Santa Rosa Blue Hole Cave

[apenland01]

I'm not sure this is the right place to post this, but I have a theory about this particular cave system at Santa Rosa.

I certified there in 1992 and remember diving to the grate and thinking to myself it wouldn't be tough to get into that space.

Did the Corps of Engineers do a disservice to the city of Santa Rosa and technical divers by dumping two dump trucks full of rock into the Blue Hole to cover the cave entrance? This clearly would have caused a fill at the cave entrance and most likely caused a collapse in the tunnel that made passage to the "big room" impossible. The big room was described by recovery divers in 1976, but was never verified due to the dumping of rock into Blue Hole.

This really is an unfortunate case of over-reacting to the tragic deaths of the two Oklahoma State students that made their way into the cave entrance....

 

[uncfnp]

After reading your thread I remembered this post. Not sure if you knew.

Bad News From Santa Rosa Blue Hole

 

[apenland01]

I'm aware of this incident and my post is asking the question if the closing of the entrance is due to the over-reaction of the City of Santa Rosa and the Corps of Engineers to the deaths in 1976. There is evidence that the divers in the 1976 recovery had a very different experience to those after the rocks were dumped into the Blue Hole.

Dumping rocks likely did a couple of things. They would have rolled down the tunnel entrance and knocked boulders loose that sealed the entrance to the big room. They would have also made pinch areas smaller that wouldn't have been. Also, they would have continued rolling down to block any entrance into the big room.

I guess my ultimate question is what could have been if the City of Santa Rosa and the Corps of Engineers hadn't dumped all the rock into the Blue Hole?

I'm very sorry for the loss of life of the young divers in 1976 and the accident with Shane recently. I know there are divers here on SB that both knew and went diving with Shane and I'm sorry for their loss.

This conversation started with my son and I when we were discussing Carlsbad Caverns, Bottomless Lakes and Santa Rosa Blue Hole tunnels and where they might lead....

 

[Ghost95]

Sealing the entrance to the cave has always been an over reaction to the loss of divers in caves. Morrison springs in Florida is another example.

 

[apenland01]

I had to google that one. It looks like Morrison Springs was blasted closed in 1968. Apparently, it was a tricky cave dive due to high flow. It also sounds like it can't be re-opened due to instability from the blast....

 

[UCFKnightDiver]

A shame about Morrison! Lots of debris/rock/sand would have to be moved to open up Morrison

 

[Ghost95]

I talked to people that dove Morrison before the blasting, there may still be a few here. Everyone said that it was a pretty spectacular cave. It got real deep real fast after the second cavern and it was just starting to be explored when it was closed.

 

[Jack Hammer]

I may be mistaken, I thought Troy Springs was dynamited too. It definately looks like it.

 

[kensuf]

I may be mistaken, I thought Troy Springs was dynamited too. It definately looks like it.

You're correct.

 

[J-Vo]

The Karst formation in Santa Rosa is very deep. At Rock Lake (just a couple miles from blue hole), the bottom is at 280' and there is no sign of any limestone, yet you will find your gear coated in limestone dust once it dries.

My understanding from speaking to persons involved in the last Blue Hole expedition is that the cave goes strait down and is side mount only with several major restrictions. They stopped the push at around 150' depth as it was just too tight.