October 11, 2001

Convention And Visitors Bureau,
WKU Announce Grant, Bridge Project
For Lost River Cave And Valley

Bowling Green, Ky. - Build it and they will come. That's what Rho Lansden hopes will happen when a $200,000 bridge project is completed at the Lost River Cave and Valley.

Lansden, executive director of Friends of the Lost River, said the bridge over the Lost River Valley will improve access to the Lost River Cave, increasing tourism and other opportunities. To get the project started, the Bowling Green Area Convention and Visitors Bureau has issued a $100,000 challenge grant, which was announced at a news conference this morning.

Almost $50,000 in additional cash and in-kind contributions has been raised to meet the balance of the need, said Tom Hiles, vice president for Development and Alumni Relations at Western. Western has owned the cave and valley since it was donated in 1986 by Raymond Cravens and Owen Lawson.

Steve Snodgrass, past chairman of the Visitors Bureau board, said the bridge project received 100 percent support of the board when proposed by director Gary West. "Our decision to move forward with this $100,000 grant gave our board great excitement and great honor, particularly to hear that Western Kentucky University was going to step up to that challenge as well," he said.

West said the effort will take the Lost River Cave to a new level. "A bridge of this sort will enhance the ability of many more people, both local and tourists, to visit this awesome attraction that we are fortunate enough to have right in the middle of Bowling Green," he said.

Martin Jones, a member of the Friends of the Lost River board, said he was pleased by the commitment and the vision exhibited by the Visitors Bureau in helping fund the project.

Lansden said project makes "the future of the cave and valley even brighter. The goals of the Friends of the Lost River have always included insuring the preservation and protection of the cave and valley. Tourism is the means by which this goal is going to be achieved."

Lansden said that without safe access to the cave, the number of visitors will be limited. "The admission dollars will protect this area for future use as an educational facility and provide a drawing card for the Center for Cave and Karst Studies and Western Kentucky University," she said.

"Without the bridge, Lost River will achieve far less than it is capable of in this community," Lansden said.

WKU President Gary Ransdell called the Lost River Cave and Valley a "treasure too precious to keep hidden."

"Development of the cave and valley is a continuing process," he said. "Gary West and his board recognize the importance of this treasure to our area and have stepped forward to help make it happen."

The pre-engineered and manufactured steel bow truss bridge will be about 125 feet long and 10 feet wide and would carry pedestrian and light vehicular traffic through the upper canopy of the Lost River Valley. It will connect the existing parking lot to an access road on the Cave Mill Road side of the valley where the grade is less steep.

Once started, the project is expected to take four months to complete.

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