-fourth to three-eighths of an ounce, or eight to 11 grams, so not too much. Wingspan, again, 11 to 13 inches.

Their fur is much darker and it can be tipped with silver or white. The one in this photo right here is pretty much just solid black, but under certain light conditions it can be a little bit different. And then this species feeds are mainly small, soft-bodied insects such as mosquitoes, midges, and moths. And they like to hunt on the side of roadways, so you might be able to see them as you're driving. They can live for up to 12 years. And then their range is from southern Alaska to Newfoundland and as far south as Northern Mexico. So all across the United States. The maternity colonies rely upon tree hollows and cavities in order to have their little roof set up, and they need old growth trees. So about a hundred-plus years old. Like other tree-dwelling bats, they will switch roosts throughout the roosting season. And so you'll see them in one bat and they might just abandon that one and move to another. They might move back. It just depends on what they're looking for. They can be found hibernating within a wide variety of locations, such as under bark in tree hollows, within woodpecker holes, birds’ nests. You can sometimes find them in garages and outbuildings. So this is one of the bats that are more common to be found in man-made structures. Just because they're looking for a nice, safe, warm place in order to spend their hibernation. And while they are formerly known as a very leisurely flyer, recent studies have found that they can fly as fast as 28 miles per hour. So, you know, it might have just been the bats they were studying back then that weren't too keen on flying fast.

Alright, now we're getting into one of the specialty bats for the area. So this is the Black Hills fringe-tailed bat, or Myotis thysanodes pahasapensis. Which roughly translates to the “mouse-eared Black Hills fringed bat.” Yeah, it's a little photo with all of its teeth. Very cute. Conservation status, they are Vulnerable for the subspecies, but the fringed myotis in general for the United States is mostly of Least Concern. So not too bad. They weigh about one-eighth to three-eighths of an ounce, or one to two nickels, just about, and their wingspan can be 10.5 to 12 inches, so not too big. They can be a dark brown to gray with short, wire-like hairs that come off of the uropatagium, which is the skin that connects the legs to the tail. And then for prey, they mostly live in the mountainous regions and so they need access to diverse vegetation and water sources. And so they hunt flying insects such as moths and flies that rely on said water. So for the Black Hills fringe-tailed myotis, they can be found mostly within just Nebraska, South Dakota, and a little bit of Wyoming. For fringed bats in general, they are all across the United States, but we're focusing on the subspecies. And this species tends to roost under bridges and buildings and within caves and mines from April to September, they're the most active, and then hibernation typically occurs from September to April. This subspecies was first described in 1967, so they're a relatively new species of bat. So you can just see them all over. Not too many sightings.

Now we're getting into one of Jewel Cave's most, I guess, picturesque bats. This is the Townsend’s big-eared bat, or Corynorhinus townsendii. Name translation is roughly “Townsend's helmet-nosed bat,” and it is named after John Kirk Townsend, who has a lot of species named after him. Conservation status: they’re widespread across South Dakota, but they are considered rare in portions of what used to be really large colonies, and so they are cause for concern. They weigh about 0.3 to 0.5 ounces. Wingspan: around 12 to 13 inches. So again, not too big. They can be reddish-gray with brown fur and their ears are an average of 38 millimeters long. So quite big. They use them in order to direct their echolocation sounds in order to pinpoint where their flying prey is. And then they have a little part in the middle of their ear that's called the tragus. The tragus helps to define those sounds even better. So you can put it in, basically imagine a satellite dish and then you have a piece within the dish to help direct it. So that's what their ears are functioning as. They like to eat flying insects such as beetles and mosquitoes.

And then lifespan on average is about 16 years, but they've been known to live up to 30. So their range is all across kind of the western United States from Central British Columbia down into Central Mexico, as far south as Texas, Oklahoma. And then there are a few populations that are scattered across either the Midwest or the Eastern Coast. They are known to prefer hibernating in caves and crevices with substantial air flow. So Jewel Cave is a really good place for them. We have a constant airflow within the cave.

And they do not tend to migrate far away, which makes the Jewel Cave colony even more special. Because so far, we've only really located one of the maternity roosts, and so surely there must be more than one because we have a lot of the Townsend’s bats, but we just don't know where they're coming from. So that is something we're trying to solve within Jewel Cave National Monument. And they like to roost on cliffs, caves, and rock edges. So if you're climbing around in the Black Hills, you might see them on the rocks.

And they have fantastic control of their ear muscles. The Townsend’s bats can roll up their ears kind of, so they look like a rams horn if they need to conserve heat while it's hibernating or sleeping. And then they can also extend or pull back their ears when they're flying. When pulled back, the ears are almost half of their body length. So really long ears.

And because we have so many Townsends’ within Jewel Cave National Monument, we have a lot of photos of them. So right here to the left, we have an image of a Townsend’s bat hibernating, and you can see its ear has kind of curled up on itself. So it's conserving heat that way, kind of like a blanket of sorts.

And then to the right, we have a little group of the Townsends’ that are just roosting up on the cave ceiling, potentially hibernating. They're just hanging out up there. When our Jewel Cave bat surveyors go into the cave, they will take a yearly count and so they'll find colonies like this or little roosting groups and they'll count each individual bat so we can get the estimates for the year. And then finally, the last piece I'm going to talk about is the northern myotis, or Myotis septentrionalis. Latin terms are fun. Translation: “northern mouse-eared bat”. Hi, welcome on in! So conservation status, these bats are federally Endangered. In fact, they're the only endangered species listed for South Dakota, specifically for a bat. They weigh about 4.9 to 6.4 grams, or two to three pennies. Wingspan: about 8.9 to 10.2 inches. Color: medium to dark brown, and on the top, more of a tawny brown. But on kind of, their underside, they're a little bit lighter. Prey is mostly leafhoppers, moths, beetles, and arachnids. So also spiders. They are over 37 U.S. states and eight Canadian provinces, so they are quite widespread. And for hibernation, they prefer mines and caves with almost no airflow and very high humidity. Because of that, there are very few places where these bats can successfully hibernate. You can mostly find them squeezed into little crevices and cracks, almost so that the only thing showing is their ears and their head. They're very squished in there.

During the warmer months, they can be found roosting on barns, sheds, underneath the bark of trees. They're fairly flexible when it comes to picking trees where they're going to roost, so that isn't a huge issue for this species. However, they exclusively hibernate in caves and mines. For that reason, whenever they have a mine that, you know, starts going active, either for production of ores or mining, something like that, or if you have people wandering into mines or caves where they aren't supposed to be, they can disturb the bats and in turn lead to a decrease in the population. So these bats are very susceptible to humans. Now I'm going to get into a few of the threats to bats. So the biggest threat we're currently dealing with in the United States is white-nose syndrome. It was first identified in the U.S. around the year 2006, and the fungus has since killed over 6 million bats nationwide. And it results in the decimation of certain bat populations that used to be fairly stable, such as the northern long-eared bat that we talked about, as well as the Indiana bat, which is a very specialized species.

And the fungus spreads along the bats’ skin, so it goes onto the wings as well as the face. It causes itching and destruction to the wing itself. Irritation will rouse them from hibernation, they'll start to scratch, and as they keep waking up, they're losing more and more of that precious fat that they've been trying to reserve for hibernation. And so as they lose more energy, they don't have enough to survive. And there is no food outside. It's still the dead of winter. The bat will eventually starve to death.

So there is a bat that is currently infected with white-nose syndrome. Unfortunately, once a bat is infected, it is almost surely going to die. There's not really a way to help them at that point. I did pull up some of the numbers for Jewel Cave National Monument specifically, just 'cause I think it's kind of interesting. So pre-1959, the way that they counted bats is a little bit different, but we had around 3,500 bats to 4,000 bats. And then from 1959 to 2016, approximately an average of 1,200 bats to 1,500 bats were hibernating here per year. I do have the numbers specifically for the years 2000 to 2002 because in the year 2000 in August, we had the Jasper Wildfire. It was a fire that burned about 90% of the land within our park site. And so, you know, looking at the numbers, the fire really didn't affect the bat counts. So we went from 1,143 bats, and then we bounced up to 1,168. So the fire was not a huge deal for them. 2018 were the first records of white-nose syndrome within Jewel Cave National Monument. We didn't have any bat counts from 2018 to 2022. Just, you know, due to a lot of things happening outside of the cave. And then from 2022 to 2023, we start to see a steep decline in our bat population. So we went from, you know, around 1,500 bats, maybe, per year. Now we're at 570. 2023 to 2024, a little bit over 600. And then this year's most recent bat count, we've only had 481. It can't be confirmed that white-nose is the direct cause of the steep decline. However, when you look at the numbers, it is definitely one of the playing factors. We've had a 58 to 68% decrease in Jewel Cave’s bat population since 2018. So is white-nose the cause for all of this? Probably not, but it is certainly one of the contributing factors. There's a little bat hanging onto the side of the graphic. Very cute. We also have a few other issues that can affect bats, such as invasive predators. So bats are food sources for animals like snakes, owls, and hawks. But invasive predators, like domestic and feral cats, such as this nice little ranger cat I have photo of to the right, they are known to kill and eat an inproportionate amount of bats, and so they can lead to the decimation of certain populations. No problem! Yeah! Have a good one! Let's see.

Another way that bats can be disturbed or harmed is if you disturb them while they are roosting or hibernating. So while bats are roosting, they tend to be caring for their pups, especially in the earlier part of the season. And if the mothers are frightened off, they will abandon the pups. And if the pups can't find a mother, they will starve to death. And then for hibernation, the bat will enter a period of lower metabolic rate in order to preserve their fat and water for the hibernation period. And if you disturb them, they might wake up and hence use up their fat reserves, and it can lead to starvation. There is no food available for them at that time of the year.

A few other effects. Of course, destruction of the environment is a big one. A number of bat species rely on access to old-growth forests, caves, and mines in order to hibernate and/or roost. And as more of their habitat is encroached upon, they lose more and more of those resources, so it can lead to the destruction of certain bat species.

And then consuming water and food sources with pesticides can lead to buildup of chemicals within the bats’ fat or organs, and it can lead to conditions like cell death or apoptosis, liver disease, and damage to their echolocation abilities. And then of course, fear and misunderstanding is a big one. So only 0.002% of all bats on Earth consume blood. However, you know, vampires are something that are very popular in social media, which stems all the way back to the 1720s with the vampire craze. And so a lot of bats are seen as bad omens, despite the fact that most bats eat insects, fruits, or, you know, just bugs hanging out. And then of course, although bats are the leading cause of rabies, I guess, exposure within the United States, only about 1% of bats in nature have rabies. That is, of course, not to say, you know, “oh, all bats are safe. Definitely touch them.” No, make sure you know, if you wake up and there's a bat in your room, or you come in contact with a bat and it either hits you, bites you, or scratches you, you need to go to the doctor immediately. Rabies is one of the deadliest diseases. But that being said, very few bats actually have rabies. So, you know, it's always something you need to be wary about, but at the same time, bats are not the primary issue for that. And then over here to the left, we have an image of the hairy-legged vampire bat. So it doesn't look too scary all things considered, but it is a consumer of blood. And then, good question: How can I help? So a good way to help, of course, would be to set up any deterrence for bats, either before their roosting season or hibernation season or after they leave. So you don't want to disturb them during the time while they're either hibernating or roosting, but before and after should be good. Of course, educating others on the importance of bats is always great to help reduce the stigma around their species. A lot of bats are very great for the world. However, people don't like bats in general, seems to be. You can plant a garden or native plant in order to attract insects, which help to provide more food sources for bats, help to kind of create a little chain reaction. You can build a bat box, which helps to provide bats with a safe place to roost. So they are deterred from using manmade structures such as outbuildings and garages. It helps keep the bats safe, as well as provides them a place to live. And finally, if you find a sick and/or injured bat, make sure to contact either your local wildlife rehabilitator or bat rescuer who can best help to either, you know, move and relocate the bat or provide it treatment if it is ill. If that's not an option, you can also call, you know, your specialized bat removal companies or your animal and pest control units. Again, never handle a bat if you find one. Just leave it be and call someone who can. Alright. If any of you guys are going to go onto the tour within Jewel Cave, you may just come in contact with bats, and hopefully using today's information, you now know how to safely interact with them and why they are important to keep within our Monument. But this image right here, we have a group of people on the Historic Lantern Tour as they're walking past, and there are a few bats just flying right above them. No one's getting injured or harmed. It's rather just coexistence, because the bats were here first, and now we're just trying to help them out if we can. I finally have a list of all of the bat species we talked about today But since it’s a long list, I'm just going to leave it as this. Awesome! Thank you so much for coming! Any questions? [So bats are really good at surviving diseases. To the point that we're using them to research treatments. Why are they so susceptible to white-nose syndrome?]

I think it has to do with the disease type. And so bats are really good at surviving parasites, certain infections, and then if their DNA gets damaged, it tends to be okay-ish in the long run. However, white-nose syndrome, it just causes such a severe loss of fat reserves during a period where the bat can't really help but depend on those. And so it creates, I guess, there's not really anything that that can do other than either just try to survive or eventually die. So the body can't just grow fat out of nowhere is a big issue. Any other questions?

Join Ranger Olivia and learn about the bats of Jewel Cave.

Tags: bats, jewel cave national monument, myotis, townsend big-eared bat

April 19, 2025

History of the National Park Service

Transcript

Transcript

00:00:05 Hello and welcome to Jewel Cave National Monument’s 125 years of discovery podcast Discovery Hour.00:00:12 Join us this episode as we listen to a presentation on the history of the National Park Service presented by Ranger Kierstan recorded on April 19th. 00:00:22 2025. 00:00:24 A transcript of this episode is available on our website www.nps.gov/jeca. Thank you for listening.

