The PGC asks for winter closure to minimize disturbance while the landowner enforces year-round closure at his decision. This gate is one of the largest and most complex designs. At the owner's request two large doors swing open allow a tractor or S-10 truck to be driven inside. This abandoned limestone mine is unusual in that it intersects many natural cave passages which have not been followed to an end. This site already houses five of the six bat species known to hibernate in Pennsylvania.
Persistence pays off.
This Indiana bat was identified making this mine the sixth site in Pennsylvania known today to house the federally endangered species, seven years after being managed for wildlife.