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YYYeeeaaarrrsss BBByyy SSSooouuuttthhhwwweeesssttteeerrrnnn RRReeegggiiiooonnn ooofff ttthhheee NNNSSSSSS
This booklet was compiled and edited by Linda Starr
Cover Art by Andy Komensky Back Cover Art by Gary Davis
Reviewers: Carol Belski, Stephen Fleming,
and Pete and Karen Lindsley
Published by Southwestern Region of the NSS
May 2012
© 2012 Southwestern Region of the NSS
Contents
Page Introductory Message ………………………………………………………………………. 4 E-mail Letters from Lee Skinner……………………………………………………………. 4 SWR Member Organizations……………………………………………………………….. 5 SWR Members as Directors of the NSS Board of Governors……………………………… 5 50th Anniversary Planning Committee ……………………………………………………... 5 Letter from National Cave and Karst Research Institute …………………………………... 6 Grotto Reports 7 Gypsy Underground ………………………………………………………………… 8 21 Years, Hondo Grotto…………………………………………………………….. 9 Lubbock Area Grotto ……………………………………………………………….. 10 Mesilla Valley Grotto (MVG) History, 1986 – 2012 ………………………………. 11 New Mexico Tech Caving Club ……………………...…..………………………… 13 Pajarito Grotto Is 24 Years Old …………………………………………………….. 15 Pecos Valley Grotto ………………………………………………………………… 18 Permian Basin Speleological Society ………………………………………………. 20 Sandia Grotto, A Short History and Influences on Me …………………………….. 22 More on Sandia Grotto …….….…………………………………………………….. 26 White Sands Grotto …………………………………………………………………. 29 Jeff Lory, Past SWR Chairman ……...……………………………………………………… 30 Letter from Current SWR Chair, 2012 ……………………………………………………… 30 SWR and NSS Project Reports ……………………………………………………………… 31 Big Manhole Dig ……………………………………………………………………. 32 Dry Cave Project, 2005 to 2012 …………………………………………………….. 34 El MaP: A Sandia Grotto Project to Study and Inventory Caves of El Malpais National Monument and Conservation Area ……………………………………. 37 Fort Stanton Study Project (FSCSP) ……………………………………………….. 38 GypKaP – Gypsum Karst Project ………….……………………………………….. 39 High Guads Restoration Project (HGRP) …………………………………………... 41 Some Historical Anecdotes The Discovery – and Rediscovery – of Sentinel Caverns …………………………... 42 Lincoln Caverns ……………………………………………………………………... 47 Following Jim White’s Footsteps …………………………………………………… 50 Still Tracking Jim White ……………………………………………………………. 54 Discovery of Nudnick and Andy’s Caves ...………………………………………… 56 Cave Science Articles New Mexico Bat Work, 1994-2012 ………………………………………………... 61 Searching for Intraterrestrials: The Microbial World of Caves ……………………. 70
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Contents continued Page The Rich Scientific Potential of Fort Stanton-Snowy River Cave National Conservation Area ………………………………………………………………… 74 Memorials: In Regard for SWR Cavers of the Past ………………………………………….. 76NSS Award Recognition ……………………………………………………………………... 89 SWR Honorary Members …………………………………………………………………….. 91The Wuss Walker Award …….………………………………………………………………. 92 Southwestern Region Members and Associates, 1962-2012…………………………………. 99 A Little Something by Ells Rolfs …………………………………………………………….. 112
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Cartoon art by Mike Bilbo, 2011
This entire publication is copyrighted by the Southwestern Region (SWR) of the National Speleological Society.
Contributors of stories, artwork, photographs and other materials contained herein retain full copyright with respect to their work.
No commercial use of any portion of this publication may be made without the written
consent of the SWR and the additional consent of any affected contributor.
In light of the 50th anniversary, two documents of historical interest have been posted to the SWR website. These are in a private directory and are not indexed on the site, so you have to use the links below. The first is the 25th anniversary booklet (58 pages). http://www.caves.org/region/swr/docs/25th19621987.PDF This document was produced in an era when privacy information was less easily found (and less worried about) and it contained names, addresses and phone numbers. After 25 years there likely are only a handful that still are accurate. However, in the interest of keeping unnecessary personal information off the internet, all addresses and phone numbers were removed from wherever they were associated with an individual's name. If you have never seen this document before, it is interesting reading. Thanks go to Jennifer Foote for getting it posted very quickly after the scrubbing was done. The second document is a listing of all SWR officers, meeting sites, and birth/death dates of grottos. This document contained no privacy materials. It covers the SWR from inception in 1962 through 2010 (10 pages).
E-mail letters from L ee Skinner I was one of the founders and the first chairman of the SWR. Has it really been 50 years? I was also a founder of both the White Sands and El Paso grottoes. When founded, the White Sands Grotto had members in El Paso, Alamogordo and Las Cruces. Later, the El Paso Grotto broke away from White Sands. At the first meeting of the SWR, we decided to have regional meetings four times a year, and it's been that way ever since. I think that the first regional was in the Guads. At that time, I was a Spec 5 in the U.S. Army at Fort Bliss. Do you realize that in 1962 there were only three known caves of any size in the High Guads: Cottonwood, Hidden, and Black. --Lee
Just a reminder: Tuesday, August 9, marks both the 49th anniversary of the discovery of Heinz Schwinge Hall and the 43rd anniversary of the discovery of Lincoln Caverns. I can't believe time flies so fast! My memories of seeing these areas for the first time are as vivid as if I'd been there only last month. --Lee Skinner
http://www.caves.org/region/swr/docs/ officersmeetings19622010.pdf By Stephen Fleming Director, 50th Anniversary Committee
Ken Streicher and Lee Skinner, 1963. Photo courtesy
of Doug Rhodes.
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SW R Member O rganizations Escabrosa G rotto, PO Box 3634, Tucson, AZ 85722, [email protected] Guadalupe G rotto, PO Box 1229, Carlsbad, NM 88221, [email protected] Gypsy Underground Grotto, c/o K. Nielsen, 194 South Fork Rd., Durango, CO, [email protected] Hondo G rotto, 1816 Orchard, Roswell, NM 88201, Frank Everitt, [email protected], [email protected] Lubbock A rea G rotto, 3403-89th St., Lubbock, TX 79423, Brian Alger, [email protected] Mesilla Valley G rotto, 528 Melendres, Las Cruces, NM 88009, [email protected] New Mexico T ech Student G rotto, Dept E&ES, 801 Leroy Place, Socorro, NM 87801, Jane Overton, [email protected] Pecos Valley G rotto, 1825 Mission, Carlsbad, NM 88220, [email protected] Permian Basin Speleological Society, PO Box 1326, Sonora, TX 76950, [email protected] Pajarito G rotto, c/o James Hunter, PO Box 751, Los Alamos, NM 87544, [email protected] Sandia G rotto, Student Activities Box 192, MSC 03 2210, 1 Univ. of NM, Albuquerque, NM 87131-001, [email protected] Sier ra Blanca G rotto, PO Box 1721, Ruidoso Downs, NM 88346-1721, Paul Dunlap, [email protected] White Sands G rotto, c/o Carol Belski, 408 Southern Sky, Carlsbad, NM 88220, [email protected] SW R Members as Directors of the NSS Board of Governors Dave Belski (1989-1992), (1993-1996), (1996-1999) Dwight E. Deal (1967-1968), (1971-1974, (1974-1977) Stephen Fleming (1998-2001) Jennifer Foote (2008-2011) Jim Goodbar (1987-1990) Alan Hill (1969-1970) (1970-1973) David Jagnow (2000-2002) Mark Joop (2008-2011) Don R. Martin (1977-1978) Bill Yett (1994-1996)
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50th Anniversary Planning Committee: Carol Belski Mike Bilbo Stephen Fleming Kathy Peerman Wayne Walker Additional significant planning help from: Jennifer Foote, Blake Jordan, Pete Lindsley, Kevin Lorms, Peg Sorensen, Linda Starr, Aaron Stockton … …and the entire membership for helping to complete the Fort Stanton historic building balcony renovation project. Thanks also to the State of New Mexico, Department of Cultural Affairs Monument Division, Fort Stanton State Monument for allowing use of their facilities for our 50th Anniversary celebration.
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G rotto Reports
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Gypsy Underground G rotto By Evelyn Townsend (aka E .T .) The Gypsy Underground Grotto (GUG) was just an idea that started in 1998 at the Filer, Idaho, NSS Convention by a group of cavers from many different locations. The idea was to form a community of traveling cavers that was based on people and not their location – be it state, country or other locale. So in February, 1999, the GUG officially became the first traveling grotto in the NSS membership, with a charter membership of 25 people. At present the membership is more than 100 people with over 90 percent of them being NSS members. We communicate electronically via email and a onelist, and we meet at regional events and NSS conventions. We contact one another and go caving where we can and/or at specific events. One of our projects that has been going for long term is the Big Bend Karst Project (BIBEKaP). This was started in 1998 by Stephen Fleming, Steve Peerman and Keith Heuss as co- investigators. In 2007, Evelyn Townsend (ET) and Hank Boudinot took over the project as co- investigators. BIBEKaP is a registered National Park Service permitted study project to locate and document caves in Big Bend National Park. The GUG caver membership supporting this project is over 99 percent. Many of the Gypsys work on other projects such as the Fort Stanton Cave Study Project. Since many of our members are from the Southwest, the GUG petitioned to become a member of the Southwest Region (SWR) in December, 2010. In March of 2011 the GUG hosted their first SWR event at Fluorite Ridge near Deming, New Mexico. As one of the newer members of SWR, we hope to continue our participation in SWR activities in the near and far future.
50 Years for the Southwest Region 21 years for the Hondo G rotto By F rank Eve ritt With strong organizational support from Jerry Ballard and Mike Bilbo, Roswell Field Office of the BLM, the Hondo Grotto formed and achieved official status with NSS in the fall of 1990. The charter members, included: Chuck Bassett, Cal Currier, Rick Reynolds, Joe Switzer, Tom Garlinger, Frank Everitt, Debbie Griffin, Ed Wooten, Jim Cox, Don Becker, Ronnie Cahoon, Reece White, John Young and others. They were active cavers who pursued underground activities in caves managed by the BLM, Forest Service, National Park Service and private ownership in southeastern NM and Texas. Over a short period of time, grotto members shifted their activities from ridge walking and exploration to project caving. Over the past 20 years, we donated thousands of hours in areas of education, exploration, mapping, preservation, restoration and rescue planning.
Barbe Barker on a return trip from Snowy River, via Priority 7 dig. Photo from Frank Everitt.
Jimmy Worrell with Tim and Sonya Boyd in Torgac. Photo by Frank Everitt.
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Lubbock A rea G rotto Lubbock Area Grotto (LAG) obtained Charter Number G-317 on January 28, 1986 from the National Speleological Society. The founding members of the caving family included Jeff Thom, Don Horton, Victor Polyak, John Polyak, Jeff and Marcia Steele, Edward Hudgeons, Noble Stidham, and April MacDowell. Evolution of the club came when Noble wrote a letter to Bill Elliott, Texas Speleological Association (TSA), inquiring as to his knowledge of other cavers in the Lubbock area. Mr. Elliott responded with Victor’s name and address. A phone call from Noble to Victor quickly netted enough interest to have an initial meeting and, luckily, the beginning of a grotto. None of the original members remain active in the area (and Noble Stidham passed away). However, the grotto numbers currently around 20 members. LAG in Endless Cave, NM. Photo by Lee Ann Dean. LAG takes much pride in the fact that all of its members are active in one form or another in most of the LAG activities. Most members participate in at least one activity per month. The majority of the club activities center on exploration and surveying of new caves. Contributions to the total survey include membership expertise in geology and biology. LAG members are eager to participate in any conservation
project involving cave management and work with the BLM, National Forest Service and National Parks Service. Since its inception, LAG has
participated in surveying the following caves: Sinkhole Flats, River Styx Cave, Dry Cave, Endless Cave and Carlsbad Caverns. Restoration work has been done in many Guadalupe Mountains caves. 2012 Off ice rs Chairman: Derek Smith Vice-Chairman: Lee Ann Dean Conservation: Dan Rhoads Safety: Michael White Secretary: Tammy Tucker Treasurer: Brian Alger
Chucky: A virgin cave in Carta Valley, TX. Initial trip with landowners and caver children. Photo by Lee Ann Dean.
Annual Girl’s Only Trip,
Christmas Tree Cave. Top:
Whitney, Lee Ann, Tammy;
Bottom: Jamie, Amy, Susan. Photo by Lee
Ann Dean.
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M esilla Valley G rotto (M V G) History of M V G , 1986-2012 By K athy and Steve Peerman Since 1986, the Mesilla Valley Grotto has continued to be a strong grotto in Southern New Mexico. In the early ’80s, we became involved with Search and Rescue. We were involved in three major mine rescues in our area and one rescue in Caballo Cave. Our grotto became a recognized Search and Rescue team, and we were able to procure our own equipment for the grotto. One of our team members, Bob Rodgers is now the state coordinator for NM Search and Rescue and is the Southwestern representative for the National Cave Rescue Commission. Also, we continue to do many cave trips that involve recreation, survey and projects. Since we are near New Mexico State University, we draw members from here and have had recreation and training cave trips to the Black Range. Our grotto was involved with GypKaP (Gypsum Karst Project) for over 10 years. This was a good project for getting new members involved in caving, surveying and project caving. The caving world as we knew it back in the ’70s began to change in the late ’80s. With many restrictions coming from the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service, we saw recreational caving become more difficult. Project caving is now the norm and MVG continues to participate. Many of our members choose to continue caving either with our group or they have moved into other states and caved with new grottos. Our grotto was one of the most active grottos in the state, and today we are a confident group of cavers. Quite a few senior cavers belong to MVG, but we continue to work at bringing in more young cavers to carry on our legacy.
Some of the accomplish- ments that our grotto has achieved in the last 25 years since 1987:
- We worked with BLM in many cave work projects in our state.
- We maintained having Thanksgiving trips to the Guads until the late ’90s.
- We got involved in surveying Chirichahua Crystal Cave in Arizona.
- We carry out ropework sessions for our new members and practice for all. With new equipment, we need to continue this training.
Many of our new members got involved with the Big Manhole Dig Project and this persists today. Breakthrough is imminent! Numerous cleanup projects were accomplished in several caves during these 25 years. Black Range caves remain our training ground, and we hosted a couple regional clean-up projects there. In the ’90s we became involved with trips to Arizona caves, such as Onyx, as well as El Malpais and Carlsbad area caves. We had several trips to Slaughter Canyon Cave to improve the trails there. Each year, we host SWR Regionals. Our schedules were full of caving trips, ridge-walking and vertical practices each month. We are an extremely active grotto, with trips all over New Mexico. In 2006, we hosted a joint ARA/SWR Regional at Chiricahua Crystal Cave.
MVG T‐shirt design
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Our caving had slowed down a bit in 2007 as our membership tended to collect cavers as college students; however, when these students graduated, they moved on. Recreational caving was what many students were looking for, and with caving changing to project-oriented trips, we did not hold onto many of those students. Recently, we discovered a significant cave, “Columbus Cave” in the Tres Hermanas Mountains of southwest New Mexico.
Official MVG photo, 2012.
Some of the usual activities our grotto took part in were the Electric Light Parade, some community fairs, some members made presentations to school kids, organized caving trips for the City of Las Cruces Natural History Museum, and for the Mesilla Valley Christian School. We have a White Elephant Christmas party every year. On March 15, 2012, Mesilla Valley Grotto celebrated 40 years of adventure for many cavers in Las Cruces.
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By Aaron H icks Ricki Sheldon and I co-founded the New Mexico Tech Caving Club in 1997 or 1998. Ricki was the one who saw the need for a club, and started putting signs up; I saw a need for meeting the redhead (Ricki) who was putting the signs up. I'd been a caver on and off since I was a kid in western Pennsylvania, combined with a BS in geology and grad school in low-temperature geochem at Tech. Of course, when I came out here to Arizona, Rich Bohman immediately recognized the pack of reprobates with which I had been caving "back home" since he'd picked up the bug while in school in Pittsburgh. I remember distinctly about 14 of us showing up at a Fort Stanton cleanup. Someone was wailing about there not being enough manpower to haul water though Hell Hole, and wondering just what it took to make "these people" happy, what with us skinny white boys hauling so many jugs without complaint. We mapped the huge, whopping caves of Socorro (all 12 feet of them, or whatever), and did several clean-ups in the Valley of Fires. We pulled a parachute (!) out of one pit. I think on one day we filled something like 12 trash bags. Plus, we got in lots of rope training – both for our core group (including extensive rescue training), and training our members and students. Tech has a great climbing wall that was ideal for teaching that sort of thing in terms of the basics, then Box Canyon is about perfect for teaching in a semi-wild environment. We were blessed with the State Fire Academy right there in Socorro, along with the administration (see below) being favorable to us. Bob Treacy (at the NRAO, now in Green Bank, WV, I think it is) was our advisor at the
time. He and his wife were originally from West Virginia, IIRC. Bob had two young kids (about 9 and 12) at the time; we were going to go caving at Tres Ninos, and there was a huge, gorgeous rattlesnake right in the entrance. Bob was about to step on it, and – I'll tell you, I've never seen a 200-pound man levitate before. It was amazing. Now, his two girls – living in New Mexico – had never seen a rattler, or heard one. Don McPheeters (one of the core group of cavers, and an ex-state trooper) thought it would be a good idea that the kids hear what a pissed off rattlesnake sounded like, and Bob and the others agreed. He picked up a rock just big enough to do the job, and tossed it, hitting the thing smack in the back. Everyone was a good distance away, but the kids were terrified. The snake retreated further in, and we decided to skip Tres Ninos that day. I distinctly recall the rattler had spectacular black coloration – just jet-black diamonds on its back. Probably, it was a local adaptation to the lava fields. Deidre Hirschfeld was our advisor at the time I left. She was also a scoutmaster for Girl Scouts, and we took several of them on trips. The most memorable was a High Guads trip; I got lost trying to find Gunsight (which, embarrassingly enough, I'd been to before). The next morning, we woke up to 6-8" of wet snow, and decided to go back home. By the time we got down, of course, there was no snow there. It was typical Guads weather. Meetings ran four to 20 people, depending upon the time of the year. Our core group did a lot of rescue training; because the State Fire Academy director (John Standefer)
New M exico T ech Caving C lub
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was also a caver, we were allowed to participate in training there at the Academy in Socorro. In fact, the four of us that made it through Rope Rescue III comprised a full one-third of the class – the first Rope III class ever held at the academy. Similarly, John allowed us to use the facilities there for the meet-and-greet when the Tech Cave Club held the first NCRC weekender course; I distinctly recall some grumbling by class attendees that there was no alcohol involved, and I think they had their own, smaller shindig down in the bosque. We organized a second NCRC weekender a year later. Best as I know, it was David Hunter who took over after I left; I don’t know too much about the details, to be honest. He’d be a better source of info than I. I'd say the group is just about as strong as ever.
(Editor: David Hunter did take over the NM Tech Caving Club. The club’s contact is now Aaron Curtis. Aaron Curtis did not respond to requests for material and Aaron Hicks did. I asked Aaron what he’s doing for caving now.) Well, since Arizona doesn't have any caves (!), not much. I've made it to a couple of Big Manhole digs, and helped out one of our members with his cave radio work in Carlsbad. I'd like to get out more, but given that there is just a spectacular amount of work that can be done without even leaving the state – and how I have a lot of obligations in rare plant research that keeps me tied to the lab, long-ish trips really aren't necessary, you know. Currently I'm with Central Arizona Grotto, as vice president. --AJ Hicks, Chandler, AZ
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By John Lyles Pajarito Grotto (PG) originated on the Pajarito Plateau in Los Alamos, NM, in February, 1988. The first meeting was attended by David and Becky Jagnow, Jim Sturrock and Thelma Leonard, Ronald Creel, Bill and Emily Johnson, Dave Logan, Scott Maxham and Frank Succardi. Objectives were, as with many caving clubs, to educate and train new cavers in safe techniques, vertical caving, conservation, exploration and mapping of caves. The focus was on nearby caves in northern NM, as well as the deluxe caves of the southern parts of the state. The confluence of national laboratory technical people, regional and Santa Fe cavers made a unique membership, different from the university makeup of other clubs. Original members Logan and Jagnow were involved in the Lechuguilla Cave Project, established in 1987. At the next meeting, Japanese caver Kazuhiro Tanaka joined the club. A few days
before this second meeting, a “spelunker” died from a fall in nearby Buckman Cave. This event reinforced the education and training aspect of PG’s mission. At the third meeting, mention was made of the rumor of an unnamed sink/drain near a creek, SE of Gallina Cave in Rio Arriba County. This notion played a major role in PG’s activities, as will be explained later. By the fourth meeting, Lechuguilla Cave was up to 16 miles, and 1,414 feet deep. Pajarito Grotto elected its first chairman (Bill Johnson) and secretary/treasurer (David Jagnow). The grotto selected a name, after the suggested names – Sangre de Cristo Grotto, Los Alamos Grotto, and Critical Mass Grotto – were voted down. The first vertical training was held in White Rock and the first Rio Resumidero ridge-walking was led by Jim Sturrock and Thelma Leonard. They scouted and found a swallet taking water near the Resumidero Creek on June 11. By summer, Dave Hanna had joined the group, along with Bill Heath and Nancy Lamb of Taos. In November, BLM employee Mike Bilbo and his wife Barbara joined the new grotto. In 1989, Rob Hawley of Taos Herb Company joined. The grotto had three focus projects: remapping Gallina Cave, and mapping Buckman Cave and Falling Rock Cave. Due to the sensitive nature of the latter (sketchy landowner relations), a gate was designed and fabricated by Jim Sturrock. Bill McIntosh, Lisa Ferrante, Mary Carress, Joe Freshette, Dave Mapes and a few others were among the new PG members in the coming year. Windy Passages, the grotto newsletter, ran for about eight years until it was decided it was better to contribute to one regional news source,
Lechuguilla Project leaders, 1987. L to R (top): Dave Jagnow, Buddy Lane, Gary Petrie, Miles Hecker; (bottom) Rick Bridges, Pat Kambesis, John Patterson. Photo by Dave Jagnow, October 7, 1989.
Pajarito G rotto Is 24 Years O ld
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Southwestern Cavers, published by the Southwestern Region through its members, Carol and Dave Belski. Pajarito Grotto now had an annual tradition of ridge-walking around Rito Resumidero, even having T-shirts printed for the participants. However, no significant new caves were found here, but Dos Ojos Cave was discovered up-mountain from Gallina Cave to the south. Over the next several years, a further influx of experienced cavers joined the grotto, most having relocated from “out East” to work at the two National Labs: Hillary Minich, Steve and Nancy Attaway, and John Ganter (and by 1992, John Lyles). They were active in surveying Gallina Cave and in the Lechuguilla Cave Project. When Lyles moved to town, he was steamrollered into being chairman of the thriving grotto in February of ’92. Another Lechuguilla caver, David Modisette, joined the grotto. The grotto worked on various campaigns, such as protesting the sale of speleothems at rock shows in Arizona, fighting some government agencies against cave-for-pay schemes, and taking on new projects in GypKaP (Gypsum Karst Project) country. John Lyles and Margaret Tafoya found a crawl-in entrance off the Corn Ranch road, named it Zalea Cave (for the dead sheep’s hide), and began surveying with Sandia Grotto cavers Brian Holcomb, Cal Currier, and other grotto members, for one-half mile to where it connected to the Sparks trash pits along the road to Torgac Cave. Eventually, they convinced GypKaP managers to add the Sparks-Zalea system and Topaz caves to GypKaP Report No. 3, although they hadn’t been formally mapped by members of GypKaP. This would change soon enough. By 1993, the grotto had over 35 members, 24 of which were NSS members. A chance meeting in a Pojoaque parking lot connected John Lyles with Jake Turin, another experienced Lechuguilla Cave surveyor and cave scientist. Jake led a number of small
science trips into Lechuguilla, to collect water for his Lab-sponsored research. This initiated a new phase of concerted project caving by PG members, which has continued today. Lechuguilla Cave Project had been replaced by the more democratic Lechuguilla Exploration and Research Network (LEARN). John got hooked into surveying in Lechuguilla with LEARN, as well as participating in Cave Research Foundation (CRF) projects at Carlsbad Caverns in the New Mexico Room. First, it was survey with Brian Holcomb, then restoration with Lois Bergthold (Manno), and finally taking on a project to remove the old ladders and catwalks leading to the New Mexico Room in 1996. John resurveyed the Wonderland portion of Cottonwood Cave, leading many survey teams into the intricacies of that wonderful area. The grotto was branching out into caving projects in the Guadalupes (Guads), GypKaP, on BLM projects (Big Manhole), and at Carlsbad Caverns National Park. In 1997, Bill Heath and John Lyles began to study the Resumidero swallet hole again. A small crack was taking water, but they didn’t dig it open. About this time, John led LEARN expeditions into Lechuguilla Cave, and he determined that it was not so difficult to
Lois Manno and John Lyles doing restoration work in the New Mexico Room. Photo by Pete Jones.
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discover new locales if he took advantage of his small size and pushed tight holes. In 1998, David Jagnow kicked off the first camp of the High Guads Restoration Project at Texas Camp up on top of Three Mile Hill, starting a long-running tradition that continues today and brings the U.S. Forest Service thousands of hours and dollars of volunteer effort. The grotto began to meet at the Santa Fe Baking Company with owner Mike Roy for a while, and then reverted back to members’ homes for monthly meetings. Jennifer Foote relocated to Los Alamos and became the next leader of the High Guads Restoration Project (HGRP), as well as leading bat counts in BLM caves. It wasn’t long before she, too, became hooked on Lechuguilla Cave exploration and mapping. John Ganter briefly rejoined the PG in the first years of the 21st century. Together with Lyles and Robin Gurule, they hiked over much of the countryside between Resumidero and Gallina caves, not finding much in the way of new cave entrances. They completed the survey and pushing/digging of Dos Ojos, with a small team in several trips. In 2001, Peter Bosted and Ray Keeler invited John Lyles on their Lechuguilla Cave expedition, the first of what became an annual expedition co-led by John and Peter for a decade. Over the last decade, ‘Labbies’ – Brian Kendrick, James Hunter, Jen Foote and John Lyles – have continued to participate in the survey of this immense cave on numerous private expeditions in all three branches of the cave. For example, John claims to have participated in 32 survey expeditions, and surveyed over 33,000 feet in the cave. Things got even more interesting in 2003. Snowy River was discovered at Fort Stanton Cave, by a dedicated team of regional diggers. The grotto was not active initially, but quickly the core team (Kendrick, Foote and Lyles) of active cavers joined the many survey
teams that have since surveyed and pushed Snowy River and the Metro for miles. Grotto caver James Hunter has demonstrated his exceptional climbing skills in Lechuguilla Cave and upper passages discovered along Snowy River as well. In 2005, grotto cavers – John Lyles, Jim Sturrock, Aaron Stockton and Mark Minton – finally returned to the Resumidero swallet, and dug into a most challenging small cave, Thunderhole. It has been mapped to about 1000 feet, and continues to be pushed. Grotto members have also led expedi-tions to Belize, assisting archeologists to map and discover caves with Maya relics. Our grotto continues to bring together an interesting mix of cavers of all ages and vocations. The latest roster has 33 members; most are also NSS members. Several PG cavers have also chaired the Southwestern Region, and two were elected to the NSS Board of Governors. Pajarito Grotto continues to have an active core of cavers who participate in major survey projects, digs, restoration and organization in the region.
Pajarito cavers after a fun trip through San Geronimo Maze Cave near Las Vegas, NM, in 2001. (L to R): Jen Foote, Robin Gurule, Myles Gurule (helmet), unidentified guy, Mark Minton’s dog, Alexander Kendrick, Rod McGrady, Mark Minton (rear), Brian Kendrick (front), John McIntyre. Photo by John Lyles.
