Bonnechere Caves (#1)

500 million years in the making and under a ninety-foot hill of limestone lies adventure in the Bonnechere Caves! Dissolved over time after the last ice age by acidic water, the caves were once the bottom of a tropical sea bed and feature fossils of the Ordovician time period. Discovered in 1855 by a land surveyor, who was amazed when he saw the flow of water disappear into the riverbank only to reappear again farther downriver, the caves remained unexplored for another hundred years. The first exploration took place in 1955 when retired World War II flying ace Tom Woodward tied a rope around a tree and descended into a sinkhole. Tom, with his inflatable raft, flashlight, and a friend’s camera, was hurled through the caves by the rushing waters without any control of his dinghy. At a sharp turn, the dinghy capsized and he was flung against a wall. Grabbing an outcropping in order to save himself, he dropped the flashlight (rather than his buddy’s camera) and was left in utter darkness. Eventually, after several tries, he made it to the exit of the cave with a fantastic story to tell. Soon after, he opened the caves to the public.