*Ernie Garza* *NSS 13484-FE, CM * July 20, 1938 – August 16, 2019
*Note:* This is the obituary sent on 23 August 2019 to the *NSS News*, which will contain one or two photos. For a longer biography of Ernie Garza with many photos and citations, see *The Hall of Texas and Mexico Cavers*, established today at http://cavelife.info/ International caver and creative photographer, *Ernest Garza*, was born in Brownsville, Texas. He grew up in Corpus Christi and southern California. Nicknamed Ernie and Ernesto, he was a skilled caver, photographer, and friend to many. Ernie passed away at his residence in Austin, Texas, age 81, with friend Vivian Loftin by his side. His family and friends are mourning his death, so soon after his close friend and neighbor, Don Broussard, passed away on May 16. Ernie passed away after recent stays in the hospital and nursing home, then spending his final weeks in Austin, living under the watchful eyes of cavers Yazmin Avila and Jim Kennedy. Logan McNatt and Barbara Vinson interviewed him in June to learn more about his life. Logan and Terry Holsinger went through some of his slides and photo prints to get them ready for friends to organize and scan. There are numerous albums in storage cabinets and elsewhere. His cousin, Tavita Alvarado, remembers Ernie attending W.B. Ray High School in Corpus Christi, Texas. She recalled Ernie as a diver who would bring sea collections to his family. Rune Burnett said that Ernie worked in undersea welding for a time. He became independent of his parents, Ramon and Esther Salinas Garza, at age 15 or 16. He was in the Los Angeles area for junior high, where he started learning photography. He worked in photography at McGreggor Studios in Corpus Christi in high school. He served in the Army at Fort Huachuca, Arizona, in 1961-1963, where he learned advanced photography. He was back in Corpus in 1965 and California 1966-1994. He often came to Austin via expeditions to Mexico, and in 1994 he moved to Terry Raines’ old house on Parkwood near Mueller Airport. He rented 473 Limestone Lane, Driftwood, and then he bought his country place on 444 Billie Brooks Road. The first caving photo we have of him was at Xilitla, San Luis Potosí, in 1966. He made trips to the Sierra de El Abra, San Luis Potosí and Cuetzalan, Puebla. He focused on Oaxaca, where he caved in the Huautla Area and the Cerro Rabón. His name is on at least 23 Mexican cave maps, and he explored and photographed many others. Ernie went on many trips to Mexico and a few Texas caves. He published cave photos, trip reports, reviews and articles. He received an NSS Fellow award in 1988, and he and Karlin Meyers received a Certificate of Merit Award in 1993 for pioneering the Cerro Rabón in Oaxaca, where there are many deep caves. In California he lived in Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, Monterey Park and Los Angeles, and he was a member of the Southern California Grotto. He went caving with Frank Binney, Dave Bunnell, Carol Vesely, Bob Richards, Steve Slocomb, John Woods, Blane Colton, Bill Deane and others. Ernie and John Woods went in many California caves: Lilburn Cave (survey trips), Church Cave, Soldier's Cave, Cave of the Winding Stair (survey trips), Crystal '67 (Houghton's Cave). Ernie and John caved in Arizona at Onyx Cave (survey trips), Cave of the Bells, SP Cave, Fort Huachuca Cave and Dante's Descent. They also travelled around Nevada and made brief sorties together into the Grand Canyon and Northern Mexico around Hermosillo. He assisted Dave Bunnell in mapping Painted Cave, California, for years the largest surveyed sea cave in the world. He surprised everyone by pulling out two helium-filled Snoopy balloons that he used to measure the 130-foot ceiling. Ernie also went on a big 1982 expedition to Mount Kaijende, Papua New Guinea. Details of his career with citations are in a long biography compiled by Elliott, available at http://cavelife.info/ John Woods said, “Ernie Garza is the studliest nerd who ever walked the planet and an eccentric among eccentrics. He has done things that macho men fear and yet has always remained self-effacing, gentle and kind. He is one of the most soft-spoken men I have even known. I used to joke that he had no adrenal glands. Both his eccentricity and his humility are legendary among cavers. I can truly say that all who meet him – care for him. I have never met a more affable man.” Ernie hardly reacted when a massive rock