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Pecos Valley G rotto By Phyllis Boneau
The Pecos Valley Grotto (PVG) was originally organized in Roswell, NM, by Chuck Carrara in 1958. It was the first grotto in New Mexico. Chuck also organized the Sandia Grotto the same year and submitted the paperwork for both grottos to the NSS at the same time. The paperwork for the Sandia Grotto was processed first and it has a lower grotto number than the PVG. Charter members of the PVG were: Chester Carrara, Roy Jones, E. Summers, John Barrick, Calvin Patterson, Chris Henry, Larry Carrara (deceased), Andy Komensky, Jack Locke, and Andrew Anderson. Two other individuals were active but not listed as charter members: Joe Wilson (deceased) and Chuck Carrara. During the 1960s, and the ’70s, the PVG members were active in the Guadalupe Mountains and participated in the following activities:
The discovery and exploration of the Cave of the Madonna;
The rediscovery of Pink Dragon Cave;
The discovery of Pink Panther Cave; The discovery of Damn Cave; Help to push Cottonwood Cave
beyond the Second Parallel Passage and early exploration of Wonderland;
Extensive exploration of Russell's Crawl and other parts of Fort Stanton Cave;
Discovered Old Yellowstone Cave; Discovered and explored several
caves in the Tinnie locale; Helped in the exploration of Torgac
Cave;
Surveyed and explored Parks' Ranch Cave;
Started the examination of the vicinity north of Roswell (GypKaP) for caves.
The PVG was continued as an active caving grotto and included many members from Walker Air Force Base in Roswell. When the base closed in 1967, the grotto went dormant for approximately 10 years, but some caving continued during this time period. Then, the grotto was reactivated in Carlsbad in 1977 as an alternative to the Guadalupe Grotto. Rebirth members were: Dave Belski, Carol Belski (Secretary), Gail Belski, Andy Belski, Stephen Fleming (Chairman), Buzz Hummell, C. “Slim” Baxter, and Tom Bemis. During the 1980s and ’90s, PVG members accomplished the following:
Survey and exploration of Yellowjacket Cave;
Extention of the survey of Cave of the Madonna;
Made Guadzilla a familiar sight in the High Guads;
Pursued exploration and survey in Lechuguilla;
Participation in many photographic ventures as sherpas and stars, such as climbing the rope to the Spirit World;
Were instrumental in the formation of the High Guads Restoration Project (HGRP);
Helped formulate and execute cave rescue operations;
Participation in GypKaP; Participation in the Big Manhole Dig
Project; Participation in the Fort Stanton
Cave Study Project;
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Preservation and maintenance of Lost Cave.
Since 2000, members have been involved through:
Extensive exploration and documentation of caves in the Gypsum fields of Eddy County;
Relocation and initial survey of Pinon Cave in the Sacramento Mountains;
Continued contribution to the Fort Stanton Cave Study Project, the Big Manhole Dig Project, and HGRP;
Participation in the resurvey of Dry Cave;
Participation in Cave Research Foundation (CRF) trips at Carlsbad Caverns National Park;
Taught a cave survey and cartography class in Lost Cave.
Our caving has diverged from mostly exploration to recreational caving, re-locating less familiar caves, restoration, guiding, and introducing new cavers to the underground experience. We look forward to 50 more years of caving adventures. The PVG meets monthly on the third Thursday of the month at the National Cave and Karst Research Institute (NCKRI) in Carlsbad, NM. 2012 Officers are: President: Phyllis Boneau; Vice Pres: Karen Perry; Treasurer: Clay Gates; Secretary: Mark Bulman; Public Relations: Bill Weston.
Cavers from Pecos Valley Grotto outside of Cottonwood Cave, before a trip to the Second Parallel Passage, 6‐24‐07. Photo by Bill Weston (far right).
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Permian Basin Speleological Society By Jacqui Thomas The Permian Basin Speleological Society (PBSS) was formed by Tony Grieco and Bill Bentley in September, 1983, with a membership of 30 people, mostly cavers, soon to be referring to themselves as “spylunks.” (The origin of the name is at best mysterious.)
The first meeting was held Friday, September 2, 1983, in the Flame Room of the Energas building. “Topics of discussion: trip planning, voting for club officers, set up permanent dates for meetings, landowner-caver relations, new discoveries, picture showing, and general caver style socializing.” (The iconic artistry of the invitation to the first PBSS meeting can be seen at http://www.caver.net/pbss/holenews/pbss9-83.pdf.) In March, 1984, the PBSS was chartered as the 300th grotto of the National
Speleological Society and was accepted into the Southwestern Region of the NSS in February, 1985. The first newsletter, for November-December 1983, was simply called Newsletter Number One. In January, 1984, the PBSS started publishing a monthly newsletter, the SPYLUNK. Although the newsletter became The Hole News, then became a primarily online publication available to anyone, the goal continues to be monthly issues. In the 1980s and early 1990s, PBSS partnered with the Permian Basin Outing Club, and they shared many members. In the intervening years PBSS, as a grotto, has been involved in restoration projects and rock hauls at Carlsbad Caverns, and members have participated in Cave
Research Foundation projects, also at Carlsbad, and activities of the Southwestern Region such as the ongoing Fort Stanton Project and the dig at Big
Manhole. PBSS has hosted SWR gatherings, the first being the Bat Cave Blowout and Summer Regional in 1985 and most recently the 2008 SWR Winter Technical Conference.
“Let’s start a club!” The Hill Brothers and Bill Bentley, pre‐PBSS
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PBSS currently is in charge of the Five Mouth Cave Project, which is primarily (but not solely), a dig into a long-known and always silted-in (some years more than others) cave southeast of Sonora, Texas. PBSS generally has about 30 members, mostly cavers. The Grotto continues to meet monthly, for many years at Murray’s Delicatessen in Midland, where topics of discussion include trip planning, landowner-caver relations, new discoveries, picture showing, and general caver-style socializing. 2012 officers are: President, Matthew Ormsby; Vice President, Patrick Ray; Treasurer, Walter Feaster; Secretary, Jacqui Thomas.
From the Archives…Carlsbad Caverns Rock Haul—might even be the first of many.
PBSS and friends, Carlsbad Caverns Rock Haul, November 2009.
Walter Feaster and Kelly Long at Five Mouth Cave.
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By Blake Jordan The Sandia Grotto was officially started in 1958 with the creation of its constitution around October 1958. When the grotto started it had three classes of members: Regular, Associate and Honorary. In the section on the constitution relating to organization purpose is the statement: “The purpose of this Grotto shall be to further the study, conservation, exploration, and knowledge of caves in New Mexico and to promote safety in cave exploration. Officers included Regular – Chairman, First Vice Chairman, Second Vice Chairman, Secretary-Treasurer and a Faculty Advisor. Other offices consisted of Editor of the Underground Experience, committee chairmen, and Executive Chairman. It was also stated in the constitution that the Sandia Grotto would be a member of the Southwestern Region (SWR) and Regular members may have the grotto secretary apply for their membership in the SWR. The Sandia Grotto was chartered with the
National Speleological Society in accordance with the NSS Constitution and Bylaws. Since 1958, the Constitution and Bylaws went through a series of changes and the documents continue to change to fit the membership needs. The Sandia Grotto (SG) has currently changed its officers to Chairman, Vice-Chairman, Secretary and Treasurer. There has not been a faculty advisor for many years because the grotto is no longer associated with the University of New Mexico, as it was during its founding. The Secretary-Treasurer positions were combined until 2001, when it was officially split into separate offices because it appeared that there was an increase in workload for the Secretary-Treasurer. Other committees presently include Keeper of the Grotto Rope, Keeper of the Grotto Instruments, Librarian and Editor of the Third Source, as the grotto newsletter has been named for almost 30 years. (The first source [of information on caves] is the NSS; the second source is the SWR.) Over the
Sandia Grotto members help with cleanup at El Malpais National Monument, May Day, 1999.
Sandia G rotto: A Short H istory and Influences on Me
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years, various committee chairs were established for miscellaneous purposes (i.e., membership, conservation, etc.). The Sandia Grotto has been involved with many projects throughout the years with grotto cavers exploring and surveying in many parts of New Mexico. Some of those places are: the Black Range, Carlsbad Caverns, Lechuguilla Cave, the GypKaP (Gypsum Karst Project), Cooper-Ellis Cave, the Pronoun Cave Complex, the Guadalupe Mountains (including High Guads Restoration), Fort Stanton Cave and the digs and study project associated with it, the Armendariz Ranch, Petroglyph National Monument and the ElMaP (El Malpais Project at El Malpais National Monument). Sandia Grotto is currently the Cibola Ranger District of the U.S. Forest Service’s steward for Sandia (Man) Cave, responsible for monitoring and cleaning the cave and its surrounding area. Members of the Sandia Grotto have participated and supported cave exploration in the locales stated above. I will not name them all, but I will mention several who have influenced me in the 20 years since I started caving. These important mentors are Brian Galbraith, Dan Montoya, Dave Milligan, Jeff Forbes, Victor Polyak, Paula Provencio, Linda Starr, Sharon Chong, and Warren (Doc) Lewis.
Brian Galbraith was a member of the SG before I joined in 1997. It was he who introduced me to the grotto. The first time I met Brian was at one of the GypKaP weekends. (As a side note, I was introduced to the GypKaP by my friends, Fred Ettleman and Psyche Read.) Brian strongly suggested that I join the Sandia Grotto. After about six months of attending meetings, I joined. From then on, Brian took me on many of his caving adventures. At GypKaP each time there was a trip, I learned survey and mapping techniques. Through it all, Brian was there.
With other projects and surveys, including at caves in the High Guads and Fort Stanton Cave, Brian led the way. I accompanied him once to the High Guads, where he was speaking to Ransom Turner, the Forest Ranger in charge of the caves in the Guadalupe Ranger District. Brian was planning to do an impact study on Hell Below Cave, but his heart attack took him away from caving progressively, and he never went back to Hell Below to start this study.
We also went to the El Malpais many times before the ElMaP (survey and documentation project for the El Malpais National Monument) started. Accompanying us
on our many adventures out onto the lava looking
for caves was Dave Milligan. The three of us and Harry Marinakis went to La Manchanita Cave (aka Candalaria Ice Cave) several times to
Grotto cavers at the entrance of Candalaria Ice Cave, on private land at El Malpais National Monument.
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The Cooper-Ellis Cave in the Sandia
Mountains was also documented by Brian and me. It was Brian who organized the grotto trip to the Pronoun Cave Complex for a ladder extraction from Whut Cave. Brian and I also did the first video monitoring of Torgac Cave. Dave Milligan, Brian and I organized a grotto cleanup trip to Pankey’s Crater or also known as Yo-Yo Pit near Santa Fe. Brian also worked in Fort Stanton for a couple of years aiding his daughter Rose to collect water samples for science fair-related studies. (Other grotto cavers, including Diana Northup and Paula Provencio advised and helped Rose with this work.) We also went to Lincoln Caverns in Fort Stanton Cave to continue work on some digs in the back, as well as a photo-monitoring project. Grotto members joined Brian and me as we led caving trips for Sandia Preparatory School’s outdoor program, including trips to McKittrick Hill, Alabaster and Fort Stanton caves. Since Brian died in his sleep, he has been missed by all members of the grotto. He was a great mentor and I miss going to the caves with him.
Another member of Sandia Grotto who impacted my caving was Dan Montoya. He refined my skills and that of other members interested in mapping and surveying caves. Our training was in Whut Cave in the Pronouns. Dan was a frequent participant at the GypKaP, mainly sketching for the project. He was also the main surveyor working with Victor Polyak for the ElMaP. A select team of SG members were led by Dan to Carlsbad Caverns to resurvey the F-Fissure in the New Section. The first team consisted of Dan, his wife Deb Rivera, Doug Warner and Jennie McDonough.
Doug Warner moved to Bozeman, Montana and the project was put into hiatus.
After a couple years, I suggested that
Dan rekindle the project. I became the inventory person and we asked another grotto member to serve as back-sight instrument person. This project started again with Sam Bono being the second instrument person. John Riley replaced Sam and Kevin Lorms added a turn once or twice. Finally, Knutt Peterson filled the spot to the end of the resurvey. Dan Montoya passed away in 2011 due to a vehicle’s driver falling asleep at the wheel on Tramway Road, striking him on his bicycle. He died with multiple organ failure at 54 years old. The entire grotto misses the massive impacts that Dan added to our grotto and regional efforts. One of thee seasoned cavers that I met at Sandia Grotto meetings was Warren “Doc” Lewis. Am extremely knowledgeable person, he had studied the Great Saltpeter Cave. As he aged and could no longer drive late at night to grotto meetings, I gave him a ride from his home in a retirement community. Other grotto cavers also filled in for this job as well. I was the editor of the Third Source at the time and was looking for songs and poetry to include in the newsletter. He let me borrow his cave ballad books so I could reprint from some of their contents. Doc passed away in his seasoned years, but is remembered through the passing of his incredible cave knowledge and access to his cave library.
Sandia Prep. students and chaperones on a trip to McKittrick Hill caves. Photo by Blake Jordan.
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photograph the ice formations. Later, Brian led the grotto here for cave trips, and on one of these trips Dan Montoya drew a fabulous map of this cave and presented it to the landowner. We went often to Candelaria Ice Cave to monitor and document the ice formations.
I have also caved with Linda Starr at Fort Stanton Cave, the GypKaP, and the ElMaP. She has been in the grotto for almost four decades and still continues as an active supporter of the grotto. Some of the original people in the grotto are still around and active in caving; they are: John Corcoran, Lee Skinner, John McLean, Carol Hill, Alan Hill, Duke McMullan, and Dave Jagnow. An immeasurable amount of survey and exploration was done by Robbie Babb. Jeff Forbes went out to the Armendariz Ranch and studied the geology and the karst there. Jeff also was an active participant in the GypKaP as a surveyor and geologist. Victor Polyak and Paula Provencio were participants of the GypKaP, Fort Stanton
and the ElMaP. They led the El Malpais Project until recently, and passed the baton to me. Sharon Chong had been the dedicated grotto treasurer for many years before I joined and she occupied this position for 10 years. Her love of caves and mushroom hunting led me to my fondness for both of these activities as well. In the present day, the Sandia Grotto has shown to be a major factor in the goals of the Southwestern Region of the NSS in the exploration, conservation, and documentation of New Mexico’s caves, karst and pseudo-karst. The grotto celebrated its 50th anniversary four years ago with a banquet, attended by about 75 past and current members.
A caver waits at the bottom of the rope in Brewers Pit,
El Malpais National Monument. Photo by
Blake Jordan.
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More on Sandia G rotto By L inda Starr Our Sandia Grotto (SG) meeting locations changed over the years between the ’86 SWR booklet and this one. In ’87, meetings were at Godfather’s Pizza. Many trip reports were given on Lechuguilla discoveries. The annual grotto auction proceeds went to NCRC-SWR for an equipment cache. Grotto members were also active with Big Manhole digging and GypKaP as these projects were started. At a grotto-hosted regional in the El Malpais over Memorial Day weekend, it snowed! Bruce Baker and Linda Starr were interviewed for an article that appeared in the Albuquerque Journal, titled “Cave Crave.” In 1989, we had some of the first reconnaissance trips at the Pronoun Cave Complex; one trip found a sign in Whut Cave: “Surveyed and Explored by NM Spelunking Asso.” A meeting presentation was given by Rick Smart, NM Natural History Museum Director, who had done some science work in Whut Cave. This was the first year of production of our new newsletter, titled “The Third Source,” with Duke McMullan as editor. Grotto members helped with the rescue of Emily Mobley, who fell in Lechuguilla, forever known as Emily’s Spring Break. The Lechuguilla Precision Survey was led by former grotto members Jim Hardy, Robbie Babb and John Corcoran. Former grotto member Dave Jagnow gave U.S. Senate testimony against commercialization of Lechuguilla Cave. Mike Reid’s equipment store sold carbide for 80¢/lb. The grotto also built and donated a gate at Lechuguilla Cave, including a sign with the Zia symbol and referring to the Underland of Enchantment.
In the 1990s the grotto had a patch that we referred to as the “Ken and Barbi” design, later modified to the inverse Zia symbol surrounded by our motto Sigue y Sigue (It goes and it goes) below, which is our current grotto patch. Lee Skinner led Sandia Mountain trips to a dig at Cueva del LeeRay – a small, blowing cave that was enlarged but is probably filled in again. The grotto demonstrated caving techniques at an REI caving clinic, which never merited any new caver interest. When the Soviet cavers (Ukrainians mostly) were traveling in NM as part of a national tour, SG led a trip to Braided Cave in El Malpais (now a National Monument) and a party was held at Doug and Glenda Rhodes’ Adobe Press, where the NSS News was then printed. In 1991, Third Source editors Bill Rook and Susan Walters were married at the foot of Goliath in Cottonwood Cave in a candlelit ceremony attended by a caver mob. Bill had also built a grotto squeezebox, modeled after the Belski Box. We adopted the business card design by John Walker. Linda Starr and son Dylan placed in
Early Sandia Grotto trip to Cottonwood Cave. Bobby
Truckey, Tom Poynor, John Corcoran, John French, Katy Cassel‐Smith, John Hooker. Photo by Dick Meleski.
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their age groups for the 30-m rope climb at the NSS’s 50-year Anniversary convention in Cobleskill, NY. During the cold, winter months, grotto members X-country skied together on numerous trips. In the years ’92 to ’94, meetings were held at the John Marshall Community Center. Sam Bono documented caver viewpoints about the UFO sighting at GypKaP. In ’93, a Kids Caving Trip to Alabaster Cave was held for the next-generation of cavers. Arlin Pound and Sherry Ashberger entertained with their music repertoire skills during a regional at the Pronouns. Whut and Which caves (Pronouns) were listed as “significant caves” in compliance with the new Federal Caves Resource Protection Act. A summer party at the Galbraith residence followed a grotto vertical clinic at Big Rock off of South 14 (now NM 337). Jeff Forbes placed 2nd at the NSS Convention vertical contest for 30 m knots. We hosted regionals at Fort Stanton and El Malpais. YoYo Pit was surveyed by Jeff Forbes and Deb Harrison in 1995. Bat houses were built at Dick DesJardins’ home. Forbes/Harrison started a large project to document caves on the Armendaris Ranch in the Fra Cristobal Range. On one trip in 1995, 11-year-old Dylan Starr-Jenkinson provided guidance to novice cavers at the second entrance drop into Buckman’s Cave near Santa Fe. The SWR Winter Tech was held near the Tijeras Ranger Station at a YMCA camp, and SG presented a one-act play written and directed by Pam Wadsworth, titled “Somewhere Over the Guano.” Women-only caving rituals were led by Lynn Lazelle, Cathy Dahms and Linda Starr at Alabaster Cave with a food feast, chanting, music, and prose/poetry readings in the “Altar Room.” Paula Provencio and Brian Galbraith began a mineral survey in 1996 at Fort Stanton Cave. On winter evenings, grotto vertical practices were held at the Starr casita with the rope going through a pulley attached to a ceiling beam. Grotto cavers decided to start preparing for a 100-m rope climbing medley at the Salida,
Colorado, NSS Convention. The grotto took 1st place and many members won additional vertical awards individually. Several grotto members had photo entries at the NM State Fair. By ’97 the grotto meetings moved to the UNM Law School, where our meetings remained for a decade. SG began a $2,500 contract project at Petroglyph National Monument to map and document lava tubes. The new Sigue y Sigue logo was used in the Third Source, which briefly became the S.G . Minimalist for two months, edited by Esty McLane (Pape). Grotto dues increased in 1998 to $10, and Blake Jordan took over as Third Source editor with an original art piece on each cover. Victor Polyak and Paula Provencio published a report in Science, where Victor dated Carlsbad Caverns to be 4,000,000 years old. Stephen Fleming won election to the NSS Board of Governors, adding another western voice (other than Dave Belski) for NSS decisions. Aaron Birenboim initiated the first grotto web page. A new grotto member from the East, John Ganter, surveyed Ladrone (Riley) Cave. Rose Galbraith’s second Science Fair project (re E . coli bacteria found in Fort Stanton Cave pools) received regional awards. In September, we celebrated the grotto’s 40th Anniversary at the National Atomic Museum. Dues increased once again in 1999 to $12 (thankfully, they have remained so). Another caver wedding was held outside the entrance of Fort Stanton Cave for Paula and Victor.
Sandia Grotto trip in May 2009 to Candelaria Ice Cave. Photo by Carol Lucero.
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The 2000 millenium was ushered in by a small group climb of Cabezon Peak. The grotto donated to the Fred Wefer (recently deceased NSS President) Memorial Fund. Former member, Jackie Burgess and husband Harry founded Guadalupe Mountain Outfitters, providing regional members with caving, rescue and outdoor equipment. Summer pool parties were held at the O’Connell’s home. John Ganter won NSS photo salon awards at convention and Doc Lewis had an article in the NSS News, on bad air in caves. An NSS Board of Governors meeting in 2001 was hosted by the grotto and 60 cavers attended the evening banquet. The grotto conferred its first Honorary Award to Lee Skinner. This year, SG began a routine of support for budding cave scientists with a student prize of a $100 savings bond for a project relating to caves and karst studies. The winning student presents their project to the membership at a grotto meeting. Paula and Victor discovered a new cave mineral, called comet cone, in Fort Stanton Cave’s Bat Cave. Women grotto members demonstrated vertical caving techniques and spoke about caves and caving at the NM Museum of Natural History and Science in the Atrium before showings of “Journey into Amazing Caves.” The grotto produced a new, glossy color brochure for this occasion. Our first El Malpais Project (ElMaP) trip was held in February, 2002. Peg Sorensen presented a “Project Underground” workshop for teachers with grotto and regional members present. Several members assisted with a rescue of a boy scout who had fallen in the Trophy Room at Fort Stanton. Our Sigue y Sigue logo had now become a vehicle bumper sticker. At the Priority Seven dig in Fort Stanton Cave, in September, 2003, former grotto member John McLean and others broke through into the passage dubbed “Snowy River.” Grotto members helped install a gate in the area. During this same year we conducted a clean-up of Sandia (Man) Cave. SG adopted this cave as an annual project for the local U.S. Forest Service district. Following a presentation to the
Albuquerque Technical-Vocational Institute through the City Parks and Recreation Department, Outdoor Rec. Section for youths 11-17 in 2005, Linda Starr and Rose Galbraith led a trip to Alabaster Cave. Rose and Linda also presented a program to the New Mexico Mountain Club. Grotto member Alan Blazek won an NSS award for the best internal organization web site two years in a row. Alan also designed a handsome banner in 2010 that the grotto is proud to display. An effort to host an NSS Convention in New Mexico for 2011 was presented as a bid at an NSS Board of Governors Meeting in Tucson, AZ in 2007. After preliminary planning, visiting facilities at NM Tech in Socorro, locating a supportive rancher for a campground, attending meetings with SWR to gain their support, a BOG vote was held at the NSS Convention in Marengo, Indiana, where we went up against an opposing bid for a convention in Colorado. The vote was 8 for CO and 6 for NM – a close call. We were asked to consider a future bid, which we processed through the SWR in 2009-’10, but we failed to win broad regional support for the idea. SG has been working with the Zia Tribal Government for permission to visit Alabaster Cave and surrounding pueblo territory. We hosted a 2008 Labor Day regional at the Sandia Ski Basin with opportunities for caving in the Sandias. In September 2008, the grotto celebrated its 50th Anniversary. Several grotto
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members attended pre- and post-convention field trips at the International Congress of Grottos meeting in Kerrville, Texas. The SG probably hit a record attendance at the 2011 Colorado NSS Convention in Glenwood Springs. During 2011 and 2012 so far, the grotto meetings have been moved from one place to another, with the Law School location not panning out. SG hosted the Spring 2011 NSS BOG meeting in Albuquerque, where the 20th Anniversary of Emily’s Spring Break was
celebrated. Shortly after this, we lost another prominent SWR and grotto caver, Dan Montoya, to an accidental bike collision. Grotto activities have diminished, partially due to WNS-related cave closures. We have recently explored the Lybrook Badlands pseudokarst near Chaco Canyon, finding and surveying one small cave, and hope to return annually. Finally, the grotto is planning to host the 2012 fall weekend SWR gathering in the Zuni Mountains near El Morro National Monument for ridge-walking and recovery of lost cave sites.
White Sands G rotto H istory – 1962 to 2011 By Carol Belski White Sands Grotto was originally chartered in 1962 at Holloman AFB with two districts: Holloman AFB and El Paso. It remained active until 1978 with the HAFB address. (El Paso apparently broke off in 1963 and stayed active until 1965, then was reinstalled and remained active until 1972. El Pasoans into Caving [EPIC] was chartered with the NSS in 1979 until 1982). The White Sands Grotto was reactivated in 1992 with Alamogordo as the address, and reports to the NSS were generated through 1995. Somehow, the reports lapsed in the NSS records until 1999, though the members remained active during this time. In 1999, the address changed to Carlsbad and has remained there since. Activities have included project participation at GypKaP, Fort Stanton Cave,
Lesser Guads Gimp Grotto (LGGG), Lechuguilla Cave, and the Big Manhole Project. We have worked with the Forest Service on cave locations in several canyons of the Lincoln National Forest, with the Bureau of Land Management on gypsum cave locations, conducted multiple cave mapping sessions, and have had a lot of fun together throughout the years.
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We sincerely regret that reports for Escabrosa, Guadalupe and Sierra Blanca grottos were not included in this document. These reports were never submitted. - Editor
Jeff Lory – Past SW R Chairman In December of 1992, I was elected to be Chairman of the Southwestern Region. The Region received the Conservation Award from the NSS at the 1993 Convention in Pendleton, Oregon. That Fall, the Bureau of Land Management, the National Park Service, and the Forest Service hosted the National Cave Management Symposium in Carlsbad. The SWR helped attendees visit some of the caves at McKittrick Hill, as well as participate in the symposium. As for caving, I recall the Region helping to map Palomas Creek Cave at Hermosa, NM, for
the 1993 Spring Regional. At the Memorial Day Weekend regional, the SWR looked for caves within a 300 ft buffer on either side of the highway right-of-way through the Valley of Fires lava beds west of Carrizozo.
I do recall my four-year term as Secretary-Treasurer for SWR to be one of the last times this office was combined. I believe Dave Belski succeeded me, but I highly recommended that the office be split into separate duties when I left the position. Shortly thereafter in the following year, after a By-Laws change, the office was split out and has remained so today. (Editor: Jeff was the only past chairman to submit a story for this publication.)
L etter from Current SW R Chairman, 2012 I find it ironic that my first introduction to the Southwestern Region was right here at Fort Stanton, also the “birthplace” of the SWR itself. It was somewhere in the mid- to late-’90s. I had not been caving long, but was already hooked. So, naturally, when I was told that I should go to the “Regional” at Fort Stanton Cave, my interest was elevated. I was assured that this cave was one of the biggest and best around – a true great in the eyes of many a caver. And it did prove to be true! The cave is amazing, but what I found even more astounding was the dedication, the camaraderie, and the friendships I would discover from that weekend on. I would meet people that I had only known from name: names that appeared on maps of some of the greatest caves in the world, names like “Stucklen Hall,” “Skinner’s Attic,” “Meador Pincher,” and “Belski’s 526,” to name a few. Oh, by the way,
the map to that last one is still pending. At a regional in Carlsbad about 10 years ago, Donald Davis, noting that I was by far the youngest in attendance, asked me an odd question: “As I look around the room, I can’t help but wonder, what are you going to do when we all die?” I chuckled to myself. Since then, I have developed an answer. As cliché as it is, I find it no more true in any realm as I do in the world of caving. To Donald, I say, legends never die. I am fortunate to be the current chairman of an organization that is made up of so many pioneers and legends of something that I hold so dear to me. Although Fort Stanton Cave drew me to my first Regional, you have drawn me to each one since. Here’s to 50 years of caving in the Southwest, and more importantly, 50 years of friendship. --Aaron J Stockton
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SW R/NSS Projects
and H istorical Anecdotes
Photos by Peter Jones
Clockwise fr. Top: Helictites in YO Acres; Glenn Malliet in Near East, Lechuguilla; Bell Canopy, Three Fingers; 24” tall helictites in the Chocolate High, Carlsbad Caverns; Goliath, Cottonwood; Cavernacle columns, Virgin Cave; Tom Meador by guano hopper in Lechuguilla’s entrance, taken in 1971; Rappelling into Gunsight Cave; Pearlsian Gulf area pearls, Lech.; Val Hildreth‐Werker, White Xmas Tree Room, Lech.; Temple of Fiery Cave God, Three Fingers Cave.
