No injured cavers recorded.
On the afternoon of March 24, 1975 five loggers, Roger Samuels, Rick Gayton, Wilhelm Evers, Dick Buchanan, and Rob Adams descended the 30-foot Lightening [sic] Pit in Bluewater Cave. None of the men were experienced cavers. They rigged the pit with 3/4-inch manilla and hand-over-handed down the then raging waterfall. The first man down realized he was in trouble, but they had no prearranged signals, and the roar of the waterfall was too great for them to yell signals. They continued to descend until all were at the bottom unable to ascend. Repeated attempts to ascend only served to tire them.
After several hours Adams managed to get to a ledge half way up where he could rest before attempting the top. Adams left the cave at about 4:00 p.m. He returned to the logging camp and managed to get the assistance of about twenty loggers who returned and hauled the men from the cave. All were back at camp by 8:30 p.m.
Analysis: Inexperience in caving techniques caused the men to underestimate the difficulty in doing hand-over-hand climbs, especially under a waterfall. If they had not been able to get out of the cave on the day of their entrapment, the loggers could easily have died of hypothermia during the night.