The Western Kentucky University Crumps Cave Research And Education Preserve

Crumps Cave is located about one kilometer northeast of Smiths Grove, Kentucky (Figures 1, 2, and 3). The only known entrance was purchased by Western Kentucky University (WKU) in 2009 through a grant from the Kentucky Heritage Land Conservation Fund and the cave is managed as the focal point of a research and education preserve to study a wide range of environmental conditions and dynamics, and their interactions, using high-resolution electronic monitoring along with geochemical sampling, analysis and modeling. Crews from WKU’s Hoffman Environmental Research Institute visit the cave weekly for sampling, data downloading, and equipment maintenance, with a major emphasis on high quality data collection and management. Groups of scientists and students from around the country and world visit the cave on a regular basis for educational activities. The purpose of this extended abstract is to summarize the major data collection programs underway at the cave