Man Dies After Being Trapped Upside Down in Cave for 26 Hours

Missouri has more natural caverns than almost any other state in the union. I love to explore caves. Am I a spelunker? No way. I like to explore nice, safe caves with tour guides and well-lit, well-marked trails through them.

Some of the more famous caves in Missouri include Onondaga Cave near Leasburg and Meramac Caverns near Sullivan, Missouri. Meramac Caverns is where the notorious outlaw Jesse James hid out after he robber a stagecoach or a bank.

Both of the caves are very beautiful. I like Onondaga the best because it is a little less explored than most of the other tourist attraction caves in the state. They really don't know how far back it goes and all of it hasn't been explored yet. Would I attempt to explore it? No. Like I said I prefer something that is a little more safe.

There have been many famous cases of amateur and even professional cave explorers getting trapped and dying in caves. There was a famous incident of a man in Arkansas who was trapped for 14 days in a cave in Kentucky back in the twenties.

He was exploring what was later to become Crystal Cave when he became wedged between two rocks. They were able to get food and water down to him and a light bulb for warmth. He lay there all that time without being able to move more than a few inches. It soon became a media circus with people setting up tents and selling popcorn right outside the cave. Finally, after 14 days, Floyd Collins died.

I can't imagine a more horrid fate. I'm claustrophobic anyway and being jammed into such a small space would very soon make me lose my mind. Imagine how he must have loved exploring caves to face such a possible fate. To some people it's like deep sea diving, dangerous but worth it.

According to CNN, there was another such story recently when a man in Utah was trapped in a cave for 26 hours. According to CNN, "John Edward Jones, 26, of Stansbury Park was stuck in the Nutty Putty Cave, which sits west of Utah Lake near Cedar Valley, according to the sheriff's office of Utah County."

At one point they had him almost free, but he eventually fell back into the position he had been before. Finally they were able to determine that he had died. Plans are being made to recover the body.

Source: http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/11/26/utah.cave.man/index.html