Lost and Found

Lost and Found. . Around 1812, workers from the nearby Saltpeter Cave heard water flowing from behind the limestone rock where you are now standing. They blasted away the stone with black powder explosives and exposed the Lost River., They built a pipe system to bring water from the Lost River to the hoppers and kettles used in the saltpeter’s extraction process. One of those pipes can still be seen today., The source of the Lost River was a mystery until 1900. By using non-toxic dyes, scientists conducted tracer tests in the waterway to understand its flow. These tests revealed the location of a small stream that enters a sinkhole about a mile up the ridge. The water then flows through a very tight cave channel and ends in a small waterfall as it joins Cedar Creek, much like how Cedar Creek itself flowed underground thousands of years ago., (sidebar) , What is a “Lost River”? Lost River is a general term used to mean a river that flows where we cannot “see”. Many rivers in caves and on the surface flow through the ground, becoming lost and reappearing in different areas with karst topography., (captions) , A 1930s postcard showing the Lost River, Pipes at another saltpeter mining operation from the same time period. The pipes here can be found in the ground about 50 feet to your right.