Chapter 15
During the Civil War it was worked for saltpeter. All the earth, down to the rock floor, was removed, even in crevices only wide enough for a man to squeeze through. An incline was built so that horses could be brought into the cave, and no earth now remains within reach of daylight. The rock floor is almost as clean as if swept.
Their exhaustive digging extended for about 200 yards from the entrance. The "face" of the earth is here about 15 feet high; for some reason, which could not be learned, the miners continued their work from here by means of a tunnel 4 or 5 feet high and wide, leaving a floor of earth, and a covering of the same nearly 6 feet thick. This tunnel was not followed.
Near the entrance a crevice barely wide enough for a man to walk in and in some places only 4 feet high turns off toward the left and holds practically the same size for about 100 yards. Here it becomes larger and higher. Earth has been carried out of this and its narrow branches wherever there is room to use a shovel. In a large chamber 200 yards from the front, at the end of the crevice, much digging was done; the "face" left is 13 or 14 feet high.
As far as the diggers went, there is nothing left to explore. Beyond that it is not probable any remains can be found, as it is totally dark long before any remaining earth is reached.
FRANKLIN COUNTY
Several caves were reported in the vicinity of Sewanee and Monteagle. They are objects of curiosity to students and summer residents who frequently visit and make tours through them. They have thus acquired a fame much beyond what is justified by their real interest. They seem to be wet, or with contracted entrances and front chambers, or difficult of access, and, so far as could be judged by the descriptions given, none of them is worth examining.
MARION COUNTY
ACCOUNT'S CAVES.--There are two of these, both with high and large openings, on the right bank of the Tennessee, 2 miles above Shellmound or Nickajack. One is in the face of the bluff, the entrance 50 feet above the river bottom land. Huge rocks lie in front and over nearly all the floor. Surface water flows in at the entrance and after winding its crooked way among the rocks sinks at a point 25 or 30 feet below the top of the débris in front of the entrance. This indicates an open way to the river, so the bottom of the cave is probably down nearly or quite to the water level.
The second cave is 100 yards above the first. A little stream, whose head is in a valley, nearly a mile away, flows around the foot of the bluff and into the mouth of the cave. When the Tennessee rises to flood height the backwater comes into the bed of this stream through the cave before submerging the low ridge between it and the river.
CALDWELL'S CAVE.--This is on the right bank of the Sequatchie River, a mile above its junction with the Tennessee. It is said that formerly a man could walk into it easily for 20 or 30 feet and then crawl 50 or 60 feet farther. This is probably an error of memory. By stooping one can now go in about 10 feet from the edge of the roof, and with a pole feel where the floor and roof come together, nowhere more than 10 or 12 feet beyond. It is said, also, that this accumulation results from throwing in earth to prevent foxes from having a den in the cave. A small hole might thus be closed, but it is too much to believe that the people now living around here would carry in many hundred cubic yards of earth for any such purpose.
Human bones are reported unearthed near the surface; at least bones of some sort were found which the discoverers supposed were human.
The entrance to the cave is more than 25 feet in width, and about 25 feet above the flood plain of the Sequatchie, or only 15 feet above extreme high water. It is in the only exposure of rock for nearly half a mile along the bluff. On either side of the opening the walls are solid, down to the alluvial earth, but in front of the cavity only detritus can be seen from top to bottom. For this reason it is improbable that any solid bottom could be found above the level of the river. Much of the stone weathers out in small fragments, and the process of disintegration is going on continually, as shown by the fresh appearance of the sheltered fragments. How rapid or how regular it may have been in former time is impossible to guess, so that excavation, to be of any value, would have to begin at the bottom of the slope, with the knowledge that the original floor of the cave may be still lower.
NICKAJACK CAVE.--This is the largest and most widely known cave in Tennessee. It is half a mile from and within plain sight of the railway station of Shellmound, 20 miles west of Chattanooga. The entrance is fully 100 feet wide and 40 feet high; a short distance within the cave enlarges, a little farther it contracts somewhat. Daylight penetrates, in spite of curves and immense piles of débris, for more than 500 feet. It has been a resort from time out of mind; first, for Indians and pioneers, then for refugees, now for various social gatherings.