00:00:49 So my name is Kierstan, I'm going to be talking with you today about the history of the National Park Service and there is a lot of history with the National Park Service. 00:01:00 Like I said I'm going to try my hardest not to bore. 00:01:02 Anyone with this, but 00:01:06 Before we go into the history of the Park Service I want to start with what we are now what we are today and we can do that, we can sum it up really easy by looking at the National Park Service mission and I'm going to read 00:01:21 It 00:01:21 For you the National Park Service preserves unimpaired the natural and cultural resources. 00:01:27 And values of the National Park system for the enjoyment education and inspiration of this and future generations 00:01:33 The National Park Service cooperates with partners to extend the benefits of natural and cultural resources or resource conservation and outdoor recreation throughout the country and the world. 00:01:45 Now that's a lot. 00:01:46 Of. 00:01:46 Words I'll admit that so I underlined a couple of the ones that I felt were pretty important a big one is preserves unimpaired and that's what we do here at jewel cave and throughout the National Park Service is we want to protect the resources that we 00:01:59 Are 00:02:00 We're designated or proclaimed to protect. 00:02:03 And so we want to preserve it unimpaired make sure that the future generations so our junior Rangers their junior Rangers and on and on are all going to be. 00:02:14 Able. 00:02:14 To explore and experience. 00:02:17 These same places…Welcome! come on in yeah. 00:02:22 And then this last line that I underlined cooperates with partners. 00:02:29 We have that because recently within the last 20 years we actually updated our mission because a big part of what we do is we work with outside entities right here at jewel cave we work with the Black Hills parks and forests association a partner. Yeah come on in join us, join us. 00:02:49 Yeah and so cooperating with partners working with partners is a really big part of how we complete our mission so welcome to all of our newcomers we are talking about the history of the National Park Service but starting it. 00:03:02 At the. 00:03:03 Current day with the current mission of the National Park Service protecting. 00:03:08 The resources the natural and cultural resources of this place. 00:03:13 So now we talk a little bit about the current day let's go back to the beginning. 00:03:20 Back to this place called Yellowstone. Anybody heard of Yellowstone? Yeah, almost everyone's heard of Yellowstone before if not now you have and Yellowstone is a big beautiful grand place known for hot springs, thermal areas. 00:03:40 Beautiful scenic panoramic views. 00:03:42 But. 00:03:44 For a long time it was just there it was just a beautiful space that some people knew about the most people didn't until 1872 and that's when Congress passed the Yellowstone. 00:03:56Park protection act. 00:03:58 And that was actually in March of 1872 and it was passed to reserve and withdraw from settlement occupancy or sale under the laws of the United States and dedicated and set apart as a public park or pleasuring ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people. 00:04:15 So pretty much Yellowstone was really cool really beautiful, and we wanted to protect it to make it so that all of you could eventually go and see Yellowstone in the way they saw it in 1800s in. 00:04:26 The 1800s. 00:04:28 Yellowstone. 00:04:30 Is huge for a lot of reasons one of the big reasons though is it was the first National Park ever created in the United states. Not only that it was the first National Park created in the entire world as far as we know so that was pretty exciting. 00:04:45 Now if you’re from say Arkansas you might think no no no Hot Springs was protected first. 00:04:52 Yes Hot Springs National Park now as it's now known was protected before Yellowstone but as a national reservation it's all about the semantics all about the wording and then if you're from California you might think Yosemite. 00:05:07 Yes how do you signify yeah most people have again you might think they were parked first once again yes they were but they were a State Park they didn't become a National Park until 1890 so if you years after Yellowstone. So, Yellowstone was still the first National Park national that's the key there and once it became a National Park. 00:05:29 Woohoo now what. 00:05:32 So. 00:05:33 They hired some staff and by some I mean one. They hired a park Superintendent. One park Superintendent to manage the entire Yellowstone National Park which is huge. It spans over 3 different States and is a huge place and that first Superintendent 00:05:51 Did not get paid and had no funding and no laws to help support him so he did the best he could. 00:06:00 According to literature about the Superintendent he entered the park. 00:06:05 At least twice in a 5 year span. 00:06:09 Yeah could you imagine working somewhere and only going twice in 5 00:06:13 Years? 00:06:14 That might sound like a dream job for some folks but it does make it very difficult to protect a resource not actually there. So, it was a little bit of a challenge because initially the plan for this first National Park was going to be 00:06:30 At no expense to the government which is why there was no funding and no salary for our Superintendent. 00:06:35 After 5 years of realizing 00:06:37 That's not going to work 00:06:39 They, Congress eventually appropriated some funding for this new National Park Yellowstone National Park and the appropriations were authorized to protect preserve and approve the park yes one of the first things they did they hired someone else they hired another person called the first gamekeeper. 00:06:59 Essentially, they were the first park ranger and they also use that funding to build headquarters and build a primitive road system as well essentially starting to build some infrastructure so the Superintendent that gamekeeper can go into the park more than twice in 5 years. 00:07:15 Make it a little bit easier also remember our mission is to preserve unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations of us and future generations. 00:07:24 It's hard to enjoy it if you can't 00:07:25 Get to it so that's why we started to make it a little easier to get into. 00:07:31 But still now we had 2 staff. 00:07:34 A way to get into 00:07:35 The park but still Yellowstone was huge. 00:07:37 Oops. 00:07:38 And still no laws to help protect the cave or not The Cave were at the cave to protect the park and so eventually the secretary of the interior who was in charge of managing Yellowstone at least overall at the Washington DC level eventually realized. 00:07:56 This is not working very well. 00:07:58 So they went to the secretary of war and said. 00:08:01 Help. 00:08:02 Can you help us we don't have the ability we don't have the funds we don't have the manpower in order to protect 00:08:10 This place this beautiful place so. 00:08:13 Secretary of war said OK. 00:08:16 And company M which was a part of the United states Calvary at the time they arrived at the park in August of 1886. 00:08:26 So they took over. 00:08:27 And they started patrolling in the park so they could make sure there wasn't they vandalism or any or poaching or anything like that going on they would also guard major attractions like old faithful ooh wrong direction. 00:08:47 There we go old faithful right there. 00:08:51 Yellowstone started getting protected and the Calvary would then protect places like Old Faithful because. 00:08:59 If you know anything about Yellowstone you know it's probably not a good idea to go and touch the Super hot water and so the Calvary was there to help make sure that didn't happen. 00:09:10 And they also helped to start build some of the housing that is now in Yellowstone like this picture here is a picture of the there is one of the officer quarters it was built by the Calvary in the late 1800s. 00:09:25 Some protected Yellowstone but that's just one park now we have over 400 so how did the. 00:09:31 Rest get here? 00:09:33 Well, that came about because after that Yellowstone protection act, 00:09:39 Started to 00:09:41 Realize that there were a lot of national or a lot of natural beautiful places that needed to be protected and so as folks went to travel went to all these new places and were maybe traveling to Yellowstone they started to realize there's a lot of archaeological 00:09:56 And historic things out there that they could see so it started to generate more and more interest in the artifacts the antiquities as they were called in the rest of the country. 00:10:09 Now, as people were traveling and just like us when we walk through a forest you might damage something not on purpose but accidentally it could happen so there was a lot of concern about damaging any of those antiquities losing the information or the history that we 00:10:24 Might have there. 00:10:26 And so we're to eventually spread to Washington DC about this concern. 00:10:32 All the way to this man right here, President Theodore Roosevelt. 00:10:36 And eventually, president Roosevelt heard about the concern for protecting the antiquities the artifacts the history and the United states so he signed the antiquities act of 1906 and this act gave the president power to create. 00:10:53 A National Monument so places like Devils Tower. 00:10:57 And. 00:10:58 Jewel cave surprisingly enough we're able to be protected for the cultural and scientific significance of that resource now there is a little bit of a caveat with the antiquities act it does have to already be on federally owned land so here at jewel cave we were already part of the National Forest. 00:11:18 But no one really knew about The Cave yet. Once The Cave was discovered even though we were still part of the National Forest that's why we were able to become a National Monument. 00:11:28 And. 00:11:31 President Roosevelt not only did he sign the antiquities act. 00:11:34 Thanks to him during his time as president he helped establish over 230,000,000 acres of public land which was amazing. especially here at jewel cave we really like him protected us but that boils down to about 150 national forests 51 federal bird reserves. 00:11:54 4 national game preserves 5 national parks and 18 national monuments including us we were actually the 13th National Monument that he created. 00:12:06 He did a lot of really great work for. 00:12:08 Us. 00:12:09 So now we've got Yellowstone we've got all these national monuments bird reserves national forests all this public land getting protected yay. 00:12:19 But it was protected by the secretary of the interior the secretary of war and National Forest it was protected by a bunch of different agencies great. 00:12:31 But they all had their own way 00:12:32 Of doing things which works 00:12:33 Out until you realize that 00:12:36 They kind of needed to work together and 00:12:41 By August of 1916 there were 14 national parks 21 national monuments and 2 national reservations like that one in Hot Springs Arkansas. 00:12:52 And at Casa Grande ruins. 00:12:56 So by August of 1916 there was a lot of public land that doesn't even count the bird reserves the national forests anything like that so clearly there needed to be something to keep all of these guys together and keep it all organized and help have a more cohesive plan for how we're going to protect all these national parks and all these public. 00:13:14 Lands. 00:13:16 And so. 00:13:17 Folks early promoters like influential journalists even railroad companies who knew if we could promote tourism to these national parks the railroads could make money they also were promoting this plan to come up with a cohesive agency that can protect all these public lands. 00:13:34 And that's how we got to the National Park Service in 1916 the organic act. 00:13:40This is when we came into play the National Park Service and so the organic act said Be it enacted by the Senate and the House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled assembled that there is hereby created in the department of the interior service to be called the national.00:14:00 park service. 00:14:03 That's us. 00:14:04 Now we're here we're ready. 00:14:07 But one thing to. 00:14:09 We're going to have the National Park 00:14:10 Service. 00:14:11 Now we have to actually do it right and so. 00:14:16 This act established the National Park Service and then. 00:14:20 We had to go back to those early promoters one of which is Stephen T Mather he was an early promoter of the National Park Service a friend of the secretary of the interior and really said we need to protect these national parks we need to create this National Park Service so the secretary of the interior in 1917 said OK. 00:14:40 Go for it you do it and Stephen Mather became the first director of the National Park Service and he helped create the base of the fundamental mission philosophy and policies of the National Park Service moving forward. 00:14:57 Stephen Mather like I said created that base created that foundation and is now still some of his policies some of his ideas are still looked back to even now to guide our mission and our ideas for the. 00:15:10 National Park Service. 00:15:13 And now that we have the National Park Service we kind of had to figure out how do we want to manage this how do we want. 00:15:19 To continue moving. 00:15:20 Forward and one of the big ideas. 00:15:24 Is that the Park Service was directed to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects in the wildlife therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations. 00:15:39 So at the very beginning I showed you our current mission. 00:15:43 We even preserve unimpaired we've been doing that since 1916. 00:15:49 And for future generations again that's been our plan since 1916 and even earlier but definitely since 1916. 00:15:57 So our goal is to make sure as many people as possible can explore these beautiful public lands and whatever way they desire. 00:16:08 Every opportunity should be afforded the public wherever possible to enjoy the national parks in the manner that best satisfies the individual taste. 00:16:16 I love that wording the individual taste. 00:16:19 So for me I am not going to climb like Mount Baldy or anything I'm not going to. 00:16:25 Climb. 00:16:25 A mountain that's not how I enjoy the national parks you might you might want to go rock climbing you might want to go whitewater rafting you might want to just do a nice little canoe trip down the river you might want to do a little hike but that's the beauty of the national parks. 00:16:40 Is from the very beginning we've been wanting to make sure that anyone could find a way to recreate in these national parks in some form and enjoy their time here. 00:16:51 Not only that we also wanted to make sure 00:16:54 You could learn about these parks so even before the National Park Service began interpretive efforts like what I'm doing right now I'm an interpretive park Ranger so education was underway. 00:17:06 In minor areas and in different parks but once the National Park Service. 00:17:11 began really focusing on finding that enjoyment and experience the parks more and more interpretive program started to take place Natural History Museum started to get pop up in parks full scale programming like guided heights interpretive talks. 00:17:29 Guided boat trips like what we see in the picture here all of that started to take place more and more. 00:17:36 In 1920 the very first park naturalist 00:17:41 Was hired in Yellowstone. 00:17:45 So it was pretty exciting 00:17:46 That more and more education was 00:17:48 Become coming up. 00:17:51 Now as people start to learn more about the parks and started to go and experience their public lands a lot more. 00:17:59 More and more start to get created. 00:18:01 And then in 1933 the National Park Service had another big change. 00:18:08 It's called the reorganization of 1933. 00:18:12 So remember I said became national monuments that antiquities 00:18:15 Act. 00:18:16 So when that antiques act was first signed once the National Monument was created. 00:18:22 Whatever agency already owned the land, 00:18:25 Now got to manage a National Monument so I'm in national monuments were managed by the Forest Service and the department of war for the most part. 00:18:36 Department of war. 00:18:38 national monuments maybe aren't there Forte you're not usually going to be involved with national monuments or protecting public land so in 1933 president Franklin Roosevelt we really like the. 00:18:50 Roosevelts right here. 00:18:52 President Franklin Roosevelt transferred monuments and parks from the department of war and the National Forest. 00:18:58 To the National Park Service and that reorganization transferred. 00:19:03 Oh. 00:19:04 Apologies transferred not only all those national monuments that had already been created but all that were going to be created afterwards would get transferred to the. 00:19:14 National Park Service. 00:19:15 It greatly increased the size of the National Park Service and now we had a whole lot more to manage. 00:19:21 Which is great. 00:19:23 And not only that Washington DC have any of you ever heard of the National Mall in Washington DC or the Lincoln Memorial. 00:19:30 Yeah you've ever been there awesome it's run by the National Park Service but until 1933 it had its own separate agency that was managing it. 00:19:41 And then in 1933 it became 00:19:43 Part of the National Park Service. 00:19:47 Now, 00:19:49 We have all these parks all these monuments they're all part of the national 00:19:52 Park Service yay. 00:19:54 And then we started getting more and more visitors which is really exciting more and more folks started to come to the 00:19:58 National Park Service. 00:20:00 And to all the public lands that we were protecting. 00:20:02 Yeah. 00:20:04 In early 1950s visitation continued to rise. we started to get lot a lot more visitors to all of these different parks even here at jewel cave we started to get more and more visitors which is great. 00:20:17 But, 00:20:19 We still didn't really have 00:20:22 Everything figured out. 00:20:23 Everyone's always trying to learn more right we were still then too we started to notice that the part the conditions in the parks like the buildings the trails things were starting to decline because there wasn't a set 00:20:37 Infrastructure just yet. 00:20:39 So. 00:20:42 Park Service staff realized we need to fix this. 00:20:46 And for the 50th anniversary which is in 1966. 00:20:50 They decided to come up with 00:20:51 A plan a very 00:20:54 Ambitious plan I will say that for sure and they called it mission 66 yeah and it. 00:21:02 It's a 10 year plan so the goal was to start it in 1956 they had 10 years so by the 50th anniversary of the National Park Service, 00:21:11 We are going to be done and we are going to have a beautiful National Park Service. 00:21:15 And it was initiated 00:21:17 In 1956 like I said to upgrade the facilities staffing and even the management of the Cave or not just the Cave the entire National Park Service all throughout the 00:21:29 Country. 00:21:31 And it worked Congress ended up appropriating over a billion dollars over that 10 year span to upgrade our parks go us. 00:21:39 And. 00:21:41 We benefited from that here at jewel cave our visitor center started getting built right at the tail end of mission 66 but we did get some of that benefit now one of the things that they started building or doing and for the mission 66 was they started building 00:21:58 Visitor centers upgrading all the buildings bathrooms the trails increasing the staffing and the goal with some most of the buildings was to make it so that the infrastructure of the buildings the park housing anything built 00:22:14 Was going to blend in with the environment. 00:22:16 We weren't going to have a stainless steel 00:22:20 Skyscraper sitting on top of devilss … devils tower at jewel cave we were going to build something that would blend in with the environment and really make it so that you could experience the park that you were in as best as possible. 00:22:34 And it became the new style Park Service modern was the architectural style so if you go around national parks and you recognize some of these older buildings from the 1960s all start to 00:22:47 Look the same. 00:22:48 Yeah that's why. 00:22:50 We liked the Park Service modern plan. 00:22:53 And even here at jewel cave even though it 00:22:55 Was at the 00:22:56 Tail in a mission 66 our building still follows a lot of those same architectural features of trying to blend in with nature. 00:23:05 A fun fact about our building here is it's a very weird shape but that is because it was trying to mimic the shape of the calcite crystals that give jewel cave its name so 00:23:16 Fun fact for you guys. 00:23:19 So that's the first 50 years. 00:23:21 Of our National Park Service. 00:23:23 There was a lot going. 00:23:24 On but it continued on. 00:23:27 And don't worry I'm not going to make you all listen to me talk about every single one of these laws and policies I have on the screen behind 00:23:36 Me. 00:23:37 But there's a lot. 00:23:39 And over the years more and more laws and policies started to come out as we figured out what do we need to make the national 00:23:47 Park Service work 00:23:48 To protect our public lands as best we. 00:23:50 Can. 00:23:51 And. 00:23:52 How many of you have been to a National Park just to go and have some fun? 00:23:57 I'm hoping everyone's going to raise their hand if not I don't know why you're here but I'm glad you are alright up until 1970 recreation was not part of our plan. 00:24:11 We wanted to protect the area for you all to enjoy it but we weren't necessarily aiming for recreation but then in 1970. 00:24:19 It was kind of recognized yeah recreation is important it is vital for you to be able to experience with public lands and enjoy your time here and so we started to get national recreation areas primary purpose is to allow you to recreate in the resources that you have. 00:24:37 After that after many of these laws and policies started to come in started to adjust the National Park Service change our mission change our policies as we learned more 00:24:47 And more. 00:24:49 And then, 00:24:51 As the Park Service started to move into the 21st century. 00:24:54 And we started to realize OK, well 00:24:58 How we manage things in 1916 worked great for us then but now we need to learn a little bit more and so we started to look at our policies and how we manage the parks, 00:25:10 And figure out how we wanted to move forward and one of those things that we did is in 1992. 00:25:16 Experts from all over the country in and out of the National Park Service came together in a conference. 00:25:22 And essentially they sat down and said: 00:25:25 How do we move forward? 00:25:26 What do we want to do? 00:25:29 In all of those discussions they eventually came out with a report that we now call the Veil Agenda. 00:25:35 And that report 00:25:37 Boiled down to. 00:25:39 That's coupled key points but a big one is that we need to keep managing the park or the parks but we need to base it in science we can't just say 00:25:50 Those Big Horn sheep are really cool we want 00:25:52 To protect them. 00:25:54 We need to study those Big Horn sheep we need to learn 00:25:57 How many are how many do we need in order to have a healthy herd do we have too many do we not have enough and like you can see in the picture here we have bats especially here at jewel case these are pictures from jewel cave 00:26:10 We have bats here and yeah we love having the bats but we need to study them so we can make more informed decisions so we will trap our bats and take measurements study them identify them and our other picture we have one of our Rangers is doing vegetation management. 00:26:27 We love the plants here we have them all over the place 00:26:30 But some of the plants are not supposed to be here and the only reason we know that is by studying them and we are trying to play, ground any management decision in scientific research. 00:26:41 Not just saying that looks cool let's do that. 00:26:45 That is how I make my decisions sometimes. 00:26:50 And all of that to say we are continuing to move forward into the modern time and 00:26:57 We have continued to learn more and more. 00:27:00 So what started 00:27:00 As a very small Land Management agency of about 14 national parks that actually started with one really big National Park of now it's initially had 37 parks and monuments now we have over 400 park units and we administer everything from nationally important historic sites 00:27:20 And to all the way to premier natural resources as well and so we are also a leader in multiple fields of scientific and historic research. 00:27:30 Because we are here studying our parts studying everything that we experience so that you all can come out and continue to learn more and more. 00:27:40 And that kind of leads me back to. 00:27:43 Our mission. 00:27:45 The National Park Service preserves unimpaired so we are able to do that by that scientific research for this and future generations and that's why we are preserving it so that you your friends your family your descendants or your friends descendants. 00:28:02 Can eventually come here and learn more and more 00:28:06 About the parks and experience them in the 00:28:07 Same ways that you did. 00:28:09 So that's a very brief history of the National Park Service does anyone have any questions about anything 00:28:16 Or about the national parks in general not. 00:28:18 Just the history. 00:28:20 Yeah. 00:28:22 Yeah. 00:28:24 To be considered. 00:28:25 Like. 00:28:27 Guidelines that Mary has to have. 00:28:31 Yeah so that is a great question so in order to be considered for our National Park you need to have a resource that is significant in some way for example Yellowstone had those thermal geothermal features and just the beautiful grand scenic views. 00:28:50 And that is then created designated by Congress so it takes an act of Congress to create a National Park any National Park and so not only do you need that significant resource you also need backing usually by locals or local. 00:29:05 Political members. 00:29:07 And they will. 00:29:09 Be able to kind of back that. 00:29:10 For Congress for national monuments like us we have to have a. 00:29:15 Significant natural or scientific resource so here at jewel cave we had a cave that was pretty unique with the crystal and so we were able to be protected because of that for a lot of the national parks and monuments that are getting created now they are already public lands in some form. 00:29:33 A lot of them lot of the more recent national parks were already part of the National Park Service a lot of them were already national monuments and then just got changed into a National Park so at this point it has to be significant either. 00:29:47 Naturally or historically in some form and unfortunately. 00:29:52 I can't really give you a good explanation except for what other parts we have around here so that it's not the best answer but it's the best I can give you you guys for joining me if you have any questions I'm happy to answer them.

