Lost River Field Trip for the Indiana Water Resources Association
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Lost River Field Trip for the Indiana Water Resources Association Richard L. Powell INTRODUCTION This guidebook primarily covers karst features TIPTON TILL PLAIN and subterranean drainage within parts of the PUTNAM SHELBY Mill Creek and Lost River watersheds located on M JOHNSON AR TIN NEW CASTLE TILL PLAINS the Mitchell Plateau and Crawford Upland phys- SVILL MORGAN E AND RAINAGEWAYS D iographic units (Gray, 2000, p. 8–9, and Malott, HI LLS 1922, p. 94–102 and 187–247) (fig. 1). The Mitch- CLAY ell Plateau encompasses about 1,200 square OWEN miles, underlain primarily with westward dip- NO BARTHOLOMEW RM ping, predominately carbonate strata of the Blue A DECATUR N BROWN River and Sanders Groups. The Crawford Up- MONROE S C land covers about 2,500 square miles consisting O U T T P S of clastic and carbonate strata of the Chester Se- L B W GREENE A N U U R A A D ries and lowermost Pennsylvanian Age units. The G B A JENNINGS E T A L S Mitchell Plateau and the eastern portion of the H LAWRENCE Crawford Upland are known for their karst fea- M JACKSON I T L tures and caverns and are world renowned for C O P H W E the karst features of the Lost River area, owing MARTIN L L L C A K C U T N R primarily to the publications of Clyde A. Malott. D A W DAVIESS A T A C L O F SCOTT S U W O R M L The “Mitchell plain” was originally named by D A WASHINGTON N D J. W. Beede (1911, p. 95) for the excellent sink- ORANGE N W hole topography in the vicinity of Mitchell, Indi- Upper Lost River P L TO A S LS T E ana. Clyde A. Malott (1922, p. 94) formalized the IL Drainage Basin L E CLARK H A U name “Mitchell plain” in The Physiography of In- HAR C diana. A significant factor for the development DUBOIS U FLOYD of karst features on the Mississippian Age car- P CRAWFORD L A N bonates was the fact that the Mitchell plain wasBOON VILLE D more accurately a plateau—the “Mitchell PlaH-ILLS HARRISON PERRY er teau” as described by Richard L. Powell (1966, iv R SPENCER PIKE EXPLANATION p. 119) and Henry H. Gray (2000, p. 8–9)— in recognition of deeply incised major surface Wisconsin glacial extent drainage in places and development of cavern- Y Pre-Wisconsin glacial extent io Oh K ous subsurface passages somewhat at grade C U with the incised streams. The division between 0 15 30 Miles T E N the Mitchell Plateau has been called the Ches- K N ter escarpment (Malott, 1948, p. 239), befitting the eastward-facing cuesta developed on the up- per part of the Blue River Group and the lower Figure 1. Map showing the location of the Upper Lost River drain- part of the West Baden Group, but was formal- age area within the Mitchell Plateau and the Crawford Upland ly named the “Springfield Escarpment” by Gray (modified from Gray, 2000, plate 1). (2000, p. 8). 2 Bryantsville Rabbitville Rivervale k e e r C 37 l l 4N 1E 4N 1E 4N 1W i M 50 4N 2W 4N 1W Inn Spring Mitchell 4N 1W Mill 4N 1E 4N 2W 3N 1E 3N 2W 3N 1W State Park 1 60 60 Moorestown 60 5 Georgia 60 300 3N 2W 3N 1W LAWRENCE COUNTY ORANGE COUNTY Bonds 3N 1E 3N 1W 3N 1W 200 Hindostan Orleans 337 ST LO 37 3N 1E 3N 1W 3N 2W 2 2N 2W 2N 1W 2N 1E RI 200 VER ER V 2N 1W I R 300 Orangeville 525 2N 1E 7 500 500 600 6 ST 3 110 LO 350 4 400 2N 1W 2N 2W 625 350 LO S T 725 RI VE R Lick C r e 150 e 37 k Prospect 56 150 West Baden Springs Abydel 56 L ic 8 k Stampers Creek 56 2N 1E 2N 1W Paoli 2N 2W 1N 1W 1N 1E 1N 2W Creek 9 L i c 56 French Lick k 150 EXPLANATION C r e e k 1N 1W 1N 2W 7 145Trip Stop Trip Route 37 150 56 350 US, State, County Roads Chambersburg 0 1 2 3 Miles N Figure 2. Route map for the Lost River Field trip. 3 Subsequent to the papers on Lost River by Ma- others (1994), Earth Tech (1995), and Buehler lott (1922a, 1929, 1932, 1945?, 1949a, 1949b, and and others (2002), that better defined the size of 1952), Malott and Shrock (1933), and Childs the Lost River drainage system. (1940), were several guidebooks for field trips by various authors, but which contained little new The Lost River portion of the field trip consists information. A few new caves were mapped, in of Stops 1 through 7 (fig. 2). Stop 8 is at the West