The nutty putty cave incident
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The cave, first explored in 1960 by Dale Green and friends, is currently owned by the Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration, and managed by the Utah Timpanogos Grotto. The cave system was named after the putty-like texture of the soft, brown clay found in many of its passages. Green originally thought of calling it "Silly Putty" but later decided "Nutty Putty" sounded better. The clay-like texture is composed of silicon dioxide commonly found in sand. Because the cave was formed upward with superheated water forming limestone, many additional minerals make up the complex structure. It contains 1,400 feet (430m) of chutes and tunnels and, prior to closure, had been accessible via a narrow surface hole.
Before 2009, this cave had four separate rescues of cavers and Boy Scouts, who got 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. 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. 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". A gate was installed on May 24, 2006, and the cave was temporarily closed. In early 2009, proper management was established and an application process was developed to ensure safety precautions were being met. On May 18, 2009, the cave was reopened to the public.
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