Aftermath

Was the rescue of Jones even possible in the first place?

"Some situations are simply not survivable, no matter who the rescuers are or how they are trained or what equipment they have. 

I have had the opportunity to talk at length with some of the cavers who were there, and who were in the cave for many hours working to free John Jones, and I have concluded for my own belief that this was probably a non-survivable incident from the very beginning. We can never know for sure, of course, but I have been involved in cave rescue for almost 30 years and after hearing the details from people who were there in the cave, I can't think of anything that they could have done or tried to do that would have made any difference. It's terribly sad, but that's just how it goes sometimes. I have seen similar situations before. They are heartbreaking, but they do happen."

— Bill Putnam, NSS Chairman (Cavechat Forum)

"The rescue team tried everything possible and worked tirelessly for over 26 hours. Their best efforts were not enough. Two lessons may be learned from this, one that is disturbing and one that is somewhat comforting. The first lesson is; cavers can get into places and situations where rescue is not possible. On some level all cavers know this, but John’s predicament reminds us of this fact in a sobering way. He died less than 15 minutes from the entrance of a cave that was popular with scouts and church youth groups."

— Andy Armstrong, Cave Rescue (Incident Report)

"I should like to make it clear that it is my understanding and belief that the rescuers at Nutty Putty Cave did everything reasonable and possible to save John Jones. Some situations are simply not survivable, and it appears that this was one of those situations. I hate to hear that any of the rescuers or cave managers are feeling guilty for not being able to save John, or for allowing access to the cave. They should not feel responsible for this sad event, as it is not their fault, or anyone's.  

Life is full of risks, and every day is a challenge for most of the world's people. Accidents happen, and good people sometimes die, despite all that we may do to try to save them. I am glad that there are dedicated cavers who are willing to drop everything and come to the aid of a fellow caver in trouble. I am also grateful that there are cavers who work to ensure and provide access to caves for those who love to explore them.  

Caves have dangers, but so do many of the things we deal with ever day, including cars, swimming pools, elevators, street crossings, weather, and even the food we eat. We fear the dangers we do not understand, even when they are small compared to the dangers we are familiar with and therefore ignore or take for granted. I have never been to Nutty Putty Cave, but I understand that thousands of novice cavers have enjoyed exploring it over decades of visitation. In all that time there have been a handful of rescues and only one death. That does not seem to me to be a very bad record suggesting a particularly dangerous cave, and after serving as editor of American Caving Accidents for 13 years I have more than a passing familiarity with the records and statistics on caving accidents and rescues in North America. 

I have been on many cave rescues in my 30 years of caving. I have been injured and rescued myself, and I have rescued others and taught cave rescue to many more. I have seen an injured caver die right before my eyes during a rescue operation, and I have helped recover the bodies of cavers who were killed underground. I have talked and wept with the parents of a fallen caver, and tried to explain it all to people whose broken hearts will never understand how or why their son died. I have been to the memorial services for friends killed in caves. And I have known successes as well - cavers whose lives we saved, or who survived things that by all rights should have killed them. The fact that I am alive today is one of those successes, and for that I am grateful every day to the cavers who saved me. 

In all this, I have learned at least one thing - that there are no guarantees in caving, or in life for that matter. None of us are immune from risk, or from accidents. None of us are smart enough, or strong enough, or experienced enough, or skilled enough, or good enough to guarantee that we will never be involved in an accident. Sometimes, they just happen."

— Bill Putnam, NSS Chairman (Cavechat Forum)

What was the Jones family's stance on the cave?

"And so they [Jones' family] came to the next meeting with their list of uh... not demands, but if it's going to be his grave, then it's his grave. The entire cave is his grave, and they didn't want recreational caving on his grave. The landowner heard this, and there really wasn't much discussion. It's between the landowners and the family."

— Michael Leavitt, Cave Access Manager (Nightside Interview)

"Before he [Jones] passed, it was not his family's desire at all, that the cave be closed. They wanted it kept open, even after he wasn't rescued. They didn't want this to affect the cave at all. [During Thanksgiving] decisions were made by the family, that they wanted nobody to ever go in that cave again. They didn't want just the mere passage blocked off with the plaque put up there. They wanted that thing shutdown completely, so it was going to be capped- and everyone agreed that it would be capped."

