Divers begin remapping of Roaring River Cave
Above and below, Mike Young and a team of divers prepare to make an initial exploration of Roaring River Cave and Spring with film-makers from NWA Adventure Dive recording for a possible future documentary.
May 20, 2021
Sheila Harris
During the second weekend in May, with the blessing of Roaring River State Park officials, a team of divers made an initial exploratory dive into the cave from which Roaring River Spring emanates. Headed up by Mike Young - owner of KISS Rebreathers, a diving equipment manufacturing company based near Ft. Smith, Arkansas – the team consisted of Young and an assistant, and cartographer Jon Lillestolen and an assistant. The purpose of the dive into the mouth of the spring, Young says, is to explore previously uncharted subterranean territory and map it, while creating a documentary of the entire process.
Young is not without cave-diving experience.
“I began diving about 30 years ago in Botswana, South Africa, where I did open water diving in a sinkhole in the Kalahari Desert,” he said.
Young’s curiosity has since led him to places unsuited for the less intrepid, including the exploration and mapping of what is thought to be the world’s longest underground river in Puerto Rico and underground cave systems in Mexico and along the Yucatan Penisula. Closer to home, he headed up a dive that explored Roubidoux Spring in Waynesville, Missouri, and Blue Spring, west of Eureka Springs, Arkansas.
A film-maker recorded the team’s efforts to find the source of Blue Spring’s water, an attempt which was aborted after 350 logged hours spent searching, when they reached a sixth fissure through which passage was impossible.
Young has high hopes for his exploration of Roaring River Spring.
“We asked for permission to explore about ten years ago,” he said, “but we weren’t allowed to. This time, park superintendent, Joel Topham, is open to it. In return, we plan to map the cave’s underground footprint with the help of satellite technology and make a promotional video for the park to use in its nature center.”
Publication of a longer documentary will be contingent on the approval of park officials, Young says.
“We’re preparing to go to depths which up-to-date have been unexplored,” Young said. “Newer technology and more compact re-breathing equipment will make it possible, we hope.”
With film-maker Tim Bass, of NWA Adventure Dive, remaining topside to record the surface activities of the initial dive, the four-person team geared up, slipped into the water and quickly disappeared from sight.
“Our first dive was basically to check out water conditions and put guidelines in place, not only to help us find our way out, but also for future exploration,” Young explained.
We made it down to 220 feet,” Young said, “but with so much recent rainfall in the area, the water was murky and the flow was so strong that we didn’t attempt to go any farther. We did get guidelines put in place, though.”
According to several sources, authorized dives have been made into Roaring River Spring in the past. The exact date of the last one has not been pinned down, although according to previous diver, Roger Gliedt - formerly of Monett, now of Rogers, Arkansas - it was sometime in the early 1990s.
Due to a problem with pressurization in his ears, which was causing extreme vertigo, Gliedt said he only made it down to 205 feet before heading back up, although the remainder of the team went down to about 225 feet.
“While we were down there,” Gliedt said, “we located the underground room called the Colossal Dome, where we were able to surface and take our masks off for a bit. The room wasn’t big, but any time you find underground breathing space, it feels like a big deal.”
Unlike conventional SCUBA diving equipment, the rebreathing diving equipment that Young is using scrubs the CO2 from the exhaled air of divers and allows the oxygen to be re-used. This, in turn, allows a diver to go subsurface with more compact breathing equipment and prospectively squeeze through narrower fissures in cave walls.
While Mike Young would like to find the underground source of Roaring River Spring, he doesn’t necessarily know that it’s possible.
“The water flow at the depth we went to is impressively strong,” he said. “I suspect it may be coming from a much deeper aquifer, possibly even from the Springfield Plateau.
“This type of dive,” he added, “is not for the average diver. There’s a lot of risk involved.”
Part of that risk, Young says, is due to the decompression time needed at different depths as a diver begins to resurface. Young says an ER nurse trained in rescue-diving is on standby when the team goes under and, afterward, begins its ascent.
Future exploratory dives into the spring are scheduled for June 18 - 21, July 16 - 19, and August 27 - 30. Young is hoping the water will be clearer by then.
For a clearer idea of the challenges Young’s diving team may face in Roaring River Spring, Part 1 of the six-part series of Young’s exploration of Blue Spring (near Eureka Springs) can be viewed at www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMtZEH5eie8.
Below, a page from a November 7, 1979 edition of The Barry County Advertiser shows divers Roger Miller and Frank Fogarty of Louisville, Kentucky, who made the initial exploration of Roaring River Cave in September and October of 1979. Shown at the bottom right of the page is a divers' profile survey of Roaring River Spring showing a depth of 215 feet with additional flow emanating from a narrow opening below.
