Sink Hole???

[FinsnFur]

Question for some of you guys. Figured I'd put this in here since us predator hunters are on the ground more then say a deer  hunter.

Talking to a friend last night who keeps begging me to come call coyotes on his farm, and he got to telling me about a ....what he kept referring to as a sink hole.

He said he stumbled upon it while tracking a deer on private property, and couldn't believe the size of it, it's location and the unknown depth.

He said it was in a relatively flat area, surrounded by leaves and trees. It was an opening on the woods floor, roughly 2' by 3'.

He says anyone could easily fall into it and you'd never see or hear from them again. He tossed rocks down into it and never heard them hit the bottom. He squatted down and shined a flashlight into it, and he felt air coming up out of it but the light never hit the bottom.

I demanded that he take me to see this thing. I said can you imagine what you could possibly find at the bottom of that thing. And he says WHAT you'd find.....you mean who you'd find.

I suppose if it had been there long enough, it wouldnt really be all that unheard of to find human bones down, either from indians or whatever. Along with unsuspecting critters who stumbled on it.

Anyone ever hear or see such a thing? I been following "LOST" on TV pretty close and that's all I could think of while he was describing the mystery depth of this hole. 

[Bills Custom Calls]

Jim do you know of any under ground mines in that area it almost sounds like an air shaft for one.You could check county records and see if anything like that was done in that area.

Bill

[nailbender]

 Maybe you'll find Jimmy Hoffa!

[Bopeye]

I know of two very similar sounding holes. There is one here in Cumberland County up on what is called Bear Den Mtn. It's only a few feet wide. Not really sure how far it goes down, but I'm guessing it does have a bottom since I can hear water flowing in it. I know you can't see the bottom from the surface. It may be more of a cave than a true sink hole, but I am not climbing in to find out........
The other one is a true sink hole and it's located just west of Albany, Ky. It's on the farm of guy that has a beagle starting facility where I always took my 6-8 month old pups there to be started on rabbits.
Anyway, back to the sink hole. We had a dog turn mean on us up there and decided it didn't need to stay around. We put him to sleep and then went about the task of burying it, when the owner of the farm said he had a better place. He took me to the edge of a field and then we walked back through the woods a little ways. I saw some fence in roughly a 12' circle. When I got to the fence, there it was, just a hole in the middle of nowhere. He told me he had thrown all kinds of stuff (cows,dogs,goats,etc.) in there and wasn't sure how deep it was. I threw the dog in there and never heard it hit.
He went on to explain how he almost drove in the thing one time and that's how he discovered it. It was big enough in diameter that it could have swallowed up his four wheeler with him on it.
I hear of others talk about sink holes, but these two are the only ones that I have personally seen that are scary, especially the one in Ky. I'd hate to venture a guess how deep that thing is.......

[HaMeR]

 A fishing pole with a big ol sinker can tell you the depth.



If it hits bottom!

[CCP]

 I would say either a shaft or a cave of some sort. We had lots of sink holes on the farm in Fla. They are very common around there. Most farmers threw there garbage in them but we stopped in the early 90's when the state started fining everyone around us.

Most of the ones we had you could put my house in 10 or 15 times. We did have some smaller ones 20'x20' across and anywhere from 10' to 40' deep. We did have some holes like the one you describe but they were mostly cave entrances or old abandoned dried up wells.

Go to google and type in Fla sink holes you will find there are more sink holes in Fl than any other state and they have lawyers that specialize in sink hole law. 

[Ladobe]

So called sink holes are very common in much of the west and vary in size from barely big enough to step into to big enough to swallow a vehicle.   Was always a big concern all the years I ran with a 4X4 club and as a mine spelunker (mineral collector).   Many of them are well hidden by brush and can't be seen until the last second even when hiking.   Can't count how many times while out hunting I almost walked into them too.

Most common are the air vents from mines since so much of the wild country is heavily dotted with old mine claims and shafts, but on the west desert of Utah along the Thomas Range there was also "wet" sink holes (actually Ryolite volcanic vents) that after a big rain storm would gobble up a truck as fast as quick sand would.   The Army lost tanks in them while out on maneuvers, and yes, a pard and I lost his brand new truck in one.   We were buried within minutes half way up the doors.   Took us nearly 3 days to hike 45 miles off the desert for help and when we returned the truck had sunk completely out of site and was never recovered.  Not one of our brighter moves, but then I got in a lot of trouble with this particular friend deep in many mines as well over the years.    (The stories I could tell from a life time of being fearless and foolish.) 