Join Ranger Kierstan and learn the history of the National Park Service.

Tags: nps history, history and national park service, jewel cave national monument

March 29, 2025

Life of Cave Explorer Jan Conn

Transcript

Transcript

00:00:04 Hello and welcome to Jewel Cave National Monuments 125 years of discovery podcast discovery hour join us this episode as we listen to a presentation on the life of cave explorer Jan Conn presented by Ranger Britney. 00:00:20 Recorded on March 29th 2025 a transcript of this episode is available on our website www.nps.gov/JECA thank you for listening.

00:00:49 I’m Ranger Britney and I’m the education member here. I handle outreach interpretation and things like that 00:00:56 So it's women 's History Month and it's also 125th year of discovery here at jewel cave so we're doing a little speaker presentations about every month and it’s women's History Month so we're talking about a very important woman and her history in the area we're going to be talking about Jan Conn. 00:01:14 So. 00:01:15 She is a pioneer in cave exploration and climbing. 00:01:22 This is a direct quote from Jan Conn “oh who am I well I'm Jan Cohn I've always been a misfit in the normal world but I've found a place for misfit.” 00:01:32 Right. 00:01:35 Jan Conn is from Maryland she grew up with two sisters. 00:01:38 Her mom her mom was a huge influence in her life and she told her well just to grow up as a free spirit as long as you're not hurting anybody I'm OK and essentially, I think she did you know. She’s a pioneer cave explorer here in our area she got us over 65 miles of mapped passage and she also set routes. 00:01:59 in the needles. 00:02:00 And she wasn’t only a caver or climber she was also a creative spirit she liked playing the flute she yodeled like playing the guitar and in her later years made little rubber stamps. 00:02:18 Along the Potomac River so this is a quote from Jan Conn “when you're learning to climb it's handy to have a river below you” she began climbing.00:02:26 Along the Potomac River in Maryland near Washington DC and next to her in. 00:02:31 This photo this. 00:02:32 Is Herb Conn and when you talk about Jan Conn 00:02:36 You're really not going to be able to not talk about Herb Conn 2 and this is her partner in life they did everything together and they say that they fell in love with climbing and then they sell in love with each other and when asked well how did you get into climbing she said that they climbed out of the crib and then just never stopped it just kept going. 00:02:56 And that she climbed her entire life but she really didn't learn how. 00:03:00 To use ropes and safety material until she was along the Potomac River and in that area she joined the Potomac Appalachian Trail club and that's where she learned to tie ropes knots and pitons and various things like that. 00:03:14 And along this river she climbed on Carder Rock and she wasn't just learning to climb in the area she was also pioneered there too she set routes like Jan 's face and Ronnie’s leap which is named after their dog. 00:03:33 And this is the early years so. 00:03:36 Yeah they were pioneers in caving and climbing but also in something else known as. 00:03:41 Dirtbag living and you hear that and you kind of like Oh no— that's like a badge of honor in. 00:03:46 The climbing community they. 00:03:47 Gave up everything all the little comforts and luxuries in life so they had more time to climb. 00:03:52 So right here “it's a simple matter of mathematics 2 people working 6 months a year are just as good as one person working 12 months to support 2 people” so they would quit their jobs and it was odd jobs whatever they could find they worked at dude ranches ski resorts one winter they sold fish and chips right so just about anything. 00:04:12 But then during the summers they load up in their truck through the panel truck. 00:04:17 And they lived in it for quite a while and they said this is basically the first RV and this is what they traveled the nation in. Their climbing carried along the Potomac River but first in West Texas up to California over through to South Dakota and needles. 00:04:40 Set the Conn route and mapping the unknown so they climbed over 200 needles that they left registers on we didn't begin to get to the outlying areas I think they were probably still masses of rock out there that nobody 's ever laid a hand on. 00:04:54 She came out here in. 00:04:57 1947 and happened upon Custer State Park and she just started climbing right they said they lived like 2 cats in an unattended fish market right one of the issues that they have with climbing and moving around too much was that it was getting a bit popular it was picking up and they didn't like waiting in line but here. 00:05:15 I mean she said it herself there's still rock out there that nobody even touched and so here they set routes and those are now. 00:05:22 popular nationwide like the Conn Diagonal and back then they were free climbing so right nowadays when you think of climbing you're thinking of all these like special. 00:05:33 Specialized gear you know special climbing shoes harnesses but what they would do is they would use hemp rope about 120 feet of it and they would tie a little boat knot around. 00:05:44 And the shoes that they used were ked shoes about two size too small so depending on who you ask. 00:05:52 She may have invented this first set of climbing shoes but a bit controversial but. 00:05:59 Yeah and here she even talks about climbing and you can see the style that they were climbing. 00:06:05 Yeah you're at the top. 00:06:08 And she acknowledged it right she used 10 foot because it was cheap and it was accessible but she did say you know if you fall from the high drop there's a good likelihood that it's going to snap especially if it gets older so just setting those routes in the method that she was doing back then was amazing even now it's still amazing. 00:06:28 Right. 00:06:32 And she was the first. 00:06:34 Woman to climb Devils Tower without the stake ladder. 00:06:37 Yeah so this is a direct quote “I was feeling particularly smug because I was the first woman to climb the tower without the aid of the old ladder which had long been out of use.” 00:06:48 And this was in 1947. 00:06:51 So when Herb and Jan first went to Devils Tower they tried climbing it but they were unable to because they needed a special permit that they didn't even know. 00:07:00 they needed to have So what happened was that Herb wrote a staff member at Rocky Mountain National Park because there's nobody at double tower that could write that permit for them. 00:07:09 And get their gear checked so he just said Jan and I want to climb Devils Tower we have 120 feet of hemp rope some pitons and carabiners and the man. 00:07:18 Read it he said OK. 00:07:19 That's good and he signed off on it not even realizing that Jan was a woman until much later and she climbed all the way up with herb and the story goes that you know.00:07:29 Jan comes back down she's feeling particularly smug and Jan is down on the ground again and she sees a brawny Minnesota man and he looks at. 00:07:40 Looked at her. 00:07:42 So how does this work did he climb up a little bit and just pull you up and she got really really upset with that and as you said OK I'm going to do it again and I'm going to do it with somebody who couldn't possibly haul me up. 00:07:55 So. 00:07:57 in 1952 and she does the first all female ascent of Devil's Tower with Jane Showacre “I took a solemn vow that day that I would climb devil's tower with someone who couldn’t have possibly haul me up someone who couldn't get all the credit. 00:08:11 For my straining muscles.” 00:08:13 And that was Jane Showacre right here. 00:08:17 Jane Showacre was a little girl about 109 and Jan Conn was barely 100 pounds and she also learned to climb along the Potomac River and that’s how she knew of her and she knew OK it was a hard climb that we're doing and this is somebody I can trust the only complaint. 00:08:30 That she had. 00:08:31 Is that she's likes taking a lot of photos. 00:08:33 Jane Shoemaker would just be like. 00:08:34 OK if you just step out to the side a little bit. 00:08:36 And make for a better photo but I mean right but yeah they went up the same method that— they brough the piton and the carabiners. 00:08:45 And Jan led the first lead of Devils Tower and whenever they get back down to the ground. 00:08:51 Well Jan saw she described as another brawny Minnesota man, I hope none of you are from Minnesota, but she found another brawny Minnesota man and she said that it could have been the same man she didn't know but he looked at her and he looked at Jane and said. 00:09:12 If those two can do it, it can't 00:09:13 Be that hard. 00:09:15 Right and so just right just a bit of diminishing her accomplishments that even then Jan said well I mean it proves all the more you then you're doing stuff not for other people but you're doing it because you want to do it and that's what you want to do. 00:09:32 Right that she has a deep rich history in climbing right she set routes in the area honestly all over the nation and she set history with Devils Tower and then she went to caving “so I remember it was a real shock when we had a choice of going up to climb the spires or going down into jewel. 00:09:50 That we wanted to go down rather than up that really shocked us but we accepted that and had a ball.” 00:09:57 So it. 00:09:58 Because. 00:09:59 in 1959 Herb and Jan had been living in the area for about 8 years and it was the summer and she was out climbing with Herb and a friend of theirs known as Dwight deal and. 00:10:10 He was a local. 00:10:11 a Geologist in the area and he told them. 00:10:14 My actual passion is caving. He was a part of the national speleological society and he had a special use permit for Jewel Cave. 00:10:21 And so that permit allowed him to come in here and to the cave system to explore and to map it out and so in September of 1959 Jan, Herb and Dwight Deal. 00:10:32 Went into Jewel Cave and started mapping it out and Dwight taught them how to survey the Cave system so back then we were about 2 miles. We were a really small cave. 00:10:43 And to do so what they would do is that they send one person ahead and whenever they lost sight of. 00:10:49 The Headlight they would stop and so that could be anywhere from 2 feet to 200 feet depending on how bendy and what the cave looked like and then they would use steel tape to measure that and then they would draw that map out by hand. 00:11:02 On the surface they would update it. so she came down here and she just fell in love with it right it was a mild diversion into a. 00:11:11 Lifelong exploration right she dived all the way in and right here. 00:11:18 You can see an example of the map so this is the extent of Jewel Cave in June 1962 so back then the cave entrance right over here and they would take off keep caving through milk river to go past milk river you need a special use permit and currently we're 00:11:35 Current. 00:11:39 We're not right here. 00:11:42 And the right. 00:11:43 You can see the route that she established and getting us over to the target room. 00:11:53 Right there was a sign at the entrance that said it was a small cave which they thought it was at that time that they just didn't look under the right rock to find where it went. 00:12:02 OK then in 1959 we were a small cave we thought we had about 2 miles of passage and all those cave tours were running from the historic entrance which is about a mile west of us. 00:12:13 And at that point in time too word was going around that maybe Jewel Cave wasn't up to National Park standards right we were just too small but Jan Conn mapped over 65 miles of passage and the route that I'm assuming most of you will do today the scenic tour the discovery tour she knocked that out too heard some of us talking about the wild caving tour she also mapped that out. 00:12:34 And so at this point in time she broke. 00:12:36 Past milk river. 00:12:38 She found plenty of leads and she really established us as not just a small cave right small cave no more we are very large cave now we're at 220 miles 0. 00:12:50 She got us over 65 miles of passage and she left her legacy here gave us a good foothold to stand on and our cave length is only building we're learning so much more and she made this a place of discovery for years to come. 00:13:08 And she was also a woman of many talents like I talked about earlier so “when I knew more than someone else I gave a lesson when they knew more I took the lesson.” 00:13:18 So I told you she likes playing with the guitar and when she was a little girl she couldn't afford a flute so she played on a broken broom handle. 00:13:28 And it wasn't until high school and she was finally able to access the flute she was able to pick it up fairly quickly and she also liked yodeling so I'm going to play two songs for us of hers the original songs and I haven't been able to find them anywhere online so it's pretty special that we get to hear them today. 00:13:48 Alright the first one that I'm going to play for us is poor old turtle. 00:14:04 A turtle lives within his shell 00:14:10 He thinks he has it made. 00:14:40 through winter storms and summer sun 00:14:47 He’s always in the shade 00:14:50 No one can touch him where he lives 00:15:05 or hurt a tender spot 00:15:08 He never takes and he never gives seclusion is his lot 00:15:36 Poor old turtle. Can’t find what it’s about poor old turtle Keeping everyone out 00:15:39 poor old turtle can’t find how to begin 00:15:45 poor old turtle holding everything in. A turtle never knows the feeling of a friendly hand. He never know the touch of a tender hand 00:15:50 He never learned to trust in others. 00:15:51 sharing what they do if you extend a helping hand he’ll snap it right in two. 00:15:55 Poor old turtle can’t find what it’s about poor old turtle keeping everyone out. Poor old turtle can’t find how to begin. Poor old turtle holding everything in. 00:15:59 Special kind of joy everything don't be at. 00:16:11 Don’t ever hide yourself away beneath the turtle shell. So open up your heart to others. 00:16:23 Let them trust in you. You'll find a special kind of joy in everything you do. 00:16:30 This is other Jan Conn song called Sad Story. With a yodel with a yodel I used to have a sister who would yodel with me 00:16:36 We used to sing together with the a yodel. 00:16:42 Everywhere we went we sing and yodel if we could and folks would clap and then they'd ask for. 00:16:49 more. 00:16:51 Our yodel used to carry throughout the neighborhood. 00:16:54 And folks would come a screaming through the door oh yes they would. 00:16:56 To hear our yodeling. 00:17:00 to hear our yodeling. 00:17:04 We practice very hard to sing are yodeling. 00:17:19 Each day we made the echos ring with yodeling. 00:17:25 We though if we sang some passion we could get to Tennessee. That we would be a national sensation. I folks would only lets us sing in Grand Ole Opry. 00:17:28 We’d soon be famous across the national oh yes siree because of yodeling beacuse of yodeling 00:17:42 But then it happened. 00:17:44 It didn’t happen to me. 00:17:45 I still went yodeling 00:17:49 I still went yodeling 00:17:55 but my sister my poor sister 00:18:14 She went yodeling she went yodeling 00:18:17. What happened was she went up. 00:18:18 but she couldn’t get back down. So sad 00:18:22 A promising career nipped in the bud I suppose I could have gone to Nashville without her but when you're used to going yodeling with somebody it isn’t any fun to go yodeling alone. 00:18:38 But I will say this for my sister even though she couldn't get her voice back down she didn't let it get her down. 00:18:45 As a matter of fact if you ever get to New York City and go. 00:18:48 To the Metropolitan Opera. 00:18:50 Still hear her singing in the chorus she goes go. 00:19:20 Right so Jan Conn as you can see was incredibly talented right multifaceted uh not only caving, climbing but she was a wonderful musician too and. 00:19:33 In her later life well she lives here in Custer and “I like to go slowly on my walk because the slower you walk the more details you see” and so once you're no longer able to cave or climb she’d just go and walk— soak everything in and at this point in time well she had a little cat named Vixon. 00:19:53 There's a girl cat and she said that she didn't adopt Vixon. Vixon adopted her Vixon just showed up and that was her cat and she was her friend they’d go on little nature walks and when it was raining outside they'd stay in draw and make little rubber stamps. 00:20:10 Now. 00:20:12 As for the cave food cave bread is pretty popular around here. “People often ask us what we eat in the cave. Our lunches consist almost entirely of a loaf we bake ourselves, a combination of Logan bread ( a mountaineer’s staple) and applesauce cake. We recommend it cave. Bread 00:20:32 For any sort of outdoor lunch or indoors too for that matter. It is a concentrated food with a minimum bulk and is palatable even when water is scarce.” 00:20:43 And it's a mixture of Logan bed and applesauce bread I do have some of us have some for us to try if we. 00:20:51 Would be interested in that? 00:20:53 And now the last slide you could pass out. 00:20:58 Any questions that we may have? 00:21:09 OK. 00:21:12 00:21:17 Yeah so she had been caving before but she said that she was a jewel cave caver and not just a caver she did cave inj another cave but nothing. 00:21:33 How long do both she and her live? 00:21:37 She passed in 2023 so she yeah she lived a very long life. 00:21:43 So she was. 00:21:49 Oh so she finished high school and then in college she studied music but right she followed up that dirt bag lifestyle and so. 00:22:00 She gave everything into climbing and that's where she gained all her experience and then Dwight just knew OK she's a very strong climber and oftentimes that translates into The Cave too she just dedicated all of her time. 00:22:19 This isn't a question but just another addition to her multifaceted talent up until shortly before she passed away she and. 00:22:29 Group of women got together regularly and they had a wood shop and they made things beautiful things not just long crafted beautiful wooden furniture. 00:22:30 Sure. 00:22:43 She had beautiful beautiful works of wood and leather work that she's made so again I don't know where her talent and yeah yeah and incredible. 00:22:55 So whenever she settled in Custer she still needed some source of income and she knew that getting a full time job wasn't the way to go right and she didn't want to live on the grid either and so they did some other work some of like the first like climbing harnesses you'll see they're made out of leather and she like etched them out herself. 00:23:15 She had mail order subscriptions that were just filling out to people. 00:23:24 Yeah. 00:23:25 And then we can try the case bread so let me do a run through the ingredients just in case anybody has any allergies or dietary restrictions so we have some whole wheat flour. That contains the original recipe calls for powdered milk I didn't have that I had oat milk 00:23:46 There’s molasses, vegetable shortening. 00:23:51 Nutmeg, clove. 00:23:53 Honey, applesauce. 00:23:57 Sugar the sugar oh. 00:23:59 Question. 00:24:03 OK 12 ounces of sugar. 00:24:07 Uh that's a lot of sugar. 00:24:11 Let's see what else went in there. 00:24:13 Yeah and then on it too she says if you want to make a bit more palatable you can sprinkle it with a bit of cinnamon and sugar I think that's. 00:24:22 A little too. 00:24:23 Too much on there so they probably wouldn't have brought this loaf in there it would just crumble around. 00:24:28 That is the closest we're going to get now. 00:24:31 And we’re welcome to try it. 00:24:35 You mentioned she. 00:24:36 Lived off the grid doing. 00:24:39 You know more about their living. 00:24:41 Yeah yes is she and Herb sunk their savings and bought some land just. 00:24:42 east of Custer. 00:24:51 And about a 4 mile walk through the woods to the spires. 00:24:56 so there was already a little outcrop in the area and they just built a little area and originally the plan was that that was going to be just a tool shed because they had already grown accustomed to living in the truck but they looked at the tool shed and said we'll just live here so they put a little platform down and they built the bed. 00:25:16 And they lived in the concave and they lived fully off grid they would go down the river to collect water. 00:25:23 They didn't have. 00:25:24 Electricity or heat in a you know typical way that you think nowadays they just get logs and put it in their wood stove and burn it. 00:25:33 What? 00:25:35 She learned to climb along the Potomac River but what river was she collecting a Creek I apologize OK. 00:25:38 Oh. 00:25:44 I'm not too. 00:25:45 Sure the name of the Creek off my head. 00:25:47 Did she live out there her whole life? 00:25:49 Not her whole life she moved out there let's see 1951 and then she lived out there from yeah yeah property she didn't pass in that property she passed in. 00:25:56 Well I mean until she passed. 00:26:02 A friend 's home. 00:26:02 OK but she did. 00:26:05 She was like 99. 00:26:11 I was able to see one was her to see a photo that was in the archive that the stamp that we have here of the dual plate stamp with all the little nail head spar on there that is a replica of the one that she carved out for us. 00:26:31 What about books? 00:26:34 About— she has a few books she has The Jewel Cave Adventure she wrote that with Herb I believe it may be in the visitor center and then she also has various climbing guides just around. 00:26:46 And she also worked for a magazine for a bit for the Potomac Appalachian Trail club they had an magazine running through called the Mile High I believe and stuff in there too so just little articles. 00:27:04 That's OK. 00:27:10 I can happen around actually. 00:27:17 Do you have a favorite fact that you learned about? 00:27:21 Sure. 00:27:26 Like. 00:27:29 Like. 00:27:29 Thank you. 00:27:35 Yeah

