Onondaga Cave News

Our newsletter gives you up-to-date information about what's happening.
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Stay informed about Onondaga Cave State Park, and come out and play and even
have some fun while working for your state park.

White-Nose Syndrome Confirmed at Onondaga Cave

The park and cave will remain open despite verification of White-Nose Syndrome, which does NOT affect humans. Staff asks that you wear shoes and fresh clothing that haven't been in another cave when visiting. White Nose Fungus can wake bats up when they are in winter hibernation. The bats then go out of the cave to eat, and the combination of very cold weather and no insects is fatal to them. Please continue to support your State Parks, and hopefully bats will be able to "weather" WNS eventually. To learn more, go to this article. For a little more info on WNS and bats in general, go to this MDC article. To learn how awesome bats really are, go see our U-Haul friends' great website!

Calling All Former Cave Guides!

Come out to our Caveman Reunion this summer, break bread, share stories & meet old and new friends. The party
is on Saturday August 10th and will include a free pass through the cave for all former employees. Let us hear from you! Email us at onondagafriends@gmail.com.

Adopt-A-Park-Animal

We need your participation! Think of some of your favorite critters you've seen at the park, above-ground or underground, and send us your email about why you would like for it to receive special attention. We would like to begin a program which earmarks adoption money to help them. onondagafriends@gmail.com

From 2012

What's New with OFA?

We are gearing up for a wonderful season of great events, some free - some to raise money, all fun and interesting. Onondaga Friends' new logo (left), this little salamander was photographed in Onondaga Cave. Many salamanders can live on the surface and in a cave, given it has a happy habitat; we think he's a good representative of this National Landmark and Onondaga Cave State Park. OFA also has a new brochure for new and future friends to see what is needed to help out and keep this public land beautiful for future generations. "This land is your land, this land is my land..."

New Pages on our Website!

Find out about each of our events by going to our Events Page. We have also added other pages for your convenience, including a special page for Educators. You can go to our Blog with nature questions, especially questions specific to Onondaga Cave State Park. We will be adding a History of Onondaga Page soon, which will likely include some regional history, as well. There is a lot of information to add, so we will be making progress on this throughout this season. Please let us know what you think of our changes and if you have something you would like to see on the Onondaga Friends website.

Restoration Work in Onondaga Cave
by Tara Flynn

In 2008, volunteers worked extremely hard to clear the cave of trash from previous owners, as well as debris from past blasting efforts. During this process, many hidden treasures were revealed through the painstaking efforts of those volunteers.

That winter, quite by accident, a large section of rimstone dams in the Missouri Caverns section of Onondaga Cave were discovered! The dams had been covered almost entirely by gravel and blast debris. Closer inspection revealed these to be one of the largest sections of rimstone dams in any cave in the park. As volunteers worked to uncover these ancient cave deposits, it became clear that more than one weekend of work would be needed to complete the daunting task. With each load of gravel that was removed, the dams revealed themselves in awesome splendor. Volunteers were exhausted at the end of each work day, but a quick look back at these underground treasures made it all worth the effort.

Uncovering these amazing rimstone dams has required many weekends of intense work, and the project is still not complete. The rimstone dams stand as a reminder of what can be concealed through time and carelessness. We do not know when or why the dams were covered (or when we will complete the project), but more concerted efforts are made these days to prevent such occurrences from happening again in the future.

The dams are not visible from the trail, but we are adding photos of them to our Onondaga Cave photo album, which visitors can view in the Visitor Center. The dams will soon hold a place in the hearts of our volunteers and visitors alike, just as the Lily Pad Room does.

Astronomy Under the Stars!

Come to Onondaga to relax under the summer evening sky. Annually, we have had a program to view and discuss some of the heavenly bodies in our solar system. In 2011, we had the Eastern Missouri Dark Sky Organization, a local group of astronomers, to lead us through the cosmos each month. Watch for them on the Events Calendar!

Onondaga Friends Association to the Rescue!
by Tiffani Martin

The Onondaga Friends Group can and does help make Onondaga Cave State Park better each year. The organization provides assistance to the park in the form of volunteer hours, donations and education.

Most people know that Missouri's 83 state parks and historic sites are funded by a 1/10 of 1% parks and soils sales tax. Parks receive half of that tax, with the remainder going to soil conservation across the state. People may also be aware of the budget slashing the state has had to do, and these cuts have very much affected state parks and historic sites.

What many people do not know is that as helpful as that tax is, it may not always be enough. Often times, parks struggle with unexpected expenses and costly repairs (as with flooding events), special projects that staff cannot complete on their own, and events or programs that would be enhanced with additional staffing. It is during these times that volunteers are needed the most! The Friends have performed a number of duties for the park over the past several years, such as:

Visitor Center Gardens - weeding and planting
Cave Restoration - Onondaga and Cathedral Caves
Special Events - additional staffing, collecting donations for the park, education programs, helping to set up and take down at events, playing music
Special Maintenance Projects - re-roofing park buildings, assisting with flood clean-up
Cave Tours - during special events

With the wide variety of talent out there, everyone has something to offer the park, whether you are an official member of OFA or not!

One example of how volunteers can be so helpful comes from a new campground host visiting the park for the first time...
Not long after Merle and Judy returned to the park to volunteer as campground hosts, Merle noticed one of our staff members working hard to properly label the native plants that have taken root in the Visitor Center gardens over the years. Merle was quick to volunteer his metal working expertise to create some small signs that could then be used to label the plants. Within a short period of time, the signs were ready to be proudly displayed in the gardens. Merle and Judy are examples of the generosity and ingenuity of our volunteers. Many thanks go to all who volunteer!