No injured cavers recorded.
At about 9 a.m. on 12 July, three boys, Bill Beck, Tom McLaughin and Lynn Reed (all 17), entered Overholt Blowing Cave. They were each wearing swimming trunks and thin shirts, and had two flashlights and one carbide lamp.
At about 10 p.m. that day, Mike Balister at nearby Green Bank received a telephone call informing him that the boys had not returned. A crowd had gathered around the entrance to the cave when he arrived, but no attempt to enter had been made. Balister and Tom Dunbrack donned rubber suits and went up the stream passage until they found the boys sitting in the dark 3000 feet from the entrance. They were very cold but not injured and were able to leave the cave.
(Balister) They were three boys who had done some caving but had had no contact with any other cavers so were unaware of the simplest rules that it is necessary to follow to explore caves safely. The only thing they did right was that McLaughin told his father which cave they were going to. The other boys would not have been missed for some time as their parents were away.
They had not carried spare batteries for their flashlights and a glass jar of carbide they had taken with them had fallen into the stream in the cave. Compare the near fatality by hypothermia, in Overholt Blowing Cave (1967), of a caver who was much better prepared than these three boys.
3 17 year old boys did not return from a trip to Overholt Blowing Cave. 2 cavers were called in and were able to find the boys and help them exit.