Join Ranger Britney and learn about the life of Jan Conn.

Tags: women's history, cave exploration, jewel cave national monument

February 7, 2025

Becoming a National Monument

Transcript

Transcript

Discovery Hour Transcript- Aimee Murillo 02/07/2025 Musical Intro 00:00:04 Hello and welcome to Jewel Cave National Monument’s 125 years of discovery podcast discovery hour. 00:00:12 Join us this episode as we listen to a presentation on Jewel Cave becoming a National Monument presented by Ranger Aimee recorded on February 7th, 2025. 00:00:23 A transcript of this episode is available on our website www.nps.gov/jeca. Thank you for listening.

00:00:49 Yeah I'm Ranger Aimee I've been here at jewel cave for about 3 and a half years I've been a park Ranger for the National Park Service and get to wear this awesome green and green uniform for about 15 years got my start back in Missouri when I was in college 2010 had a little civil war battlefield and seasonal Ranger for. 00:01:05 A couple of years. 00:01:07 Carlsbad caverns National Park in New Mexico. 00:01:09 Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park in Colorado and then I moved out to California was there for. 00:01:15 About 8 and a half years 3 and a half years at Muir Woods National Monument north of San Francisco and then 5 years at Lava Beds National Monument. Part— way up we actually lived in Oregon when yeah yeah and there are other maybe other lava tubes in Idaho but. 00:01:24 Idaho yeah in Idaho. 00:01:31 close yeah Klamath Falls so about 2 and a half hours south of there yeah so I really enjoyed that but I love being here at jewel cave for some reason I was at Lava Beds I was like I really want to I want to work there it just seems like kind of an underdog story in a way that we'll be talking about today kind of from when the Cave got made basically about 1933 and I'm presenting today with. 00:01:51 Introduce yourself. 00:01:53 So my name is Jacob Dalland I'm an ace member so ACE stands for American Conservation Experience a partnership with the National Park Service so that's how I'm here I've only been here since November 12th but I have a background in both geology. 00:02:13 And history both of those fields are quite relevant to jewel cave more so the geology in general but history especially in terms of this presentation. 00:02:25 And yeah I think that's about it. 00:02:29 Well thanks Jacob yeah you’re welcome to stand or sit down if you want cause all kind of take over the beginning of the presentation then Jacob will take it away here in a bit. 00:02:36 But first of course going to do a little plug you all are here for our discovery hours greatly appreciate and we are doing these for to celebrate the 125 years that like jewel cave has been known today we're celebrating when jewel cave officially became a monument February 7th of 1908. 00:02:52 but we 00:02:54 believe that people first like found the Cave actually went into. 00:02:56 It I should say. 00:02:57 September of 1900 so we're celebrating this as like our 125 years of people going in the Cave exploring it knowing about it and such so we're hoping to do these talks monthly we began them in December and who did our first talk Sydney. 00:03:12 That was her yeah. 00:03:14 Sydney is loaded I didn't even come but I knew it was loaded cause I just saw the little preview but she did to talk about geology of like the entire 00:03:20 Black Hills then we kind of worked our way down to geology just of jewel cave and then again today we're kind of talking about how jewel cave became a monument how we got protected after The Cave was officially found and such but I just wanted to do a plug for that like I said we'll be hopefully doing them. 00:03:35 Monthly in the summer we might even have two a month so just follow us on our shows through media that's where we have on our website also that social media we we're just sharing a more often our Facebook and our Instagram and what we do in other really exciting. 00:03:46 Things for our. 00:03:47 125 years as well so just stay tuned monthly we're hoping to discover something new ourselves and also for our visiting public so that's kind of our theme. 00:03:56 Over something new here jewel cave every month prior wrapping up the discover. 00:04:00 in September because that's again when the discovery anniversary was so thank you all for coming to our 3rd discovery hour. 00:04:07 Little plug and so I did want a really quick because this is your first time to jewel cave and then you all have been here and when was last time you were on a tour. 00:04:11 Yeah. 00:04:15 I did the tour last March. 00:04:18 Oh that's right that's right so last March. 00:04:18 Yeah but he has been here. 00:04:20 I was first year for first year 40 years and I've been here several other times. 00:04:23 Oh that's awesome. 00:04:26 So your geology might be like a little rusty. 00:04:28 Yeah yeah a little bit little bit. 00:04:29 You might got it. 00:04:30 So I can't go into as much detail as. 00:04:32 Sydney but like I said. 00:04:33 A real quick OK. 00:04:35 You will probably— so this will sound familiar though. 00:04:38 Oh that’s funny. 00:04:40 I'm more of a history background I don't have geology and history like Jacob but having worked in geology parks I appreciate it especially if I think of it as like more of a history so here our geologic history is from like 300 million years to about 15 million kind of in that range and as yeah you all might know you maybe not just yet but. 00:04:57 Ultimately long time ago much of North America is covered in these inland seas within that are a lot of sea creatures have really nice calcium rich bodies they would die compact at the bottom of that shallow sea ultimately they made our limestone and any case so that limestone is just kind of hanging out at the bottom of that shallow sea all those compacted sea creatures all those brachiopods until there was a big uplift about somewhere around 60 million 00:05:20 years ago so that big uplift made older rocks beneath the limestone go up to the surface have you all hiked Black Elk peak before? And you probably haven’t done it yet. 00:05:28 It’s awesome not right now maybe a little icy but those are some of the oldest rocks in the Black Hills they all got pushed up to the top Black Elk peak is the highest point east of the Rocky Mountains wonderful views yeah kind of yeah exactly yeah kind of like up and here and Mount Rushmore as well would also be some of. 00:05:45 the older rocks. 00:05:45 It's. 00:05:46 So we're kind of in this layer because what happens.00:05:49 those older rocks kinda push them in the middle and then limestone layer was kind of on the outer edge, water from that sea started to come down. 00:05:56 It combined with a little bit of carbon dioxide in the soil to make a real diluted form of carbonic acid and that's kind of worked away and made the passages that we have in the Cave the nice big target room you all get to see in the concert today eventually the water drained out there was a breakdown period. Did you all like all those nice. 00:06:11 Rocks on the ground around you? 00:06:13 Yeah it's going to happen during the concert—no! Fortunately that was a really really long time ago and that's probably somewhere around. 00:06:21 15 million year mark and after that we do have some areas of the Cave you have been here and have you been to other caves besides.00:06:27 Jewel Cave? ohhh my. 00:06:28 My first one. 00:06:29 Gosh great first cave to see well. 00:06:31 Yes. 00:06:31 Other caves are more wet they might have more like stalactites and stalagmites. 00:06:36 We have some. 00:06:37 But where water is dripped down and mineral deposits it made those little spiky. 00:06:40 things grow. You didn't really see them in the target room that area the. 00:06:43 Of the cave. 00:06:43 Is pretty pretty dry but in any case most of the Cave is pretty dry and after? 00:06:47 That breakdown period was. 00:06:48 Probably. 00:06:49 Pretty quiet it's about 1900 and that's where we get to mainly what we're going to talk. 00:06:54 About today. But does Wind Cave? 00:06:57 They also have some but they're also pretty dry and it is really funny that we're both two— there's a lot of caves in the Black Hills dozens of them I think it's around 200 actually and they're all a little different I feel like some of the smaller caves have been able to find some of their like more wet rooms Rushmore cave I think has more of like the flowstone looking features. I think there's also a crystal cave. 00:07:17 Out near Hermosa but us and Wind Cave are both pretty dry so they have some but not too many and I think it's estimated like 5 percentage of Jewel Cave is wet. 00:07:25 You know you know. 00:07:27 So jewel cave and again it was just kind of quiet for a very long time Native Americans have lived in the area for you know thousands of years they might have known about the opening but it was really small almost the size— anyone finished with their plates? you can hold them up it's about the size of that yeah and so maybe. 00:07:44 a very small. 00:07:45 Child would be able to fit. 00:07:47 That but there isn't any evidence to show that so the first folks who officially get like credited with finding the opening popping in it and see if they pop up first I don't know how to do my animations. Frank and Albert Michaud they both have pretty good mustaches but I'm pretty sure judging by another picture that this is Frank 00:08:06 and this is Albert I'm pretty sure but yeah it was it's hard to tell them apart but they were riding we believe on September 18th of 1900 riding horses in hell Canyon with a friend of theirs named Charles. 00:08:16 Bush and they hear a whistling noise have a typical like we found a cave story other caves I've worked at they're like hunting and an animal like runs into but often Wind Cave was also a noise that attracted people to the Cave so they come upon that little dinner plate sized hole realize they can't fit in it but they're pretty curious about it because like a lot of people at the time. 00:08:37 They had came to the area for mining so very excited they're like maybe this is it this is we're going to find our riches and if you want to make a rock hole bigger what are you going to get. 00:08:47 Dynamite. so they I guess it's 1900 I guess they just had that handy you know they come back go to their junk drawer they get their dynamite they blast that hole open they're pretty excited about what they see and then I have a few pictures. 00:09:00 Of the opening but I should say this is a Ranger his last name is and he's Lyle Lynch he came upon and started working the park in the 1930s so the opening they didn't blast it quite this big but. 00:09:10 Just to show you what it looks a little bit. 00:09:13 But any case no matter how big the opening. 00:09:15 Because it didn't matter there wasn't anything super valuable in there even though it was sparkly it was pretty the calcite crystals that you all maybe got to see in the target room does indeed sparkle like jewels but like you and Sydney were chatting about no actual diamonds have been found but they were hopeful that maybe they could find.00:09:33 Like. 00:09:34 Gold. 00:09:35 Silver manganese and iron so that's what I can probably go to my next slide I guess. 00:09:41 A month later was Halloween which I guess I don't know if they celebrate Halloween at this point but it was like October 31, 1901 that's whenever they first stake their mining claim and that's kind of what they claimed that they were hopefully going to find. 00:09:54 They again they could pretty quickly realize it was really soft and so they're like well maybe we should also think about developing this for tourism like wind cave and have you all been to. 00:10:03 Wind Cave before? 00:10:03 Probably yes and that's your second cave. 00:10:06 Yeah and they just got their elevators renovated they just reopened for cave tours within like. 00:10:12 A week so it's definitely cool park they're more known for. 00:10:14 A feature called box. 00:10:15 Work they have some calcite crystals like we do but box work is really cool like webbed looking features in the rock but any case it was Wind Cave has been known about also for a long time probably even longer it's it's a sacred site for the Lakota culture they didn't go in it but they knew of the opening. 00:10:31 1880s is kind of when like euro Americans started to find the opening pop in it and a really fortunate thing for wind cave National Park it wasn't wind cave National Park I should say but wind cave. 00:10:43 Was that it was near to a train so they could pretty easily and alright I don't know what railroad line but apparently from Hot Springs there was a train went by wind cave so they're able to do pretty well with tourism and so maybe they just wanted people to go in the Cave the Michauds and Charles Bush and wear hats like that I don't know but this is and I would say this is apparently in a room? 00:11:04 Called the odd fellows room. 00:11:06 Because it kind of looks like the rings of the odd fellow society I was like and then in this picture is like a former governor as well as William Jennings Bryan who was a presidential candidate so you got some pretty well to do visitors had a really good community support made money and it was a McDonald family who initially started guiding people and the Michauds were like and Charles Bush that sounds great. 00:11:26 Let's do that so they started making developments and within about. 00:11:30 A year they had widened paths they had stairs in the cave they had a mile and a half trail that they built from whatever mediocre road was from Custer to Newcastle it wasn't great they did have a like a little path right up to The Cave entrance and they also built a cabin they also tried to make some like fun. 00:11:50 Things happen so they created the jewel cave dance club and that's one reason we've really sought to bring kind of some music to The Cave with the concert that we had today but doesn't anyone dance there wasn't really dancing music. 00:12:00 That's OK come back in September we're hoping out in our historic area where our initial Ranger station is to have a concert in September to kind of accumulate the year of discovery that might be more dancing like we'll see but in any case they did these different things and it's hard to take pictures in a cave as you all probably discovered today especially when you can't use flash so. 00:12:20 Ultimately the only pictures really have those developments that I have like from roughly around the time. 00:12:26 Are of the cabin that they built. 00:12:28 But unlike Wind Cave. 00:12:30 Unfortunately they didn't have a railroad that went right by the cave so their tourism venture wasn't working out very good just from custard to jewel cave it took about a half day ride on a horse and I sometimes it's like a full tour of 30 people I’ll ask like who would like to spend you know a half day on horse to get here? We did have the rodeo. 00:12:48 Queens here this morning they might have been like yeah but most people. 00:12:52 They're not. 00:12:52 Gonna wanna do a half day horseback ride to get here so the tourism adventure wasn't great Charles Bush after a few years they had a mining claim they all 3 pooled in on by about 1905 Charles Bush was. 00:13:02 Like I'm out. 00:13:04 And they somehow found a woman named Bertha King Richard from Saint Louis Missouri but she invested in it she never made any of the infrastructures that they did but she apparently had the money and so she became kind. 00:13:14 Of their 3rd. 00:13:15 Person so they just kind of continued making developments but they just weren't super fruitful but that was their whole plan make a mining claim then do enough developments to maintain that mining. 00:13:24 Claim maybe eventually 00:13:25 Will make some money on that tourism but yeah just wasn't? 00:13:28 Wasn't really panning out but finally 1906 the town of Custer starts to care just a little bit about The Cave because they are starting to think well maybe it would be nice to have a cave like wind cave near us and to promote it and get people to come and the visitors that did trickle from Custer to here it is pretty. 00:13:48 It's a really neat looking cave so they started getting a little bit of community support just enough to kind of get some word out and for somebody to come and kind of think about it and ultimately to jewel cave was surrounded by. 00:14:01 National Forest it. 00:14:02 Was formally called the Harney National Forest today the Black Hills National Forest. 00:14:06 And so they're like we could be a game preserve within that National Forest the initial plan was pretty big it was like jewel cave is going to be jewel cave game preserve will be 38,000 acres and it will have some springs for grazing won't allow any additional mining claims but you can do some settlements on there. 00:14:26 And the the town of Custer was like well it's kind of what we wanted but we still want to be able to graze and we don't like the idea that we can't do any new mining claims so what it boiled down to was instead let's just make 1200 acres a National Monument. 00:14:39 Through something the president could do through the antiquities act so that's what ended up happening today 1:00 117 years ago and so we have the initial proclamation from Theodore Roosevelt was the president at the time and then a little telegram that got sent it's really funny. 00:14:53 To read through. 00:14:54 Our history and you know it wasn’t like an incident like you know just on Facebook like I was having it took a while. 00:15:00 For word to get around but in any case the antiquities act is pretty interesting that allows the president to declare small places national monuments it doesn't have to go through congressional approval or anything so I'll toss it to Jacob to talk. 00:15:12 A bit more about. 00:15:13 That go ahead Jacob take it away. 00:15:18The antiquities act was actually pretty new when jewel cave was declared a national so only two years before in 1906 Congress approved the antiquities act which as Aimee said empowers the president to declare. 00:15:38 National monuments so. 00:15:41 In this picture we have George W Bush signing one of those acts that one happened to be one that actually is a marine National Monument stretching across many seamounts and various seashores of the farther Hawaiian islands. 00:16:02 And the name for that one I definitely can't pronounce but it's in the Hawaiian language so. 00:16:08 So. 00:16:09 The antiquities act at least original originally appeared to be about conserving archaeological resources and also items of scientific interest so when we think about jewel cave it doesn't really have a lot of archaeology especially from what predated. 00:16:29 The Michuads 00:16:30 But what it does have are all of the nice crystals the jewels as it were of the Cave so those items of scientific interest are what made Congress and President Theodore Roosevelt agree that jewel cave should be preserved as a National Monument under. 00:16:49 The antiquities act. 00:16:51 So. 00:16:53 Uh yeah so Theodore Roosevelt signed us as a National Monument on this day in. 00:16:59 1908. 00:17:01 And. 00:17:03 Next we have. 00:17:06 Just what exactly national monuments do. 00:17:09 So. 00:17:10 National monuments are supposed to conserve. 00:17:15 Resources as I mentioned that are archaeological or scientific interest, but they can also change hands and sizes and even they can change from a National Monument to National Park. 00:17:29 So. 00:17:30 Here we have devil 's tower which was the first. 00:17:32 National Monument and has stuck. 00:17:36 But on the left you may recognize that as Grand Canyon so Grand Canyon was one of those national parks which started off as a National Monument. 00:17:46 And national monuments are always created from pre-existing federal land so since this area was already part of the Black Hills forest reserve we were able to create that National Monument from land on the forest. 00:18:03 But. 00:18:04 Private lands can also be donated from owners like farmers ranchers that kind of thing to add on to those National Monument boundaries but either way the president usually determines the size of the National Monument according to what is the precise size needed to conserve those resources. 00:18:25 So for example with Jewel Cave. 00:18:28 We made sure to conserve that part of the Cave that was already known about which was less than 2 miles by that point now of course we've got all kinds of passageways extending outside the National Monument boundaries although technically that too is protected as part of National Monument. 00:18:46 Uh. 00:18:48 And then Congress can also declare national monuments as part of this antiquities act but it's oftentimes just the president. 00:19:01 And so over the decades there has been some debate over what exactly a National Monument is supposed to protect like I said originally it appeared like national monuments were for archaeological resources and also items of scientific interest but. 00:19:21 That debate has kind of focused on how large national monuments can really be whether they should be conserving just small areas or vast areas of land. 00:19:34 Or whether they're supposed to really be. 00:19:36 For offshore locations in exclusive economic zones. 00:19:40 On the sea floor. 00:19:42 So. 00:19:43 Here we have some. 00:19:44 Marine turtles on. 00:19:46 One of the marine national monuments which I've mentioned before so that monument conserves both sea floor and some of the atolls and shallow islands. 00:20:02 So that kind of leads us to some local differences that have arisen in two states namely Alaska and Wyoming about. 00:20:13 How much power the president should really have in the antiquities act and whether he should seek congressional approval before creating national alignments so.00:20:26 That image is of one of the national monuments in Alaska I don't remember which one but either way that was one of the national monuments that Jimmy Carter back in 1979 created that caused a bit of a stir within the state of Alaska because you know. 00:20:46 Jimmy Carter just basically went by his own authority. 00:20:51 Didn't consult Congress when Alaska kind of thought maybe he should. 00:20:54 Have. 00:20:56 But. 00:20:56 Of course most states are usually fine with the president not asking but I guess not Alaska in this case same thing with Wyoming back in 1933 when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. 00:21:12 Decided to sign. 00:21:14 Uh Jackson Hole National Monument into law so Jackson Hole National Monument is now guaranteed to National Park. 00:21:23 But like once again Wyomingites apparently didn't really like how he didn't ask them first or rather ask them through their representatives in Congress whether they should think that that part of the state should be a National Monument. 00:21:39 So these days both Alaska and Wyoming require at least some congressional approval before the antiquities act can actually be passed to make National Monuments in those states. 00:21:54 So. 00:21:55 Now I'll hand it back to Aimee. 00:22:00 Right. 00:22:05 Right yeah so Jacob was mentioning that there are you know there's national monuments not all just with like the National Park Service especially at the time that Jewel Cave became a National Monument the National Park Service didn't exist yet National Park Service did not exist until 1916. The Forest Service did so initially that was who we were kind of lumped with and again we were surrounded. 00:22:26 Completely by a National Forest so that made the most sense so we're a 00:22:29 Number of national monuments that were and actually my prior part Lava Beds National Monument first got established in 1925 we were also initially just kind of lumped in and protected with the National Forest that called the Modoc National Forest that we were surrounded by but any case initially protected by the Forest Service so today you'll see my patch National Park Service. 00:22:49 And a little bit of just how it was when the Forest Service first was managing the site and here we. 00:22:53 Just have. 00:22:53 A old map of the Black Hills National Forest as well as a picture of initially the first forester and one of the first leaders of the Forest Service Gifford Pinchot. 00:23:03 In any case forest service was also pretty new at the time that Jewel Cave got set aside it was only first made as it had a different name at first but in. 00:23:11 1881. 00:23:13 About 1891 within 10 years or about 15 little what they called forest reserves all around the country it wasn't being super well managed so Gifford Pinchot. 00:23:23 It was pretty funny he was from a very well to do family he's a really interesting guy to study and his dad for whatever reason. 00:23:30 He saw that his son really liked the outdoors and he's like you should be a forester. Like there are there aren't any foresters I'm going to Yale? 00:23:37 But in any case. 00:23:39 He went to Yale wasn't able to really study forestry there but he was able to go to Europe and study there and go amongst forest and like Germany and Switzerland and just learn a lot and bring that knowledge back. 00:23:49 To United States. 00:23:51 And begin organizing national forests and really advocate we need better organization so that was able to happen in the early 1900s and again with getting these little monuments and these little. 00:24:01 Forests and such but it wasn't. 00:24:03 Still wasn't a great at least kind of got the name all established and such but it was yeah it was just kind of lumped in we didn't really get a lot of people from the Forest Service out to Jewel Cave they maybe just popped in the Cave like once or twice a year their bag was definitely more the surface above why do we have this cave we don't want to go in there. They wouldn’t 00:24:22 Want to go in there without an actual guide. 00:24:24 Which is pretty much the Michauds and the really big hope was I think I can maybe switch to my next slide? 00:24:30 The really big hope was just a token mining photo here of anybody in the Black Hills. This isn’t even the Michauds to me it looked very much like people mining but— the hope was whenever it became part of Forest Service with the Michauds and especially Bertha Cain because again she was just like an investor she hadn't built any infrastructure she wasn't really that interested in that she really wanted some return. 00:24:49 On her claim. 00:24:50 So when Forest Service takes over especially Bertha was like. 00:24:54 Can we give some money for our? 00:24:55 Claim can we sell. 00:24:56 It to you? the Forest Service didn't have any way I mean they're very new they're still trying to organize and such. They didn't have any way to pay them for their claim so Bertha’s really bummed about this and she's like. 00:25:05 You know what I'm out so 1908 birth is out Albert eventually start getting kinda discouraged as well because the Forest Service like I said they didn't go in the Cave very much but the main thing they were interested in is this. 00:25:17 Actually like of. 00:25:18 Any value you all have they actually at this point had 5 mining claims not just the jewel cave tunnel load that it was called but they? 00:25:25 Had 4 others. 00:25:26 Are you all actually finding any iron any gold any silver any manganese of any paying portions? 00:25:32 And the reports are showing that they didn't so it's not being profitable they're not going to pay Bertha or the Michauds and so again Bertha was out and Albert eventually moved to Canada that's where his their father was from he moved back to Canada so at this point the mining claims investigations aren't panning out it's not looking like it's going very good and that it's going to be profitable. 00:25:52 And so they're not going to get paid for it everyone's out with Frank Michaud who had at that point gotten married started to have a family and decided. 00:25:59 To kinda live by the Cave and they were allowed by the Forest Service to continue with their not so great mining claims as long as they continue doing infrastructure updates so he at least kept doing that and getting one of his sons named Ira involved in that so again please keep doing that but. 00:26:14 It wasn't going great. 00:26:16 And so ultimately it was like we need more support and so there was something called the Custer commercial. 00:26:22 Club. 00:26:23 So the Custer Commercial Club– and there was a Forest Service representative who started chatting with Peter Norbeck he is a former senator who also became governor of South Dakota believe the 9th governor talk to him when he was still a senator and was like we need to get support from the Custer Commercial Club to get like a Superintendent for jewel cave to get like infrastructure paid for maybe we should give money to the Michauds. 00:26:43 For the claim you know unfortunately that wasn't working and so Frank at this point is like I'm very discouraged he started locking The Cave because it was getting vandalized they were getting support from the Forest Service. 00:26:54 So let's just. 00:26:55 Call it let's just lock it up so it wasn't going very well even though they at least kind of got some bigwigs. 00:27:00 Come in. 00:27:01 So something they had a little bit of success from was fortunately the jewel cave corporation. 00:27:09 Because I said the Michauds are frustrated they're starting to lock the Cave the Forest Service is only visiting a time or 2 a year they don't really. 00:27:15 Want to go. 00:27:15 In there very bad and even whenever the person reached up and got support from Peter Norbeck against the that's not very well and eventually I should also mention the Forest Service started locking The Cave with a different lock and then. 00:27:27 The Michauds had so they didn't love that and umm Frank Michael passed away in 1927 while he was visiting family in Canada so at this point the family they're all alone they have this claim but they're not getting anything for it but here again comes the jewel cave corporation because what started to help things move a little bit better for little jewel cave again all I. 00:27:46 Thought to be. 00:27:47 About 2 miles was that the road between Custer and Newcastle was really crummy not so bad today right from Newcastle and I drove from Custer I think it's pretty good yeah it's really nice but there at the time now or to like the. 00:28:00 Kinda late 1920s that road was not very good. Frank died in 1927— road not so great so they're like Custer commercial club contacted the Newcastle Lions Club and like hey you can we get together and make a club for jewel cave and maybe it's right in the middle ish and it's like 22 miles for you I think 13. 00:28:20 For us so the middle let's start something called the Jewel Cave Corporation and the Forest Service leader was on boarding and those clubs were on board and they were able to raise some capital stock to get infrastructures made to get the thought of a better road happening and finally to pay the only person with any bit of a claim. 00:28:38 Michaud a little bit of money they were able to raise money to pay. 00:28:41Your $750.00 inflation calculators I know aren't like super accurate just kind of looking that up this morning that have been around 13,000 so for 20 ish years of work not great but she was a widow with a family so it was something so she took it so at this point now the shows are out jewel cave corporation they for the first time. 00:29:00 Since the monument had became a monument in February of 1908. In 1928 they started doing tours they weren't dressed like this this is what we dressed like today to kind of model actually in 1940s Ranger once we were park. 00:29:12 Service but I just. 00:29:13 Thought that was fun picture but any case. 00:29:14 And they were leading tours initially and that was kind of some success finally thanks to the Jewel Cave Corporation and 2 towns like we have here today working together and getting that going because the Forest Service again just didn't really have the people to and then have the desire really to go into the cave now that they didn't really have Frank Michaud take him in Ira knew a fair amount. 00:29:34 So Ira was hired by the Jewel Cave Corporation to be one of the initial 3 people that they were able to hire for infrastructure builds. 00:29:41 So that was something that was good. 00:29:43 Thank you Jewel Cave Corporation. 00:29:45 And maybe because of all the really cool infrastructure things they were doing and all the money. 00:29:50 They were able. 00:29:50 To raise finally were able to reach the attention of fairly new National Park Service you can just from 1916 also could have been because Albert Michaud he's still living even though he's in Canada he wrote a letter to the former director of the National Park Service. 00:30:06 Stephen Mather being like jewel cave is not being very well taken care of by the Forest Service and I'm frustrated and so again probably a combination of that. 00:30:13 The letter as well as hearing of things happening with the Jewel Cave Corporation representative from the National Park Service team to visit jewel cave in 1929 apparently they were very impressed yeah that's what they said the Cave has much beauty but crystals and less extraordinary variety can hardly hold the continued interest of visitors. 00:30:33 To the same extent as drip formations and yeah by that I imagine they mean more of those stacties and stalagmites and things like that it would seem that the caves of local and statewide importance rather of national interest and like I. 00:30:46 Said come on underdog story. 00:30:47 So we didn't really realize how much there was to jewel cave but that's another. 00:30:51 But it's kind of funny it stayed quiet even though we had a National Park Service representative visit in 1929 no movement was just kind of like we visited we came we saw we're going to leave there's there's really not much there but randomly what happened was an executive order in August of 1933 FDR was trying to consolidate national monuments to save some money. 00:31:11 The great depression is happening and so 1933 an executive order he passed reorganized 70 national monuments away from the Forest Service and plunk them with the national. 00:31:20 Service and that my former park that was also the year that. 00:31:23 We went from Forest Service. 00:31:25 Park Service so any case that's where we officially became with the agency were with today. 00:31:31 And after that you have some different things happened Jewel Cave Corporation continued to do tours so then conservation corps eventually came in to start doing infrastructure and that's kind of what we'll continue on probably later this summer with the talk continuing the history of jewel cave the underdog story and finding out how we went from 2 miles to 220.33 that we know of. 00:31:51 Today yeah and so again I'm Ranger Aimee on behalf of myself 00:31:56 Thank you all for joining our discovery hour today let us know if you have any questions thank you. 00:31:59 Yep. 00:32:02 Yeah. 00:32:04 Any questions? 00:32:05 OK. 00:32:06 Eat more cake. 00:32:11 In the limestone country nobody has wells so you have to drill. 00:32:15 1,000,000 feet down. 00:32:16 What's this place? 00:32:18 For water. 00:32:19 I'd have to double check with our facilities Rangers but yes they probably know better yeah. 00:32:22 Well that yeah. 00:32:27 And it's the it's the dead one yeah. 00:32:31 No.