Sheila Harris
During the second weekend in May, with the blessing of Roaring River State Park officials, a team of divers made an initial exploratory dive into the cave from which Roaring River Spring emanates. Headed up by Mike Young - owner of KISS Rebreathers, a diving equipment manufacturing company based near Ft. Smith, Arkansas – the team consisted of Young and an assistant, and cartographer Jon Lillestolen and an assistant. The purpose of the dive into the mouth of the spring, Young says, is to explore previously uncharted subterranean territory and map it, while creating a documentary of the entire process.
Young is not without cave-diving experience.
“I began diving about 30 years ago in Botswana, South Africa, where I did open water diving in a sinkhole in the Kalahari Desert,” he said.
Young’s curiosity has since led him to places unsuited for the less intrepid, including the exploration and mapping of what is thought to be the world’s longest underground river in Puerto Rico and underground cave systems in Mexico and along the Yucatan Penisula. Closer to home, he headed up a dive that explored Roubidoux Spring in Waynesville, Missouri, and Blue Spring, west of Eureka Springs, Arkansas.
A film-maker recorded the team’s efforts to find the source of Blue Spring’s water, an attempt which was aborted after 350 logged hours spent searching, when they reached a sixth fissure through which passage was impossible.
Young has high hopes for his exploration of Roaring River Spring.
“We asked for permission to explore about ten years ago,” he said, “but we weren’t allowed to. This time, park superintendent, Joel Topham, is open to it. In return, we plan to map the cave’s underground footprint with the help of satellite technology and make a promotional video for the park to use in its nature center.”
Publication of a longer documentary will be contingent on the approval of park officials, Young says.
“We’re preparing to go to depths which up-to-date have been unexplored,” Young said. “Newer technology and more compact re-breathing equipment will make it possible, we hope.”
With film-maker Tim Bass, of NWA Adventure Dive, remaining topside to record the surface activities of the initial dive, the four-person team geared up, slipped into the water and quickly disappeared from sight.
“Our first dive was basically to check out water conditions and put guidelines in place, not only to help us find our way out, but also for future exploration,” Young explained.
We made it down to 220 feet,” Young said, “but with so much recent rainfall in the area, the water was murky and the flow was so strong that we didn’t attempt to go any farther. We did get guidelines put in place, though.”
According to several sources, authorized dives have been made into Roaring River Spring in the past. The exact date of the last one has not been pinned down, although according to previous diver, Roger Gliedt - formerly of Monett, now of Rogers, Arkansas - it was sometime in the early 1990s.
Due to a problem with pressurization in his ears, which was causing extreme vertigo, Gliedt said he only made it down to 205 feet before heading back up, although the remainder of the team went down to about 225 feet.
“While we were down there,” Gliedt said, “we located the underground room called the Colossal Dome, where we were able to surface and take our masks off for a bit. The room wasn’t big, but any time you find underground breathing space, it feels like a big deal.”
Unlike conventional SCUBA diving equipment, the rebreathing diving equipment that Young is using scrubs the CO2 from the exhaled air of divers and allows the oxygen to be re-used. This, in turn, allows a diver to go subsurface with more compact breathing equipment and prospectively squeeze through narrower fissures in cave walls.
While Mike Young would like to find the underground source of Roaring River Spring, he doesn’t necessarily know that it’s possible.
“The water flow at the depth we went to is impressively strong,” he said. “I suspect it may be coming from a much deeper aquifer, possibly even from the Springfield Plateau.
“This type of dive,” he added, “is not for the average diver. There’s a lot of risk involved.”
Part of that risk, Young says, is due to the decompression time needed at different depths as a diver begins to resurface. Young says an ER nurse trained in rescue-diving is on standby when the team goes under and, afterward, begins its ascent.
Future exploratory dives into the spring are scheduled for June 18 - 21, July 16 - 19, and August 27 - 30. Young is hoping the water will be clearer by then.
For a clearer idea of the challenges Young’s diving team may face in Roaring River Spring, Part 1 of the six-part series of Young’s exploration of Blue Spring (near Eureka Springs) can be viewed at www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMtZEH5eie8.
Below, a page from a November 7, 1979 edition of The Barry County Advertiser shows divers Roger Miller and Frank Fogarty of Louisville, Kentucky, who made the initial exploration of Roaring River Cave in September and October of 1979. Shown at the bottom right of the page is a divers' profile survey of Roaring River Spring showing a depth of 215 feet with additional flow emanating from a narrow opening below.