Wittenberg University Speleological Society
Wittenberg University Speleological Society
The largest and most ongoing project of WUSS is the effort to survey (map) all known caves in Carter Caves State Resort Park. Currently WUSS has completed over sixty caves in the park and there is year round work on four open surveys.
Boundary Cave System
A long-known system located in the park with a recently surveyed connection and lots of potential cave additions. This cave system has five known entrances, including two pit entrances. The survey started early last year and already the cave has reached over 200 meters in length with the potential to be one of the longest wild caves in the park. The cave can be extremely wet, depending on the weather, so caution should be used on long survey trips. For more information or to find out when the next survey trip for the Boundary Cave System is, please contact the survey leader Kevin Kissell.
Cascade Cave System
This cave is most well known as being a tourist cave, though the average tourist only sees a small fraction of the real cave. In actuality the cave is over 3400 meters long with 10 known entrances. A large portion of the cave is walking passage but those parts are separated by wet, sometimes small, sections making it a weather specific cave to survey. The survey was started over a decade ago but survey work continues mostly in the winter and early spring months. For more information or to find our when the next survey trip for the Cascade Cave System is, please contact the survey leader Kristen Baughman.
Canyon Cave
Though not actually in the park, this survey was started over a decade ago, however deteriorating land owner relations have caused the survey to cease. The survey has reached a length of more than 3500 meters, making it one of the longest known caves in the county. Canyon is an extremely challenging cave with three in cave rope required drops and every conceivable type of passage. There are no survey trips planned for the foreseeable future but if you want more information on Canyon Cave, please contact Dr. Horton Hobbs III.
Hidden Cave
This is a small cave located just inside the park boundary, it has three known entrances. The survey was started in summer of 2006 but due to the highly specific weather conditions needed to finish the survey, it is ongoing. The cave is mostly hands and knees crawling and belly crawling through water so an extended period of draught is necessary to finish the survey, which has reached a length of over 200 meters. There is about another 100 meters of survey left. For more information or to find out when the next survey trip for Hidden Cave is, please contact the survey leader Kevin Kissell.
On top of these open surveys, WUSS is always surveying several of the hundreds of small caves located within the park. These make great practice caves for beginner surveyors or a fun day trip on a warm sunny day.