All the earth in sight has been worked for saltpeter, leached, and thrown aside. A vastly greater quantity than now remains has been washed out of the cave by Nickajack Creek, which always has some flowing water and in wet weather rises 5 or 6 feet. Long bridges are required where the highway and railroad cross it.
It takes its name from the Nickajack Indians, who once dwelt here. The field in front is strewn with flint chips and other indications of aboriginal settlement.
There is nothing in the cave to dig for. The saltpeter miners moved all the earth they could reach, while the immense rocks and the creek make any further excavations impossible.
HAMILTON COUNTY
There are many caves in the vicinity of Chattanooga, but all that were visited possess some feature which makes examination appear useless. Most of them have small, inconvenient entrances; others are subject to overflow or have running water in them. None could be heard of in which conditions were better.
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ALABAMA
LAUDERDALE COUNTY
SMITHSONIA.--There is a noted cave at Smithsonia, near Cheatham's Ferry, 15 miles west of Florence. It was reported as suitable for a dwelling, but at the entrance the roof is not more than 4 feet high, and a stream a foot deep reaches to the wall on either side.
KEY'S CAVE.--On the Buck Key farm, 6 miles west of Florence, is a cave which may have afforded shelter to the earliest man in the region. There are two entrances or antechambers, separated by a solid rock partition a few yards thick. One is partially filled with huge solid blocks, some of them several hundred cubic feet in size; the other has in it and in front of it a mass of earth and loose rock whose crest is fully 20 feet above the highest part of the inside floor a few feet back from the front margin of the roof. From here an additional descent of 10 feet leads to the floor behind the first-mentioned entrance, and there is about the same descent to a nearly level floor in the cave a short distance beyond. The way is partially blocked by large rocks which, it is said, have fallen within a few years. For this reason persons in the neighborhood are afraid to venture in. There is a rumor that the corpse of a woman, coated with stalagmite, can be seen in this cave; also several bodies (sex apparently indeterminate) lying like spokes in a wheel, with heads at the center. No one could be persuaded to go in and point out the place where they lie.
From its position, high in a bluff but easy to reach, not more than one-fourth of a mile from the Tennessee River and the same distance from a clear creek, with a strip of bottom land between it and the streams, this cave seems worthy of exploration. At least a month of work by several laborers would be required to clean away the fallen material so that excavations would be practicable.
COLYER'S CAVE.--This is about 5 miles west of Florence. It faces a ravine that leads into the creek discharging near Key's Cave. Human bones were found in it many years ago. The entrance is a round hole, through which one must creep a few yards, then by means of a pole or ladder descend 6 feet. From here the cave is nearly level, with several branches. In some places the floor is solid rock; in other parts it is covered with a thin layer of earth. The "human bones" consisted of one skeleton, lying on a rock floor, fully a fourth of a mile from the mouth of the cave.
COFFEE CAVE.--This cave, 4 miles west of Florence, is said to be "like the Colyer cave, but smaller in every way." It was not visited.
SHOAL CREEK.--A cave is reported on Shoal Creek "3 or 4 miles above its mouth." No one could be found who knew its location more definitely or was able to give a clear description of it.
BLUEWATER CAVE.--Bluewater Creek comes in several miles above Lock No. 6 of the Mussel Shoals Canal. A cave is reported to be near its mouth, but the only caves anywhere in that vicinity, so far as anyone living or working there knows, are a small hole a mile below on the canal, into which a man can crawl, and one some 3 miles up the creek, reached by climbing down a sink hole in a field. The opening to the latter results from fallen rock.