particular, more than 20 miles of passages in the Baden Springs Hotel and Stop 9 is at a gasoline Lost River Cave system (Deebel, 2007, p. 27). station in Paoli. The route to Stop 1, Twin Caves, But the major accomplishment since 1952 was the type locality of the karst window and the the addition of a series of dye traces by Murdock sinkhole terrain southeast of Mitchell, type lo- and Powell (1968), Bassett (1976), Bolton (1980), cality of the Mitchell Plain of C.A. Malott (1922, W. W. Engineering & Science (1994), Bayless and p. 94), is shown on Figure 3. Inn 1 EXPLANATION Trip Route 7 Trip Stop 0 1,000 2,000 Feet N Figure 2. Map of a portion of the Mitchell Quadrangle showing the type area of the Mitchell Plain of Malott (1922, p. 94) and the route to Twin Caves, Stop 1. 4 STOp 1 – TWIN CAVES Twin Caves (fig. 4) is a collapse sinkhole called by solution and erosion (fig. 5). The karst win- a “karst window’ by Malott (1932, p. 290), ow- dow at Twin Caves exposes about 200 feet of ing to the fact that the collapse provides a view stream passage. The roof of the cave is general- or window into the cavern and cave stream that ly within the St. Louis Limestone above the con- caused the collapse. Twin Caves was designated tact with the Salem Limestone. Bronson Caves, as the type locality by W. P. Von Osinski (1935). located about 500 feet north of Twin Caves, is The collapse of the cave roof at Twin Caves pro- a second example of a karst window. The cave gressed upward through about 50 feet of rock, stream exits its subterranean route at pictur- the collapsed material dumping into the cave esque Donaldson Cave, located about640 2,500 feet stream; this material was removed progressively to the northwest. 640 640 675 635 630 A' N 645 650 650 650 650 Bronson 615 620 Caves 625 650 650 600 PARK ROAD 625 625 650 Twin 625 600 625 Caves 635 600 625 645 0 125 250 feet 645 640 LAWRENCEPORT ROAD 5' Contour Interval A 660 Figure 4. Map of the Twin Caves and Bronson Caves karst windows in Spring615 Mill State Park. Lidar base map and digital 625 compilation by Matthew Johnson, Indiana Geological Survey. 620 635 630 620 620 630 620 645 650 5 road A' A 650 road Twin Bronson 650 Caves Caves St Louis dam Limestone 600 600 rlp ow direction Salem Limestone 0 125 250 feet Figure 5. Generalized south-to-north cross section along cave passages of Twin and Bronson Caves. 6 STOP 2 – FLOW CONDITIONS Do not exit the vehicle. This stop is to view the ized as typical of the sinkhole plain of the Mitch- current flow condition of Lost River about a mile ell Plateau. Although some sinkholes are present upstream of the “1st Sink” of Lost River (figs. 6 in places, much of the drainage area is typically and 7). Lost River drains about 62 square miles surface drainage on relatively thick clay depos- above the First Sink from drainage in Orange its. The flood plain of Lost River is about 1,500 and Washington Counties that is not character- feet wide at this point. TO STOP 5 EXPLANATION N Trip Route 2 Trip Stop Swallowhole 0 1,000 2,000 Feet 2 FIRST SINK OF LOST RIVER 3 MILES CAVE PRINCIPAL DRY WEATHER SINKS 4 STEIN SWALLOW HOLE CRE EK S TURNER ER P SWALLOW M TA ERFLOW HOLES S OV R OU TE Figure 6. Topographic map showing the field trip route to Stops 2 through 5. 7 Figure 7. Map the karst showing major features of the LostFigure 7. River subterranean area drainage (Malott, fig. 2). 1952, 8 STOP 3 – FisHER’S FORD BRIDGE Quickly exit vehicles, using caution. The First Sinks of Lost River are located about 1,700 feet northeast of the bridge. These sinks consist of some surface drainage filtering into gravel during most of the year. The flood plain is about 1,300 feet wide at this point. The upland area to the northwest and southeast of this location are along the eastern margin of the sinkhole plain of the Mitchell Plateau. Lost River is here in the area where it is partly incised into the flood plain and the flood plain is nar- rowing and deepening to become the “dry-bed’’ of Lost River. STOP 4 – JOHNSON BRIDGE Quickly exit vehicles, using caution. The Prin- per mile in the upper 12.5 miles of its course cipal Dry-Weather Sinks of Lost River are locat- primarily across the Mitchell Plateau.