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Big Manhole Dig
By Steve Peerman The Big Manhole Cave digging project started in 1988 as a result of the breakthrough in 1986 at Lechuguilla Cave. (The actual, proper name is Manhole Cave, but to contrast it with Little Manhole Cave, people have used the adjective Big so much that it's almost always referred to that way.) After the initial explora-tion of Lechuguilla, Rick Bridges was looking for other caves where a similar breakthrough might be possible. It was known that Big Manhole Cave blew a lot air out through cracks in the breakdown, so he started a project there, with a permit from the Bureau of Land Man-agement given to the Lechuguilla Cave Project. Jeff Lory got involved with the dig fairly early on. The initial dig was high up on the breakdown slope. The dig went about 10 feet into the breakdown and broke out into a large room. Unfortunately, the room that they broke into was the same room that they had started in. The next effort was to dig down at the bottom of the breakdown slope in the clay floor. Rick also asked Bill Yett, who at the time lived in Denver, to head up the dig effort, as he was a contractor with a lot of experience in digging and shoring construction. A site was chosen on the eastern side of the clay floor, and the clay was excavated about three feet down to the flowstone covering the breakdown. Breaking through the flowstone was relatively difficult but eventually an opening about two feet by one and one-half feet was made, and some of the breakdown underneath was excavated. This opening captured almost all the air that had been coming out through the various cracks in the upper breakdown slope. About this time, in early 1989, I got involved. This dig ended up being called the “Breakdown Dig.” We followed the air down through the breakdown. The route got further complicated, requiring more cavers to maneuver buckets through the complex route.
One chamber that we excavated was called the Anxiety Chamber because it had several large breakdown boulders that seemed as if they could fall at any moment. Eventually, we ended this dig in a room called Bridges' Bypass. We had lost the air and there was no obvious way to continue. In about 1991, Bill, Jeff and I were sharing the management of the dig. We called Bill the Dig Foreman because of his con-struction experience. Jeff and I handled the management of the people including recruiting and contacting them. Many SWR folks had been helping us out with the dig, some coming back repeatedly, following that air. However, losing the air at Bridges’ Bypass and having to go through the Anxiety Chamber was causing a lot of people to back out. We decided to start a new dig. Slim Baxter doused the edge of the clay floor and suggested a point pretty close to the center of the south wall of the chamber. This dig went down much farther to the flowstone floor and required wooden shoring. Bill Yett demonstrated how to assemble shoring panels and put them in place as we were digging down. It ended up being around 10 feet down to the flowstone. When we got there, we followed the flowstone surface down and under the edge of the room and all the way to a wall recessed about 15 feet farther, under the southern edge of the chamber. At this point we turned right and followed the wall to the right, staying just under the ceiling. This area was now clay-filled but had once been air-filled passage because the wall was covered in flowstone and the ceiling had stalactites and soda straws. The dig came to be called the “Clay Dig.” We continued digging horizontally, looking for a break in the wall, all the time having air coming from the floor and/or back wall in numerous places.
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While we were doing this, we filled in the breakdown dig by dumping the spoils from it back into the hole we had cut through the flowstone until it filled up. Then, we covered the hole with concrete. We also distributed the remaining pieces of breakdown around the room so that there was no spoils pile left from the breakdown dig. Meanwhile, the excavations from the clay dig accumulated into two large piles of clay. The clay dig was much more organized and technical than the breakdown dig. We used a windlass to move buckets on a track along the horizontal passage at the bottom. A haul line was used to pull buckets up the vertical shaft. Oftentimes the haul line was attached to a “mule,” a caver whose sole task was to walk away from the shaft pulling the rope with the bucket up the shaft. We had a number of defined tasks, such as scraping the buckets. Since we were bringing up relatively moist clay, it tended to stick to the buckets, so the buckets had to be scraped out each time. We were making great progress on the clay dig, sometimes as much as 10 feet in a weekend. Eventually, it petered out in some tight crawlways. Still, we had gone about 100 feet horizontally. We decided to try going left at the bottom, rather than right. This ended up back in the breakdown. The dig was named the Philbert dig. Philbert was the name of a small stalagmite at the bottom of the dig shaft that got broken off accidentally when a full bucket dumped its load. (At one regional, there was a famous trial about who killed Phabulous Philbert, but that's a whole 'nother story.) The Philbert Dig was promising. We seemed to have captured all the air and we followed this air along the wall. No
going back into the breakdown pile this time! We didn't want to have another “Anxiety Chamber.” While we were conducting the Philbert dig, we spread the big piles of clay around the floor of the entrance chamber and raised the level of the entire clay floor about one to two feet. As we continued digging, we found a bone cache, i.e. a spot where there were a quantity of animal bones in the breakdown. We figured out a way to avoid disturbing the bone cache and went under it. Ultimately, we broke into a fissure passage that looked somewhat familiar. Once we dug into it, we realized that it was the lower section of the breakdown dig. We had connected to our old dig! About this same time, the BLM decided to shut down the dig, while a paleontological inventory was done of the bones in the clay and in the bone cache that we found. Dr. Art Harris of University of Texas, El Paso, along with some graduate student, and other cavers, collected a number of bones and wrote a report about what was found. The dig remained closed for a number of years until Memorial Day, 1999, when a new dig was started by Jim Goodbar, again over at the eastern end of the clay floor. This time, we were going to follow an east-west joint that was apparent in the ceiling and walls of the entrance chamber. It ended up going down beside the breakdown dig. In fact, the concrete plug, which we had put into the flowstone opening of the breakdown dig, forms part of the edge of the current flowstone opening into this dig. All of the earlier dig efforts were under a permit by the Lechuguilla Cave Project (LCP). By the time of this new dig, the LCP was defunct, and the management of the dig was theoretically controlled by BLM. However, it was more practically being done by various cavers – Stephen Fleming being the project manager for a time, and then myself. This dig, which never did acquire a name any more identifiable than the “current dig,” followed the eastern wall down through the breakdown, then
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turned and followed the south wall to the west. At one point, we won permission from BLM to use power tools, and we started using a generator and hammer drills. This sped up our progress significantly. In due course, this dig connected to the same fissure that the Philbert dig had connected to, though at the opposite end. On the other hand, it continued much lower. At one point, about 130 feet below the surface, we had the feeling that we had found the “bottom,” i.e., we had found a bedrock floor underneath the breakdown. The air seemed to come from
narrow cracks in the southern wall. John McLean did some resistivity surveys in the area showing that there should be several significant voids to the south. However, digging to the south was not going to be easy. There was no obvious route, and digging into the bedrock wall would be slow going. This is where I turned over management of the dig to Aaron Stockton. With all the work that has gone into Big Manhole Cave, it still remains promising. Remember, “Breakthrough is imminent!”
Dry Cave Project 2005-2012 By Stan A llison & Aaron Stockton January 8, 2005. Passages went left, right, up and down with no end in sight. Many of the passages did not appear to have any walls. They were three- to four-foot-high, horizontal voids following bedding planes into what seemed like infinity with only scattered bedrock columns to suffice as walls. How were we supposed to survey passages with no walls?
More importantly, how would Aaron Stockton and I find our way back to the entrance from the Chamber of the Vanishing Floor if something happened to our fearless leader Jim Goodbar? I had years of experience in the mega-mazes of Wind and Jewel Caves, but foot for foot, Dry Cave equaled them in complexity. Even Jim, with years of experience in Dry Cave was unsure of the proper route at some of the
Stan A llison in Skinner’s Attic. Photo by Gosia Allison-Kosior .
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most confusing junctions. Fortunately, as overwhelmed as we were, we had no real clue as to the extensiveness of the cave. If we had, we might not have started surveying that day. Our project motto which began on that first day of survey was, “baby steps.” Even the most complex cave is surveyed one shot at a time. Dry Cave survey, cartography and documentation began in 1933, but it didn’t really take off until the 1960s and ’70s. By the early 1980s survey, cartography and exploration had ceased, except for a few minor hiccups of activity. In early 2005, Aaron and I submitted a proposal to Jim Goodbar, National BLM Cave and Karst Coordinator, to begin a total resurvey of Dry Cave. Our proposal involved completely resurveying the cave to modern standards, performing a resource inventory, and drafting a map of the cave as we surveyed using Walls and Illustrator software. Since 2005, we have surveyed well over 11 miles of cave, making Dry Cave the fourth longest cave in New Mexico. I have drafted over 11 miles of cave in iIllustrator. The process, called round-tripping, would adjust the cave map to the lineplot as it changed. Having an up-to-date map of this incredibly complex cave made it possible for us to make sense of
this crazy, mazy cave. Approximately five miles of this survey has been in virgin cave discovered since 2005. The most significant discovery was made on January 15, 2006 by Aaron and Jennifer Foote. After a long trip the previous day, they decided to look at a blowing dig less than 200 feet from the entrance. Aaron managed to worm and dig his way through 40 feet of what he called the Thinley Canal, to pop up into the Azotea Rotunda. They were off and running! Well, actually they were off and crawling, but it was all virgin. Extensive walking passages, such as McKittrick Avenue, soon returned to belly crawl mazes, such as Endellite Blues, and hands-and-knees crawling mazes, such as the Sock Monster Maze. This breakthrough, named the McKittrick Avenue Section, has resulted in over three miles of survey with many small leads remaining. The McKittrick Avenue Section significantly extended the footprint of Dry Cave discovery. Dry Cave is a complex cave and extensive enough that we don’t expect to finish exploration and survey in our lifetimes. Many more miles of virgin and pre-explored cave await surveyors who are tolerant of surveying hot, crawly and complex maze passages. In the quest to see how long this little cave really is, hopefully, the survey notes, inventory notes, trip reports, photographs and maps that we are creating in this effort to document Dry Cave will aid the next generation of explorers. We would like to thank the many explorers and surveyors who worked in Dry
Stan Allison, Gosia Allison‐Kosior, Aaron Stockton and Jennifer Foote. Survey at 10 miles, 9‐14‐07. Photo by Gosia Allison‐Kosior.
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Cave prior to 2005. Their maps and documentation have greatly assisted us in our efforts. David McKenzie’s Walls soft- ware and technical support with the round- tripping process has made working on such a complex maze cave map much easier. The project would not have been possible without the permission and support of Jim Goodbar and the BLM. Also, we want to thank the following 57 people with sore knees and elbows who have contributed to the 2005- 2012 Dry Cave Project. Listed in order of survey length: Stan Allison-9.7 miles, Gosia Allison- Kosior-3.9 miles, Aaron Stockton -3.4 miles, Jennifer Foote-1.7 miles, Shawn Thomas-1.3 miles, Kelly Mathis-0.9 miles, Jon Mackey-0.7 miles, Brian Kendrick-0.6 miles, Paul Burger-0.6 miles, Sarah Arpin-0.5 miles, Loren Reinhold-0.5 miles, Phyllis Boneau-0.5 miles, Jon Jasper, James Hunter, Jim Burke, Susan Herpin, Andy Armstrong, Bonny Armstrong, Michael Rasbury, Ian McMillan, Max Wisshak, Pat Cicero, David De Roest, Christy Moerbe, David Kohuth, Joel Despain, Mouser Williams, Shannon Kupersmith, Eddie Baker, Jos Burgers, Stephen
M. Smith, Chris Amidon, Kyle Rybacki, Haley Woods, Dan Austin, Amber Nelson, Scott Sievertsen, John Waller, Dave Levy, Rich Bohman, Allen Wright, Ray Keeler, Bern Szukalski, Joerg Haussmann, Jason Walz, Art Palmer, Peg Palmer, Michael Queen, Laura Fritz, Kate Despain, Marcin Zielinski, Brandon Taylor, Mark Tracy, Lewis Land, Andy Eby, Dave Gose, and Tom Miller.
An example of one of the six levels of Dry Cave, drafted by Stan Allison.
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By V ictor Polyak and Paula Provencio
El Malpais National Monument and
Conservation Area, established in 1988, encompass numerous young basaltic lava flows of the Zuni-Bandera volcanic field on the southeastern margin of the Colorado Plateau in northwestern New Mexico, south of the city of Grants. Seven of these lava flows (Bandera, Twin Craters-La Tetera, Hoya de Cibola, El Calderon, Cerro Encierro, Cerro Rendija, and McCartys) are relatively young (from 5,000 to <200,000 years old). They exhibit well-defined lava tube systems, with significant and remarkable lava tube caves. Most of these caves are within the jurisdiction of the Monument and Conservation Area, and some are open to the public. Additional information can be obtained from the Monument. ElMaP (El Malpais Project) officially started in 2002 via a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Monument and Sandia Grotto; this MOU was to be
reviewed, modified, and signed every five years. One MOU was renewed in 2007, and Dan Montoya helped co-manage the project. Recently, White-Nose Syndrome along with other issues, has postponed the ElMaP, and all caves are closed on the Monument at this time. Early 2011 was the last trip. Since then, two meetings with Monument representatives have given the Sandia Grotto reassurance that the project will continue in mid- to late-2012 or by 2013. Project trips are usually one-day field trips about eight times a year. In nine years, the Sandia Grotto has prepared and submitted more than 50 “initial reports” (~50 caves) and ~50 trip reports. These reports include a map of each cave and a cave resource inventory along with photographic documentation. Most of the caves open to the public were worked on first. These caves include Big Skylight and Four Windows caves in the Bandera flow, Braided Cave in the Hoya de Cibola flow, and Junction and Xenolith caves in the El Calderon flow. The project is about one-sixth finished. The longest cave in the Monument is just at one mile, and the deepest is around 30 meters. One of the tallest lava stalagmites in the country is located in the Monument, and a variety of ice speleothems are “re-created” each year. All of these caves contain precious geological, biological, and cultural resources.
Big Skylight Cave, El Malpais National Monument. Photo by Linda Starr.
Big Skylight Cave, El Malpais National Monument. Photo by Linda Starr.
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E lMaP: A Sandia G rotto Project to Study and Inventory Caves of E l Malpais National Monument and Conservation A rea, New Mexico
By Steve Peerman The Fort Stanton Cave Study Project (FSCSP) is a long-term and ongoing project operating under a Volunteer Services Agreement with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The project sponsors three, nine-day expeditions yearly. It is the policy of the FSCSP to be fully open to all individuals interested in furthering the goals of the project. The Fort Stanton Cave Study Project is a private, non-profit organization. In addition to exploration, survey and mapping projects, some of the current activities include working closely with the BLM in establishing up-to-date WNS bat protocols, working with bat biologists to monitor the bat population, supporting other scientists doing research in such areas as cave hydrology, microbiology, human impact monitoring, and paleoclimatology. Moreover, we are developing a photography- and survey-based computer simulation/visualization of restricted access portions of the cave system. This program, known as Caver Quest, uses an avatar to explore the accurately rendered passages. Other activities include digging projects, historical documentation and surface geophysical studies. Fort Stanton Cave, an extensive limestone cave in central New Mexico, is the
third-longest cave in the state and is notable because of the discovery in 2001 of the Snowy River passage. This passage is floored with a white calcite deposit regarded by many as the longest continuous cave formation in the world at 6+ miles, with no end in sight. In 2009, the area around Fort Stanton Cave was designated as a National Conservation Area (NCA) with more than 25,000 acres in order to protect this valuable resource. The new NCA, managed by the Roswell Office of the BLM, is known as the Fort Stanton-Snowy River Cave National Conservation Area with its centerpiece being Fort Stanton Cave and its associated karst system. Our focus is continued documentation and protection of this unique cave and karst system. The information that we gather assists the BLM to better understand the cave and karst resources, manage them, and protect the area. For additional information, including future expeditions, please visit our web site at http://FSCSP.org/. If you wish to join us on one of our activities, please contact Steve Peerman, our Project Director, at [email protected].
Fort Stanton Cave Study Project – FSCSP
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Gyp K aP – Gypsum K arst Project of New M exico
By Blake N . Jordan The Southwestern Region sponsors the New Mexico Gypsum Karst Project (GypKaP), an NSS Project to further the knowledge of the gypsum caves and karst lands in New Mexico. This project is the largest of its kind in the United States, and has drawn cavers from as far away as New Hampshire, Italy, and even the Ukraine to its project weekends. The GypKaP project began in 1987 for the purpose of exploring, mapping, studying, and understanding one of the largest, least-explored and least-understood karst regions in the United States. Most of the GypKaP study area is located on (under) private land in New Mexico, and land access entry to those caves is prohibited except during specific (landowner-approved) project weekends. There are caves on Bureau of Land Management (BLM), state-owned and private lands. Since the inception of the project on March 15-16, 1987, over 180,000 feet of cave survey has been completed and more than 150 new caves discovered and added to the New Mexico Cave Inventory. There have been three GypKaP project reports that have been published, including maps, narratives, geological, biological, and hydrological studies. When the project began, virtually
nothing was known of the subsurface features or resources of the region; the project has taken a leadership role in documenting New Mexico gypsum karst. There have been five project directors since the beginning. Dave Belski was Project Director from 1987 to 1993. Steve Peerman followed from 1994 to 1997. After that Chris and Joli Lee picked up the year of 1998. Dave Belski became acting director from 1999 to 2000. John Ganter was the Project Leader for 2001. Blake Jordan is the current Project Director and he started in 2002 and through 2012, taking the year of 2011 off. There have been 98 Trips or Event Weekends since the start. I started with Trip #60 in 2002 and ended with Trip #98 in 2010. High-quality landowner relations are required when setting up trips or events for the GypKaP. Participants often need to cross private property to get to the caves. The landowners lease the property from BLM or the state to graze livestock. The area is speckled with state, BLM, and private land and the landowners may become protective (if they are not notified in advance of trips or events by the Project Director). Once a relationship has been established, the Project Director makes sure that all is well on the ranches so the cavers
Normal morning orientation session at GypKaP. Photo by Blake Jordan.
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can enjoy the area without much hassle. We are invited guests and must abide by routines that have been set up by prior Project Directors. Out at the GypKaP, the caves are mainly composed of gypsum rock strata and sometimes combined or capped with dolomite. The karst formations are unique to caves formed in gypsum. They include: serpentine passages, shields, domes, sewers, small stalactites, gypsum flowers, popcorn, aragonite, and sometimes flowstone. Gypsum comes in many different colors including black, brown, rust, white, gray, yellow, orange and red. These colors are caused by impurities that seep into the gypsum bedrock. Frequently, we see “chicken wire” gypsum, which is a white bed with black cross patterns that look like wire fencing used for housing chickens. Some caves have red bands in the gypsum, referred to as bloodstone. Several caves have a solid black layer of gypsum under or on top of white or chicken wire gypsum. Most of these caves do not have any typical cave formations (stalagmites) due to their solutional character. A few can be delightfully surprising. Each time it rains in the area, the caves have an extreme potential to flood all the way to the surface. It can get very muddy
and there is often mud and organic debris on the ceilings. The cave can be very muddy, but the surface is bone dry. So, extra caution is taken when the Project Director sets up the trip to watch for expected weather in the area over the weekend. The Gypsum Karst Project has been going on for 25 years with a couple pauses so that we might refresh ourselves from caving in the gypsum plains. These high, windy Llano Estacado (tall grass prairie) plains stretch from Vaughn (northern edge) to the Texas border (southern extent) and from Corona (western side) to across the Pecos River (eastern rim). The gypsum plain extends for several hundred square miles. There have been over 170 caves found and most have been surveyed, but still many more miles of unknown areas remain that will need ridgewalking. Some caves still have survey remaining to be completed. Other caves need further exploration. The GypKaP will continue to have three to five weekend trips a year to ridgewalk, explore, survey and document gypsum caves in this exciting and little known part of New Mexico.
(L to R) Ira Sanders, Liz Galbraith, Rose Galbraith‐Sanders surveying in typical serpentine, muddy and crawl‐space‐high gypsum passage.
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High Guads Restoration Project – H G RP By Jennifer Foote The High Guads Restoration Project (HGRP) was founded in 1998 after SWR and ARA cavers worked out an agreement with Region 3 of the Forest Service to replace the fee demo proposal with volunteer work. HGRP performs tasks such as cave restoration, trail maintenance, monitoring, science, survey, rescue pre-planning, and trip leader training in the Lincoln National Forest, Guadalupe Ranger District. Dave Jagnow ran the Project in 1999- 2000. Susan Herpin was in charge from 2000
to 2002, and Jennifer Foote started to help run the Project in 2002, taking it over in 2005. We have worked with a rotating mix of USFS cave specialists including Ransom Turner, Aaron Stockton, Deanna Younger, and now Jason Walz. Over the past thirteen years the Project has contributed over a half million dollars of volunteer value. We have taught restoration and conservation skills to numerous groups and individuals and helped keep world-class caves open to recreational caving.
Phyllis Boneau cleaning rimstone formations in Virgin Cave. Photo by J. Foote.
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Of the 300 or so known caves in the Guadalupe Mountains of southeast New Mexico, few were as enigmatic in the 20th century as Sentinel Caverns. On a summer Saturday in 1938, a pack trip traversed the ridge between Black and Gunsight canyons southeast of Guadalupe Ridge. The trip’s intent was to locate and explore a pit cave whose entrance had been described by local rancher Seth McCollaum. Interest in such an expedition was apparently motivated by a hoped-for cave discovery that would rival the now-famous Carlsbad Cavern. The adventure-based exploration write-up, along with several shorter cave-related articles, was the lead story of the September 18, 1938, The New Mexico Sentinel, a weekly Santa Fe-based newspaper, which partially financed the trip. The article and accompanying photographs filled the newspaper’s first seven pages with stories and photographs of New Mexico’s newest subterranean wonder. The designated group leader was Bill Hesch, a photographer for The New Mexico Sentinel. Seth was the driving force behind the development of the discovery trip. He was ably assisted by 66 year-old Walter Pinson, a fellow rancher and a U.S. Forest Service district ranger. The other eight members were Wyatt Davis of Santa Fe and N. R. Thomas, Louis Blackburn, Elmer Helper, Carl Montgomery, Lloyd Haskins, Gerald Akins, and Leland Underwood,
all of Carlsbad. Seth was intimately familiar with the ridges and canyons; his grazing responsibilities often brought him to this steep southeast side of Guadalupe Ridge on horseback. Never before had he explored with an expeditionary force of ten others, from tenderfoot mountain trekkers to seasoned outdoorsmen, trudging behind. Armed with only a compass and the indefatigable memories of Seth and Walter, the team located the yawning chasm entrance that afternoon, six miles from their starting point, with only a minimum of searching. The expedition halted at the high rocky rim of a near-circular surface pit some 50 feet across – just where Seth told them it would be. Seth’s team was thunderstruck both by the entrance drop and by the yawning black maw at bottom that promised an unexplored cave. The team tied a 450-foot length of 5/8-inch manila rope to a large rock and cautiously lowered their camera gear, bedrolls, food, and water on a v-line configuration 150 feet to the floor of the entrance. Then, even more cautiously, they picked their way down the steep rocky slopes and outcroppings to the lower lip of the entrance, 50 feet above the floor. They tied off another length of manila rope and lowered themselves into virgin cave. The hale and hearty “spelunkers” pushed several passages and rooms that branched from the Big Room. The passages were well-decorated with formations of varying shapes and sizes, albeit dry and inactive. Often they completely precluded view of walls, ceiling and floor. Cave shields were numerous and very
The Discovery – and Rediscovery – O f Sentinel Caverns By Jim Evatt Photographs by Pete L indsley The Beginning – The Hesch-Pinson-McCollaum Expedition
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Some H istorical Anecdotes
impressive, as was the lonely, curious Big Room “Sentinel” stalagmite cluster that may have contributed to their naming the cave “Sentinel Caverns.” One lead near the Sentinel formation appeared more promising than any other passage: a tall, narrow passage branching from the floor in a generally southeastern direction – toward Hermit Cave. The team carefully climbed along the right wall to a dark opening about 50 feet away near the ceiling, passing over cave popcorn most of the way. To their immense credit they left no visible signs of where they had traversed. The passage continued after the dark opening, sloping slightly downward and ending a short distance later at the lip of a black pit. They estimated the pit to be nearly 40 feet wide, with openings extending above, below and across, with no apparent way to enter any of them. A small rock was dropped into the pit. It “crashed, boomed, roared, and echoed,” but returned no definitive sound that it had hit the bottom. Nonplussed, Seth and his team members were bent upon attempting to plumb the hole. They devised a makeshift manila rope cradle, secured Seth into it, and lowered him over the edge into nothingness. A hundred feet below Seth reported back that he was resting on a small ledge and, despite a bright beam from his five-cell flashlight, detected nothing but blackness below him. He reported, “It jumps off from here straight to hell!” and told them to pull him up. The cave would not be “bottomed” on this trip. Tired, disappointed, yet somehow enthralled, the team exited the cave after three days of exploration and packed out to Seth’s ranch house. Hesch’s final comment regarding the exploration, as published in the New Mexico Sentinel article: “Climbing out the last time I stopped halfway up the cliff face and with my rope in my elbow looking back at that yawning
hole. It seemed to speak, a silent image of formless words from a giant mouth. It gave me a strange feeling that it was trying to lure me back. I want to go.” But over the next 26 years Sentinel Caverns saw no human visitation. 26 Years Later – the 1964 G roundwork That L ed to the Rediscovery
During the early 1960s, there were several ridgewalking trips on Gunsight Ridge. These trips meant to relocate Sentinel Caverns. The efforts at solving the Sentinel mystery were spearheaded by Tom Meador and Bob Willis in the fall of 1964. Tom apparently located reference to the original New Mexico Sentinel article at Carlsbad Caverns and told Willis about it. Bob then researched the article at the University of New Mexico, and the chase began in earnest. Members of the Sandia Grotto, the Guadalupe Grotto, and the Dallas-Fort Worth Grotto failed to find it on one extensive search trip a few days later. After that blister-inducing trek to nowhere, Ken McCollaum, now manager of the McCollaum Ranch in Dark Canyon, suggested to Bob Willis that Bob should talk to his great-uncle Seth McCollaum, still alive and living in Tucumcari. Bob wasted no time and, dragging me along to keep him awake, drove to Tucumcari the following Tuesday evening. We talked until almost midnight. Seth’s memory belied his late 80s age, and he described in glowing recall the exact cave location as if his trip had occurred the day before. We returned to Albuquerque in the wee hours of Wednesday morning, tails between our legs. Bob immediately scheduled another trip to Gunsight Ridge the following weekend, utilizing most of the same team that had recently searched for the lost cave. Late on the appointed Friday evening, Pete Lindsley, Lee Skinner and Larry Register (Dallas-Fort Worth Grotto), Bill Riley and Andy
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Komensky (Guadalupe Grotto of Carlsbad), Katy Cassels-Smith, Mike Hooker, Bob Willis and Jim Evatt (Sandia Grotto of Albuquerque) met at the usual campsite at the base of Three Mile Hill for yet another tedious ridge tromping. We discussed plans for the next day over the campfire. The next morning, we ascended Guadalupe Ridg, parking as usual at Deer Camp, aka Hunter’s Camp, at the head of Gunsight Ridge. Loaded with enough gear to outfit an idle-rich African safari, we departed enmasse down the ridge toting caving, hiking, camping and vertical packs – and plenty of rope. As troops say entering battle, “Confidence is high.” After about a mile of ridge-walk- ing, we broke off the top of the main ridge onto a secondary ridge. The actual search began in the same section of cliffs that we had searched unsuccessfully the previous trip. The search group split up and scoured the cliffs, peering over the edges and praying for no gusts of wind. Bob Willis led our team out from the top of the cliff, and, with his long legs and the nimbleness of a mountain goat, quickly outdistanced the rest of us. He arrived 100 yards further than any of us along the cliff- top, at yet another semi-circular drop and cautiously peered down. Then, wildly dancing and gesticulating, he screamed “Cave Ho!” After 26 years and several futile search trips, lost Sentinel Caverns had again been found. The group hastily reassembled beside Bob, and with appropriate trepidation, stuck an eyeball out over the edge. Yup! Cave! Finding the entrance proved to be only half of the problem. Negotiating a safe way down to the lower lip of the pit was another
challenge. The safest opportunity to enter lay in a steep, knife-edged, limestone fin that dropped toward the lower rim. Gloves on, we cautiously worked our way down the fin, often passing packs down, then descending. It took nearly an hour to wend our way a mere 151 feet. A “European climbing rig,” consisting of rope and cable ladders, was assembled and all
Pete Lindsley photographs his own shadow ‐ and the vertical entrance drop into Sentinel Caverns.
Andy Komensky, Katy Cassels‐Smith, Bob Willis, and Mike
Hooker preparing for descent.(Pete Lindsley photo.)
