Please
Take Me Caving: Russell Trall Neville Meets Floyd Collins
Dean H. Snyder
3213 Fairland Dr.
Schnecksville, PA 18078
dsnyder3@ptd.net
In
1922, attorney Russell T. Neville of Kewanee, Illinois, and his
daughter Julia traveled to Mammoth Cave, Kentucky. Neville, an
accomplished amateur photographer, arrived with several greetings and
references from Kewanee residents who used to live near the cave,
including Andy Lee Collins, younger brother of Floyd. The Nevilles were
disappointed at Mammoth Cave, finding the tour dull and the
accommodations unremarkable. They next went to Crystal Cave, hoping to
take photos inside the cave. Despite their differences, Floyd Collins
and Russell Neville soon became friends. Over the next two summers,
Collins took the Nevilles into other caves in the Mammoth Cave area.
During
Floyd's entrapment in Sand Cave, Neville remained in Kewanee. He
presented slides of Floyd and the cave area at the local theater. In
July, 1925, the Nevilles visited Sand Cave, where they took several
photos. Russell and Julia descended the rescue shaft with cave owner
Bee Doyle to examine the spot where Floyd was trapped.
Neville
continues to take visit cave for the next twenty-five years, and
conducted lectures across the country that he called, "In the Cellars
of the World." When he died suddenly in 1950, he had taken thousands of
cave photos and presented 2,600 lectures. However, without the kind
assistance of Floyd Collins, he never would have become "The Cave Man
of Kewanee."
History
of the Ownership of Sauta Cave
Charles A. Lundquist
Research Institute, von Braun Hall
University of Alabama
Huntsville, AL 35899
lundquc@uah.edu
William W. Varnedoe
5000 Ketova Way SE
Huntsville, AL 35803
billvar@comcast.net
The
history of ownership and use of Sauta Cave (AL 50) spans more than 200
years. Until 1819, Sauta Cave was on the land of the
Cherokees. Their Sauta Town or Village was near the lower
cave
entrance. In 1804 the Cherokee Council of Chiefs gave
permission
to a Colonel Ore to mine saltpeter in the cave and make gunpowder.
During the War of 1812, a Cherokee, Richard Riley, operated a major
saltpeter production. As a result of the 1819 US and Cherokee Treaty,
Arthur Burns, by virtue of his Cherokee wife, was awarded a 640 acre
reservation surrounding the cave. When he died, his heirs inherited the
reservation. In 1837, they sold the reservation to Jesse
French,
whose sons, Jeremiah and Henry, later inherited it. Via leases, they
allowed several operators to achieve a very extensive saltpeter
production during the Civil War. Later, the cave ownership
passed
through a sequence of corporations: Southern Guano and Nitre Co (DE),
Southern Guano Co (DE), American Mining and Chemical Co (AL) and
Alabama Chemical Co (AL). A subsequent private owner, J. L. Mathews,
attempted tourist commercialization and installed electric
lights. The last private owner, Harry E. Hoover, also had
dreams
of a show cave. Ultimately in 1978, the cave property was
acquired, through condemnation, by the United States, Fish and Wildlife
Service. The Service has created the Sauta Cave Wildlife Preserve to
protect the large endangered bat population in the cave.
Solving
the Mystery of The Great Cave of Dry Fork of Cheat River
Doug McCarty
PO Box 61
Colfax, WV 26566
z9z9@comcast.net
In
1855, a Prof. George Jordan published a pamphlet entitled, “The Great
Cave of Dry Fork of Cheat River”. Based on location information in the
pamphlet, the cave in question appeared to be what is now called the
Cave Hollow - Arbogast Cave System, in Tucker County, WV. When it was
printed, the pamphlet was immediately controversial, because beyond the
first few hundred feet, Jordan's description was not at all like the
passage in the Cave Hollow System. Through the years, there have been
two primary explanations for the discrepancy. Either Jordan greatly
embellished his descriptions of Cave Hollow-Arbogast and fabricated
features that weren't there, or he was describing some other cave.
The
truth about Jordan's pamphlet remained unresolved for 155 years, until
a serendipitous Google search turned up evidence suggesting that Jordan
had plagiarized an article in an 1851 issue of “The Knickerbocker”.
Using that article as a starting point, and searching through other
19th century sources, accumulated evidence strongly suggests that
Jordan more or less accurately described the entrance and first few
hundred feet of the Cave Hollow-Arbogast System, but that the rest of
the "Great Cave" is a actually a thinly-disguised description of Howe's
Cave in Schoharie County, New York.
Billy
Alton Garrison, Caver and Art Scholar
Charles A. Lundquist
Research Institute, von Braun Hall
University of Alabama
Huntsville, AL 35899
lundquc@uah.edu
William W. Torode, NSS Librarian
2806 Cave Ave.
Huntsville, AL 35810
btorode@caves.org
The
caver community abounds with individuals having diverse
interests. Indeed, the multifaceted character of the average
caver is a cultural topic worthy of notice and study.
Sometimes
an ardent caver becomes a notable figure in a field other than
speleology. Many examples of this
circumstance can be
cited. Bill Garrison is such an example. Bill was
born in
Russellville, Alabama on February 9, 1941 and moved to Huntsville in
1957. In Huntsville he became interested in caving, and
joined
the NSS on April 11, 1959. By March 1960 he had published two
articles in the NSS NEWS and others in the Huntsville Grotto
Newsletter. However, in March 1960, he left for a tour of
duty in
the US Army, after which returned to Huntsville. In
Huntsville,
Bill again began caving with gusto. His home became a meeting place for
his many caver friends and caving visitors. But he also
developed
an intense interest in the art of Vincent van Gogh, and started
collecting all the books on van Gogh that he could find.
