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I read a newspaper story about a “new” cave near Maribel, supposedly the largest in the state. Does anyone know where this is, and is there a cache nearby? Might be a fun place for an earthcache.
zuma
I thought you were gonna ask if there was a cache there yet, like we needed to get out and place one.
If an earthcache is what is best I think it’s a job for da Fu.
There is at least one cache there – or had been. Maybe two.
The cave is mostly filled with dirt, from what I have heard. Plans are to open it for tourons.
I believe there is only one cache in the small Maribel Caves Park:
GCGJ1B Maribel: Here Be Monsters
I’ve been meaning to make it to this park and find this cache for over a year (it is just off I-43), but I haven’t done so yet…
Here is a recent news article about the cave (it was discovered in 1984 and started to be excavated in 2003, so this is not really new news):
Thanks Jeremy for the info…Looks like a cool place to visit.
zuma
@jeremy wrote:
I believe there is only one cache in the small Maribel Caves Park:
GCGJ1B Maribel: Here Be Monsters
I’ve been meaning to make it to this park and find this cache for over a year (it is just off I-43), but I haven’t done so yet…
Here is a recent news article about the cave (it was discovered in 1984 and started to be excavated in 2003, so this is not really new news):
I have always wanted to do the Maribel cache(because I love caves), maybe this year I’ll make it up that way. Jeremy thank you for posting the link, I had not heard anything about the cave excavation, or it’s size.
“So far about 150 feet of walking space and 100 feet of crawling passage have been dug out and opened to the public.”
After reading that I thought someone who lives near by should post some coordinates to the new cave entrance.
The cave in question in smack dab in the middle of an SNA.
The cache listed above is in the same park nearby. (Outside the SNA)
There are several caves in the area besides the new one being excavated. Several of these have been open to the public for decades and are quite fun to get all muddy and filthy in.
At this point, the cave being excavated is sealed to protect it from vandalism and not wide open to drive up and check out. Another great cave system in the state is in Calumet County, at Ledgeview County Park. There are three cave systems (two have since been dug out and connected) and last I checked there were three caches in that park.
We’ve camped by there a couple times at Devil’s River CG. Nice place to go….the last I heard, the caves were more like small holes in the bluffs along the river….that’d pretty cool if they keep excavating them….I’ve never been to the Ledgeview caves, even though I’m less than 5 miles away…they give tours there sometimes on the weekends, plan on getting dirty if you go. When my kids get old enough we’ll go through the caverns there. Nothing like exploring underground….There’s always Blue Mounds….we hit a bunch of caves and old gold mines in South Dakota while camping this last summer…
Later
PhilWell, I can now vouch for the Marible: here be Monsters Cache. I just did it today. The park is closed from Novermber to May, so had to park at the winter coords. This is actually on the Property for the Izzak Walton Conservation League. The walk from there is about .7 Miles in, and .7 miles back. Trails all the way, except for about the last 100 feet. Made it easy with the snowbrush today!!!
Now, If I could only say that for Harpts Lake, and Tuma lake by da FU..
Justin
Heck.. I live close by and I can’t even tell ya about the cave. LOL I heard about tours though.. might do that this summer!!
The Ledgeview Caves are wonderful. I had the opportunity to chaperone my daughters 5th and 6th grade class at the caves. We spent an entire day there. First exploring one cave system, then the other. I crawled through more dirt and small caverns than I ever thought possible.
The fantastic thing was that when I was about 10, I had gone into two of those caves with a summer day camp program. The guide told us then that if they were to keep diggin out some of the caverns, they’d find two or three more rooms behind the ones we were in then (20 years ago).
The guide I had twenty years ago was the same guy who took us through last year and sure enough, they dug out those caves and they have since uncovered numerous new rooms, have linked two of the caves, and are still digging. In fact one of the rooms, they just quite digging. They had dug down about thirty feet and could probably go another thirty! If you ever get the chance to get into the caves, do it!
There is a cache in the park, but not in the gated New Hope Cave. We are removing the sediments from that cave… and it will be open for tours the last weekend of Sept. and then the first two weekends of Oct. There is now about 180 feet of walking passage, and 100 feet of crawling passage in that cave. The other caves along the bluff are open without gates. We may be closing the New Hope cave for the winter at that time… so if you want to visit, now’d be the time to put it on your calendar! Tours are offered by volunteers working in the park, and donations are greatly appreciated for this service. For more information, view our website at http://www.maribelcaves.com (nothing there about the cache…) and then join the Yahoo Group for history, photos and emails about when we will be around working. Join us for a work day! We have a lot of fun. 🙂
Ledgeview is also a great place to visit. And yes… I volunteer to dig there as well, but do not run tours there. They have a nature center and staff to do that. Wish we had that at Maribel! ~Letha Welch , [email protected]
We went through the Ledgeview caves 10-19 for our cub scout pack. We had a great time with spooky stories being told and it was great walking the trails at night. The best was crawling through the tunnel to get to Wayne’s World….
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