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nine of us descended, heel and toe, several on a safety belay, nearly 50 feet to the entrance floor and the black void that invited us. After announcing that our trusty carbide lamps were functioning with nine discernable “Whoomp!” sounds, we entered Sentinel Caverns. The Revisitation
The entrance passage curved downward to a partially decorated room. There was evidence of bat visitation, but no current colonies were noticed on this trip. However, we did find evidence of the 1938 visit by Seth McCollaum and his 10 intrepid explorer friends. Several unfired antique Press-25 and Press-50 flashbulbs were retrieved, along with some rusting food cans and a surprisingly intact 1938 copy of the New Mexico Sentinel newspaper. Andy Komensky put the newspaper in his pack and later gave it to the Park Service at Carlsbad Caverns for their files. Lee pulled a pad out of his pack and began sketching the cave. Excitement reigned; no one thought about the element of time until somebody commented that it was already after 2 o’clock in the afternoon. We sat down, pulled lunch from our packs and refueled ourselves for the journey ahead. It was to be the last meal for nearly a full day. Below the entrance chamber was a tall opening between formation columns that afforded the best chance for deeper penetration. Through that stone gateway and another 100 feet of passage was a much larger room, the “Big Room” that had been described in the New Mexico Sentinel article 26 years earlier. The room was about 100 feet in diameter with a ceiling 50 ft or more, flat-floored, with a tiny pit in the center. Many going leads were visible in the well- decorated walls, and several large, impressive shields festooned the walls and floor area. Pete unloaded his bulky camera
gear and promptly photographed everything in sight. The rest of us scattered into small passages, cracks and crevices, hoping for blowing air. The largest hole in the wall, about five feet wide and twenty feet high or more, was too large to detect air movement in. Bob Willis and others stuck their snoots into it; the ceiling rose, the passage continued into blackness, and the floor disappeared. “Aha!” we cried. “This must be McCollaum’s Bottomless Pit.” The pit was merely a dry rimstone pool about five feet across and 15 feet deep. This was not McCollaum’s Bottomless Pit after all. We entered the room beyond the pit: a well-decorated chamber with a popcorn-coated floor, right wall, and formations. The floor sloped steeply up and to the right, toward a dark hole about 30 feet above and maybe 50 feet back. If this was the way to McCollaum’s professed entrance to hell, it was extremely well camouflaged. There were absolutely no marks in the popcorn whatsoever to indicate that someone had trod here before. We chose not to initiate such a marked path, and we were not prepared to do a long drop. Too, it was already approaching dusk outside and most of us – the New Mexico contingent – were not prepared to spend the night in the cave. We agreed that the popcorn climb and the real McCollaum’s Bottomless Pit would still be there another day, and returned to the Big Room.
Larry Register photographs shields and other pretties in the Big Room. (Pete Lindsley photo.)
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Lee was busily sketching after pushing a few dead-end leads. What he didn’t personally investigate he drew from the descriptions of others. Someone remarked that the way back to the ridge top would be much easier with some light. Begrudgingly, after no more than two hours in the rediscovered wonder – a lot less than the three days that Seth and his friends had spent there – we headed out. We vowed to heed Bill Hesch’s parting words, to return soon to the cave and the siren that beckoned us, too, back.
Lee Skinner admires a bell canopy in Sentinel. (Pete Lindsley photo) We didn’t make it to camp until nearly midnight, but we slept well those few remaining hours. The next morning, we left a message at Ken’s ranch that we had finally relocated his great-uncle’s cave, and headed back to our respective cities. On Monday, Bob called Seth McCollaum and thanked him, explaining our trials and tribulations of the eventful Saturday. Epilogue Several trips have been made to Sentinel Caverns since then, yet it remains less-visited and more pristine than many of the frequently-trod, often-vandalized caves of the Guadalupes
that are easier to find and enter. McCollaum’s Bottomless Pit, beyond the high popcorn-encrusted lead, has been dropped 250 feet to its floor, yielding a bat colony but little additional passage. After several arduous bolting weekends, the passage beyond the pit was entered. It proved to be another disappointment. Attempts have been made to bolt a route up the pit’s dome, but it appeared to pinch out above, and the project has been abandoned. Reportedly, a smoke test was performed many years ago in Sentinel to test whether a connection could be made to the main room’s high lead in Hermit Cave. It isn’t clear whether it was successful or not, as the rumor mill has reported both possible outcomes. Who performed the test, if in fact it was performed at all, is still a mystery. This recollection of the rediscovery trip, and the events that led to it, draws a lot from 47-year old memories. The event was not well-documented at the time. A brief article by Mike Hooker, that appeared in the Southwestern Cavers newsletter shortly after the trip, was the only written document found. The writer gratefully acknowledges the input and corrections made by Pete Lindsley, Lee Skinner, and Andy Komensky. Sentinel remains one of the most mysterious caves of the Guadalupes: hard to find, harder to get to, and harder yet to plumb its depths. Yet, it has earned its place in Southwest cave lore as both a legend and a success story, starting in 1938 with a curious itch for discovery and exploration begun by a hardscrabble rancher named Seth McCollaum. Our collective hat is off to you Seth – you embody the now infamous phrase of the late Tom Zannes; may “The Spirit of Exploration” never die.
Text © 2012 by Jim Evatt Photos © Pete Lindsley
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L incoln Caverns By L ee H . Skinner When I first visited Fort Stanton Cave in 1961, the cave already had over five miles of known passageways. The largest rooms were in the farthest reaches of the cave in an area just known as The New Section, which had been discovered in 1956. The cave was heading into the heart of a large ridge between the Rio Bonito and the Rio Ruidoso. A high part of this ridge overlooked the town of Lincoln. As the topographic maps showed no name for this ridge, I started calling it Lincoln Ridge, and had visions of much larger cave under it, like the large ridges of the Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky. If only we could find this larger cave! I had been a seasonal tour leader at Mammoth Cave in 1960, and Fort Stanton Cave reminded me a lot of the long passages in Mammoth Cave. Cold, Blowing A ir
On a trip into the cave in 1962, I was resting and eating lunch at the end of Gypsum Passage in the New Section. Gypsum Passage has some especially nice but small gypsum flowers. I was sitting on a mixture of mud and loose gravel on the left side of the passage next to the terminus. Gradually, I became aware that my buttocks were getting quite cold compared to the rest of my body. Placing my hands down on the floor, where I had been sitting, I felt a current of cold air escaping from the gravel rubble. I then started my first dig in Fort Stanton Cave – a dig that would consume seven years and over 100 digging trips by various cavers. I was the leader on many of these digs through 1966. A young caver, Robbie Babb, was also drawn to the dig, and he led many trips there. The dig had become a long tunnel alongside the breakdown, and it had been given the name Babb's Burrow. It was already over
100 ft long and strong airflow often blew out our carbide lamps. Numerous, small air pockets had been encountered as the burrow continued following strong airflow. Robbie broke into the seventh air pocket, a rather large one with white gypsum and flowstone; he named it the Snow White Seventh Dwarf Room. We already had a name for the new area beyond our eventual breakthrough: Lincoln Caverns. References to the soon-to-be-discovered Lincoln Caverns were mentioned in the March 1965 issue of Southwestern Cavers by Dwight Deal ("Lee and the rest of the Fort Stanton-philes will probably push through and end up discovering Lincoln Caverns.") and in the September 1965 issue by Don Harper ("...this refers to the not-yet-discovered Lincoln Caverns."), although Don Harper expected Lincoln Caverns to be discovered beyond Russell's Crawl. New Digs
On one digging trip with me in 1963, Donald Davis was digging in the Burrow, and a large rock from the roof fell on him, pinning him in place. Doug Rhodes helped to rescue him. Donald was a bit uneasy about digging after that incident, but he noticed air coming from the upper right side of Gypsum Passage, where it encountered the terminal breakdown. Not wanting to go back again into the Burrow, Donald started a second dig. On August 4, 1963, as he dug upward into a chimney, he was careful to avoid all of the falling debris as he shook and twisted a metal pole in the direction that the air was coming from. Suddenly, I heard a loud noise from falling rock raining down on Donald's helmet. Donald and I then gazed upward into a large room. Almost ellipsoidal in shape, it lay above the breakdown that Robbie and I were skirting below. We named it the Davis Chamber. In the following months, several attempts were made to dig downward at the far end of the chamber. However, the rock was cemented with
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travertine, and little progress was made. The Burrow then seemed the best way to continue. I moved to Dallas to work for Texas Instruments in 1964, but I continued making a lot of trips to Fort Stanton to help with the digs. I recruited Pete Lindsley, Norman Robertson, David Ince and Jim Goodbar to help. (Jim was only 14, but he was an enthusiastic caver with parents who were also cavers.) In 1965, Pete detected airflow in the large breakdown at the end of Sand Passage. Not far from Gypsum Passage, which probably headed into the same general direction, this was another dig requiring movement up through large boulders. We resorted to dynamite to loosen keystones supporting some of the large boulders, and found a pocket in the breakdown called the Lindsley Chamber. K ey Cavers Move A round
Robbie continued the Burrow dig when I moved to Minnesota in 1967 to work for Control Data Corporation. The dig was now turning difficult as much calcite cemented the rocks together. The plastic buckets had to be hauled out and back over a long distance. As Robbie was leaving for a job in Washington state in 1968, I managed to get a transfer back to the southwest. I then resumed leading the dig trips. On Memorial Day weekend, 1969, a marathon of weekends led to further work at Babb's Burrow. Starting from that first weekend, we dug in the Burrow every Friday and Saturday for eight hours each day, and the trip to the dig was over two hours from the entrance. As we diligently followed the airflow, the Burrow eventually turned upward.
B reakthrough and Discoveries
On August 9, 1969, Dennis Engle was digging through a slanting crack against the left wall. I was behind him. Suddenly, Dennis exclaimed, "It's looking good. I think we may break through."
Shortly thereafter, Dennis pulled himself up onto the floor of an immense walking passage. Elbert Bassham, Chuck Ridpath and I soon followed. This was a thrill that ended seven years of hard work by many cavers. We were standing in Lincoln Caverns. The lights from our carbide lamps were the first photons to touch these walls. A few minutes later, we entered an enormous room. It had a breakdown floor and a high sculptured dome. Later, we named it Chuck's Dome, as we labeled each feature of our new findings for a member in the discovery party. As I stood in awe looking around the room, Elbert Bassham continued across the room. He descended into another smaller passage which we named Elbert's Alley. Finally, he reached a point where he would have to break some stalactites to continue. To this day, cavers have not gone beyond this partial formation blockage of the passage. "Was this it?" I thought. Toward the left side of the room, there was a slight rise in the floor. Hoping that something would be over here to explore, I walked over the small pile of breakdown to discover below me a large passage at the bottom of a sandy slope. The slope dropped into a tall,
Lee Skinner at columns in Lincoln Caverns. Photographer unknown
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narrow passage termed Skinner's Pass. Now, we were walking level in a tremendous passage with 50-ft- high flowstone walls. We later designated this as Snake River, due to the way it twisted. A high lead on the right wall was climbed with a scaling mast a year or so later, but the lead did not go. Soon, we came to aragonite trees along the left wall. In the middle of the floor, there were three beautiful aragonite trees with straight "trunks" sprouting from a flowstone mound, covered with delicate branches. The largest one was about one foot high and 10 inches wide. Nothing like this had been observed in Fort Stanton Cave before. Sadly, these aragonite trees mysteriously disappeared sometime in the 1980s. As we continued, the passage dropped a little and widened into substantial virgin borehole. We passed through areas filled with velvet crusted flowstone, stalactites, stalagmites and columns, more beautiful than any other areas in Fort Stanton Cave. After about one-half mile, we reached a sizeable terminal breakdown, which we called Engle's Hill. When we left the cave that evening, we drove to Lincoln and called Don Sawyer at 2:00 a.m. to report the achievement. Then, I called Donald Davis. We returned the following weekend. Elbert Bassham pushed a small crawlway that
he found near Engle's Hill. Soon, he arrived in a wide room with stalactites on the ceiling with coloring that alternated between light and dark circular stripes. This room became known as the Tiger Tail Room. Protection As the discoverers felt that we needed to protect our find until a gate was built for protection, no reports were published about the discovery in the caving newsletters. We disguised the entrance to Babb's Burrow with sheet-metal, and then covered that with gravel and dirt. A protective gate was eventually installed. To this day, special permits have been required to visit Lincoln Caverns. In 1976, Doug Rhodes, Linda Rhodes (Starr) and Cal Welbourn worked with the Roswell District of the Bureau of Land Management to study the feasibility of leasing the Lincoln Caverns section of Fort Stanton Cave to the National Speleological Society for management as an NSS Cave Preserve. However, no agreement was ever reached. Postscript The discovery of Lincoln Caverns has never been previously published in Southwestern Cavers or Rocky Mountain Caving because the discoverers were intent on secrecy as a management tool.
Aragonite trees, 1969. Photographer unknown.
Sometime near 2008, cavers observe Lincoln Caverns passage. Unknown photographer.
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Following Jim White’s Footsteps By Pete L indsley Shortly after joining the NSS and the Dallas Fort Worth Grotto in 1960, several of us were busy looking for caves. In 1961, we discovered a plainly marked area on the Carlsbad Caverns, West USGS quadrangle in the Guadalupe Mountains called “2000 Foot Cave.” We checked with the cavers in the Abilene Grotto and found out that location was only a shelter cave, and it most certainly was not 2000 feet deep. However, we also found out that Jim White likely found a nearby cave and was rumored to have been lowered into a deep cave with a similar name. Some of the other new DFWG members in the early ’60s included Katherine Goodbar, Bert (Gerald) Olsen, Larry Register and Roy Carpenter. Roy wasn’t much of a caver, but he was an avid amateur archeologist and could spot an arrowhead from 30 feet away. Carpenter had some distant relatives that lived on the XT Ranch, heading towards El Paso just off the highway south of White City. He contacted them and found out that yes, they knew of a “deep hole.” It could be reached via ranch access and a long hike up the hill to the top of the Guadalupes, off the Ussery Trail, approximately two miles from the map’s marked location. In the fall of 1961, Roy Carpenter, Bert Olsen (both now deceased) and I decided to look for Jim White’s 2000 Foot Cave. I was a poor college student, Bert worked for the phone company, and Roy was retired. Roy had an old red and white International Scout that would make the trip. Roy’s son Bob also came along for the hike. Bert and I decided to get ready to descend a shaft and agreed to split the cost of a 400-ft length of manila rope that we bought from Sears. We practiced rappelling off Turner Falls in nearby Oklahoma with other grotto
members, and then prussik climbing from a 30-ft tree on 3/8-inch manila loops and a 3/8-inch Swiss seat. We also secured permission to borrow the grotto’s 87 feet of steel cable ladders. Around Thanksgiving, 1961, we left Bert’s house in Duncanville and headed for Carlsbad. As the youngest, Bob and I drew the short straw most of the time for the third and fourth position on top of the gear packed in the rather small Scout.
(L‐R) Bob & Roy Carpenter, Bert Olsen at XT Ranch entrance. Photo by P. Lindsley. At sunup the next morning, we arrived at the XT Ranch gate and headed in to find Roy’s relative, who was either the owner or the leasing rancher in the flat lands below the Guads on the east side. We drove to the ranch house, talked about 30 minutes to our contact, drove another 15 minutes to the end of a faint road and started hiking towards the bottom of the Ussery Trail. Bert and I had been worried about “the old man,” but we soon found that we could not begin to keep up with him (even loading him down with the cable ladders), while the two of us cavers took turns with the 400 ft rope. At the bottom of the mountain, we decided to cut the rope in half and continue with 200 feet. Although the Ussery Trail was not often used and hard to follow at times, it was easier than just taking off up the mountain. Once on the top of the hill, the trail headed west. “Buck Knob” was just to our right. Following instructions, we looked for a vertical entrance.
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(L‐R) Bob & Roy Carpenter, Bert Olsen at the bottom of the Ussery Trail. Photo by P. Lindsley. A carefully tossed rock down one possible hole seemed to drop over 100 feet. Another rock followed, and when we heard a distant “boom” after seconds of silence we knew we were in the right place. (The rancher also told us he had found a blowing hole in the canyon below Deep Hole. Later on another trip, we looked but never found that spot.) Heading into the cave, we saw that it opened up and dropped sharply down. We ventured down the slope following a steel cable tied to the wall and found an upper tie-off point in line with the yawning shaft. Securing the
half-inch manila to an iron stake at the top, we carefully made our way down the giant funnel. We looped the three cable ladders over a second iron stake driven into
a wide ledge below. This second stake, driven into the Capitan limestone, was tied to what we believed to be the top of Jim White’s wire ladder. Bert went down the 87 feet of cable ladders on belay from the ledge. He decided that the Jim White ladder next to our cable ladder was too risky and didn't touch it. At the bottom of the cable ladder, and almost out of belay rope, he looked almost straight down the rest of the drop to the floor. He could see some pebbles on the floor, but, of course, could not go further without climbing on the Jim White ladder. Bert estimated that it was about another 40 to 50 feet to the floor. By this time, it was getting late. All four of us hiked back to camp at the vehicle that night.
Bert Olsen at the bottom of the drop. Photo by P. Lindsley. The next day, Roy and Bob went hiking elsewhere. Bert and I hiked back up to the cave, this time planning to re-rig the 200 feet of rope to the lower iron stake and rappel down to one side of the wire ladder. We tied off the rope to the same iron stake to which the cable ladders were secured. As Bert claimed the ticket to continue his journey of the previous day, he reminded me it was only another 40 to 50 feet to the bottom. Over the edge he went, slowly rappelling as he passed the bottom of our cable
Roy Carpenter on the ledge below the entrance of Deep Hole. Photo by P. Lindsley.
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ladder. About 40 feet later he paused, and I yelled, “What’s down there?” He replied, “The floor isn’t any closer, and those pebbles seen yesterday now look like boulders!” Neither one of us had practiced changing over to prussik loops while on rappel. Fortun-ately, he had a few feet of rope on the bottom and made landfall before the rope ran out. “OK, come on down,” he yelled, with a giant echo almost obscuring the words as they came out of his mouth.
Bottom of the Jim White ladder. Photo by P. Lindsley. The room seemed immense to us, much larger than the previously visited Texas and Oklahoma caves. We landed on an enormous pile of
rocks that had fallen or had been thrown in over the years. No doubt there were deer, goat, elk or bear bones under some of this pile. With my carbide light cranked up to a two-inch flame, I could barely see the perimeter of the room, which widened out after passing the constriction near the bottom of our cable ladders 100 ft above. We took a few pictures of some large formations and totem stalagmites and did a quick walk around the huge room. While I took a couple of final photos, Bert headed up the half-inch manila rope beside the wire ladder, composed of sotol sticks and three strands of twisted, smooth, paired fence wire. Our time was up. We pulled our rope and ladders out of the cave and headed back to camp, picking up the other 200 feet of rope on the way. The stories around the campfire that night of Deep Hole were somewhat exaggerated.
Back home at Bert’s house, we unload the gear. Photo by P. Lindsley.
Old chimney at Queen, NM, on return trip. Photo by P. Lindsley. The return trip was a few months later over the 1962 Easter holiday. This time we planned to drive in from Queen, on the other side of Guadalupe Ridge. Bert had a new, green and white Scout. Roy Carpenter, Brooks Snyder from Fort Worth and I went on the return trip to Deep Hole.
Roy Carpenter on Ussery Trail near Deep Hole. Double Cave is visible across the canyon. Photo by P. Lindsley.
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Again, we planned to rig our half-inch manila besides Jim White’s ladder. On the trip out Roy announced that he had a light and a helmet and was definitely going into the cave with us after carefully considering our description of the questionable ladder. Roy was our senior by 30+ years and there was no stopping his intentions. We set the three cable ladders the same as before against the sharply sloping wall, ending about 100 feet above the floor below. Bert rappelled down about 10 feet into the free fall beside the Jim White ladder. Again, he went slowly, checking out the rungs (some were missing) and said it was okay for Roy to climb down. Bert landed at the bottom about 187 feet below the second iron stake in the ledge. Then, I belayed Carpenter as he climbed slowly down our cable ladder before changing over to the Jim White ladder without problems. Finally, Brooks and I rappelled down to join the other two.
By the time we made it down, Bert and Roy had started looking at the formations with
slightly better lighting than a few months before. This time I had a roll of the new, faster Kodachrome II film plus seven Press #50 bulbs, which were the size of a 100-watt light bulb. The cave had some fine totems. We looked for a possible passage that might lead to the rumored blowhole in the canyon outside. Satisfied that there were no obvious leads, our intrepid group did a final trek around the room at the bottom of the breakdown. While I took a few last pictures, Bert prusiked up the half-inch manila, and then he belayed Roy back up the old ladder. I think one or two sticks cracked on the way up, but Roy did well. As they climbed back up the slope, a few pebbles were accidentally kicked loose. We ran for cover under the overhang as their whistling announced “incoming!” I soon followed Brooks up the 200-ft rope, and we made it to camp before nightfall. After the Deep Cave adventure, I made mention of the cave trip in the Texas Caver. Within a couple weeks, I got a letter from Bob Crisman, a ranger at Carlsbad Caverns and also a caver, claiming the cave was on National Park Service property and that I did not have permission to enter. So I quickly sent a letter of explanation (that the rancher at the bottom said it was on his land, and he gave us permission), and also apologized. I added that I would not go back to the cave without permission. But that was not my last trip to Deep Hole. P.S. I would like to dedicate this story to two of my caving friends who are no longer exploring caves with us in this life: Bert Olsen and Roy Carpenter. We had a great time together caving in the Guadalupe Mountains, especially during those Golden Years of the 1960s.
Roy Carpenter and totems at bottom. Photo by P. Lindsley
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Still T racking Jim White By Pete L indsley Three years after the Deep Hole adventure, I had been bitten by the “Guadalupe Cave Bug” and continued trips to the high Guads looking for more caves. By the mid-’60s, it was no surprise that when Dallas and Albuquerque cavers got a chance to get our feet in the door to survey in Carlsbad Cavern, we jumped at the opportunity. Bob Willis and John Corcoran from Albuquerque joined George Yeary and me at Carlsbad Cavern with the survey assignment of the Lower Stream Passage, off the side of the Lunch Room, in support of John Thrailkill’s geology thesis project. On that first trip, the four cavers had four rangers watching us closely, before they decided that we knew what we were doing and would take good care of the cave. Carlsbad was the home of the famous Jim White, and I mentioned the previous trip to Deep Hole. We found out that the Carlsbad records called the shaft Deep Cave, but I found no recent record of exploration. After checking with George Bilbrey and other participants on the CRF trips into caves in Mammoth Cave National Park, we knew what would be required for proper permission and documentation for a National Park Service cave project. We formed the Guadalupe Cave Survey (GCS) and continued to survey in Carlsbad, with emphasis on the Mystery Room. Bob Crisman was gone by that time and Phil Van Cleave, our Chief Park Naturalist contact, liked what we were doing, and we enlisted additional surveyors. A trip or two later, Gary Matlock, a ranger at the Park, dug through a tight crawl (Matlock’s Pinch) and discovered the Sand Passage on the 400-ft level. A couple weekends later, we returned to the cave and approximately 16 of us saw about half of the New Section. We made plans to survey it all and tried to do so over the next several years.
We next branched out and surveyed (re- surveyed) much of the rest of Carlsbad, skillfully tying to a precision theodolite and level survey already started by Tom Rohrer. Although we heard stories of Jim White ladders in other caves, we were content to survey passage in Carlsbad. Quickly, we learned that this project was bigger than the drafting machine/slide rule project that some of us were involved with at Powell's Cave, Texas. We enlisted the Albuquerque cavers that were taking a computer class, which had access to an IBM-360. Robbie Babb, John Corcoran and Jim Hardy wrote a Fortran code as a class lab project, and CAVE1 was used to process all the Carlsbad data for the next several years. Corcoran and Hardy later added the THEOD routines and a sophisticated loop-closure analysis to process Rohrer's precision theodolite and level survey data. Next, we decided to upgrade our own surveying techniques and used tripod-mounted Bruntons with light and instrument heights. We designed a new survey book to take additional data and improve our sketching methods at the same time. All benefited from Babbs’, Hardy's and Corcoran's attention to program details and methods of closing both precision surveys and the less accurate Brunton surveys. Then on one of the GCS trips, we had so many cavers that we decided to take another look at Deep Cave, and survey it. The GCS survey crew was able to drive around through Queen, up Three-Mile Hill, and partway out the Ussery Trail, just as we had done on our second trip in 1962. This time, everyone was far more qualified for the vertical work than on the first trips, and we made short work of the survey of the cave that day. The Jim White ladder was not in safe condition and we didn't touch it. I'll always remember the sound of small stones kicked down by cavers above, as rocks came whizzing down that shaft. When we
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heard the rocks coming – often before the call "ROCK!" – we ran like mad toward the wall so no one would get smacked with one. I always wondered if Jim White made it into Ogle Cave, halfway between Deep Cave and Carlsbad Cavern. In the late ’60s, we made several trips into the Slaughter Canyon caves, and we found that there was a very short wire ladder of the same style in Helen’s Cave, just below Ogle Cave. On one trip, we had driven into Slaughter Canyon and camped below on the canyon floor. People in camp included Lee Skinner, John Corcoran, Tom Meador and Bob Willis. Several of us decided to see if we could find Rainbow Cave, rumored to be in the big blade of Capitan limestone some distance toward the canyon mouth from Ogle (at which time none of us had yet entered). We soon reached the entrance of Rainbow and began a survey leading down into the big room formed between two parallel joints. At the end, there was an obvious lead up the wall. Gary Davis was the first person up the wall, and he rigged it for the others. As John Corcoran recalls, after several others tried and backed off the overhung wall, Gary did a solo layback, while the rest of us were still surveying in the main cave. Then we heard him screaming, “I did it!” We found a tight fissure blowing foul air, and dropped rocks echoed a long time. There was bound to be a large room just below through the narrow, but virgin fissure. Alas, we had no more rope.
Tom Meador and Lee Skinner reading The Speleologist magazine, photo by P. Lindsley
The next morning. most had to go home, and Tom Meador said he was obviously too big to fit down the tiny crack and would stay in camp or go hiking that day. Bob Willis said he would return and help check out the lead. Off we went, this time better prepared with some 7/16-inch Goldline rope. We climbed back up the wall to the slightly blowing lead, tied off the rope and down I went, inches at a time because the fissure was coated with a sharp layer of cave coral, ripping shirts and drawing blood. Although it smelled like bats, I didn’t see a single bat in the fissure. Finally dropping out of the ceiling into a very large room, I landed on the floor and let out a big “whoop” that echoed for seconds. Willis called down, “Is it virgin?” “Yes!” I shouted back up as Bob started down. And then, “Oh, no!” “What’s the matter?” called Bob. “It’s not virgin. I just found a signature.” Bob landed and spotted a wonderful Indian Head in eagle feathers drawn on the wall. It was obviously a large bat cave and we soon found evidence of guano mining. The large passage headed off into the blackness, almost exactly the same size as the entrance room of Rainbow Cave where we had just entered. There was a rusty overhead cable where guano miners installed a platform hanging from a pulley they used to haul out the guano. We found an enamel-coated tin cup on a stalagmite collecting water from the drip far above, but we couldn’t
Bob Willis gets ready for Rainbow Cave. Photo by P. Lindsley.
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take a drink because it was cemented with calcite to the stalagmite. Finally, we arrived at the bottom of a drop, which was about the same as in Deep Cave. But no Jim White ladder to allow us to climb back out into the sunlight. So, back we went to camp, where Lee suggested we name this new cave system: Rainbogle. Now the question is, “Did Jim White get down the entrance of Ogle Cave?” In my opinion I think he did, probably on a fence wire ladder just like the ladder that we found in Deep Cave. I did not find his signature on the wall with many others, who were probably guano miners. But I’ll leave the answer to this question to future historians. A
good example of the ladder may be found today in front of the National Cave and Karst Research Institute (NCKRI) building in Carlsbad, which features a bronze of Jim White and his famous ladders. P.S. I would like to dedicate this story to some of my caving friends who are no longer exploring caves with us in this life: Robbie Babb, Bob Willis and Tom Meador. We had a great time together caving in the Guadalupes, especially during those Golden Years of the 1960s.
