Ross, Kunath is indeed the one to talk to about Bill Helmer. Attached is a note from 1955 in the records of the Texas Speleological Survey that might help somewhat.
Ron Ralph, TSS Director From: grub...@centurytel.net Sent: Friday, April 24, 2020 7:59 AM To: texascavers Cc: searos...@gmail.com Subject: Re: [Texascavers] Historical Question I think a "person of interest" to look into here is Bill Helmer. He was a UTG caver back about then and he was a cartoonist who did many caver cartoons. See his book "There we was" He went on to have a career at a nationally prominent magazine, Playboy. Even if this is a blind lead you will find interesting things. NSS bulletin 10 on "The Caves of Texas" was a bit after that as I recall, so I dont think its involved here. 1954 is very early UT grotto. Sadly many of the people I would ask about this are no longer with us -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "kara posso" <k.po...@hotmail.com> To: "texascavers" <texascavers@texascavers.com>, searos...@gmail.com Sent: Friday, April 24, 2020 7:48:55 AM Subject: [Texascavers] Historical Question Hello Everyone, Below is a message i received from a fellow through the grotto email the other day. I thought that he would have better luck solving his mystery with the help of all of you since my institutional knowledge does not go back this far. Ross is included on this email, please reply to hum or remember to hit REPLY ALL to keep him on the email chain since he is not signed up on the listserve. Also Ross, if there is anyway you can share the comic strip (or part of it) i am sure people would be interested to see! Thanks folks! Kara My name is Ross Burns, and several people on Facebook suggested that I post this question to your group.It concerns spelunking in the Austin area in the period of 1953-54. I am a fan of the old Pogo comic strips by Walt Kelly. He frequently mentions real people. events, and groups in the strip. I have been reading a recent re-issue of the strips for 1955 and 1956. In a storyline he published beginning in January of 1955, he repeatedly mentions the University of Texas Spelunking Team. Partly I know that he loved to play with words including spelunking. However the repeated mention of UT and Texas over 2 or 3 months, makes me wonder if there was a particular event that he was referring to. Some of the characters are trying to reach the team to help rescue a frog that was swallowed by Albert the alligator. So, it may have been some sort of rescue or similar event. Since Kelly wrote the strips well ahead of publication date, he probably started this storyline in November or December of 1954. I would appreciate any information that you might be able to shed on this mystery. Thank you for your time and attention. Ross Burns _______________________________________________ Texascavers mailing list | http://texascavers.com Texascavers@texascavers.com | Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/texascavers@texascavers.com/ http://lists.texascavers.com/listinfo/texascavers -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- _______________________________________________ Texascavers mailing list | http://texascavers.com Texascavers@texascavers.com | Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/texascavers@texascavers.com/ http://lists.texascavers.com/listinfo/texascavers
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