Fritz,
I was on that ledge in Sonora Caverns a few years back .. impressive...
Bill
----- Original Message -----
From: "Fritz Holt" <[email protected]>
To: "'Pete Lindsley'" <[email protected]>; "Cavetex"
<[email protected]>; "'Mandy Holt'" <[email protected]>;
"'Jenny Holt'" <[email protected]>; "'Steve Ashmore'"
<[email protected]>; <[email protected]>; "'Debra Batts'"
<[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, September 01, 2011 2:56 PM
Subject: RE: [Texascavers] Snowy River Cave discovery celebrates 10th year!
In the spring of 1956 while stationed at Fort Bliss in El Paso, three army
buddies and I drove to Capitan, NM and obtained directions to Ft. Stanton
Cave which was close by. We missed seeing Smokey and Snowy River but did
travel quite far into the cave. We were the only ones on the unrestricted
premises. The cave was impressive for its size but if I remember correctly,
not highly decorated. A good distance into the cave, I took a low crawlway
to the right and was amazed by the millions of brown opaque crystals an inch
or more long that were on the roughly 24 inch ceiling and all over the
floor, apparently broken off by previous crawlers. The cave was easily
navigated but I'm sure there was a lot more cave than we saw. On the gravel
or caliche road to the cave I hit a cattle guard a little too fast and when
my 53 ford tudor bottomed out it knocked a hole in the gas tank and gas was
dribbling out. I found a corn cob (unused) beside the road and was able to
drive it into the rupture and stop the leak until I could get back to
civilization to have it repaired. We were a long way from a gas station.
Two or three months earlier I was fortunate to be among the first groups
into Mayfield Cave (Caverns of Sonora) with Jimmy Walker, Bob Hudson and
Ralph Derby. Jimmy and I always thought we were the first group in after the
extended cave discovery by the Dallas group after they crossed "The Ledge".
Carl Kunath's research indicates we may have only been the third to sixth
group to cross the ledge. Jimmy had sent the Dallas cavers there and this is
when they crossed "The Ledge" in September,1955 and discovered perhaps the
most beautifully decorated cave in the United States. Our visit was between
December, 1955 and February, 1956. This was my most exciting spelunking
adventure which I will never forget. Good friends, fantastic cave. A large
picture taken by Jimmy Walker of me admiring a very long soda straw while on
this trip hangs in the visitors office of The Caverns of Sonora. You can
read our story of this trip in the large ICS edition of The Texas Caver
under "Carbide Corner". I have probably bored you enough with my nostalgic
memories.
Fritz Holt
-----Original Message-----
From: Pete Lindsley [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Thursday, September 01, 2011 2:47 PM
To: Cavetex
Subject: [Texascavers] Snowy River Cave discovery celebrates 10th year!
Just about 10 years ago to the hour some cavers dug into Snowy River,
after many years of digging in various places in Fort Stanton Cave.
Numerous Texas cavers have visited and surveyed (and dug) in the cave
since the late 1950's when Tom Gould and his friends explored. Jack C.
Burch was also very interested in the commercial prospects of the
cave; fortunately Jack decided to commercialize Mayfield Cave instead.
Read about it here:
[http://ruidosofreepress.com/view/full_story/15181298/article-Snowy-River-Cave-discovery-celebrates-10th-year?instance=main_news
]
So today in Lincoln County it was declared to be the 10th anniversary
of the discovery.
- Pete
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