(Click to enlarge pictures)
Windy
City Grotto had quite the project going down in Monroe County back in the 70s
and 80s, this when I had no idea there were significant caves in Illinois…at
all! Little did I know! Anyway, here are some shots from a grotto trip there
in, I think, 1983 or 1984. Left to right are John Moses, Tom Gruber, Dan
McDowell, and Greg and Tom Schmit, whom I first met
in the crawlway at Buckner’s Cave earlier that year.
I don’t
have a lot of pictures of this gathering, but at least I can identify most of
the folks in them. Left to right are Bill English, Robbie Paterno,
John Moses (back to camera), Dan McDowell, and Alicia Woodrow.
Another “people” shot, this one quite special, because
it features not just Tom and Greg Schmit, but also Armin Krueger, who was the caretaker of the property. He
grew up nearby and explored most of the area caves (including the miles-long
Krueger-Dry Run System) and is still considered the Godfather of Illinois
Caving. His coveralls feature a Windy City Grotto patch!
Here is Greg Schmit inside
Illinois Caverns proper, headed upstream, I think. Some parts of the cave are
nicely decorated, and this is one of them. This passage goes a long way…the cave is has a little over
five miles of surveyed passage, and as far as I know is still going.
Looking up
from the previous picture, we see the flowstone cascades continuing as far as
you can see up into the ceiling. We spent several hours exploring, retired to a
nearby restaurant for an excellent supper of fried chicken, and returned to the
caverns where we all bedded down next to the river downstream from the
entrance. What an amazing place to spend the night!
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