2005 NSS
Convention
Huntsville, Alabama, July 4-8, 2005
Spelean
History
Session Abstracts
Charles
A. Muehlbronner & John Nelson:
Heroes of Mammoth Cave's "Echo River Club"
Dean H. Snyder
3213 Fairland Dr., Schnecksville, PA 18078
dsnyder3@ptd.net
Dale R. Ibberson
445 Hale Ave., Harrisburg, PA 17104
ibberson@paonline.com
In January, 1904, the annual convention of the
League of Commission
Merchants was held in Louisville, Kentucky. As part of their
activities, a trip was organized to visit Mammoth Cave. During the Echo
River tour inside the cave, seventeen passengers on guide John Nelson's
boat were dumped into the icy water due to the horseplay of one of the
men. Only the quick thinking and heroic action of Nelson and Charles A.
Muehlbronner, former Pennsylvania state senator from Pittsburgh, saved
the group from drowning. Back at the Mammoth Cave Hotel, the grateful
passengers formed the "Echo River Club" with membership limited to
those people on the trip. Muehlbronner was elected as President for
life. The group held annual reunions in different cities for several
years.
Dunbar
Cave - Home of the
Willapus Wallapus
Larry E. Matthews
8514 Sawyer Brown Rd., Nashville, TN 37221
nss6792@bellsouth.net
Dunbar Cave was one of the first caves to be
developed into a viable
commercial underground attraction in Tennessee. J. M. Rice,
C. P.
Warfield, and J. P. Gracey purchased the Dunbar Cave property in 1882
and developed Dunbar Cave into a tourist attraction. Only
four
years later, Goodspeed’s History Of Tennessee (1886) describes the cave
in glowing terms. Many of the chambers and formations had
already
been given their current names. Interestingly, one of the
formations in Independence Hall was named the “Willapus Wallapus.”
Many of the other rooms and formations in the cave have names
that are
easily recognizable from typical commercial operations.
However,
extensive research has failed to reveal the origin of the name
“Willapus Wallapus.” It is believed that this may be some
mythical beast described in literature, mythology, or even children’s
stories. One person located a comic strip from the 1930’s
that
ran under the name of the “Willapus Wallapus.” A Google
Search
turns up a record with that name recorded by a Canadian singing
group. Despite these leads, no actual description of what a
“Willapus Wallapus” is or was has been located!
Old post cards exist that show some of the named features of
Dunbar
Cave. Unfortunately, no postcard of the Willapus Wallapus has
yet
been located. If you go to Dunbar Cave.....keep your eyes
open
for the “Willapus Wallapus.” He is somewhere in Independence
Hall.
On
White Fish And
Black Men: Did Stephen
Bishop Really Discover The Blind Cave Fish Of Mammoth Cave?
Aldemaro Romero
Department of Biological Sciences
Arkansas State University
P.O. Box 599, State University, AR 72467
aromero@astate.edu
Jonathan S. Woodward
3738 Middlebury College, Middlebury, VT 05753
jwoodwar@middlebury.edu
Some of the chronology of discoveries at Mammoth
Cave, Kentucky., is
marred by contradictory reports and legends. The first
published
reference to a blind cave fish (“white fish”) in Mammoth Cave appears
to be by Robert Davidson in 1840; however the chronology given in his
book is contradictory. We did archival and field research
aimed
at identifying the first person to have seen (and probably collected)
this blind cave fishes at Mammoth Cave. We also researched
all
the known specimens of the two species of blind cave fishes ever found
at Mammoth Cave to see if that information could provide evidence of
which of the two species was seen first. We conclude that:
(1)
Davidson’s chronology in his book is probably wrong and that he did not
visit the cave until 1838 or 1839; (2) it is possible that Bishop was
the first person sighting the fish, but others cannot be definitely
excluded from having been involved in this discovery; and, (3) that
although there are two species of blind cave fish that inhabit the
waters of Mammoth Cave, the first one sighted was likely Amblyopsis
spelaea, also the first one to be recognized in the scientific
literature. We finally conclude that the facts surrounding
Stephen Bishop’s fame need to be further investigated under the
perspective of the romantic movement of the mid-nineteenth century that
gave rise to the “noble savage” mythology as well as on the perspective
of race in the United States prior to the Civil War.
The
Start Of The
Kentucky Cavewars
John M. Benton
208 W 19th St., Huntingburg, IN 47542
jbenton@fullnet.com
Followers of spelean history are acquainted with
the Kentucky cavewars,
and its many and varied feuds among the show caves of the region
competing for the tourist dollars. Previously hidden in obscurity is
the start of the cavewars. In 1871, David L. Graves, formerly of near
Lebanon Kentucky, leased the Mammoth Cave hotel and grounds
from
the Croghan heirs. He was also the proprietor of the Cave City Hotel,
and ran a stage line in opposition to Andy McCoy, an established stage
line operator. Rival drivers were faced with assault and battery, that
went to court in 1873. A monetary judgment failed to solve the feuds
and a few month later, shots were fired by both parties, mortally
wounding David L. Graves himself, or did it? The stage had been set for
factions of the Mammoth Cave area to defend their turf and individual
caves for years to come.
