Cave Exploring Gone WRONG | The Wildcat Cave Incident

As I'm sure many of you know, the Nutty Putty incident is probably the most famous caving incident of all time. It's also the story that probably sparked this entire genre and instilled a caving phobia in so many people. But did you know that 40 years earlier there was another incident with eerily similar circumstances? This is that story. If you enjoy scary interesting, odds are that you enjoy stories of humanity surviving, or sometimes not, in some of the most difficult conditions on earth. So today I want to introduce you to one of these stories, which is a horror fiction podcast and YouTube channel set within the chilling polar night of Svalbard called The White Vault. It's an audio story, similar to scary interesting, but with a full voice cast where an international rescue and repair team is sent to discover the source of a mysterious signal at a remote arctic research station. On their mission, they become trapped when the weather takes a turn for the worst and they also make a number of shocking discoveries lurking beneath the ice. What makes The White Vault particularly unsettling though is that you feel like you're actually with the team as they march through the sunless arctic snowscape. The creators of the show also go through great pains to ensure the scientific, linguistic, oral, and cultural accuracy. You can hear languages like Icelandic, Arabic, Portuguese, Mandarin, and even endangered languages like Manchu and Yiddish. The White Vault also features actual audio from endangered species like polar bears, Andean condors, and more that you won't hear anywhere else. The complete story is now available because The White Vault's main story recently concluded so you can hear all of the collected records for free without having to wait on new releases. A sequel series is also planned to release in October of 2023, and other seasons follow stories that would be right at home here on Scary Interesting, like an archaeology team that survives an avalanche in Patagonia, and spinoff series in the Antarctic, England, Japan, and 18th century China. You can check out The White Vault wherever you list a podcast, or right here on YouTube. And by the way, the feedback that I've seen both in my comment section and their comment section since the last time they sponsored a video has been fantastic. Some people have even binged their entire catalog already, so I'd highly recommend you head on over to their channel now, or using the links in the description, and subscribe now to delve into the waiting horrors. On the morning of October 5th, 1965, Morris Batzold woke up excited. It was another day of school for the 15-year-old, but it was the best kind of day. It was field trip day. Morris was one of just 16 kids from the Methodist Children's Home in Berea, Ohio, heading to Showburn Village, which is a site significant to Ohio's history. It wasn't an amusement park by any means, but it beat a day in the classroom any day. So Morris and his classmates were loaded onto the bus by their three teacher chaperones, and then they were on their way. The drive to Showburn Village would take about an hour and a half, so the students settled in for the trip. Not far down U.S. Route 21, the students all looked up toward the driver as he suddenly pulled the bus onto the shoulder. He opened the door, got out, and discovered a flat tire. Fixing it would take hours, so the trip they had all been looking forward to was unfortunately cancelled. Before announcing it to the bus, the three teachers got together to discuss their options. They could go back to school, but the teachers didn't want to disappoint the students either. They also knew that not far from where they were was Hinkley Reservation, which is a park with more than 3,000 acres of mostly untouched nature. When the bus was fixed, they decided they could at least drive a few miles and treat the kids to lunch in the park and an opportunity to burn off some of the field trip excitement. Hinkley Reservation is the southernmost park in Cleveland's metro park system and is a popular spot for locals. For children and teenagers, it was known for being home to Wildcat Cave, and kids would play war or cops and robbers there. Teenagers would explore or hang out and smoke cigarettes, and young couples would immortalize their relationships by carving their names into the exposed sandstone. And in fact, just the previous summer, Morris had actually visited Hinkley Reservation and explored Wildcat Cave for the first time. While they waited for the bus to be fixed, Morris and his two friends talked it over and decided they'd head straight there after lunch. The bus pulled into Hinkley Reservation a little while later and made its way to a picnic area known as Whip's Ledges. This just so happens to be where Wildcat Cave is located too. It's a surprisingly rugged area right between the urban sprawl of