Whose work this is
Nothing in the cave catalogue is ours alone. The spine of it is Newell Campbell's Caves of Montana, and the years that book doesn't cover are held in a timeline he compiled by hand and mailed to Hans Bodenhamer in 2017. The people below are named in those two documents. Every one of them found, dropped, mapped, argued about or wrote up a Montana cave.
Newell P. Campbell
In 1969 the Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology hired him to survey every cave in the state. The "one-year" survey began in June 1970 and produced Caves of Montana — Bulletin 105, 1978 — which is still the reference work for the state and is the source of most of the descriptions, page numbers, cave numbers, quad sheets and township lines in this catalogue. In June 2017 he mailed Hans Bodenhamer sixty-seven pages of handwritten Montana caving history covering 1912 to 2017, and asked that Ron Zuber, Mary Alice Chester and Hans carry it the rest of the way. They did.
The record itself
Both source documents, in full, on this site:
- Caves of Montana — Newell P. Campbell, Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology Bulletin 105, 1978. Hosted here with his permission. Buy a copy from the Bureau.
- A History of Montana Caving: Wilderness, National Park, and High-Altitude Caves, 1912–1980 — Newell Campbell, with Jim Chester, Ron Zuber, Mary Alice Chester and Hans Bodenhamer. Published by this grotto, 2026.
The four the book credits by initials
Campbell's timeline refers to these cavers by their initials throughout, which is its own kind of tribute — he assumed you would know who they were.
| Basil Hritsco | NSS 1190. Campbell calls him "Montana's first important caver". Born in McAdoo, Pennsylvania around 1912; the family moved to Valier in 1913. Joined the NSS in 1950 and spent the following decade finding and descending nearly everything in the Little Belts — Hoover Springs Pit, Flint Cave, Bean Hole, Lick Creek Cave, Twin Sisters Pit, Azure Cave. Wrote at least seventeen letters to William Halliday in 1959 alone, from Florida, Costa Rica and Ecuador. |
|---|---|
| C. Howard McDonald | NSS 4295. Began corresponding with Halliday in October 1959 and put Campbell forward for the Montana Speleological Survey team. Reported the pit on the summit of Ear Mountain in 1960. |
| William R. Halliday | NSS 812. The correspondent at the centre of it — the letters to and from Halliday are much of why any of this is documented at all. Wrote to Representative Jim Battin about caving and wilderness legislation in 1961. |
| Jim Chester | NSS 6945. Field assistant on the 1970 statewide survey, then the driving force in the Scapegoat and Silvertip wilderness caves through the 1970s — Green Fork Falls, Kathy's Icebox, Lost Creek Siphon, Mill Creek Crystal, Sunray. Wrote "Montana Wilderness Caving — Let's Coordinate It" for the NSS News in 1974. |
And everyone else the record names
From the 1912–1980 timeline. Where someone appears once, for one trip, they are here for that trip.
Warren Anderson — Amphitheatre and Haystack dolines, 1977.
Jerry F. Ayers — presented "A Hydrologic Study of an Alpine Karst, Flathead County, Montana" at the 1975 NSS Convention.
Mike Beer — fifth winter Scapegoat trip, 1976; reported the Kathy's Icebox–Green Fork Falls connection in Caving International, 1979.
Robert Beller — Montana Bureau of Mines; mapped part of the upper level of Big Horn Caverns in the 1950s.
Rick Bischoff — first trip into Mill Creek Crystal Cave, 1969; first entry of the Lost Creek Siphon entrance pit, 1971.
Lloyd Black — bottomed Hoover Springs Pit, June 1950.
Hans Bodenhamer — received the manuscript in 2017 and kept it alive; Little Bitterroot Ice Cave, 1952.
Mike Boone — reported the 860-foot cave on Una Mountain, 1976.
Chuck Borland — first trip into Mill Creek Crystal Cave, 1969.
Dr Thomas Bowman — Smithsonian; identified Salmasellus steganothrix in a Glacier Park cave, 1978.
John Bridge — NSS 7514; Limestone and Ibex Mountain caves, 1966; co-wrote "Caves in the Mountains of Montana", NSS News, 1968.
Maryah Campbell — Poia Lake and Zoo caves, Glacier Park, 1976.
Roger Campbell — field assistant on the 1970 statewide survey; Scapegoat, Silvertip, Mill Creek Crystal, West Boulder.
Mary Alice Chester — one of the three Newell asked to carry the timeline forward.
Hugh Davlin — of Buffalo, Montana; Twin Sisters Pit, 1959.
Chris Diamond — Amphitheatre and Haystack dolines, 1977.
Fred Dickey — NSS 4819, Cave Research Foundation; Limestone and Ibex Mountain caves, 1966.
Charlie Dover — descended the 130-foot Bottomless Pit, 1960.