Discovery of Nudnick and Andy’s Caves
How Bad Directions, Summer H eat and a Deer Carcass Led to the Discovery of Nudnik and Andy’s Cave By Peter Jones During the summer of 1969, my caving partner Alan Malkiel and I spent a month cutting our teeth on caving in the Guads. We had made only one previous trip during the spring of that same year and we were now determined to find every known cave and more that summer month. At the time, we had to leave our vehicle at the bottom of Three Mile Hill and hike everywhere from our base camp halfway between the Lookout Tower and Texas Camp. We had to depend on the occasional passerby (and there were very few that hot July) to either give us a ride to a caving area or give us their spare drinking water as they left. It made us pretty tough, at least in our own minds, if nothing else. When we first arrived on the caving scene that year, Three Fingers was the newest and best cave discovery at the time. We
considered it to be our ultimate challenge to find and explore this beautiful cave that we had heard so much about. Andy Komensky, who was our local contact and proprietor of Komensky’s Kaver Wayside on Pratt Street in Carlsbad, gave us a set of directions on where to find Three Fingers and various things to watch out for (the amphitheater-like curve, the three finger rock structure) as markers that we were getting close to it. He also provided us with two maps: one, a hand-sketched version; the other, a dot on the topo map we carried with us everywhere. On the day that we left our base camp on foot, we carried all our caving gear, sleeping bags, food and water on our backs and made the two mile hike out beyond Ussery Trail, sure that we would find Three Fingers with no problem. How could we possibly fail? After all, we had
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the maps. It was a blistering hot, cloudless summer day in July when we arrived at the head of the ridge down to Three Fingers. We dropped our packs, pulled out the two maps we had and realized to our dismay that there was a discrepancy between the hand-drawn map and the dot on the topo map. How could this be? Andy was our caving mentor du jour and, surely, he could not have been mistaken with his map directions! The sketch map showed that Three Fingers was on the first ridge that we encountered; the topo dot indicated that it was on the next ridge over. We decided that hauling our packs all the way down to the bottom of the ridge (there was no disagreement in terms of the map locations) was a bad idea, so we pulled out our water bottles, grabbed a bit of food and headed over to the second ridge to begin the long descent to the canyon bottom. As with most directions given by well-meaning people, they are usually open to “interpretation.” One person’s short drop can be another’s bottomless canyon. Staying “to the left hand side of the ridge” to reach the canyon bottom to find Three Fingers meant going way off on a spur ridge to the left. Never mind that we were on the entirely wrong ridge to begin with, though we felt certain that we were headed in the right direction, following Andy’s
guidelines. What we found by going down this spur was an interesting geologic formation: a notch in the ridge, much like the one at the end of White Mule Ridge. It appeared as though a bulldozer had cut a squared-off gouge directly through the ridge line, perpendicular to its main trend. This cut seemed to line up perfectly with an enticing round hole on the far side’s sweeping curve of the main ridge trend. In fact, this seemed to be almost a mirror image of the amphitheather-like structure in front of the entrance to Three Fingers that had been described to us. Perhaps we had gone through some Twilight Zone, reverse cosmos space-time warp, and we were really at the entrance of our desired cave. Sensing that this was not the case, the interesting hole on the far side was filed away as a future lead. We continued our descent and finally hit the canyon bottom. No Three Fingers Cave was in sight, a daunting thought. The best way to continue was to loop around the nose of the ridge that we had descended by, following the canyon bottom and heading up the next drainage. This should lead us to the foot of the correct ridge. Meanwhile, our water supply was dwindling and we still hadn’t found our objective. At the mouth of a small, insignificant side canyon, we took a rest in the shade. The remainder of our meager water supply was nearly drained as we sat quietly, with thoughts of cool, clear waterfalls, abundant fresh drinking water, tropical fruits growing all around and voluptuous, frolicking young female natives. Somewhere in the corner of our daydreaming minds, we both heard what we thought was part of the illusion – the sound of running water. “Do you hear that?” “Yeah, it sounds like a waterfall.” Had the heat taken its toll on us, and were we in the last moments of delusion before death scooped us into its dry, eternal hands? We were not quite that far gone yet, so we headed up the side canyon in search of that wonderful sound.
Katy Cassels and Sandy Renstrom (Deal), Three Fingers Entrance, ca. 1968. Photo courtesy of Andy Komensky.
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The sound was accompanied by one of the most wonderful sights we had ever seen: a flowing cascade of cool, clear water in the middle of the dry, desolate Guads on a hot July day. Immediately, we buried our heads in the water and drank our fill to the point of saturation. We had been saved! We had not yet found Three Fingers, but we had found something else that was of equal worth or more. The Cave Gods had been kind to us – or so we thought. We then sought the source of this wonderful refreshment and hiked up and around the side canyon to the upper pool, above the one we had been drinking from moments earlier. There, to our surprise, was a dead deer carcass over which all of this water flowed. Sated by the water, but distraught by the carcass finding, we pushed onward up the main drainage to approach Three Fingers from the bottom. When we reached the foot of the appropriate ridge and began to ascend, Alan all but fell into the entrance of a cave while walking beside me. This didn’t quite fit the description of Three Fingers, yet here was a small cave entrance right in front of us. We both had miniature flashlights with us and, of course, immediately entered this virgin cave. It didn’t amount to much. I am not sure where Alan came up with the name for it, but we had made one of our first discoveries of a cave in the Guads, and named it Nudnik Cave. Nudnik is defined as “a pestering, nagging or irritating person; a bore.” Hmm. Moments later, we found Three Fingers, retrieved our packs from the top of the ridge and spent the next couple days exploring this magnificent cave. A Year Later In the summer of 1970, things were better all around. I spent the entire summer in Carlsbad, had a trail bike for getting around in the Guads, and teamed up with Tom Meador, a legendary caver from Texas. Fires had broken out that summer on The Pink Ridge and we
avoided that area so as not interfere with the fire fighters. With nothing better to do, thoughts of the previous year’s lead on the second ridge over from Three Fingers came to mind. We rode in luxury, in Tom’s Ford Bronco over to the head of the ridge and started the long descent to the spur ridge with the notch in it. From there, we crossed around the large, circular amphitheather-like structure to the opening on the far side. Like many other enticing leads in the Guads, this one, too, wound up as a blank wall – another disappointment.
Tom Meador, North Double Canyon, day of discovery of Andy’s Cave. Photo by Peter Jones. Still, a ray of hope lay in the scree slope, uphill from the mouth of the shelter. Travertine pieces were sitting on top of the scree pile. Since rocks, like water, flow downhill over time, the source of this travertine must have been upslope. It was a steep and loose ascent, but the thought of cave nearby seemed to lighten the load of the climb. Scouring the area all around led to no new discoveries. The approaching cliff face above me seemed to indicate an end to hopes of finding anything. Nonetheless, the last few feet of climb to the foot of the cliff face led to a discovery as welcome as the waterfall the year before. There, before me, was a three-foot-square hole, the top of a pit dropping into an unknown cave. “Cave Ho!” I screamed at the top of my lungs. This is what caving is all about.
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On the following day, Tom, a local Carlsbad caver friend named Billy Ray and I returned with rope in hand to enter the new discovery. As the discoverer, it was my honor to be the first one down the drop. The 65-ft free rappel into the narrow slot and onto the sloped landing point led me to realize that this was virgin cave and well-decorated to boot. Tom joined me moments later while Billy Ray remained on the surface. The landing was a high point on a rockpile that had fallen into the entrance over thousands of years. From here, one could go down-slope in either direction. The direction that led under the scree slope, that we had climbed up from on the surface, led to a dry pool of silt and mud and ended fairly quickly. The opposite direction led into the major part of the cave that was well-decorated but relatively dry. We climbed extremely carefully up a slope through the beautiful formation area. At the top, the passage took an abrupt left-hand turn into a narrow canyon area. This went down until we came to a 20-ft drop into another passage that paralleled the entrance passage. The cave looks like the number four, where the left arm parallels the longer main arm. You enter the cave at the top of the upper left arm. Now, invert the number four and you have an idea of its layout. After dropping into the second parallel passage, we headed into both ends of the cave. The end that went further under the ridge top had decorated sections but nothing particularly outstanding. The other direction led to some beautiful dried pool areas and up a slope into a fine rimstone dam region. We removed our boots and were exceedingly careful to walk only between the formation to reach the end of the cave in that direction, just a short distance away. Long tree roots hanging down from the ceiling into the cave passage and coated with glistening water droplets made that area particularly interesting. Having explored the extent of the cave, we returned to the entrance drop to get out the
survey gear. On our arrival here, we were greeted by another phenomenon: the entrance drop was now a raging waterfall! While we had been inside the cave, a major summer storm had come through the vicinity and dropped a tremendous amount of rain. Because the area above the entrance drop is a funnel-shaped cliff face, much of that water was directed straight down into the entrance, causing the torrential waterfall. There was a certain amount of concern about our predicament, but we had cave to survey and would not be daunted by the sluice-way. Interestingly, the water flowed down into the dried silt bed and turned it into a pool again. By the time we finished our survey and returned to the entrance, the waterfall had left behind a damp rope to climb. We had surveyed roughly 800 feet of virgin passage and could not have felt better about having discovered a new, beautiful and generous small cave. On this basis, we decided to honor our big-hearted friend, Andy Komensky, by naming the cave after him (first name only). To this day, he has never entered the cave that bears his name. Postscript I have returned to Andy’s Cave several times over the years since its discovery and am saddened by the damage that has been done to it. The rimstone dam area had one broken rim within a couple of years of its discovery. Twenty years later, I returned to find that many other rims have since
Lyle Moss, showing rimstone damage in Andy’s Cave. Photo by Peter Jones.
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been badly broken. As a result, I placed red flagging tape around the individual rims in a pattern to indicate: “put your foot here.” It may well be too late to recover any of these beautiful, but broken, speleothems. What saddens me most is that Andy’s is a cave that gets very little visitation, and all of
that is on a guided basis. It is not mere vandalism that causes the degradation, but usually conscientious cavers that are not paying attention to where they are putting their feet. It is sad to think that we, ourselves, are the ones who are doing the damage.
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Logo art submitted by Andy Komensky for possible SWR 50th Anniversary T‐shirt design.
New Mexico Bat Work , 1994-2012 By Debbie C . Buecher , M .S. Caver since 1970; Wildlife Biologist specializing in bats I have been caving in New Mexico since 1971 and began studying New Mexico bats around 1990. My work has been from the southeastern corner near Carlsbad to the northern lava caves at El Malpais National Monument (ELMA). The protocols that I follow are outlined by the American Society of Mammalogists (Sikes et al., 2011), while handling all bats and I maintain the required Scientific Collecting Permit from the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish. Because of the potential threat of White Nose Syndrome being spread between bats by humans, current U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decontamination protocols outlined for bat researchers were followed during the capture and handling process (USFWS, 2011). There are 28 bat species, from three bat families, expected to occur across New Mexico: three tropical nectar bats (Family Phyllostomidae), the free-tailed bats (Family Molossidae), which are best known from Carlsbad Caverns, and the ubiquitous evening bats (Family Vespertilionidae). The nectar bat species are restricted to the southwestern boot-heel region of the state. Of the four free-tailed species, two are limited to the southwestern portion of the state, whereas the Brazilian free-tailed bats and the big free-tailed bats range across the state from north to south. Members of the evening bats are a very diverse group, with some limited to lower elevations, while others can tolerate the cold temperatures in mixed conifer, mountainous habitat.
In the 1990s, I conducted a study on bats in four Bureau of Land Management (BLM) caves located near Carlsbad. This work involved inventorying the caves to determine the bat species using the sites, when the bats were present, and how best to protect the resource (Buecher et al., 1996). Bob Buecher designed and built infrared bat counters that passively counted when bats were exiting or entering the caves (Fig. 1). These counters gave us colony size information every evening during the summer months. When these data were combined with periodic visual exit counts, conducted by local cavers (Harry and Jackie Burgess), we had a good picture of the bat-use of these caves. One cave had been abandoned by cave myotis (Myotis velifer) after a gate had been installed in the late 1980s. Since that time, more bat-friendly gates had been designed. Our report recommended that a new gate be built in a larger cross-section of passage so that the bats did not feel at risk from predation during exit flights. Members of the Southwestern Region of the NSS generously donated their labor to BLM to remove the old gate and install a beautiful new model (by Jim Cox) in a large passage cross-section near the front of the cave. Since the new gate was installed, the numbers of bats have gone from zero to over 10,000 (docu-mented by exit counts conducted by BLM volunteers Dave and Carol Belski). It appears
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Cave Science Reports
that the bats approve of the new gate (Buecher and Goodbar, 2010)! Since 2004, I have focused my bat work in and around Fort Stanton Cave near Capitan, New Mexico. There are 16 bat species that could occur in central New Mexico and, of these, I have documented 14 species while conducting my bat research in local caves (Figs. 2-20). Sampling for bats is done acous-tically and/or by mist netting for bats along area creeks. As of 2009, the focal point of my work has been on quantifying the temperatures and relative humidity in bat hibernacula in five BLM caves in central New Mexico (Figs. 21-22). My research has concentrated on quantifying the cave microclimate chosen by hibernating western bat species because of high mortality documented in eastern bat hibernacula. This mortality is caused by a pathogenic fungus (Geomyces destructans). The fungus was reportedly brought from Europe, where (for some reason) it has not caused such catastrophic mortality. However, it has been linked to White Nose Syndrome (WNS) in bats along the eastern U.S., where it has killed over 5.5 million bats in 19 states and 4 Canadian provinces (USFWS, 2011). The data indicate that a number of New Mexico hibernation caves have appropriate conditions for growth of G . destructans if or when it appears in New Mexico caves. My results imply that the species particularly at risk is the cave myotis (Myotis velifer) because it typically hibernates in cold temperatures (2o-7o C) with high humidity, conditions which are also preferred by G . destructans. Additionally, as a hibernating bat species, it is highly colonial and hibernates in large clusters, potentially putting individuals at greater risk of contracting WNS from infected roost-mates. Recently, Dr. Diana Northup and I began collaborating on work to quantify cave microclimate in 10 caves at El Malpais near Grants, New Mexico. She and her students at the University of New Mexico are also investigati the background microbiota present
on regional bats prior to the arrival of WNS in New Mexico. For this project I am capturing and handling all bats using my permits and extensive experience with bats in the Southwest. El Malpais also appears to have caves with appropriate microclimate conditions to harbor G destructans if it were to be introduced to those sites. In January, 2012, I began collaborating with Dr. Andreas Pflitch (Cave Microclimate Scientist from Ruhr University, Germany) and one of his students, to evaluate how hibernating bats in New Mexico caves respond to human disturbance during winter hibernation. We are using a thermal imaging camera to quantify how bats arouse and if individually roosting bats
Fig. 2. Net site along the Rio Bonito near Fort Stanton, just south of the BLM Bunkhouse.
Fig. 1. Buecher infrared bat
counter at the entrance of a bat cave. Each time that a bat
breaks the infrared beam,
it is counted and a date and time stamp is
assigned.
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respond differently than clustering bats. This study is currently in its conceptual stage, but the first trip was at the end of January, 2012, to look specifically at Townsend’s big-eared bats. We plan to evaluate additional bat species during 2013 in other BLM caves in central New Mexico. Fig. 3. Photo of a bat caught in the mist net along Rio Bonito Creek. Figure 3. Photo of a bat caught in the mist net along Rio Bonito Creek.
Fig. 5. Detail of the outstretched wing of a Townsend’s big‐eared bat during evaluation for possible skin lesions resulting from Geomyces destructans, the putative agent for White Nose Syndrome. Since G. destructans was reported moving west out of New York and killing over 5.5 million bats, I monitor bats for any evidence of membrane damage in New Mexico and Arizona bats.
Fig. 6: Photograph of a female lactating Townsend’s big‐eared bat (Corynorhinus townsendii) captured along Rio Bonito Creek.
Fig.4. White crust on the tragus of a Townsend’s big‐eared bat – possible mite infestation.
Fig. 7. Big brown bat (Eptesicus fuscus) captured along the Rio Salado Creek just north of Fort Stanton.
Cave.
Detail of ear
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Fig. 8. One of two Myotis ciliolabrum (small‐footed myotis) captured in Fort Stanton Cave during evaluation for possible White Nose Syndrome in hibernating bats.
Fig. 9. Detail of Mexican free‐tailed bat (Tadarida brasiliensis) captured along Rio Bonito Creek near Fort Stanton Cave. This species does not roost in Fort Stanton Cave, but it does forage for insects in the area.
Fig. 10. Silver‐haired bat (Lasionycteris noctivagans) captured along the Rio Bonito near Fort Stanton Cave.
Tail extension suggests M. ciliolabrum
Fig. 11. Back view of the silver‐haired bat showing frosted pelage that gives the species its name. This species day‐roosts in trees and is not often found roosting in caves.
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Fig. 12. Detail of hoary bat (Lasiurus cinereus) captured along Salado Creek near Fort Stanton Cave. This species is also a tree bat and not often found roosting in caves.
Fig. 13. Photo of an occult myotis (Myotis occultus) captured along Rio Bonito Creek.
Fig. 14. Details of a long‐legged myotis (Myotis voltans) captured along Rio Bonito Creek.
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Figure 15. Photo of a fringed myotis (M. thysanodes) with a detail of the distinctive species‐specific fringe of hairs along the uropatagium.
Fig. 17. Still photo from the video film taken during an exit flight from Hell Hole II passage in total darkness. Red circle is a bat flying toward the camera.
Fig. 16. Still photo from the video footage of an exit flight from Feather Cave (this area is in total darkness after sunset). The out‐flight is illuminated only by infrared lights (that do not disturb the bats), allowing documentation of behavior. Red circles indicate three Townsend’s big‐eared bats circling just outside the gate, prior to emerging to feed on insects.
Fig. 18. Example of the ultrasonic call of a fringed myotis (Myotis thysanodes) recorded with an Anabat detector just inside the dripline of Fort Stanton Cave on 8 Nov. 2011.
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Fig. 19. Example of bat echolocation with a feeding buzz.
Fig. 20. A time expansion bat call from a Pettersson D240x detector.
Tentative Identification = Corynorhinus townsendii (Townsend’s big‐eared bat).
0 dB
-20 dB
-40 dB
-60 dB
-80 dB
-100 dB
-120 dB50 kHz 100 kHz
26.9 kHz -21.8 dB 1260.3 - 1267.9 ms
Power spectrum
Time Expansion
Range of human hearing is ≤ 20 kHz
Feeding buzz
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Fig. 21. Feather Cave Emergence Count. Fig. 22. Plot of the temperatures and relative humidity in Fort Stanton Cave in the area where Townsend’s big‐eared bats hibernate.
-10
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
Num
ber o
f Bat
s
20:40 - 20:45 21:00 - 21:05 21:20 - 21:25 21:40 - 21:45 22:00 - 22:05
Time (MDT)
Emergence Flight from Feather Cave9 July 2005
Population Size ~ 377 Bats
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Fig. 23. Scatter plot of the temperatures and relative humidity in Fort Stanton Cave plotted against the conditions appropriate for growth of G. destructans. L iterature C ited
Adams, R.A., 2003. Bats of the Rocky Mountain West: Natural history, ecology, and conservation. University of Colorado Press. Boulder, CO. 289 pp.
Buecher, D.C., R.H. Buecher, H. Burgess and J. Burgess, 1997. Results of 1997 summer bat monitoring for Bureau of Land Management, Carlsbad, New Mexico. Unpublished report to Bureau of Land Mangement, Carlsbad Field Office. 155 pp.
Buecher, D.C. and A. Goodbar, 2009. Gating a Cave Protects a Bat Colony…Eventually. In Proceedings of the 15th International Congress of Speleology, Kerrville, TX.
Sikes, R.S., W.L. Gannon, and the Animal Care and Use Committee of the American Society ofMammalogists, 2011. Guidelines of the American Society of Mammalogists for the Use of Wild Mammals in Research. Journal of Mammalogy 92:235-253.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 2012. White-Nose Syndrome Decontamination Protocols. URL address: http://www.fws.gov/WhiteNoseSyndrome/pdf/National_WNS_Decontamination_ Protocol_v03.15.2012.pdf Last updated: 3/15/12.
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Searching for Intrater restr ials: The M icrobial World of Caves By Diana E . Northup with contributions from Penelope J. Boston, Debbie Buecher , Nicole Caimi, Amy C lement, Laura J. C rossey, C lifford N . Dahm, A rmand Dichosa, Tammi Duncan, Mathew G . Garcia, Jennifer J.M . Hathaway, K aitlyn J. Hughes, Lory O . H enderson, Jason C . K . K imble, A ra Kooser , Noelle Martinez, L eslie A . Melim, Cameron McMillan, Ian McMillan, Robert V . Miller , E lizabeth T . Montano, Monica Moya, Amaka Nwagbologu, K ylea Parchert, Anthony J. Rigoni, Jessica R . Snider , and Michael N . Spilde Lava Cave Microbial Studies Striking features of some lava tube caves, including those in New Mexico (Fig. 1A, C), are the extensive bacterial mats (a.k.a. lava wall slime) that cover the walls and roots that pene-trate the lava tubes (Figure 1H). These beautiful features have been observed in lava tubes worldwide, but little is known about the composition of these colorful microbial communities, and they are often mistaken for mineral deposits. In fact, one of our most fun projects is the “Microbes that Masquerade as Minerals,” which has implications for life detection on other planets where lava caves are known to exist. Most lava tubes with moisture have an abundance of the white microbial mats. At certain times of the year, water beads up on the mats due to their hydrophobicity, giving the lava tube walls the appearance of a sparkling night sky. Other lava tubes are festooned with yellow colonies that vary from lemon yellow to gold, making one think that someone has coated the wall in gold foil. Our investigations have examined the bacteria in these mats and roots in Four Windows Cave, and other lava caves in El Malpais National Monument (ELMA), New Mexico, U.S.A. The macroscopic (Fig. 1H) and microscopic (Fig. 1F, G) visual appearances suggest that these bacterial mats are composed of
Actinobacteria, bacteria that commonly inhabit caves and that are known for their antibiotic production. Studies of bacterial genetic sequences (DNA) extracted from New Mexico lava tube mats suggests that Actinobacteria are present, as well as 10 other bacterial phyla, some of which are relatively new phyla of bacteria. Many of the organisms found appear to be novel bacterial species. Studies of the root communities show that roots are conduits for nutrients and microorganisms to enter caves. One critical nutrient needed by all life is nitrogen, which is often lacking in caves. Our group has studied the presence of two genes that are involved in critical parts of the nitrogen cycle: amoA (ammonia oxidation) and nifH (nitrogen fixation) in ELMA caves. Most of the samples tested from the four ELMA caves were positive for both of the genes, in stark contrast to carbonate caves tested from Carlsbad Caverns National Park (CCNP), where only a few samples were positive for the nitrogen fixation gene and no samples were positive for the presence of the ammonia oxidation gene. We have also done studies of the enzymes that the microbes release into the environment to scavenge nitrogen, as well as phosphorus and carbon. Also, we have found that some of the lava tube bacteria were much more
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UV sensitive than the microbes isolated from the surface (Fig. 1B), suggesting some degree of cave adaptation. Lava tube microbial mats represent a rich source of novel bacteria with which to fill out the tree of life and provide opportunities to study what controls species diversity and antibiotic production in caves. Studies of antibiotic production by lava cave bacteria at ELMA have revealed that upwards of 25 percent of bacteria isolated from the lava caves produce some antibiotics (Fig. 1D). Similar results have been found in the CCNP carbonate caves, where we are comparing the isolated bacteria with those of the overlying soils (Fig. 2B). Our future plans include sequencing of the whole genomes of select antibiotic producers from in the caves and a relative from the overlying soils to see how the organisms are changing as they adapt to the cave environment. The lava caves at ELMA also contain some ideal conditions for the growth and persistence of Geomyces destructans, a putative cause of White Nose Syndrome in bats (see contribution by Debbie Buecher). To test whether G . destructans is naturally or already present in cave soils in New Mexico, we are using molecular biology and microbiological (Fig. 1E) techniques to test for its presence and to sequence the fungal species present to better understand the fungal communities of lava caves. Carbonate Cave Microbial Studies Caves such as Spider and Lechuguilla in Carlsbad Caverns National Park and Fort Stanton’s Snowy River, often have prominent deposits of ferromanganese deposits (FMD) on their walls and ceilings (Fig. 2A). Our studies have shown that the bacteria appear to
be involved in creating the FMD, as we have been able to grow bacteria from the Spider and Lechuguilla Caves and get them to produce FMD in the lab. Our molecular studies show that a variety of bacteria and archaea are involved, including some that are closest relatives to known manganese and iron oxidizers. We are currently investigating whether these bacteria may be producing siderophores, compounds that are utilized in scavenging iron or manganese from the environment. The bacteria found in the FMD have interesting morphologies, such as the “beads-on-a-string” shapes seen in Fig. 2C. Although different in appearance, the FMDs found on the walls of Snowy River in Fort Stanton Cave, contain known manganese and iron cycle bacteria. Another interesting speleothem in Guadalupe Mountains caves is the pool precipitates that may resemble stone fingers hanging from overhangs, such as shelf stone in pools (Fig. 2D,E). When you slice open the rock and briefly etch it with a weak acid, a whole microbial world opens up, such as what you see in Fig. 2F, where masses of fossilized bacterial filaments are revealed. One of the most interesting morphologies seen in these filaments is the micro-cholla (so called because they resemble the dead cholla from the surface vegetation), or reticulated filament. This morphology is widespread in cave samples, but its exact nature remains illusive. Mysteries Remain Although we have spent the last quarter of a century studying the life of New Mexico caves, there are still many more mysteries to be investigated, and still more intraterrestrials to be discovered.
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Acknowledgements The cave explorers who plumb the depths of New Mexico caves discover many of the interesting deposits
that we scientists have been studying. Many thanks to all the people who have discovered, observed, toted, and led the way. It’s a great partnership!
Fig. 1, Lava Cave Microbial Studies: (A) Lava cave, El Malpais National Monument (ELMA). (B) Testing of sensitivity of cave bacteria to ultraviolet radiation. (C) Lava cave entrance, ELMA. (D) Lory Henderson measures the temperature and relative humidity in an ELMA lava cave. (E) Jesse Young culturing soils in ELMA lava caves to check for the presence of Geomyces spp. (F) Scanning electron micrograph of bacteria from gold‐colored deposits in ELMA lava cave. (G) Scanning electron micrograph of bacteria from white microbial mats in an ELMA lava cave. (H) Yellow and white microbial colonies in an ELMA lava cave. Photos by Kenneth Ingham (A, C, D, E, H), Jessica Snider (B), and Michael Spilde (F, G).
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Fig. 2, Carbonate Microbial Studies: (A) Ara Kooser examines ferromanganese deposits in Carlsbad Caverns National Park (CCNP). (B) Elizabeth Montano cultures microbes from the surface above the caves in CCNP. (C) Scanning electron micrograph of "beads‐on‐a‐string" bacterial morphology from ferromanganese deposits. (D) Pool fingers and other precipitates in Hidden Cave with Leslie Melim taking notes. (E) Closer view of pool fingers in Hidden Cave. (F) Scanning electron micrographs of fossil bacteria in the interior of a pool finger. Photos by Kenneth Ingham (A, B, D, E), and Michael Spilde and Diana Northup (C, F). 73
The Rich Scientific Potential of Fort Stanton-Snowy River Cave National Conservation A rea By Penny Boston – N M T ech., Socorro, & National Cave & K arst Research Institute, Carlsbad, New Mexico Fort Stanton Cave and its magnificent Snowy River passage hold a precious record of the hydrology, water chemistry, ecosystems, and climate of the drainage basin within which the cave system occurs. The complex and often artistic layering of mud deposits with their secret history of flooding; the star-like crystals of selenite on walls, which speak of the interior cave environment; the luscious black manganese microbial deposits on walls and ceilings – all tell tales of the world as it was during the creation and subsequent development of the cave. A modern Charles Dickens could perhaps write A Cave of Two Tales to describe the processes that occurred both in the cave itself and the role of the cave in preserving the history of the surface world above it. We are studying a variety of phenomena in the cave: from aspects of the surface vegetation, that was growing at the time when mud deposits brought such evidence into the cave, to the minerals that are created on cave surfaces by metal-manipulating microorganisms, which coat many areas of the walls. The beauty of the sparkling white calcite frosting, that inspired the name of Snowy River, hides a deeper layer cake of older deposits. These deposits include chocolate-colored muds, studded with small stream-rounded pebbles like raisins in dough, and possibly even wooden fragments from the surface. Within these layers, we are searching for diatoms, which are the silica skeletons of a type of freshwater algae common in surface streams. These creatures have specific temperature ranges at which they thrive. By understanding the types of diatoms present in flood muds, we can have an idea of the surface climate that they experienced when
they were alive. We are also looking for crystals that plants create (known as phytoliths) because those also tell us what the vegetation on land was like above the cave at the time they were deposited. Was it similar to the vegetation that we see today, including Ponderosa pines, grasses, and other small shrub-like plants? Was it inhabited by trees requiring more water than is available today? Were there even more arid periods of time in the drainage basin’s history that is reflected in the types of plants that grew there? In order to understand timing of all the changes that the cave and its surroundings have experienced, we are also searching for the kinds of materials that can be dated by geological methods. For example, a number of techniques can tell us about different eras in the cave’s history. These include organic carbon (like wood or other materials left by prior life), so-called cosmogenic nuclides that are produced on
the Earth’s surface and decay when no longer exposed, allowing us to calculate how long a
Penny Boston in a Tyvek sterile suit during the first scientific assessment trip, July 1‐3, 2003. It is critical for cave scientists to look glamorous at all possible opportunities. Image by Kevin Glover.