Cleveland to the north and Akron to the south. It was still well before noon, but the teachers served lunch and then let the kids have some free time, and Morris and his friends made a beeline for Wildcat Cave. At the entrance, they were met with a large opening about 15 feet wide, but only 4.5 feet high. Just inside this entrance was a chamber, not even big enough to stand up in, and the opening of a small tunnel on its back wall. Morris and his friends then crouched their way in and began crawling headfirst down the tunnel. Altogether, the cave's main tunnel was only about 80 feet long and ended in a large chamber that locals say was part of the Underground Railroad. In any case, about 60 feet from the entrance and 35 feet underground, the main tunnel intersects with another. When they got there, they'd have to squeeze through an opening only about 12 inches wide where a leaning boulder juts out and squeezes the last part of the tunnel before the intersection. Since Morris had been there before, he felt confident being the lead, and although he didn't remember every part of the cave, he recalled certain parts and where they had to go once they went through the intersection. After wiggling through the choke point, he got turned around a bit in the darkness, but found where the tunnel continued to the large chamber and kept crawling. Then a few feet in, the tunnel sloped downhill sharply, and he didn't recall that from the last time he was there, but he shrugged it off and thought maybe he just wasn't remembering this part correctly. Unfortunately, it wasn't Morris' memory that was wrong, it was the turn he made. Instead of continuing straight ahead when he got past the choke point, Morris crawled into the tunnel to his left, only it wasn't a tunnel. Morris had crawled into a crevice with a 15 degree downward slant and walls that closed in tighter and tighter the further he went. When he was almost at the bottom of the crevice and saw there was nowhere to go, Morris realized his mistake. He tried to back himself out, but with one arm now pinned beneath him, he didn't have enough power to push against gravity. Morris was suddenly hit with another realization, he was stuck nearly upside down in complete darkness. Those of you familiar with this story might be thinking of what is arguably the most well known and terrifying caving incident. In 2009, 26 year old John Jones and his brother ventured into Nutty Putty Cave near their hometown in Utah. While crawling through a tunnel, John took a turn into a cramped passage and continued headfirst down the slope. He thought he was in a tunnel called the birth canal, named for how chamber. John wasn't in the birth canal though, he had unknowingly crawled into a crevice, just like Morris. John crawled until he was pressed against rock on all sides. Still believing he was in the right tunnel too, John thought he'd just need to keep squeezing through, so he exhaled all of the air out of his lungs to make his torso as small as possible and pushed himself ahead, only to end up more stuck than he was before. Rescuers then spent all night and the next day trying to free John, but every attempt failed. Because he was positioned nearly upside down in the crevice, John's heart had to work that much harder to keep blood from pooling in his head. And tragically, after more than 24 hours in that position, John's heart gave out. And because of the angle of the crevice, his body couldn't be removed. His body is still in that crevice to this day. 44 years early in Ohio, Morris screamed back to his friends that he was stuck. The boys tried to reach him, but Morris was more than 10 feet down. Right away, the two boys then left Morris in the cave and ran to tell their teachers. One of the teachers then ran back to Wildcat Cave with them, and at the opening of the crevice, he took off his belt and made a loop. Reaching as far as he could, he managed to lasso Morris' feet with it, and Morris slowly started to rise as he pulled. A moment later though, the belt snapped and Morris dropped right back to where he started, only this time he was wedged in tighter than before. All of the momentum from the fall had wedged him in further than he originally was, and realizing that this was a serious situation and with nothing more they could do, they left to call the fire department. When firefighters arrived, they entered Wildcat Cave and similar to the teacher's idea, they attempted to loop a rope around Morris' legs to pull him out. As if his situation wasn't bad enough already, firefighters only succeeded in pulling Morris' jeans around his ankles. Next, they tried stagging Morris' jacket with a metal hook attached to the end of a rope, but the hook ripped right through his jacket. So now with a torn jacket and his pants off, Morris was still stuck at the bottom of a crevice. The hope of a quick rescue faded as emergency personnel realized how much trouble he was in. Meanwhile, as