Month: July 2023

Written by Virginia Hourigan: As I parked my motorcycle at the curb in front of the sleepy little Sonoftobac Museum nestled at the foot of an Indian mound in Vincennes, Indiana, that hot August afternoon in 1986, I rather expected to be disappointed again. The book I’d seen back home in New York City had […]

Written by Russell Burrows: The next event that I consider to be important is the arrival of Virginia Hourigan. This occurred in the late summer or early fall of 1986 if my memory serves me correctly. Now Virginia is something. She is a big gal, not fat mind you, just big. She takes her summer […]

Written by Russell Burrows: It got more and more difficult to get to the cave without being followed. I had begun to receive telephone calls from people I had never heard of, wanting information on the cave. And always, those calls and requests for information included the request and even demand that they be shown […]

Written by Russell Burrows: One of the many problems in an operation like this is keeping the secret. That’s not easy, here in Southern Illinois. Just about everyone and his brother is a “pot hunter,” or at the very least an Indian artifact hunter. If word got out about the cave, I would have to […]

(Ed.): You would think that everyone could at least agree on the kinds of stone used to make the artifacts from the cave. Yet the geologists’ reports have differed greatly. Of course, with so many artifacts to choose from (several thousand, once, though there are fewer than 200 now in Burrows’ hands), there is no […]

Shortly thereafter, I received a call from Mr. Ward informing me that we at last had an opportunity to learn what had transpired in the cave so long ago. Not only that, he told me, but we could finally get the stuff authenticated. One of the Old Northwest Corporation officers, a judge no less, had […]

Written by Russell Burrows: The next events that were damaging to us again involved the Old Northwest Corporation. By this time I had had several discussions with Mr. Black concerning the cave and, being interested in history and education, he expressed the idea that it should be studied by all the right people using all […]

Written by Russell Burrows: Mr. Black informed me that the farmer was his wife’s grandfather and that the land had passed down through the family. (The legendary cave, and the one I’d found, were very probably part of the same cave system.) From that time onward, I had no more problems with the people living […]

Written by Russell Burrows: Here is the story of the gentleman who discovered a cave on his section of land back in the 1800s. As to whether or not that cave is the same as Burrows’ Cave remains to be seen. A family had, at that time, migrated into southern Illinois from Kentucky and taken […]

Written by Russell Burrows: Some of you are probably putting yourself in my boots and saying, “If he has someone shooting at him, why doesn’t he just get the hell out of there and stay out?” Well, I have never been run out of anywhere and I sure wasn’t going to start then. After returning […]

Written by Russell Burrows: Then came a definite warning that I was not to be snooping around in those woods. The event left no question in my mind what somebody meant. When I returned to my pickup that day I found all four of my tires cut and flat. That act of vandalism made me […]

Written by Russell Burrows: In all the time I had spent at the cave site I had never been directly accosted by anyone expressing an interest in why I was spending so much time in that area. I began to notice that during every visit I would meet a pickup truck or auto going in […]

Written by Russell Burrows: In March of 1984 Mr. Ward asked if I would consider giving a talk at the next meeting of the Old Northwest Corporation. I agreed to do so. I was convinced that I was dealing with good solid people and could see nothing wrong with telling my story to them. On […]

Written by Russell Burrows: A woman named Thelma McClain ran a small antique and curio shop in Col. Burrows’ own town of Olney, and among other things she had arrowheads, stones axes and other such artifacts in her shop. Russell brought her fifteen or twenty of the stones he had at home, for her perusal […]

Written by Fred Rydholm: As Russell Burrows continued to go to the cave his way was made easier and the entry less difficult. He was becoming more careful to whom he spoke about the cave, but was always searching for someone who was knowledgeable, who was willing to help, who could see things from his […]

Written by Russell Burrows: I had my first experience along these lines at Eastern Illinois University, located in Charleston, Illinois. I contacted the university and inquired if they had an anthropologist on their staff. They did, and I was put in contact with him. A meeting was arranged and I made the trip up to […]

Written by Russell Burrows: Now just what does a person do when they have stumbled onto something like this? Should you make a mad dash to the local newspapers and report the fact that a cave has been discovered? I would advise against it, at least until you know more about it. At the time […]

Written by Russell Burrows: I was amazed that a cave this large could be found in this part of Illinois. As a matter of fact, the state geological maps do not show a limestone deposit in that area. But the cave is certainly there, nonetheless. It is really not surprising to find unrecorded limestone deposits; […]

Written by Russell Burrows I next began to look closely along the walls of the cave, and in so doing I came across another portal. Like the portals in the trap and in the cave’s entrance, it was sealed with cut and fitted blocks of stone. (Later I found more of these portals; I have […]