Giant Sinkhole Opens Up In South Dakota, People Go Inside It To Investigate And The Pics Go Viral
About a dozen houses in Black Hawk, South Dakota, were evacuated after a sinkhole opened under the Hideaway Hills development. The ground started to give way on the 27th of April and while it has left a lot of uncertainty for the locals, the situation has led to a unique discovery. The residential homes were built over an abandoned gypsum mine.
The authorities are already trying to figure out how this could’ve happened but in the meantime, explorers of a local caving group called Paha Sapa Grotto decided to take a look inside.
More info: pahasapagrotto.org | Facebook
Image credits: Dan Austin/Paha Sapa Grotto
Image credits: Dan Austin/Paha Sapa Grotto
The Paha Sapa Grotto is a subchapter of the National Speleological Society and is a world leader in caving science, exploration, and conservation. “When we heard about the sinkhole, we knew it was on a geological unit that could potentially have caves in it,” Nick Anderson, a member of Paha Sapa Grotto, told Bored Panda. “We also knew that county emergency management wouldn’t have much experience in this area so we offered to help to determine the scope of the problem.”
Image credits: Dan Austin/Paha Sapa Grotto
Image credits: Dan Austin/Paha Sapa Grotto
“Upon entering, we immediately realized that it was an abandoned gypsum mine and not a cave”
Image credits: Dan Austin/Paha Sapa Grotto
Image credits: Dan Austin/Paha Sapa Grotto
“The room we entered was 15 feet tall and 60 feet wide. We got a quick look around and exited”
Image credits: Dan Austin/Paha Sapa Grotto
The leader of the team that went into the cave was the Vice-Chairman of the Paha Sapa Grotto, and the Director of the National Speleological Society (NSS), Adam Weaver.
“On the assessment trip, I went out there with Nick Anderson and Dave Springhetti. When we got to the site, the roads were buckled and the guy who lived in the house next to the sinkhole, John, nicely told us to park further away because we just didn’t know what was happening yet,” Weaver explained. “After some general looking around, we found a fence that seemed sturdy enough to rig the rope to and I rappelled into the hole. These photos you saw of me on the rope are from that initial rappel. When I got to the bottom, I could see 80ft into a large cavity that was at that point under the street. I stopped going forward because the sidewalk and street were bent down and cracked.”
However, it’s important to remember that at this point, Paha Sapa Grotto still thought it might be a cave, so Weaver was pretty excited to make a big discovery. “When Doug from emergency management showed up, I told him that we could safely go in if they could pull the cracked concrete off of the hole. Soon, they had a piece of machinery there and with the sidewalk gone, we felt much safer about going in. Nick, Dave, and I went in, and it was immediately obvious that it was a mine. There were a lot of drill holes and old mining debris. On this first visit, I made a quick sketch map of what we could see (about 500ft of mine) and then took it to show the people on the surface. I think that’s when the severity of the issue really set in with a lot of people. I also told them that I would come back with two teams the following day and bring correct gear to correctly map it,” the caver said.
Image credits: Dan Austin/Paha Sapa Grotto
The cavers returned the next night. This time, there were two teams of explorers, equipped with survey gear and ready to map the mine
Image credits: Dan Austin/Paha Sapa Grotto
Image credits: Dan Austin/Paha Sapa Grotto
“We determined that the mine was over 2K feet across and over 150 feet wide. It went directly under at least 12 homes”
Image credits: Dan Austin/Paha Sapa Grotto
Image credits: Dan Austin/Paha Sapa Grotto
However, even the Paha Sapa Grotto couldn’t safely explore all of the corners of the sinkhole
Image credits: Dan Austin/Paha Sapa Grotto
Image credits: Dan Austin/Paha Sapa Grotto
“The full extent of the mine is still unknown as passages are either collapsed in, flooded, or too dangerous to enter”
Image credits: Dan Austin/Paha Sapa Grotto
Image credits: Dan Austin/Paha Sapa Grotto
The sad part about this is that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) said the residents won’t be getting any of its grants. “Unresolved issues regarding whether this is a natural event, the likelihood of negligence, and the duplication of federal benefits” make the community ineligible at this time for the specific Hazard Mitigation Grant Program that Meade County had planned on applying for.
Image credits: Dan Austin/Paha Sapa Grotto
Image credits: Dan Austin/Paha Sapa Grotto
Image credits: Dan Austin/Paha Sapa Grotto
Image credits: Dan Austin/Paha Sapa Grotto
Residents of the Hideaway Hills subdivision are suing South Dakota, Meade County, and developers of the subdivision for more than $75,000,00
Image credits: Dan Austin/Paha Sapa Grotto
Image credits: Dan Austin/Paha Sapa Grotto
The lawsuit on behalf of 119 homeowners also includes counts against title companies involved in sales of the homes, attorneys for previous owners, and real estate agents who sold the homes
Image credits: Dan Austin/Paha Sapa Grotto
Image credits: Dan Austin/Paha Sapa Grotto
The residents are seeking more than $35,000,000 in compensatory damages, $40,000,000 in exemplary damages, and “such other relief as the court deems equitable”
Image credits: Dan Austin/Paha Sapa Grotto
Here’s what people said about the whole ordeal
!["Karen Complains To HR About My Body, I Uno-Reverse Her Complaint, [And Now] Everyone Hates Her"](https://www.boredpanda.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/coworker-complains-to-hr-about-womans-body-revenge-latest.jpg "\"Karen Complains To HR About My Body, I Uno-Reverse Her Complaint, [And Now] Everyone Hates Her\"")
Now everyone understands what the realtor meant he/she said the house had some " miner" problems.
