![]() ![]() ![]() "I don't want anything to do with it," says Green.įruit Heights resident Mike Beard has been in lots of caves, too. He has been in Nutty Putty several times but won't go anywhere near the section where Jones got stuck. Green is now close to 80 years old, has been in close to 750 caves and says he discovered about 50 of them. "I never went back to that section again." "He kept pulling and pulling and finally I just popped out," says Green. He had to yell for a friend to get him out. I was slanted upside down and started to get a little worried," says Green. There was no way to push, and I couldn't get a grip with my feet. "I got down enough so my feet weren't quite sticking up the hole, and I realized I couldn't back out of this. ![]() Green knows how dangerous that one section is. I'm really not for sealing the whole thing." "I think they can do something to just try and prevent people from getting into that section. "That's the only dangerous place in the whole cave," says Green. When John Jones died after getting stuck late Wednesday night or early Thursday morning, Green knew some people would want it closed however, he says only that one section should be closed, not the whole cave. Nutty Putty has since become one of the most popular caves in Utah, but its narrow passages have also made it one of the most dangerous. "It's been picked up by a lot of people," says Green. Green originally thought of calling the cave "Silly Putty" because of the clay but later thought "Nutty Putty" sounded better. When we went in, there was no sign whatsoever that anyone had been in there." "Everybody who goes through that cave comes out covered with the clay. "It was because of the nature of the clay that was in there," says Green. When Green and some friends first went into the cave, he says they knew right away they were in a unique place. A rancher in the area of the cave said he had noticed warm vapors coming out of a hole and knew Green liked to explore caves. Salt Lake City resident Dale Green says he discovered Nutty Putty cave in 1960. No matter how it's done, though, some caving groups say closing it is a mistake. The Utah County Sheriff's Office has yet to decide exactly how Nutty Putty caves will be sealed. Rescuers worked furiously to get him out, but in the end ran out of time. John Jones died late Wednesday night after being trapped in the caves for more than 27 hours. He says that one spot has been a problem for years. SALT LAKE CITY - The man who discovered Nutty Putty Cave in 1960 says only the section where a man got stuck and died should be closed, not the whole cave. Reading or replaying the story in itsĪrchived form does not constitute a republication of the story. A film about the tragedy called The Last Descent was released on September 16, 2016.Only for your personal, non-commercial use. Rescuers concluded that it would be too dangerous to attempt to retrieve his body the landowner and Jones' family came to an agreement that the cave should be permanently closed with the body sealed inside. On the cave was reopened to the public.On November 24, 2009, John Edward Jones died after being trapped in the cave for 28 hours. In early 2009, proper management was established and an application process was developed to ensure safety precautions were being met. On May 24, 2006, a gate was installed, and the cave was temporarily closed. The cave’s popularity had caused excessive smoothing of the rock inside the cave to the point it was predicted a fatality would occur in one of the cave's more prominent features, a 45-degree room called "The Big Slide". It was estimated the cave was receiving over 5,000 visitors per year, with many visitors often entering the cave late at night and failing to take proper safety precautions. In the past this cave has had four rescues of cavers and Boy Scouts, who became stuck inside the cave's tight twists, turns, and crawls.In 2006, an effort was put forth to study and severely limit the number of visitors allowed inside the cave. The cave, first explored in 1960 by Dale Green, is currently owned by the Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration, and managed by the Utah Timpanogos Grotto. Nutty Putty Cave is a hydrothermal cave located west of Utah Lake in Utah County, Utah, United States. ![]()
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