they tried to figure out their next move, another team set up a generator and ran lights and a heater into the cave to make Morris a little more comfortable. Temperatures that day were typical of early fall in the northeast US, with an afternoon high of 50 degrees Fahrenheit or 10 Celsius. If Morris was still stuck after sunset however, temperatures were expected to drop to near freezing overnight. Being almost completely upside down, just like John Jones, his condition would become more and more fragile the longer he was stuck. If he was there long enough and temperatures dropped low enough, it could push his heart over the edge. As word spread around town, Hinkley Reservations started to fill up with emergency personnel, reporters, curious locals, and groups offering assistance. Several volunteer groups showed up to keep rescuers going with a steady supply of food and coffee, and the Salvation Army and American Red Cross also set up outside the cave to support rescuers as long as they were needed. Down in the crevice, Morris had no idea that he had become a household name across the dinnertime. His story was plastered all over front pages of evening newspapers and TV and radio stations providing constant updates on the efforts to rescue him. Already unsuccessful in several attempts to free him though, rescuers needed to get creative, and thankfully all of the attention on the ordeal could be used to their advantage. Rescue officials asked reporters to send out word that people of small stature were needed immediately in Hinkley Reservation. If someone small enough could get far enough into the crevice, maybe they could just pull Morris out. Soon enough, locals who fit the description started showing up, including a 5'2", 80 pound nurse so small she earned the nickname Pinky. Listening to the radio on her way home from work, Pinky heard a report about what was happening in Hinkley and started racing to Hinkley Reservation. When she arrived, firefighters thought she was the perfect size to give it a shot. When she got to the intersection, she squeezed her way around the choke points and with ropes attached to her legs to pull her out if she couldn't pull herself out, she crawled as far as she could to the crevice. That's when the flaw in this plan became apparent to rescuers. Anyone small enough to fit in the crevice likely wouldn't be tall enough to reach him or strong enough to pull him out. As hard as she tried, Pinky couldn't get any closer than 5 feet to Morris. At the very least though, since she couldn't be the one to save him, she kept him company for several hours inside the little crevice. Back outside, Curtis Peck, a 26-year-old carer from Akron, showed up to see if his experience could be helpful to rescuers. After explaining the situation and what they'd tried already, Curtis suggested spiking a pulley into the roof of the cave to make pulling Morris up easier. Once it was firmly in the rock ceiling, rescuers lassoed one of Morris' legs again to give it another try, but every time they started to pull, they got nowhere. He just wouldn't budge. The pulley helped, but it didn't solve the issue of getting a tight enough grip on something other than Morris' ankle. Incredibly, throughout all of this, rescuers noticed that despite all of the trial and error to get him out so far, Morris' demeanor was uncharacteristic of someone wedged inside a cold, dark cave for hours. His ability to remain calm stuck out to long-time rescuers who had been on countless emergency calls. One rescue worker even told reporters that he had never seen a boy with so much guts in his life. Between attempts to pull him out, Morris was visited by doctors who kept a close eye on his condition. Each time they checked on him though, they came away encouraged, but they knew it wouldn't last if he wasn't rescued soon. As with John Jones, Morris' position caused blood to pool in his head and his heart to pump harder. Over enough time, Morris would grow exhausted and him awake was crucial the longer this went on. Throughout this ordeal, Morris didn't talk much other than to answer questions and occasionally express how much he wanted to get out of there. Rescuers needed to keep him talking though. If he passed out, there was a chance he just wouldn't wake up. Working on shifts throughout the night, rescuers kept him company, sitting at the top of the crevice and asking him questions. This not only kept him awake, but it also prevented his mind from wandering into what-ifs that could lead to panic. At around 11 o'clock that night, Morris' family finally showed up at Hinkley Reservation. They would have been there much sooner, but they didn't find out until they heard a radio report. Neither the police nor the school reached out to them to let them know what happened. To say Morris' family situation was complicated is drastically understating the reality. Morris' parents divorced about 10 years earlier