15 years ago an unremarkable cave became home to a ‘horrifying’ urban legend

15 years ago, 26-year-old John Edward Jones went connected a spelunking travel to Utah’s celebrated Nutty Putty cave wholly unaware helium was astir to go an municipality legend.

On that precise trip, Jones suffered ‘one of the astir horrifying deaths imaginable’ erstwhile helium became trapped upside-down successful a terrifyingly tiny crevice.

Jones’s assemblage remains entombed wrong the acheronian cave to this time – his decease becoming a cautionary communicative astir the dangers of spelunking.

This is the communicative of the Nutty Putty Cave Incident.

The Nutty Putty cave

Located astir 55 miles extracurricular of Salt Lake City, for years the Nutty Putty cave was a well-known tourer attraction and was wide regarded arsenic a bully ‘beginner cave’ for wannabe explorers.

First discovered successful 1960, the cave rapidly became celebrated for its antithetic formation, afloat of narrow, winding passages which opened up into a bid of immense subterranean caverns.

The antithetic sections of the cave were labelled according to difficulty, with names similar The Birth Canal, The Aorta Crawl, The Scout Eater, and The Maze providing warnings to imaginable spelunkers.

‘It was a crawly small cave,’ said Richard Downey, treasurer and historiographer of the Timpanogos Grotto which erstwhile managed entree to the Nutty Putty.

‘There were besides immoderate larger passages. It was believed to beryllium truly casual and that’s wherefore each of your Boy Scouts and locals went successful with flashlights and sandals and things. You had to enactment hard to get successful trouble,’ helium told How Stuff Works successful November 2023.

Due to its popularity, which saw thousands of visitors descend upon the cave each year, it was inevitable that a fewer inexperienced cavers would yet find themselves successful trouble.

From 1999 to 2004, six radical became stuck successful the cave and had to beryllium rescued. Although they each made it retired of Nutty Putty safely, the Utah County Sheriff’s Office became weary of the information hazards and feared the adjacent incidental would beryllium fatal.

As such, successful 2006 the cave was unopen down to the nationalist for 3 years portion the Timpanogos Grotto implemented a fig of information procedures, including padlocking the entranceway astatine nighttime and mounting up an online preservation strategy for wannabe spelunkers.

They thought the upgrades would marque the cave safer for exploration. They were wrong.

John Jones

A devout Christian, aesculapian pupil and begetter to a newborn baby, John Edward Jones seemingly had the satellite astatine his feet.

Born into a ample family, John and his member Josh had been avid cavers erstwhile they were children, and sought to rekindle their emotion of spelunking with a travel to the Nutty Putty cave.

The brothers arrived astatine the cave with a enactment of 9 different friends and relatives of varying degrees of experience- a reasonably ample radical by caving standards.

Upon arrival, the radical soon divided disconnected into 2 groups, with children and less-experienced adults exploring easier sections of the cave portion the seasoned spelunkers went deeper.

It was present that things started to spell wrong.

Entering the Nutty Putty cave

For the archetypal hr oregon truthful of their excursion, things appeared to beryllium going good for the Jones brothers- they had explored the largest conception of the cave, nicknamed ‘The Big Slide’, and were anxious to caput adjacent deeper into the depths.

John suggested they research a conception of the cave known arsenic ‘The Birth Canal’- an highly challenging way that progressive squeezing done a long, constrictive passageway which yet opened up into a large, cavernous area. He archetypal heard astir the way arsenic a young lad and had been anxious to research it for years; not taking into relationship however overmuch he’d grown physically successful the interim.

The brace discovered an highly choky opening successful the walls which they wrongly assumed to beryllium the entranceway to the Birth Canal, and crawled into the tiny hole. John went first; wriggling deeper and deeper into the constrictive transition headfirst nether the presumption it would soon widen and unfastened up into a ample cavern.

But unbeknownst to the brothers, they weren’t successful the Birth Canal astatine all- they had accidentally taken a incorrect crook and headed into an unmapped portion of the cave. John kept pushing further into a passageway which had nary endpoint, squeezing himself into the crevice without immoderate means of turning around.

So John kept going forward, inactive reasoning helium was successful the Birth Canal. Eventually helium came crossed a fissure successful the stone which dropped down astir consecutive down successful beforehand of him, which helium thought opened up into a cavern which would springiness him a accidental to crook around.

So John sucked successful his thorax to analyse the fissure, sliding his torso implicit a articulator of stone and down into the 10-inch-wide broadside of the crevice. But erstwhile his thorax expanded again, helium was stuck. Attempts to escaped himself lone made John descent deeper into the hole, and helium soon recovered himself trapped upside-down, with his hands pinned to his chest, successful a crevice which measured conscionable 10 by 18 inches- smaller than the entranceway to a front-loading washing machine.

At this point, each helium could bash was hold and pray.

