The Exeter Sinkhole: Part Two
Shown above, the Exeter Sinkhole in February of 2005, in its initial opening stages.
December 22, 2021
Sheila Harris
Although news of the Exeter Sinkhole has tapered off since it first broke ground in February of 2005, Bob Berg remembers well the day a neighbor called to ask him what was going on his field.
“He told me, ‘You’ve got a hole out there with water churning up out of it,’” Berg recalled. “I decided I’d better go have a look.”
What Berg found was merely the beginning of a spectacle that drew throngs of curious area residents and news crews throughout the days and weeks to follow.
“A hole, maybe ten yards in diameter, had opened in my pasture down in the hollow,” he said, “just down the road from the little house I grew up in. In fact, I played in that very pasture when I was a kid.”
The hole was filled with churning white-capped water.
Perhaps more ominous was the large crack that split the fertile, rock-free soil in a wide perimeter around the hole, a crack that increased in width and depth until it became a trench, and ultimately sloughed off the earth within it.
“I went to Cassville and let some officials know what was going on,” Berg said, “but they laughed and told me just to throw a few rocks in the hole and not to worry about it. After that, I called the DNR office in Jefferson City, and they didn’t waste any time getting someone down here to take a look at it.”
Berg said he and his family – and residents from all over the county and beyond - watched the sinkhole grow wider by the day as the ground visibly and audibly broke free from the edges, leaving sheer, vertical walls of dirt behind. Over about a month’s time, the ground within the outline created by the gash in the earth was entirely consumed by the gaping, watery hole.
“One gentleman from the DNR who was helping with the survey work had a close call,” Berg recalled. “Right after he moved back from the edge where he’d been measuring, the whole chunk of ground that he’d been standing on broke off and fell into the water. After that, we kept a rope down there, just in case someone fell in. There wouldn’t be any way for them to climb out on their own, even if they could swim to the side.”
Adriana Keeton, then a reporter for The Barry County Advertiser, recalls hearing swooshing noises as large chunks of earth broke free and slid into the water.
“Office of Emergency Management (OEM) personnel would tell us periodically to step back 20 more feet, then 20 more, as the earth continued to give way,” Keeton said.
Results of a Survey for Collapse Potential conducted by the Missouri Department of National Resources (DNR) in 2005 showed that the area to the southwest of the sinkhole - and to the north of it - were at high risk for continued collapse as no bedrock could be discerned for more than 60 feet below the surface in those directions. By contrast, bedrock was detected within 20 or 30 feet from the surface to the east and parts of the south side of the sinkhole. The county road, open to east-west through traffic, lay along the north side of the sinkhole and was included in the area with no discernable bedrock near the surface. The DNR recommended that the road be permanently closed or rerouted. County officials opted to close it.
A portion of the old roadbed is now undermined by further collapse and subsequent erosion as the sinkhole expanded northward, creating a monstrous crater in a pasture that once provided forage for Berg’s cattle. Now, a hot wire keeps cattle far away from it.
According to Berg, the sinkhole always contains water, although water levels vary, depending on the amount of rainfall in the area. Last week, the water level stood about 30 feet below ground level, but, Berg said, no “bottom” to the water has been found.
“We threw weighted fishing lines in when the sink first opened up and filled with water,” he said. “The deepest we ever measured was 150 feet, but something down there kept breaking our lines. We think there’s a strong current down there from an underground river that’s breaking it against rocks.”
Berg does say, though, that he now occasionally sees fish in the water: white bass, not the trout from Roaring River that one jokester tried to convince people were present in the sinkhole.
“He put flyers up all over Cassville and Exeter, telling people they could purchase trout tags and permits to fish in my sinkhole when March 1 came around,” Berg said.
Berg still has a copy of the flyer.
Another lady who lived north of Exeter was terrified by news of the sinkhole, Berg recalled.
“She called me several times, asking me if I thought the sinkhole would expand as far north as her house and swallow it,” Berg said.
At times, Berg says, with heavy rains, the vast pit fills to the brim and overflows into adjacent creek beds and ditches.
Where the water goes when the sinkhole drains is what hydrologists Bob Lerch and Ben Miller, with the Cave Research Foundation, are trying to discover.
“The fact that it’s draining makes it worthy of a dye-tracing test,” Lerch said. “Many sinkholes have no drains, and the water just sits and stagnates.”
According to James VanDike with the Missouri DNR – as reported by Adriana Keeton in a February 25, 2005, article in The Barry County Advertiser – sinkholes tend to appear more commonly after periods of heavy rain or extended drought. The months preceding the Exeter sinkhole’s opening had been extremely wet, VanDike said.
VanDike also indicated that a fault line had been detected within a mile of the sinkhole and that an earthquake had occurred in Arkansas the previous month. However, he believed that neither event had prompted the dramatic opening of the earth southwest of Exeter.
“I believe this is a naturally occurring sinkhole,” he said in 2005.
Hydrologists Bob Lerch and Ben Miller anticipate the lab results, due back in January, which may prove that the sinkhole’s water makes its way into Roaring River Spring. The two, with the assistance of Kelly Koch – from Roaring River State Park – have charcoal packets situated near Roaring River Spring which will absorb dye from the water if it’s present.
“We’ve also placed charcoal packets in strategic hollows running along Thomas Hollow toward Mike’s Creek, to the southwest of the sink,” he said, “because it’s possible that the dye from the Exeter sink might show up in both Roaring River Spring and Mike’s Creek. If so, it would indicate that the sinkhole feeds a shared recharge area for the two.”
Lerch believes that the more we learn about the interconnectivity of Ozarks waterways, the more we’ll understand the importance of caring for this life-sustaining resource.