and because of what records vaguely termed family difficulties, Morris and his three siblings were placed in foster care instead of their parents split in custody. Morris and his sister Linda lived together with foster parents until 1964, but when his guardians needed to move to New Jersey, they took Linda with them but left Morris behind. He then became a ward of the state and the courts placed him in the Methodist Children's Home, an institution for emotionally disturbed children, as the newspapers described it in 1965. Morris kept in touch with his brother Donald, who was now on the scene, through letters, and he occasionally saw his mother and stepfather. He hadn't even seen his biological father in a year, but just a week before the whole ordeal, his dad was in a Cleveland court for a hearing involving him. His father had been trying to gain custody of Morris for some time and was hoping the courts would finally come to a decision that day, but instead the judge took no action which would only prolong the process. Had custody been awarded to his father then and there, Morris probably never would have ended up in Wildcat Cave in the first place. After local efforts failed to get Morris out, a call was made to the National Speleological Society, which is an organization of more than 2,000 caving experts and enthusiasts across 84 chapters in the time. The NSS was formed in 1941 with a mission to study, explore, and preserve caves in the U.S., but if someone in a cave was in need of rescue, they were the pros to call. The Washington, D.C. chapter in particular trained every weekend for cave rescues. After getting word that rescuers in Ohio could use a hand, seven of the Washington, D.C.'s members were flown by U.S. Air Force to Cleveland first thing in the morning. That call to assist Morris' rescue was actually the twelfth they received that year. In the majority of cases, the NSS is able to organize a quick and efficient rescue, but not every rescue has a happy ending. Earlier that year, they were in New York State assisting with another rescue when a sudden cave-in seriously injured two NSS members and ended the hopes of reaching the 23-year-old man they were attempting to rescue. He died and his body remained stuck in the cave for 41 years before it could be removed for a proper burial. In Utah that same year, two kids died when they got lost in the cave and the NSS team couldn't locate them. Still, the group is very good at what it does and local officials believe they were Morris' best chance of escape. At the same time, as inexperienced as they were at cave rescue, local emergency personnel were actually on the right track. There was no other way to extract him. The way into the crevice was the only way out, so pulling him out was the best option. They just hadn't found the right person who was small enough to reach him and strong enough to do anything about it. Pinky was just one of dozens who went into the crevice to try. Another man whose hips were only 19 inches wide was able to make physical contact with Morris, but he couldn't reach any further than his feet. And because of this, he didn't have the strength to pull Morris out fully, he was only able to move him about 6 inches. Like Pinky, the man stayed for a while to keep Morris company after realizing he couldn't do much more for him. And even though everyone who went in failed, rescuers were encouraged by the man's ability to move Morris a few inches. To rescuers, this confirmed their theory that the right grip onto Morris was the key to getting him out. They just needed the person who could make that happen to show up at Hinckley Reservation. In the town just north of Hinckley, a man was listening to the radio on his way to work, and even though most of the country was fixated on what was happening just down the road from him, the radio report was the first he'd heard of it. Hearing the urgent pleas for small people of any able age to come to Hinckley Reservation, he turned the car around and raced back home. The man's sons, 15-year-old Mike and 12-year-old Jerry, were getting ready for school when their father burst in and told him to get in the car. Their father just had a Mike and Jerry were accomplished Boy Scouts, so they were familiar with the outdoors and survival in a variety of situations. There's no Boy Scout badge for cave rescue, but he believed in his boys anyway. They arrived around 9 o'clock that morning, but the situation had become urgent about an hour earlier. Efforts to keep Morris awake were starting to fail, as he briefly and involuntarily lost consciousness a few times. Rescuers fed a hose down to the crevice and pumped oxygen in, which woke him right up, but Morris passing out wasn't a good sign at all. Mike and Jerry met with the NSS official in charge of the rescue, and being the smallest of the two, Jerry was chosen to go first. His father's confidence in him didn't do much for