'The Earth Crack': My Tour Through Seneca Caverns

Gazette Intern

The Seneca Caverns received a lot of publicity this spring as flood waters bubbled up from the ground around the Bellevue area. Known as "The Earth Crack," Seneca Caverns offers tourists a chance to "peel" back the ground and explore.

The caverns were discovered in 1872 by two Flat Rock boys who were hunting rabbits along Twp. Rd. 178. Their dog ran a rabbit into a large brush-filled sinkhole next to the road. Both animals disappeared between the brush. When their dog failed to return the boys climbed down into the sinkhole to a small opening from which cool air was flowing.

Their dog was barking some where below them so the two boys began digging to enlarge the opening when, without warning, the bottom collapsed and they tumbled into what is now the first level of the caverns. They climbed back to the surface with their dog, returned to Flat Rock and told everyone what they had found.

The caverns first started to receive some serious exploration in the 1890s when a Fremont teacher named Dunlap caught wind of the boys' discovery. The teacher enlarged the opening of the cavern and built wooden steps to east the public's exploration of the site.

After a great deal of glacial clay was cleared out of the cavern, four full levels were available for further exploration. In fact, the final two levels were so expansive that curiosity seekers could actually stand up on the third and fourth levels.

Little progress was made with the cavern until the 1930s when current owner Dick Bell's father saw some economic potential in the site following an earlier geology field trip he had taken to Mammoth Cave, Ky., during his college days at the University of Michigan.

An attorney in Bellevue, Don Bell approached the land located one mile southwest of Flat Rock with the idea of one day turning the cavern into a tourist spot. Owned by Emanual Good, the cavern had taken on the name of "Good's Cave" in previous decades, but that would soon change.

Bell reached an agreement with Good and bought the enigmatic caverns and the surrounding land at the height of the Great Depression. After roughly three years of development, the caverns were unveiled to the public on May14, 1933.

A geohydrologist and part-time engineer, Dick Bell has owned and managed Seneca Caverns since his father's passing in 1964.

MY TOUR

To describe what the Seneca Caverns offer, I decided to take the tour

Stepping down the first stairs into the cavern, cold air rushes over my body. I hug my arms and am glad for my jacket in the 54 degree cave. The entrance is marked by an iron gate, put in place by the original owner to keep people and animals out at night. I bend down and crawl in.

The natural steps leading down to the second level are steep and slick. I grasp at the walls trying to keep my balance. The second level is known as the fossil room. Gazing up I can see the impressions of million-year-old creatures scattered along the ceiling. Moving on, I look down an abandoned passageway, named Earthquake Attic, and see layers in the walls.

The caverns came to be through a range of events. First the spaces in the cave were formed by gypsum dissolving in rock. When the gypsum dissolved, it left spaces in the limestone. The rocks fractured, broke a part, and then dropped down creating the many levels we travel through today. The layers of limestone are clearly visible on the walls.

Next, when the glaciers moved across the area, material from under the glaciers was pushed into the caves. This glacial clay filled the openings in the rocks. Finally, early explorers had to remove this glacial clay from the caves to be able to explore further. Some of the glacial clay still remains in the caverns today.

Walking through level three is impossible: I had to crouch. The level consists of two small passageways: Tin Pan Alley and Chert Alley. I must bend over to fit through the walkway. I feel the gritty crunching of my shoes across the ground. I make it through the passageway and stand up. Out of the corner of my eye I see a flutter of wings.

THE BATS

Seneca Caverns is home to three species of bat: the eastern tipistral, the northern long eared, and the brown bat. They are small bats, having a wingspan of only six inches. They leave the cave each night through holes in the ground. With their small bodies they can squeeze through holes as small as a quarter. Each night a bat will eat twice it's weight in insects. It is a rarity to see a bat in the cave, but they are known to hang on the ceiling close to the giftshop or fly boldly past tour groups.

FOURTH LEVEL

The fourth level is the first large room I encounter. A huge slab of rock looks to be hanging precariously above us. I look closer and see that it has fallen from the ceiling. The rock is covered with faded names and inscriptions from years past. There are candle smokes burns on the ceiling from when people traveled down alone with their candles. I inspect names with dates from the 1920s and some from even the 1890s. As we continue through Inscription Hall I feel a small droplets on my head. I gaze up at the mosit ceiling. The guide says not to touch any of these walls or ceilings. Stalactites are trying to grow.

The stalactites in Seneca Caverns are mere babies when thinking in cave years. In it's early years of exploration, visitors didn't think twice before touching the stalactites or breaking them off to take as souvenirs. When touched by human hands the oils from our fingers prevent the stalactite from growing. Since 1933 people were warned against touching the stalactites and now they are starting to regrow. The cave is home to two types of stalactites: soda straw stalactites and flow stone. They grow up to one inch every 100 years.

Continuing through level four, I see a red light illuminating a dark shaft along the wall. Known as Devil's Leap, it is a 60 foot vertical shaft running straight down into the river. The shaft also leads off into some unexplored parts of the cave, some that we don't even know exist.

Tours of the caverns only travel to the seventh level. It is unsure exactly how many levels there really are. Level seven rests at 110 feet. A 12th level was discovered at 220 feet, but experts say there could be an infinite number of levels.

OLE MIST'RY RIVER

Reaching the end of the fourth level we can go no further. The steps down to level five are submerged in water. Looking down into the water, the guide points out tiny white specks. These are sightless shrimp, the only creatures in the river. The guide called it a river, but I can not see the water moving. I climb down and touch my fingers into the water. It's cold.

Ole Mist'ry River, which flows under the caverns, usually rests at the eighth level. Depending on the rain fall, the river rises and falls in the caverns. In the fall of 2007, the river was the thrid highest it has been in the past 75 years. In 1937 and 1969 the water reached all the way to the surface. Last fall the water was up to the second level. The river moves at 1-2 mph. The river has been proven to be connected to Castalia's Blue Hole and Lake Erie.

Not being able to proceed, we turn to head back to the surface. Back past Devil's Leap, the stalactites, Tin Pan Alley, and the fossil room. The stairs are just as tricky going up as they are down, but I manage alright. I am one of 40,000 visitors to Seneca Caverns this year. One of many who was able to enjoy this local landmark.