Potato cave

From SAUwiki

Potato Cave is the cave on campus. There are other caves but this is the one people mean when they say "Campus Cave". It is located in the Student Park just off one of the main trails.

Muddy, buddy. Inside, the main room is long, tall, and wide. The side passages are smaller. All but two of these goes off to the right. The first one on the left is near the entrance, and low. The second is accessible only by wading through the lake.

Each side passage I have explored is a dead end, but they go for a ways and are fun to explore. There is everything from crawling to walking to swimming (if you must) in this cave. Some of the side passages have offshoots, but they all either dead end or join back to their mother passage farther on.

There are some old artifacts in the cave from when it used to be a salpeter mine. Not much of value, but interesting to look at. There is a cave lake/pond that is cold, but fun to explore. In fact, this lake is a very good example of a cave formation called rimstone, some of the best in the the local TAG area! (I would not recommend exploring the lake during times of rain or flooding as it could flash flood quickly and you do not want to be inside when this happens).

With the University's permission, the cave has now been reopened by the Outdoor Education Department. A small door has been placed in the wall near ground level. The old access hole that required a rope now has a pipe in it and barriers to prevent access that way.

Visiting the cave is will be possible starting sometime this spring. The school is going to do some cleanup and restoration, then open the cave to visitors. If you are interested in visiting, go to the cave the Outdoor Ed Department (or Education Main Office) in Summerour. The Education building is on the hill behind the Library. Here is basically what you can expect to hear when you get the key:

--Each group must have a leader who will take a short safety quiz and be responsible for the key.

--Everyone in the group must sign a waiver. Once you have taken the test you are on the list and able to sign it out anytime.

--Recommended group size is three to ten. Helmets will be required of each member of the group.

--When in the cave, lock the door behind you. It would be very not cool if someone came in after you and went to a different part of the cave. Then you leave and they are locked in...

For more information see the caving safely page.

Ole!