‘Quite an operation.’ Rescuers get two men out of Centre County cave, uninjured
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- Two trespassers were removed uninjured from J4 Cave after a friend alerted rescuers.
- Cave sits on posted private Graymont land; crews treating entry as trespass.
- About 50-75 responders mobilized, including specialized grotto and EMS teams.
Two men who went inside a private cave in Pleasant Gap were removed by rescuers Wednesday afternoon after their friend thought they needed help getting out.
The men, 18 and 20 years old, were exploring what’s known as the “J4 Cave” when their friend outside of the cave thought they heard a scream from inside, and was unable to contact them, Spring Township Police Chief Adam Salyards said. They were dispatched around 4 p.m.; confined rescue teams were also requested to help.
“Once we had the cave rescue team on scene, they were able to enter into the cave here, and they quickly found the two individuals that were inside,” Salyards said. “Both individuals were OK. There were no injuries. They were able to extricate them out of the cave. Everyone was safe. All rescuers were safe.”
No one was stuck, he said. Once the crews got into the cave, they didn’t need to go far to find them. They were actually on their way out, he said.
The incident is being investigated as a trespass, as the cave is on Graymont property is marked as private land. The cave was closed to the public in 2004, but remains a popular site for local spelunkers.
“There’s a very large cave back there that people go in. It is posted everywhere, no trespassing. At one point I believe this was open for exploration years ago, but it is a privately-owned property now, so anyone going back in there is trespassing,” Salyards said.
There aren’t any real trails to get into the cave, he said, so they had to cut a path to get the equipment down. The cave entrance is about 100 feet up a cliff face and is accessed through an 18-inch pipe.
“They were really just setting up in preparation that there may be injuries. So they were trying to figure out how they’re going to actually extricate them if they were injured. So, most of the crews were working on that, setting up preparation to extricate if needed,” Salyards said. “We were very thankful that no one was injured and we didn’t have to take those extra measures to extricate them.”
It’s a very dangerous cave system, Salyards said. They had about 50-75 responders on the scene, so it was “quite an operation for individuals that were trespassing.”
Salyards spoke highly of the first responders who were at the scene.
“This is pretty awesome to get this kind of a response out from our volunteers, you know, not just from our county, but from multiple counties and specialized rescue teams that were here very quickly. I was very impressed with the response that we had,” he said.
Responding agencies included Spring Township Police Department, Pleasant Gap Fire Company, Alpha Fire Company, Undine Fire Company, Milesburg’s Citizen’s Hook & Ladder fire company, Mount Nittany Medical Center, Centre County Emergency Management Agency and Nittany Grotto, a cave rescue team.
It’s not the first time first responders have been called to the scene for a rescue. In 2018, a college-age man was rescued from the cave after he’d reportedly gone into it 18 hours earlier.
This story was originally published October 1, 2025 at 8:18 PM.