Eventually his obsession for the works of van Gogh crowded out his
caving activities. He became a world authority on van Gogh
and
produced a comprehensive bibliography of publications by and on van
Gogh. On July 2, 2009, Bill Garrison died in Anderson, South
Carolina. His daughter, Utica Garrison Crouch donated his
extensive book collection and the van Gogh bibliography to the Archives
at the Salmon Library of the University of Alabama Huntsville
George
Ehrenfried and the Boston Grotto
Kevin Harris
15 Chaucer Rd.
Nashua, NH 03062
kevin.w.harris@comcast.net
George
Ehrenfried (NSS 2099) died in January 2010 at the age of 95.
George helped found the Boston Grotto in 1952 as a splinter group of
the MIT Outing Club, and provided an essential thread of continuity all
the way to the present. When he visited a Met Grotto booth at
an
outdoor activities conference in 1951, George was already an
experienced outdoorsman and amateur
geologist.
George’s giving and intrepid spirit helped overcome the perennial
issues of maintaining a grotto in a cave-poor area: long travel times,
high turnover, low recruitment rate, experience retention, and personal
conflicts. His wide and deep knowledge of the natural and
human
history of the region made him a valuable resource and welcome
companion in hundreds of outings near and far. He encouraged,
and
contributed to, every aspect of grotto activities, both of local and
national interest. In the early days, he contributed to
exploration and vertical techniques. In the middle years, he
met
the love of his life, Joanne Roberts, at a Grotto meeting, and
developed a lifelong love of the geology and caves of
Iceland. In
later years, he loved to lead grotto trips to his favorite caves,
climbs, hikes, geologic formations, and cultural events and
artifacts. He put his chemistry degree (Harvard, 1936), to
good
use with a lifetime of contributions to the science, industry, and
practice of photography. On behalf of NSS, he helped with the
1996 SpeleoDigest
and the
2002 Convention Guidebook, but his biggest contribution was introducing
hundreds of people to caving and respect for the outdoors.
Mapleton
Cave, Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania
Jack H. Speece
711 E. Atlantic Ave.
Altoona, PA 16601
Mapleton
Cave, Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania, was discovered during quarry
operations in 1901. This 1,500 foot long, straight tunnel
cavity
was reported to have many splendid formations. A single
picture
postcard verifies this claim. Several early written accounts
also
describe the cave. Some have reported that the cave is buried
under a talus slope while others say it was quarried away.
The
cave still lives in the minds of many of the local residents.
What remains of the cave still remains a mystery.
"The Tunnel" and Other Mysteries from Cave Hill, Augusta County, Virginia
Gems from a Short-Lived Local Newspaper
Jim McConkey
604 Shirley Manor Rd
Reisterstown, MD 21136
mcjames@comcast.net
Weyers
Cave, now known as Grand Caverns, is the oldest continuously operating
show cave in the United States and its history is inextricably tied to
that of the town that was built around it, Shendun (now Grottoes),
Virginia. Shendun was a boom town of the post-Civil War recovery days.
Founded by Stonewall Jackson's mapmaker, Maj. Jedediah Hotchkiss, it
rose meteorically out of nowhere and quickly flamed out only three
years later. Maj. Hotchkiss founded a newspaper in town, the Shendun
News, which was outfitted with the newest and finest printing equipment
available anywhere in the Shenandoah Valley. More of a propaganda organ
for the town than an unbiased newspaper, it still contains numerous
tidbits about the caves and karst features of Cave Hill, home to Grand
Caverns, Fountain Cave, Madison's Cave and some twenty others. One of
the biggest mysteries of Cave Hill was a report of a tunnel being dug
to connect Fountain and Weyers Caves. Tidbits from the Shendun News
shine a little light on this mystery, and even open up a few more.
Stephen Bishop At Mammoth Cave
Roger W. Brucker, NSS 1999, HLF, H, A&L
1635 Grange Hall Rd.
Dayton, OH 45432
roger.brucker@sbcglobal.net
Stephen
Bishop, 1821-1857, a slave born in Glasgow, KY on the Lowry farm, was
tendered in trade for legal services to attorney Franklin Gorin.
In 1838 Gorin purchase Mammoth Cave for $5,000 from saltpeter merchant
Hyman Gratz. Gorin and his slaves moved to Mammoth Cave and
immediately improved the property by renovating the hotel and
continuing the cave touring business. Stephen, 17, learned the
tour routes and spiel. He indulged his curiosity by exploring
when the tour business was slack. His first discovery, Gorin’s
Dome, was widely acclaimed in Gorin’s articles sent to
newspapers. Stephen and a tourist crossed the Bottomless Pit,
opening Pensacola Avenue, River Styx, and Echo River. John
Croghan purchased the cave and its slaves. Stephen ranged beyond
Echo River into Sillimans Avenue and upward into Cleveland Avenue and
Franklin Avenue. In 1842 he drafted a map, published in 1844,
showing in schematic fashion the 20 or more miles of cave he had
discovered plus the eight miles known before Stephen arrived.
Stephen will be remembered as the prototype of modern systematic cave
explorers, the prototype of modern guiding that combines science with
entertainment, and the economic engine that put Mammoth Cave on the map
of American natural wonders. Stephen’s wife, Charlotte,
accompanied Stephen into some remote parts of the cave, as witnessed by
her autograph far beyond tourist routes.
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