2008 NSS Convention
Lake City, Florida, August 11-15, 2008

Spelean History Session Abstracts


Speleological Clues: Following in the Footsteps of John and William Bartram, Eighteenth Century Botanists Extraordinaire

Dr. Cato Holler
Director, Carolina Cave Survey
PO Box 100
Old Fort, NC 28762
hollers2@verizon.net

The early naturalists of our country, no matter what their specific disciplines, were often quite descriptive of their geological surroundings. For example, well known Quaker botanist, William Bartram referenced in his Travels numerous caves, springs, and other karst features of interest to the speleologist.

While perusing an excerpt from John Bartram’s diary of 1765 describing his travels through the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida, the author of this paper found a vague reference to what sounded like a talus cave in Bladen County, North Carolina: “August, 8, Walked out to Donahoos Creek to search for fossils with Billy (son William)… Sometimes ye creek would plunge down between vast rocks and not appear on ye surface for many perches unless in great cavities between ye rocks.”

Although Bartram’s talus caves were not located, a real bonus for the search occurred in the discovery of a new limestone solution cave at the base of a hill along the same creek. Were it not for John Bartram’s early description, chances are pretty slim that a ridge walk would have even been considered here.


A Note on the History and Material Culture of Bellamy Cave, Tennessee
 
Joseph C. Douglas
Department of History
Volunteer State Community College
Gallatin, TN 37066
Joe.Douglas@volstate.edu

Bellamy Cave is a large and well-known cave located in Montgomery County, Tennessee and currently managed as a biological preserve for the endangered Gray Bat. An examination of historical sources, and limited, initial investigations of the material culture on-site, allows the outlines of the history of Bellamy Cave to emerge. In the mid-to-late Mississippian period, Native Americans explored much of the cave. They also utilized it for mortuary and ceremonial purposes, as a clay mine, and perhaps as a habitation site. After Euro-American settlement, the cave was also utilized in a number of ways. The cave was an industrial space, serving as a moderate-to-large saltpeter mine in the war of 1812 era. Guano was also extracted for sale later in the nineteenth century. The cave was a cultural curiosity and social space, portrayed in the local press as a natural wonder and utilized as a place of public resort, including picnics and cave exploration. Bellamy Cave was also a hidden space, where the body of a murder victim was deposited in 1882, which upon discovery led to a sensational and significant murder trial. Finally, Bellamy Cave was part of the household or domestic economy, used for storing food and possibly liquids, and also as a water source. Thus all five categories of use in the history of American caves are represented at the site. The current study suggests that the cave will reveal even more with additional research.


History in Grotto Newsletters

Charles A. Lundquist
214 Jones Valley Dr. SW
Huntsville, AL  35802
lundquc@uah.edu

By shelf-length, the grotto newsletters comprise the largest collection in the NSS Library.  This collection contains a vital historical record of the chapters of the Society, and indirectly of the Society itself.  However, the maintenance of this collection is at a turning point.  Many of the grottos are now publishing their newsletters online, and in some cases the Library is not receiving a paper copy to put on the shelf. An open question is whether it is desirable or practical to make a transition from shelved paper copies of the newsletters to an online collection on the Library webpage.  The grottos must have a role in answering this question because copyright and public access policies differ from grotto to grotto.  There is also the question whether back issues should be scanned and added to an online collection.  A solution could be for the Library webpage to provide publicly assessable sites where each grotto, using a specific password, could load its newsletter.  Each grotto could also scan back issues and put them online.  This potential solution leaves to each grotto the policy decisions of online publishing and access.  The payoff could be a rich, online, historical resource for Society members and other scholars.  When back issues for any grotto are scanned, another payoff would be the assurance that their content could not be lost due to deterioration of old paper copies or due to a catastrophe at the NSS Library.


Rest in Pieces:  A Cave Inside the Old Man of the Mountain, Franconia Notch, New Hampshire

Ernst H. Kastning, Ph.D.
Radford University, Virginia (Retired)
PO Box 1028
Concord, NH 03302
ernst@skyhopper.net

Sometime during the darkness of the very early morning hours on 3 May 2003, the venerable Old Man of the Mountain of New Hampshire collapsed from natural causes.  The Old Man, a profile of a human face, was first noted in 1805 and was adopted as the official symbol of the State of New Hampshire by its legislature in 1945.  It was one of the most recognized rock formations in North America and the likeness has appeared in books, posters, postcards, souvenirs, stamps, and the statehood quarter of New Hampshire.   Although the demise of the Old Man was a sad event for the people of the Granite State, the memory of this icon lives on.

One of the most unusual, and barely known caves in New England existed within the rock mass comprising the Old Man’s face.  Like the profile, the cave has vanished, as the granitic blocks that defined its walls, floor, and roof now rest on the talus slope at base of Cannon Mountain in Franconia Notch State Park in the White Mountains.  Although not visible from a distance, this small opening was noticed and sketched during a structural stability study of the Old Man formation in 1976 by Bryan K. Fowler, a New Hampshire engineering geologist.  Based on this study, it is likely that the cave contributed to an overall weakness of the rock mass that eventually lead to the collapse.  It may even have had a pivotal role.


William Karras and the Speleological Society of America

Jack Speece
711 E Atlantic Ave.
Altoona, PA  16602
jspeece@leeind.com

During the 1960's the NSS as well as well most organizations were challenged by the "free thinkers" of society who rebelled against controls, laws and regulations.  The caving community had consisted of unique sophisticated individuals who supported a scientific structure.  However, it was rapidly changing to one with a majority of sport cavers.  The younger generation just wanted to have fun and wasn't interested in attending seminars at major hotels in Washington, DC.  Most were content with doing their own thing but others desired to be leaders with many followers.  The story of William G. Karras is a classic example of the internal struggles that occurred both within the NSS and the grotto. The formation of the Speleological Society of America (SSA) was of great concern to the "bureaucrats" of the NSS due to the potential loss of revenue as well as national recognition.  The effects of the publicity was changing the manner of many procedures.  Although William Karras attracted the headlines of this time, his tactics served as guidelines for others to follow.

-- end of 2008 Spelean History Session abstracts --
(last updated or verified on August 23, 2008)

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