Close call with sink hole

[Jeff244]

I was moving some clay today from an old pile to a pond that I was working on. At the end of the day, I noticed a hole where I was driving all day. I got out and looked at it, it was about 2'or 3' at the top and about 12' diameter inside. The is a pile of dirt in the middle thats about 4' below ground level and it tapers to about 10' or more below ground level. Plus, there are cave like holes on 2 sides of the hole. I can't tell how far they go, I was too scared to get too far into the hole to look.

Anyone know who I can call about this? I think that this is an old mine area. Is there a government agency that I can call to figure out what to do? For now, I am going to block off a large area around the sinkhole.

Here are a couple of pictures, they would be better, but as I said, I was really nervous around the hole.

Thanks,
Jeff

 

[Dmace]

Wow! That's crazy!

Around here we have a company called Dig Safe that has access to all the old underground utility, well, mine, drainage, etc... plans and can tell you where it is safe to dig before hand. I would contact the local code officer to see if they know of a contact like that.

 

[horse7]

I've seen little ones like that where underground flowing water eats away the earth below, till the top caves in.

They are exactly like that-- small hole on top, big space down below, sometimes a pile below the hole where the roof fell in. Usually they seem surprisingly strong around the edges but that probably varies with soil type.

Of course in limestone areas they have 'real' sinkholes... still flowing water, but a bit different than the shallow holes I've seen locally.

 

[Defective]

Holy Crap!!!

Giant mutant gophers...

 

[ToadHill]

Maybe you've located Blackbeards lost treasure.

 

[em14]

You are very lucky you and your tractor didn't get swallowed up by those sink holes ... you should get hold of your city/county Engineer or a Geologist... Do this soon so that the size and location of this thing can be laid out. And if I were you I would stay out of them until more is known …
Leo

 

[actionaj]

Being from Southern Illinois it might be related to mine subsidence. I would give IDNR a call I am sure they would be interested. There are sink holes all around where I live due to old mines. I have two pipes sticking out of the ground in my pasture that go down about 400' to a mine shaft. They used them to pump water out and into the creek back in the 1930's.

 

[Rara Avis]

Maybe you've located Blackbeards lost treasure.

Nice try...
Oak Island - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Jeff244]

I called the Illinois DNR-Office of Mines and Minerals today. They are sending someone out to look at it next week. They said the paper work is started and I will be on a list for them to come out and fix it. The only problem is that they said it will take 3 to 4 years. If the sinkhole was close to the house, they would be here in 3 or 4 months. I am going to see if he has access to some mining maps that would show any mines on the property.

Horse7, the County Engineer did mention that there is limestone in the area as you mentioned, but I think it's from an old mine.

Em14, I keep going over different scenarios in my mind regarding the sinkhole, I can't believe that I didn't even notice it when it happened.

Actionaj, I believe it is from an old mine. The clay pile I was using looks like a spoils pile, it's about 200 or 300 yards and it has huge trees growing in it so it must be over 50 years old. There is also a large 60' or so circular area next to it that looks like it was dug out years ago.
You mentioned some pipes sticking up, I found one in another area of my property. It looks like a 4" metal pipe. I dropped some rocks in it and it takes several seconds for them to hit bottom and I can them hit water. I also noticed that there is an area next to the pipe that has eroded away, but I can't tell how deep it is. I will ask the guy from the DNR to look at it when he's here.

Jeff

 

[Foothill Rancher]

I had one similar to yours but was about 3 ft around, it was in an irrigated pasture that I had played in when I was a kid and just below my mothers house. It opened up with a 12 in hole and kept growing. I started putting rocks,dirt,anything that I could find to block off one side of the hole. As luck would have it our town sewer dept. needed to replace a line about 10 ft away from it, they graded dirt and put some rock in then compacted it, it hasn't reopened in about five years now, but I do keep an eye on it. we had many mines in our area from the 1800's and every now and then a tunnel will start to sink.

 

[Foothill Rancher]

Oh, by the way, I wouldn't go to far in there and if you do have a rope attached outside and someone standing by, some of them can give way pretty fast depending on the soil type.

 

[LBrown59]

I was moving some clay today from an old pile to a pond that I was working on. At the end of the day, I noticed a hole where I was driving all day. I got out and looked at it, it was about 2'or 3' at the top and about 12' diameter inside. The is a pile of dirt in the middle thats about 4' below ground level and it tapers to about 10' or more below ground level. Plus, there are cave like holes on 2 sides of the hole. I can't tell how far they go, I was too scared to get too far into the hole to look.

How long have you lived there ?
I'm just wondering why If you've lived there very long you hadn't spotted it before.
I've lived on my property for 42 Yrs.
Surely if there was something like that here I'd have noticed it by now.