Also ran into several natural sink holes while hunting or hiking in the Rockies and high plateau deserts.   One in particular I found while on an elk hunt high up in Soapstone Basin of the Wasatch Mtn's in UT.   Was on a rimrock ridge, and was a 20' long crack in the bed rock about 3' wide at the widest, it went straight down and then appeared to angle off on one end.   With no gear along it had to be put off at the time.   But the following summer a friend and I returned to explore it with our mine spelunking gear and ropes.   At 30' it sloped down another 50-60' into a huge natural cavern.   Low in a wall of the cavern was a small opening that we could barely crawl through and it lead to a smaller cavern that only had the remnants of a floor on two sides, with a gapping hole going straight down into the darkness.   We could hear strong water running below, and eventually discovered a serious under ground river at the bottom of the cavern shaft about 90' feet down.    With no place the get off the ropes, that was as far as we could go though.   Did get some awesome geodes out of the cavern ceiling though.

Ever so slowly the state and fed boys were fencing off known sink holes and shafts way back then, especially in the known mining districts, but with so many of them being so well hidden I expect many are still waiting for some poor slob to stumble into them.

(Disclaimer:  I was a trained amateur mine geologist and rock climber.   Don't try this at home.) 

[Hawks Feather]

Ladobe,

I am sorry, but I look at climbing down into caves much like jumping out of a perfectly good airplane.  I plan to continue to enjoy the pictures that you and others take while "down and up" there, but it isn't going to be me taking those picture.   

Jerry

[FinsnFur]

I'm learning a little more about them as I read these. Did a little google search too.

Mannnnn I never knew these things existed. Kinda freaks me out. I got kids that belong to snomobile clubs and travel around timbuktoo all hours of the day and night. 

Some of what I'm discovering make perfect sense. A particular water table under the earths surface either dries up, or the water level drops enough to allow for some collapsing and it's all down hill <--pun ....from there.

And the one my buddy discovered has warm air coming out of it so I have to think there's another opening to the surface.........S o m e w h e r e 

[FinsnFur]

Holy Crap!!

[youtube=425,350]Oi5LN6MIsiw[/youtube]

[Ladobe]

Jerry

Yeah I was one of them people who jumped out of airplanes for fun too when I was younger - did hang gliding when it very first started, bungee jumping with just a rope, etc.   Did alot of other things too most sane people wouldn't do.   But I had a fun life even if I did use up more than my fair share of nine lives.   Body is paying for it now though.

L.

[vvarmitr]

Why don't you take your lazer rangefinder & shoot the hole? Rig it up on a stick if ya havta.

[CavTrooper]

Ive got a buddy whos an avid cave explorer, he does alot of cave diving and mapping for some non-government type volunteer group. Im sure he would LOVE to check it out for you!

[KySongDog]

I know some properties that have old water wells on them out in the middle of the woods.  About 3 to 4 feet across. Very deep. Usually there will be an old rusted car hood laying on top to cover the hole but not always.  Once, I nearly fell in to one while searching tree tops for squirrels.  Felt the ground give way and looked down to see the edge of the hole.  Decided I needed to watch where I was walking after that.

Semp

[DirtyDog]

If you continue to throw dead animals down the shaft, you might make the freindly neigborhood trollls leave their home and come topside.......... 

[awh]

Sounds like a drop cave. And I am willing to bet that there are Indian relics / bones there as well. Everyone I have been in has some good stuff if your into hunting relics. (I'm into hunting relics.... )

[Ladobe]

Easy for me to find a relic... all I have to do is look in a mirror.   

[vvarmitr]

Ladobe: I was telling Coyote Kate about you crawling down into holes & stuff & she says " Sounds like a groundhog to me."  :roflmao:  :roflmao:  :roflmao:
Ya know as our dear elder buddy we want you to be careful sticking your head out of holes just in case some varminter might mistake you for a hoary marmot.

[FinsnFur]

whacka mole  :shck:

[N_Georgia]

We have had several of those around here in the last ten years.  Alot of them were do to a local mining company pumping water from a four hundred foot deep quarry.  They quarry was deeper than most of the ground water in the area and that water drained into the quarry from miles away through underground river (I believe the correct term is aquafers) .  This water can collect in underground reservoirs and the water will actually hold up the ground.  If the water goes away then there is nothing to hold up the ground.  Most of ours have been found by some very large tractors while plowing or harvesting.  Also I have a well on my property which has a very rapid moving water source near the bottom.  You can take a rock tied to a string and drop it in.  The current will take it away from you, its fairly strong.