— Michael Leavitt, Nutty Putty Manager (RadioWest Interview)  

"Because the body of John Jones was left in the cave it created a very interesting situation that has not often been encountered. The family was left in a powerful position and the land owners agreed to their request to permanently seal the cave and prevent further recreational caving in the Nutty Putty Cave. If his body would have been recovered, then we don't have a burial issue to deal with. Instead, we have a memorial issue where we deal with the specific location and appropriate dealing of sealing off the passage where the death occurred."

— Michael Leavitt, Cave Access Manager (Open Letter to Cavers) 

"It sounds like the family did not initially want the cave closed, but were pressured into it by the Sheriff's Department. They have been trying to get it closed for years, and they weren't going to let this opportunity pass."

— RockMonkey, Cave Rescue Relative (RME4x4 Forum) 

"As to the decision to leave John's body in the cave rather than recover it, I have little to say that would be helpful. I simply hope that his family is still comfortable with that decision, and I am glad that the way that the cave was closed leaves room for the possibility of a later recovery of his remains if the family decides that they want to pursue that."

— Bill Putnam, NSS Chairman (Cavechat Forum) 

"Believing it too dangerous to recover the body, the Sheriff's office convinced the family to leave John’s body where it lay. SITLA agreed to this."

— Andy Armstrong, Cave Rescue (Incident Report)

What happened to the Nutty Putty Cave?

"They [Jones' family] wanted that thing shutdown completely, so it was going to be capped- and everyone agreed that it would be capped. And then... wherever those decisions were made, the passageways of Nutty Putty Cave were blasted with dynamite. 

That cave will never be explored again. It was destroyed, by explosives, with the passages blasted. Nobody will ever get in there. There will be no recovery of the remains. That is a story that very few people know about."

— Michael Leavitt, Nutty Putty Manager (RadioWest Interview) 

"We lost a cave- permanently, that will never be explored again, because of the actions they [Jones' party] chose. They got a reservation for four people. They had family who at this Thanksgiving gathering, that group number turned into 11 people. They never told me this, but they had a reservation for four. They had used their pre-caving credentials in other caves to get me to waive the need to go with an experienced Nutty Putty caver on their trip. So they went, nobody had been in this cave before, they took a map."

— Michael Leavitt, Nutty Putty Manager (RadioWest Interview) 

"The Utah County Public Works Department used explosives earlier this week to collapse part of the cave's ceiling, blocking an entrance deep inside near where Jones' body remains stuck. On Thursday, the throat of the narrow cave, a 7-foot deep, 30-inch wide hole, was filled with concrete. The closure of the cave is not physically irreversible, Andrews said, but there are no plans to revisit the decision to close it. 'It is permanently closed from our standpoint,' he said."

— John Andrews, Chief Lawyer, SITLA (Salt Lake Tribune)

"Other news sources say that deputies have been posted around the hill and no one will be allowed to pass. Leavitt has also announced that the cave is officially closed. One report quotes the Utah County Sheriff as saying that the cave will be or should be permanently closed, a stance that he took several years ago. His problem is mainly with the cost of rescue. While there were many volunteers, most of the 100+ people at the site were paid employees. In addition, there were probably a couple dozen vehicles from various organizations involved including the huge rescue trucks from the fire departments and at least one helicopter."

— Dale Green - Nutty Putty Discoverer (Cavechat Forum) 

"Some 'expert blasters' went in to close the passage. All they did was move some of the limestone on the ceiling to the floor, leaving approximately the same crawlspace. The odor of decay was already overwhelming. No one was about to attempt a retrieval. The sheriff made the right decision to cement the entrance shut. During all this time and afterward Ryan got well acquainted with the Jones' family and within a week or so his wife requested of Ryan that the remains be retrieved for a proper grave burial. Present guess that it may take place in about 4 years. Will the cave be reopened after that? Doubtful. The land owners had had enough, and the sheriff rightfully complained about the huge expenses of rescue from this particular cave."

