Hi All: Here is a KY caving story hot off the press as Mike Dyas and I went cave hunting in far western KY, yesterday. We searched the area of western Caldwell County between Farmerville and Fredonia, north of Crider. We spent considerable time talking to three different folks, one a very alert 86 yr old retired farmer, Mr. Patton, whose father had been a Spar miner. We talked about farming, droughts, spar mines and carbide lights for some time. Iron ore mining came into that area around 1890 and spar mining really went big time in the early 1940's as it was in demand as flux for the northern steel mills. But, soon Mexico spar, from south of Texas especially in the Big Bend area, flooded the market at a greatly reduced price and the Caldwell and Crittenden Counties' spar mines on the Tuffs, Claylick and other fault zones went out of business. Some of the mines were shaft mines hundreds of feet deep. Mr. Patton told us about a nearby road cut with an exposed spar vein 5 to 8 ft. wide. We searched for it but must have taken a wrong turn. Mr. Patton talked about the carbide lights and how you could take them apart and make them work again when they plugged up and how they would keep you warm. LEDs will never replace the old miner's light.
He pointed us in the direction of a "new" cave on his extensive farm, which we named after the old friendly guy, Patton Cave. A crawl-in which Mr. Patton described as about 100 ft. long, almost standing and maybe 8-10 ft. wide in places, on the side of the wooded ridge in Renault Limestone, below the Bethel Sandstone.... The search....The slope was very rocky and since the entrance was a crawl, we simply missed it. We searched for 2-3 hours but could not find it. So it goes. A second retired guy also told us about the same cave, so no doubt Patton Cave is there, somewhere?...... Visited two springs. Ice Cave Spring, interesting and Good Spring Church, not much. We ate lunch, again, at the LaRue BBQ place in Fredonia. A good tenderloin plate. Last week we had the BBQ plate and it was excellent, better than Roy's in Russellville. Mike Dyas heads back to DC on Sat. Next event is the KSS meeting and paper caving session on April 26. Then, the MaCa Restoration is the first weekend of May. The second weekend of May is a CRF work weekend on the property at Hamilton Valley......... Chris Anderson has a very interesting project going on in Crittenden Co. near Frances and not far from Mexico. A decade ago or so a large Air Force place crashed near Mexico, KY. The plane was on it's way from Texas to NY. When the pilot was rescued and told he was at Mexico, the pilot said he thought he was off course, but not that far off! That is a LaRue restaurant story. We are planting new shrubs and raspberries today. Cavingly, Preston ___________________________________________________ ----- Original Message ----- From: David To: [email protected] ; [email protected] ; [email protected] ; [email protected] ; [email protected] ; [email protected] ; [email protected] ; [email protected] ; [email protected] ; [email protected] ; [email protected] ; [email protected] ; [email protected] ; [email protected] ; [email protected] ; [email protected] ; [email protected] ; [email protected] ; [email protected] ; [email protected] ; [email protected] ; [email protected] ; [email protected] ; [email protected] ; [email protected] ; [email protected] ; [email protected] ; [email protected] ; [email protected] ; [email protected] ; [email protected] ; [email protected] ; [email protected] ; [email protected] ; [email protected] Sent: Friday, April 18, 2008 9:28 AM Subject: Virtual Speleo-Campfire This private list is now officially called The Virtual Speleo-Campfire
