The Daily Texan student newspaper at the University of Texas at Austin
Thursday, July 6th, 1978.
Midnight rescue frees youths pinned in a cave.
This article is a memory of the days where kids had to play outside until it was dark, and where children weren’t on their computers but were outside. In this case, the kids got stuck in a cave, just like the good old days.
Three Austin youths were rescued late Wednesday night after being trapped for four hours in a cave 20 feet underground at Mopac construction site near the intersection of Steck Avenue and Balconies Drive.
Two of the boys were 12 and one was 14. They were pulled from The Cave by Austin police and firemen and a Texas cave rescue team. The youths were in good shape one who was pinned by fallen rocks, was carried out on a stretcher while the other two walked out on their own. The cave, referred to as ”Dead Dog number 4”, is part of a series of caves and tunnels which runs throughout the area, police said. The caves are frequently explored said a bystander, adding he had been in the same cave 25 years ago.
More than 100 onlookers applauded as the youths, smiling and covered with dirt, were taken to an ambulance.
Pieces of lumber were sawed off to shore up the walls of The Cave because rescuers believed additional digging might cause another cave in.
Volunteers brought coffee cans for the rescue operation to carry out the dirt. Because of the narrow working area, rocks and dirt had to be taken out by hand. A crew of approximately 20 persons was in the narrow cave at one time.
An ambulance stood ready the entire time, while oxygen and water were passed to the boys as they lay pinned 20 feet below the surface. Police were alerted to The Cave in by a fourth youth who was outside The Cave when the walls collapsed.
A ”caver” awaiting the youth’s rescue said The Cave looked totally different from when he had seen it months ago. The boys had finished exploring and were leaving when The Cave collapsed.
Jeanine Plumer
