Caver has spent millions buying majority of known caves in Minnesota, USA

[paul]

John Ackerman has spent millions procuring a majority of the known caves in Minnesota, which add up to dozens of miles of underground passageways and likely make him the largest cave owner in the U.S. He collects and charts them in the name of preservation, but his controversial methods have created many opponents.

https://www.outsideonline.com/2414888/john-ackerman-caves-minnesota

[ChrisJC]

We need someone like that to buy Ogof Draenen.

Chris.

[Ed]

We need someone like that to buy Ogof Draenen.

Chris.

Problem is they already do...... He doesn't allow general access

[Minion]

We need someone like that to buy Ogof Draenen.

Chris.

At risk of kicking off another Dreanen debate....

What *really* needs to happen is an entrance or two on land now owned by PJ, nor falling under the jurisdiction of PDCMG.

[Jenny P]

You said, "... land now owned by PJ ...". 

Did you in fact mean "... land not owned by PJ ..." ?

It's a pretty sad and silly situation, however it arose originally.

[Graigwen]

The area that American guy is operating in does sound a bit like Torfaen:

"Many such sinkholes served as refuse heaps for 19th-century farmers and to this day are filled with decomposing appliances and machine parts. Every one of them leads to a cave."

.

[Jenny P]

So just like parts of Ireland then. 

I can remember looking for a cave in Co. Clare once, it turned out to be way off the beaten track and down a long forestry ride.  When we eventually found the shakehole entrance it was clogged up with dumped washing machines, fridges, cookers, etc.  This had obviously been standard practice for an area which didn't seem to bother with such niceities as regular rubbish collections or local authority refuse disposal sites.

Used to happen in Derbyshire once too: several mine shafts in the Peak District were descended by cavers in the 1960s only to find drums of cyanide at the bottom.  Fly tipping from the Sheffield steel works it seems!  Luckily we had the Environment Agency to complain to and we got it stopped.

[2xw]

I shouldn't like to see one person buy so much land and control access. America has pretty regressive views and policies on land access that would be out of place here.

[Jenny P]

Don't forget that large areas of GB are already owned by mysterious Middle Eastern or Russian people.  Not only property in London but large estates in the Highlands of Scotland.  So it's not even as if our own nationals are buying them and we seem to have no control over this.

[Fulk]

Doh! I thought  you meant GB Cave, Jenny, before the penny dropped!!!

[mrodoc]

You have probably seen this already but here it is again. This is County Kerry. However near Gort I found large jars full of Distalgesic tablets in the the Devil's Punchbowl many years ago - not far from the sign that tells you you cannot wash animals there!




 

[Chris Crowley]

So just like parts of Ireland then. 


For many years the Croydon CC in Ystradfelte used a shake hole near LNRC as a source of spare parts for its Calor gas cooker !


I can remember looking for a cave in Co. Clare once, it turned out to be way off the beaten track and down a long forestry ride.  When we eventually found the shakehole entrance it was clogged up with dumped washing machines, fridges, cookers, etc.  This had obviously been standard practice for an area which didn't seem to bother with such niceities as regular rubbish collections or local authority refuse disposal sites.

Used to happen in Derbyshire once too: several mine shafts in the Peak District were descended by cavers in the 1960s only to find drums of cyanide at the bottom.  Fly tipping from the Sheffield steel works it seems!  Luckily we had the Environment Agency to complain to and we got it stopped.

[royfellows]

A mine in central Wales could be entered through the back of a Land Rover, might still be like that. Bit of SRT, belay off the tow ball.
I never had the nerve.

[Jenny P]

There was also an episode in Derbyshire, many years ago when Eldon Quarry was still working.  One of the Orpheus members was investigating shafts in a field not far from the quarry, on the corner of the road near Perryfoot Farm.  He put a ladder down one, which was about 30ft. deep, and when he got to the bottom found himself standing in this sticky substance.  It wasn't mud - inspection showed it was deteriorating magic hammer, presumably dumped by the quarry - so he tiptoed back up the ladder and we never went near those shafts again.

[ZombieCake]

I thought  you meant GB Cave

I dunno, camel rides down the gorge, then a few vodkas on the way out, what's not to like.  Maybe there's oil at that bit right at the end.

[Fulk]

It’s probably easier to get a camel through the entrance passages of GB than through the eye of a needle – still, it would be an impressive feat.

Although – am I right in thinking that there once was an entrance to GB at the top of the Gorge? Was there really an old car jammed in there once upon a time, or have I dreamt it?

[PeteHall]

You haven't dreamt it. Bits of the car are still spread through the cave, but I don't think it came in through a car sized entrance,  more that it was slowly swallowed by a slumping sink hole...