Louis County, and ‘after work’ trips were popular for a while. Some members of MVG became very interested in the caves beneath St. Work continued near Waterloo, IL, including the grotto assisting with restoration of an old schoolhouse on karst lands. As cavers became more proficient in single rope techniques, and Missouri provided a dearth of bounce-able pits, members began to venture to the TAG area for US big pit country, and to Mexico over Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks, to do some of the largest pits in the hemisphere. New cave areas were examined, mostly due to the grotto being one of those who every two or three years put on the regional gatherings of the Mississippi Valley Ozark Region. The grotto aided the MSS in getting the Missouri Cave Protection Act passed in 1981. With the turn of the 1980s, Meramec Valley Grotto, largely due to the concurrent interest in canoeing and floating, acquired an interest in Shannon and Oregon counties, home to Ozark National Scenic Riverways and the Eleven Point National Scenic River, and their caves and karst, exploring away from the river banks, and back into the large tracts of public and Pioneer Forest lands in the area. With the defeat of the dam in a public referendum in August, 1978 the urgent push to collect data before caves were destroyed lightened, but the grotto continued to work in its namesake region. Meramec Valley began its annual Meramec River floats in the 1970s, and for all speleology being accomplished, the grotto began to acquire a reputation as a good times grotto that worked hard and partied hard. They were also active in gating a number of recreational caves, and studying the Monroe County Illinois karst, including Krueger-Dry Run and Illinois Caverns. They constructed the world’s second largest pizza (13’ x 5’) and sold pieces to fund efforts against the dam. At that time MVG had some 19 charter members, 11 of whom were National Speleological Society members.ĭuring the 1970s, the Grotto was most active in the middle Meramec River basin, working to defeat the proposed Army Corps of Engineers’ Meramec Dam by influencing public opinion against it with a symposium and publications, while at the same time mapping the caves in the region which might be lost, and studying various aspects of the cave biology and geology and publishing their findings. The officers of MVG were Tom Cravens, President, Pete Gilster, Vice President, Judy Rellergert, Secretary, and Dudley Smith, Treasurer. On Jthe Meramec Valley Grotto became (Internal Organization no. After some conflict, the Meramec Valley Grotto was formed, having demonstrated its goals and area of interest were sufficiently different from other NSS grottos in metro St. In spring of 1970, the group requested affiliation with the National Speleological Society. Both students and non-students caved with the MSA. Twenty-five students enrolled – 80% who were continuing ed adults. Louis Community College in the spring semester of 1970. A year later the Dean of Continuing Education contacted Tom and asked him if he would be willing to develop an evening course on Caves and Caving. Several Meramec Athletic Club members formed an offshoot called the Meramec Speleological Association (MSA), which had a nucleus of between 10 and 15 students and was officially recognized in fall 1968. Louis Community College at Meramec in the spring of 1968 as an extension of a student organization called the Meramec Athletic Club. The Meramec Valley Grotto (MVG) began on the campus of the St.