An Inspection of an Anomaly- The Santee Sinkholes

We were going to see the Charleston parks but couldn't.  A sinkhole- two in fact- had opened up over I-26 closing the thoroughfare.  Another sinkhole had just been in the news as it had just swallowed a condo building in Florida.  The news was peppered with sinkhole stories that sounded more like science fiction plots of the earth opening up and consuming the toys of man who had stupidly thought they were sound on the crust of the planet.

Our children knew what was happening.  They knew why.  Only weeks ago we had travelled to Santee State Park and examined the sinkhole anomaly.

Santee State Park is a busy place.  her parking area is full of folks processing in to check into cabins and campsites.  The staff was busily balancing the phone, a cabin check in, someone reporting on an item lost, another turning in an item found and a family asking about a boat tour.  It would be a moment before I would be able to ask about the Ultimate Outsider stamp.

Bored of standing in line and worried that Ben would clear out the park's stash of free snack samples, we explored the adjacent room.  We passed the threshold into a small exhibit hall.  We saw a turtle shell and learned of the Native American presence in Santee before we stumbled onto the museum's main exhibit.  Sinkholes are Santee State Park's claim to fame.  We learned about underground water and limestone and how the water over time rips out the soft limestone that supports the earth above it.  We learned that when the supports are gone the earth falls into itself taking whit it whatever has been put there- trees, cars, or even buildings.  Mother Nature shows her sense of fairness by applying the same rules to all.  It is difficult to predict when a sinkhole will open and how wide she will hold her mouth.  Whatever or whomever happens upon the unlikely spot will be drawn in.  The children gasped as they thought of that power.

The line died down.  We got our stamp and then began to explore the park in earnest.  The trails led away from the vast lake and down near a low swampy wood.  We seated our way down the trail and its guardrails of pine and holly.  It led us past several deep and mysterious depressions in the earth.  A fence had been erected to keep too inquisitive guests from falling down into the deep crevasse.

The day itself seemed so gentle.  The heat, the trail, the grass and the trees were nonthreatening but this hole I stared into reminded me of a carnivorous plant- beautiful, powerful, and hungry.  I watched the children explore but kept a close eye on them.  I was quick to admonish them to keep back.  The summer had been exceedingly rainy, the underground waters were powerful and the earth was hungry.