Explore Missouri's Underground World of Caves

7,500 caves, is that what we're up to?

Uh, the number is a moving target.

I actually checked this morning on the internet and it says approximately 8,000.

So I'm not sure which to believe, but it's in that

range.

Yeah.

It's hard to keep track.

So are we just discovering new caves? How do we stumble upon a cave?

Yeah, I think a lot of it is weekend cavers, people who are very serious about it as a hobby out there doing what's called ridge walking.

So they're doing their research, finding out where the geology is right, the context is right to find new caves and and they'll literally walk along ridges where there are limestone or dolostone outcrops and then map out the location of potential holes in the ground that they find.

And sometimes they look at them right away.

Sometimes they document the presence and come back and see if there's anything there to explore later.

What constitutes a cave? What do you need to have to say that's a cave?

You know, different states have different definitions of caves.

And I'll be honest, I'm not 100% sure what Missouri's official definition of a cave is.

But I think most people would say it's something big enough for a human to get into.

And that's a little bit vague, but it leaves a little wiggle room, literally and figuratively.

And if it's smaller than that, we might call it something else.

But if a human can get into it, it's a cave.

Yeah.

Uh, how many have you explored around the state?

Uh, you know, I'm not sure at this point I used to keep count, but I stopped keeping count probably 25 years ago.

Um, and, uh, I've probably been in all, I've probably been in a hundred caves in Missouri.

Yeah.

I'm just kind of ballparking guests there.