Illinois

Though a short cave (estimated only 300 feet long, and 35 feet deep), it houses a significant population of federally endangered Indiana bats. The steep sinkhole entrance makes a cold air sink which ensures the critical stable temperatures these animals require. The remote location of the site makes it difficult for National Forest rangers to patrol, and this in turn makes the site a prime attraction for partiers and vandals. An ACCA style cave gate was installed in September 1999 by a small team of specialists from Pennsylvania, Sanders, O'Mahony, and Chenger. The installation took only three days, despite the gate location being 100 feet inside the 35 foot deep entrance sink.

	Due to large soil deposits near the walls of the cave, trenches were excavated, the gate continued out to rock, and then buried to the original level.

Because of the entrance configuration, we couldn't get far enough away from the gate to get a picture of the entire structure. It ended up being a very impressive three day project.