Cave Week History

The National Caves Association, which now represents 96 show caves in the United States, Bermuda and Barbados, declared June 6th as National Day of Caves and Karst in 2017. This was done to increase awareness of the roles both play in our lives and the environment.  Karst is an area of land made up of limestone; its landscapes feature caves, underground streams and sinkholes on the surface.

After working for several different cave parks around the USA, in 2017 Dan Pawlak had an idea to promote other cave parks for an entire week. He reached out to parks across the U.S., known for their caves, to see if they would join in promoting each other for the entire week. In 2018 Cave Week was born. Eleven parks promoted one another for an entire week across three different social media platforms.

Each year the objective was to expand the number of participating parks and eventually have the program gain the backing of the National Park Service Washington offices. During 2020, the project grew more than what was expected. Cave Week became shared content for the entire NPS, the number of participating parks nearly doubled, the Geologic Resources Division created a Cave Week website, it gained the support of the Washington offices, and the United States Forest Service began to participate as well.

In 2024, NCKRI took on leadership of Cave Week while keeping a steering committee of partners that are invested in sharing their knowledge and ethos of caves, karst and conservation.