 

[Jeff244]

Foothill Rancher, I am told that there are a lot of old mines in the area here too, flourspar I believe. I have no plans to go back in there, at least until the guy from the DNR looks at it. Although I can't imagine him telling me that it's safe.

LBrown59, We have owned the property for only about 3 years and we moved here a little over a year ago. However the hole is in a field that I bushhog a few times a year and I made about 20 trips right over it or next to it that day. I'll be the first to admit that I miss a lot of things, but the hole is too big to of missed and I was always looking for rocks and bumps to avoid in that area. It's raining now and I'm curious what will happen once all this water gets in there.

Jeff

 

[LBrown59]

Foothill Rancher, I am told that there are a lot of old mines in the area here too, flourspar I believe. I have no plans to go back in there, at least until the guy from the DNR looks at it. Although I can't imagine him telling me that it's safe.

LBrown59, We have owned the property for only about 3 years and we moved here a little over a year ago. However the hole is in a field that I bushhog a few times a year and I made about 20 trips right over it or next to it that day. I'll be the first to admit that I miss a lot of things, but the hole is too big to of missed and I was always looking for rocks and bumps to avoid in that area. It's raining now and I'm curious what will happen once all this water gets in there.
Jeff

I see from your profile you have 2.12 acres which is pretty close to my 2.33 acres.
That hole scares me.
Stay way away from it a with the tractor.
That thing could collapse and swallow up you tractor and all.
You're darn lucky you didn't run a tractor wheel in it and flip the tractor .
Another thing is it makes me wonder if it is the only one on the property.
Seeing you down in it gave me the willies as it could have collasped anytime and burried you alive. .
.

 

[Rara Avis]

Foothill Rancher, I am told that there are a lot of old mines in the area here too, flourspar I believe. I have no plans to go back in there, at least until the guy from the DNR looks at it. Although I can't imagine him telling me that it's safe.

LBrown59, We have owned the property for only about 3 years and we moved here a little over a year ago. However the hole is in a field that I bushhog a few times a year and I made about 20 trips right over it or next to it that day. I'll be the first to admit that I miss a lot of things, but the hole is too big to of missed and I was always looking for rocks and bumps to avoid in that area. It's raining now and I'm curious what will happen once all this water gets in there.

Jeff

You may want to contact an attorney...because if the hole does get bigger...your property value will plummet...

 

[LBrown59]

1*You may want to contact an attorney..
2*if the hole does get bigger...your property value will plummet..

1*And his insurance company too.
2*It probably already has.I know I would not buy it with that thing on it.

 

[Jeff244]

Paul, I didn't think about calling an attorney of Insurance company. We are new to the area and don't have an attorney at the moment. We fired the one guy we were using to negotiate a mineral lease and haven't found another one yet. So if anyone knows of a good mineral rights attorney in Southern Illinois, I would appreciate a name. Also, what could an attorney do regarding the sink hole? I think (hope) that the hole would have to be pretty big for it to affect the value of the property, since it's only a tiny part of a 90 acre tract of our 212 acres. I guess people would assume that there are going to be more of them.

LBrown, You're right about me being lucky the tractor didn't flip over or the hole collapse from the weight of the tractor. I'm actually trying not to think about it too much.
You mentioned in an earlier post about knowing whats on the property. We have about 200 acres of forest and the rest is cleared. I've probably only seen a small portion of it. So I decided to take a walk off the normal trails (that I atv on)that i usually follow and I found out some interesting things. First of all, although I already knew it, I can now confirm that I'm in terrible shape. Much of the area is very rugged with hills and valleys and after my walk, I was beat. Another thing, When you walk down a huge hill, eventually you have to go back up it. And I noticed that for some reason the spiders like to make their webs at face height. Oh, and when your tired and panting and walking thru spider webs, you should keep your mouth closed. But seriously, it's amazing what a difference exploring by walking instead of using an atv. I noticed so many things and ended up taking a bunch of cool pictures.

Jeff

 

[Defective]

Well...

When are you gonna post a few of them?

 

[Jeff244]

Here's a few pictures.

Since it's football season and Da Bears are going to win the Superbowl, the first picture is of a tree with a goalpost in it. I noticed that many of the trees on the steep slopes have unusual curves in them to find the sunlight. The Picture of the big tree with the fallen branches is an old maple that is over 3' wide. The mushroom pictures are off one of the fallen branches. The rock pictures show how cracked and fragmented they are in this area. This area is known as "Hicks Dome" and is supposed to be the site of an old volcano.


Jeff

 

[pennwalk]

Jeff,

When I saw your sinkhole pictures it called to mind the show where Marty Stauffer crawled into the rattlesnake cave. Be careful

Chris