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flood deposit has been below the surface, and possibly other datable materials yet to be uncovered. The enormous (and growing!) size of the Snowy River passage leads us to ask questions about how similar one part of the passage is to other parts of the passage, and how similar or different is the geology, chemistry, and record of life between Snowy River and other parts of the Fort Stanton Cave system. Consensus about the system is that it is “old” (but unclear just how old), and that it has seen many changes that have been shaped by external geological and hydrological processes. However, the interior of the cave passages is also being shaped by myriads of tiny microorganisms, whose ways of making a living leave a distinct mark on the minerals that we see there. These microorganisms possibly contribute to the rate at which the bedrock is weathered from the inside. Besides the scientific interest in the surface climate and subsurface microbial processes under study, there are practical applications of this knowledge that are also being investigated by our team. Some of the manganese-using microorganisms that were isolated on the very first scientific assessment trip into the cave in the early 2000s are now being studied for their abilities to take soluble manganese compounds out of water, for application to drinking water that has unhealthy levels of manganese in it. This is a common problem in much of New Mexico and the arid southwest region. Surprisingly, in another pilot study of microbes that could remove poisonous hydrogen sulfide gas from municipal sewage treatment plants, the most promising organisms tested were not those from some of the other sulfuric acid caves that we have studied. No, they were from the wall deposits within Fort Stanton Cave. The cave holds many surprises – those we have a hint of and those yet to come, ranging
from the hidden talents of some of its tiniest inhabitants, to the very nature of the cave’s formation, to what it can tell us about the past climate of the region and, perhaps, insight into the future climate changes that are in store for us.
A mysterious microscopic structure, apparently biological, preserved in the Snowy River calcite. At first, thought to be a diatom (silica algae), this structure is now thought to be from a different group of organisms, but its identity remains a mystery. The scale bar is 10 um. A human hair is 100 um across its diameter! SEM by M. Spilde and P. Boston.
A very closeup Scanning Electron Micrograph of a real diatom, the sub‐horizontal structure with the row of perforations along one edge. SEM by M. Spilde, UNM.
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In Regard for SW R Cavers of the Past Dr . George Agogino “George Agogino, 79, died September 11 at his home in Portales, NM after a battle with cancer. He was founding director of the Blackwater Draw Museum and helped create the Department of Anthropology at Eastern New Mexico University, where he served as chair for 11 years. Probably best known for his Paleo-Indian research at Blackwater Draw and elsewhere, Agogino had broad interests and made important contributions in ethnology and history, publishing more than 600 articles during his distinguished career...” --From the Archeological Society of NM Newsletter, 12/31/00 Many cavers worked with Dr. Agogino on some of his projects. Agogino Cave, in the Ft. Stanton area, is named after him. Sonya Anderson
Sonya, an El Paso Grotto caver, is said to have ended her own life, along with Bob Dukemineer. Chester Anderson Chester is known to have passed away. Details are not known. Robert Gordon Babb, I I Robert “Robbie” Gordon Babb II, Ph.D. (NSS 8480RL) was one of the pivotal cavers in the beginnings of modern caving in New Mexico. Robbie passed away November 19, 2007 in Golden, Colorado, at age 59.
Robbie started caving around 1962 in the small caves of the Sandia Mountains outside Albuquerque. His first mapping and digging effort was in Cooper’s Ellis Cave. In the early 1960s, Robbie was the leader of the digging effort in Fort Stanton Cave that led to the discovery of the beautiful and scientifically intriguing Lincoln Caverns. The dig took several years and thousands of hours of hard work, and the resulting connection crawlway is named Babb’s Burrow, in recognition of his leadership and boundless energy. Robbie was one of the first cavers to work with the Guadalupe Cave Survey (later merged with the Cave Research Foundation) in Carlsbad Caverns National Park and the Lincoln National Forest. Robbie defined the methodology for engineering-style cave surveys used in many area projects, and wrote one of the first cave-surveying computer programs, which was used for all the survey processing in Fort Stanton Cave. In 1964, Robbie was the discoverer of the Arrow Grotto of Feather Cave, one of the most important intact cave shrines in the Southwest. Starting around 1965, Robbie got involved in the Project Dry Pot surveying effort at Dry Cave, New Mexico. He contributed many interesting feature names in the cave, such as “Hampton Court” and “Saber Tooth Camel Maze,” which reflected his engaging sense of humor. In the early 1970s, he led the mapping and study of Edgewood Caverns, a cave system east of Albuquerque. He founded the Edgewood Research Group to explore, map and study this intriguing maze cave.
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Memorials
From 1987 through 1991, Robbie took on operational leadership of the Lechuguilla Cave Precision Survey project to extend a theodolite total-station survey into the cave, forming a backbone to which the burgeoning hand-held compass surveys could be tied. An annual, six-week expedition was devoted to this task with Robbie doing much of the instrument work, including a memorable, exposed set-up on Terror Ledge, where he and the theodolite were anchored by a veritable web of belay lines, shooting down to the bottom of Boulder Falls, 150 feet below. Robbie had a great spirit of adventure and will be missed by those who knew him. --Ginerva Liptan and John J. Corcoran, III Martin F . Combs 1929 - 2005 Martin F. Combs, 75, passed away on July 29, 2005 in San Diego, California, following a brief illness. Martin was born in Carbondale, IL on August 27, 1929. He received a BS in Chemical Engineering from Vanderbilt University, an MS in Physics from the Naval Postgraduate School, and a MS in Mathematics from NMSU. He served in the US Navy from 1951-1975, retiring as a Commander from WSMR. He taught Mathematics at both the high school and university levels in Las Cruces and also taught Science at the Verde Valley School in Sedona, Arizona. Martin and Barbara resided in San Diego, CA recently. He enjoyed reading, computer programming, and exploring Doña Ana County. He was a member of the Rio Grande chapters of the sailing club. He is greatly missed. For those who may not remember him, he was a member of the Mesilla Valley Grotto from 1975 to the mid 1980s. He was involved on many of our memorable trips, including the discovery of Cactus Cave in the Black
Range. (In fact, he was the first person to enter the cave.) We will always remember him wearing pressed military style khakis and appearing neat and clean even after the most demanding caving trips. He always had a glass of sherry to celebrate with. Those of us who caved with him will always remember him. --Steve Peerman Pat Copeland 11-20-1942 to 12-30-2000
Photo by Dan Oughton, 12/25/1998 … Pat died Saturday, December 30, 2000, as the result of a head-on collision near San Saba, Texas. She was born Nov. 20, 1942, in Stephenville, Texas, to Woodrow Wilson and Katherine R. Scott Tabor. She had been a resident of Brownwood since 1982. In addition to her love for cooking and operating the Sonshine Tea Room, she was an avid caver for the last 22 years. She loved to give tours of caves and did so with each opportunity she had. She was also a member of the Downtown Business Association. She married James Copeland in Dexter (Chaves Co., NM), in 1972. Pat was known affectionately as Granny by her 13 grandchildren. Because of her love for caving, the
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family requested memorials be made to the Friends of Colorado Bend State Park. --January 02, 2001 from Brownwood Bulletin, Brownwood, Texas Sandy Deal 1941---October 10, 1983 The Southwestern Region has lost one of its good friends and earliest members, Sandy Deal, who was the victim of an unknown assailant in Alpine, Texas on October 10, 1983. She is survived by her husband Dwight and two children, Craig and Tara. Cavers of the Southwestern Region from the 1960s will remember Sandy as a knowledgeable and amiable leader of cavers and cave trips. She was a welcome addition to any caving venture, and an active caver from the early 1960s until shortly after she moved to Alpine in 1967. Many post-trip campfires would have waned in boredom had it not been for her guitar and repertoire of folk lyrics. Sandy held offices in Sandia Grotto and the Southwestern Region and had been an associate editor of the Southwestern Caver.
Jack Dorsey Jack Dorsey, NSS 1641LF, age 93, passed away Dec 26, 2009 in Albuquerque. He was a co-founder with Roy Davis of the old Scotto Grotto of the NSS. Jack was the owner of Dorsey Lobo Pharmacy in Albuquerque, for 20 years. Among Jack’s early caving attributes were finding virgin cave in Wayne’s Cave and Sullivan’s Cave in Indiana. Dorsey Cave is named after him. He is legendary for his lost passage in Wyandotte Cave that no one has found to this date. He helped on exploring parties in Carlsbad Caverns to find the Guadalupe Room and the Chocolate Drop in the 1970s and he assisted in the drilling and
discovery of Edgewood Cavern. Jack was a Fellow and a Life Member of the NSS. He was a proofreader for the NSS News for many years and for Cave Minerals of the World. The world could use more people like Jack Dorsey. --John Benton, NSS 10689F Malcolm (Mac) Edwards Mac Edwards was a past chairman of the Sandia Grotto and the Southwestern Region. The last time that Sandia Grotto members saw Mac was when he donated several items to the grotto for silent raffle at our 50th anniversary in September, 1998. It was sometime soon after that that Mac passed away. Doug Evans
Douglas A. Evans fell to his death in Vanishing River Cave on Monday, September 4, 1967. He was a member of the White Sands Grotto. Doug was returning to the surface after exploring the cave. The entrance is sharply
Doug on Lonesome Ridge. Photo from Richard Breisch.
Rigging Vanishing River: (L to R) Rich Breisch, Loren Bolinger, and Doug Evans. Photo
by Ells Rolfs.
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sloping, very smooth rock with leaves and moss. Some rain had fallen and the area was damp. It appears that Doug fell after releasing his vertical gear and slipping on this damp area. Many cavers in the Southwest were involved in the body recovery of Doug. (Ed: His death is the only caver-related fatality in Southwestern Region history.) Brian Galbraith, NSS 38821 FE October 10, 1952 – July 19, 2006 Brian C. Galbraith of Tijeras, New Mexico, died in his sleep some time before Wednesday night, July 19, 2006. When Liz Galbraith, his wife, found him, he was in bed and seemed as if he were resting as he usually did. But when she tried to wake him, she found out that he had died. The medical examiners report came back and the conclusion was that his heart gave out. He officially died of heart failure. We all knew that he was not well even after his first heart surgery. He had been coughing quite a bit, and I always worried about his health when we went into caves. Although his heart was failing, he still had vigor to come to meetings and be a part of the caving community. He was one of the cavers who brought me into caving in the 1990s. We went just about everywhere and did just about every cave that was of interest. After an earlier heart bypass surgery, he was not the same. He had
slowed down in his caving activities, probably because his energy was low. Basically, he stopped coming to GypKaP because of his health problems. He will be greatly missed by me as well as those from the Sandia Grotto. He was a good friend, and one that made me laugh every time we got together. Brian is survived by his wife, Elizabeth, and daughter, Rose, both still active cavers with the Sandia Grotto. A memorial was held at the Galbraith’s home on Saturday, July 29. Brian is remembered as a loving husband, father extraordinaire, photographer, graduate of University of New Mexico (1990), Bachelor of Art in Fine Arts, Fellow of the NSS, member of Sandia Grotto, APS substitute teacher, adventurer, and one who used his talents and education to further conservation of the environment, focusing in areas of caves and the New Mexico public lands. Contributions in Brian’s memory went to KNME TV-Channel 5, Albuquerque and to the NSS Save the Caves Fund. --Blake Jordan Brian was a caver, friend, leader, father and husband. We miss his fabulous laugh and cheerful nature. He was a doer and a giver in our community of cavers. Brian consistently leant a hand to whatever project the Sandia Grotto was involved in, and at GypKaP as well. He sparked the interest of many a beginner and led them into the arms of the grotto. He gave of himself and gathered his family to join along in the pleasures and intrigues of the caves that meant so much to his and our spirits. His slides and video presentations captured the awe that he and all of us feel for caves and caving. Some months after Brian’s passing, Blake Jordan and John Riley organized a cavers memorial trip to the Candelaria property in El Malpais at the Bandera Ice Caves, one of Brian’s favorite places for caving. Years earlier, Brian had negotiated permission to go into the Candelaria wild ice cave to survey and
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document its resources. This landowner contact had been denied to cavers for years before Brian established relations with them. Landowner relations were among Brian’s best skills; he just had the right touch when talking with ranchers and ranch foreman about access to caves on their land. --Linda Starr . Richard Garner Mesilla Valley Grotto members were saddened to learn of the passing of a former member, Richard Garner, on February 6, 2006, at his home in Rye, Colorado. He was survived by his adoring wife of 16 years, Dawn, who was also a grotto member. Richard was 70 years old and he was an active member of the grotto for a number of years in the late 1980s before retiring and moving to Colorado. Dick G ilson Dick died September, 1997 from a traffic accident. He was a Carlsbad caver but had transferred to the Bureau of Land Management in Taos. William D . G reenlee
William D. (Wild Bill) Greenlee entered life August 14, 1957, in Andrews, Texas. He
passed away June 29, 1995, in El Paso after a brief illness. Wild Bill, as we called him, was at one time a member and officer of the Permian Basin Speleological Society. During the mid ’80s he served as newsletter editor of the PBSS Spylunk, when he resided in Andrews, Texas. He later moved to Midland with a transfer from Exxon. In 1987, Bill moved to Carlsbad and went to work for Westinghouse as an Engineer for the Waste Isolation Pilot Project site. I caved with Bill for several years and have to admit that those were some of the best caving years of my life. I have many fond memories of those times. Bill was always the life of the party and will be sorely missed by all who knew him. I remember a trip to Christmas Tree Cave in Carlsbad Caverns National Park, in which several of us had been there for hours. I wanted to leave and so did the rest of the group, but not Bill. He wanted to stay and he did. Bill returned from the cave several hours later after getting his fill of this cave. He truly loved caves and caving. Bill will always be remembered for the strange things he did, like he never owned a television set. He said he didn't have the time for it. And there were the infamous “Pea Cannons” that he started by putting a can of peas in the campfire and watching the forthcoming explosions. At the last SWR regional meeting that I saw Bill, I didn't know that this would be the last time I would get to talk to him, but I'm glad I did. He told me the story about the “Pea Cannons.” Each time the can of peas would get bigger until he finally ended up with a large institutional size can and he told of how he tossed it in the fire. After an hour or two the ends of the can began to swell. Then, after everyone went to bed, in one loud bang the can exploded in a blast with such a force that it blew the fire out and scattered burning embers all over the place, including on tents and camping equipment. Lots of people were angry witht him over that. That was the way Bill was. I asked him what happened to the peas and he said that they were turned into pea
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plasma and vaporized any evidence of his shenanigans. During the “Bat Cave Blow Out,” Wild Bill helped concoct the very first “Skipper Water” (a 110-proof punch!), and he helped Tony Grieco at the first “Skipper Roast.” (Editor: a Skipper was a red, plastic flashlight that was known to be floatable, but not very reliable for caving as an extra source of light.) Bill was a friend to all he met and was good caver. He preached safety to all the newcomers and was always ready to make the next trip. I lost touch with Bill over the last few years and was glad to have known him. Now, my life will be richer. So, Bill I bid you farewell as you go caving for the last time. --Bill Bentley, Midland, Texas PBSS Past President Lynne Lazelle, NSS 18404 November 13, 1938 – February 10, 2005 Lynne Lazelle, age 66, died at home in the presence of family members and friends on February 10. She had been recently diagnosed with terminal bone cancer; her many friends are thankful that her painful suffering is past. Lynne came into caving through Mac Deets’ recreational caving class at the University of New Mexico in the mid-1980s. She joined the NSS in 1987 and went
caving as a member of the Sandia Grotto. Her caving was in the Guadalupes, Fort Stanton, GypKaP, El Malpais and wherever there were places to explore, quiet moments to share or rowdy occasions when her goofy spirit soared. One of my many memories is when Lynne returned from an early-days Lechuguilla trip with members of the grotto and reflected on the thrill of her experiences at a grotto meeting. Lynne also helped to instigate the women-only caving rituals in Alabaster Cave in the mid-’90s. Born in Miami, Florida, Lynne was educated in Alabama, Illinois and New Mexico. She had both a master’s degree in counseling and biology, although teaching was her main profession in Santa Fe and Albuquerque Public Schools. A lifelong learner, Lynne’s delight with life and enormous curiosity led her down paths of photography, writing poetry, travel, backpacking, delving into dreams and, most of all, appreciation for the natural world. Lynne would agree with this statement that I found in an Isabel Allende book: “Knowledge is of little use without wisdom. There is no wisdom without spirituality. True spirituality always includes service to others.” She was constantly in assistance to others – as a wife and mother, a teacher, a counselor, Big Sister, restorer, surveyor and explorer of caves, and in her last days, helping in a Santa Fe soup kitchen. Ceaselessly passionate, Lynne had a deep caring about the people in and around her life and she touched the lives of many. Several cavers and many friends attended a memorial held to her honor in Santa Fe on February 19, 2005. Her ashes were spread at her favorite place, Muley Point, Utah, in the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. Those of us, who were fortunate enough to go caving, climb 14,000 ft peaks in Colorado, play on river trips, ski and hike through the woods, or wile away hours just sitting and talking together with Lynne will find peace in
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the memories of the wonderful times we shared. Her wide-open spirit will live within us. --Linda Starr Warren “Doc” Lewis 1915 -2005 Warren “Doc” Lewis (NSS 8856RL, OS, FE) died Wednesday, October 12, 2005 in Albuquerque, exactly two weeks before his 90th birthday. Doc was born in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, and attended the University of Nebraska Medical School where he studied internal medicine, concentrating in cardiology and geriatrics, which he practiced with special interests in improving nursing-home care. Later in his career, he became active in forensic psychiatry, performing mental examinations for the judicial system. The great passions of his life were natural history, science, and music. He enjoyed observing birds and bats, orchids and decorative bulbs, and wind and weather. Doc Lewis wrote over 60 papers on cave-science subjects, such as histoplamosis and air movement in caves. Through the years, Doc sang baritone in 23 choirs and choruses, and he played double base in the Rockford (IL) Symphony Orchestra for 35 years. After moving to Albuquerque, he played with the New Mexico Symphony, the Rio Grande Symphony and the Hoffmantown Church Orchestra. Doc’s caving career stretched over 50 years. He was one of the co-founders of the Rock River Speleological Society (RRSS) which was established in the late 1960s. This organization was converted from a herpetology society, and Doc used to keep many snake specimens. He also worked on early versions of the rappel rack, a device now very familiar to those involved in single rope techniques. At the 1999 NSS Convention, Doc was awarded the NSS Outstanding Service Award for his contributions to speleology. When he lived in Illinois, Doc
participated in the Coldwater Cave Project in Iowa. As the name implies, this world-class cave has frigid 46° water requiring wet suits. Doc took hundreds of slides in this beautiful cave; not a bad record since he was in his upper 70s at the time. After his move to New Mexico, Doc was an active Sandia Grotto member. He remained active on cave discussion boards and in caving publications. Doc was always a friendly face at the Winter Tech meetings held in Albuquerque as his interest in caving and cave science continued unabated in his later years. He kept up with the current cave publications. In fact, if his Southwestern Cavers didn’t arrive on time or arrived torn up, he would quickly request a new copy. His interest in caves and cave science remained avid. Doc was a big supporter of the National Cave and Karst Research Institute and he donated his cave library to the organization. The SWR caving community will truly miss his gentle, friendly, and kind presence. Tom Madison Tom Madison died in March, 2009. He was a Carlsbad caver as well as a Texas caver. At one time, he was a leader with the Cave Research Foundation at Carlsbad Cavern National Park. Joel “Tom” Meador NSS 5202L Tom Meador, 43, died on Monday, September 29, 1986, at his home in San Angelo, Texas, following a year-long illness. Tom was a Life Member and Fellow of the NSS and an Honorary Member of the Southwestern Region. The caves, ridges, and canyons of New Mexico’s Guadalupe Mountains were a second home to Tom for almost three decades. Tom was a well-known speleo-historian who concentrated on Carlsbad Caverns, Jim White, and Eddy County, New Mexico. He collected caving literature and memorabilia with a
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passion, an unusual hobby for a man whose formal education ended early. Around a traditional goat-roast campfire just two years previous to his death, Tom proudly told me how he had received his high school GED certificate. Tom made generous contributions to the caving projects and organizations he believed in. Most cavers will never know the extent of those contributions because that’s the way Tom wanted it. When a caver didn’t have gas money, Tom would give him a ride anyway. If a fellow needed a place to get away for a while, well, there was always an isolated line shack out somewhere on the ranch. Tom became a caving legend in the Guadalupe Mountains of New Mexico; tales of his caving and driving exploits will be told around campfires for decades to come. Tom left a lot behind and those of us who knew him well won’t be too surprised one bright, starlit night when we feel his presence walking with us up a ridge after a hard day’s caving somewhere in the Guads. -- Doug Rhodes
The reason Tom did not graduate from high school is that he flunked tenth grade English at least twice, and the school would not let him take it again. Tom never was good at spelling or grammar, but he was smart enough to have others check over his writing before he submitted material. When he took the GED exam, he was surprised about how easy it was to pass. Tom did historical research about many caves and the area where he lived. He was appointed by a judge in Texas to be the official county historian for the county where he lived. In the photo above, with Mr. Lee’s son, Tom had invited Lee to come to the Guads to revisit some of the caves, hoping that Mr. Lee would remember details from 50 years earlier. It is understandable that Lee did not remember much of the past. He was rather frail and in poor health. Tom, Mr. Lee, and I spent a couple days together in the Guads in the early 1970s. Tom often bragged about how he had set the driving speed record up Three-Mile Hill in the Guadalupes, opening and closing the gates himself. As a result, he wore out 4WD vehicles at the rate of about one per year. The picture here of Tom with Andy Komensky and Bob Jones in Three
Tom, Bob Jones, Andy Komensky at Three Fingers, June, 1968.
Photos here and above by Rich Breisch.
Meador’s Last Ride (L to R): Andy Komensky, Ells Rolfs, Peter Jones, and Tom. Photo by Peter Jones.
Willis T. Lee’s son (about 19) and Tom behind a cave gate. (Willis T. Lee is famous among cavers for his initial study of Carlsbad Caverns.)
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Fingers Cave was taken by me. I recall that was our first trip there on June 2 or 3, 1968. --Richard L. Breisch Pam, Tom’s widow donated much of Tom’s caving research to University of Texas. It can be seen at http://www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/utcah/02558/cah-02558.html. As far as I know, Tom’s last trip to the Guads was with Pete Jones and me. We camped on Lonesome Ridge. ‘Twas a little cold …. The last time I saw him was in the spring of ’84, when I was doing odd jobs for him at his ranch in Eldorado, Texas. One was digging out a cave that turned vertical with a going lead blocked by a couple of formations that Tom did not want to break. Tom died of a brain tumor and had been at a cancer treatment center in Philadelphia. --Andy Komensky Daniel R . Montoya, NSS 32434 Dan Montoya, 53, of Los Ranchos, NM, passed away on May 12, 2011, most unexpectedly. He had been doing a fitness ride on Tramway when he was suddenly knocked off his bike by an elderly driver who crossed the median and had fallen asleep at the wheel. He was born on December 18, 1957 in Santa Fe, NM. Dan is survived by his loving
wife Deb Rivera, who is also an active caver. He was a caring and kind husband, brother and son of a large family, all who experienced life to its fullest. He is sorely missed. Dan grew up in Pojoaque, NM, and went on to graduate from NMSU in 1979. He began his career with Boeing Aerospace in Seattle, WA, before returning in 1989 to Albuquerque, where he worked for Honeywell Aeronautics as a Senior Electrical Engineer. His inquisitive and technical nature carried over into his personal life and added to the way he lived. He enjoyed working through the details and challenges, just as he did in caves. An active life was enjoyed with his wife and family, and this included surveying efforts in Lechhuguilla Cave, Carlsbad Caverns, GypKaP, El Malpais, digging in Fort Stanton, as well as other SWR and Sandia Grotto projects. He taught many grotto members about mapping and surveying caves. Dan also loved hiking and rafting in the Grand Canyon, motorcycle and bicycle touring, cross-country skiing, and numerous other outdoor activities. He loved the planning as much as the adventure itself. -mainly from the Santa F e New Mexican Robert Nymeyer October 19, 1910 to December 11, 1983 Robert Nymeyer, cave explorer, photographer and author died at his home
Tom with Pete Jones on Lonesome Ridge in the Guads. Photo by Andy Komensky.
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Sunday, December 11, 1983. He was a member of the Guadalupe Grotto. We had the honor of his company at the Winter Technical Regional in Carlsbad the previous day. He left us with many memories in his book, Carlsbad Caves and a Camera, a history of cave discovery and exploration in the Guadalupe Mountains. His contributions to the world of caving have enriched all of our lives, and through his writings and photography he will enrich the lives of future generations of cavers. Jim Peck Jim was active in the mid ’60s, caved in the Guadalupes and foothills. With Bob Sarabia, the two discovered Three Fingers Cave and Skull Cave (now known as Cave of the Twins) in Double Canyon. Thomas H . " Tom " Rodgers 1938-2011 Thomas H. "Tom" Rodgers of Carlsbad, N.M., passed away Tuesday, January 25, 2011. Thomas was born on Dec. 20, 1938, near Anadarko, Oklahoma. He attended Gracemont Public Schools and was Salutatorian of his high school class. He attended Oklahoma A&M University, the University of Oklahoma and Southwestern Oklahoma State University where he received both a bachelor and master degrees. Tom was a member of the National Guard prior to joining the Army Reserve, where he served for 29 years, achieving the rank of sergeant major. He received the Meritorious Achievement Medal and numerous Army Achievement and Army Commendation Medals and served his country on active duty during Desert Storm. Tom retired from New Mexico State University at Carlsbad after 22 years, where he taught primarily economics and accounting. Tom enjoyed caving, hiking, trap shooting, playing old timers baseball and the Senior Olympics, where he won numerous
medals. He was a member of the Pecos Valley Grotto and the Southwestern Region of the NSS. Ester Rolfs Ester Wilma Rolfs was born 25 January 1937 and left these lands for more promising ones on 19 Dec 2004 after a lengthy illness. Many of the historic cavers knew her for her warm hospitality, good humor, and wonderful cooking. She was a strong but quiet supporter for the White Sands Grotto in Alamogordo while living there for several years. Many a caver found a good place to rest behind the davenport and a welcome breakfast the next morning. She was delighted by the few caves she visited. She continued her friendship to many cavers when she lived in Albuquerque. Ester will be missed by many, including her family – both close and extended, both caver and not. She was the mother of seven children, a grandmother and great-grandmother. So, as you light your lamp for a journey into the wonderlands below, say a note of good-bye and thanks to Ester in the wonderlands above. --Ells Rolfs Bob Sarabia Bob died 2000 from Chromotosis, too much iron in the blood. Sarabia was a Carlsbad caver, mostly caving in the Gypsum plains and was active until the early ‘80s. He and Jim Peck (above) discovered Three Fingers and Skull caves, Double Canyon, in the summer of 1967. Don Sawyer , NSS 16113 November 29, 1923 to May 13, 1979 Here is what I can remember off the top of my head: Dad was born in San Francisco, CA; died in Roswell, NM of a heart attack. Donald Sawyer (his middle name was Carl, but it didn't make it on his birth certificate) lived in California with a nanny of sorts. His mother traveled all over the world, until she died off the
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coast of Italy, when he was about 7 or so. Then he was sent to Missouri to live with relatives. Dad joined the Marines (I think he was 18), fought in Tarawa, Saipan, and Guadal Canal (three purple hearts), and was a staff sergeant. He came back to Kansas City, met/married Mom in 1945, and worked for the railroad as a telegraph operator. Also, he was a volunteer deputy in Wyandotte County (Kansas City, KS). During this time he got a general license in HAM radio operation (call sign WA5OTM *old tired man*). Two children were born – Sandy (1945) and Don (not Jr.!) (1950). Then, dad went to work for the Bureau of Reclamation on the Texarkana Dam (I think it was called), and lived in Sulphur, OK, where I was born in 1965. Dad took a job with the BLM and moved to Roswell in early 1966, working for the BLM until disability retirement in 1973 or ’74, after his motorcycle accident. I think he was involved with caving most of the time he worked for the BLM. He used to help out with the QUEEN Rescue using his HAM radio expertise to contact emergency agencies as needed during hunting season in the Guadualupe mountains, southwest of Carlsbad. My dad loved the desert and used to take his little truck and camper out overnight. He loved to take pictures – Mom has a closet filled with slides and photos. --Patti Sawyer, Sandia National Labs As a BLM employee in Roswell, New Mexico, Sawyer started the BLM cave program and helped organize the first Cave Management Symposium. He was an Honorary Member the Southwestern Region and a member of the Pecos Valley Grotto. The Bureau of Land Management whole-heartedly agreed to a request by Lee Skinner of Sandia Grotto to rename the “Valentine Passage” of Fort Stanton Cave the “Don Sawyer Memorial Hall.” --Dave Belski Don Sawyer was the first BLM cave specialist in the Roswell district. During his time with us, he had the first improvements
made to protect the caves with fences: Fort Stanton, Feather, Agogino’s and Blue Tick. --Lee Skinner “Don Sawyer … gave Meador and me the go-ahead to boomboom Hicks.” --Andy Komensky Heinz Schwinge, Sr .
