$1 Million Fine for Tourists who Try to See Newly Discovered Cave, Closed to Public

When the state claims to preserve something, who are they really preserving it for?

As a caribou counting exercise was underway in Canada, a team in a helicopter recently stumbled upon a completely unknown, massive cave, and now the state is taking very special interest in it.

The team in a helicopter spotted the entrance to this cave, thought to have been covered by ice previously, while flying over the British Columbia Wells Gray Provincial Park.

The entrance of this cave is so incredibly massive, it measures 328 feet (100 meters) by 197 feet (60 meters). What is thought to be inside the cave is even more interesting.

On the inside of this massive cave, and the size of it was described as like a vertical football field on the inside, there is a waterfall. The waterfall taking place inside the hidden cave dumps out an estimated 5 to 15 cubic meters of water every second.

However, the provincial government of British Columbia, Canada has decided to close the area down, and they are threatening an unheard of potential $1 million fine for people who visit the site without permission. Apparently they just really, really want to keep nature safe, when they didn’t even know it existed before.

How could something we have no idea about possibly not be present at this location in Canada, if they are threatening people with $1 million fines? That’s the kind of fine that would financially ruin a person’s life, who could even pay that? It’s a fine of up to $1 million, or a year in prison.

The exact location of the cave is vaguely said to be in the northeastern corner of the Wells Gray Provincial Park. “It’s about the size of a soccer field,” said a geologist named Catherine Hickson, part of the team legally able to study the cavern, while others cannot. “So, if you think of a soccer field and you put that soccer field on its end so you have this pit going down.”

In response to learning of the unusually harsh punishment for those who simply try and wander through the park, to maybe find the cave and take a few pictures like any regular tourist would do, Hickson said “You’re kidding. Wow.”

“It is an extremely dangerous location … the cave itself and its remoteness,” she said. To think the state has to protect people from falling down into a cave is kind of unrealistic. It seems very unusual that such high security is being prepared for a cave that realistically, not a lot of people are going to go out of their way to visit.

Hickson continued to say she believes only the most experienced hiker would succeed in safely reaching the cave, let alone actually climbing into it.

“This is not a place for the casual visitor,” she continued.

“This would only be undertaken by the most serious people and even then, they’re not going to be able to carry the equipment you need to carry into the cave.”

What else could possibly be hidden in this cave?

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