Learn the story of Jewel Cave becoming a national monument with Ranger Aimee.

Tags: jewel cave national monument, black hills, nps history

January 17, 2025

Geology of Jewel Cave

Transcript

Transcript

00:00:04 Hello and welcome to Jewel Cave National Monument’s 125 years of Discovery Podcast, Discovery Hour. 00:00:11 Join us this episode as we listen to a presentation on the formation of Jewel Cave presented by Mike Wiles, Jewel Cave’s Chief of Resource Management. 00:00:21 Recorded on January seventeenth, two thousand and twenty five. 00:00:24 A transcript of this episode is available on our website, www.NPS.GOV/JECA 00:00:31 thank you for listening. 00:00:52 Audiences of any size, OK, but there's just a little bit different world when. 00:00:56 Speaking out loud to everybody. Yeah, yeah, yeah. 00:00:59 Just. 00:01:00 About. 00:01:01 Yep. 00:01:01 It's kind of like a tour with thirty people versus three. 00:01:06 OK. 00:01:07 So I my name is Mike Wiles. 00:01:10 I've been here forty five years. 00:01:12 News. 00:01:13 It started out as a volunteer cave explorer. 00:01:17 I I got indicating when I was. 00:01:21 In at South Dakota School of Mines and I got a master or a Bachelors in chemical engineering which? 00:01:30 But that's where I ran into a group of cavers that started. 00:01:35 Caving. 00:01:37 Then I went back. 00:01:39 Several years later and got a master 's in geological engineering. 00:01:45 And I wrote my thesis on the infiltration of groundwater at Wind Cave. 00:01:48 Jewel cave. 00:01:51 Have you ever visited any of the caves on the East Coast? 00:01:55 I've been on some in like one in North Carolina. 00:01:59 What about West Virginia? 00:02:00 I've been in West Virginia. 00:02:01 What was it? 00:02:02 You remember. 00:02:03 Bowden 's cave. 00:02:04 There's one right off of the highway. 00:02:06 It might be a. 00:02:07 The real popular. 00:02:09 You know, school kid. 00:02:11 You know, because it's just off the highway. 00:02:13 If that's the one that. 00:02:15 Toured this past fall. 00:02:16 Well it. 00:02:17 It was not a developed cave. 00:02:19 OK, gotcha. OK. 00:02:19 It was just a wild cave. 00:02:22 And I've been in some caves down where Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia intersect. 00:02:30 So what were those? 00:02:31 I've been to a few of. 00:02:32 That's my area. 00:02:33 I don't. 00:02:34 Some of that was for Ncrc rescue training. 00:02:38 So that's just where we had our operations and I don't remember. 00:02:41 Names OK. 00:02:42 Yeah, I've done like temporary work. 00:02:43 Yes. 00:02:44 And. 00:02:46 I might have. 00:02:49 Been the compliment. 00:02:52 A long time ago. OK. 00:02:54 Yeah, so I'm right. 00:02:56 So that's a little bit of my. 00:02:59 Now when? 00:02:59 Started. I didn't know anything about geology. 00:03:02 I started caving. 00:03:04 So where do you find caves? 00:03:06 Well, they're in limestone. 00:03:08 What's limestone? 00:03:09 Well, this is limestone and that's different than this, which is sandstone. 00:03:14 Sometimes they kind of look the same until you get up close. You know once you. 00:03:18 Your eye. 00:03:18 To it. You know what it. 00:03:19 So that was my first geological information was. 00:03:23 Limestone and sandstone. 00:03:26 I ended up really falling in love with caving and that's why I went back to school. 00:03:30 For geological engineering and there really wasn't much in the curriculum that talks specifically about. 00:03:36 So I had to kind of do a lot of things and special projects on my own to in order to get some of that cave stuff. And I learned a bit from. 00:03:47 Some old time professors, a couple of them, are still alive. 00:03:51 Most of them have passed away. 00:03:52 Who really were kind of experts in their field and they did personally share with me some of their views of The Cave, but there just wasn't much written about the caves here in the Black Hills. 00:04:04 So I would take with what I learned and when I went caving here, I would try to apply that. 00:04:11 You know what I saw in the? 00:04:13 It turned out an awful lot of what people said wasn't true. 00:04:19 I could see how there was that impression. You know, for instance, when dual cave was only a few miles long, you could draw a conclusion. But by the time you got up to a hundred and fifty miles long, that conclusion. 00:04:33 It it was, it was. 00:04:34 Was obviously didn't happen. 00:04:36 So that was kind of the beginning of my experience of. 00:04:40 Kind of learning to figure out. 00:04:42 Cave for myself. 00:04:44 And one of the good great advantages is I've been here forty five years. 00:04:48 I can ponder over things and things that seem right, but later don't seem right. 00:04:53 Can figure it out again. 00:04:56 Where almost all geological stuff is done under contract. 00:05:00 You've got a time to do it only so much. 00:05:03 To do it. 00:05:03 Or you're a graduate. 00:05:05 You got so much time to do a couple years and you got to wrap it up and you, you don't even realize that they're loose ends, but there are, and I've had the advantage of just keep plugging away at it. 00:05:18 So the origin of Jewel Cave and its relationship to landscape scale processes. 00:05:25 How does that sound? 00:05:27 This is a uh. 00:05:28 Well, this pointer won't work, so I have to do this. 00:05:33 This is a map of kind of a 3D perspective of the Black Hills. 00:05:38 Not in great detail. It's fairly old. 00:05:42 But it shows generally how the Black Hills are shaped. 00:05:46 It's not like a big. 00:05:47 It's kind of a low bubble if. 00:05:49 Fly over it in an airplane and you get up to that that level for, well, just beyond where everything looks like. 00:05:57 Toy cars going down the road. 00:05:59 And it's kind of shocking to see how flat it really is, even with ***** peak being at the highest point. Now it's black Elk Peak, the highest point in the east of the. 00:06:13 And up in here, this is almost as high as Harney Peak. 00:06:17 Forgive me for always saying ***** peak. I haven't made that adjustment. 00:06:21 They've changed the name several years ago. 00:06:24 The Cave is found in this Paleozoic band of sedimentary rock. 00:06:31 Uh. 00:06:33 Some, but not all of this is part is called the PAJA Sapa Limestone. 00:06:38 When it goes underground, it's called the Madison Aquifer. 00:06:42 And almost everyone uses the term paasapa Limestone and Madison limestone interchangeably. 00:06:51 There's a little bit of difference, but if I switch back and forth talking about the same thing, so there's Jewel Cave right there. 00:06:58 And we're going to look at. 00:06:59 A little more carefully. 00:07:03 It's a three-dimensional maze with only one known natural entrance and that right there is sight light. 00:07:10 Why is that? 00:07:11 There's gotta be a reason for that. 00:07:14 And it used to be that people would say, well, The Cave formed three hundred million years ago after the passage was deposited, but before the sandstones up above it were deposited. 00:07:27 And then The Cave. 00:07:29 An old paleo cave formed and it was. 00:07:32 It was like random. 00:07:35 And then when he, after all, all the stuff up above was deposited, the Canyon came down and randomly intersected The Cave. 00:07:44 And that's where you got the entrance. And that's where I said it when we only knew of this much passage, you could say that. 00:07:52 But by the time we got this much passage, you could see that's not true. Here's lithograph. 00:07:58 And there's only one place right here that you can get across from a big mazy area through a tiny little opening where it goes under the Canyon, back into a big maze area. 00:08:10 Is that the opening? 00:08:11 Do you have to fit through or no? 00:08:13 What? 00:08:13 Is that the opening out here? 00:08:15 No, no, this is. 00:08:16 This is just a connection underground. The only known natural entrance is right here. 00:08:21 So is it possible that there's a lot more today that's just not been? 00:08:24 Oh yes. 00:08:26 We think we've only discovered three percent. 00:08:30 There's probably something on the order of fourteen thousand miles. 00:08:36 Remember it, but it's in a three-dimensional maze, so it's Criss crossing on top of many levels. 00:08:42 This doesn't show the whole thing. 00:08:46 There's a bunch down here, but the but what we have is only under two hundred. 00:08:49 Miles isn't underneath. 00:08:51 Four square miles. 00:08:52 So it's not. 00:08:54 Not going to Chicago or anything like that. 00:08:57 But and then this ones a little. 00:09:00 A little puzzling, but, but if you think that when that Canyon incized, it might have originally gone right up this way. 00:09:11 And it would just be a little bit better correlation. But then as it made the final incision, it was just a little bit off of that of that. 00:09:20 Most minimal area. 00:09:22 Here's the best example though. 00:09:23 Big passage. 00:09:25 Very mazzy. 00:09:27 One single craw way to get from this to this, and here we've got two. 00:09:34 Kind of three, but. 00:09:36 Big Maisie. Hardly anything big, Maisie. 00:09:40 So it's actually pretty obvious that. 00:09:45 The Cave is somehow related to the drainages. 00:09:50 It didn't form independently of the drainages, and then they came randomly. 00:09:53 If. 00:09:54 If they. 00:09:54 Truly come randomly, it'd come like through here. 00:09:57 Then you'd have dozens, maybe hundreds of openings. 00:10:01 And then this is actually very common in the whole Black Hills. Even some of the small caves. 00:10:07 Only have a single entrance. 00:10:09 And most of them were too small for people. 00:10:12 They. 00:10:13 Weren't the big. 00:10:14 Entrances like you find in the southeast US. 00:10:17 Why is that? There's something. 00:10:21 That's unique to the Black Hills, but not in Jewel Cave is just part of that. 00:10:29 The Cave is related to the topography. 00:10:33 And almost certainly the. 00:10:36 Topography. The streams, the water flow. 00:10:38 These drainages had something to do with how and where The Cave formed. 00:10:45 That makes sense. 00:10:46 I always try to make science be a kind of a slam dunk thing rather than. 00:10:51 Overloading it with complicated concepts. I mean there's value to some of these more complicated concepts, but I really believe most of what we need to know can be. 00:11:02 Discerned just by looking at the the basic kind of irrefutable concepts. 00:11:07 Can you show us on that map if you go back with? 00:11:11 With what will we be hiking at? 00:11:13 Forty five like. 00:11:15 The canyons trail. Oh, Doug. 00:11:19 Scenic Tour is right in here. 00:11:23 OK, half mile. 00:11:26 Yeah. 00:11:29 OK, now I actually probably have a better drawing, but the point of all of this is to show that all the limestone layers are dipping down this way. 00:11:41 And it forms a bowl shape. 00:11:44 So that's what the limestone is doing. Well, look at the whole cave is forming in a bowl shape and it's tilting down toward the center of the bowl. 00:11:55 So that shows us that The Cave is related to the modern day structure or shape of the of the the folding of the layers. 00:12:05 And it. 00:12:06 It couldn't have formed three hundred million years ago when everything. 00:12:10 Just flat. 00:12:12 So a relationship with today's geology could not have been created before today's rocks existed. Make sense? 00:12:26 So this is starting to point to a little bit more recent. 00:12:31 Uh. 00:12:33 For The Cave, not the original. 00:12:35 Hundred million year ago. 00:12:38 Think one of my favorite ones is this one. 00:12:42 Think of this as a layer cake. 00:12:45 Well. 00:12:45 Just think of it as a cake. 00:12:47 Think of this as the cake. This is the rocks that the cake is formed in. 00:12:54 This is the frosting. 00:12:56 This is the the cake pan because it's been bubbled up and everything 's been eroded away. 00:13:03 So this is where we expect to find all the caves. Is here never here, 'cause. There's nothing soluble to make The Cave caves. 00:13:11 And then this other stuff rests on top. Now, at one time all of this went all the way. 00:13:18 It was just flat layers and it was the uplifting that caused things to erode from the center out to this point. 00:13:25 But. 00:13:25 Here's the curious. 00:13:26 Look at where all the big caves are. 00:13:30 Run. 00:13:30 Jewel Cave is right on the edge of that where right on the edge of where the frosting is eroded away. 00:13:39 SMG cave reeds cave wind cave right on the edge, and when you look at the hundreds of caves that are out. 00:13:50 None of them is more than three hundred feet long. 00:13:53 There's no evidence of a hundred mile caves that used to be out here. 00:13:59 That shows us that basically this. 00:14:05 Cap is somehow responsible for the big caves are. 00:14:11 At one point this was over the top, but we don't find remnants of big caves, so that tells us the caves didn't form until the erosion brought this to today's configuration. 00:14:25 So with thinking that we've only found three percent. 00:14:28 Of these caves, is it possible that all of those are all connected? 00:14:33 Or not necessarily. 00:14:34 There is a potential for them to connect. 00:14:38 Umm, one of my previous assistants and I used USGS. 00:14:43 Data for the rock layers and elevations of the rock layers and elevations of the water table, and we found, and whether there were any big faults, I could cut, cut it off. 00:14:59 And we found that there was nothing to keep it. Jewel Cave and Wind Cave from connecting. 00:15:09 How many miles is it? 00:15:10 About forty miles away, twenty, twenty miles. Twenty miles. 00:15:14 So I don't have the drawing. 00:15:18 We basically this is one boundary of a Crescent. 00:15:23 Which is as far. 00:15:24 Jewel tape. 00:15:24 Go that way or any other case. 00:15:27 Then there was another one that comes down this way, which is where the tilting layers go beneath the water table. 00:15:33 Now you can have cave. 00:15:35 Beneath. 00:15:35 Water table as far as air filled caves. 00:15:40 And there's so much volume that when the pressure drops one percent, the air in The Cave expands one percent and it blows out tremendous amounts of air. When the pressure comes up, it blows it in the amount of. 00:15:55 Air is going to be proportional to the pressure change, but also proportional to. 00:15:59 The total volume of air. 00:16:01 So we were using that total volume of predicted. 00:16:06 Area we found that all passages in all caves stay in the upper two hundred fifty feet of the limestone. 00:16:13 So now we can. 00:16:14 Further narrow the control area the. 00:16:20 Potential area volume even. 00:16:24 And we. 00:16:25 We found that using a volume estimates and these other constraints, and even the fact that. 00:16:36 Passages here are much more. 00:16:39 Honeycomb, like so one hundred miles here only goes that far. 00:16:44 One hundred. 00:16:45 Here goes forty sixty. 00:16:49 So we even allowed for the differences in the The Cave density, if you will. 00:16:56 What do the flow holes tell? 00:16:58 Are those potential? 00:17:00 Undiscovered case? 00:17:01 The blowholes. 00:17:03 Yes, they somehow connect to voids underground. 00:17:08 So we put that all together and we figured out using the total volume of available limestone after we've constrained it. And then the total volume predicted by what's been surveyed so far. 00:17:22 That what's been surveyed so far would be three percent. 00:17:27 And it would be enough for these two to connect. 00:17:31 If it was only ten percent of what was needed. 00:17:36 And the volume predicted here could only go this far. 00:17:39 And the volume predicted here could only go this far that we could definitively say. 00:17:44 This probably can't. 00:17:45 But we it turned out to be almost just by coincidence. 00:17:48 Did not bias the information. 00:17:51 It turned out to be about what we what it would take. Now the only thing is. 00:17:56 Again with a diagram that I don't have for this talk. 00:18:01 Once. 00:18:03 In start moving away from the hills and gets. 00:18:07 Then it takes on kind of a regional trend and it goes circumferentially down this way. And over here it comes circumferentially around the hills to this. So down here in the hot in the. 00:18:21 That. 00:18:23 Well, it's a Hot Springs area, but there's also a particular spring. 00:18:28 It's where the underground flow converges, but there's no net movement from one side to the other. 00:18:35 So be. 00:18:35 The opposite of a surface water divide where it can go right up to. 00:18:41 Both sides of the the mountain range, but they don't connect. You just to be kind of the opposite because things are coming too, but never cross. 00:18:51 So the answer to that question is there's enough volume that they could. 00:18:56 There's a little bit of reason to think that. 00:18:58 Don't, but it's going to take a whole different kind of study to figure out if that's true and or exploration, but with is. 00:19:08 Taken. 00:19:09 Forty. Fifty. 00:19:11 Well, almost sixty. 00:19:12 Yeah. Sixty years to get that much mapped and we've only gotten a couple miles closer. 00:19:18 So we're talking generations. 00:19:19 Is this continuing? 00:19:21 Yes. 00:19:23 Yep, it was discovered in nineteen hundred. 00:19:27 Not much was done until nineteen, fifty nine and then a couple named Herb and Jan Kahn, who were climbers, were invited to go caving at Jewel Cave and fell in love with it. 00:19:40 And they kept doing it for twenty years and discovered sixty miles. 00:19:46 Then they turned it over to me and a friend of mine, and for thirty years I found I was responsible for the next seventy miles. 00:19:53 And now I've turned it over to our trip leaders. 00:19:57 Multiple trip leaders and their. 00:20:00 I don't know if all my numbers add up something like forty or fifty miles. 00:20:04 So yes, it it will continue. 00:20:07 OK, this part here. 00:20:12 Is called the mental. 00:20:14 But when we looked at it carefully, we found that it had very distinct. 00:20:19 Subunits. There's a cross bedded sandstone which is really important. 00:20:24 There's a thin bedded limestone. 00:20:27 There's a sandstone with a limestone cap, but more importantly, it's got a thick layer of shale at the base. 00:20:34 And then there are sandstone dolomite dolastones dolomite. 00:20:40 Various sandstones abraciated unit and we've got a pretty precise. 00:20:44 It does not vary significantly at all, and so instead of a big. 00:20:52 Four five hundred foot thickness. 00:20:55 Which is really hard to map. We've got distinctly different things and we can look at them and we can trace out where this is cut through to expose this. And by doing that, creating a geologic map, we can derive where things are folded and where they are. FA. 00:21:13 And we get a whole lot more understanding of what's going on. 00:21:17 So this is what we end up with. 00:21:21 This is the dual K fault. 00:21:24 You actually drove along the down through side of the dual K fault. If you came from the well. 00:21:29 You come from the east. 00:21:31 And then as it comes over here to the West, it splinters into smaller faults and then crosses Hell Canyon. 00:21:38 And then this, they all kind of dissipate. 00:21:42 All the and then up over here we don't have any significant cave. 00:21:47 The case stays in the upper two fifty feet. 00:21:50 It pinches off or gets really small where it crosses beneath canyons, so that's kind of what we're looking at. 00:21:56 Most importantly, we have a very permeable sandstone here. 00:22:01 In the bottom of this blue has shale on. 00:22:03 Of it. 00:22:04 This is the Englewood limestone, and even though there aren't cave passages down here, the bottom of it has shale. 00:22:11 We get our water from down here and when we drill a well, the water rises a hundred feet, so it's under pressure and that shale is impermeable enough to keep it under pressure. So that gives me a lot of confidence that shale keeps water from going through. 00:22:28 Also, there's less than one percent of. 00:22:33 There's like one quarter of one percent of the known cave has any water dripping water in it or even? 00:22:41 Evidence of. 00:22:43 Past dripping water. Or it might have dripped and you know, dried out. 00:22:49 That basically means that rainwater is not the source. 00:22:54 Of the water that made The Cave, which is the commonly, that's that's the base level of of. That's the starting point for almost all of. 00:23:06 Theories of how the K form either it came down from rainfall or it came from below. 00:23:13 From below. 00:23:14 Well, we've got. 00:23:15 That would keep it from. That is still keeping water from coming up from above and no passages down there anyway. 00:23:21 And the only place where we have dripping water is where that shale has been cut through. 00:23:28 So if there was water seeping into the cracks to make The Cave in the first place, some of those conduits would still be available to leak rain water in today. 00:23:42 But it's not. There is. 00:23:43 It's not quite a hundred percent relationship, but it's it's ninety nine, point seven, five percent relationship. 00:23:53 So, summarizing everything, several feet of shale at the base. 00:23:58 Uh. 00:24:00 Elusa subunit three. 00:24:02 Several feet of shale at the base of the. 00:24:05 Underlying Englewood, Ohio. 00:24:07 Overlying so you can't have water from above and you can't have water coming in from below to make The Cave less than a quarter percent of The Cave shows. Any evidence of that. 00:24:20 A dozen dripping, basically dripping through. 00:24:23 A rock that is not saturated with water. 00:24:27 And there's been no uplift structure or basically what this is saying is? 00:24:35 The way The Cave is laid out is based on the structure. 00:24:41 The uplifting and structure that has most recently happened. 00:24:45 Of you know, instead of three hundred million years ago, the evidence says more like thirty moons. 00:24:52 Music. 00:24:53 Newer and it's it's and it corresponds with today's features a structure, the contacts the exposed rocks and so on. 00:25:05 She think it happened more recently than like the Black Hills uplifts. 00:25:10 It did happen after the Black Hills uplift, OK. 00:25:14 Umm, but that puts it at at the. 00:25:18 Thirty million years ago. 00:25:19 Let me think. 00:25:22 Sixty to oh, OK. 00:25:23 So the uplift according to the literature says sixty. 00:25:28 Fold is to thirty. 00:25:30 This happened newer than thirty and there's other reasons why we get to that, but it didn't. 00:25:36 The dinosaurs are older than this cave. 00:25:39 So make if if we don't. 00:25:41 That it happened from water above or water below. 00:25:43 That's that's what I want. 00:25:46 I'm glad that you asked. Well it was. 00:25:48 Mass. 00:25:49 System I learned that in chemical engine. 00:25:54 To make to make a limestone cave, you can't have just water going into a crack and sitting there and making. 00:25:59 That bigger? 00:26:01 That water can only dissolve a little teeny bit. 00:26:04 Then it has to be moved away. 00:26:07 There's got to. 00:26:08 A way to keep moving fresh. 00:26:10 Water, not fresh water, but water that. 00:26:12 Hasn't dissolved anything. 00:26:16 To you have to move it away. 'cause. You've got to transfer that mass out of that crack. 00:26:24 Make it bigger. 00:26:25 And almost every theory that I've. 00:26:28 Examined doesn't allow for that. 00:26:32 They. 00:26:33 They don't say water just goes in, insists there, but they don't really address what is the actual mechanism. 00:26:39 Here's what we need. 00:26:40 We need to have a rock to dissolve. 00:26:43 We need to have something to dissolve the rock and it's well known that carbonic acid will dissolve. 00:26:50 Limestone. 00:26:50 A weak. 00:26:51 It might take a long time. 00:26:53 You need a transport medium, that is. 00:26:55 Also the water. 00:26:58 Something to keep moving the dissolved stuff out and you need end points. 00:27:02 Need a recharge area and a discharge. 00:27:05 Area and they've got to be aligned in a reasonable way. 00:27:10 Or just it all falls apart. 00:27:11 Just doesn't. 00:27:12 You can't just make this stuff up. 00:27:14 Got. 00:27:15 Map and see is the proposed. 00:27:20 Recharge area uphill from the discharger and then you need a continuous flow path. In other words, even with, you know, limestone itself is not very permeable. 00:27:32 So in geology, we talked about secondary permeability. 00:27:36 That's the limestone. 00:27:38 Fractured. And now that you provide that. 00:27:40 But the fractures have to be continuous. 00:27:43 If it's fractures, it has to be continuous from the recharge to the discharge or nothing 's going to happen. 00:27:50 That's always been the stumbling or the hard part. 00:27:54 But the fact that we have the very permeable sandstone. 00:28:02 Sitting on top of the less than permeable initial state of the limestone. 00:28:07 That gives the water a path to go through. 00:28:12 And so here's the dual. 00:28:14 Very simplified version of the dual cave fault and the sinclan in in Hell Canyon. 00:28:22 And these are. 00:28:23 Mostly these are different subunits of the mendeloosin. 00:28:28 But. 00:28:31 Here in Pass Creek, they've eroded down to expose that permeable sandstone. 00:28:37 And up here. 00:28:39 Canyon same thing. 00:28:41 Look at the elevations. Fifty five hundred fifty seven hundred. 00:28:46 Water can. 00:28:48 When there was active stream in right now, neither neither Canyon has active streams. 00:28:54 But when there was an active stream, water could seep into that permeable sandstone. 00:29:00 Nothing 's going to happen unless. 00:29:02 You have a lower elevation for that to now move down to and then discharge down in Lithograph Canyon and Hill Canyon, and now all the sudden. 00:29:13 Got a. 00:29:13 Way to put water in the system. 00:29:16 The recharge end to let it. 00:29:19 We got a pathway. 00:29:24 And any water running down this either of these streams will some of it's going to leak out and go downhill and discharge into the streams that were there in Hell Canyon and Lithgow Canyon at the time. And it's just gravity fed. 00:29:39 Now. 00:29:41 This is what I'm going to show you next is. 00:29:43 You know, it's not a perfect, a perfect proof of anything, but it's a very convenient observation. 00:29:50 That's where The Cave is. 00:29:53 The Cave is right there between. 00:29:57 This recharge and these discharge areas. 00:30:02 There's very likely cave up here. 00:30:04 The. 00:30:04 We don't know what we haven't discovered yet. 00:30:07 But as a first point of observation, we we have at least a partial confirmation of this idea. So it's pretty intriguing. 