— Dale Green, Nutty Putty Discoverer (Cavechat Forum)

"Here is an update on how Nutty Putty Cave is to be sealed, according to Dave Shurtz, who is one of the contacts with the Utah County Sheriff and the Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration. The small constriction that leads to John Jones' body and the small passages that have caused all of the rescue problems will be blasted shut by an experienced blaster. The small constriction at the bottom of the entrance pit will be filled with concrete with boards on the inside to protect the present gate structure. I don't envy the blaster. Word is that the smell at the entrance is already very bad. 

A few misgivings, though. I've dug though enough breakdown to worry that the blasted area may be dug out by some determined spelunkers when and if the cave is reopened. Also, from the information posted, there are no plans for a pipe at the entrance to maintain the known air circulation. It may not be too late to get this in. However, the whole hill breaths, as can be seen by melting snow in the winter, so there may be air movement in the cave anyway. What is most important is that officials do recognize that they may want to get back inside in the future. That was not sufficiently communicated previously.

The blasted area will be 50-100 feet from the body, and one of the purposes is to close off access to all the constricted passages that are causing rescue problems, not just the passage that leads to Jones. Jones is virtually entombed in rock walls. Blasting there would totally destroy the body. When the final reports are issued, hopefully with diagrams and maps, you will understand the hopelessness of attempting to remove the whole body."

— Dale Green, Nutty Putty Discoverer (Cavechat Forum)

"First, as the family has determined to keep the body in the cave and use it as a tomb, the lower section of the slide part of the cave is to be blasted just below the drop where the ladder has been in that first belly crawl. This allows for the sanctity of that small part of the cave and also stops access to those parts of the lower area in the cave where people are likely to get stuck. 

Second, To satisfy SITLA and yet compromise for the cavers and the future, a cement plug will be poured in the belly crawl potion of the entrance. Plywood will be placed against the gate to preserve it intact. Cement will be poured to fill that area and up to the narrow part of the throat. The sinkhole will remain. This will be done to stop access to the cave while the body turns to bones (the smell is really bad already) and so long as SITLA and the political environment remain as they are. This preserves the cave intact and preserves the natural resource for future times when thinks are more favorable. The cement, with a lot of work can be removed and the cave would be back in business as before but without the constant hastle of the nasty tight areas we have had so much trouble with in the past."

— Utah County Sheriff's Department Et al. (Cavechat Forum)

"Probably the biggest misconception about Nutty Putty Cave is the thought that it sits on public land. It does not. The cave sits on SITLA (State Institutional Trust Lands Administration) lands which are not public lands, even though SITLA is a government agency. These lands are mandated for the use of generating money for the public schools. SITLA has specifically omitted recreational use from these lands and they can ban the public from accessing their private property. 

Much to SITLA’s credit, for years they have gone out of their way to be a viable contributor to our community by allowing caving at Nutty Putty. However, they do not have any systems in place to manage caves, nor do they have any desire to do so. It is clearly out of the scope of their purpose for existence, if you will, to manage caves. Unfortunately, they were stuck with property that had caves on it. Wanting to allow the public access to this beloved cave, they realized that the volunteer efforts of the local National Speleological Society grottos could help them not only successfully manage the cave, but also provide an access management system that would require safer caving practices than had previously been in place. It was at this point that the Timpanogos Grotto formed an all-volunteer cave management team specifically for the Nutty Putty Cave. 

NOTE... PROBATION - When this mutual agreement between SITLA and the Timpanogos Grotto started 5 years ago, it was done with the condition that if there was ever a major accident or death, that SITLA would be forced, due to liability, to sever the management agreement AND immediately stop recreational caving in the cave."

