Broken Horn Cave - A Mapping of a New Cave

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Broken Horn Cave - 1st Survey Prospects Date: Sunday - Jan. 22, 2006 COG Participants: Anne Ault, John & Sue Bozeman, Duane Del Vecchio, Roy Diehl, Dale & Lil Town, Jon Woltz Area: Woodward County, Oklahoma - USA How does one map a cave?? You have to have at least 3 people. One for reading a compass and an elevation device (to tell if the passage is going up or down!), one for pulling the measuring tape and setting the survey points, and a recorder who writes down all of the distances called out by the other members of team as well as drawing a "rough draft" of the passage they are in. Then the team enters the cave and begins their job. Here is a pictorial of a cave survey trip.... Click on any photo to see an enlarged version.
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A Special Sunday Trip!! Sunday Jan. 22nd - A group of COG'er's meet at Mrs. Selman's Ranch House for a new cave mapping experience!	After all got together, we drove out to the new cave site and got ready for a day of mapping a new cave!	Yes Dale.. those are Cows at 47 degrees Northwest... (Dale checking out his compass prior to going underground).
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The Crew is divided into 2 parts.. one for the upstream passage of the cave...the other for the downstream..	...then down to the cave entrance..(it's that hole in the ground down there!)	D (your webmaster here) was told.. no problem.. no belly crawls.. (but they left off the "EXCEPT FOR THE ENTRANCE" part!!!
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Once inside the cave immediately turned into cave popcorn and very unique rock patterns in the alabaster gypsum.	A true to scale picture of some of the alabaster rock formations and decorations.	John helps out by illuminating a ledge..
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Neat patterns in the rock..	White...then right back to Oklahoma red!.. sigh..	...very unique patterns and crystals in this section.. we came into the cave and immediately felt a high humidity level along with a high temperature (65 degrees!) (it was 50 outside!!)
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While surveying the passage, the one on point tells the Azimuth and Heading (up or down and which direction) for the recorder. Then the other person on the other end confirms it by reading his/her instruments.	Another person runs the tape (a giant 100 ft. measure tape) from point to point where the surveyors take the readings.	Though we haven't had precipitation for the past 4 months, we still had mud and a water passage...the other group had running water which meant they probably had a underground stream..
Click on any photo to see an enlarged version.