Agencies
Services
Land and Water Reserve Area
9
County
Union
Location
The site is located approximately 2.5 miles south of Makanda and 1.5 miles southwest of Giant City State Park in northern Union County.
Description
Guthrie Cave Land and Water Reserve contains a cave identified on the Illinois Natural Areas Inventory (Guthrie Cave INAI #1021) as containing high-quality examples of terrestrial and aquatic cave communities. The aquatic cave community is listed as Grade A and portions of the terrestrial cave community are listed as Grade A and B. The cave is a joint-controlled spring cave in the Kinkaid Limestone under a sandstone capped hill. At over two miles in length, it is one of the largest caves in southern Illinois. It is also representative of the caves found in the Shawnee Hill Natural Division. The site additionally contains a spring, intermittent stream, and Grade C and D forest communities along with overgrown former crop fields and pastureland. The forest areas have small pockets of rich woodland wildflower assemblages.
Ownership
Illinois Department of Natural Resources
Natural Division
Greater Shawnee Hills Section of the Shawnee Hills Natural Division (#13a)
Registered
October 1999
Size
79 acres
Access
The site is open to the public but public access is not permitted inside the cave. To reach the site from downtown Carbondale, take US Highway 51 south for approximately 13 miles and then turn east onto Water Valley Road. Take this road northeast for just over a mile and then take a slight left onto Shiloh Road. After another mile, turn west onto Pearson Lane. This is a narrow, gravel access road that crosses a creek and is not suitable for all vehicles. A quarter mile down this road there is a very small turn off at the southeast corner of the site where 1-2 vehicles can be parked. When leaving, turning vehicles around on the narrow road is difficult and will require attention not to pull onto neighboring private property or to slide off the road down a hill.
Topographic Quad
Makanda
For Further Information
Illinois Nature Preserves Commission
One Natural Resources Way
Springfield, IL 62702
217-785-8686
DNR.INPC@illinois.gov