Diamond
Caverns:
Jewel of Kentucky’s Underground
Stanley D. Sides, M.D.
Cave Research Foundation
2014 Beth Dr., Cape Girardeau, MO 63701
ssidesmd@aol.com
Saltpeter was being mined in Short Cave and Long
Cave on the west side
of a karst valley near Three Forks, Kentucky during the War of 1812.
Beneath this valley was a beautiful cave discovered when landowner
Jessie Coats’ slave was lowered down a 35 foot pit on July 14, 1859. He
saw sparkling calcite that resembled diamonds.
The Kennedy Bridal Party was the first to enter the new show cave a
month later. Joseph Rogers Underwood, a renowned Bowling Green lawyer,
senator, and managing trustee of the Mammoth Cave Estate bought Diamond
Cave and 156 acres from Jesse Coats. A close relationship existed
between Mammoth Cave and Diamond Cave with cave literature describing
both caves. Mammoth Cave Railroad opened in 1886 with Diamond a stop.
Amos Fudge of Toledo, Ohio, and his son-in-law, Presbyterian minister
Elwood A. Rowsey purchased Diamond in 1924. The fledgling National
Speleological Society organized an expedition to Diamond in October,
1942. Dr. Rowsey and his son, Elwood, and Rowsey’s niece, Jan Alexander
McDaniel and her husband, Vernon, ran the cave and campground adjacent
to Mammoth Cave National Park until 1982. NSS cavers Gary and Susan
Berdeaux, Larry and Mayo McCarty, Roger and Carol McClure, Stanley and
Kay Sides, and Gordon and Judy Smith purchased the cave on July 7, 1999
to promote the cave as a historic attraction and develop a national
show cave museum. Virgin passages have since been discovered and a new
cave found on the property.
Preserving
the
History of Timpanogos Cave
National Monument
Cami Pulham
Cultural Resource Specialist
Timpanogos Cave National Monument
RR 3, Box 200, American Fork, UT 84003
Camille_pulham@nps.gov
Tour caves are often managed for their geological
and biological
values, historical significances can often be overlooked. The
history of Timpanogos Cave National Monument is one of the park’s
unique resources and is in need of protection. In the mission
statement of the monument, it states the need to preserve the cave as
well as its historic value. We are preserving human history
by
using photography to document current and historical changes,
inventorying historic signatures, writing an Administrative History,
and maintaining a museum collection and archives.
The
Rediscovery of
Le Sueur’s Saltpeter
Caves in Minnesota
Greg A. Brick
Department of Geology
Normandale College
9700 France Avenue South, Bloomington, MN 55431
greg.brick@normandale.edu
E. Calvin Alexander, Jr.
Department of Geology & Geophysics
University of Minnesota
Minneapolis, MN 55455
alexa001@tc.umn.edu
A 300-year old mystery in spelean history may
recently have been
solved. In September 1700, the French fur-trader Pierre-Charles Le
Sueur reported saltpeter caves along the shores of Lake Pepin, a
widening of the Mississippi River, in what is now Minnesota. This is
the earliest record of cave saltpeter in the United States. Although
these caves have been a topic of discussion at major saltpeter
symposia, no one has actually searched for them, to the best of our
knowledge. In 2004, small, narrow, crevice caves were identified in
Ordovician-age Oneota dolomite outcrops along the river bluffs in
Goodhue County, Minnesota. The caves match Le Sueur’s description as
well as could be expected given several centuries of slope-wasting
processes. While Le Sueur’s journal suggests that he found actual
saltpeter, rather than “petre dirt,” no efflorescent salts were seen in
the caves. But analyses of floor sediments from these caves and others
along the bluffs on both sides of the Mississippi River reveal nitrate
concentrations up to over one weight percent—comparable to those of
Mammoth Cave.
History
of Early
Ownership and Passage
Naming in Grand Caverns, Virginia
Craig Hindman
7600 Pindell School Rd., Fulton, MD 20759
ctider@us.ibm.com
Grand Caverns, in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley,
was known as Amonds
Cave when it was discovered by Bernet Weyer on Mathias Amond’s property
in 1804. The cave was commercialized in 1806 and has been
operating ever since under a variety of names, including Weyers Cave
and Grottoes of the Shenandoah. The cave was modified for
trail
improvements over the years, but most of the current commercial trail
was in place by 1808. The cave’s formations and rooms have
had a
variety of names over the years. Early names were based on
parts
of a house (the Ballroom and Balcony) and some features were named for
political figures (Washington and Jefferson Halls) or religious figures
(Solomon’s Hall). The names of the features have varied over
time
based on the cave owner’s whim and, perhaps, political correctness.