fall nearly nailed his caving group in Dante's Descent, Arizona. Ernie emerged from a cloud of dust and said, “That was exciting.” Ernie was constantly forgetting his caving helmet. Once he bought a straw hat to replace his forgotten helmet at Millerton Lakes Cave, CA. He taped a carbide lamp to the hat and everything was fine until it caught fire in the cave while it was on his head. Ernie never batted an eye. He put out the fire and kept on caving with a smoldering “helmet.” Nothing could fluster him. Ernie loved to photograph caves, people and nature. He kayaked to sea caves on the West Coast. He built a cool, wooden photo box for cavers to pose in at gatherings. He made annual pilgrimages to Burning Man, the NSS Convention and the Texas Caver Reunion. He was well-known for his excellent photos, which were published in the NSS News, AMCS Activities Newsletter, Texas Caver, and books. Ernie did some freelance photography and was a still photographer for a number of motion pictures. He also did some publicity stills. Later, he started working as a model maker and lab tech for a motion picture special effects house. He worked on movies like Star Trek The Motion Picture (1979), Bladerunner (1982), Tron (1982), Brainstorm (1983), 2010 (1984), Ghostbusters (1984), and Solar Crisis (1990). There is a photo of Ernie on a ladder next to the giant Enterprise spaceship model. Ernie made his screen appearance in the first Ghostbusters as he was portrayed as a levitated Chinaman holding a rubber chicken in a shot of a newspaper article about the strange happenings in New York City. He worked for Robert Abel and Associates, Boss Productions, Charles Eames Design studio, Neuhart-Donges-Neuhart and Fine Arts Software. Frank Binney said Ernie had an office right below Jane Fonda and Tom Hayden, and they met Jane. Early Caving Trips Ernie is mentioned in at least 34 AMCS newsletters and on 23 cave maps from 1965-2015. He explored many others. In April 1966 Bob Burnett, Ernie Garza, Ted Peters, Terry Raines and Philip Winsborough explored five caves near Xilitla, San Luis Potosí (four were mapped). In 1971 Ernie joined Don Broussard, Robert Hanford, David and Ann Honea, Sandy Robinson, Leslie Clapp, Rich Cooper, Blake Harrison, Dave Jackson, Roy Jameson, Craig Sainsott and Frank Binney to explore and map caves in the Sierra de El Abra near Ciudad Valles, S.L.P. In March 1972 he was involved in exploring El Sótano [del Barro], Querétaro, then the world’s deepest pit. His mapping trips are listed below and in the biography. Table. Ernie helped map at least 23 caves in Mexico. These 15 have his name on them: 1966, San Luis Potosí, Xilitla highlands, Cueva de la Selva, Cueva de Tlamaya, Cueva del Salitre 1972, San Luis Potosí, Sierra de El Abra, Nacimiento de El Río Coy, Cueva Pinta, Cueva de los Monos and Sótano de los Monos 1972, Queretaro, Sierra Gorda, El Sótano [del Barro], 1973, San Luis Potosí, Sierra de El Abra, Sótano de la Cuesta 1977, Oaxaca, Huautla, La Grieta 1979, Puebla, Cuetzalan, Cueva Tecolo 1980, Puebla, Cuetzalan, Atepolihuit de Nauzontla, Sumidero San Bernardo 1989, Oaxaca, Cerro Rabón, Nita Jan 1993-1997, Oaxaca, Cheve Area, Sistema Cheve 2001, Oaxaca, San Juan Coatzóspam, Cueva de la Concha de Caracol, Cueva de la Grieta, Cueva con Huesos y Viento 2003, Oaxaca, Cheve, Sistema Cheve 2005, Nuevo León, Purificación, Cueva de la Nochebuena 2005, Tamaulipas, Sierra de Guatemala, Sótano de Jineo 2009, Oaxaca, Huautla, Cueva Agua Golondrinas 2 2012, Oaxaca, Huautla, Cueva de las Arañas A Few Ernie Stories In the early 1970s Ernie invented “Garzaline” and solved the problem of flashlight corrosion. He packed the interior of the flashlight with Vaseline. In December 1972 Ernie and others explored Sótano de Vásquez, Tamaulipas, and surveyed over a km of passage, reaching Glow Worm Canyon. Fish Lake was reached on a trip by others in February 1973, who collected blind fish for Robert Mitchell and William Elliott’s research. In 1975 Ernie was detained by two corrupt cops in a Querétero bus station. They took away his new machete, still wrapped in paper in his pack, and his bottle of Tequila. They left him for a moment to see their comandante, so Ernie gave them the slip into a waiting cab. He then flagged down a bus on the road. In 1979 Carol Devine and Ernie used folding kayaks to float the Usumacinta river in Guatemala. Carol and her husband Mike had a guest ranch in the Petén jungle called Finca