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Crew removes caver's remains after 41 years

Sunday, June 25, 2006; Posted: 9:30 a.m. EDT (13:30 GMT)


DOLGEVILLE, New York (AP) -- Spelunkers on Saturday recovered the remains of an amateur explorer who died 41 years ago in a treacherous New York cavern, closing a memorable chapter in American caving history.

The body of James Mitchell had been locked inside Schroeder's Pants Cave in Dolgeville, New York, since Feb. 13, 1965, when the 23-year-old Massachusetts chemist died of exposure while hanging from a harness above a cavern inside the cave.

Mitchell's story made national headlines and prompted spelunkers to become more serious about safety. Rescue teams were formed around the world.

Christian Lyon, 36, a Dolgeville, New York, native whose grandfather discovered the cave in 1947, had the blessing of Mitchell's family and local officials to recover the body, and he filmed the event for a documentary.

It took six workers about four hours to finish the recovery of Mitchell's bones, which were scattered at the bottom of a 60-foot dropoff, with more remains found 30 feet below the dropoff.

Mitchell's brother, Bill, and the recovery crew emerged from the cave with a small black pouch of remains.

"After I got out, I started to stumble, and a wave of emotion just engulfed me," Lyon said. "My grandfather found that cave, everyone in my family explored the cave, and the last three years of my life I've devoted to getting Jim out. Finally getting him home was overwhelming."

The crew also discovered Mitchell's helmet, which bore 18 markings representing the number of caves he'd explored.

"We didn't know what we were going to find, if everything had been washed away. We were glad to find the helmet," Lyon said.

James Mitchell had come to Dolgeville, about 200 miles northwest of New York City, to explore the cave with two friends-- Hedy Miller, a nurse, and Charles Bennett, a graduate student at Harvard University.

No one warned them that temperatures that week had hovered around freezing, creating more runoff than usual. Ice-cold water poured through the cave's passageways.

Mitchell, then Miller and Bennett, inched through sections named by previous cavers -- Lemon Squeeze, Z-bend, Gunbarrel -- until they reached an open area. There, they stared down a vertical shaft that extended to a cavern about 80 feet below.

Despite the cascade around them, Mitchell hooked his safety lines and started down before getting stuck with gallons of the frigid water pouring over his head every minute.

After 45 frantic minutes trying to lift Mitchell to safety, Bennett left the cave to find help. By the time a rescue team reached Mitchell, he was dead.

Attempts to recover Mitchell's 185-pound body failed when part of the cave collapsed after some heavy drilling. Workers then lowered the body, dynamited the cave, and placed a memorial headstone above it. A different opening to the cave was discovered two years later, but only about 20 people were thought to have made their way to Mitchell's remains before Saturday.

Mitchell's remains were not recovered sooner because the cave was seen by many as his grave site, Lyon said.

On Monday, some of Mitchell's ashes will be given to the family and some to Lyons, who said he plans to scatter them near the cave.