00:30:17 So Mike, if you look at that slide right there, right under the middle like at twelve o'clock the five, four, oh oh, the X on the red. 00:30:20 Yeah. 00:30:25 Yeah. 00:30:25 So if. 00:30:26 Go down to the last little fingers of The Cave that you see right below that. 00:30:31 Yeah. 00:30:32 Like when? 00:30:33 Get to the end of that is. 00:30:34 Just a solid wall. 00:30:37 That's where there are complications and I can't go into my easily go into my general. 00:30:42 But right here, there's a monocle and. 00:30:45 The monocline is where the rock is dipping this way, but at the monkle it dips more steeply. 00:30:53 So you have extensional. 00:30:57 Breakage. And then things in the rocks will collapse down in there. 00:31:01 OK. 00:31:03 When you're down in there, you can see there's been dissolving between those rocks. 00:31:08 So. 00:31:08 It happened when The Cave was still full. 00:31:10 For me and then there's calcite spar that formed at the end of the development of The Cave and that kind of closed up those open coating of spar that cemented them together and closed it. 00:31:24 When we were there. 00:31:25 We have strong air flow. 00:31:28 And if we're if The Cave is blowing out that day and you come out here and it's still in your face, that means that's the OR the rest of The Cave is if it was actually blowing the other way, then you might think that there are. 00:31:41 Entrances. 00:31:44 It's escaping. 00:31:46 This way and then going out those entrances. But if you are there and you still feel it in your face, that means most of the cases. 00:31:54 Here. 00:31:55 Just that it's not easy to cross. 00:31:58 And that's true. 00:31:59 I mean, not specifically because of faults, but. 00:32:04 There are fault lines through. 00:32:06 There's only it only connects here and here. 00:32:10 Not even here. 00:32:12 And it's a virtual straight line. 00:32:15 So and I can draw several of those straight lines and I can see there are places where The Cave where something 's trying to lock it off or keep it from happening. 00:32:25 But you can find that one hole you can get right on by. 00:32:30 And this one here. When you look at Zuma in, there's just one place where you cross from this through this and it's obviously a fault. 00:32:39 So it's a matter of still pushing out here until you find the one thing that comes through. Possibly you won't that, but maybe some of these things will come out here and then you'll get past OK. 00:32:55 Let's. 00:32:55 Fill in the picture a bit. 00:32:59 That is a line I'm going to show you a cross section on that line from. 00:33:05 A to a prime. 00:33:06 That's the yellow line. 00:33:10 And this is a diagram of uh. 00:33:12 Is actual data. I didn't. 00:33:15 Just randomly draw these in. 00:33:17 This is taking the data and looking at it as a cross section and you can see how it it seems to pinch off as it approaches this Canyon. 00:33:26 This is a little bit. 00:33:28 Not complete because there could be passages that come from. 00:33:32 And you know, make that a little bit more of a solid relationship, but over there, that's what's really happening. 00:33:40 There's no guesswork there. 00:33:41 The Cave gets down to two hundred and fifty feet below the top. 00:33:46 But it thins out the the thickness of The Cave system thins out and rises where it approaches the canyons. 00:33:54 And again, this pattern is. 00:33:57 True throughout the Black Hills. 00:33:59 Some pretty smoke caves. 00:34:02 So putting this all together. 00:34:07 This would be the Pass Creek area with a. 00:34:09 In it. 00:34:10 This would be the Hell Canyon area with a stream in it. 00:34:14 And umm, these would be fractures. This part here is just the pattern to show you that it's limestone, but these are the fractures. 00:34:22 Here is the bounding. 00:34:25 Shale below. 00:34:28 There's a real solid layer of shale up here, and then there's a layer that thins thickens and thins. 00:34:36 It's almost nothing but the total thickness is always forty feet. 00:34:40 So but we have water that that keeps it from coming from above. 00:34:44 It and we have obstructions that keep water that is going to come into this sandstone from these are going up here. 00:34:52 And we had the initial limestone that is not very permeable and not continuous, you know, completely continuous in its fractures. 00:35:01 I'm going to show you how valuable that that sandstone will be to actually make The Cave work. 00:35:08 So here both have cut. 00:35:10 This is cut down into the sandstone that is cut down into the sandstone. 00:35:15 And now gravity is just going to allow this stream to leak. 00:35:20 Into the sandstone, which is initially more permeable than the fractures. 00:35:28 Into that stream that will. 00:35:30 This will be a losing stream and that will be a gaining stream. 00:35:34 And now you've got your. 00:35:35 Now you've got your away to dissolve limestone and carry it away and make The Cave bigger. 00:35:42 And all the other things like. 00:35:46 And when you're when you're in this confined aquifer situation, water can come down. 00:35:53 And then go back up as long as the output is lower than the input. 00:35:58 That's just a hydrological. People know that happens. 00:36:03 And are those just normal erosion events? 00:36:05 Like allowing the water. 00:36:09 Yes. Well, whatever. Basically whatever erosion events. 00:36:17 Made Hell Canyon a steep Canyon. 00:36:20 See remember the original one was kind of a broad drainage. 00:36:27 And sometimes we can find. Well. No. No, that'll. I'm not at a place where I can tell you that 'cause. It'll get confusing. 00:36:34 But so what's happening is now it's starting to incise and once it reaches the shales. 00:36:41 And is in direct contact with that again, the Samsung 's going to take most of it, and even though it's like impermeable or it's permeable little connections between the sand grains. And it's only forty feet thick, there's actually more volume there than there is in The Cave today. 00:36:59 Sure, the passages are big. 00:37:01 Can hold huge volumes. 00:37:04 Looks complex, but it still it's still not enough volume. 00:37:08 Even equal this. 00:37:11 So that that's a little counterintuitive, but I've kind of worked through the math to do that. 00:37:16 So it's making those passages bigger. 00:37:20 And this is pretty much like quartz sandstone. 00:37:23 It's not much is it's not getting dissolved away or anything, but this is limestone and it is getting dissolved away. 00:37:33 But as time goes on. 00:37:35 This gets bigger because it's being dissolved away and the different sections begin to coalesce and we get some degree of continuity now, and this is going to take most. 00:37:46 The water. 00:37:49 But you still need this so that you have an output and see how this has cut down more deeply. 00:37:55 And you also have some of this sandstone collapsing down in to The Cave. 00:38:04 And that's the paleofil. 00:38:07 If you believe that The Cave formed three hundred million years ago, then you would believe that The Cave was already there through some different set of events. 00:38:16 The Mendeloosa Sea came in and it filled in that cave, and then The Cave as we know it today was kind of reexumed. 00:38:24 But when you actually look at these. 00:38:26 S. 00:38:27 We. 00:38:28 We don't see the remnants of an old K if we if I went down the AK Passage and I saw kind of like a partial opening all blocked with red. 00:38:39 And there was one on the other. 00:38:41 And maybe that passage. 00:38:43 So I could go. 00:38:44 The parallel passage and see the continuity. 00:38:47 Of that old original cave then I'd say textbook example. 00:38:52 Well, I've been in three quarters of this cave. 00:38:55 I've never seen a textbook in Sandy. 00:38:56 Yet so it looks to me like this stuff is simply collapsing from here and it's just sitting in place and it's whenever I give my talks, I call it Neo Phil. Paleo means old. 00:39:12 Neo means new, and if we're talking about the difference between thirty million years or less versus three hundred million years, that's an order of magnitude. 00:39:22 A legitimate difference to say to coin that idea of NEO. 00:39:27 Sure. 00:39:28 It's K, Phil. 00:39:30 But geologically, it's got to be newer. 00:39:34 Yeah. 00:39:34 About that actually, so with. 00:39:37 Is that also like part of the Middle East information? 00:39:40 That also be accurate to say that. 00:39:42 Yeah. 00:39:44 So are those sediments. 00:39:47 They were kind of deposited like. 00:39:49 One million years ago. 00:39:50 They weren't deposited long. 00:39:52 Either way, it's coming from the minalusa. 00:39:55 The question is, was it coming in by depositing into sinkholes of an already existing cave, or is it coming in when this cave forms up against it? 00:40:06 And all the there's way more evidence. But all the evidence shows seems to indicate it's concurrent. 00:40:13 Fill is collapsing in as The Cave is forming. 00:40:16 Since the settlers themselves are still old but. 00:40:19 Yes, yes. 00:40:20 Because it's like new. 00:40:20 It's the same settlements and it's the same age, but as far as being incorporated in The Cave. 00:40:21 So. 00:40:27 It's very different. 00:40:28 That. 00:40:28 Makes sense? 00:40:31 And then. 00:40:34 Once. 00:40:36 This could involve climate changes and things. 00:40:38 I'm just taking the simplest approach first. By the time that. 00:40:44 This cuts all the way through the sandstone. 00:40:46 Now, there's nothing to hold the water back, you know, to contain it. 00:40:51 So this. 00:40:51 Drains out and it dries. 00:40:54 Umm this when it was connected with an aquifer above flowed very well. 00:41:01 But now that we don't have that thing to provide the continuity, this is in the big picture. 00:41:07 Is still not very connected. 00:41:10 We've removed the weight of the water from up here. 00:41:14 That reduces the pressure. 00:41:17 In the water here and that allows carbon dioxide to degass. 00:41:23 I didn't mention earlier, but basically we start with the assumption that the water had picked up carbon dioxide from the soils and that made it a weak carbonic acid. 00:41:34 But it's like it's like pop. 00:41:38 Soda pop. You open the can and once you've released the constraint, it just bubbles off because that that dissolved dissolved carbon dioxide doesn't want to stay dissolved. It wants to get out. 00:41:51 So you've given it away to get out. 00:41:54 Now this is no longer. 00:41:58 Able to retain even what it had already dissolved. 00:42:03 So the. 00:42:03 The dissolved limestone that's in there starts to precipitate. 00:42:09 In a pretty much. 00:42:11 Standing still, body of water and that's what gives us the calcite spar. 00:42:18 That tool cave is famous for. 00:42:21 So that spar is really the lat is the termination of the development. 00:42:26 Of The Cave. 00:42:29 And then it drains. 00:42:32 I haven't. 00:42:33 I have the idea, but I haven't developed it completely. 00:42:37 These cracks always were able to maybe leak. 00:42:40 On down. 00:42:41 We don't have any place where we can see what it does at the top of this, so I am assuming that it's still, but it it's way less than the water that was moving over this way. 00:42:52 Just and so The Cave would be slowly draining out that way, doing whatever it's going to do. 00:42:59 Maybe it gets to the top of the shale and goes downhill and then comes out of springs far away. 00:43:05 But without that water in there. 00:43:08 Which provided buoyancy, it will support about forty percent of the weight of limestone. I learned something like this when I was a kid at the lake is a big rock. 00:43:19 Start picking in in the. 00:43:21 You start picking it up. It feels this heavy. 00:43:23 As soon as you get it up. 00:43:24 The air it feels sixty. 00:43:26 Or forty percent heavier. 00:43:30 So these are just basic. 00:43:32 There's lots of details to be worked out, but. 00:43:35 This works and it puts it in a real world context. 00:43:42 It's one thing to have a theory, but does your geology. 00:43:48 Here at Pass Creek and down in and Hell Canyon and having these layer does, do they actually make it work? 00:43:57 They do. 00:43:59 Everything has fit together well without any. 00:44:04 Without forcing it. 00:44:06 There. 00:44:09 I guess. 00:44:09 Some sort of event that would have caused all the water to drink rather than like. Wouldn't it kind of stay full of water over time? 00:44:18 Once the once this is cut through, I think not. 00:44:22 Because there's just nothing when it was. When the water levels up here, there was. 00:44:26 To hold. 00:44:27 Back so it could. 00:44:29 Umm this all could be in conjunction. 00:44:34 Climate changes and things like that. 00:44:36 But again, I'm trying to take the the simplest, most obvious approach first, and this is called Occam's razor. Take philosophically, always choose the simplest explanation and don't make it more complicated unless the evidence forces you to. 00:44:53 Because if you start by. 00:44:55 You know, trying, you know, dozens of different. 00:44:58 It's so easy to read something in there. It just becomes more guesswork. 00:45:02 Keep it as simple as possible. 00:45:05 But then, when the evidence forces you, you. 00:45:08 Make and don't. 00:45:09 Adapt it until the evidence forces you to. 00:45:12 So my guess, and I guess I'm asking because there is no longer. 00:45:20 Evidence of water entering anywhere. 00:45:24 Are there no stalactites or stalagmites in this case? 00:45:27 There are in that one quarter of one percent that I mentioned, yeah. 00:45:32 Where? Umm. I don't have a very clear picture here. 00:45:38 Basically where? 00:45:40 Primarily, this shale is breached. 00:45:43 That's where we would get dripping water. 00:45:46 And so it's always like on the edge of the canyons and in a couple places where there is obviously some faulting has taken place that has. 00:45:55 Reached the sale, but it's it's it's really compelling. If I showed you a. 00:46:01 With all. 00:46:01 Drip sites in. 00:46:02 Cave and corresponded with the the the breaching of that shale. It's it's very compelling. 00:46:10 So that's what you were asking. 00:46:13 Once that side dries up and there's nothing to hold the water in, you think then? 00:46:17 Just kind of naturally. 00:46:18 Drained out like. 00:46:20 Yeah, yeah. 00:46:21 Just worked its way down through. 00:46:23 So either went out or down, yeah. 00:46:25 Yeah. No it is. 00:46:28 This isn't the best diagram for this, but I have another presentation for it where I have the good the good thing. Rain water does come down through these sandstones. Then it gets intercepted by the shale. 00:46:42 And so today, all of the springs for miles and miles around are that we have are coming off the top of the. 00:46:50 Where it's exposed, I mean, I only discovered this last year that every single one of them you. 00:46:56 Know I haven't. 00:46:58 Mapped out the whole extent, but for miles and miles, every single spring is coming off of this shale. 00:47:08 So there's oh. 00:47:11 Is remember I talked about Monocle I. 00:47:14 These are blocks of sandstone in The Cave. 00:47:18 Have come down at that Monocle line so that monocline kind of broke things enough for stuff to fall through. 00:47:25 Down indicative. 00:47:27 And it's already solid rock. 00:47:29 It's cross. 00:47:30 It looks identical to rock that you see in road cuts on the West side of how. 00:47:37 That meant it was already there and it had already become rock before it went into the caves. 00:47:43 And it's way different than if The Cave already existed and then AC is sending sediments down. 00:47:49 See how that would be. 00:47:52 So this is more evidence that this is on the newer end of of geology. 00:48:00 Right after they redid the, they slightly widened the road. 00:48:04 The highway. 00:48:07 This was a fresh cut. 00:48:09 Still not there yet. 00:48:10 This this was a fresh. 00:48:12 It's harder to see now, but we can see that. 00:48:18 This is a collapse. 00:48:21 So basically The Cave was forming and it was allowing things to collapse. Then higher things collapsed, and then the farther up you go, the less room there is to collapse into. 00:48:31 So it's hard to tell here whether it ever made it to the surface, but this is basically a sinkhole. 00:48:39 Was forming. 00:48:40 Because the metal loosa was collapsing into The Cave. 00:48:44 Uh, when they were doing the redoing, the road, they broke into this. 00:48:49 This is all sandstone. 00:48:51 I went in very unstable standstill. 00:48:53 Went in. 00:48:55 I mapped it and then they filled it with concrete because it's a danger, but also it kind of curved around and went underneath the road. And if this, you know if water started rushing on there and undercut stuff in the road, that would be. 00:49:09 But see this. 00:49:09 Just the very top of that collapse. 00:49:13 Just a few feet remained and anymore collapse would basically filled it completely because Broken Rock takes up more space than solid rock. 00:49:23 OK. 00:49:26 No, I don't want it. 00:49:27 It's almost well, we still have a little bit of time. 00:49:31 So I'm going back to this. 00:49:35 And I'm. 00:49:35 I think I'm gonna look at. Yeah, OK. 00:49:41 This. 00:49:43 How did I say this? 00:49:46 There is no point lower. 00:49:52 Than this, that water can come. 00:49:55 It has to go downhill to there, so I just kind of did an outline of this cave of these cave passages. 00:50:04 Because by knowing how much area or? 00:50:09 Exposure. 00:50:11 This is how that controls how much water can go in at any given time. 00:50:16 But what's going on here is going to be that's going to control how much water can come out. 00:50:23 So really. 00:50:25 That there's your recharge. 00:50:27 Your discharge. 00:50:28 The narrower discharge is going to constrain the amount of water. 00:50:32 That can form. 00:50:33 I'm going to try to predict how fast the. 00:50:37 Can form. 00:50:38 I'm going to assume that we've got another hundred and fifty miles up here. 00:50:43 Give it. 00:50:43 Benefit of the doubt that has to be dissolved. 00:50:47 As we're forming the. 00:50:48 I can't just pick what we know. 00:50:50 So I'm going to assume that it's everywhere in here. To be fair to this assessment of how long it would take for The Cave to form. 00:50:58 Oh, I thought I took this. 00:50:59 We're not going to go into this right now. 00:51:03 Oh. 00:51:07 I think I took out something that I did not want to take out. 00:51:13 Yeah, I took out the wrong thing. 00:51:14 If you just explain a little bit. 00:51:18 OK. 00:51:19 So this ends up being a what do you call that shape? 00:51:25 No, it's four sided. 00:51:28 This. 00:51:28 Kind of like a trapezoidal thing. 00:51:31 You could draw it in three dimensions. 00:51:33 Can apply. 00:51:36 A hydrologic formula to it. 00:51:39 The. 00:51:39 The amount of water that's going to flow over any given amount of time is going to be dependent on the permeability of the rock. 00:51:48 It's dependent on the elevation difference. The steeper it is, the faster it will go, and it's going to. 00:51:57 And it's going to be constrained by the area where it can come out at that at that narrow end. And based on that, I was able to calculate. 00:52:10 Then I had another diagram. 00:52:13 That would tell me making some basic assumptions of temperature. 00:52:19 And pressure and we we look at this, this is all happening in recent geology. 00:52:24 So there's really no likelihood that it this formed when it was a thousand feet underground. 00:52:29 So I could make assumptions about. 00:52:32 The temperature in particular. 00:52:37 And estimate the amount of. 00:52:41 Of limestone that would resolved per liter. 00:52:46 And then I took the number of liters for all of this, plus the assumed amount. 00:52:51 And divide it into it and got a time that it would just a minimum amount. Basic assumption estimate of what it would take to dissolve out that caveat. 00:53:03 A. 00:53:03 Hundred ten. 00:53:03 Million years. 00:53:06 One point one million years. 00:53:09 That and no. 00:53:11 No monkeying with the data or anything. 00:53:14 That was an eye opener. 00:53:19 So it would only take that we have one radiometric date on the spar. 00:53:24 Remember, the spar was coming like the termination of cave development, because now all the water is gone. 00:53:30 Can't. 00:53:31 It's not coming. 00:53:32 It's not going to make them more sparse. 00:53:34 So that's been dated at about eleven. 00:53:39 Let me. 00:53:39 Yeah, about eleven million years. 00:53:42 So The Cave could. 00:53:43 Stopped forming eleven million years ago and started forming only a million years before that. 00:53:51 So that makes it geologically very recent. 00:53:55 There are lots of other things. 00:53:56 Three or four more talks. 00:54:00 To support this idea, and I apologize. 00:54:02 I deleted the wrong sides. 00:54:06 Yeah, this is complicated. 00:54:10 Basically all all that what what it says is. 00:54:14 This method of. 00:54:16 Dissolving out The Cave. 00:54:19 Would be much more effective. 00:54:21 Then where it's coming through this blanket and doing this, then most of the traditional guesthouse of how fast it would dissolve. 00:54:33 But it's too complicated for this talk. 00:54:35 So the question is, since carbon dioxide is the the thing that makes it acidic. 00:54:44 Is there enough carbon dioxide to make this happen? 00:54:49 And. 00:54:52 Perhaps if microbes entering the sandstone aquifer encounter a food source like organic carbon in shale and clay layers? 00:55:02 Basically, they metabolize the shale and they convert it to carbon dioxide. 00:55:09 That's one of the biggest problems with the whole carbon dioxide thing. If it's coming from soils, then why? 00:55:14 Then it should be most acidic here and it should just pinch off as it goes in the Jewel cave is big and small and big and small. 00:55:22 But so is there enough? 00:55:25 Carbon dioxide to make it happen this way, and the answer is. 00:55:32 We could be generating way more common dioxide than we would ever get right at the surface by the microbes metabolizing the the free carbon in the cells and just saturating this whole thing with carbon dioxide. 00:55:47 And that way you can get it way down underneath and still strong enough to. 00:55:52 Big passages. 00:56:03 Cane plant material and stuff like that. 00:56:06 No, I'm pretty sure I do know that there have been studies on some of the coloring that a lot of times like stalactites will be red because there's iron. 00:56:19 But there are times when organic acids, not actual material but organic acids can Causeway the same chloration and vice versa, just because it has something in there doesn't mean it's necessarily going to be that color. 00:56:34 It's a little more. 00:56:36 A little more complicated than that, and we're getting into fine degrees of geochemistry that I don't think anyone has sorted out to this point. 00:56:45 More of. 00:56:47 Take samples you test and then you see that this is either from that or from the other thing. 00:56:52 It's not good enough that you can actually predict. 00:56:55 OK, now. 00:56:58 That's I asked that question of Hazel Martin and Penny Boston. 00:57:03 Hazel Barton is a well known caver who has gotten very deep into. 00:57:09 Studying extremophiles especially. 00:57:14 Umm. 00:57:16 Microbes. 00:57:19 They have very unusual. 00:57:22 Qualities that you were unexpected. 00:57:25 Penny Boston was a caver and a geologist, and I don't know if she still is, but for a time she was head of Nasas. 00:57:35 Exo biology program trying to figure out what you would need to decide whether there was. 00:57:41 Life on Mars? 00:57:43 So these are people that know what they're talking about. 00:57:46 Is not a big scientific I didn't. 00:57:48 You know, they're just. 00:57:49 I'm just asking them is this a possibility or is it completely not possible? 00:57:57 And remember, here's here's our shale that is right there between the top of the well, there's sale up here, But there's also sale right here. 00:58:07 Is the sandstone at one time it was an aquifer and it had this intermittent shale in here. 00:58:13 So it was an intimate contact with shale. 00:58:16 And then so Hazel said. This is a quote from something she wrote. 00:58:21 Microorganisms change the local geochemistry and can dramatically accelerate spleenesis and even lead the K formation in geochemical environments that would otherwise not be conducive to dissolution. 00:58:35 Like a quartzite sand cave, which is not eroded out, it's been dissolved out. 00:58:41 Quartz does not normally dissolve, but those those microbes. 00:58:47 Catalyze. 00:58:51 OK. 00:58:53 I got a little technical but I. 00:58:56 Think you would? 00:58:57 What's getting the idea? 00:58:59 What kind of question is? 00:59:02 In the years that you've been working on this in those predecessors that were working on it, have there been any earthquakes in this area that can affect the caves and wood, an earthquake? 00:59:15 Well, I mean, at one point with all the fracturing and the faulting, you know, during the uplift of the hills and and maybe in the aftermath of that in many years past. 00:59:27 You know, eons past. Yes. Today I've been in The Cave and both here in Edwin Cave. And when there were earthquakes. 00:59:38 Then killed thing. What happens is though somehow that earthquake is, I believe is setting up like it's low, low, low frequency you. 00:59:48 Barely hear it. 00:59:49 It's setting up. 00:59:51 Pulses. 00:59:54 In The Cave air and you can hear it. 00:59:58 There's a place where we were surveying and I thought I heard something. You. 01:00:03 Know for a couple. 01:00:03 Seconds. But I thought it was my. 01:00:06 Like a low rumble. And just as I spoke up, we all spoke up at the same time and said. 01:00:13 Did you hear that? 01:00:14 OK. And then we were like wild. 01:00:17 Did something collapse, or would we feel a surge of air? 01:00:21 There be dust. 01:00:22 We trapped. 01:00:23 Nothing. We came out. Everything is the. 01:00:26 But I at the time the School of Mines had a seismograph. 01:00:29 And we verified. 01:00:30 With them that there was a tremor, a four point, something tremor halfway between here and. 01:00:43 Some near igloo. 01:00:45 Umm. 01:00:47 I'm spacing it out. Oh anyway. 01:00:51 Down there, down South and it was that exact same time. 01:00:56 Wow. 01:00:57 That no one felt it on the surface either. 01:01:00 So today, it's not in for a long time and you know for thousands of years at least. 01:01:08 There's not been anything that. 01:01:09 Make any difference?

