Horse Lava Tube System

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Horse Lava Tube System
Vulture Cave of the Horse Lava Tube System.jpg
Vulture Cave of the Horse Lava Tube System
Location Deschutes County, Oregon, United States
GeologyHorse Cave lobe; basalt of Lava Top Butte
DifficultyEasy to Moderate
AccessVaried
Cave survey Ongoing

The Horse Lava Tube System (or Horse system) is a series of lava tubes within Deschutes County, Oregon, of the United States. The system starts within the Deschutes National Forest on the northern flank of Newberry Volcano and heads north into and near the city of Bend. [1] [2] The system continues north to Redmond and includes the Redmond Caves. The flow diverts into the Redmond Dry Canyon, where the last known segment is known to exist; however, the basalt flow that created the system goes beyond to Crooked River Ranch and terminates just short of the Crooked River Gorge. [2] [3] The lava flow that created the Horse system is also referred to as the Horse Cave lobe [4] and it filled the ancient channel of the Deschutes River which at that time flowed around the east side of Pilot Butte. [2] The Horse Cave lobe is a part of the basalt of Lava Top Butte which also consists of the Arnold Lava Tube System, the Badlands rootless shield, and the Lava Top butte basalt. [4] [5] All have a geologic age around 80,000 years old. [5]

Contents

History

The system got its name from Ronald Greeley of NASA who named it during his study of lava tubes for the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries. [6] He based it on the first well known cave in the system: Horse Cave. Horse Cave was discovered in the early 1900s by a group of cowboys who, while tracking down some of their lost cattle, found the cave. In the process, the cowboys spooked a few horses who were taking shelter just inside the cave entrance. [7] However, the first known caves in the area may have actually been the Redmond Caves. During the 1870s an old stage road passed by their area. [8] Undoubtedly, though, many of the caves in the system were already known to prehistoric Native Americans, as attributed by archeological artifacts found within. [9]

In modern times, the caves of the system have been affected in different ways. Some caves are privately held, while others are under the jurisdiction of the city of Bend. The city of Bend holds 7 caves on their property, one of which was the Oregon Moonbase. The Oregon Moonbase was a lunar base analogue site and took place in Youngs Cave circa 1990. [10] The Department of State Lands holds 8 caves within their jurisdiction. [11] In Redmond, the Bureau of Land Management, in conjunction with the city of Redmond, manages 5 caves. [12] The Deschutes National Forest holds the spatter cone caves. [13] With so many land owners, the caves see different impacts. Some examples would be: some have been filled in and paved over, a couple have been incorporated into parts of private homes, [1] still others are seeing increased amounts of vandalism and defacement. [11]

Conservation

The major threat to the caves of the Horse system is development. The expanding city of Bend threatens their existence as the city's Urban Growth Boundary envelops the caves. Once in the hands of private developers, the caves' continued presence cannot be guaranteed. [14]

In an effort to work with private owners and state regulators, the Oregon High Desert Grotto has worked to help ensure their survival. In 1995, the Grotto participated in a cave restoration project of the Horse Caves. They removed garbage from the caves only to learn that two years later an equal amount of garbage had been redeposited back into the caves. [15] In 1997 the Grotto did two additional cleanups in conjunction with Z21 News, Off the Map Caving Society, Youth Challenge Program of the Oregon National Guard, students from Bend and Mountain View high schools, and the owner of the cave. The collaboration was able to achieve the removal of garbage and the scrubbing of graffiti from the walls. [15]

Recently, in 2006 to 2007 members of the Grotto worked in conjunction with the Department of State Lands. The Grotto surveyed and drafted maps of the 8 caves on the State's land. They also consulted in the management of the caves as well as the bats known to use the sites. In 2008, the Grotto received a participation award from State leaders for their volunteer work with the state. [16] [17] [18]

Caves of the Horse Lava Tube System

There are 122 known caves in the system, varying from the very small spatter cone and rootless vent caves (59), to the very large and multi-lateral lava tubes (63). [19] Length of the total traversable passage within the system is in excess of 22,000 feet. [19] Generally, only a few caves within the system are known to the public because the majority lie on private property. Over time, the popularity of the caves wax and wane, but a few seem to always remain in the local press. These include: The Horse Caves, The Redmond Caves, Stevens Cave, Lewis Farm Cave no. 1, and Youngs Cave. [1]

Spatter Cone Caves

The spatter cone caves are located at the vent for the Horse system. Characterized by small and short surface tubes or blister cavities. Most of the spatter cone caves are within a foot or two of the surface, and lie in or adjacent to the spatter cones of the vent area. There are roughly 40 of these small spatter cone caves in the vent area. [13]

Rootless Vent Caves

A small collection of caves similar to the spatter cone caves are located just north of the spatter cone area. They are called rootless vent caves because they are not sitting directly on the vent such as the spatter cone caves are. Their morphology is otherwise identical to the spatter cone caves. The rootless vent caves are also separated from the spatter cone caves by a younger lava flow associated with Klawhop Butte. [13] There are about 19 rootless vent caves in the Horse system.