Heinz Schwinge was a dedicated Fort Stanton Cave photographer, surveyor and explorer. A charter member of the White Sands Grotto, he was also active in exploring Crockett’s and Piñon caves. He died of lung cancer. A passage in Fort Stanton is named after Heinz. --Lee Skinner Noble Stidham, Jr . March 3, 1938 - Feb. 26, 2003
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Services for Noble Martin Stidham Jr., 64, of Lubbock were at Resthaven's Abbey Chapel. Burial was in Electra Memorial Park in Lubbock. He was born in Electra. He graduated from high school in Electra in 1956 and from Texas Tech in 1960. Noble married Rosemary Byers in Electra in 1961. He joined the Army Reserves in 1960 and was called to active duty in 1961. After two years of active duty, he finished his
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reserve time in Lubbock in 1963. He owned and operated Mechanical Systems, Inc. until retiring in 2000. After retiring, he opened Eagle Self Storage. He volunteered as a part-time administrative assistant for 15 years at La Clinica. He helped form Lubbock Area Grotto and was secretary of Lubbock Amateur Contest Club. --The Lubbock-Avalanche Journal, Thursday, Feb. 27, 2003 Bob T rout
Bob Trout passed away April 17, 2010. He was active in the Region in the ‘60s. He helped find many caves in the Guadalupe Mountains. Bob was present at the body recovery of Doug Evans. Ransom Turner 1959 - 2005 It is with great sorrow that I write this obituary for my friend, Ransom Turner. Anyone who has gone caving in the Guadalupe Mountains over the past twenty years will remember Ransom as the quiet and gentle man who arranged for permits, keys and information about the many caves he was steward for in Lincoln National Forest in New Mexico. I will remember him as well for his soft spoken kindness and true dedication to protecting and allowing for gentle visitation of the caves in the Guads. His quiet demeanor was countered by his dry sense of humor and a joke always readily at hand. I will miss him greatly. Ransom Wakefield Turner, III was born February 25, 1959, in Alamorgordo. His love of the outdoors was fostered by his father, a true cowboy and rancher in the style of the Old West. Ransom spent many years hiking in the wilderness areas near his family’s ranch in La Luz, NM. He learned to rappel with his friends and ultimately took up caving as a result. In 1985 he turned his love of caving into a job with
the US Forest Service office in Carlsbad, NM. In 1980, he met Jacki Demo of Skowhegan, Maine through a mutual friend and they were later married in 1993. Jacki worked as a volunteer for the first 10 years of Ransom’s employment with the Forest Service. Ransom took an early retirement in 2004 for medical reasons and returned to his family ranch in La Luz. He was working on a trail through his land on Friday, September 16, when he had a seizure and fell into a ravine to his untimely death. Ransom took his work at the Forest Service seriously and performed it conscientiously. His love for the caves of the Guads went way beyond merely handing out keys and permits for their visitation. He worked tirelessly to do the job he knew needed to be done to better manage and protect the caves from overuse. Nonetheless, he frequently went out of his way to make sure that caving trips went well for everyone involved. Ransom epitomized the spirit of caving in the Guads in the finest sense. His one regret upon his early retirement is that he never had the chance to accomplish more for the caves he so loved. His tradition will no doubt be carried on by others in his passing. Cave Ho, my good friend! Robert S. W illis Aug 26 1928—November 11 2000 Robert S. Willis (“Bob”), a former resident of Albuquerque, passed away on November 11, 2000. He was born in Escondido, CA on August 26, 1928, He attended the United States Military Academy, West Point, N.Y., the University of the Americas, Mexico, D.F., and was a graduate of the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM. He was a career civilian employee of the United States Air Force, retiring from the Office of Civilian Personnel Operations at Randolph AFB in 1986. He was a keen outdoorsman, whose enthusiasm
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encompassed not only the mountains and plains, but the discovery and exploration of caves as well. During the 1960s, he was an officer on both the local and national levels of the National Speleological Society. He also maintained a deep interest in family genealogy, with a special interest in that part of his maternal lineage which is documented to the early days of the republic of Texas. … Cremation followed a family memorial service in New Mexico. Memorial contributions were made to the Alzheimers Association, San Antonio, Texas. Tom Zannes, NSS 33500 Tom Zannes, 56, of Albuquerque, passed away on June 4, 2006, from cancer. He had given much to the caving community throughout the years. His cave videos have been acclaimed world-wide. The video "The Spirit of Exploration" produced in the 1980s grossed over $2 million. He also shot the only footage of the 1991 Emily Mobley Rescue in Lechuguilla Cave. Tom's cave videos also include the "Cave Conservation and Ethics" video which has become a standard for teaching new cavers the proper techniques and methods of caving. He has also documented several cave science expeditions. The last video shoot of Tom's
career was in the Snowy River section of Fort Stanton Cave. Tom's sensitivity and concern for the cave environment was always the most important aspect of any videography he was doing. He was giving of his time and expertise and often plied his trade with no charge, but thought the end product "just needed to be done." As a cave videographer he set new standards for others to follow. Tom was a leader and will be greatly missed. Donations in Tom’s memory were sent to the American Cancer Society (brain cancer research) Albuquerque, NM. --Jim Goodbar The demise of cavers - Peggy Novak and Rex A llan Novak is unknown. Other regional cavers who have passed on – time and place is undocumented. Riki Darling – Southwest Independent Cavers, Albuquerque Chuck Ernst – Alamogordo Jeep Hardinge Frank Hibbin, NSS 200, Albuquerque Dave Isaac, miner, Morenci, Arizona Lois Larkins --mostly compiled by Dave Belski, with help from other cavers
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NSS Award Recognition William Stephenson Outstanding Service Doug Rhodes, 1991 Lee Stevens, 1994 Warren Lewis, 1999 Dave Jagnow, 2001 Honorary Member Don Sawyer, 1974 Ronal Kerbo, 1990 Donald G. Davis, 1992 Jim Goodbar, 2003 Science Award
Carol Hill, 2003 Penny Boston, 2010 John McLean, 2011 L ew Bicking Award Doug Rhodes, 1970 Donald G. Davis, 1986 Mark Minton (former SWR member), 2009 Victor A . Schmidt Conservation Award Escabrosa Grotto, 1976 Southwestern Region, 1993 V . A . Schmidt Conservation - Individual David Jagnow, 1995 Val Hildreth-Werker, 2009 Spelean A rts and L etters
Glenda Dawson, 1997 Certificate of Merit 1963, Dwight Deal with Herb and Jan Conn, Survey of Jewel Cave 1973, Pete Lindsley, Guadalupe Cave Survey
1975, Carol Hill, “Cave Minerals” 1993, Dave Belski and Steve Peerman, NM Gypsum Karst Project (GypKaP) 1996, The Lint Pickers Project, Carlsbad Caverns National Park 2004, Guadalupe Area, Cave Research Foundation 2007, Val Hildreth-Werker and Jim Werker, Conservation and restoration at Carlsbad Caverns National Park 2009, John J. Corcoran III, Initiation and Management of Fort Stanton Cave Study Project 2011, Paul Burger, Protection and documen- tation of caves at Carlsbad Caverns NP Fellows of the Society Prior to 1967 Dwight Deal, NSS 3592 1968 Pete Lindsley, NSS 5566 1969 John J. Corcoran III, NSS 7165 Donald G. Davis, NSS 4956 Harvey R. Duchene, NSS 6318 Alan E. Hill, NSS 7166 Carl E. Kunath, NSS 6230 Joel “Tom” Meador, NSS 5202 Ellsworth A. Rolfs, NSS 6338 Lee H. Skinner, NSS 4807 1970 Andy Komensky, NSS 8164 Douglas W. Rhodes, NSS 6746 1973 Richard L. Breisch, NSS 9352 1974 Don Sawyer, NSS 16113 1977 Don Martin, NSS 3796 Linda Starr, NSS 11384 1978 William P. Bishop, NSS 10418
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Fellows continued 1978 Carol Hill, NSS 8449 1981 Dave Belski, NSS 7875 Warren C “Doc” Lewis, NSS 8856 Lee Stevens, NSS 16985 1982 Carol L. Belski, NSS 9249 Sarah G. Bishop, NSS 11331 1983 George Veni, NSS 17322 1985 Patricia Kambesis, 17304 1987 Richard J. Wolfert, NSS 14722 Bill Yett, NSS 3604 1988 John Ganter, NSS 22870 1989 Don Broussard (former), NSS 9514 Dave Jagnow, NSS 8177 1990 Ron Kerbo, NSS 11539 Karen Lindsley, NSS 11854 1991 Barbara Ann amEnde, NSS 15789 Steve Peerman, NSS 16158 Ron Ralph, NSS 7616 1992 Jack Dorsey, NSS 1641 Jim Goodbar, NSS 9715 Pat Jablonski, NSS 26924 Diana Northup, NSS 11561 Glenda Rhodes, NSS 15134 1993 Patty Daw, NSS 20235 Ray Keeler, NSS 23245 Jeff Lory, NSS 13746 1994 Paul Burger, NSS 236452 John McLean, NSS 5840 1997 Jason Richards, NSS 9528 Val Hildreth-Werker, NSS 28963 Jim Werker, NSS 31652
1998 Jim Evatt, NSS 7602 Lois (Lyles) Manno, NSS 39232 Victor Polyak, NSS 26681 1999 Lysa DeThomas, NSS 25500 John Lyles, NSS 19871 Duke McMullan, NSS 13429 Kathy Peerman, NSS 19676 Pat Seiser, NSS 28650 2000 Bill Bentley, NSS 21977 Bob Buecher, NSS 11265 Mac Deets, NSS 10293 Jeff Forbes, NSS 17158 2001 Stan Allison, NSS 27656 Barbe Barker, NSS 33397 Sam Bono, NSS 24760 Stephen Fleming, NSS 13727 2003 Brian Galbraith, NSS 38821 Peter Jones, NSS 11421 Bob Pape, NSS 13765 Megan Porter, NSS 38171 Jerry Trout, NSS 4279 2004 Peg Sorensen, NSS 26779 2005 Slim Baxter, NSS 16080 Esty Pape, NSS 13560 Paula Provencio, NSS 38769 2008 J. Michael Queen, NSS 13805 Kevin Stafford, NSS 41852 2009 Tom Bemis, NSS 16148 Blake Jordan, NSS 43030 2010 James (Jim) T. Cox, NSS 36389 James G . Mitchell Award 1973, J. Michael Queen, NSS 13805 2009, Aaron Curtis, NSS 60670
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SW R Honorary Members (Editor) The following SWR Honorary members have been recognized for their service to the Southwestern Region. Selection reflects widely varied contributions in many areas involving expertise, leadership, planning, management, exploration, science and numerous other activities, which were to the benefit and advancement of the SWR and its membership. When two candidates are named, the resulting vote tally was likely a tie or very close. 1962-1978 Original Honorary Members: Pete Lindsley, Lee Skinner, Donald Davis, Harvey DuChene Restarted 1979 Don Sawyer (Deceased) 1980 Dwight Deal 1981 Dave Jagnow 1982 Doug Rhodes 1983 Joel Tom Meador (Deceased) 1984 Dave Belski 1985 Andy Komensky 1986 Carol Belski 1987 Carol Hill 1988 Linda Starr 1989 Ron Kerbo, Steve Peerman 1990 Jim Goodbar 1991 Duke McMullan 1992 Glenda Dawson 1993 Joli Eaton (Lee) 1994 Jeff Lory 1995 Slim Baxter 1996 Jim Evatt 1997 Kathy Peerman 1998 Sam Bono 1999 Jeff Forbes 2000 Ells Rolfs, Wayne Walker 2001 Stephen Fleming 2002 John Corcoran 2003 Victor Polyak, Chuck Carrara 2004 John McLean 2005 Ransom Turner (Deceased)
2006 John Lyles 2007 Mike Bilbo 2008 Buzz Hummel 2009 Jennifer Foote 2010 Jim Cox, Robert Nymeyer (Deceased) 2011 - No one was named, oversight
Jim Cox – 2010 SW R Honorary Member Jim Cox was selected as an Honorary Member of the Southwestern Region in long-overdue recognition of his considerable contributions to the management and protection of caves on federal lands in New Mexico. Jim has been a tireless gate builder. His work demonstrably is in a whole category by itself. It is impossible to know how much material he has donated over the years for gate installations. Then, there was his enormous investment in time and skills, for which he freely donated more effort than probably even he can account for. In the grand scheme of things, BLM, in particular, would not have the kinds of gates designed, built and installed by Cox. The Snowy River shaft reconstruction very likely would still be a desire awaiting plan design, funding and contracting if Cox had not turned a volunteer design into a volunteer reality by donating all the work needed to get the structure fabricated. The time constraints he operated under were necessary to make volunteer installation feasible and efficient. The production pressure (to stay ahead of the safety issue for impending structural failure of the wooden shoring) placed significant additional demands on his free time, and may well have been reflected in his personal business’s bottom line. However, we will never know because he will never tell us. With the Snowy River shaft and with every gate, BLM has gotten an incredible cost-
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benefit that it otherwise would not have been able to afford or accomplish without Jim's efforts. The labor and contract costs of a normal agency construction process would have been prohibitive. Jim was selected as an NSS Fellow in 2010, and also received the BLM National Take Pride in America Award the same year because of his selfless service and exhaustive effort. The SWR joined the NSS and BLM to add well-deserved peer recognition of his service and accomplishments. Additionally, Jim received an NSS Video Salon Merit Award, Amateur Division, for his video documentary, “Snowy River and the Dig.” Jim spent much free time documenting cave resources in the Snowy River part of Fort Stanton Cave. Jim readily passes CDs and DVDs out to BLM management, cavers and the public at his own expense. --Stephen Fleming
The Wuss Walker Award By Steve Peerman The Wuss Walker is a "traveling trophy" that has been given to cavers in the area who have attained some degree of age and decrepitude. The origins of the award are a bit fuzzy, but it seems that it was originally conceived by Mac Deets, Jason Richards and John McLean sometime in 1986 or '87. The award consists of a cheap black wooden cane upon which is mounted a well-used Justrite carbide lamp through the mechanism of a standard automotive hose clamp. John says that it was his cane and hose clamp that went into the design, while Mac supplied the lamp. One can only guess what Jason supplied, though the words instigator,
lubricator, and agitator come to mind. I'm sure Jason was some sort of "ator." According to Mac Deets, the first recipient of the award was Harv DuChene. Harv was chosen because, in the words of Mac, "he was older than Jason and we never let him forget it!" John remembers that Mac was the first recipient. Both agree that it was awarded at Fort Stanton Cave at either Harv's or Mac's birthday. It seems that a year or two later it was given back to Mac. Mac then presented it to John at a birthday party in Albuquerque. Though the history is a bit vague on this point, it seems apparent that it was given back to Harv at some point, whereupon he had the names of the honorees engraved on small plates attached to the cane, in order that "the award might become more significant and important with time - become a real honor for the recipient." Or, reflecting another viewpoint, John adds, "so we could keep track of who the wusses were!" Harv gave it to Pat Jablonsky at his 50th birthday party just before she and Bill Yett moved to New Mexico. She apparently decided to pass it on to Ron Kerbo. However, Harv was the one who presented it to Ron at the 1994 convention in Brackettville, Texas. Sometime in the next few years, Ron passed it to Rich Wolfert. Rich passed it on to Steve Peerman at the December, 2000, Southwestern Region meeting in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Receiving the Wuss Walker award actually is an honor, and is perhaps a stimulus for getting out there and "doing it." In fact, Harv says, "I would point out, though, that I have been privileged to do some of the best and most arduous caving of my life after I got the Wuss Walker…. Maybe it was the Wuss Walker that stirred me up enough to get serious about my caving again. May it have the same effect on all of its future recipients." Steve was faced with the awesome responsibility of choosing the next recipient of the award. The Southwestern Region offered
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numerous candidates. Though it would seem that caving is a young person's sport, the caving community has grayed considerably. According to John, the award has been "given more in the spirit of honoring a birthday (rather) than emphasizing physical disability." John's diplomacy is commendable. However, Harv puts it more directly: "I'm happy to see that people are still as mystified by the award as I was when I got it. I hope that the next recipient is as emotionally devastated to learn that his or her peers regard him or her as 'seriously over the hill.'" The LGGG, (the Lower Guads Gimp Grotto) for those who don't know, is a group of candidates for this award who get together frequently for caving and other outings suitable for the slower pace of life at their particular point on the hill of life. At the most recent LGGG activity, the group got together to complete the awesome challenge of climbing Guadalupe Peak on the day after Thanksgiving. For most cavers, this trail is not a particularly daunting task. However, pushing aging bodies full of Thanksgiving turkey and cheer up the 4.3 miles and 3000 ft. climb on a day when 70 mph winds were frequently recorded throughout the state was approaching insanity. Here, must be found, the appropriate candidate for the next recipient of the award! Would it be Jim Evatt, who begged off of the Guadalupe Mountain hike entirely, complaining of a sore back? Or how about Kathy Peerman, who wisely backed out when her recovery from a sinus infection had not progressed sufficiently? Patty Daw bravely attempted the hike but was quickly forced back by bad knees. A valiant effort! Carol Belski was a likely candidate as well. She had completed the hike only a few weeks earlier, but found an excuse to turn back on this one. Dave Belski, the region's reigning patriarch, seemed a great choice. He met all the significant criteria for a recipient, meaning he
really is an old fart. And he gave up the climb to Guadalupe Peak after climbing three fourths of the way. However, another LGGG member got the nod this time. The 2001 recipient of the Wuss Walker not only met the age requirement but excelled at demonstrating the qualities of decay and dilapidation worthy of this station in life. He has been known to fall into a deep slumber in the middle at any convenient opportunity. On this particular Guadalupe Peak climb, the 2001 recipient – along with his wife and daughter – climbed to within 200 feet of the summit and turned back – a sign of true lack of resolve. (Either that or a sign of true wisdom, given the weather conditions that day.) The recipient of the Wuss Walker for 2001 was Stephen Fleming. Mac Deets Wow! It's been around hasn't it? Jason Richards and I made the Wuss Walker for Harvey DuChene for his birthday party at Ft. Stanton cave a very long time, and many dead brain cells ago. It had to be '86 or '87 as it was a UNM class trip Jason and I taught together. Then, it was given back to me a year or two later; you might ask Jason about this, but he has fewer brain cells left then I do. The brain-sucking hodag lives in CaCa. I completely forget, but we kind of think it went to John McLean next at his birthday party in Albuquerque, and we added a crutch with a paddle on the end. (Editor: this has since disappeared.) It was my carbide lamp from my collection. Harv was given the award because he was older than Jason and I, and we never let him forget it. I don't know how old he was, but like I said, it happened around 1986. Please let me know how good my memory is when the history is written. Can't be at Winter Tech will be in Vegas, say hi to all I know. Happy Holes, Mac Deets
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Harvey DuChene I don't remember why I got the Wuss Walker, but I got it from Mac Deets. I gave it to Ron Kerbo at the NSS Convention at Brackettville near Del Rio, Texas about 10 years ago. I also remember being slightly drunk when I gave my presentation speech. I was responsible for starting the "tradition" of putting little brass nameplates on it so we wouldn't forget who was old and decrepit enough to have received it. I recall that I decided to put the name plates on because I thought the award might become more significant and important with time - become a real honor for the recipient. I'm happy to see that people are still as mystified by the award as I was when I got it. I hope that the next recipient is as emotionally devastated to learn that his or her "peers" regard him or her as "seriously over the hill." I would point out, though, that I have been privileged to do some of the best and most arduous caving of my life *after* I got the Wuss Walker, including dozens of multi-day trips into Lechuguilla, a couple of trips to Mexico, and some caving in Europe! Maybe it was the Wuss Walker that stirred me up enough to get serious about my caving again. May it have the same effect on all its future recipients! Pat Jablonsky Hello to Steve and Kathy! By the way, Bill and I are moving to Petrified Forest National Park the day after Christmas. I'm hoping to get back to doing some caving – possibly in the El Malpais south of I-40 in New Mexico. Do you know who is running that project? As far as the Wuss Walker – Harvey gave it to me at his 50th birthday party and just before Bill and I moved to New Mexico. I gave it to Ron. Harvey is the one person I know who can give you all the details though. At some time, I would like to see it passed on to Bill Yett, if possible. Although he has pretty much quit caving he does deserve and could use the stick for support! So, pass that on to the next
receiver as a suggestion if you are so inclined. Who are you considering giving it to? I won't tell a soul! Gotta run for now! Keep caving! Our address in Arizona is P.O. Box 2218 Petrified Forest NP, AZ 86028 John McL ean I am embarrassed to say I don't remember much about the origins of the award, even though I was in on it. I think Jason Richards came up with the idea, and I supplied the cane and hose clamp for the carbide lamp (I guess Jason must have supplied the lamp, or maybe it was vice-versa). Mac was to have one of the “milestone” birthdays (40th?) at a regional (Ft. Stanton?) in the early ‘80s. After the first annoying award, it seemed like such a good idea that it turned into a traveling trophy. Harv had the award plate made when he got the award, so we could keep track of who the wusses were. I think I was awarded it on a trip to Carlsbad Caverns in the mid-‘80s, but I don't remember when it was passed on to Pat – hope she does. Harv was in charge of awarding it to Ron at the Texas NSS convention in '94. I note that all the awardees are still more-or-less active cavers, so the award is given more in the spirit of honoring a birthday than emphasizing physical disability. There – I guess that I have proved to everyone's satisfaction that I really am an old fart – I can't remember much of anything. I plead age, inattention, insanity, and occasional drunkenness. Stephen F leming I think I gave it to Bob Rodgers but will have to muse on that some....seems it had something to do with a hammer. Bob? Also, Peerman will have to tell you why I got it. I know, but I ain't saying, because it was all bogus anyway. Bob likely will say the same thing. In 2001, I received the not-so-coveted Wuss Walker Award from Steve Peerman,
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through no fault of my own. Despite his claim that I wimped out 200 feet from the top of Guadulupe Peak, where we prudently turned back before somebody got blown off the trail/mountain, in 60+ mph winds and sideways snow, that made visibility only a few feet. I had summitted that peak at least twice already, and later added another trip, solely by full-moon light, without ever using artificial light. Take that! Oh purveyor of the stick. Anyway, like a rootless willow shoot, that cane was getting real antsy in the corner of my house. It was itching to see new surroundings. Alas, no one had committed any acts that seemed to qualify. However, all that changed at the 2003 NSS Convention in Porterville, CA. Opening day at the campground saw the usual assortment of SWR folks setting up camp. As literally the first person in the camping area, I had staked out one of the few shady spots and set up a defensible perimeter for our group. The line held against the incursions of others seeking shade, including the banishing of the Texas Cavers' Groad Hollow to a site a bit further out in the field where the sun seemed to have a mellowing effect the entire week (Groad Hollow ain't what it used to be...now consisting more of a sign than an event). Dave Belski completed his campsite using a small sledge-type hammer that had seen better days and likely had been made from ore mined and smelted by Dave himself. Dave and I were settled in the shade with the ameliorating effects of cerveza fria. About this time, Bob Rodgers arrived and began his camp setup. Shortly, Bob ambled over to inquire if he could borrow a hammer. Having just watched Dave expertly use such a tool, I directed Bob to him. As is usual, Dave made a big production out of loaning Bob the tool. Things like: it was a priceless Polish heirloom, been in the family for centuries, had been used in the construction of the Great Wall of China, and other accuracy-
deficient hyperbole. Dave cautioned Bob about either damaging or losing the hammer. After a few giggles on my part at this theatrical performance, Bob merely said: "Just give me the damn hammer; I'm not going to hurt it." – or words to that effect. It Was Not To Be. In a matter of minutes, the hammer disappeared into the mists of time, taking part of Dave's heritage with it. Upon Bob's completion of camp setup, the hammer was nowhere to be found. Bob had set it down somewhere and promptly forgotten where that was. Bob looked; we all looked. It did not seem possible, but it was GONE! Dave still has not gotten over this after nearly nine years. (I think it slinked over to Groad Hollow, which by then was uncharacter-istically quiet after a campus security guard, sent to them by Dave, had told them to turn down the radio that was not unduly loud...they never got rowdy the entire week). Oh Joy! I was able to proudly present Bob Rodgers with that most visible caver-symbol of advancing age, the funky cane with attached carbide light, and get the damned thing out of my house. However, as a memento of physical or mental impairment, it had the mysterious effect that it has demonstrated on every recipient...a renewed vigor and involvement in things of note. Today, Bob is the statewide Search and Rescue Coordinator for the New Mexico State Police, something that surely would never have come to pass without the WussWalker coming his way first. Now, if you check with Bob, you'll find his version of these events sort of not too closely matches the above description. Any discrepancies in his story are the result of meeting the qualifications for the WussWalker. The informed reader will disregard them. Bob Rodgers I received the award from Fleming because during the California Convention, I borrowed Dave's hammer when I was setting up
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my tent. Somehow the hammer disappeared. During the SWR Winter Regional when I was given the award, I gave Dave a true "polish" hammer in return. This hammer had a head that pivot to three different positions. The next year I presented the award to Dave. I was told a story that Dave had injured himself on a hike in Dark Canyon that year. Dave Belski I, not unlike Stephen Fleming, have no idea why I received the award. I got it from Bob Rodgers, I think in retaliation for my serious ribbing him about his losing my pristine polish hammer at a previous caving gathering. He finally replaced it with a completely inferior model. In my mind, there was no logical reason for the bestowing upon me this illustrious award. To my knowledge, I had never done anything to deserve this recognition. – Dave K athy Peerman I had arranged to pick up cavers from Mudgett's Cave down in the canyon (Editor: during a SWR held on the well pad near Big Manhole), so they would not have to hike back to camp. It would be shorter this way for them. We scheduled a time and place for me to be there. I was there early; it was a very hot day, so I decided to move the truck for more shade, which was around the corner from our scheduled meet place. Jeff Lory hiked down the hill to find me and could not, so he hiked back up and told the others I was not there. Well, the cavers hiked back to camp. I waited a long time with no show, so I drove back to camp to some not very happy people. (Editor: Kathy received another SWR award that has since been lost [perhaps, on purpose] for this incident.) Mike Bilbo Kathy, why did I get the award and why did you not let me keep it for the year? – e-mail from Mike Bilbo Kathy’s response: LOL!