COLBERT COUNTY
NEWSOM SPRINGS.--Numerous caves, most of them small, are reported in the county. The best known is at Newsom Springs, 8 miles south of Barton, on the Southern Railway. It is locally known as the "three-story cave." The lower "story" is a cave from which water always flows. The second "story" is directly above the first. The two have no connection, unless far back in the hill. The floor of the upper cave is mostly rock. It is now fitted up by some people in the neighborhood as a camping place, where they spend a part of each summer. The third "story" is an excavation for a cellar under a house recently erected.
MURRELL'S CAVE.--Tradition has it that this cave was one of the hiding places of a famous desperado and horse thief whose gang operated over all this country in early days. The only entry is by means of a ladder in a narrow crevice 20 feet deep. The place may have been a refuge, but never a residence. It is one-fourth of a mile from Bear Creek, not far above the mouth.
Two other holes or crevices within a few hundred yards, difficult to crawl through, reach small caves. Possibly all these are connected.
BAT CAVE.--One-fourth of a mile from Murrell's Cave is a small cavern, the roof not more than 4 feet above the floor. It has been inhabited from time immemorial by myriads of bats. Several tons of guano have been taken out for fertilizing purposes, but no evidence has been discovered that it was ever a habitation for humans.
PRIDE'S CAVE.--In the river bluff a mile from Pride Station is a cave in which a fisherman has made his home for several years. There is a rather thin deposit of earth on the floor which may have recently accumulated.
CHEATHAM'S FERRY.--Near the landing some boys, while hunting a few years ago, discovered a stone wall across the mouth of a small cave. Tearing it away, they found within some human bones, flints, pipes, including one "with a lot of stem holes," and fragments of pottery. All these were on top of the earth or only a few inches below it. Various excavators or relic hunters have failed to find anything more. The cavity is quite small and difficult to reach, and is undoubtedly a burial place for modern Indians.
On both sides of the river here are immense shell heaps. The shell is mingled with earth near the top, but below 2 or 3 feet the mass is of clean shell to a depth, as exposed by the river, of at least 10 feet. The bottom of the deposit is not visible, being concealed by mud piled against it in high water. The old ferryman says it is 20 feet deep. Although the shell piles are built up higher than the bottom lands to the rear or on either side, they are submerged several feet in great freshets. It is impossible to explain this fact otherwise than by the assumption that the bed of the river has been elevated in recent times, although there are no other indications apparent that such is the case.
SHEFFIELDS.--In the river bluff 2 miles above the Sheffield end of the railway bridge is a crevice or joint which has been widened to 10 feet at the outlet by water percolating from the top of the bluff. When discovered, a rock wall was piled across it near the entrance. Behind this human bones were found with "pieces of pottery and other things." They were close to the surface. Subsequent explorations have revealed nothing below them. It is plainly a burial cave for Indians. The river now reaches at flood tide to within 10 feet of the floor. The earth covering the bones may have washed over them, as there is some evidence farther back in the crevice that surface material is still carried in from the rear, in very small amounts, during rainy seasons.
ROCK SHELTERS.--Several very large rock houses exist on the southern slope of the hill or "mountain" lying a mile to 2 miles south of Pride, 7 miles west of Tuscumbia. Water drips from the roofs, keeping the floors wet all the year and collecting in pools to which stock resorts when the little creeks or brooks in the ravines become dry.
It is useless to search in this part of Alabama for caves presenting indications that they may have been habitable, or the reverse, in ages past. The native rock is a cherty or flinty limestone, crumbling easily, and readily susceptible to changes from atmospheric influences, and especially so to the action of water. New subterranean channels are continually developing, with consequent changes in the interior of any cavern near them.
JACKSON COUNTY
ISBOLL CAVES.--It was reported that habitable caves with spacious rooms occur on the Isboll farms, near Limrock. They have entrances and front chambers of ample size to move about in, though not more than 15 feet wide. There are broader expansions back some distance beyond daylight. In both caves rocks up to 15 or 20 tons in weight strew the floor, until only narrow passageways exist between them. In addition, water flows from them in rainy seasons, being frequently 2 feet or more in depth.