— Michael Leavitt, Cave Access Manager (Nutty Putty Site)

"The cave that claimed the life of John Jones will also be his tomb. Nutty Putty Cave will be sealed permanently with the 26-year-old medical student's body inside, a decision supported by his family and rescue officials, who said retrieving him is too great a risk to rescuers. They also cited a desire to protect the safety of future cavers. 'The cave will serve as the final resting place for John Edward Jones,' said Utah County sheriff's Sgt. Spencer Cannon 

The Jones family will place a permanent memorial at the cave's entrance. 'It will be, as they describe it, a sacred place for them and for a lot of other people,' he said. Officials considered closing only the part of the cave where Jones rests, but as Kim Christy, assistant director at the state School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration (SITLA), said, 'We decided it probably wasn't appropriate to have recreational activities going on in the same area that has a final resting place'."

— Lindsay Whitehurst (Salt Lake Tribune)

What did cavers think about the closure?

"We do not have another cave like Nutty Putty Cave. We lost a natural formation and, really, it is sad. … It’s a huge loss." 

— Michael Leavitt (Salt Lake Tribune) 

"I strongly disagree that cementing the cave shut was the right decision.  The only thing worse was when they reported the entombment as the “unanimous decision of all involved”. What an insult to my decision making skills and the other rescuers for them to say that. I’ve had to explain that one to fellow cavers over and over for the last 9 months of my life."

— Andy Armstrong, Cave Rescue (Cavechat Forum) 

"Whenever possible, cavers should try to convince landowners and family members that it is generally not a good idea to leave a body in a cave. This often seems like the right thing to do at the time, but causes a lack of closure for both the family and the rescuers. In addition, history (including that of James Mitchell and Floyd Collins) shows us that this decision does not usually hold up in the long run and eventually the body will have to be recovered. In this case, cavers with this viewpoint were heard, but their advice was not followed.

In this tragedy, we not only lost a fellow human being, but also access to one of the most popular caves in Utah. It is interesting how cave fatalities are treated differently than other outdoor deaths. Every year, people are killed on Utah’s ski slopes, in its National Parks, and on its waterways. These all remain open for business. When deaths occur underground, people’s inherent fear of caves often causes them to make irrational decisions. After John’s death, the landowner wanted to set charges throughout the mile-long cave and dynamite the entire thing. Cavers were able to negotiate a compromise to where just the entrance would be sealed."

— Andy Armstrong, Cave Rescue (Incident Report)

"5 RESCUES 1 DEATH - This is the ratio being shared with the Sheriff's Department. 'We have been called out to the cave 5 times in the last 10 years and this resulted in 1 death. This is an unacceptable ratio unlike any other rescue category. For this reason alone the cave must be closed.' I loosely quoted their sentiment, but that is how they feel about it. I, on the other hand say '5,000 cavers a year for a decade (loose approximation) with 5 rescue attempts and 1 death. 49,994 successful trips with 5 live cavers rescued and 1 death resulting in less than an average of 1 rescue attempt every 2 years. That is a very reasonable success rate.' It would be different if the cave had done something to take the life of this caver, but there was no instability or collapse. The death is a result of several unacceptable decisions on the part of the group." 

— Michael Leavitt, Nutty Putty Manager (Open Letter to Cavers) 

"Apparently they decided that '5 rescues, 1 death' means there is a 5:1 ratio of deaths to visits. They should have compared the number of rescues and deaths to the number of visits to the cave over at least the same period as that of the incidents. I suppose that some of the cavers involved tried to tell the sheriff and the media that the cave has historically seem more than 3,000 visitors a year for decades, with only 5 rescues and 1 fatality, demonstrating that it is actually easy and safe cave, just as cavers have maintained all along. The media folks often are not interested in reporting facts that may make the story less dramatic. Drama is what sells.

Caving itself is quite safe, as we all know intuitively, with fewer than 40 rescue incidents and only 2-3 fatalities per year in 'dry caving', on the average, with an estimated 100,000 active cavers in the USA. When you factor in the cave diving incidents it looks a little more dangerous, because while there are not as many of those they are almost all fatalities. But it is still safer than many other accepted outdoor activities. [source: ACA records for 1960-1009] 

Caving just has a bad image in the media, perhaps because of the cultural memory of the Floyd Collins incident and various mine disasters. As with shark attacks, the public perception of the risk is greatly exaggerated by the emotional response to the gruesomeness of the result."