The rescue

John’s member Josh was the archetypal 1 to find him. Creeping forwards down the crevice conscionable inches down his brother, his tummy filled with dread erstwhile helium saw John’s feet sticking retired of the tiny spread which had swallowed him.

‘Seeing his feet and seeing however swallowed helium was by the rock, that’s erstwhile I knew it was serious.’ Josh told the Salt Lake Tribune. ‘It was truly serious.’

Josh tried to propulsion his member retired of the hole, but lone managed to inch him up a little. As soon arsenic helium fto John go, helium slid close backmost into the crevice.

After saying a speedy prayer, Josh near his member and headed backmost to the aboveground looking for help, and soon drew a ample assemblage of volunteers and professionals.

The archetypal idiosyncratic to get connected the scene, Susie, was a section rescue unpaid who instantly dropped everything to travel and assistance John. After inching her mode down the passageway with ropes tied to her feet, she yet encountered his trapped body, astir 3 hours aft helium archetypal got stuck.

‘Hi, John, my sanction is Susie. How’s it going?’ she asked.

‘Hi, Susie, acknowledgment for coming, but I really, truly privation to get out,’ John’s dependable replied.

‘Oh, nary worries, John,’ she told him. ‘You’re going to beryllium retired of present lickety split.’

Susie tied a enactment astir John’s feet and tried to propulsion him retired herself, but owed to the tightness of the space and the narrowness of the cave, determination was nary mode to manoeuvre his assemblage retired of the crevice helium had go stuck in.

What alternatively transpired implicit the adjacent fewer hours was an aggravated brainstorming league from each members of the rescue party, who tried each method they could to escaped John from his subterranean prison. In summation to pulling him, they besides tried lubing the walls and drilling distant chunks of stone adjacent John, but the hard worldly and the awkward presumption made the drilling dilatory and achy work.

After drilling implicit for an hour, they abandoned this attack aft lone managing to drill done a mates of inches of rock.

Disaster strikes

Eventually, the squad came up with a program to propulsion John to information utilizing a analyzable strategy of ropes and pulleys, which they would connect astir his feet.

Due to the narrowness of the cave, the strategy took hours to install, and contempt determination being a ample squad of rescuers, volunteers, exigency services, and a rescue chopper outside, lone 1 idiosyncratic could straight entree John astatine a time.

John, meanwhile, was starting to struggle. Having been stuck upside-down for a agelong clip now, helium was starting to person occupation breathing and his bosom was beating doubly arsenic accelerated successful bid to counteract the gravity to propulsion the continuous travel of humor retired of his brain.

Nevertheless, erstwhile they got started the pulley strategy appeared to beryllium working, and dilatory but surely John recovered himself getting lifted retired of his subterranean prison. He was capable to pass with his woman via a two-way vigor which had been brought successful to him, and astatine 1 constituent helium had adjacent been lifted precocious capable to marque oculus interaction with the rescuer closest to him.

‘How are you?’ the rescuer asked.

‘It sucks. I’m upside down. I can’t judge I’m upside down,’ John responded. His eyes were reddish and looked bushed but otherwise, had a grin connected his face. ‘My legs are sidesplitting me,’ helium added.

The squad decided to instrumentality a speedy interruption to regain their spot earlier making the last push. John was astir out. But arsenic they grabbed clasp of the enactment for the 4th and last time, thing disastrous happened.

All of a sudden, the full squad fell backwards, and the enactment became escaped successful their hands. The closest rescuer felt thing hard deed him successful the face, and momentarily blacked retired from the impact. At the precise past moment, 1 of the pulley’s had collapsed nether the strain and flown disconnected the wall, sending John plunging close backmost into the crevice- adjacent deeper than before.

At this point, each anticipation was lost. One of the rescue squad tried to re-enter the passageway to drill a caller spread and necktie a caller enactment astir John’s legs, but astir became stuck himself and had to crawl retired of the cave. 

John himself had besides go unresponsive. At this constituent helium had been trapped for implicit 25 hours and his assemblage had begun to interruption down from the accent and strain.

A doc was yet capable to scope him and pronounced the cave diver dormant of cardiac apprehension and suffocation connected November 25.

His woman Emily, inactive outside, refused to permission her husband’s assemblage trapped wrong the cave, and the section Sheriff assured her they would retrieve it.

But adjacent pursuing his decease it was deemed excessively unsafe to effort to retrieve his body, and the entranceway to the transition helium was trapped successful was collapsed with controlled explosives.

According to Downey, galore of the unpaid rescuers had go truthful traumatised by the acquisition that immoderate of them ne'er entered a cave again.

Once it became wide that John’s remains couldn’t beryllium safely removed from the cave, Nutty Putty was permanently sealed disconnected and John’s household had a plaque enactment connected the entranceway of the cave successful his memory.

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