Lava Tube Caves

The major caves of the Horse system are lava tubes. About 63 lava tubes are presently known. Some are really short at about 20 feet in length, while the longest has three paralleling passages and totals almost 4,000 feet in length. [20] More probably exist as some may not have natural entrances, and some may have had entrances that have been filled in over the last 100 years.

Miscellaneous Caves

A few other caves exist in the system. These are mostly surface tubes, though a couple are shelters or talus caves. [19]

See also

Related Research Articles

Deschutes County, Oregon County in Central Oregon, United States

Deschutes County is one of the 36 counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 census, the population was 157,733. The county seat is Bend. The county was created in 1916 out of part of Crook County and was named for the Deschutes River, which itself was named by French-Canadian trappers of the early 19th century. It is the political and economic hub of Central Oregon. Deschutes comprises the Bend, Oregon Metropolitan Statistical Area. Deschutes is Oregon’s fastest-growing county.

Lava Beds National Monument

Lava Beds National Monument is located in northeastern California, in Siskiyou and Modoc counties. The monument lies on the northeastern flank of Medicine Lake Volcano and has the largest total area covered by a volcano in the Cascade Range.

Newberry National Volcanic Monument

Newberry National Volcanic Monument was designated on November 5, 1990, to protect the area around the Newberry Volcano in the U.S. state of Oregon. The monument was created within the boundaries of the Deschutes National Forest, which is managed by the U.S. Forest Service, and includes 54,822 acres of lakes, lava flows, and geologic features in central Oregon.

Mount Bachelor Volcanic mountain in Oregon, United States

Mount Bachelor, formerly named Bachelor Butte, is a stratovolcano atop a shield volcano in the Cascade Volcanic Arc and the Cascade Range of central Oregon. Named Mount Bachelor because it stands apart from the nearby Three Sisters, it lies in the eastern segment of the central portion of the High Cascades, the eastern segment of the Cascade Range. The volcano lies at the northern end of the 15-mile (24 km) long Mount Bachelor Volcanic Chain, which underwent four major eruptive episodes during the Pleistocene and the Holocene. The United States Geological Survey considers Mount Bachelor a moderate threat, but Bachelor poses little threat of becoming an active volcano in the near future. It remains unclear whether the volcano is extinct or just inactive.

Deschutes River (Oregon)

The Deschutes River in central Oregon is a major tributary of the Columbia River. The river provides much of the drainage on the eastern side of the Cascade Range in Oregon, gathering many of the tributaries that descend from the drier, eastern flank of the mountains. The Deschutes provided an important route to and from the Columbia for Native Americans for thousands of years, and then in the 19th century for pioneers on the Oregon Trail. The river flows mostly through rugged and arid country, and its valley provides a cultural heart for central Oregon. Today the river supplies water for irrigation and is popular in the summer for whitewater rafting and fishing.

Newberry Volcano shield volcano in Oregon, United States

Newberry Volcano is a large active shield volcano located about 20 miles (32 km) south of Bend, Oregon, United States, 35 miles (56 km) east of the major crest of the Cascade Range, within the Newberry National Volcanic Monument. Its highest point is Paulina Peak. The largest volcano in the Cascade Volcanic Arc, Newberry has an area of 1,200 square miles (3,100 km2) when its lava flows are taken into account. From north to south, the volcano has a length of 75 miles (121 km), with a width of 27 miles (43 km) and a total volume of approximately 120 cubic miles (500 km3). It was named for the geologist and surgeon John Strong Newberry, who explored central Oregon for the Pacific Railroad Surveys in 1855. The surrounding area has been inhabited by Native American populations for more than 10,000 years.

Mount Washington (Oregon) A deeply eroded volcano in the Cascade Range of Oregon

Mount Washington is a deeply eroded volcano in the Cascade Range of Oregon. It lies within Deschutes and Linn counties and is surrounded by the Mount Washington Wilderness area.

Belknap Crater Shield volcano in the U.S. state of Oregon

Belknap Crater is a shield volcano in the Cascade Range in the U.S. state of Oregon. Located in Linn County, it is associated with lava fields and numerous subfeatures including the Little Belknap and South Belknap volcanic cones. It lies north of McKenzie Pass and forms part of the Mount Washington Wilderness. Belknap is not forested and most of its lava flows are not vegetated, though there is some wildlife in the area around the volcano, as well as a number of tree molds formed by its eruptive activity.