— Bill Putnam, NSS Chairman (Cavechat Forum)

"Nutty Putty is unique in that area in that it was horizontal and extensive and thus could handle the large amount of people that went through it. It was relatively close to population center(s) and pretty much every other cave nearby (read: within 5-10 mile radius) was left pretty much well enough alone by non-cavers. It was mostly in part a sacrificial cave and often used as a first-timer's cave for newer members to the Grotto(s).  

There are other caves in the area but they are vertical and require rope skills to negotiate them. It is my concern that folks will try to do these other caves without proper vertical training skills and end up hurt or (again) worse, killed. All other large horizontal caves are within a few hours drive or hikes."

— Ralph E. Powers, Caver (Cavechat Forum)

"'I think they can do nearly the same thing by blocking off access to this one part of the cave,' he said. 'That's really the only problem there. ... I just think it's a big loss to the people if they do that.' Green said he doesn't find the cave -- named after the soft clay found in parts of the tunnel -- too interesting personally, but it's an easily accessible cave that many people find entertaining to crawl through. Proper training and proper respect of the terrain is needed when exploring caves, said the 80-year-old, a member of the National Speleological Society Salt Lake Grotto chapter. 'Caves, it's like mountain climbing, and in general it's as safe as you want to make it,' Green said. 'If you don't use common sense and don't take care and think ahead of what you're doing, things can get dangerous. ... There's danger everywhere, but you just have to use common sense.'"

— Lindsay Whitehurst (Salt Lake Tribune) 

"I fear blasting would not harm the cave in the manner previously described but close off an challenging but relatively safe crawl (see map and passage named Aorta Crawl). If they're going to blast where I think they are they're either going to close off the Birth Canal or the passage at the bottom of the Big Slide which leads to the Birth Canal. That would be very sad. There are numerous of other tight passages in the maze section ... how long before someone gets stuck in one of those and makes a rescue difficult to do?"

— Ralph E. Powers, Caver (Cavechat Forum) 

"Without a doubt, the majority of those people contacting me want to save recreational caving in the cave. This is an extremely popular cave that seems to affected most everyone Utah County in one way or another; either they themselves have entered the cave personally or they know somebody who has told them about entering the cave. It is a recreational landmark in the county and has been for many, many years. Given that fact, the majority of the general public does not want to see recreational caving stopped in the cave."

— Michael Leavitt, Cave Access Manager (Nutty Putty Site) 

"We cavers were not involved in the 'unanimous' decision to make the cave into John's grave. I will withhold further commentary for now."

— Andy Armstrong, Cave Rescue (Cavechat Forum)

"The last thing we ever wanted was public notification, interest, news stories, anything like that. We were told from the beginning that if there was a major accident or death in the cave, it would be the immediate closure of the cave, because of liability."

— Michael Leavitt, Cave Access Manager (Nightside Interview) 

"I can't stand this sort of knee-jerk reaction to incidents like this. It happens when people are hurt or injured in mines as well. You don't see people calling for Yosemite or Joshua Tree to be closed every time a climber is hurt or killed. I can't remember a trip to Yosemite without seeing the high altitude rescue helicopter a few times and at least one rescue on El Capitan."

— Mike, Caver (Cavechat Forum) 

"'I think it's done so much good for so many people, because as they go in there it's just like conquering a climbing wall or something. You feel confident. You've done something that you were afraid to do. Shutting the caves would be a great loss to all of us,' Allen says. He's proposing only the lower sections of the caves be sealed off, and he's even willing to pay to have it done himself. 

'I would pay for it and take people in there, and we could close off the bottom section,' Allen says. 'The rest of the cave could still remain open.' Michael Douglas takes nature groups through Nutty Putty and says he's been in the caves at least 45 times in the past 10 years with kids as young as 5 years old. 'We're in mourning. We are very disappointed to see this shut down,' Douglas says. 'There are other caving opportunities in the area, but Nutty Putty is a very unique feature and we hope that if there is the opportunity to keep it open that somebody might hear us and might open that discussion as quickly as possible'."

— Randall Jeppesen (KSL News)