George Dover — Twin Sisters Pit, 1959; Bottomless Pit, 1960; Azure Cave, 1960.
Bob Earhart — USGS mapper; reported the pits on the Scapegoat Plateau, 1971.
Dick Field — Big Horn Caverns marathon trip, 1961; Whitaker Sink; first cave-related fly-over of the Scapegoat, 1971.
Dick Florimont — of New York City; Hoover Springs Pit and Flint Cave, 1950.
Jeff Forbes — descended and mapped two Una Mountain pits, 138 and 152 feet, 1979.
Ken Glass — Big Horn Caverns 24-hour marathon trip, December 1961.
Denny Gordon — made the first cave dive in a Montana cave, West Boulder Cave, February 1976.
Dick Graham — the 84-mile, nine-day wilderness traverse from Benchmark to Gladiator Mountain, 1970.
Dave Harrah — of Creston; Yakinikak and Hissing Well caves, 1955.
Lawrence Hass — Whitaker Sink; Big Horn Caverns marathon trip, 1961.
John Holsinger — Old Dominion University; identified the new Stygobromus species from Zoo and Algal caves, 1978.
Ray Holzhey — Azure Cave, December 1960.
Larry Hritsco and Mrs Leonard Hritsco — Mount Baldy Sink, 1966.
Ranger John Johnson — USFS; Azure Cave, 1960.
J. B. Jones — USFS; Lookout Cave, Spotted Bear, 1955.
Ed Klein — fifth winter Scapegoat trip, 1976.
Roger Knobel — the August 1972 Scapegoat Peak expedition that found Green Fork Falls Cave, Kathy's Icebox and Campbell's Cave.
Joe Lieberty — mapped a new route to the lower level of Big Horn Caverns, 1976.
Chuck Lynn — Cave Mountain Cave at 9,600 feet (the highest surveyed cave in Montana until 2016); French Creek Cave; Limestone Cave; the first Scapegoat expedition.
Mark Madsen — explored Marr Gulch Cave in the 1980s or 1990s.
Caroline Mallen — NSS 1386; the 1951 trip that raised funds for the Garrity Cave Conservation program.
Bill McLean — Little Bitterroot Ice Cave, 1952.
Mike McEachern — presented "Explorations in the Silvertip Cave System, Montana" at the 1978 NSS Convention.
Doug Medville — wrote up the potential of the Silvertip area in the Philadelphia Grotto Digest, 1966.
Tom Miller — Big Horn Caverns lower level, 1972; fifth winter Scapegoat trip, 1976.
Jens Munthe — bottomed a 234-foot pit in Green Fork Falls Cave, 1973; the Glacier Park cave studies; the 1974 NSS News Scapegoat articles.
Kathy Munthe — the August 1972 Scapegoat Peak expedition. Kathy's Icebox is hers.
Gary, Dora and Toni Nash — of Hungry Horse; Yakinikak and Hissing Well caves, 1955.
Jack Nash — USFS; Mount Baldy Sink, 1966.
Brother Nicholas — lit the Rain-Cathedral Room in Lick Creek Cave with magnesium ribbon, July 1960.
Ron Pageau — with the Bozeman group, bolted into a large new area and a 190-foot pit in Big Horn Caverns, mid-1960s.
Art and Peggy Palmer — "Geology of the Silvertip Karst", Alpine Karst, 1978.
Chuck Pease — founded and edited Alpine Karst, 1975.
Jim Peck — with Bill Trevithick, finally bottomed the Lost Creek Siphon in March 1973. It took 1,100 feet of rope.
Donna Peterson — Mount Baldy Sink, 1966.
Ron Perring — first president of the Treasure State Speleological Society, founded 1960.
John Pollock — Poia Lake and Zoo caves, 1976; fifth winter Scapegoat trip, 1976.
Arlen Roll — Little Bitterroot Ice Cave, 1952.
Bruce Sloan — NSS 1417; founded the Treasure State Speleological Society, 1960.
Jack and Stanley Staley — mine owners; found the pit into the lower level of Big Horn Caverns, 1949.
Bill Steele and Bill Stone — pushed Sunray Cave to its final depth of 826 feet, August 1976.
Royce Tillet — led the 1961 exploration beyond the Glory Hole entrance with the Treasure State Speleological Society.
Bill Trevithick — bottomed the Lost Creek Siphon, March 1973.
Marvin Warner — Mount Baldy Sink, 1966.
Robert Whitney — of Seattle; Lookout Cave, Spotted Bear, 1955.
Jim Wilson — the 84-mile wilderness traverse, 1970, on which Pearl Cliff, Needle Falls and the Flathead Alps pit were found.
Robert Wrisley — of Virginia; Hoover Springs Pit and Flint Cave, 1950.
Ron Zuber — Lost Creek Siphon, 1974; the Glacier Park cave studies; co-published Alpine Karst 1978; one of the three Newell asked to finish the timeline.