, 205
Native Americans were the first important Indiana cavers, exploring deep into Wyandotte Cave as far back as 200 BC. Serious European exploration in Indiana started around 1850. Mud, Water, & Guts, a recent book by Gary Roberson, chronicles many significant contributors over the last 175 years.
Indiana cavers have played an outsized role in American caving beginning with Horace Hovey in the mid 1800's. Hovey, born in Rob Roy, is considered by many the father of American speleology. Bill Clifton, longtime guide at Marengo Cave may have been first modern caver. George Jackson, the earliest Indiana member of the NSS, caved around Wyandotte, next came Lewis D. Lamon, the expert on the sinkhole plain, followed by Leo Schotter, the last of the early leaders.
The truly modern era began with the formation of the NSS grottos in Indianapolis and Bloomington in the 1950's and the first major survey projects in Sullivan's, Binkley, and Bluespring caves. The leader of the transition to the grotto caving was Richard L. Powell.
The big bang of Indiana caving began in the late 50's and lasted until around 1975. The center of this caving boom was Indiana University, its spelunking club, and the Bloomington Indiana Grotto. This era created a prodigious number of important cavers. Many of these caving greats stayed home, but Indiana exported others to futures of great influence elsewhere.
Indiana caving continued growing through the 80's and into the 90's. However, as the Boomer generation aged the wave began to recede. After the White Nose epidemic closed many great Indiana caves in 2011, the decline accelerated. Once the Covid epidemic hit, Indiana's grottos became shells of what they had once been. Fortunately, Covid got young Americans off their butts and out into nature. By 2023, Indiana grottos were once again growing rapidly.
Gary Roberson