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Lack of understanding satire? More like lack of understanding saltire, because that comment's making me cross.
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Minor miners. Child labor is no joke!
You don't do satire very well, do you.
Do you really think this comment had anything to do with child labourers?
I was a bit fine when I read it was an old mine until I saw the old car. The developers didn't even bother to pick that up. Are they hoping it will help to strengthen the foundation on the whole village? The developers clearly thought that since this is an abandon mine, why don't they just built a house on top of it. Clearly a case of greedy corporation.
Agreed. Builder should pay for this lazy workmanship.
This is not Lazy Workmanship. This is CRIMINAL. Thank God no lives were lost. Every one that had even the slightest bit of Knowledge of this should be held Libel.
I bet they are long gone.
What makes you think the developers dug down that far? In my area, they generally only go down far enough to pour the crawl spaces and sewer lines. It isn't like they're digging massive pits. They would have had lots of massive equipment driving across the surface, so there had to be enough thickness to the surface to support that weight, so the mine caverns are probably at least 10 feet underground in most places, and they wouldn't dig that far down. It is entirely possible the developer had no idea this was there. Edited to add that the car is not proof that the developer knew. I'm no car expert, but that model looks like something from the 30s or 40s. The houses in the photo look like circa 2000 construction. The car clearly has been down there a long time. Nothing to do with the development of the subdivision.
https://apnews.com/c772ec152b7ac86f4fc94ca3146a2dd 6 The developers knew they were told they would need to do soil boring to make sure it was safe to Be developed. They had issues with the same road years back Here is a snippet of another article: “The original developers want to close off part of Daisy Drive because it is caving into the old underground mine.” The report said they tried to repair the road, but it kept sinking. “The planning board told Mr. McNaboe to tell his clients to fix the road properly because they will not approve the closing of Daisy Drive.” 14 years later Daisy Drive is finally closed off, but at the cost of evacuating people from their homes.
It's a Ford from 1953 or so, but I doubt that the developers knew anything about the mine OR the car.
More to the point how did it get down there and into its resting place? Surely it wasn't driven? Its restorable though..
Ok, feel for those that were affected. But so cool! Just needs some dry ice and weird alien type eggs. Or is that just me? Hmmmm. Note to self: keep thoughts inside.
Now everyone understands what the realtor meant he/she said the house had some " miner" problems.
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
Lack of understanding satire? More like lack of understanding saltire, because that comment's making me cross.
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
Minor miners. Child labor is no joke!
You don't do satire very well, do you.
Do you really think this comment had anything to do with child labourers?
I was a bit fine when I read it was an old mine until I saw the old car. The developers didn't even bother to pick that up. Are they hoping it will help to strengthen the foundation on the whole village? The developers clearly thought that since this is an abandon mine, why don't they just built a house on top of it. Clearly a case of greedy corporation.
Agreed. Builder should pay for this lazy workmanship.
This is not Lazy Workmanship. This is CRIMINAL. Thank God no lives were lost. Every one that had even the slightest bit of Knowledge of this should be held Libel.
I bet they are long gone.
What makes you think the developers dug down that far? In my area, they generally only go down far enough to pour the crawl spaces and sewer lines. It isn't like they're digging massive pits. They would have had lots of massive equipment driving across the surface, so there had to be enough thickness to the surface to support that weight, so the mine caverns are probably at least 10 feet underground in most places, and they wouldn't dig that far down. It is entirely possible the developer had no idea this was there. Edited to add that the car is not proof that the developer knew. I'm no car expert, but that model looks like something from the 30s or 40s. The houses in the photo look like circa 2000 construction. The car clearly has been down there a long time. Nothing to do with the development of the subdivision.
https://apnews.com/c772ec152b7ac86f4fc94ca3146a2dd 6 The developers knew they were told they would need to do soil boring to make sure it was safe to Be developed. They had issues with the same road years back Here is a snippet of another article: “The original developers want to close off part of Daisy Drive because it is caving into the old underground mine.” The report said they tried to repair the road, but it kept sinking. “The planning board told Mr. McNaboe to tell his clients to fix the road properly because they will not approve the closing of Daisy Drive.” 14 years later Daisy Drive is finally closed off, but at the cost of evacuating people from their homes.
It's a Ford from 1953 or so, but I doubt that the developers knew anything about the mine OR the car.
More to the point how did it get down there and into its resting place? Surely it wasn't driven? Its restorable though..
Ok, feel for those that were affected. But so cool! Just needs some dry ice and weird alien type eggs. Or is that just me? Hmmmm. Note to self: keep thoughts inside.