Jerry, unfortunately. He was terrified to go anywhere near the cave, and it took some soothing, but he did eventually find the bravery to give it a shot. When he got to the top of the crevice, he slowly worked his way down the slope toward Morris, and sure enough, Jerry made it further than anyone else who attempted to reach him. He tried to get the ropes around Morris, but he wasn't strong enough to work the rope under him, and the more Jerry struggled in the tight space, the faster his fears returned, and then, close to the point of panicking, he had to back out and leave. Next was Mike's turn. At 5'5", 120 pounds, he was built similarly to Morris, so they knew he'd fit into the crevice. Mike was also a few years older than Jerry, and more capable to mentally and emotionally handle the task. When he finally reached the opening of the fissure, he squirmed his way down the slope. Four ropes led from Mike to the rescuers outside. Two were attached to Mike's legs to pull him out if he encountered trouble, and the two others were in his hands to tie around Morris. And the ones meant for Morris were different than those used in other attempts. Two Akron firefighters came up with a strap system on the spot that they hoped would make it easier to get around Morris, while also providing the tight grip getting him out required. With every inch Mike moved toward Morris, the walls around him closed tighter and tighter. The space Morris was trapped in, like most cave tunnels, wasn't uniform either. It was taller than it was wide, and about 3 feet from floor to ceiling, but it was only 10 inches wall to wall. Because he was similar in size, Mike would have to mimic Morris' position in order to reach him. That meant Mike would be without the use of one arm for a task that required at least two. He then rolled onto his right side, keeping his right arm under him to support his body weight, and used his left arm to pull himself forward. Once he was low enough, he introduced himself to Morris and started to assess how to get the straps around him. Before Mike arrived with his father and brother, the team outside listened to another outlandish idea, this time from a surprising source. Curtis Peck, the experienced caver from Akron who remained on site in case he could be of use, was a machinist by trade. Whenever he encountered a piece or part that was stuck at work, he'd grease it up and it'd pop right out, so why not do the same to Morris? The team initially recoiled hearing this odd suggestion from someone so familiar with caves, but as they listened, Curtis' idea went from crazy to crazy enough to work. So while Mike was being briefed before heading in, the team sent Curtis back in to pour a glycerin solution into the crevice, soaking Morris and the surrounding rock. Unfortunately, this meant that as if things weren't already challenging enough, the only hand Mike had available was covered in slippery goo. Then, like his brother, he struggled to get the rope under the leg that was pinned under Morris. His only option seemed to be what they had already tried, but he also thought that maybe manually fixing the rope to his leg would produce better results. When he was done, he backed out of the tunnel, fed the rope through the pulley, and then signaled the rope team to start pulling. To everyone's surprise, Morris moved about 6 inches before the rope inevitably slipped to his ankles again. Despite this slight progress, the constant disappointment of unsuccessful attempts were starting to wear Morris down. He started to cry softly as Mike worked his way back toward him. When Mike got to his legs, Morris spoke to him and sounded scared for the first time, and with desperation in his voice, he asked Mike if there was anything he could do to help him get the straps on him. The little bit of progress that was made opened up enough of a gap between the crevice floor and Morris' legs to get the straps around both of them this time. Mike got the straps secured and once again backed out, and then the rope team started to pull and were quickly signaled to stop. Morris' hips and arms had popped free, but now his chest was wedged. The rope team then held Morris in place while Mike went back into the crevice. With Morris' new positioning, he could finally access his upper body. By the time Mike ran a strap around Morris just below his arms, it had been 24 hours since Morris became stuck and even longer since he had slapped or ate. Like before, Mike backed out and flashed a thumbs up. The rope team got the signal and started to pull in unison again. Morris' chest came free and the men on the rope could pull slack hand over hand for the first time. It was slow going though, and with each heave, Morris was pulled up only about 4 inches, only to fall back another 3 when they'd reset. But as difficult as it was, moving him one inch at a time felt like miles of progress after so many attempts without success. As he advanced