Blacktail Ranch Cave

Lucas' fungal collection project got us the huge privilege of going into the private Blacktail Ranch Cave unescorted! Ben, Lucas and I jumped at the opportunity. This cave is extremely historic. Archaeologists from UofM have been excavating the cave for a while now. They have found a cave bear skull, a 26,000 year old horse, musk-oxen skeletons, and some human artifacts that predate the 'Ice Age Land Bridge from Asia to North America' hypothesis! If that is true, the ramifications are huge! Science is going to get one big slap in the face! This cave was open during the last ice age and is located in a corridor that was not frozen stretching from Canada to somewhere south of here. There have also been huge amounts of ancient indian artifacts removed as well. I have been in a few caves now and none have a history like this one.

The entrance (enhanced for the tour groups that book the dude ranch).

Goin down

I think this is some kind of gimic for the tourists. 

According to the Riddels (owners) there are no bats in this cave. Data point!

I crawled into a cavern and thought I was getting into a gaseous inversion; turns out it is water! A lake! It was really trippy and took a minute for me to realize it was water. I KNOW the cave keeps going but I dont scuba.

One of the many times our decent was halted by the water table (lake).

Excavation equipment.

Lucas in a meticulously dug and labeled pit.

Lucas in an even deeper one. The archaeologists have to dig through ~6ft of breakdown. The cave's ceiling fell in sometime after all the ancient things were in here. 

An indian grinding bowl, two mouse terds at the ready.

The stone to the right fits like a glove in the larger stone's depression.

Hey! Thats what we came for!

Pictographs

Hand

Something tribal

Bear paw

The entrance

Lucas and Ben thought it would be fun to fire up the generator and turn on the lights... so they did! The lights only go into the large caverns. We spent hours crawling around in the other passages.

Dont bother me Im eating lunch

Yes, that is a maple bar with bacon and a growler of scotch ale.