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1. What is the elevation at the posted coordinates?
2. The dolomite in the cave is covered up by soil and ______?
3. During what period was the cave formed and how was it formed?
4. What was the Council ring that is in the cave, what was it used for and by who?
5. Archaeological findings revealed mans use of the cave dating back to what period in time?
6. PICTURE OF CAVE ENTRANCE WITH GPS. (optional picture of you in front of cave entrance)
**** THE ANSWER TO QUESTION # 2 IS NOT GRAVEL!!!! So do not answer it with gravel. If you read the description below you can answer # 2 from here.****
**** Please Note that the council ring has now been covered by gravel, the State Park has done that to preserve the area in the cave. At this time I do not know how much more they will put in the cave for preservation purposes. ****
Formation of Missouri's Caves
Dolomite or Limestone
The most common Missouri caves form entirely in dolomite or limestone. Slightly acidic water enters cracked bedrock and moves down a vertical fracture (joint). Upon meeting a horizontal fracture (bedding plane), the water changes direction, then continues to dissolve a passage and forms the generally flat-lying cave until it stairsteps down at the next vertical joint.
WIND, WATER and TIME
The cave formed at the contact of Jefferson City Dolomite, the lower rock formation in the cave, and the St. Peter Sandstone that overlies it. Limey deposits settled in a large seabed basin about 425-500 million years ago in the Ordovician geologic period and formed the Dolomite.
Later in the Ordovician period, sand deposited atop the dolomite formed in the sandstone that makes up the cave's walls and arching roof. Slowly water movement between these two layers began to create the cave we see today.
It was in the cave and the area in front of it that people lived. The debris left by these people and wind blown dirt then filled up the cave.
The most common rock type in the Bryant watershed is dolomite. Dolomite is usually quite deeply weathered and soil-covered. You can find it making up much of the walls of the bluffs in the deeper valleys, capped by the harder sandstone. Dolomite also crops out from the thin soil of "glades" on hilltops and hillsides throughout the area. You'll recognize it there as a dark grey to black, distinctly pitted rock.
Dolomite is composed of the mineral of the same name. The mineral dolomite is a calcium-magnesium carbonate, CaMg(CO3)2. It is seldom pure but contains variable amounts of sand, silt, clay and chert. These "contaminants" occur as scattered grains and clumps and as layers or lenses within the dolomite.
Dolomite is the dominant rock type of the Jefferson City Formation, which forms the hilltops and higher elevations of the watershed. Dolomite layers make up about half of the bluff-forming Roubidoux Formation. Dolomite is also the rock type of the exposed top layers of the Gasconade Formation along the central part of the deepest valleys of the Bryant.
General information
Nestled in the hills above the Loutre River in Montgomery County, Graham Cave State Park provides opportunities for both recreation and education.
The main feature of the park, Graham Cave, was formed at the point of contact between Jefferson City dolomite and St. Peter sandstone. Gradual water flowing through the sandstone, along with a combined action of wind and freezing, worked to make a relatively large cave. The cave originally extended about 100 feet into the hill, but an accumulation of debris over the years filled the lower part of the cave with about seven feet of deposits. An archlike entrance, 120 feet wide and 16 feet high, provided human and animals with easy access to shelter.
Graham Cave is named after the first settler who owned the cave property. In 1816, Robert Graham bought some bottomland along the Loutre River from Daniel Boone's son, Daniel Morgan Boone, and in 1847, purchased the property that housed the cave. It remained in the Graham family until its transfer to the state in 1964.
Graham's son, D.F. Graham, used the cave to shelter his hogs, but also became interested in archaeology and artifacts that he found in the cave. After his death, his son Benjamin offered his father's collection of artifacts to the University of Missouri, which spawned archaeological interest in professors Jesse Wrench and J. Brewton Berry. Wrench and Berry visited the cave to assess its archaeological potential in 1930.
Water trickles over a sandstone ledge into a small stream along one of the park's hiking trails.Benjamin's daughter, Frances, married Ward Darnell, who, in 1948, began to enlarge the shelter for his livestock. Archaeologists heard of Darnell's activity and persuaded him to stop until they could conduct salvage excavations.
Between 1949 and 1955, the University of Missouri and the Missouri Archaeological Society conducted extensive excavations in the cave with astonishing results. Artifacts found in Graham Cave, associated with charcoal dated by the radiocarbon method, provided important evidence about man's adaptation to the environment at the end of the ice age. Archaeological findings revealed different periods in man's use of the cave, dating back to as early as 10,000 years ago.
Archaeologists uncovered artifacts that provided clues to the lifestyle of the ancient Dalton and Archaic period Native Americans who first inhabited the cave. Artifacts revealed that these early Native Americans depended mainly on hunting and fishing for food using spears as weapons. They occupied the cave seasonally and apparently believed in the supernatural. A ring of rocks that encircle a large stone, believed to be a council ring, was found in the cave and suggests that they held ceremonies. Pieces of pottery found in the cave indicate that it was also occupied by a more recent culture of Native Americans.
As a result of these important archaeological findings, Graham Cave was the first archaeological site in the United States to be designated a National Historic Landmark in 1961. Frances Graham Darnell donated the cave and land to the state in 1964 to create a state park. After acquisition of the cave by the state park system, excavations were done in 1966 to clean up the area and provide additional research. Since then, excavations have not been conducted in order to preserve the remaining deposits. Today, an accessible trail leads to the entrance of the cave, where interpretive signs point out some of these interesting discoveries.
Surrounding the cave is 370 acres of naturally diverse land designated as Graham Cave State Park. The park is a combination of moist bottomland forests, rocky oak-hickory forest and glades. Graham Cave Glades Natural Area is an 82-acre tract made up of sandstone and dolomite glades that support a rich diversity of characteristic glade species. Several hiking trails wind through the park allowing visitors to enjoy an up-close look at the park's natural features. Displays in a shelter and in the visitor center interpret the natural and cultural features of the park.
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