upward though, the contours of the crevice kept changing. Before the walls of the crevice widened, Morris became wedged again, but the ropes remained firmly around him to keep him from falling. However, continuing to pull wasn't freeing him this time. Curtis then offered another idea that was crazy enough to work. If they slid a board coated in grease under Morris, it might make it easier to pull him out of whatever was keeping him stuck. His earlier suggestion to grease up in the first place was pivotal in getting him moving in the right direction, so the team lead sent Curtis back in. On his stomach at the top of the crevice, Curtis carefully guided a thin board coated in the same glycerin solution under Morris. When the rope team started pulling again, Morris slid free, and as he popped loose and the crevice started to widen, Morris found the strength to help in any way he could. The arm that was pinned under him was still numb, but he put everything he had into pushing with both arms when the rope team pulled. Finally, after 26 hours and 24 minutes, Morris was freed from Wildcat Cave. When he was finally within arm's reach, a rescuer latched onto his leg and helped pull him to safety. With nothing left to give, Morris collapsed into him and the rescuer could only cradle him while he cried. Many of the emergency workers spent time with Morris in the overnight effort to keep him awake, and the rescue became personal to people working so hard to get him out. Morris' courage and calm only endeared him further to rescuers, so when he was finally safe, it was like every one of them had pulled their own child from the Outside the cave, it felt like forever before the rope team got the signal to stop pulling, but when it came, they knew it meant that Morris was free. When the hundreds of people outside the cave saw the rope team begin to celebrate, they erupted in cheers and Morris' family could only hug one another and cry tears of joy. With the hardest part over, they still had to get Morris out of the cave and then into a waiting ambulance. Unable to get out under his own power, EMTs strapped Morris to a backboard, and then one EMT went into the main tunnel feet first and pulled the while another pushed from the opposite end. It was another hour before Morris finally emerged from the cave, and the crowd roared the moment they saw the stretcher come out. Morris was then hurried to an ambulance that had been waiting for him almost as long as he was stuck. Once police got word that Morris was at the top of the crevice, they went through town and closed every road leading from Hinkley Reservation to the nearest hospital. Then at the hospital, in their first moments with him, they were shocked by Morris' condition. He was lucid and relaxed, and didn't seem to be in any pain either. As doctors looked him over, they only found a few scrapes and bruises, including a particularly nasty one on his cheek, that was pressed to the crevice floor for more than a day, but little else was wrong with him. His organ function was perfect, and he even wasn't all that dehydrated after more than a day without water. After all he'd endured, Morris' two biggest problems were hunger and exhaustion, in that order. Once settled in the hospital room, staff brought him a huge meal that he wolfed down and doctors prescribed an extended period of uninterrupted rest. After a long night of sleep, Morris met with eager reporters from his bed. As you might imagine, they had a lot of questions for him, and Morris talked about what it was like in the crevice and what he was thinking as rescues failed several times to free him. He also told them about visiting Wildcat Cave the previous summer too, and they could barely believe it when he told them he got stuck then too. Apparently it was a different area of the cave, but after some effort, he was able to free himself. As for how he stayed so calm, Morris didn't even think he did a very good job of it. He later admitted to being terrified the entire time and resigned himself to being stuck there forever. Just two hours after Morris was put into an ambulance, the park service got to work lining the inside of Wildcat Cave with dynamite. It was a hasty decision, but the park wanted to make sure what happened to Morris could never happen again. In fact, Morris hadn't even been placed in a hospital room before the cave that held him captive was destroyed. Eventually its entrance was also sealed with concrete for good measure. Hello everyone and welcome to Scary Interesting, just a reminder that we now have a Scary Interesting podcast with new episodes released every Friday at 11am Eastern. It features brand new Scary Interesting content similar to what you see here on YouTube wherever you listen to podcasts. You can find links in the description and more details in the community post about it. Thank you all so much for watching and hopefully I will see you in the next one.