Devil's Icebox is a

cave A cave or cavern is a natural void in the ground, specifically a space large enough for a human to enter. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground. The word ''cave'' can refer to smaller openings such as sea ...

located in

Rock Bridge Memorial State Park Rock Bridge Memorial State Park is a geological preserve and public recreation area encompassing , south of Columbia in Boone County, Missouri off of Missouri Route 163. The park is home to 12 caves. The state park is noted for its excell ...

Columbia, Missouri Columbia is a city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It is the county seat of Boone County and home to the University of Missouri. Founded in 1821, it is the principal city of the five-county Columbia metropolitan area. It is Missouri's fourth ...

. It is said to one of the longest caves in the state of

Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...

and is one of the caves with the highest number of species in the state. The cave is currently closed to protect the endangered

Indiana bat The Indiana bat (''Myotis sodalis'') is a medium-sized mouse-eared bat native to North America. It lives primarily in Southern and Midwestern U.S. states and is listed as an endangered species. The Indiana bat is grey, black, or chestnut in colo ...

. It is the only known natural home of the species

Kenkia glandulosa ''Kenkia glandulosa'', the pink planarian, is a flatworm in the family Kenkiidae. It is found only in the Devil's Icebox cave in Rock Bridge Memorial State Park in Boone County, Missouri Missouri is a state in the Midwestern region of ...

or pink planarian.

Name

The cave was probably given the name Devil's Icebox by people living in area during the early 1800s. The word icebox in the name probably came from the very cold air that leaks from the cave all year. In 1926, the name of the cave was printed in an article about the earliest exploration of the cave in 1924.

History

The stream that flows through Devil's Icebox Cave was a source of power for settlers in the

19th century The 19th (nineteenth) century began on 1 January 1801 ( MDCCCI), and ended on 31 December 1900 ( MCM). The 19th century was the ninth century of the 2nd millennium. The 19th century was characterized by vast social upheaval. Slavery was abolis ...

. The earliest exploration of the cave took place in 1924. A man named Ben M Yates claimed he was the first one to explore that cave, he along with his sons went into the cave with a john-long boat and other items. They were said to have explored the cave for 24 hours and traveled 5 miles. Access to the cave was restricted in 2006. Then in 2010, tours to the general public stopped to protect the bats from

white-nose syndrome White-nose syndrome (WNS) is a fungal disease in North American bats which has resulted in the dramatic decrease of the bat population in the United States and Canada, reportedly killing millions as of 2018. The condition is named for a distincti ...

. Despite this, the disease affected the caves in Rock Bridge during 2013.

Characteristics

Temperature

The cave is said to be as cold as 56 degrees all year round. It is also said to have a temperature of 13 degrees.

Species

According to the

U.S. Government Printing Office The United States Government Publishing Office (USGPO or GPO; formerly the United States Government Printing Office) is an agency of the legislative branch of the United States Federal government. The office produces and distributes information ...

, Devil's Icebox has the second highest number of species out of the over 6000 caves in Missouri. In 2007, 80 species have been identified in the cave. It is the only place where the species '' Macrocotyla glandulosa'' has been found; the rarity of this species was once used as an argument to prevent the construction of a shopping mall in the area. The cave is also home to species of

salamander Salamanders are a group of amphibians typically characterized by their lizard-like appearance, with slender bodies, blunt snouts, short limbs projecting at right angles to the body, and the presence of a tail in both larvae and adults. All ten ...

frog A frog is any member of a diverse and largely Carnivore, carnivorous group of short-bodied, tailless amphibians composing the order (biology), order Anura (ανοὐρά, literally ''without tail'' in Ancient Greek). The oldest fossil "proto-f ...

s, ''

troglobites A troglobite (or, formally, troglobiont) is an animal species, or population of a species, strictly bound to underground habitats, such as caves. These are separate from species that mainly live in above-ground habitats but are also able to live u ...

'',

millipede Millipedes are a group of arthropods that are characterised by having two pairs of jointed legs on most body segments; they are known scientifically as the class Diplopoda, the name derived from this feature. Each double-legged segment is a resu ...

spider Spiders ( order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs, chelicerae with fangs generally able to inject venom, and spinnerets that extrude silk. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species ...

s, and

springtail Springtails (Collembola) form the largest of the three lineages of modern hexapods that are no longer considered insects (the other two are the Protura and Diplura). Although the three orders are sometimes grouped together in a class called Ento ...

. There are even endangered bat species like ''

Myotis sodalis The Indiana bat (''Myotis sodalis'') is a medium-sized mouse-eared bat native to North America. It lives primarily in Southern and Midwestern U.S. states and is listed as an endangered species. The Indiana bat is grey, black, or chestnut in colo ...

Myotis septentrionalis ''Myotis septentrionalis'', known as the northern long-eared bat or northern myotis, is a species of bat native to North America. There are no recognized subspecies. The northern long-eared bat is about 3–3.7 inches in length, with a wingspan ...

, and Myotis grisescens'' in the cave''.''

Length

It is said to be the seventh or sixth longest cave in

, with it spanning 7 miles. In the year 1986 its length was measured to be over 30 thousand in feet, 5.76 miles, and 9.27 kilometers.

Geology

The cave is a double

sink hole A sinkhole is a depression or hole in the ground caused by some form of collapse of the surface layer. The term is sometimes used to refer to doline, enclosed depressions that are locally also known as ''vrtače'' and shakeholes, and to openi ...

. It was formed in

Burlington Limestone The Burlington Limestone is a geologic formation in Missouri, Iowa and the Midwest region. It preserves fossils dating back to the Mississippian subperiod. Physical properties Burlington Limestone is unusually course-grained, crystalline, cr ...

which had formed 300 million years ago. The cave is an example of

karst topography Karst is a topography formed from the dissolution of soluble rocks such as limestone, dolomite, and gypsum. It is characterized by underground drainage systems with sinkholes and caves. It has also been documented for more weathering-resistant ro ...

. According to

J Harlen Bretz J Harlen Bretz (2 September 1882 – 3 February 1981) was an American geologist, best known for his research that led to the acceptance of the Missoula Floods and for his work on caves. Early life and education Bretz was born on 2 September 188 ...

, Devil's Icebox is a

phreatic ''Phreatic'' is a term used in hydrology to refer to aquifers, in speleology to refer to cave passages, and in volcanology to refer to a type of volcanic eruption. Hydrology The term phreatic (the word originates from the Greek , meaning "well" ...

cave system. In January 1994, a stream in the cave was oversaturated with

calcite Calcite is a Carbonate minerals, carbonate mineral and the most stable Polymorphism (materials science), polymorph of calcium carbonate (CaCO3). It is a very common mineral, particularly as a component of limestone. Calcite defines hardness 3 on ...

and

dolomite Dolomite may refer to: *Dolomite (mineral), a carbonate mineral *Dolomite (rock), also known as dolostone, a sedimentary carbonate rock *Dolomite, Alabama, United States, an unincorporated community *Dolomite, California, United States, an unincor ...

. In 2017 stalagmites in the cave were studied. All the water flowing in the cave is from the surface.https://digital.lib.usf.edu//content/SF/S0/05/06/48/00001/K26-00199-671-1401-1-SM.pdf

References

{{coord, 38.86995, -92.32658, format=dms, type:landmark_region:US-MO, display=title Caves of Missouri State parks of Missouri Sinkholes of the United States Geography of Columbia, Missouri Landforms of Boone County, Missouri Limestone caves