BLOWING CAVE.--This takes its name from an outward current of cold air which is so strong as to distinctly modify the temperature of the atmosphere at least 100 yards from the entrance. The opening and the front chamber are nearly 40 feet across, but the distance from the roof to the muddy floor strewn with large rocks is not more than 5 feet at any point. A creek flows across the cave 200 or 300 yards from the mouth, and there is evidence in the way of drift and mud to prove the statement by the owner that after very heavy rains the overflow comes out the front of the cave in such amount as to fill it to the ceiling, and with a velocity that will roll stones larger than a man can lift.
CULVER'S CAVE.--This is somewhere on the side of a mountain about 4 miles from the station of Limrock. Owing to destruction of forests and subsequent growth of brush, the guide was unable to locate it. He described it as a room in which a man could walk about and reached by going in through an opening like a sink hole, which, however, is only about 5 feet deep. The locality, a rugged, barren hillside, near the head of a cove, is not one in which it is probable a cave would be used for any purpose.
HARRISON'S CAVE.--This is 2½ miles west of Limrock. It has a large, high opening, an easy approach, and is quite accessible, being at the foot of a mountain with level bottom land in front. A stream flows directly across it some 30 feet from the entrance, emerging at the foot of one wall and disappearing under the other. The earth bank on each side of the stream is about 5 feet high, indicating at least that depth of deposit on the rock floor; as the latter is not visible the amount may be much greater. This earth is soft and wet. In rainy weather water from the interior flows along the floor into the little stream. Sometimes this can not dispose of the surplus, and the overflow rises until it makes its exit through the mouth of the cave. When this happens all the earth within is covered from 2 to 5 feet deep.
SALTPETER CAVE.--This lies 4 miles south of the railway, between Limrock and Larkinsville. It is described as being dry, with a large, high entrance, and "plenty of room inside right at the front." But it was thoroughly worked during the war by saltpeter miners who took out all the dirt they could easily reach, going back "200 or 300 yards." For this reason it was not visited.
DEKALB COUNTY
FORT PAYNE CAVE.--A mile south of Fort Payne is a cave in Lookout Mountain, which, a "boom" company some years ago converted into a summer resort. The detritus in front of the entrance was leveled off, steps constructed to the top, and a heavy stone wall built across the mouth, leaving an entrance a little less than 7 feet in width which was closed by gates. Inside the barrier the floor, now made tolerably level, extends about 30 feet toward the rear, to the natural rock wall, and is 50 feet from side to side, with a roof from 6 to 15 feet high. In the wall at the rear are two small openings through which explorers can pass to large chambers farther within. To the right of the front chamber is a branch cave which is high and wide at the beginning but soon becomes impassable from the accumulated rocks and earth rising to the roof. The left side of the front chamber is continued in another branch going directly back into the mountain. The roof and floor have an equal slope downward to a point some rods from the beginning, the clear space between them being not more than 4 feet. Beyond here the roof is high and there are some large expansions. A creek flows from the rear of the cave to a point estimated as 200 yards from the doorway, where it sinks into the earth. The noise of its fall is distinct throughout the front part of the cavern. There is considerable drip, and though dry stalactites and stalagmites occur in some places, over most of the front chamber their formation is still in progress. Outside of the doorway the solid rock walls show on each side, nowhere less than 25 feet apart. At a depth of 30 feet water flows from the rock and earth between these side walls, but there is no sign of solid bottom, so the depth of the cave is probably more than 30 feet below the present floor.
Under existing conditions the cave would form an excellent shelter, being accessible, roomy, and with an abundant supply of fresh water. The drip from the ceiling could be avoided. But it does not follow that such was the case in the remote past. It is apparent that at one time the creek had its outlet through the mouth and down the gorge in front, the right branch of the cave being then open. From some cause, probably the formation of a sink hole above, water from the surface or near the surface found a way through this branch, carrying mud and rocks sufficient to fill the front chamber to its present floor, diverting the flow of the stream, and finally filling the cave through which it came. While the creek was flowing, occupation would be impossible, or at least inconvenient. When the mud began to settle in, the front portion would be shut off. This condition would hold until the stream found its new outlet and the branch cave had become entirely filled; and when these processes were completed the floor of the cave would be practically at its present level. Under the circumstances exploration would probably, almost certainly, be fruitless. The company which owns the cave would also wish it restored to something like its present state.
