Cavern Project Expands

Tunnel Will Lead Visitors To Lakes

Deep down, Dennis Boyer knew that visitors to War Eagle Cavern would enjoy seeing more of its underground attractions than what’s seen on the regular cave tour.

There’s more, much more, to the show cave in eastern Benton County that has a maze of meandering, mysterious passages.

At A Glance

War Eagle Cavern

War Eagle Cavern is about 15 miles east of Rogers, off Arkansas 12 and Rambo Road at 21494 Cavern Road. Visitors may also come by boat from Beaver Lake.

The cave is closed for the season but will open March 9. For information, call 479-789-2909 or send email to [email protected]

Source: Staff Report

To open up more of the grotto to his customers, cavern owner Boyer and a crew have tunneled 110 feet through the cave to access additional cavern rooms and a pair of small lakes.

Drilling and blasting were part of the project, but the cave is quiet now. Work ceased Dec. 20 to allow the cave’s hundreds, perhaps thousands, of bats to hibernate through the winter undisturbed.

When War Eagle Cavern reopens for business March 9, visitors will be able to walk through an additional 150 feet of the cave and stand on the edge of one of the lakes with water as clear as the purest air.

It’s a two-phase project, Boyer said during a recent tour of the project.

Phase one involved creating the tunnel that’s 110 feet long and averages 12 feet wide and 8 feet tall.

In phase two, four or five foot bridges will be built over the two lakes and the stream that runs through War Eagle Cavern. The pedestrian walking path will be finished and lighting installed.

Eventually, Boyer wants to reach farther into the cave so visitors can see what he calls the Canyon Room, which has a ceiling that’s 100 feet high.

War Eagle Cavern has about four miles of passageways, he said. Visitors on the one-hour tour walk about a half mile through the cave. More passageways can be explored on wild cave tours offered during the visitor season.

Creating the 100-foot tunnel was done primarily with dynamite, Boyer said. Holes were drilled into solid rock and the dynamite put in place.

“When it goes off, it’s not that loud. It’s more of a ‘whumph’ than a blast,” Boyer said.

Bats hung from the ceiling all over War Eagle Cavern during Boyer’s tour.

“We’re very protective of our bats,” he said.

Boyer was worried setting off dynamite would disturb the bats, but not one budged during the blasting, drilling and rock hauling.

“We had bats sleeping literally feet from where we were working,” said Boyer, who purchased War Eagle Cavern in 1997. It’s estimated to be 250 million years old.

Expanding the cave is a unique project, said Steve Turner of Tennessee, one of two commercial cavern experts working with Boyer.

“It’s different in the amount of blasting that needed to be done,” Turner said.

The tunneling was slow going. After the dynamite goes off, workers deep inside the cave cart off the loosened rock with a hand-operated front-end loader.

Rock from the loader is dumped into the bed of an all-terrain vehicle. Rock is then driven out through the cave entrance and dumped.

There are no worries about the ATV’s exhaust fumes or dust.

“Natural air flow through the cave carries them right out,” Boyer said.

Only a short window of opportunity is open to do the work — late summer into late fall.

Work stops during winter to allow the cavern’s colonies of bats to hibernate.

During spring, bats give birth so no work takes place, Boyer said. Not only that, spring rain can flood the stream that flows through War Eagle Cavern and spills out the cave’s gaping entrance.

Boyer is a lifelong fan of caves. When he retired from 30 years in the car business, he looked around for a commercial cave to purchase and found War Eagle Cavern. Twenty-two acres around the cave were part of the sale.

When the deed was signed, Boyer set about belly-crawling through the lengthy pitch-dark channels far off the tour path.

He’s not the cave’s first spelunker. Before War Eagle Cavern became a commercial cave in 1977, it was popular with locals.

“Some people from the area who come on the tour tell us their grandparents have been in the cave,” Boyer said.

The entrance was mostly wet most of the time and people had to wade the stream to get inside.

When the cave became a business in 1977, a dryer entrance was dug near the original one.

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