Lost in cave, 3 ASU students found safe

They spend night in cavern near Cushman

Firefighters from Izard and Independence counties exit the mouth of Blowing Cave in Cushman on Thursday afternoon after searching for three Arkansas State University students who had disappeared while on a spelunking trip in the area.
Firefighters from Izard and Independence counties exit the mouth of Blowing Cave in Cushman on Thursday afternoon after searching for three Arkansas State University students who had disappeared while on a spelunking trip in the area.

Rescue workers found three Arkansas State University at Jonesboro students safe late Thursday afternoon after they got lost in an Independence County cave overnight.

photo

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

A map showing the location of Blowing Cave.

The three ventured into Blowing Cave -- a popular cave for explorers just west of Cushman -- Wednesday. When they failed to return to Jonesboro that evening, family members notified authorities of their absence, said Bill Smith, an ASU-Jonesboro spokesman.

"They are out of the cave and they are healthy," Kevin Couch, an Independence County sheriff's office dispatcher, said Thursday evening. "They are cold and wet, but they have been reunited with their families."

The three were checked by medical personnel before being released, he said.

Two of the students, Daiki Itoh, 19, of Hiratsuka, Kanagawa, and Daisuke Takagi, 18, of Kawagoe, Hyoga, are first-year students at ASU-Jonesboro from Japan and had just completed English as a Second Language courses before beginning their fall semesters on Aug. 22, Smith said.

The third student, Casey Sherwood, 25, of Jonesboro, is entering his senior year and has explored Blowing Cave several times.

The three embarked on the cave exploration Wednesday afternoon. Smith said international students at ASU-Jonesboro often remain at the campus rather than return home during the few weeks between the conclusion of the summer semester and the beginning of the fall semester. He said Itoh and Takagi chose to stay in Jonesboro during the break and the cave trip was part of the break between semesters.

Smith said Sherwood's wife, Katherine Sherwood, called the University Police Department at ASU on Wednesday evening to report the three had not returned from the trip. ASU police then notified the Independence County sheriff's office, which began searching for the three about 2 a.m. Thursday.

Teams searched about three-quarters of a mile of the cave by noon Thursday, said Whitney Green, a spokesman for the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management.

Smith said the three were found in the cave about 5 p.m.

Cellphone service is limited because of the hilly terrain of northwestern Independence County, and Green said she was not able to contact emergency officials at the cave site.

The cave is a favorite spot for explorers and is steeped in local lore.

Visitors often ask for directions to the cave at the Cushman Country Store on U.S. 69, said store worker Betty Beasley. The cave is about a mile west of the store.

"It's pretty popular down here," Beasley said. "People are always stopping in saying they want to go explore it."

Blowing Cave gained notoriety when in the mid-1950s a local science-fiction writer penned a short fictional story about it and included details about a "glowing wall," an underground lake and a species of aliens called "The Blue People," who lived 5 miles beneath the earth's surface.

David Thomas, a professor of biology at Lyon College in Batesville, has helped map the cave and has been inside it often. Thomas said Independence County sheriff's deputies called him to assist in the search about 3:30 a.m. Thursday.

Thomas is a faculty adviser for the Cavers of Batesville Region of Arkansas, a group at Lyon College that explores and maps scores of caves in the area.

He said Blowing Cave is about 2 miles long and there are not many side passages explorers could take to get lost.

However, parts of the cave are very narrow -- at some points passage between the cave's walls is limited to only a few inches.

"You've got to squeeze through some tight spots," he said.

The cave is also steep and slippery, he said.

He and other searchers found small cloth orange flags presumably left by Sherwood when they conducted their search Thursday morning, Thomas said.

"We talked with [Sherwood's] family, and leaving markers sounds like something he would do," Thomas said.

He added that Sherwood indicated before embarking on the exploration that he wanted to travel to an underground waterfall about a mile from the cave's entrance. Explorers can climb up rocks behind the waterfall to gain access farther into the cave.

Thomas said cave explorers may wade in chest-deep water near the waterfall. The water's temperature remains at 58 degrees year-round, he said.

Rick Crutchfield of Redfield said he's often explored the cave as a youngster. His grandparents once owned land where the cave is, he said.

Many people cook and camp out by the cave's opening; the area is often littered with bottles, clothing and food containers left by visitors, he said.

"It can be dangerous," he said of exploring. "If you don't know what you are doing, you can get yourself between a rock and hard space in a heartbeat."

Crutchfield said in all his voyages into the cave, he has never seen the "glowing wall" or "Blue People" aliens.

"If I did see those blue folks, I'd never come back topside," he said. "I'd fall over in a heart attack."

State Desk on 08/12/2016

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