From: Kurt Menking, April 2006 One of the owners of Honey Creek Cave died this weekend. John Moore was a son in law of the Gass’, and he and his wife Joyce were the primary caretakers of the ranch property. John was always plowing, bailing hay, and otherwise fixing and repairing the many problems associated with the ranch. All this was on top of running a trucking business, and trying to keep up with a six year old son. John was burning some brush at his home in Harper this Saturday when it suddenly got out of control. John, Joyce, and several neighbors franticly fought the fire until the fire dept arrived and made short work of extinguishing the remaining flames. Joyce went inside to clean up, and make some cool drinks for the volunteers, and while she was gone John suffered a heart attack, and never regained consciousness. John was 52, and was always interested in the cave. I accompanied him on several trips into Honeycreek cave including a QA trip and a through trip. He was the only family member to see any significant part of the cave. Services will be at St Anthony’s Catholic church in Harper at 10am this Thursday. Grave side service will be around 2:30 at the St Josephs of Honey Creek Catholic Cemetery, which is near the cave property. The Gass’ health has actually been improving of late. Johnny is largely wheel chair bound and really misses his tractor, and Anita is getting around a little better. Kurt