A Few Caves and Cavers of the Southeast

A Few Caves and Cavers of the Southeast

Smashwords Edition License Notes

This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your enjoyment only, then please return to Smashwords.com or your favorite retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Copyright © 2014 Hubert Clark Crowell

ISBN: 9780463709351

Publisher: Smashwords, Inc.

3456789

DEDICATION

Dedicated to all the young and old who are drawn to explore dark holes, and those who died doing what they enjoyed.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The following cavers have shared with me for this book, about how they got started caving. This version (3), has been shorten to meet the 15GB requirement of Smashwords Epub.

Peter Zefo

Anthony Ledford

Larry E. Matthews

Jon Hagee

John P. (Jack) Freeman

Chapter 1 Why We Cave

Did you ever wonder why we enter dark holes in the ground? Could it be an instinct from our distance past, or just plain curiosity? We once lived in caves and some still do.

From the distance past we find that man has always used caves. For shelter or the safety of the rock that surrounds us close like our mother’s womb. There is a strange confront that we feel when lying in a tight passage or sitting in a dark cave passage. Maybe it is because of the quietness of the place and just being able to get away from all the noise of the outside world.

When Saul was searching for David to kill him, Saul entered a cave to relieve himself. David and his men were hiding there, far back in the cave. His men told David, This is the day the Lord spoke of when he said to you, ‘I will give your enemy into your hands for you to deal with as you wish. Then David crept up unnoticed and cut off a corner of Saul’s robe. (1 Samuel 24:3-4)

David used this cave as a safe hiding place for his small band of men. King Saul used the cave for a private place to relieve himself. Rock shelters and caves have always been convenient to have around for our survival.

Cave-in-Rock

Cave-in-Rock along the Ohio River was also used by a small band of men, but for different reasons, to tempt travelers on the river to come in for a party and robbed of all their belongings. Caves have been used for everything from fallout shelters to mushroom farms. However I really believe that it is the mystery of caves that draws us back. Not knowing what lies below and that curiosity that we all have within us.

We find all kinds of excuses to enter a cave. Some study the rocks and formations, others like to make maps or study the cave life, but in the end it is the mystery that holds us in its grip.

Floyd Collins

As a young boy, my mother told me about Floyd Collins. His story was all over the news when my mother was young. I can picture Floyd returning alone from pushing another long crawl with maybe a good formation room or two, then squeezing back toward the exit, laying on his back in order to make the turn. As he kicked with his feet for something to push against, the rock broke loose, wedging against his foot. Now trapped on his back, unable to move forward or backward, all he could do was wait. Wait for hours, then what seemed like days, until at last he heard the voice of Jewell Estes a neighbor who knew that Floyd was exploring the cave and came looking for him. Eight days later, kept alive by a young reporter Skeets Miller, Floyd finally died, more than likely from exposure and dehydration. The whole world was praying, writing stories, and yelling, Go get Floyd Collins, and Dig, Dump, and Pray. On a Monday, February 13, 1925, Floyd’s foot was cut off and his body removed through a vertical shaft that had been dug.i

Floyd Collins was hooked on caving as a small boy, exploring in Salts Cave at age six. Cutting school just to cave, completely without fear, putting himself into physical danger all the time. He question anyone who had knowledge of caves, learning all he could. Floyd believed that all the caves in the area were actually connected in a vast network reaching for miles. As of 2000, more than three hundred and sixty miles of passages have been connected under the Flint and Mammoth ridges.

There was a musical Floyd Collins written of how Floyd got trapped and died in Sand Cave. The book Trapped! The story of Floyd Collins by Robert K. Murray and Roger W. Brucker tells the story.

The whole world heard about the young man trapped in a Kentucky cave and their hearts went out to him and his family.

Figure 1 Floyd Collins' body at Sand Cave. From the collection of Jon Hagee.

My mother took me to commercial caves, now referred to as Show Caves, in Kentucky and Tennessee. Caves like Wonder Cave on the north side of Monteagle, and Mammoth Cave, but I believe that it may have been that small hole along the river bank that started it for me. Or could it have been the running around the Kentucky family farm searching for Dad Raddy Cave that we thought existed, which may have only been a rock overhang on the side of a hill.

We lived in West Kentucky, and though there were no known caves nearby, we would visit Cave-in-Rock on the Ohio River for an outing every now and then. Later made famous by the Fess Parker movie, Davy Crockett and the River Pirates, in 1956.

I was always impressed by the size of the entrance and the view from within the cave, and when returning from the 1997 NSS Convention in Missouri, I stopped by the cave to get the picture below. The Ohio River was at flood stage and I had to wade water on the walkway in order to get to the cave. No one was there due to the high water, and the peaceful view was a good rest from the long drive. I knew that I would not need a light, as the cave is very short, and with a huge entrance I could see all but the very back.

Figure 2 Cave-in-Rock, IL with KY in the background.

I remember playing on the hill side behind my Grandparents home, and finding holes in the gullies that were dug by my father and his brothers, or possibly one of my older cousins. I even dug a few myself, more like ditches covered with boards and dirt for a hid-out.

There is a strange pleasure in getting dirty, and covered with mud, not having to worry about staying clean. A good friend of mine loved to wear white overalls, which of course did not remain white very long in the cave. There is also something about crawling around that seems enjoyable.

Getting to know a cave can be quite a reward. When you are able to find your way, and even share with others about where, and how you got to a special place.

