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| During winter, Kickapoo Indian Caverns is a major center of bat hibernation. |
Closed for several years, the Mississippi Valley Conservancy recently purchased the 83-acre site, opening it to hiking and other outdoor activities. Cave tours run from May 16-Aug. 14.
To reach the cave, from Prairie du Chien take U.S. Hwy 18 south. In Bridgeport, turn left/east onto Wis. Hwy 60. Next, go left/north onto Dutch Ridge Road. Turn right-straight/northwest onto Rhein Hollow Road. The entrance road to the caverns is on the right/north side of the road.
Kickapoo Indian Caverns is one of Wisconsin’s longest cave systems at 1400 feet. It boasts an underground river, stalactites and onyx. The opening part of the tour requires crouching for a few feet, but the low passageway opens up to a room with a 60-foot-high ceiling. The caves remains a constant 40 degrees year around.
Hibernaculum
The caverns also are a winter hibernating grounds – called a hibernaculum – for three threatened bat species: the northern long-eared bat; the little brown bat; and the eastern pipistrelle.
Bats migrate along river corridors, so the cave is an ideal location for them. Just outside the cave entrance is the Kickapoo River, which drains a few miles to the south into the Wisconsin River, which meets the Mississippi River less than 10 miles to the west. All of that water also makes for ideal feeding grounds; bats eat about 1200 mosquitoes an hour.
In Wisconsin, bats hibernate at 150 known locations. About 90 percent of the state’s bat population hibernates at just three of those sites, however, and Kickapoo Indian Caves is one of them.
Unfortunately, White Nose Syndrome, a deadly fungus, has struck some of the cave’s bat population. The fungus forces bats to use up their energy reserves while hibernating so that they wake up early. They then die from the cold or the lack of insects to eat. Humans can spread the fungus on the soles of their shoes when walking through caves.
Warblers and Indian relics
Aboveground are great habitats for other threatened species. Cerulean warblers nest in the giant, mature oaks, hickory and dogwood on the property. Blue-winged warblers, ovenbirds, scarlet tanagers, wood thrushes, and yellow-billed cuckoos all inhabit the property and surrounding woods. Meanwhile, the prairie ring-necked snake can be found in the property’s prairie and savanna.
The prairie is one of the few areas in Wisconsin that a grasslands looks like it did some 200 years ago before Europeans arrived in large numbers. Several colorful wildflowers bloom in it from spring through autumn.
Kickapoo Indian Caverns gets its name because Native Americans have long used it for shelter and other purposes. Relics as old as 500 years have been found there and are displayed at the the building where cave tour tickets are purchased.
European-Americans discovered the cave in the mid-1800s when soldiers from nearby Fort Crawford stumbled across it. For decades after, it was known as Goblin Cave. On the Fourth of July in 1947, the cave was opened to public tours.
