Indiana (and surrounding area) Cave / Tech divers?

[decostanza]

There will be a rather interesting announcement made by the local dive shop (Ft.Wayne) on Dec. 15th. While it won't be as sexy as diving the caves, there will be something (2 things really) that will allow those of us less fortunate living a fair distance from caves, to keep the skill set dialed in.

This is something many dive publications have expressed an interest in doing stories on...heck, I'm just happy we won't have to cut holes in the ice on a weekly basis...more info forthcoming but I thought I would see if there were many on the board here that lives in this part of the hemisphere.

Don

[lakediver]

I'm in northwest Ohio. I'm interested in hearing the news. Please post once the cat is out of the bag.

[h2ojoe]

Cave Fills?

[FW]

I guess you realize that IN has the fourth highest number of diveable caves?

[jlillest]

I guess you realize that IN has the fourth highest number of diveable caves?

I'd like to see the stats on that one.

For publicly accessible and easy access caves, no US state is going to beat Florida, but with private property and secrecy among cavers how do you quantify the list of states' diveable caves?

I have a list of at least 10 dive sites in Virginia that have yet to be dove, but access is such a pain here...

-Jon

[decostanza]

FW...I did not know that...I talk with a lot of folks that dry cave but haven't come across any resources regarding diveable caves...where would you recommend I go to find more information about that?

[Rhino]

I get back to Chicago about a couple of times a year, and for a while worked regularly along that lovely highway corridor south of Michigan, including the triangle from Gary to Lafayette and Fort Wayne.

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; etc." Charles D.

[jlillest]

FW...I did not know that...I talk with a lot of folks that dry cave but haven't come across any resources regarding diveable caves...where would you recommend I go to find more information about that?

The dry cavers are your best resource. They don't necessarily care about divable cave, so you'll have to figure out how to coax it out of them. Using terms such as sump and "terminal syphon" will help.

Find someone in the Indiana Cave Survey to tell you about the springs and sumps in their database:
http://caves.org/survey/ics/

Just don't expect a Florida experience, normal cave/sump diving is a lot of work. Expect to spend lots of hours talking to people, pouring over maps, and figuring out what might be divable. Indiana has lots of cave, and there has been sump diving done there in the past, but I'm not sure who/when/where. The dry cavers can fill you in on theses details.

Best of luck and when you find a long multi-sump cave and you plan on camping beyond the sumps then give me a call!

-Jon

PS I'd assume that the announcement from the shop is going to be a quarry or dive site that they've managed to buy or lease. Either that or they built a teleporter for Florida trips...

[FW]

There are actual springs in Indiana. The problem is just like the other top list of states with caves, access is an issue. They are all on private property. I dove in the resurgence of Blue Springs cave when the NSS convention was in Indiana. One of the owners of Blue Springs is a cave diver. Bill Rennaker is from Indiana, and did some of the springs before moving to FL.

Jlillest is right about conditions. The caves are colder, and not as clear as Florida.

[decostanza]

Thanks FW and Jon about the fact there are caves in this area. About 15 years ago I had some folks tell me about a system rumored to be in this area (relatively speaking) and being more naïve back then about systems thought I would bird-dog the lead. After much chasing of dead-ends and hazy memories...gave up and chalked it up to a wish more than a reality.

I will pester some of the dry cavers to see if anything turns up.

Best regards,
Don