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Tags: geology, caves and karst, speleology

December 13, 2024

Geology, Caves, and Resource Management

Transcript

Transcript

Discovery Hour Transcript- Sydney Hansen 12/13/2024 Musical Intro Hello and Welcome to Jewel Cave National Monument’s 125 Years of Discovery podcast, Discovery Hour. Join us this episode as we listen to an introduction to geology from the park’s Physical Science technician Sydney Hansen- recorded on December 13th, 2024. A transcript of this podcast is available on our website www.nps.gov/jeca. Thank you for listening! Interlude

Transcript 00:00:00 Today I'm going to be presenting to you all about geology, caves and kind of what resource management does here at Jewel Cave, along the lines of, you know, cave management. 00:00:09 And I am Sydney Hansen, and I'm the physical science technician here. 00:00:13 I just started in June, but here we are. 00:00:15 A good time. 00:00:18 And I am the first speaker in the guest speaker series for Discovery. 00:00:23 There's a hundred twenty five years of discovery this year, and so to kick it off, we're going to do one speaker every month where someone 00:00:29 Comes in and gives a presentation something related to Jewel Cave or Science, so stay tuned if you're interested in this series, it'll be another one next month. 00:00:38 Don't know if we have an exact date yet. 00:00:40 We're gonna kind of start off with a little overview of basic geology because I don't expect everyone in this room to be geologists. 00:00:46 It's kind of unrealistic 00:00:47 So I love audience participation. 00:00:50 So I will be asking for a lot of participation. 00:00:52 So does anyone know what exactly the study of geology is or want to take a guess? 00:01:00 The study of rocks? 00:01:01 I was really hoping someone was gonna say that because it's not actually the study of rocks. 00:01:06 More or less it’s the study of Earth, the study of Earths structures, substances and the processes that act on the Earth. 00:01:14 So it's way broader than just the study of rocks. 00:01:18 But thank you for answering. 00:01:20 Rocks are part of it though. 00:01:21 Yes. 00:01:23 So there are three main rock types, and I'll go over each one of these and then the main rock type of jewel cave. Well, that one is sedimentary rocks. 00:01:32 So our first type, we have actually all three types of rocks here in the Black Hills, which is kind of fun because it doesn't happen everywhere like where I'm from in Ohio, all we have are Sed rocks. 00:01:41 Not very exciting. 00:01:42 But here we have all three, which is awesome. 00:01:45 So here in this first picture up on the left, the top left we have a picture of Jewel Cave. 00:01:50 It's basically a bunch of layers of sediments and this is a particularly fun area because it's called geologist delight and a lot of geologists just love to stop and look at it because there's a lot going on here geology wise. 00:02:00 You've got the layers that are stacked on top of each other. 00:02:03 So when sedimentary rocks get deposited, 00:02:05 Usually they're deposited flat on top of each other. 00:02:08 And different forces acting on the rocks is what causes them to become folded and faulted. 00:02:11 And so in this picture you have basically you can kind of see the layers of the rocks, but you can also see that there are some weird forces acting on them because they're not entirely flat, which is awesome. 00:02:21 And then in this other picture you have the Badlands. 00:02:23 A pretty characteristic example of sedimentary rocks. 00:02:26 A lot of fossils there. 00:02:28 Eroding away pretty quickly. 00:02:29 Most of the time they're not super resistant as far as rock types 00:02:32 Go and then. 00:02:34 Top right, you have the textbook picture of sedimentary rocks. 00:02:36 You open a book about sedimentology, you're going to see the Wave. 00:02:40 Just the textbook picture. 00:02:42 Its actually Lithified sand dunes. 00:02:43 So most people think of sand dunes as loose sand grains floating around everywhere, if they were to actually be a Hard Rock, that's what it would look like. 00:02:53 The next rock type that we have are igneous rocks. Umm, so up in this picture here you can see that we've got the Cathedral Spires out at the Black Hills and Custer State Park. 00:03:03 Typically you're igneous rocks are going to be super resistant and so that's why they stick up out of the ground so much. 00:03:09 And the rest of the ground is more flat. 00:03:11 So these are typically the rocks that make up your mountains. They're going to be the more resistant rocks that you see forming all these high areas. And then you've also got your volcanic rocks. 00:03:20 So anytime you see volcanoes or volcanic rock, that's also an igneous rock. Igneous rocks form when you've got kind of magma or lava. 00:03:28 Any type of like molten 00:03:29 rock and when it solidifies, that becomes an igneous rock. They can be extrusive or intrusive, meaning that they can form outside the Earth 's crust or inside the 00:03:37 Earth’s 00:03:37 Crust in the case of our cathedral Spires. 00:03:41 They formed inside the earth and eventually 00:03:44 When the Rocky Mountains started uplifting, it caused uplift here and the igneous rocks that were inside the earth started rising up higher and higher and solidified. 00:03:52 That's kind of what gave us our cathedral Spires, which is kind of cool. 00:03:56 And then the third and final type of rock that we have, our metamorphic rocks, this picture on the far left is actually an example of what we have here in Custer. 00:04:04 Was taken off the Mickelson Trail. It's. 00:04:07 It's called schist. It has a lot of different shiny minerals in it, so a lot of times your super, super shiny kind of smooth looking rocks are 00:04:13 Going to be your metamorphic rocks. 00:04:15 And these typically form under heat and pressure without becoming molten. 00:04:18 Anytime a rock becomes molten, that's when it becomes igneous. 00:04:21 Before it reaches that molten phase is when it's metamorphic. 00:04:25 It's characteristic because, you know, if you have sedimentary rocks that get buried super deep and then it gets really warm. Those minerals that make up these rocks become unstable and so they'll change their composition and become all new minerals, creating your metamorphic rocks. And so a lot of the 00:04:39 Minerals you'll see in these rocks only form in metamorphic rocks because they have to change in order to become stable in whatever state that they're forming in. 00:04:46 These are my personal favorite ones. 00:04:48 Don’t Tell Jewel Cave. 00:04:49 I really like metamorphic rocks. 00:04:50 I think they're pretty and I think their colors are fun. Like you can have red minerals and blue minerals and green minerals. Sedimentary rocks aren't that colorful. I don't know. 00:04:59 I think they're pretty. 00:05:01 So sometimes with metamorphic rocks, the grains will align so they can get compressed. 00:05:05 And then a lot of times the grains will align to form with that compression compressional. 00:05:10 Force and so another example of a metamorphic rock would be you're gniess, which is typically known to be banded. 00:05:17 And so it's this is the one on the right, is a schist, but it kind of has that kind of like, gneissic, like looking banding to it, which basically just means it was compressed so much that the minerals aligned into these special looking lines. 00:05:30 And then if anyone has a birthstone or a birthday in January, the red mineral garnet is your your birth stone. 00:05:37 You got a metamorphic rock mineral. 00:05:42 So in geology, we talked about how it's very broad. 00:05:45 It's the study of Earth, not necessarily like the study of rocks. Within geology 00:05:48 There are thirty seven sub disciplines and I'm not going to talk about all thirty seven of these, but these are basically where you get more specific. 00:05:56 Are you going to study water? 00:05:57 You going to study rocks? 00:05:58 You going to study? 00:05:59 Formations. That's kind of where these thirty seven sub disciplines come into play and I'll touch on a few of them. Definitely not all of them. 00:06:05 That's a lot of disciplines. 00:06:08 So the first one petrology, does anyone want to guess what the study of petrology is? 00:06:13 Study of rocks. 00:06:14 Kind of yes. 00:06:15 So petrology is actually the study of Rocks. 00:06:19 Not geology, but petrology. 00:06:21 So when you study petrology, you're studying rocks, their formations, what makes them up 00:06:26 You study a lot of like a lot of times, you'll actually cut rocks down and you'll like, look at them under a microscope and figure out what makes up these rocks, their characteristics. 00:06:34 So petrology is actually the study of rocks. 00:06:36 It's a fun little trick question that I love asking people. 00:06:42 Geomorphology. Does anyone have any idea what this one is? 00:06:47 Study of rock formations. 00:06:48 That's pretty close. 00:06:49 It's basically the study of Earth’s landscapes. 00:06:52 How they like change, how they form, how they're going to change in the future. 00:06:56 So anytime you're like looking at the Grand Canyon, for example, and you're like, how did that Canyon form, that would be the study of geomorphology? 00:07:03 You're essentially studying how Earth 's landscapes have formed and how they're going to evolve in the future. 00:07:07 If you're looking at a mountain and you're like what’s that going to 00:07:09 Look like in ten million years, that would be a geomorphology study. 00:07:13 So it's basically anytime you're looking at earth landscapes and how they're gonna evolve and form. 00:07:21 Paleontology this one 's easy. 00:07:23 Anyone want to take a gander at this one? 00:07:25 Yeah, the study of ancient life. And fossils so a lot of times when people go into geology, they'll be like, I want to study dinosaurs. And if you want to study dinosaurs, you're going to study paleontology. 00:07:36 There's actually more than just dinosaurs in paleontology. You've got all your little buddies here, like a gastropod. 00:07:42 Got trilobites, You've got little fishy fossils. 00:07:45 The fish fossils are actually from the Green River Formation out in western Wyoming, which is kind of cool. 00:07:49 Sort of pretty. 00:07:50 Local they were actually fun fact. They formed because of the massive Yellowstone eruption. 00:07:56 The ash fell into these lakes and killed all the fish and so 00:07:59 Now. 00:07:59 We have basically Yellowstone fish. 00:08:03 There are fossils in Jewel Cave. 00:08:05 I have a couple slides that talk about like the formation of Jewel Cave and some of the fossils you'll find in this area. But a lot of the stuff you'll find are corals and little like shelly creatures called brachiopods. 00:08:17 They typically form the pahasapa limestone which. 00:08:20 Which indicates that there was a shallow sea. 00:08:23 So you have your corals and your little shelly guys kind of like how if you were to go to the ocean, you'll see the coral reefs and you'll see little snail shells. 00:08:31 More or less kind of what was there when Jewel Cave was an ocean. 00:08:38 So, mineralogy, does anyone want to take a guess about what the study of mineralogy is? 00:08:44 Yeah, the study of minerals, their chemical makeups, their physical properties and just like 00:08:50 How atoms make up everything? 00:08:52 Minerals make up all the rocks, and so you can't have a rock without having minerals 00:08:56 And so when you're studying mineralogy, you're basically studying how the rocks are made, what they're made of, their chemical and physical properties. 00:09:03 This is a pretty intense course if you're a geology major. It's one of the hefty ones. 00:09:08 But yeah, minerals are super pretty 00:09:11 They're like the purest form, and so if you have a rock that is entirely made-up of one mineral, it's not actually rock. It's just a mineral. 00:09:17 So this would be a lot of your birth stones, stuff like that. 00:09:20 Precious gems. 00:09:24 So the study of volcanology. Does anyone want to guess what the study of volcanology is? 00:09:30 Yeah. So volcanology study of volcanoes and volcanism. 00:09:35 Pretty self explanatory 00:09:37 You see a volcano you want to study it, you're going to study volcanology. 00:09:40 You can study the magma flows 00:09:42 You can study the lava tubes, the different types of rocks that come from the volcanoes. 00:09:46 Typically those are basalts. 00:09:48 You're pumices, your scoria. 00:09:50 You've got all sorts of 00:09:52 Tuff. a bunch of different fun rock types that you can only find from volcanoes. 00:09:56 I actually got into geology because I wanted to study volcanoes and then I started school and then I was like, you know what? 00:10:02 I like geomorphology and so, I became a geomorphologist. And then from that started studying caves. 00:10:08 So I was all over the place. 00:10:10 Yes. 00:10:11 That's a pretty popular one in the geology world. 00:10:14 And then hydrology? 00:10:16 Does anyone want to guess what hydrology is? 00:10:21 Yeah. 00:10:22 So it's a study of movement, distribution and properties of water. When I was in my graduate program, I did kind of a combination of stuff. 00:10:30 I did your geomorphology, your hydrology and then I also studied caves, which is I will get to that later. 00:10:37 Can't spoil it, but so the study of hydrology you can do different things 00:10:42 So you can kind of study like the chemical makeup of the water, like what's the pH, the disturbance of the water, kind of what, how 00:10:50 Polluted is the water. 00:10:52 You can also study things like what I was doing where you're 00:10:55 Studying the water depth and the salinity of the water and trying to figure out how that affects the formation of caves so you can do a lot of different stuff with hydrology. That also would include things like your aquifers, your water pollution. 00:11:09 A lot of environmentalists will study hydrology because you know, a lot of people care about the quality of the water we're drinking. And so a lot of people will study hydrology 00:11:16 If they want to go into environmental fields too. 00:11:22 Planetary geology. I think this one might be a bit tough. 00:11:25 Anyone wanna try to guess what this one is? 00:11:30 The study of rocks on other planets and moons. 00:11:32 Yeah, more or less, yeah. Geology of celestial bodies 00:11:35 So you can study the geology on planets, stars, moons, anything in outer space. Really. 00:11:41 Obviously we can't go to space. 00:11:43 Well, I mean we can, but we can't really. 00:11:46 We can't really go to Saturn and study Saturn, so a lot of the stuff that you do with planetary geology, you actually study from microscopes and super powerful cameras. 00:11:55 If you wanted to study like the Moon or Mars, we have Rovers on there that can like bring back rocks and you can do chemical analyses. 00:12:00 That, but a lot of what you do isn't actually obviously in outer space. You have to do it here on Earth. 00:12:07 But it's still really interesting 00:12:09 It's a fun little thing to touch on because I think. 00:12:11 It's a different type of geology because it's not something everyone does and it honestly is really complicated. 00:12:16 I think it's pretty cool 00:12:17 To give this one a shout out. 00:12:20 And then the study of speleology. 00:12:22 Does anyone want to guess what the study of speleology is? 00:12:28 Closer. 00:12:31 Formations. 00:12:32 Close. It's the study of caves and karst features 00:12:36 So you're studying (…..??? Not sure exactly what I said here but I don’t think the transcript was right) the karst features part of that. But yeah, so overall the study of The Cave. 00:12:42 We do a lot of that here cuz. 00:12:43 You know right 00:12:44 Below us is a giant cave. 00:12:48 Yeah. 00:12:48 But yeah, so with that, I'm going to segway into the caves part of the talk and we're going to start talking about Jewel Cave and different types of caves. 00:12:57 So in caves we have a lot of different formations. 00:13:00 These are called speleothems and so you'll hear a lot of people that study caves and say, oh, yeah, we're going to go do some sort of test on this speleothem 00:13:07 When we say speleothems, we're basically just talking about some sort of cave 00:13:10 Feature and I'm going to kind of go through the different ones that we have in Jewel Cave specifically. 00:13:15 So if you haven't taken a tour yet and you're going to, this is one that you're going to see on the scenic route. If that's where you decide to go. This is our cave bacon. 00:13:23 You'll notice that a lot of cavers decide to name things after food 00:13:27 I'm not entirely sure why, but there's a lot of stuff in there named after food. 00:13:30 So cave Bacon is a type of drapery that forms essentially when water is dripping down the wall and it distributes that calcite and it kind of just forms like this fun little flowy fashion. 00:13:40 And when 00:13:40 Lit up. It looks like a piece of bacon. 00:13:43 So then we also have a lot of formations that are made with a really delicate mineral called gypsum. 00:13:48 If you touch it, it's basically going to crumble 00:13:50 So we try really, really, really hard not to disturb our gypsum formations. 00:13:54 This is just one of the types of gypsum formation, this one we have on one of our kind of like training routes. 00:13:59 They're called cave spiders. 00:14:02 So this one just has like a bunch of little leg looking things with like a little top and so it kind of reminds us of a spider just with a bunch of legs. 00:14:09 But yeah, super delicate 00:14:10 We do not touch the gypsum. 00:14:13 In Jewel Cave, we don't have ones that are quite this big, but these are rimstone dams. 00:14:17 They basically form when you have calcite that deposits and forms like essentially a dam for the water, and so you'll have water puddles inside these giant looking 00:14:27 Essentially, dams. 00:14:29 These ones were actually multiple feet tall 00:14:31 You had to hurdle over top of them, but in Jewel Cave they're a lot smaller. 00:14:34 They're like centimeters tall or inches tall, depending on where you are. 00:14:39 And then here this is like our most popular and most notable formation in Jewel Cave. 00:14:43 Our calcite spar. 00:14:45 Calcite spar is just a bunch of really pretty crystals that form on top of all of our rocks. A lot of times from the deposition of our calcite from when the water was filling The Cave and then drained out leaves behind all that calcite and then it bonds to. 00:14:58 That's when for an example of when you would study mineralogy is trying to figure out why these crystals are bonding together. 00:15:04 But they would bond together and then they form these really pretty calcite spar and in Jewel cave we have two different types 00:15:09 We have our nail head and our dog tooth spar. If you take a tour, you can see both different types of spar on that tour. 00:15:16 And then here another example of one of our hungry caver names is soda straws. 00:15:20 So we have a lot of soda straws in The Cave. 00:15:24 Essentially, they're very similar to stalactites, except one main difference. 00:15:27 They’re Hollow. 00:15:28 So they're basically like a straw. If you were to pluck one from the ceiling and try to drink out of it, it would work the same as a straw. 00:15:32 I wouldn't recommend doing that. 00:15:34 That’s a no no. 00:15:34 But if you were to hypothetically do that. 00:15:36 That's the difference between a stalactite and a soda straw. 00:15:41 And then down here, this is kind of. 00:15:43 A. 00:15:44 Big collage of different formations 00:15:46 So you kind of have a rimstone dam down here, but then you've also got your stalagmites. 00:15:50 And your stalactites. 00:15:51 So stalactites hang tight to ceiling and then stalagmites. I remember it as 00:15:55 In like little bugs that crawl around on the ground. 00:15:57 Don't know. 00:15:58 That's how I remember it, but. 00:16:00 That's just me. 00:16:02 So yeah, your 00:16:03 stalagmites are the ones that grow from the bottom up and your stalactites. 00:16:05 The ones that grow top down. 00:16:07 And then here another food name got cave popcorn. 00:16:11 Everyone likes popcorn 00:16:12 Maybe you don’t. 00:16:13 But a lot of people like popcorn 00:16:14 It's basically when you've got these calcite formations that form in these weird like lumpy fashions and they're really bumpy and they're honestly really not fun to crawl on. They're kind 00:16:22 Painful, but. 00:16:24 Yeah, so you got cave popcorn 00:16:26 Kind of just looks like popcorn or sometimes people say like cauliflower, but more or less we call them all popcorn. 00:16:32 And then we've got fun ones, these are called helictites 00:16:33 These are essentially they're very similar to your stalactites and soda straws except their axis of formation changes and so they're kind of like curvy and windy. 00:16:42 There are all sorts of funky shapes like I've seen ones that form in 00:16:45 The shapes of ‘U’s 00:16:47 Anything that you see that isn't completely, you know, on the same axis of formation, that's a helictite. 00:16:55 And then we've got box work. This is more popular at Wind Cave. 00:16:59 Wind Cave has a lot of box work. 00:17:00 It's actually not a super common formation, which is why it's so exciting that we have them here and at Wind cave. You won't see this in very many caves. 00:17:08 A very delicate formation and takes very 00:17:12 Specific conditions to form and so we're really excited that we actually have some here. 00:17:18 It Basically forms when calcite gets into like the cracks of rocks and then the rock actually erodes away, and then you're left with these really thin bands of calcite. That kind of just look like 00:17:25 Insides of a cardboard box 00:17:28 And then last but not least, we've got flowstone. 00:17:31 So flowstone is essentially the deposition of calcite across rocks, kind of similar to your cave bacon, except instead of kind of forming where gravity could take it, it forms kind of on the ground with the gravity and creates really pretty draperies. 00:17:47 So you'll have kind of calcite that looks like a waterfall. 00:17:50 It just looks like a rock waterfall. 00:17:58 So in order for caves to form, there's kind of three different processes that you'll have. 00:18:04 These include erosion, dissolution and then your lava flows 00:18:07 So lava actually forms its own type of cave, which is kind of cool. 00:18:11 So the first type of cave that you'll get 00:18:13 Is erosional. 00:18:14 This essentially forms when caves 00:18:17 Get hit with some sort of erosional factor. 00:18:19 This could be wind 00:18:20 It could be like grains of something else smacking into the rock and a, like slowly weathering it away overtime. 00:18:25 Not a very quick process by any means. 00:18:27 So one really good example is on shorelines, when you have the waves crashing into rocks consistently, eventually that will create a cave. If it keeps crashing into the same spot over and over again because it weathers away that rock so easily. 00:18:40 It's from when your particles are abrading the walls, and so in this picture 00:18:44 You actually have these little divots like they're actually called scallops. 00:18:48 So in cave when you get rocks and water, they're crashing against the walls with really high velocity, it actually chips away at The Cave walls and makes it larger. And we call those scallops. And so in this case, the enlargement of this passage would be erosional, not 00:19:00 Actually dissolution. 00:19:05 And in our case we have solutional cave 00:19:07 So here at Jewel Cave it's a solution cave. 00:19:10 It forms basically when you have acidic rock that gets into the cracks or acidic rock, acidic water that gets into the cracks of these rocks and dissolves away the rock overtime so. 00:19:20 In classic examples, caves are typically made in limestone, and so when you get that acid that reacts with the limestone, it actually dissolves the rock away and enlarges the passages. 00:19:29 That's kind of what happened here at Jewel Cave. 00:19:32 It commonly forms in rocks that are made of calcite, which is our limestone, and the acid that erodes it away, is typically carbonic acid, so it mixes with Co2 in the atmosphere and the soil. 00:19:42 Then reacts with that limestone and then erodes away all the rock. Not all the rock, but a lot of the rock. 00:19:50 And then we've got our lava flows. So the last type of formation of caves is with lava rock. 00:19:55 A lot of times when you've got kind of slow moving lava, the tops will cool 00:20:00 Like the tops and sides will cool a lot quicker than the inside because it's more in contact with the surface temperature until you get this nice shell of Hard Rock. But then on the inside you're going to have all this magma that's still warm, and so it's going 00:20:11 Actually end up moving out of that lava tube eventually, and it stops somewhere. 00:20:15 And so you're left with this hollow passage, which is pretty cool. And then similarly with basalt a lot of times it'll have, like gas pockets in it. 00:20:22 So if you have a magma tube with a bunch of gas in it, eventually it's going to find an opening and disperse. 00:20:29 And so you can actually be left with gas pockets too, so you can have kind of two different formations of these lava tubes. 00:20:34 Can have gas filled lava that eventually just disperses, and you're left with a nice little cave. 00:20:40 Or you can have more of like a tube where the inside just kind of like float out. 00:20:48 And then we're going to talk a little bit more about the specifics of the formation of Jewel Cave. 00:20:53 Like I mentioned, this was formed by the dissolution of that limestone. 00:20:55 It's a Solultional cave 00:20:58 And it actually a lot of times when you think about Cave formation, you think about underground rivers and how the rivers are what formed The Cave. 00:21:04 Not necessarily the case with Jewel Cave, which is why it's kind of a special cave and why we have so much calcite spar. 00:21:11 The distribution of this calcite spar actually indicates that The Cave filled with water and then it drained out and then left behind all this spar as opposed to just having a river that was constantly flowing through The Cave itself. 00:21:23 And so we're going to start from the very, very beginning. 00:21:25 So where did the rock come from (?? again, not sure what exactly I said here) 00:21:26 That Jewel Cave is made out of and that's our Pahasapa Limestone. 00:21:30 So in the Mississippian, which was about three hundred forty five to three hundred sixty million years ago, this area was covered with a shallow sea. Like we mentioned, it had a lot of different critters in it and that's why we have fossils. And when those critters died, their bodies 00:21:42 Sank to the bottom of the sea 00:21:44 And overtime, all their little bodies got compressed into a rock and that's lithification 00:21:49 So a lot of times for sedimentary rocks form it forms from grains of other things, and so in order for it to form, it has to have a lot of weight pushing down on it to create it into a nice, solid 00:21:57 Compact rock and so over time. 00:22:00 Those little bodies got compacted into what we have as the Pahasapa Limestone. 00:22:05 And these are just some of the common fossils you can find in the area. 00:22:08 Got little gastropods and another one called a Millipore fossil. 00:22:12 They're fun little guys, but. 00:22:16 So on top of that, Pahasapa Limestone, which is what we're standing on, is the Minnelusa formation. 00:22:21 If you were to walk the rooftop trail, you're going to be walking in the Minnelusa formation 00:22:25 It's made-up of five different layers of rocks, so you have five different units and they're basically all inter bedded sandstones, limestone, shale and dolostone 00:22:34 So there's a bunch of different sedimentary rocks that were deposited just on top of that limestone layer. And so that's why you have to take that long elevator ride down to The Cave. 00:22:41 Because we're not actually on the Pahasapa 00:22:42 Limestone, right here 00:22:43 We're on top of the Minnelusa, which was deposited 00:22:46 In the Pennsylvanian, three hundred twenty million years ago. 00:22:49 Lots. 00:22:50 A lot, relatively speaking. 00:22:52 A lot more recently than the Pahasapa Limestone. 00:22:58 So then we had the uplift of the 00:22:59 Black Hills. 00:23:00 So during the Laramide Orogeny about seventy million years ago, that's when the Rocky Mountains started to uplift. And with the Rocky Mountains, we somehow got lucky enough to get a little bit of uplift over here to ourselves. 00:23:10 And so when that igneous rock decided to start uplifting 00:23:14 That's when Jewel Cave decided to start tilting 00:23:17 A little. 00:23:17 So in the center of the Black Hills you have that giant massive uplift and all the sedimentary rock on top of all those igneous rocks eventually weathered away. 00:23:25 And fun fact, those sediments actually got carried away to the Badlands. And so a lot of what you see in the Badlands is stuff that we had here originally, so. 00:23:32 The rocks are kind of ours, you know, we can own those. 00:23:38 But when those rocks uplifted and the sedimentary rocks got carried away, the stuff surrounding the uplift actually ended up tilting as well 00:23:44 A little bit. 00:23:45 And so here at Jewel Cave, we actually have a slight tilt in our rocks because of that. 00:23:49 So when the rocks uplifted, jewel cave tilted slightly. 