Untouched Cave to Provide Clues to Black Hills History

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — The National Park Service is finally beginning to excavate the opening of an unexplored cave in the Black Hills of South Dakota that researchers believe could help broaden our understanding of how the region's climate has changed over thousands of years.

Employees at Wind Cave National Park discovered Persistence Cave in 2004. The federal agency kept it secret, partly to prevent amateur spelunkers from exploring on their own until they could get inside.

A team of scientists, led by East Tennessee State University professor Jim Mead begin excavating the cave on Monday.

Mead says preliminary samples from the cave shows bones as old as 11,000 years, or around the latest Ice Age. He says looking at which animals lived in the region then will help understand how it's changed.

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