Sinkhole appears next to Route 66 west of Galena

[fredmcain]

Group,

Here is an interesting article about a sink-hole that opened up next to Route 66 near Galena, Kansas. The suspected culprit? An abandoned mineshaft!

http://www.koamtv.com/story/21481146/sinkhole-appears-next-to-route-66-west-of-galena

A sinkhole has appeared about two feet from Highway 66 west of Galena, Kansas prompting authorities to block one lane of traffic on Monday.
Officials say it's 10 feet by 12 feet across and about 14 feet deep.
The Kansas Department of Transportation working to determine if the hole could grow larger but say they don't think it will.
Officials say it's from an abandon mine shaft back in the 40's and 50's and while they don't often open next to highways it's not uncommon to find them.
"These sink holes occur around where they had a shaft of some sort coming up out of the mines, an air vent something like that, over periods of time, deterioration in the mine walls, ceilings, start caving in," says George Dockery, a KDOT area engineer.
Once crews have assessed the hole they will start filling it in.

Regards,

Fred M. Cain

[Mike]

Dang they are filling it in. I want to explore it.

[Kiel]

probably a prairie dog hole

[Joanne]

That would be one bad a$$ prairie dog! Might need a 50 cal to varmint hunt that one.

Joanne

[fredmcain]

probably a prairie dog hole

I, too, wondered what kind of mine it was. I didn't see that mentioned in the article. I know that south of there in eastern Oklahoma there were some extensive coal fields. Then east of there in southwestern Missouri there are a lot of underground lead mines.

Unfortunately, so many of the Midwestern mines were of the shaft type. That kinda scares me - I'm just not a rope and ladder kind of a guy!

Regards,
Fred M. Cain

[Stuart]

"Officials say it's 10 feet by 12 feet across and about 14 feet deep."

Doesn't sound like much to explore!

Looks like they were mining Galena in Galena Kansas: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galena,_Kansas