It was a place search and rescue had responded to before, once just a month apart. Spencer Cannon said that the closure of the cave eliminated calls to their office from those needing to be rescued from the area. … It’s a huge loss.”īut there is another point of view. “We lost a natural formation and, really, it is sad. “We do not have another cave like Nutty Putty Cave,” Leavitt said. He said Timpanogos Grotto has continued its work as one of three grottos committed to preserving Utah’s caves and educating the public about cave safety and conservation.īut none are as well-suited to new cavers as was Nutty Putty Cave, which, at its heyday, was visited by anywhere from 5,000 and 25,000 people each year. It was only reopened under a management plan with the Timpanogos Grotto that required the entrance to the cave to be controlled by a gate and a reservation system. First closed in September 2007, Leavitt was among those who worked to see the cave reopened in March 2009.
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Inside the cave, the young men learned confidence, team-building and how to work and struggle together. “We wanted them to go in so they could learn to cave responsibly and learn to cave in a safe environment.” “It was a perfect cave for beginner cavers, recreational cavers and Boy Scout groups,” he said. Leavitt has spent 29 years as a Boy Scout leader, and the cave was a favorite place of the young men ages 14 to 18. It was devastating to all of us.”įor Leavitt and the surrounding community, the cave itself was another loss. We worked and worked and worked, but we never thought that he was going to die.
And for it not to be a safe rescue … We didn’t mind working. “It left an indelible imprint on all of our souls, I know that,” Leavitt said. A friend ultimately took the device from Leavitt’s son to confirm Jones’ death. It remains both difficult and sentimental for Leavitt, who sent in his son, then 15, to the narrow passageway with the EKG, because the teenager’s size and the exhaustion of the other rescuers made him the best option. Leavitt, who was the cave's access manager, was there for the rescue that ended just moments before midnight. The once-popular recreation site was closed to serve as Jones’ final resting place after the 26-year-old died after being trapped inside for 27 hours. “It is not open and it will never be open again,” Leavitt said. “We hustled so it wouldn’t be a Thanksgiving memory for the family every year,” said Leavitt, a member of the Nutty Putty Cave Management team.Īnd then another decision about the cave was made.
“We did our best out there to do a rescue, recovery, to get the death pronounced before Thanksgiving Day,” he said, noting that rescuers rushed an EKG down into the cave to confirm Jones’ death before midnight turned the clock to Thanksgiving. SALT LAKE CITY - Michael Leavitt is certain that those who were there at the Nutty Putty Cave site five years ago will never forget the effort to save John Edward Jones. – Michael Leavitt, former cave access manager It left an indelible imprint on all of our souls, I know that.
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