Broken Top

Broken Top is a glacially eroded complex stratovolcano. It lies in the Cascade Volcanic Arc, part of the extensive Cascade Range in the U.S. state of Oregon. Located southeast of the Three Sisters peaks, the volcano, residing within the Three Sisters Wilderness, is 20 miles (32 km) west of Bend, Oregon in Deschutes County. Eruptive activity stopped roughly 100,000 years ago, and currently, erosion by glaciers has reduced the volcano's cone to where its contents are exposed. There are two named glaciers on the peak, Bend and Crook Glacier.

Central Oregon Region in Oregon, United States

Central Oregon is a geographic region in the U.S. state of Oregon and is traditionally considered to be made up of Deschutes, Jefferson, and Crook counties. Other definitions include larger areas, often encompassing areas to the north towards the Columbia River, eastward towards Burns, or south towards Klamath Falls. These three counties have a combined population of 200,431 as of the 2010 census, with Deschutes the largest of the three counties, having approximately four times the population of the other two counties combined. As of 2015, the most populous city in the region is Bend, with an estimated 87,014 residents. As defined by the three county definition, Central Oregon covers 7,833 square miles (20,290 km2) of land. Central Oregon has had 3 record tourism years beginning in 2012. Over 2.2 million people visited Central Oregon in 2012 and again in 2013.

Lava Butte

Lava Butte is a cinder cone in central Oregon, United States, just west of U.S. Route 97 between the towns of Bend, Oregon, and Sunriver, Oregon. It is part of a system of small cinder cones on the northwest flank of Newberry Volcano, a massive shield volcano which rises to the southeast. The cinder cone is capped by a crater which extends about 60 feet (20 m) deep beneath its south rim, and 160 feet (50 m) deep from the 5,020-foot (1,530 m) summit on its north side. Lava Butte is part of the Newberry National Volcanic Monument.

Diamond Peak (Oregon)

Diamond Peak is a volcano in Klamath and Lane counties of central Oregon in the United States. It is a shield volcano, though it might also be considered a modest stratocone. Diamond Peak forms part of the Cascade Volcanic Arc, a segment of the Cascade Range in western North America extending from southern British Columbia through Oregon to Northern California. Reaching an elevation of 8,748 feet (2,666 m), the mountain is located near Willamette Pass in the Diamond Peak Wilderness within the Deschutes and Willamette national forests. Surrounded by coniferous forest and visible in the skyline from foothills near Eugene, Diamond Peak offers a few climbing routes and can be scrambled. Diamond Peak is one of Oregon's Matterhorns.

Devils Garden volcanic field

Devils Garden Volcanic Field is a volcanic field located south east of Newberry Caldera in Oregon. The lava field consists of several flows of pahoehoe lava that erupted from fissure vents in the northeast part of the Devils Garden. The main vent on the north end of the fissure created a lava tube system. Several small vents to the south produced the Blowouts, several small spatter cones, and flows. Several older hills and higher areas were completely surrounded by the flows to form kipukas. The distal ends of the flows show excellent examples of inflated lava.

Lava River Cave

The Lava River Cave near Bend, Oregon, is part of the Newberry National Volcanic Monument, which is managed by the United States Forest Service. At 5,211 feet (1,588 m) in length, the northwest section of the cave is the longest continuous lava tube in Oregon. While the cave's discovery in 1889 was officially credited to a pioneer hunter, the presence of obsidian flakes near the cave has led archaeologists to conclude that Native Americans knew about the cave long before settlers arrived in central Oregon.

Oregon Badlands Wilderness

The Oregon Badlands Wilderness is a 29,301-acre (11,858 ha) wilderness area located east of Bend in Deschutes and Crook counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. The wilderness is managed by the Bureau of Land Management as part of the National Landscape Conservation System and was created by the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009, which was signed into law by President Barack Obama on 30 March 2009.

Arnold Lava Tube System

The Arnold Lava Tube System is series of lava tubes in Deschutes County, Oregon, in the United States. It is located several miles southeast of the city of Bend. The system starts in the Deschutes National Forest on the northern flank of Newberry Volcano, heads northeast onto BLM land before finally terminating on private property near Horse Ridge. The system acted as a conduit for the lavas from Lava Top Butte that later fed the Badlands rootless shield. The lava flow that created the Arnold system is also referred to as the basalt of Lava Top Butte and is related to the Horse Cave lobe which is a lava flow that created the Horse Lava Tube System. The lava flows of Lava Top Butte, the Badlands, the Horse system, and the Arnold system all have a geologic age around 80,000 years old.

Oregon High Desert Grotto

The Oregon High Desert Grotto is an American caving club, known as a Grotto. It is affiliated with the National Speleological Society.

Redmond Caves Cave system in Oregon, USA

The Redmond Caves are a group of six lava tubes in Deschutes County, Oregon, United States. The caves are located in the city of Redmond and are jointly managed by the city and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Five of the caves are in the Redmond Caves Park and have been known locally for many years. The caves are a part of the Horse Lava Tube System and are the farthest northern extent of the system. The lava flow that created both the Horse system and the Redmond Caves continued into the Redmond Dry Canyon and terminated near Crooked River Ranch. The caves have a geologic age of about 80,000 years.