Ixobel. They arrived just after Mike was led to an amazing discovery in a cave near their property. It was covered with Maya wall paintings and was eventually named Naj Tunich. National Geographic chief archaeologist George Stuart heard that Ernie was in the cave area and arranged to have Ernie map the interior. Then they flew him from the jungles up to the National Geographic headquarters in Washington, DC, where Ernie helped analyze his data to generate a map of the cave for the feature story in the magazine. They then flew Ernie back to the jungle where he finally did his float trip with Carol. Ernie was amazed at the whole experience and spoke of swimming in an underground swimming pool in the NG headquarters building; he felt it was truly surreal. In 1984 Ernie paddled his Folboat along the rugged coast of Punta Banda, Baja California Norte. Landing on one of the few beaches, he discovered a series of caves that were later named “Sistema Punta Banda.” Lacking a flashlight, he couldn't appreciate their full extent, but he returned with glowing reports of large chambers filled with barking sea lions. A huge gray whale surfaced five m from Ernie and Dave Bunnell’s boat. In January-February, 1985, Blane Colton, Ernie, Laszlo Kubinyi, and Karlin Meyers conducted a reconnaissance of the Suchitunaco Plateau, part of the Sierra Mazateca east of Huautla de Jiménez, Oaxaca. They were able to scout the routes up into the area and found a number of caves. They found an enormous sinkhole that cavers had been seeking. They were the first foreigners to visit Cerro Rabón since 1969. This was pure reconnaissance, since their maps, photos, and information regarding trails and terrain were inadequate. There were no roads onto the plateau, so they took a steep, direct route from Jalapa de Díaz to the escarpment, west across the plateau, and through the village of San Martín Caballero before descending to Tenango. In March 1987 a multinational group of 13 cavers, including Ernie, spent three weeks exploring the extensive Cerro Rabón karst. Local permission, a sensitive issue due to nearby archeological finds in caves, was at first refused, necessitating a trip to Mexico, D.F. A base camp was installed at the edge of a large dolina near the remote village of San Martín Caballero. They discovered Ojo de las Mazatecas, about 150 m in diameter and 250 m deep. The deepest cave that was explored was Kijahe Xontjoa, 1223 m deep in 2000. In a horizontal cave called Nita Tunso-o, a promising lead was followed to a dry stream passage that opened up into a beautifully decorated borehole. Abundant tarantulas were seen in this cave. In March 1988, Ernie, Beth Meyers, and Karlin Meyers set off from Phoenix to meet Blane Colton, Jeb Steward, and Laszlo Kubinyi. They hiked 13 rugged km to Cerro Rabón. Ernie led a team of cavers southeast and up the mountain from San Martín Caballero to a large surface rift that became known as The Fissure, or Nita Diplodocus. This spectacular cleft has two deep pits in its upper section. In May 1988, California cavers reconnoitered Isla San Martin, Baja California, near San Quintin on the Pacific coast. Amy Battista, Dave Bunnell, Ernie, Susan Hammersmith, and Bob Richards took two boats to make the five-km voyage to the volcanic island. They hiked the whole 5.5-km circumference of the island, finding no sea caves, but a local fisherman showed them a lava-tube cave up on the lava slopes. On a later trip he found an unusual sea cave, with three levels, on the mainland. Cueva de Tres Pisos has 316 m of mapped passage, probably making it the largest sea cave in Baja California. 2018. Ernie, Gilly Elor and Andreas Klocker drove the truck from the U.S. to Huautla, and everyone else arrived at varying times via public transport. These trips would not have been possible without support by Ernie, who helped on language barriers, local politics, and great cooking. A memorial gathering for Ernie may be planned for this fall. There will be a New Orleans jazz funeral march in his honor at the Texas Caver Reunion, Paradise Canyon, October 12, 2019. Contributors: William R. Elliott, Tavita Alvarado, Kira Holt, Vivian Loftin, Steve Slocomb, John Woods, Bruce Rogers, Dave Bunnell, Logan McNatt, Jim Kennedy, Rune Burnett, Susan Souby, Terry Holsinger, Terry Raines, Frank Binney, Katie Arens and Nancy Weaver. William R. (Bill) Elliott speodes...@gmail.com
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