Apr 11 2008
Cherney Maribel Caves County Park - Maribel, WI
One of my goals during a recent trip to Wisconsin was to explore several waterfalls that I had noticed in my Wisconsin Gazetteer. I saw three in the vicinity of a place called Cherney Maribel Caves (Manitowoc) County Park. So, off I went.
This section of Wisconsin is blessed to have giant slabs of Niagara Dolomite running south to north underneath the ground. This is the same geologic formation that creates Niagara Falls and the Bruce Trail through Ontario. Sections of this rock formation rise from the flat countryside. There are nice parks with cliffs and caves and waterfalls in a section of the Midwest that is otherwise quite flat.
Cherney Maribel Caves preserves a 75-acre section of this Niagara Escarpment. It is now a Manitowoc County Park and a state natural area.
My visit was on the difficult side. The park entrance was still locked for the winter and about a half foot of snow still covered the park entrance drive. So, I had to hike down to the actual park trailhead. The situation on the trails and staircases was not much better. Still, I was able to get to the bottom of the cliffs without too much trouble. The trails at the bottom, however, were sheets of ice, so I made a good decision and left a major hike for another day.
The cliffs that I saw were intriguing. In many sections of the park, there are caves that can be explored. Some require tours.
One thing that I loved about the place was the preponderance of cedar trees at the cliff bottom. These trees have a magical quality about them and they are quite different from the forests on the clifftops.
Next to the actual park is a piece of private property that contains the structure of an old hotel. There was apparently a fire in the hotel in 1995 that left only the stone walls. The structure is quite old and there have, apparently, been some fanciful tales spun about the structure.
Here are some links related to this park:
http://www.maribelcaves.com/img/TourMap2007.pdf
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chadwho1ders/1209863422/
One interesting sidenote. The caves at the bottom of the cliff in the park hold many archaeological oddities. During my visit to Wisconsin, the local newspaper reported that researchers had discovered animal bones in the caves that are between 5,600 and 5,800 years old. Here are some excerpts and a link:
The bones, discovered at the park’s New Hope Cave between January and February, have been dated to between 5,600 and 5,800 years old, said Dr. John Luczaj, an associate professor of earth science.
“We believe there are older bones yet to be discovered further into the cave from data collected during the exploratory excavations done during the 1990s,” said J.D. Skattebo, a Manitowoc resident and chairman and founder of the Friends of Maribel Caves, in an e-mail.
“If you can identify the fossil, you can understand what the ecology and climate was here at different points in time,” Luczaj said, noting researchers of Brussels Hill Pit Cave in Door County have discovered fossils of rodents that no longer exist in the state.
“We can infer things about climate if we understand how old the deposits are and what was the environment that these organisms lived in,” he said.
“Our goal is to learn and understand why the caves are still there, how did they fill, and when and why,” said Skattebo. “We are also studying the groundwater interaction with the water table.”
Here’s a pin I placed on Microsoft Virtual Earth showing the exact location of the park: