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Clements remembers a cave in Gillette Canyon that he visited in the 1950s that was apparently the final resting place of a large bear, perhaps a grizzly.
He said he was working for the Forest Service a half-century ago when an old man who scratched out a living by cutting wood for posts high in the hills offered to show him a cave. The cave had been the final resting place of a bear, Clements said the old man told him.
A bear had entered the cave through a hole at the top but had found it impossible to get out of the living-room size cave, the woodcutter told him. Sure enough, there were deep ridges in the walls of the cave, Clements said, apparently from the bear's claws as it desperately fought to get out before it weakened and died.
The old woodcutter told Clements that a grizzly's skull and other bear bones were found in the cave. That explained the name the cave had gained: Bear Trap Cave.
Clements did more than listen to the story. "Oh yeah, I crawled in there," he said.
The claw marks were still evident but the bear remains had disappeared. "They were gone a long time before," Clements said.
Inside the cave
Getting to the cave takes some effort. Marc Ohms has been inside it several times and guided some reporters to Bear Trap Cave last week.
To get to it, you need to endure a jolting 45-minute ride on gravel roads followed by a 1,000-foot walk on some rocky ground. Even then, the cave entrance is not very visible.
Joel Tigner is a bat expert who has crawled through many local caves. Bear Trap Cave is "naturally camouflaged," Tigner said. "You have to be standing right on top of it to see it," he said.
No signs point to its location to try to prevent vandals from damaging it. A sign is posted inside states "Enjoy But Do Not Damage This Wonderful Cave Experience."
Ohms, who works at Wind Cave as a research scientist and is also an avid caver, points to a rocky outcropping near a fallen tree. It's the mouth of Bear Trap Cave.
Brad Phillips, a U.S. Forest Service Hell Canyon District wildlife biologist, organized the trip. Phillips is also a caver and has been inside Bear Trap Cave several times himself.
Cavers is the preferred term. The term spelunker is not used by true cavers, Ohms said with a smile.
Both men believe the legend may well be true. The entrance to the cave leads to a short crawl through rock; the passage ends with a sheer 12-foot drop.
A rickety ladder was in place for decades and was replaced two years ago by a thick, sturdy wooden ladder. But without a ladder, it'd be easy for a man or an animal - say, a bear in search of food or shelter - to fall into the cave.
The ladder takes you to a cavern about the size of a small living room. The top is smooth thanks to the eons of water that created the cave when it was still underwater, Ohms said.
Water is still present and the moisture makes the walls glisten as lights from electric lamps mounted on cavers' helmets sweep through the cave.
The walls and floor are bumpy and uneven. Walking through the cave, it's easy to stumble over rocks that have fallen from the walls.
The cave is cool on a warm June morning and two bats are taking the opportunity for a nap. They ignore the people bustling about inside the cave. There is a small pile of wood shavings and pinecones, likely left behind by porcupines that often find a way into caves, Ohms said.
The first room is only part of the cave, one of 300 in the Black Hills. A second, larger room is a short drop below. It's a dark, almost otherworldly experience and one that Phillips enjoys.
"It's so dark and so quiet," he said. "It's sort of like a deprivation chamber. It's kinda neat."
The Forest Service and the Paha Sapa Grotto, a local cavers club that Ohms leads, work in concert to preserve and protect the cave.
Phillips said the Grotto members have the expertise and experience to help the government workers care for the caves, so it just makes sense to work with the club.
It has about 50 members who enjoy getting down - way down underground. (See sidebar).
Evidence of a mighty effort
So where is the evidence that a bear was trapped in a cave? Any bones have long since vanished and there are no known reports of their location. They were likely a prized trophy for some rancher or early settler who found them, Phillips said.
Tigner said he's seen no evidence of the claw marks but has heard the legend. Ohms and Phillips said they haven't seen any marks, either.
The walls are not pristine, however. Some visitors have carved initials in the wall, a practice that is frowned upon. A cave register, consisting of a few sheets of paper, is inside a round metal container to allow cavers to leave their names behind - and to let the Forest Service determine how much traffic there is in the cave.
"We're trying to manage caves in the Black Hills," Phillips said.
If it existed, the bear obviously could not have written its name, but it may have left a mark. Several places on the wall, at about the level a tall animal could reach, show deep grooves, left behind after a mighty struggle to get out of this natural trap.
Both Ohms and Phillips admit: This could be the evidence that Clements saw 50 years ago and the remains of a bear's last days alive as it battled and failed to get back to the surface before it was defeated by the hard rock walls.
Another bear story
The Bear Trap Cave story came from Clements after he read a Rapid City Weekly News cover story on bears returning to the Black Hills. He enjoyed the account and stopped by The Weekly News office to talk about it.
The cave legend wasn't the only bear story Clements, who served in both the Marines and the Army, wanted to share.
He said another Forest Service worker, "a little old gal," came back from a hike near Sylvan Lake and Harney Peak in a major state of alarm back in the 1950s. She had spotted what she perceived to be bear scat.
That sighting caused her to hustle back to work, Clements recalled with a chuckle. He said he has never seen a bear in the Black Hills but he's heard a lot of stories.
Some may be true and others may have been "improved" to make the tale worth telling a second time. But the legend of Bear Trap Cave is very, very real, he insisted.
After seeing the cave and the clawmarks, it's easy to believe.
