The seeds of BILLIKEN were planted with the installation of an IRIS/USNSN station (CCM) in Cathredal Cave in 1989. The cave is located in Onandaga State Park near Leasburg, Missouri, about 60 miles WSW of St. Louis. I was fortunate to obtain funds for a set of Streckheisen STS-1 seismometers and IRIS provided a station processor and funding for a fiber optic cable that extends from the seismometer pier up through a drill hole to the surface and then about a half mile to the visitor center in Onandaga Park. The installation of CCM was completed in 1989 and the new station was the first modern broadband station to be installed in the central United States.

The central United States, however, continued to lag behind both the western U.S. and eastern U.S. in numbers of broadband stations. The cooperative efforts for the installation of CCM suggested that a number of modern broadband stations might be installed in the central United States if various groups would cooperative in that endeavor. Toward that end, we obtained two additonal sets of STS-1 seismometers and several STS-2 triaxial seismometers. The STS-1's were installed in Wyandotte Cave in Indiana (WCI) and at a site near Waverly, Tennessee (WVT) provided by the Geological Survey of Tennessee. Station processors at those stations were obtained using funds from a successful proposal to IRIS. Those processors, like that at CCM, satisfy the requirements for broadband stations established by both IRIS and the USNSN. STS-2 triaxial seismometers were installed at two sites, Jewell Farm (JF-WS) in southwestern Wisconsin and in Cedar Bluff State Park (CB-KS) in Kansas. These stations, like CCM, WCI and WVT, are USNSN stations but are not IRIS stations. The USGS installed USNSN processors at those sites and also contributed one entire station, Mt. Ida, Arkansas (MI-AR) to BILLIKEN. Our station map now includes six stations deployed across a broad region of the cental United States. Information on station characteristics, a 1994 abstract on BILLIKEN, and a writeup on the origin of the Billiken can be accessed from that page. The station information was compiled for BILLIKEN and several other networks by the Council of the National Seismic System. Plans are underway, with the USGS, to install a seventh BILLIKEN station in eastern South Dakota or southwestern Minnesota.

Mitchell, B.J., and R. Buland, BILLIKEN, Seism. Res. Lttrs., 70, 341-347, 1999