Sheila Harris
Although news of the Exeter Sinkhole has tapered off since it first broke ground in February of 2005, Bob Berg remembers well the day a neighbor called to ask him what was going on his field.
“He told me, ‘You’ve got a hole out there with water churning up out of it,’” Berg recalled. “I decided I’d better go have a look.”
What Berg found was merely the beginning of a spectacle that drew throngs of curious area residents and news crews throughout the days and weeks to follow.
“A hole, maybe ten yards in diameter, had opened in my pasture down in the hollow,” he said, “just down the road from the little house I grew up in. In fact, I played in that very pasture when I was a kid.”
The hole was filled with churning white-capped water.
Perhaps more ominous was the large crack that split the fertile, rock-free soil in a wide perimeter around the hole, a crack that increased in width and depth until it became a trench, and ultimately sloughed off the earth within it.
“I went to Cassville and let some officials know what was going on,” Berg said, “but they laughed and told me just to throw a few rocks in the hole and not to worry about it. After that, I called the DNR office in Jefferson City, and they didn’t waste any time getting someone down here to take a look at it.”
Berg said he and his family – and residents from all over the county and beyond - watched the sinkhole grow wider by the day as the ground visibly and audibly broke free from the edges, leaving sheer, vertical walls of dirt behind. Over about a month’s time, the ground within the outline created by the gash in the earth was entirely consumed by the gaping, watery hole.
“One gentleman from the DNR who was helping with the survey work had a close call,” Berg recalled. “Right after he moved back from the edge where he’d been measuring, the whole chunk of ground that he’d been standing on broke off and fell into the water. After that, we kept a rope down there, just in case someone fell in. There wouldn’t be any way for them to climb out on their own, even if they could swim to the side.”
Adriana Keeton, then a reporter for The Barry County Advertiser, recalls hearing swooshing noises as large chunks of earth broke free and slid into the water.
“Office of Emergency Management (OEM) personnel would tell us periodically to step back 20 more feet, then 20 more, as the earth continued to give way,” Keeton said.
Results of a Survey for Collapse Potential conducted by the Missouri Department of National Resources (DNR) in 2005 showed that the area to the southwest of the sinkhole - and to the north of it - were at high risk for continued collapse as no bedrock could be discerned for more than 60 feet below the surface in those directions. By contrast, bedrock was detected within 20 or 30 feet from the surface to the east and parts of the south side of the sinkhole. The county road, open to east-west through traffic, lay along the north side of the sinkhole and was included in the area with no discernable bedrock near the surface. The DNR recommended that the road be permanently closed or rerouted. County officials opted to close it.
A portion of the old roadbed is now undermined by further collapse and subsequent erosion as the sinkhole expanded northward, creating a monstrous crater in a pasture that once provided forage for Berg’s cattle. Now, a hot wire keeps cattle far away from it.
According to Berg, the sinkhole always contains water, although water levels vary, depending on the amount of rainfall in the area. Last week, the water level stood about 30 feet below ground level, but, Berg said, no “bottom” to the water has been found.
“We threw weighted fishing lines in when the sink first opened up and filled with water,” he said. “The deepest we ever measured was 150 feet, but something down there kept breaking our lines. We think there’s a strong current down there from an underground river that’s breaking it against rocks.”
Berg does say, though, that he now occasionally sees fish in the water: white bass, not the trout from Roaring River that one jokester tried to convince people were present in the sinkhole.
“He put flyers up all over Cassville and Exeter, telling people they could purchase trout tags and permits to fish in my sinkhole when March 1 came around,” Berg said.
Berg still has a copy of the flyer.
Another lady who lived north of Exeter was terrified by news of the sinkhole, Berg recalled.
“She called me several times, asking me if I thought the sinkhole would expand as far north as her house and swallow it,” Berg said.
At times, Berg says, with heavy rains, the vast pit fills to the brim and overflows into adjacent creek beds and ditches.
Where the water goes when the sinkhole drains is what hydrologists Bob Lerch and Ben Miller, with the Cave Research Foundation, are trying to discover.
“The fact that it’s draining makes it worthy of a dye-tracing test,” Lerch said. “Many sinkholes have no drains, and the water just sits and stagnates.”
According to James VanDike with the Missouri DNR – as reported by Adriana Keeton in a February 25, 2005, article in The Barry County Advertiser – sinkholes tend to appear more commonly after periods of heavy rain or extended drought. The months preceding the Exeter sinkhole’s opening had been extremely wet, VanDike said.
VanDike also indicated that a fault line had been detected within a mile of the sinkhole and that an earthquake had occurred in Arkansas the previous month. However, he believed that neither event had prompted the dramatic opening of the earth southwest of Exeter.
“I believe this is a naturally occurring sinkhole,” he said in 2005.
Hydrologists Bob Lerch and Ben Miller anticipate the lab results, due back in January, which may prove that the sinkhole’s water makes its way into Roaring River Spring. The two, with the assistance of Kelly Koch – from Roaring River State Park – have charcoal packets situated near Roaring River Spring which will absorb dye from the water if it’s present.
“We’ve also placed charcoal packets in strategic hollows running along Thomas Hollow toward Mike’s Creek, to the southwest of the sink,” he said, “because it’s possible that the dye from the Exeter sink might show up in both Roaring River Spring and Mike’s Creek. If so, it would indicate that the sinkhole feeds a shared recharge area for the two.”
Lerch believes that the more we learn about the interconnectivity of Ozarks waterways, the more we’ll understand the importance of caring for this life-sustaining resource.
Bill Berg surveys the sinkhole on his property near Exeter, in which the water recently turned red as the result of dye-tracing tests being conducted by hydrologists with the Cave Research Foundation. The dye was flushed from the sinkhole after heavy rains last weekend.