Boyd Cave is a lava tube within Deschutes County, Oregon, of the United States. The cave is within Deschutes National Forest and is located on the northern flank of Newberry Volcano near the city of Bend.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Nakamura, Penny (2007-04-16), Bend home banking on cave appeal: Unique house is going on the market, archived from the original on 2008-01-16, retrieved 2009-07-09
  2. 1 2 3 Champion, Duane E., Mapping Newberry Volcano's Extensive North Flank Basalts, 2002-05-14, abstract, archived from the original on 2011-06-08, retrieved 2009-07-19
  3. ↑ Skeels (2009-02-13). "Horse Lava Tube System Book". Oregon High Desert Grotto. Archived from the original on 2017-12-25. Retrieved 2017-12-24.
  4. 1 2 Jensen, Robert A. (2009), A field guide to Newberry Volcano, Oregon; The Geological Society of America, Field Guide 15, pp. 53–79.
  5. 1 2 Donnelly-Nolan, Julie M., Magnetic Excursion Recorded in Basalt at Newberry Volcano, Central Oregon, 2004, abstract, Bibcode:2004AGUFMGP43B0861C
  6. ↑ Greeley, Ronald (1971), Geology of Selected Lava Tubes in the Bend Area, Oregon, Bulletin 71 (Oregon State Dept. of Geology and Mineral Industries), p. 47
  7. ↑ Howard, Randall R., "Volcanic Cave Wonders of the Northwest", The Pacific Monthly , 1911 Vol. 25 June, pp. 632–644
  8. ↑ Unknown (1954-02-08), "City of Redmond Takes New Interest in Ancient Caves", The Bend Bulletin, p. 6
  9. ↑ Skinner, Craig E. (2009-02-25), Something from Nothing at Bone Cave (35-DS-1469): An Archaeological Investigation of a Severely Disturbed Lava Tube Site in Central Oregon, archived from the original on 2011-07-14, retrieved 2009-07-09
  10. ↑ Gillet, Stephen, Preliminary Geologic Characterization of Young’s Cave Lava Tube System, Bend, Oregon, and Implications for Lunar Base Lava Tube Siting, Site Characterization and Phase One Development Plan for the Oregon Moonbase, ed. York (Singer), Cheryl Lynn, Bryce Walden, and Thomas L. Billings; (Oregon City, OR: The Oregon L-5 Society, Inc. (Oregon Moonbase) under NASA NASW-4460, 1990), 1990 14, pp. 14 + 8 Figures
  11. 1 2 Flowers, Eric (2009-07-08), "Ground Down: Despite value, urban caves prove hard to protect", The Source Weekly, pp. 10–11, archived from the original on 2011-07-17, retrieved 2009-11-16
  12. ↑ Bureau of Land Management (September 2005), Upper Deschutes Record of Decision and Resource Management Plan (PDF), retrieved 2009-07-09
  13. 1 2 3 Donnelly-Nolan, Julie M. (2000), in Jensen, R.A., and Chitwood, L.A., eds., What’s New at Newberry Volcano, Oregon: Guidebook for the Friends of the Pleistocene Eighth Annual Pacific Northwest Cell Field Trip, pp. 177–180
  14. ↑ Skeels, Matt, "Grow North, Save the Caves" (PDF), The Source Weekly, 2007-07-25, p. 5, archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-17, retrieved 2009-12-02
  15. 1 2 Nichols, Sarah (June 1997), "Horse Cave Community Restoration Project", The Oregon Underground, pp. 5–6
  16. ↑ Ramsayer, Kate (2009-04-18), "State Leaders Recognize Spelunkers for Exploring, Mapping Local Caves", The Bulletin , p. C1, C8, retrieved 2009-11-16
  17. ↑ State Land Board (2009). "Land Board Awards 2008". Department of State Lands. Archived from the original on 2009-08-13. Retrieved 2009-11-16.
  18. ↑ "State Land Board Meeting" (PDF). Department of State Lands. April 14, 2009. p. 8. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 6, 2010. Retrieved 2009-11-16. 'It's my ... pleasure to present the 2008 partnership to the Oregon High Desert Grotto for their exceptional work at the Stevens Road property event.'
  19. 1 2 3 Skeels, Matt (2015), The Middle Ground - 2015 NCA Regional Guidebook, p. 20
  20. ↑ Larson, Charles (1982), An Introduction to Caves of the Bend Area, Guidebook of the 1982 NSS Convention, p. 74

Coordinates: 44°06′N121°12′W / 44.1°N 121.2°W / 44.1; -121.2

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