Perryville's Gerry Keene shares about caving in the area

Floridians go to the beaches. Coloradans hit the slopes. Folks in Perry County, Missouri? They go caving.

This makes sense since about 10% of Missouri caves are located in or around Perryville. Among them are the longest in the state — Crevice Cave, more than 30 miles long — and Berome Moore Cave, more than 25 miles long.

Gerry Keene of Perryville, a financial advisor with Prudential Financial, has been in many of them during his time outside the office.

An avid caver, Keene said his interest in the below-ground world started after he moved to Perryville about a decade ago.

“A friend purchased a house near a cave, and he wanted someone to go with him. So, I said, ‘Sure. What are we doing?’” Keene laughed.

And so began his fascination with caving.

“There are not a lot of places on the planet that have never been explored, never had a human being in them,” Keene said. “The cave environment is an entirely different world. Time means nothing there. You are literally just seeing God’s creation, and it’s an amazing world — totally different from everything above ground.”

Getting started in caving doesn’t require a significant investment in gear — helmet with a good light, elbow pads and knee pads suffice for a starter kit — though as is the case with most hobbies, cavers add to their equipment as they progress, Keene said.

What’s more important than having gear is having the ability to deal with the caves themselves.

Gerry Keene helps novice cavers navigate the boulders, mud and water during a guided tour of Streiler City Cave in Perryville.(Photo by Aaron Eisenhauer)

Gerry Keene helps novice cavers navigate the boulders, mud and water during a guided tour of Streiler City Cave in Perryville.(Photo by Aaron Eisenhauer)

“It helps if you are in shape. You don’t have to be perfect, but it helps if you are in some semblance of shape. Being willing to push yourself emotionally as well as physically. There is a lot of endurance [needed to go caving],” Keene said. “There are a lot of heights. When people are scared of heights, caving does not work for them. There is some crawling, so claustrophobia doesn’t work. Fear of getting wet or muddy doesn’t work. You just have to deal with the terrain as it comes.”

Even Keene has found the terrain in caves overwhelming at times.

“Oh, yes, I’ve turned around,” he laughed, noting that crawling into tight spaces is challenging even for him after his years of exploring. Still, Keene contented that caving is fairly safe.

“If you use the right equipment and work with people who actually know what they are doing — life has danger to it — I guess there is some element of danger, but it’s not like you are jumping out of an airplane. You are certainly going into challenging areas that if you have a misstep, you could certainly get hurt.”

Keene said most of his caving experience has come from exploring in Perryville and Ste. Genevieve, Missouri, though he has explored caves in Illinois and visited some of the famous “show caves.”

“I had actually gone to ‘show caves’ before I got into wild caving, but there is really no reason to travel elsewhere [for caving],” he said. “Between Ste. Genevieve and Perry County, there are about 1,000 caves, probably more than you could do in a couple lifetimes.”

A year-round activity, Keene said he is fond of caving at a specific time of year.

“In the Perryville area, your caves are running about 50 to 55 degrees year-round. In the summer, you go down, and you cool down. In the winter, you go down, and you warm up. I really love winter caving. It’s a lot of fun,” he said.

Although one may seem alone in a cave, there may be more living beings present than just people, as Keene found out in August 2022.

Several dozen cavers, including Keene, were having a “project day” at Berome Moore Cave near Perryville, preparing for a larger group to explore the cave system the following week. Keene was part of a team surveying a particular portion of the cave.

“We were taking a test run of a route from Point A to Point B,” he said. “We were on a practice run of a particular route, so the guides would know the route. We had some kids with us, and as we get into the cave, the kids yelled back that there was a dog in the cave.”

The dog, Abby, a 13-year-old dog owned by Jeff Bohner, had been missing for about two months before.

Keene and Rick Haley, another one of the cavers, rescued the dog and delivered her to Bohner.

“Abby is recovering well,” Bohner said later. “She’s still very thin, but she’s been eating well. ... Looks like she’s going to make a full recovery.”

Keene said he was glad to be in the right place at the right time to help.

“That was really humbling to be able to be involved with that,” he said.

Though fictional works indicate people get trapped in caves with unusual regularity, Keene said that’s not really the case. When someone does need help though, a national organization, National Cave Rescue Foundation, has a network of cavers standing by to provide assistance.

“We just recently had training here in Perryville for first responders,” Keene said. “Luckily, here in Perryville, we’ve not had to do a rescue in a long time, but on a state and national level, yes, that occasionally does happen.”

Getting started in caving is as simple as attending an introduction course in Perryville, Keene said. Through the Perryville Park Center, those interested can take Wild Caving courses from March through October.

“It’s a really good way to get a feel for, ‘Is this something on my bucket list, or is this something I want to explore further?” Keene said. “It’s a lot of fun, and the other great thing about caving is you are caving with some fantastic people, and making a difference behind the scenes with things that no one ever hears about, no one ever sees.”

“Come play. Take one of the classes, and you’ll see.”