I saw a link on KY3 this morning about how a field in Barry County had collapsed into a huge sinkhole about a week ago. Of course, yours truly had to go see this thing for himself.

I had no idea where the sinkhole was, but I knew it was near Exeter, Missouri. I figured as small as the town was, someone would surely be able to tell me how to get there, especially considering all the publicity it was getting. Sure enough, someone at a gas station was able to give me directions. In fact, that person gave me bad directions, which had me looking in the wrong area for over half an hour. Finally, a helpful couple I passed by pointed out the right way for me.

They had a sign at the beginning of the road the sinkhole was on that said there was no through traffic, but I headed on down it anyway. At the end of the road, when I was just able to see the sinkhole, a huge pile of dirt in the road blocked my way. They'd put the mound there because they were afraid the sinkhole was going to swallow up the road, and with good reason. Even from a distance I could see that the edge of the sinkhole was only a few feet away from the road.

The sinkhole itself was awesome. A huge chunk of the field, about the size of a basketball court or bigger, had just sunk into the earth. You couldn't see any of the ground that had sunk away, either, because the hole had completely filled with water. It was like someone had taken a giant oval cookie cutter and cut out a piece of the field, leaving water in its place. It was amazing.

I wanted to walk out into the field and get a better look at it, but I could see that someone up the road at what I thought was the owner's house was watching me. Plus, they had the area surrounded in police tape and fresh new "No Trespassing" signs. I figured it probably wasn't a good idea. Still, it was highly cool and well worth the drive.