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Are Sinkholes Vacation-Worthy?

May 18, 2008

Spring is sinkhole season, when the ground suddenly opens up to swallow cars, houses and businesses. We hear about these collapses of naturally formed subterranean voids because they disrupt what people have built on top of them. We’ve reported on several, hoping they become vacation destinations, but the holes inevitably fill up with water, are repaired with a load of earth, or are walled off. Pocked property owners and their towns hope everyone will just forget about it all.

With rare exceptions, giant sinkholes are ad hoc tourist attractions, enjoying just a fleeting few weeks, or even days of fame, before the KEEP OUT perimeters are erected.

The most spectacular recent crater has to be the one in Daisetta, Texas, northeast of Houston and 20 miles north of I-10. It appeared out of nowhere in May and grew to be almost 900 feet across and 260 feet deep, claiming oil barrels, cars, and telephone poles. Now there’s a report [Thanks, Robot Greg] that a 7-foot long alligator is living in it, sucked in from nearby swamp land.

That sounds worthy of a permanent tourist attraction to us! An interpretive display, a souvenir shack, and a cartoon t-shirt could put Daisetta on our map, if no one else’s….

Sections: Attraction News, Rants

4 Responses to “Are Sinkholes Vacation-Worthy?”

1. Russell Says:
   June 27th, 2008 at 8:07 am

   I once found myself in West Texas looking for the “Wink Sink”, a huge sinkhole outside of Wink, Texas. It took a great deal of meandering down dusty dirt roads and climbing under two chain link fences, but we found it. It was astounding… probably a hundred feet across and deep, in the middle of nowhere. It was a good find.

2. Vern Says:
   June 27th, 2008 at 8:24 am

   A good sinkhole would be an attraction. Seen a sinkhole swallow a semi truck in New Brunswick, Canada. Also was doing sharp curves and switchbacks by motorcycle in Colorado when 1/2 my lane was “missing” and almost took the plunge down the mountain side. Missing roads also an attraction! (however unsafe it might be to be near it as it was caused by a slide.)

3. Pat Says:
   June 27th, 2008 at 12:45 pm

   You have to be careful around newly collapsed sinkholes–this from a long time cave explorer. The ground around new or expanded sinks in limestone or gypsum rock is usually unstable and the sinkhole can sometimes expand very quickly (see pics of some of the Florida sinkholes or the Wink Sinks on the Web). The Wink Sinks that Russell refers to are expanding rapidly. Stay away!

   Sinkholes in other areas are likely to be caused by collapsed sewers or other collapsed manmade objects like utility tunnels, pipelines and so forth. The sinkhole on I-70 in Colorado a year or so ago is an example.

4. Charles Says:
   June 27th, 2008 at 7:43 pm

   If you’re a private pilot (with the money for the avgas); take a leisurely flight along the eastern edge of the Caprock. It’s a geological formation that marks the eastern edge of the Llano Estacado in the Texas Panhandle. On commercial flights from Lubbock to Abilene I spied several large sinkholes along or near the eastern edge of the Caprock. Wished I had the time to rent a plane and cruise at medium altitude from Lubbock down to Lamesa, Texas. (With a camera and GPS of course!)