Category: The Mystery Cave of Many Faces

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 […]

Written by Russell Burrows: After I had progressed back into the cave a ways, I came upon the first bad stumbling block. In fact, it was a good-sized stumbling block. It probably weighs about ten tons or so and it has fallen from the roof of the cave into the passageway. I looked it all […]

Written by Russell Burrows: I have been into caving the better part of my life and had no fear of going into this one. Besides, this cave seemed to be something different, something natural and yet modified, and certainly blocked up for a very special reason. With the pit, carvings and strange markings in the […]

Written by Russell Burrows: My discovery was occupying one hundred percent of my mind. At the end of each day I carefully concealed my digging so that it wouldn’t be located by someone else, and I returned day after day, trying to figure a way of working that keystone out without taking a hammer and […]

Written by Russell Burrows: Now this valley lies on a northwest to southeast heading and is about five hundred or so yards in length with a width of about seventy-five feet to about three hundred feet. It has a depth at the cliff walls ranging from about twenty-five to forty feet. The walls of the […]

(Fred Rydholm): Russell Burrows liked to explore places that had been untouched for a long time. He knew of an area where rumor held there had once been a number of old homesteads. It was common knowledge in that region. There was also a legend connected with the homesteads; it had to do with a […]

(Fred Rydholm) It was also during these later years at Olney that Russell Burrows became a serious caver. Southern Illinois has many known caves but there are still some to be found. The picture that most people have of caves is a stereotyped one of an open entrance in the side of a hill. This […]

Written by Russell Burrows I first met my wife Lila in Chicago in 1964. I had gone there, as have many from West Virginia, seeking the often-referred-to fortune! Of course, no fortune was waiting there for most, but the fortune I found was Lila. I courted for over a year and we were married in […]

Written by Russell Burrows The earliest memories I have are of living on the side of a mountain just down the road from the Richwood Cemetery. Our family was mighty poor but we got by. I don’t know to this day how we did it. My father worked for the Cherry River Broom and Lumber […]

Written by Fred Rydholm I told Jon I was planning to go to Vincennes that fall, to see the artifacts from the cave, and if he was interested he could come with me. We could see for ourselves what there was to see. After being away from it all for so long and having so […]

Written by Fred Rydholm The woman from New York was a very sincere and extremely interested member of ISAC. She was the one person that I felt was doing everything in her power to get the story of the cave to the proper people, but in the course of time I learned that she too […]

Written by Fred Rydholm Back in 1975 Jack had been asked to serve on a committee of the Old Northwest Bicentennial Corporation when the city of Vincennes was preparing to celebrate the Bicentennial of the United States. The Corporation had acquired some property, and a small dwelling on it was converted into a museum. They […]

Written by Fred Rydholm The area of southern Illinois and Indiana is richly endowed with evidence of several different early cultures which archaeologists know all too little about. The earliest was the Adena culture, which is believed to have developed around 500 BC and to have died out by 200 AD. It was centered just […]

Written by Fred Rydholm It was during the summer of 1988 that I found myself seated in about the third row from the front in a huge room in the old “Iron Works” building in Columbus, Georgia. The building went back to the time of the Civil War. They had made cannon and ironclad ships […]