Ask anyone who caves, why they go into caves, and they will struggle to come up with an answer. They may tell you what they do in caves but not why they do it. After years of just visiting known caves, I started searching for more reasons to enter the dark holes in the ground. Mapping sparked my interest. We would talk about mapping and creating computer programs to plot the caves as we rode back and forth to the caves in Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia. I slowly developed a program to plot and draw the cave passages, first on an Apple computer we had at work and then improved it using Visual Basic on my personal computer at home. I even sold copies at caving events, but now I give it away on my web site, at:

http://www.hucosystems.com/.

Deaton’s Cave

Caves were sometimes used as social gathering places. Big Dan Cave, also called Deaton’s Cave in Georgia. A typical cave where people get hooked on caving, as in the following account:

Deaton's Cave was Mike's first natural cave trip.  It was low, wet, nasty crawling.  There were a couple of little rooms in the back.  There was lots of trash and spray paint, but it was cool.  The entrance room had been a night club during prohibition, and cavers can still see remnants of a three tiered bandstand poured out of cement.  We crawled to the very back of the cave, and ended up in a big room that had six or seven different exits.  But only one led back, and it just looked like a little hole in the floor, so it was really hard to find.  You had to go down about six or seven different passageways before you found the right one.  After that trip, Mike ponders, I was hooked. ii

Figure 3 Concrete bandstand in Deaton's Cave taken on March 26,72

Deaton’s Cave had a long, and shady past. A prehistoric Turtle Sculpted from stone was discover in the 1950’s when someone first attempted to convert the cave into a recreation area. After a few dances they had a shooting and it was closed. The cave property was sold by the Deaton family.

Ray Landrum purchased the cave in 1950 for $500. Landrum constructed a dance hall in the entrance of the cave in the late 1960’s. Bands played on the concrete platform and square dances were held on the floor below. Landrum constructed a building at the cavern entrance out of emptied beer cans. He also constructed a souvenir shop at the cave and a residence above the entrance. A fire burned the entrance down and Mr. Landrum moved away. The spring was also enclosed by Mr. Landrum, who sold the property to the Atlanta Coca Cola Bottling Company in 1970 for $50,000. iii Deaton’s Cave was no doubt used as a shelter by early Indians in the area, the concrete dance floor must cover many treasures from the past. The location of the cave above the Euharlee (Indian name for she laughs as she runs) river provided water and fish. Deaton’s Cave is now also being called Euharlee Creek Cave.

Deaton’s cave was one of my first mapping projects when I was learning how to create cave maps.

The impressive entrance sloped down to a broken up concrete floor in a large room that once was a dance hall. The light from the entrance lit up the bandstand. A small passage off to the right of the bandstand led to a stream flowing from under a ledge, across a small room and continued under another ledge, too low to enter. I could picture this being where they kept the beer cool and there may have been a bar across the small passage entrance.

At the back of the dance floor, the ceiling dropped from seventeen feet down to six feet for a smaller room. This may have been where the rest rooms were located. From this room there were two ways to continue, the high route and the low route. A ten foot climb followed by a low crawl, then a climb back down to walking passage.

The low route was a wet, sometimes muddy crawl which would lead to the same walking passage. A twelve inch deep pool of water that used to have a board across it for walking to the passages in the back of the cave.

The largest room in the cave was about fifty feet wide, seventy feet long, and twenty feet high. The last room was also about twenty feet high. Just beyond the south end of the cave, the railroad tracks pass overhead with a small sinkhole along the tracks. An interesting section of pipe was found in one of the side rooms and may have been part of the original pluming.

John Wallace is pictured in the white overalls, he always wore. Buddy Davis is wearing the hardhat, and Jack Pace is in the center. This map was never published, until now!

Figure 4 my first cave map, Deaton's Cave, where bands once played.

Patrick Cave

Ridge walking and looking for caves can have almost as much excitement as going into caves. Sometime it helps to have a Labrador named Patrick along to help check out holes.

Figure 5 Rob Morgan and Patrick a black Labrador Retriever.

Figure 6 Doug Dewitt checking out a small hole that turned into Patrick Cave.

On February 19, 1994, a group from where I was currently working, John Wallace and I were ridge walking above Pettyjohn Cave, on Pigeon Mountain, and after locating four possible dig sites we opened one and named it Patrick Cave. The next day Doug Dewitt and I returned and mapped the small cave.

The cave consisted of two small rooms. The first room was five feet tall and six feet wide. There was a tight hole at the bottom that might be a good place to dig. The room was full of roots with dirt above. Another smaller room five foot wide and three and a half high was on the north side. The level survey was 18.9 feet and the total survey was 22.8 feet.

Figure 7 Left to right: John Wallace, Hubert Crowell, Doug Dewitt, and Rob Morgan Pictures were taken by: Tywila Morgan.

Figure 8 Clockwise from left: Rob Morgan, Sophie a black Labrador, Hubert Crowell, Patrick a black Labrador, John Wallace, and Doug Dewitt in the hole.

The sink was large with trees growing at the bottom, while we checked around the edges Doug starting poking at a soft spot in the center with Patrick, his black Labrador watching. Soon we started taking turns enlarging the hole.

This is how a lot of caves start out, curious cavers checking out holes in the ground. Digging a little, mapping what they found and later on more cavers returning to check more and dig more.