ELLIS CAVE.--On the estate of Dr. Ellis, 19 miles north of Fort Payne and 3 miles from Sulphur Springs, are two caves known locally as Big-mouth and Little-mouth. The smaller is closed by a locked gate. The larger has a rather imposing appearance from the outside. From a ledge of rock, in place, in front of it, one looks down a steep slope in which rocks up to 40 or 50 tons weight are imbedded. At a vertical depth of 30 feet is a level space not more than 8 or 10 square yards in area. From this a narrow crevice goes to the right. Within a few yards it reaches a hole which can be descended only by means of a rope or ladder. Persons have, however, gone several hundred yards in it.
On the left of the level space and bounded on each side by solid rock walls is a pit 10 feet deep, caused by inflowing storm waters which have created this depression in seeking a small outlet, also toward the left. The height from the bottom of this sink to the roof of the cave is nearly 50 feet.
Crossing this pit on a foot log, which rests on loose rock and earth at its farther end, a crevice varying from 6 to 10 feet wide goes inward for 50 feet. Earth covers the loose rock at the level of the foot log almost at once, and this earth has a steep ascent toward the rear. The crevice widens beyond the distance mentioned, though irregularly, being in some places 25 feet from side to side. So far as progress is concerned, the cave terminates 150 feet from the doorway in a blank wall. It may be that if the earth were out of the way further progress would be possible.
Considerable digging has been done for saltpeter, but except near the front it has been only superficial.
The top of the earth at the extreme rear of the cave is almost or quite as high as the roof at the front, which means that, if the bottom should be level, the thickness of this accumulated deposit is not less than 35 feet. As the dip is toward the rear and quite sharp, about 10 or 12 degrees, the earth here may well be much thicker than indicated.
Excavation would be tedious and costly, as it would be impossible to dispose of the dirt except by blasting a deep trench through the rock in front to make room for wheeling it out.
KILLIAN CAVES.--There are two of these, both on the west slope of Lookout Mountain. One is near Brandon, 6 miles south of Fort Payne. The entrance is a large sink hole on the side of the mountain, descent into which is difficult owing to the steepness and large rocks. At the bottom the water which flows in over the muddy floor from the slope above--several acres in extent--rushes into a hole choked with loose stones and disappears.
The second cave is about 3 miles northeast of Collinsville. Débris from the mountain has formed a wall across the entrance, which is naturally wide and high and opening out on a little flat in front. Some digging has been done for saltpeter at the front part of the cave, reaching about 30 feet back from the inner foot of the accumulation. In the pit thus formed water stands after every rain until it soaks away. Where it ends the "face" is about 5 feet high. On top, farther in, there is much travertine or stalagmite; in some places it extends entirely across the floor. In other places the floor is bare. There is constant drip, and in one room there is a little gully, where surface water in wet weather, entering from a small branch cave on one side, has cut an exit through the earth at the foot of the wall on the other side. The hole in which it disappears extends beyond the rays of a lamp, and a stone thrown in goes down a slope several feet in length. Very little working is needed to reduce any of the earth to soft, slippery mud, hence no excavation was possible.
MARSHALL COUNTY
FEARIN CAVE.--This is in a bluff on the right bank of the Tennessee River, 10 miles below Guntersville. It has three divisions. Shortly after passing the spacious entrance a branch turns to the right. In a few feet a wall is reached which can be scaled only with a ladder. Climbing this, a large chamber is reached, totally dark, and the home of innumerable bats whose "guano" covers the floor and fills the air with a stifling odor. This branch comes to light again more than a mile away on the side of the mountain.