00:23:52 That's why we have so much faulting here. 00:23:54 So we have a massive fall out along the highway 00:23:56 Actually, if we were to drive the high the highway, you can see that we have the Pahasapa Limestone and you can actually see from the highway, but then we can't see it over here and that's why Jewel Cave is so much lower here. 00:24:06 Than if it were to be across the highway. 00:24:09 And so. 00:24:11 Yes. 00:24:12 That is why Jewel Cave is so far underground. 00:24:15 Black Hills isn't part of the Rocky Mountains, though. 00:24:17 No, it's not. 00:24:18 It's completely separate, but during that same uplift event, the Black Hills decided it wanted to uplift as well. 00:24:26 So Jewel Cave, as we talked about, is a dissolutional cave. 00:24:31 So there's a lot of debate about how Jewel Cave actually formed, and it's hard to tell because we weren't here when it formed. So we can only gather information from The Cave itself and try to decide how Jewel cave formed. 00:24:42 And about forty million years ago, the climate changed and we got a bunch of rain. 00:24:46 And so that's when all the aquifers recharged 00:24:48 And a bunch of groundwater decided to seep into the different rock layers. And so in this illustration, let me get my little clicker thing. OK, so we got a bunch of water that's soaking through. 00:24:59 The ground and that's picking up your Co2. 00:25:00 So the groundwater 's becoming more 00:25:02 Acidic and it goes through the shale layer, which typically is impermeable. But there's little cracks in it, so the water can get in and it gets stuck in 00:25:09 The sandstone layer here. 00:25:11 And so you've got kind of like a mini aquifer that's sitting on top of the rock layers and in that aquifer, you've got your acidic water, but it eventually finds cracks in that limestone layer below it, which is what forms our jewel cave. And so as that acidic 00:25:23 Water goes into these joints and these faults and all these little fractures, it actually ends up widening the fractures. 00:25:30 And more. 00:25:31 And as the water is seeping through The Cave, it's filling up as the water table 's rising. 00:25:36 And it's actually causing fluctuations in The Cave where you're getting this water 00:25:40 That's kind of flowing through The Cave itself, widening these fractures and then also kind of the water table decreasing and then the water drains out of The Cave and goes down. The water table hypothetically speaking, is down at the bottom of The Cave now. 00:25:54 And so with that, you have all these empty passages where the water was once flowing, but now it's not anymore. 00:25:58 Well, I should shouldn't say flowing, it was just kind of 00:26:00 There it wasn't necessarily a river, but it was 00:26:03 there and eroding away all these rocks, and so that's why you see all this calcite spars from when The Cave was filling and draining 00:26:09 It kept depositing on this calcite. When you go into the Jewel cave and you see areas where the rock has actually been chipped away and you can look at the full calcite crystal. That's why sometimes you'll see calcite on top of calcite. 00:26:20 See these different sized calcites. 00:26:22 Even see like water lines on the walls. And that's from all the different water, like water levels from when the water table was rising and falling. 00:26:29 And nowadays this is no longer an aquifer. 00:26:32 Enough erosion has occurred where it's actually cut down enough to where the water has flown out of the sandstone layer. And so now our main aquifer is the Madison Aquifer. Down at the very bottom of Jewel Cave, which is why we have cave Lakes. 00:26:48 No, not anymore. 00:26:50 Wow. Water coming up. 00:26:51 No, not in this cave back east 00:26:53 Yeah, you got to worry about that a lot, but not here. 00:26:56 So maybe you're going to touch upon this later, but is this why? 00:27:00 Hmm. 00:27:03 Wind Cave doesn't have the crystals 00:27:05 It doesn't have that barrier of water. 00:27:10 And. 00:27:12 What's the brown layer there? 00:27:13 That's just soil, yeah. 00:27:17 But more or less so with the tilting of the rocks 00:27:20 So we were a little bit further away from the center of the Black Hills and wind cave’s a little bit closer 00:27:27 And so when you think about the tilt of the rocks, we're actually tilting away. And the Madison limestone, the Pahasapa Limestone is higher, technically in elevation. The closer to the center of the Black Hills you get. But because of all the 00:27:38 Erosion that occurred. There's actually not like as much of that limestone over by wind cave. 00:27:44 So we have more of the limestone here. 00:27:46 Than what wind cave had. And so for that reason, we think that that's why we have more of the calcite spar and they have more of the box work. 00:27:53 Because we had more limestone that we had the water to seep through. 00:27:59 It's an interesting concept, and it's definitely still being studied and looked at because we don't know for sure we weren't here when The Cave formed necessarily, but that's kind of the working hypothesis. 00:28:09 Thank you. 00:28:14 And so Jewel cave today as we're because we're here, you know, the whole reason we're here is because it's been a hundred twenty five years of discovery. 00:28:21 Been a hundred twenty five years that people have known of Jewel Cave and we've been visiting Jewel Cave. 00:28:27 We're currently at two hundred and twenty point three three miles. 00:28:30 Growing even more with these recent airflow studies, we've discovered that we only know about three percent of The Cave, and that can mean that there could be thousands more miles out there. 00:28:39 We haven't explored like. 00:28:41 We've hardly even scratched the surface of jewel cave 00:28:43 We're two hundred twenty miles. There could be three thousand miles. 00:28:47 We have no idea, but with airflow studies we were able to determine that we don't actually 00:28:52 We haven't studied like much of it at all, which is pretty awesome. 00:28:56 So cave explorers have a lot cut out for them. 00:28:59 But yeah, so essentially how that works is in The Cave 00:29:02 You can take a small area which your cross-sectional area, so you could basically a lot of times what you could do is you could sketch it to scale and then you could input that into a computer. You can take these little air monitors. 00:29:14 And they'll calculate the volume of air that's flowing through that hole and try to figure out how much space there is in The Cave that could cause that amount of air to flow through that small space. 00:29:23 More or less 00:29:23 That's how it. 00:29:24 Don't ask me about the math. 00:29:25 I didn’t do the calculations. 00:29:28 That's kind of more or less the idea of how this works 00:29:31 And so with those airflow studies, we determined that volume wise of The Cave, we've only discovered three percent of The Cave volume, which is insane. 00:29:39 So I've always I've heard the story before that air flow and caves or some caves even out in this country. 00:29:39 Yeah. 00:29:50 Works with the tide 00:29:52 At the ocean, is there any truth to that or is that? 00:29:56 It's more so with the air pressure. And so when you have different pressure systems moving through, it'll change the air flow with The Cave. And so sometimes if you have like I think it's high pressure, The Cave will breathe in and then low pressure the cave will breathe out. 00:30:09 So if you have a high pressure system moving in, you're not actually going to have a whole lot of air flowing out. You're going to actually have it sucking in the air. And then with your low pressure systems. 00:30:17 And actually come back out The Cave. 00:30:19 So it's not necessarily what the tides is more so with the pressure systems and the weather. 00:30:29 So now we're going to kind of get into resource management. 00:30:32 What do we do? 00:30:32 Like everyone knows that we have a cave here, but like we have more than just a cave. 00:30:36 What all do we do here at Jewel cave? 00:30:38 National Monument. 00:30:40 Well, here to tell you, we do a lot of surface mapping. 00:30:43 This is my super fun Co-worker Forest we love Forest. 00:30:47 There we go there’s your plug. 00:30:51 So on the surface, as we talked about, we have that Minnelusa formation. And so we're curious. 00:30:56 Where is the Minnelusa formation? 00:30:58 What different rocks are we seeing on the surface? And does that surface geology correlate with what's in The Cave? And so we'll actually go out and wander around the monument and we're going to try to figure out where we see each of these different types of rocks and map 00:31:10 Them on a tablet. 00:31:11 And so we'll mark little points and then we'll take those points and input them into ArcGIS and then in ArcGIS we'll try to connect 00:31:17 The dots basically and figure out like OK, why 00:31:20 Does it look like this? 00:31:21 Why is it like this? 00:31:22 Is there a fault here? 00:31:23 Is there a fold here? 00:31:24 Are rocks bent. Are they broken? 00:31:27 Essentially more or less 00:31:28 And then we'll draw little maps like this. 00:31:32 And if you were to go out in the field and go to like one of these locations, you would theoretically hypothetically be able to find that type of rock there. 00:31:39 And so what 00:31:40 We're trying to do is basically get an accurate map of where all the rock types are on the surface of Jewel cave. 00:31:48 And then what we'll do is we'll go into The Cave and then we'll do different cave geology things 00:31:52 So what we've been doing a lot lately is taking strike and dip measurements, which like I mentioned earlier, when the Black Hills uplifted, it caused tilting of the rocks around it. 00:32:00 And So what we'll do is we'll go into The Cave and try to figure out what direction those rocks are tilting and see if they're correlating with 00:32:06 What we're seeing on the surface 00:32:07 And so if the rocks are tilting one way in the cave, 00:32:09 Do the rocks tilt the same way on the surface or? 00:32:13 Is there some other weird factor going? 00:32:14 Like was Jewel Cave tilted before or after the Minnelusa 00:32:17 got deposited and we're trying to figure out if there's a relationship between what's going on in The Cave versus what's going on in the surface. 00:32:25 And then there's also, of course, The Cave exploration component where we send people in and they spend anywhere from a day to four days mapping The Cave and exploring these new passages 00:32:33 And that's how we get our distance and they'll produce little maps like this where in Adobe Illustrator will input all these files and will sit there and trace out each individual detail and create a really detailed cave map. And so over time 00:32:45 We've gotten two hundred and twenty miles from little sketches like this on paper from inside The Cave. This is actually a really clean example 00:32:51 A lot of times they're covered in mud and dirt and manganese, but yeah, so you take these little distance tools in and you'll basically shoot to like different points and you'll be like, OK. 00:33:02 This is this distance. 00:33:03 This is it's this direction compass wise. 00:33:05 And this is the inclination or the angle at which we're shooting. 00:33:08 And then you can take all those measurements and create a map. 00:33:10 Pretty kind of. It's pretty cool. 00:33:12 Are are the rocks still moving? 00:33:16 Not so much. 00:33:17 Not so much in Jewel Cave. 00:33:18 it's pretty stable now. 00:33:21 Back 00:33:21 Like the uplift was happening and all this faulting was occurring not so much 00:33:25 But now that it's been settled for quite some time now, it's pretty stable, and especially since we don't have moving water in The Cave, if there was moving water, that'd be a whole different story. But 00:33:34 Because it's pretty dry, relatively speaking. 00:33:37 It's pretty stable 00:33:38 We don't really have to worry about it. 00:33:44 Invasive plant management 00:33:45 That's another pretty big thing that we like to hit in resource management. 00:33:48 We've got a lot of obviously a lot of plants. In 2000 We had the Jasper fire which burned about ninety percent of the monument, which is quite unfortunate. But after the fire came through 00:33:59 All of these plants that weren't supposed to be here finally had room to grow. 00:34:02 And so now we have a bunch of plants. 00:34:04 Aren't supposed to be here 00:34:05 And so over the summer, we actually have teams that come in and they try to take care of these plants and get rid of them and allow native species to grow. And a lot of times we'll do re veg efforts too where we'll plant like native seed mixes. 00:34:17 And so we'll have volunteer groups. We'll have scouting troops come in and we'll just sit there and pull weeds. 00:34:22 It's a great time, so if you like pulling weeds, please come and visit over the summer and help us pull weeds. 00:34:29 But we've also got biological control methods where we'll introduce bugs that will eat 00:34:33 The roots 00:34:34 Of these invasive plants and lay their eggs in these roots and actually eat away at these plants and kill them that way. 00:34:41 Or we'll do like herbicide treatments in areas where it won't infiltrate into The Cave and mess up The Cave biology. 00:34:47 Kind of just depends where we're treating and what method we're gonna use there. 00:34:53 Alright 00:34:54 And then we've got the more. 00:34:55 Know animal side of things 00:34:56 So we've got biology studies that we partake in with critters out at wind cave 00:35:00 So a lot of times we'll share our resource management staff between wind and Jewel Cave. And so wind cave, we help them with their Prairie dog surveys and dustings and so. 00:35:09 As many of you may or may not know, Badland’s, Prairie dogs, they have the black plague. 00:35:14 Poor little buddies. And so out at Wind Cave, they're trying to prevent that from happening 00:35:19 So they're actually dusting the Prairie dogs to try and kill off their fleas and their mites so they don't get the black plague. 00:35:25 And So what we're doing here actually is the second phase of that where we're brushing the Prairie dogs to count their fleas. 00:35:33 So we're trying to see if they're dusting methods are working. 00:35:36 We're trying to see if the fleas are dead. 00:35:39 We actually it varied between Prairie dogs. 00:35:41 Some of them had no fleas, other ones had a bunch of fleas. It really depended on the Prairie dog. But yeah, so that's more or less what we're doing with these little guys here. 00:35:49 I 00:35:50 Think they just? I wasn't there for that one. But I think from what I understand, they just like spray the colonies with stuff. 00:35:57 powder. 00:36:01 Get to brush Prairie dogs and get paid for it 00:36:03 Yeah, like I get to comb the Prairie dogs and they count their fleas. 00:36:10 Well, so I didn't include this in the picture, mainly because it might 00:36:13 Trigger some people 00:36:14 But when we catch them, when we catch the Prairie dogs, we'll take them out of their little cage and we'll scare them with a towel into this pillowcase. And then from the pillow case. 00:36:26 We'll dump them into a tube with like and I don't know exactly what they use, but like a gas essentially, that makes them fall asleep, and then they pass out, and then we take them out of their tube. And then we brush them. 00:36:42 And then we have ferret surveys 00:36:43 So our black footed ferrets are pretty endangered out here 00:36:47 Wind Cave is actually home to like about fifty Prairie dogs, Prairie dogs. Fifty ferrets, which is awesome considering they came from like a population of like just a handful out in Wyoming, which is fantastic. 00:36:57 Making a comeback 00:36:57 And we're super excited about it. 00:36:59 These are super fun little night shifts 00:37:01 These are probably some of my favorites to work, so we go out there and we have these spotlights that we shine out the windows of vehicles and we're looking for green basically. 00:37:09 Unfortunately there's this bird that also has green eyes and we get tricked quite frequently by this bird and it makes me 00:37:14 Angry. But when we see these green eyes shine, we'll walk out into the middle of these fields and we'll put traps in their holes like this. That just kind of stick up out of the ground and we'll put a reflector next to it. 00:37:26 That way, when we're driving by, we can look for green eyeshine in the traps, or we'll go check them. 00:37:30 So we don't lose them since it's dark and we can't see anything. 00:37:33 Then hopefully, fingers crossed, we catch a ferret 00:37:35 Doesn't happen all the time, we’re not always lucky. But we got lucky in this case. We're good. 00:37:41 And so. 00:37:43 Maybe you'll see this poking out of the little cage, and when you do, you take the cage out of the hole and you set it on the ground, and then you have this little microchip reader that you try to kind of. Hopefully the ferret cooperates and you try to 00:37:54 Like scan it for a microchip, because if it's already been taken in, he's been chipped. 00:37:58 And so you want to see if the ferret needs its vaccines because we're also vaccinating the ferrets against the plague because they eat the Prairie dogs with the plague. 00:38:06 And so. 00:38:08 We want to make sure that they're not going to die because they're endangered. 00:38:13 And so if the ferret needs to go to the vet, we put the ferret in a tube, and then we take it to the vet. 00:38:17 Yeah. 00:38:20 And at the vet, yes, they do get gassed. 00:38:26 And so. 00:38:27 Take the ferrets to the vet. 00:38:28 Then they get gassed 00:38:29 And then they get their vaccines. And then if they don't have a microchip, we give it a microchip and then we take it back to where we found it and we release it. 00:38:36 And this is kind of what they look like hanging out in their little holes. 00:38:39 We named this one Aurora because we caught it during the Aurora show in October, which was super fun. 00:38:46 But yeah, so they're making a comeback and we're super excited 00:38:48 They live in Prairie dog towns because they eat the Prairie dogs 00:38:51 And so another thing you can look for is if you're walking through a town, you see holes that are just like filled with dirt. 00:38:56 That typically means you have ferrets there because the Prairie dogs actually try to bury them alive, which doesn't work because the ferrets can just dig themselves out. 00:39:02 But it's they tried. It's OK. 00:39:09 And then we've got bat studies that we do, if you're, you know, a cave park, you probably have bats. Hopefully there's unfortunately been a fungal infection that's come through and killed off a lot of our bat population, which is really sad. 00:39:22 It's called white nose syndrome. 00:39:23 That's why when people come here for tours, we make them walk across the little pan of the hydrochloride. 00:39:30 It is because we want to make sure that people’s shoes don't carry it to other places and kill off their bat populations. 00:39:37 Unfortunately, we already have it here, so can't really bring it in because it's already here, but we try to prevent it from going elsewhere. 00:39:44 And So what happens is a lot of times, we get students from the University of Wyoming that come over here and do studies 00:39:49 On our bats. 00:39:50 We kind. 00:39:51 They come here, they go to Mount Rushmore 00:39:53 They go to wind cave, but they set up these mist nets, which are actually kind of hard to see. 00:39:57 But they're essentially 00:39:59 Really thin nets that are meant to trap bats, not bugs. 00:40:03 They still get the june bugs because the June 00:40:05 Bugs have little grabby legs 00:40:07 And we'll set them up over top of little pools or streams because the bats are thirsty. 00:40:11 They Like to drink water. So they’ll swoop down to the water 00:40:14 And they get stuck in the net. And so every ten minutes we send someone out there to go check the nets for I think total. Usually it started at eight AM and we ended at 00:40:21 Two am or eight. 00:40:23 Eight PM ended at two am, so every ten minutes we go check these nets and we hope for a bat. And when we catch a bat. 00:40:29 We put them in 00:40:30 A little paper baggie and we bring it to the table and we clothespin it to the table. 00:40:35 So we get our scale ready and we weigh. 00:40:36 The bat and then we take the bat out of the baggie and we sit there and do a bunch of different measurements depending on what the researcher wants. In our case, they wanted like wing length. They basically wanted a whole bunch of different measurements of this bat because they 00:40:48 Were studying how white nose syndrome impacted the bat populations and their diets, and a bunch of different factors. 00:40:55 And so this was our little data table 00:40:58 I was usually a note taker, but yeah, so we would basically just collect a bunch of data about these different bats and this guy right here, we have a lot of in Jewel cave. 00:41:05 The Townsend long eared bats. And they're super cute. 00:41:08 I love them so much. 00:41:10 But yeah, so it was a lot of fun. 00:41:11 And then we also have bat acoustic monitoring here too. So we'll set up these. 00:41:17 Essentially, like equipment that kind of listens for the bats and their different echolocation hertz and frequencies, and hopefully with that we can try to figure out our different bat populations here at Jewel Cave. We have what, nine, ten, ten now. 00:41:29 Different species of bats. 00:41:32 Large colony? 00:41:34 The townsends 00:41:35 We actually have quite a bit of in the historic area, which is one of the reasons why we don't offer those tours this time of year. 00:41:40 They it's a hibernaculum 00:41:42 And so we have a bunch of the townsends that'll flock there just like sleep and mate, basically. 00:41:47 which just super cool. 00:41:48 Do they come out during the winter at all? 00:41:50 They try not. 00:41:51 That's unfortunately one of the problems with white nose syndrome 00:41:53 It wakes them up from their hibernation and then they're like, oh, we got to go find food and then they fly out in the winter and there's not really any food for them. 00:42:00 So that's one of the reasons why they die 00:42:02 Are they affected by the cold? 00:42:03 Yeah. 00:42:05 Unfortunately, so they're not supposed to be out in the winter. But unfortunately, the times have changed. 00:42:13 Are there? 00:42:14 There. 00:42:14 Water. 00:42:15 Surface water pools like that on Jewel Cave 00:42:20 Acreage. 00:42:21 Yeah. So down by Lithograph Canyon, we have a couple little springs. 00:42:25 So this one was actually taken out by Lithograph Canyon. 00:42:30 I think this one was taken out on. 00:42:33 Oh, which road is that? 00:42:35 Mud Springs road. 00:42:37 Yeah. So we've got a few in the area 00:42:39 Not super well known, but they're there. Other times we'll use like the little troughs that farmers will set up for cows because they don't, they don't care what kind of water they just want water so. 00:42:53 Then another fun project that we get to do is mold an algae cleaning. 00:42:56 One of my favorites 00:42:58 Not really, but we got to do. 00:43:00 So as you know, you know mold and algae. It likes heat and light and darkness and moisture. And so in The Cave it's basically perfect conditions for this mold and algae to grow. When the lights are on because you've got that light source and so anywhere we have lights along the tour route 00:43:14 We basically have to clean it and treat it for mold and algae. 00:43:18 So again, Forest is cleaning up some algae and I believe. 00:43:24 Is this one in the formation room? 00:43:25 Might be. 00:43:27 But yeah, so the LED lights that we have in Jewel Cave produce enough heat and light that we actually get quite a bit of algae growth. 00:43:33 So what we've been doing a lot lately is going in there trying to spot clean and spot, treat the algae and. 00:43:39 Unfortunately, too, we get a lot of mold that grows on things in The Cave, whether it be from like food particles that people accidentally drop or 00:43:45 Garbage or 00:43:47 Spit, unfortunately, or even just like the wood that we have in the historic area, we get a lot of mold growth. And So what we do is we have to go in there and clean up the mold. So it doesn't spread anymore and rot out the wood. 00:43:57 It's just not healthy to breathe in either mold spores, so we try to take care of it when we see it and when the problems arise. 00:44:07 And we also get to clean the tour route 00:44:09 It's such a fun time and so when you go into the when you go on these cave tours a lot of times you don't realize it, but your hair falls out. 00:44:18 And so when you're on the stairs, the hair collects on the stairs. And so one of our jobs is to literally go into The Cave and pick up hair off the stairs. 00:44:27 And then another problem too is lint from your clothes 00:44:30 And so a lot of times lint from your clothes, garbage, dirt from your shoes, it'll fall down through the stairs and collect on these pans, underneath the stairs. 00:44:37 And so we'll go in there with vacuum cleaners, buckets and water sprayers. And we'll go in there and basically try to flush all of that debris down to the bottom of the stairs and suck it up with a vacuum cleaner. 00:44:49 So we. 00:44:50 Is the hair just 00:44:50 Human in nature? 00:44:52 Usually every once awhile I might get a Sasquatch. 00:44:56 I don't know. 00:44:59 No, I figured. 00:45:02 Yeah. So we'll. 00:45:03 We'll go in there and try to clean up the tour routes every once in a while too. 00:45:06 One of our favorite rainy day activities, if you can't do stuff outside 00:45:09 We'll go into The Cave and clean it. 00:45:11 This is just an example of last time we were in there, all the garbage we picked up off the tour route. It was insane. 00:45:16 We have these little grabby tools that we like put between the grates. Like grab all the garbage piece by piece. 00:45:22 Yeah. 00:45:23 It's not even intentional 00:45:25 I think it's just a lot of things that fall out of people 's pockets when they try to take pictures like we've gotten hotel key cards and like bus tickets for Crazy Horse and the receipts for the scenic tour and lots and lots of coins. 00:45:36 Neil 's favorite. 00:45:42 And then a lot of times you go in these little like rescue missions, which I want to clarify, we don't 00:45:47 Well, we do rescue people, but people don't usually need rescued. 00:45:53 Usually it's not the people that need rescued, it's other things 00:45:56 And so one fun example that we had recently within the past couple months was we had a Townsend bat that got stuck in the Scenic Tour area. 00:46:05 Sometimes bats find their way in and get lost. 00:46:07 So they. 00:46:08 Of the reasons that we think this might happen is that they're following the air pressure, and so when The Cave is breathing in the air, is flowing in and the bat might think that leads to a way out and they follow it, but it actually 00:46:17 Goes deeper into The Cave. 00:46:20 And we also have like an emergency exit or a portal entrance too, so they might have accidentally somehow flown in from there. 00:46:26 Not really sure, but regardless, the bat would have died if he would have stayed there. 00:46:30 And so one of the things we did is we tried to get the bats out of the scenic area when they're there because again, that's really deep into The Cave and there's not an entrance over there for them to fly out of. 00:46:39 And so we took this fun little net that we had to literally duct tape to a pole because it wasn't long enough because this bat decided it wanted to crawl into the furthest corner possible. 00:46:48 And we tried to scoop it into this net. 00:46:50 And then we secured it into the net and we take it outside and we try to put it on a tree. 00:46:55 Poor bat did not want anything to do with us, which is totally valid, but there’s our little bat 00:47:00 Little Townsend, so we try to rescue bats when they're where they're not supposed to be. 00:47:05 And then this was one of our fun little summer employees. 00:47:08 Love him. Miss him. 00:47:10 But children, they love to accidentally drop things or throw things over the side of the tour route. And so on this 00:47:15 Specific case. We were rescuing a jacket that got stranded on one of the tour routes. 00:47:19 I’ve rescued shoes. 00:47:20 All sorts of random items and then on the far right with our historic Lantern tour, people carry lanterns and sometimes the bottoms don't stay on. 00:47:28 They break and the batteries fall out. And so in this specific case, a battery decided to fall down this giant pit. 00:47:34 So we had to go down this pit and rescue a battery. 00:47:37 And there was a lot of other stuff down there too 00:47:38 It was not just a battery bracelets and broken glass and pieces of candy wrappers, and it was insane. 00:47:45 The pack rats like to kind of hoard they’re hoarders, so they. 00:47:48 Have rodents in them? 00:47:49 Yeah. Then that area of The Cave. 00:47:51 There's pack, rats and. 00:47:53 They're little hoarders. 00:47:54 They like the shiny stuff. 00:47:58 And we do so much more. 00:48:00 But that's just kind of the basis of what resource management is all about 00:48:03 We just try to take care of the space and make sure it looks nice and we can maintain it and that it's healthy and here for many, many, many years to come. 00:48:13 Well, it is 2 00:48:15 Feel free to keep asking questions 00:48:21 Thank. 00:48:22 You so much.

Join Ranger Sydney to learn about geology and speleology of the Black Hills.

Tags: geology, caves and karst, black hills