You got the award because you lost the minutes (forgot where you put them) for two different regionals (you were secretary at the time). You keep forgetting things and I felt that if I let you keep the walker, you would put it somewhere and forget where it is. We would never see it again. And I know I made the right choice to keep your award in my home. L inda Starr When I asked Mike whose name he wanted me to put on the award, since I had it at my house, he could not think of anyone who did something off the wall. So, we suggested he give it to someone he thought was a good caver. He thought of you, your years of service and dedication to SWR. -- from an e-mail to Kathy Peerman I was the recipient of the SWR Wuss Walker Award at the December 2011 SWR Winter Tech. Regional in Las Cruces, although I received it for being the opposite of a wuss, which was a sort-of pleasant surprise. Mike Bilbo presented the trophy to me by showing the audience slides of a horrendous ascent up Apache Canyon in the Florida Mountains, where we went to a slot cave with pictographs of Apache spirit dance figures, as well as caballeros on horseback. This trip had followed a mini-vacation Spring Break trip in Costa Rica, when I had fallen off a horse, while returning from a waterfall adventure. (My hike was aided with the help of “Vitamin I” before.) We were on Mike’s trek in March, following the SWR in the backcountry near Deming. At the time Mike Bilbo presented the award to me, I was a little bewildered as I always thought of a “wuss” in negative terms. In his presentation, Mike said something like, I was the “epitome of a “wuss” (I didn’t know how to take that); then he showed a close-up photo of my backside wedged in the slot cave. He also mentioned his knowledge of my annual 14,000-ft-peak ascents in Colorado and a 50-
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mile fundraising walk I do every year. Now, I know a “wuss” = “old fart” and I, admittedly, fit that definition. So, my idea of the Wuss Walker Award has been transformed. It’s a very handsome award, sitting prominently in our front skylit hallway, and I am honored to have received it.
I can’t say who the next Wuss Walker awardee might be at this time. But I hope to continue by bestowing the award to someone, over 50, who has caved and hiked long and hard over many decades and is continuing to demonstrate the physical agility of agedness.
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“Lost and found” depiction of Feather Cave by Gary Davis. (See more of Gary’s art on back cover.)
Southwestern Region Members and Associates
(as of 12/5/2011) 1962 – 2012
The SWR has amassed an impressive record of caver involvement in its 50 years. One thousand, eight hundred, twenty-five (1,825) names have been compiled from NSS and SWR membership records, the Southwestern Caver, attendance rosters at regional and grotto events, trip reports and various note sources. Undoubtedly, there are omissions and unrecognized duplications. Inclusion here recognizes participation from a single event to 50 years of association. Data is organized as Last Name, First Name, NSS #. ABEAR GERALD ABEAR JERRY ABERNATHY JACK ABLE HAYDEN 43334 ABLE JOHN 43332 ABLE SHONA 43333 ACKERMAN JOHN 28955 ADAMS BEN ADAMS DIANNE 25437 ADAMS KATHLEEN 27565 ADAMS SCOTT 25436 ADAMS SCOTT 50058 ADAMS STEWART AGEE BILL AGUILAR ALEJANDRO AGUILAR ILARIO AHERN COLLEEN 13233 AHERN WALLACE N 13623 AKERS BILLIE 6306 AKERS BILLY RAY 6303 ALBILLAR ORLANDO ALBRECHT CHARLES 6129 ALEXANDER LAUREN 45103 ALEXANDER PAULA 42288 ALLEN BEA 18096 ALLISON STAN 27656 ALLISON-KOSIOR GOSIA 45834 ALLURED DAVE 15630 ALLURED VI 15362 ALTER WILLIAM 8609 ALVAREZ LYNDA 53864 ALWARD BOB 27253 AM ENDE BARBARA 15789 AMICK BERET AMIDON CHRISTOPHER 52685 ANAYA ARTHUR ANDERLE CHUCK 31477 ANDERSON ANDREW 4495
ANDERSON CHESTER 6340 ANDERSON LAURA 59513 ANDERSON SONYA 6341 ANDERSON VICTOR 14692 ANDREWS ANELLA 11808 ANDREWS NICK 33327 ANUTA ALBERT 3748 ARAGON EMERLENE 59486 ARMSTRONG DAVID 41339 ARMSTRONG HILLARY 23257 ARMSTRONG LISA ARMSTRONG MERYL 52103 ARMSTRONG RICHARD 8811 ARMSTRONG RICK ARMSTRONG STEVE ARMSTRONG WYATT 47365 ASHBERGER SHERRY 30903 ATHA WILLIAM 47335 ATHERTON IVY 13560 ATHERTON KRYSTAL 15231 ATKINSON JERRY 22368 ATTAWAY NANCY 14122 ATTAWAY STEVE 16583 AUB Dr CONRAD 7963 AUBY BILL AUSTIN DARRELL 16530 AYLWORTH CHUCK 9339 AYRE PAT 5608 AYRE ROBERT 5160 BABB JENNIFER BABB PRISCILLA BABB ROBBIE 8480 BABINGTON WILLIAM 50572 BACA CARLOTA 7164 BACH JEFF 62887 BACH MARCUS 62888 BACKLUND BOBBIE 34109 BACKMAN ALAN 33314 BAER ROGER 11675 BAGGETT BILL BAILEY DOUG 24775 BAINS WALTER BAKER AMIE 17138 BAKER BRUCE 17336 BAKER JAMES 3064 BALDWIN JIM BALDWIN SARAH BALES MARK 18976 BALGEMANN BILL BALISTRERI MIKE 36513 BALL STEVE 55790 BALLARD JERRY 43745 BALLEAU BOB BALLENSLY JASON 50409 BALLINGER MARTIS LEON 6395 BALLINGER ROYCE 3946 BALULIS JOHN 37394 BANKS CINDY BANKS GLEN BANKS WALTER 10800 BANNISTER BETH BANUELOS RAFAEL 45823 BANUELOS RICHARD 42918 BANUELOS SUZANNE 42919 BARBEE JOHN 35285 BARBER CHARLES 51212 BARDEN MICHAEL 18233
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BARKEMEYER HOPE BARKER BARBE 33397 BARKHURST DON BARNETT CHARLES 2545 BARR BILL BARR DON BARR SUE BARRICK JOHN 4288 BARTLETT RICHARD 4883 BASSETT CHUCK 34921 BASSHAM EDWARD (ELBERT) 7674 BAUER PAULA 41577 BAUKNECHT JEFF 29212 BAUKNECHT JIMMIE 32479 BAUKNECHT ROBERT 32478 BAXTER CORNELL (SLIM) 16080 BEARD CHARLES BEARDSLEY RAYMOND 14709 BEARDSLEY ROBERTA 14710 BEATY BECCE ANN 8524 BEATY BILL 8522 BEATY BUTCH 11490 BEAUDOIN CHUCK BEAUVAIS BOB BEAVEAIS BOB BEBB JESSIE 51537 BECHMAN Mrs HOWARD 3284 BECK CHRIS 27056 BECKER DENNIS BECKER DONALD 37456 BEDNORZ MICHAEL 25430 BELLAY FRANCOIS BELSKI ANDREW 12646 BELSKI CAROL 9249 BELSKI DAVID 7875 BELSKI GAIL 12283 BEMIS BOBBIE 22678 BEMIS MANNIE 37402 BEMIS MELISSA 22679 BEMIS PAUL 35226 BEMIS STEPHANIE 26902 BEMIS TOM 16184 BENHAM TOM 26053 BENNECKE ROBERT BENNETT AMBER 58689 BENNETT BILL 24266 BENNETT EVELYN 18178 BENNETT GEMMA (MORRISON) 7261 BENNETT SUE 51788 BENSLEY ANGEL BENSLEY JOHN BENTLEY WILLIAM 21877 BENZ MILFRED BERDUGO LIZ 30984 BERES ALBERT 13079 BERES DINAH 8492 BERGER BYRON E 13747 BERGER JACK 12830 BERGMAN MICHELE BERGO STEVE BERGTHOLD LOIS (MANNO) 28056 BERRY DEAN BERRY J R 43258 BEST BARRY 16145 BEST MELISSA 16146 BETHARD CINDY 20142 BICE DONALD 44154 BICE TED 40701 BIDDY JEFF 16197
BILBO BARBARA 39800 BILBO MIKE 14994 BINGHAM JACK BIRENBOIM AARON 32699 BIRNBAUM DAVID BISHOP SARAH 11331 BISHOP WILLIAM 10418 BLAIR EVELYN 57998 BLAIR JONATHAN 57997 BLIZZARD CHRISTOPHER 41313 BLIZZARD JIM 41311 BLIZZARD SHERRY 41312 BLODGETT DAN 23607 BOANS JERRY 6945 BODENHAMER HANS 16668 BODHAM GARY BOEHNING MONICA BOGLE FRANK 19788 BOHMAN RICHARD 50283 BOLDT STEVE BOLGER TERRY 22932 BOLINGER LOREN 5727 BOLTON BILL BOLTON RICK 47441 BONEAU PHYLLIS 43409 BONHAM BETTY 8506 BONHAM BRENDA 8505 BONHAM WILLIAM 8504 BONNEY MARSHA BONO SAM 24760 BONSKOWSKI RICHARD 7534 BORLAND CHARLES 9133 BOSTON PENELOPE 44478 BOUCHER LARRY BOUDINOT HANK 49368 BOWEN LELAND BOWMAN NORMAN 4620 BOYD CAREN 22257 BOYD KYLE 20557 BOYD MELISSA 16645 BOYD RANDY 17700 BOYER DOROTHY (CORCORAN) 12510 BOYETTE JENNIFER 54579 BRADBURY WALLACE 4535 BRADY JOHN 14277 BRADY MARIE BRANSTETTER Dr JOHN 15405 BRANSTETTER SUSAN BREISCH RICHARD 9352 BREUNT JAMES 26937 BREWINGTON CARL BRIANS SUZAN 32044 BRIDGEMAN RON 6614 BRIDGERA DOUG BRIDGES RICK 12084 BRIGGS MIKE BRINKLEY R A 15406 BROD LANG 5329 BROOKE RICHARD BROOKS JOHN 24470 BROOKS SCOTT BROUSSARD DON 9514 BROWN BILL BROWN CAROLINE 8557 BROWN CHRIS 36785 BROWN DAN BROWN DOC BROWN GAIL BROWN LEW
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BROWN Mrs FRANKYE 12944 BROWN WILLIAM C 13776 BROWN WILLIAM E 60040 BROWNE ROLAND 15143 BRUCE CHARLES 21036 BRUMMET KENNETH 4207 BRUNNER ANDY BRUNT JAMES BRUNT TERESA 26938 BRUSTAD CINDY 41710 BRUSTAD L JAY 41709 BRYANT ROY BUCHAKLIAN BOBBY BUCHANAN JACQUELINE 62214 BUCKLEY CECILIA BUCKLEY JOHN BUECHER BOB 11265 BUECHER DEBBIE 13590 BUECHLER PETER 20830 BUFFALOE BARNEY BUGE DAVE BULLARD BRYANT 57714 BULLINGTON NEAL 10872 BULLIS JERRY 23254 BULLIS LINDA 23252 BUNKER MIKE BURAK MARK BURGER PAUL 26452 BURGESS GARRON 48493 BURGESS HARRY 32789 BURGESS JENNA 53867 BURGESS RICHARD 7124 BURKE EDGAR 12014 BURKE JAMES 43406 BURKE JOHN 52730 BURKE Mrs JOHN BURKHAM ROY 26939 BURNAM BEN BURNETTE LAURA 53354 BURNS JOHN 10754 BURNS PAT 14533 BURT JON 58893 BURTON ROBERT 43442 BUTLER TOBIN BUTLER TRICIA 21793 BUTTERFIELD KEN 27451 BYRD ROY 47771 BYRD WYATT 35662 CAIN DON CAIN GEORGE 6359 CALAMIA MARK CALHOUN PHILO 52013 CALKINS ROBERT CALVERT REBECCA 43787 CALVERT STEVE 27554 CAMPBELL AUDREY CAMPBELL JEFFREY 62371 CAMPBELL JERRY 12027 CAMPBELL SAMUEL 12031 CAMPBELL TONY 12032 CARDENAS REINHARD 49156 CARESS MARY 33936 CARMAN CAROL (BELSKI) 9249 CARPENTER KEN 4763 CARPENTER NATE CARRARA CHESTER 7897 CARRARA CHUCK 3945 CARRARA LARRY 4296 CARRARA MARIANNE 8385
CARRASCO KEVIN 36379 CARRASCO NICOLE 40328 CARRELLO GARY 9753 CARRILLO DONNA 9754 CARROLL LEWIS 27480 CARTER MITCH 33446 CARTER STEPHEN 49428 CASADY CARY 10766 CASSELS-SMITH KATY 5786 CAVENEE WES 51870 CHAMBERLAIN FREDERICK 4082 CHAMBERLAIN FREDERICK IV 7083 CHAMBERLAIN Mrs FRED 5860 CHAMBERLIN WALTER 1108 CHAMBERS GREG 44945 CHAPIN JO ANN 15862 CHAPIN TERENCE 15861 CHARLES NANCY CHAVEZ DON CHESS L A CHILD JACK 4728 CHILD SALLY 5572 CHONG SHARON 37457 CHRISTENSON SCOTT 13219 CHRISTIANSON ANDREW 40688 CHRISTIANSON CONWAY 7341 CHURCHMAN JOSEPH 53220 CHURCHMAN SUSAN CICERO PAT 25318 CISARIK WILLIAM 13982 CLARK MICHAEL W 10073 CLARK PIXIE 25279 CLARK VIRGINIA CLARKE PAUL 52988 CLARKE STEPHEN 41257 CLARKE TODD CLAYCOMB JENNIFER 43373 CLENNON BART 9943 CLINGER CATHERINE 61115 CLODI PAUL 13925 COCHRAN DICK 10664 COCHRAN JILLARD COCHRAN JOHN 19398 COCHRELL PAUL 55849 CODA FRANK COGBURN JAMES 16186 COKER MITCH 23759 COLBORNE PATTY COLE JAMES COLEBORNE PATTY 16069 COLEHIUR VERNAL ALIDA 5738 COLEMAN MICHAEL 12736 COLES CALVIN COLLIER EVERETT 8639 COLLINGSWORTH MIKE COLLINS DENNIS 49292 COLLINS DONNA COLUZZI MARK 35489 COLWELL CLIFTON 53596 COMBS MARTIN 18851 COMPEAU CECIL 55021 CONE CALLIE 19399 CONNALLY DARRELL 14196 CONNOLLY CYNTHIA 45982 CONROY CAROL 15368 COOK JAMES 53427 COON LESLIE COOPER JOHN 4803 COOPER JOSH 31630
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COOPER SCOTT 30993 COOPER WILLIAM 4523 COPELAND PAT 22361 CORCORAN CARRI 35484 CORCORAN DOROTHY CORCORAN GAVIN 29338 CORCORAN JOHN, III 7165 CORCORAN MIKE 10133 CORCORAN SHANNON 35483 CORDERO ANN 17416 CORDERO DAVID 17417 CORDOVA RICK 37746 CORNISH ROBERT 51901 COSGROVE BOB 18475 COTTON TOMMY 15494 COX ANN 36389 COX JAMES 36389 COX PAM 37497 CRANE KORTNEY 37590 CRANSTON CRAIG CRANSTON KELLY CRAWFORD EDWARD 3499 CRAWFORD MARY 5068 CROCKETT DAVID 42124 CROCKETT JAMES 44978 CROCKETT JASEN 44979 CROCKETT JESSICA 44980 CROCKETT RUSS 41936 CROCKETT WENDY 41935 CRONE ? 10774 CRONK JULIA 33891 CROSBY GEORGE 25738 CROW HOWARD 10744 CROWNOBLE CAROL CRUMP TERRY CUDDY C EMORY 5197 CUMMINGS DAVID 24531 CUMMINGS MIKE CUNNINGHAM PHILIP 46968 CURRIER CALVIN 35617 CURRY MEGAN 53397 CURTIS AARON 60670 CUTTS RANDY DAHMS GUY DAILY JOHN DALE NATHANIEL 54669 DAMEWOOD WILLIAM DANA BILL 15213 DANFORD FRANCIS L DARILEK GLENN 14446 DARLING RIKI 14353 DARLINGTON ROBERT 55822 DART JIM DART JOHN DAUGHTREX TERRY DAVIS BEVERLY J 8386 DAVIS DONALD 4956 DAVIS GARI (GARY) 8059 DAVIS NADINE 35054 DAW PATTY 20235 DAWSON GLENDA 15134 DAWSON JAMES 8742 DAWSON JOHN DAY RICK 14486 DE BURGE DAVE DEAL CRAIG 14026 DEAL DWIGHT 3592 DEAL JERRY DEAL TARA 15653
DeBUVITZ KIJA 55791 DECKER DAVE 31115 DEETS MAC 10293 DEETS PAULA DEETS SHAWN 25713 DEGUZMAN ROBIN 62110 DELL DAVE 26919 DEMOS PEGGY DeNEE PHIL 20698 DENNY SONDRA 37505 DENTON ELIZABETH 10677 DENTON PERRY 10676 DESJARDINES JILL 28197 DESJARDINES RICHARD 26085 DESJARLAIS MICHAEL 29936 DeTHOMAS LYSA 25500 DiCAPUA RICHARD 39392 DICKER MIKE 44566 DILLON EDWIN 26944 DILLON SAM 23857 DILLON TOM 18905 DiMARCO TRENT 54822 DiMATTEO MICHAEL 58897 DISPENSA ZEE DITTRICH MARK DIXON RICHARD 5589 DODSON JERRY 25178 DOHERTY DENNIS DOLAN DANNY DOLPHAY NICKOLAS 8081 DONOVAN NINA 6414 DOOR TOMMY DORAN LINDA 36372 DORSEY JACK 1641 DOTTER TOM 35747 DOUGHTY ROBERT 62922 DOUGLAS FRED 8024 DOWDY ANN DOWNEY LYNN 51839 DOWSON BILL DREW MIKE 8724 DROBKA DIANE DUARTE MARCO DuCHENE ALEX 27752 DuCHENE ANN (LOOSE) 9990 DuCHENE HARVEY 6318 DuCHENE JUDY DuCHENE ROSS 8642 DUKEMINIER BOB 6604 DUNCAN DOUG DUNHAM ARTHUR 7944 DUNLAP PAUL 57995 DUNN LINDA 23252 DUNN REBECCA 32192 DUNN STEPHEN 27367 DWIVEDI RAVINDRA 59802 DYE STEVE EARLE ELIZABETH 29451 EATON BETH 24736 EATON JAMES 24535 EATON JOLI (LEE) 19962 EATON THREVA 24734 EBY ANDY 41928 ECKERD LANCE EDEL STANISLAV 63017 EDLUND PHILLIP 6870 EDMUNDS BRUCE EDMUNDS RANCE EDWARDS AUDREY 11033
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EDWARDS JAN EDWARDS MAC 11032 EILAR CYNTHIA ELLER P GARY 12603 ELLESS HAL 48424 ELLINGTON JIM 26928 ELLIS WILLIAM 7787 ELOSUA RAYMOND 25163 EMMENDORFER ALAN 15708 EMMENDORFER LUCAS 24975 EMMENDORFER MARIA 24974 ENGLE DENNIS 11545 ENGLE SYLVIA 11546 ENGLISH JEFF 51919 ENNIS CHARLOTTE 52904 ENNIS GARY 52903 EPPLER DEAN 12887 ERNST CHUCK 7764 ESCAPULE JOAN 39284 ESCAPULE WILLIAM 39285 ESTERGREEN MARION J 408 ETTLEMAN FRED 40513 EVANS LARRY 63066 EVATT JIM 7602 EVERITT FRANK 20606 EYLER JAMES C 3762 FALL CLAIRE 17234 FANNIN BILL 13496 FARRIS ANDY 12062 FAULK BRUCE 39066 FAULK LINDA 39067 FAULKNER TOM 29560 FAY JENNIFER FEASTER WALTER 31624 FEDUSKA JETTE (KATHY WALTER) 9253 FEKTHAUSER MARK FERGUSON JULIA FERNANDEZ ERNESTO FERNANDEZ GLORIA 23458 FERREL WILL FIELDS TOM FINE STEVE FINN CARRIE 50821 FISH GEORGE 27463 FISHER HENRY 6313 FITCH JUSTIN 58690 FITZWATER FRED 7355 FLEMING JOSH 43070 FLEMING KATE (BACH) 43069 FLEMING STEPHEN 13727 FLESHER JASON 43747 FLETCHER Dr MILFORD 14864 FLORES IRENE 20611 FLORES MICHAEL 10112 FLOYD JON 4619 FOLAN WILLIAM FOOTE JENNIFER 45211 FORBES JEFF 17158 FORD ANDREW 60800 FORD CLIFTON 60799 FORDE JAMES 15691 FOSS SANDY (SALAS) 23346 FOSTER BOB 31739 FOWLER PAUL 37563 FRAATZ ROBERT 28959 FRAISER JOHN 20822 FRANCISCO EDWARD 3947 FRANCISCO JOHN 20570 FRANCISCO PEGGY 18950
FRANK ED 20094 FRASER MALCOLM 4417 FRECHETTE JOE 11851 FRENCH JOHN 7846 FRENCH MICHAEL 18474 FRIEL JOHN FRISCH KARL 48148 FRITH BARBARA 12553 FRITH RICHARD 12015 FRITSCHY MEL FRITZ BILL 3863 FRITZGES FRANK 20586 FUGE DON FUGERE ALBERT FULLER ERIC GABALDON STEVE GALBRAITH BRIAN 38821 GALBRAITH LIZ 38822 GALBRAITH ROSE 38823 GALE BENNETT 786 GALKINS ROBERT L GALLIAHER DENNIS GAMBLE RON GANTER JOHN 22870 GANTER WILL 52915 GARAFINE ELAINE 14825 GARCIA JACKIE 35047 GARNER LOGAN 62325 GARNER RICHARD GARNER THOMAS 62324 GARRETT DAVID 15688 GATES CLAY 28198 GAVIGAN JOE 41758 GAVIGAN JOSEPH 47934 GAVIGAN ROBERT 47935 GEIL BARBARA 4705 GEIL ROBERT 3116 GEORGE KAREN 28596 GEORGE SUSAN GEORGE TIM 24464 GIBSON CRAIG 22007 GIBSON SCOTT 21368 GIESKE EHREN 56848 GILBERT GEORGE 15543 GILBERT JON 17597 GILBERT SHARI 17596 GILBERT SIGNE 17598 GILCHRIEST DANNY 11059 GILLESPIE DIANNE 50838 GILMAM MICHAEL GILMAN GEORGE GILSON RICHARD 27231 GINOCCHIO GUY 18870 GIORDONO DANNY GLYNN ED GOAR MIKE 24383 GODBY WILLIAM 53932 GODWIN GARY 26498 GOELLER JOHN 9892 GOETTSCHE TOM GOKE CARMEN 20079 GOOCH SID 34868 GOODALL BILL 22488 GOODALL BONNIE GOODBAR ANDREA 27683 GOODBAR ANDREW 40045 GOODBAR JIM 9715 GOODLOE BOB GORDINIER WILLIAM 62957
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GORDON BARRY GORDON LANCE GOSE DAVE 24656 GOZA CHARLES GRAHAM DAN 24660 GRAINGER JAMES 10158 GRANONE PAUL 29409 GRANT DEBBI GRECO TONY 23211 GRECO VICKY 24807 GREEN CHARLOTTE GREEN GLEN GREEN WALTER 33814 GREEN WENDEL GREENLEE BILL 24491 GRIENER ERIC 44540 GRIFFIN PATRICK 26497 GRIFFITH C GEORGE 15435 GROGAN RON 49979 GROGG GARY 61438 GRONLUND DAVID 42586 GRONLUND KATHRYN 42587 GROSSMAN KATHY 20782 GRUBBS ROBERT 61435 GRUBE BOB GRUSS DIANE 25514 GRUSS NATHAN 26475 GRUSS RANDY 25513 GUCK ANTHONY H 13993 GURNEY PAMELA 47168 GURSKY KATHY 27442 GURULE ROBIN 51462 GUTHRIE VICKIE GUTTING STEVE 15585 HAEDD BRENDAN 56054 HAGGER TOM 14441 HALL JO-ANN 28874 HALL REX 24926 HALL TABITHA 47801 HALL THOMAS 16903 HALTERMAN LeROY 8231 HAMAN JON 4780 HAMILTON FRANK HAMM JACK 6100 HAMMOND DEBBIE (CLARK) HANCOCK BRYCE 10408 HANDSCHY JAMES 17321 HANKINS HELEN 13377 HANNA DAVID 30373 HANSON BOB 7918 HAPPEL PAUL 29893 HARDINGE JEEP 21389 HARDY CHRIS 3990 HARDY FRITZI 11346 HARDY JIM 8360 HARGROVE EUGENE 9572 HARPER DON HARPER JAN 32643 HARPER TONIA 48200 HARRINGTON KEN 9231 HARRINGTON MARTHA 9232 HARRIS BRUCE HARRIS TOM 19765 HARRISON BLAKE 12101 HARRISON DEBRA (FORBES) 39570 HARTMAN ANN 12754 HARTMAN CARY DONN 53963 HASSENBUHLER JOHN 27108 HASSENBUHLER WILLIAM 27107
HATHAWAY JENNIFER 60645 HAWKINS EDWIN 17754 HAWLEY JOHN 4452 HAWLEY ROB 30565 HAYNES AL 13489 HAYNES DENIS HEATH BILL 29692 HECKART CHARLES C 13744 HEDDEN CHET 4316 HEDGE LARRY HELMER SCOTT 35067 HELTON MATT 29333 HELTON PAT 21822 HENDRICK TIM 53964 HENDRICKSON BOB HENDRICKSON BUZZ HENRISEY REGINA 4985 HENRY DAVID 7196 HERMAN PAUL HERPIN DAVID 37929 HERPIN SUSAN 34557 HERRING CRAIG 7222 HERRING HAROLD 16665 HERSCHENBERGER STEVE HERZOG KURT 5332 HESS CHUCK HEUSS KEITH 10557 HEUTTE TOM 41719 HEWITT JIM HIBBEN FRANK C 200 HIBBS MARTY HICKOX THERESA 36974 HICKS GARY HICKS ROBERT 55848 HIEBERT STEVE HIGGINS BARBARA HIGGINS DALE HIGGINS HOWARD HILDEBOLT SCOOTER 8116 HILDRETH MERIDETH 56215 HILDRETH VAL (WERKER) 28963 HILL ALAN 7166 HILL CAROL 8449 HILL LARRY 10935 HILL PAT 22032 HILL ROY 11652 HILLEY JERI HILLEY TERRY HILTON HEATHER 25619 HINDS KHRISTY 23220 HOBBS ALBERT 49263 HOCKETT CHRIS 54773 HODGES DREW 52123 HODGES ROBERT 52122 HODGES TAREN 52124 HOGAN TERRY 8175 HOLBROOK JOHN HOLCOMB BRIAN 35224 HOLLADAY GARY 53383 HOLLADAY KELLY 48199 HOLLAND NAT 54668 HOLLAND STEVE 18765 HOLLEN JAMES 32492 HOLLIMAN SHERRY 33957 HOLLOWAY DEAN 8738 HOLMAN GLEDE 36517 HOLTKAMP RICK HOLUB THOMAS 19513 HOMA JOHN
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HOOKER MIKE 7899 HORKOWITZ CARL 24806 HORTON CHAD 36326 HORTON JACKIE 47063 HORVATH STEVEN 12353 HOSE LOUISE 13138 HOSLER SAM HOUSE DAVID 19619 HOWARD BETH HOWARD TIM 43781 HOWE JEREMY 35383 HOXIE DWIGHT 5758 HUBBARD DWIGHT 2621 HUBER MIKE 33209 HUDDLE ANN 35118 HUDGEONS EDWARD 26630 HUDSON JAY HUESTED KEILLE HUGGINS RING HUGHES ANN 8669 HUGHES DAVE 47746 HUGHES KAIT 63341 HUMMEL BUZZ (ROBERT) 15859 HUMMEL DONNA 29546 HUNT BOB 22687 HUNT CHERYL HUNTER ANDREA 45920 HUNTER CHARLES 7768 HUNTER DAVID 54667 HUNTER JAMES 54666 HYMER JOHN 35441 IDE HERB 22195 IMMONEN JAY INGHAM KENNETH 32430 INGOLD JEAN INGOLD NORM IRBY LaNETTE ISAAC DAVE 6479 ISAMAN JERRY 13373 ISAMAN SHERRY 13374 ISLER KELLY ISSAC DAVE ITALIANO ADRIENNE 41621 ITALIANO MARC 39933 JABLONSKY PAT 26924 JACKSON BLAYNE 37756 JACKSON BRENT 37757 JACKSON DEAN 7081 JACKSON JOE 61956 JACKSON KEFF 61303 JACKSON RICK 34172 JACOBI CARRIE 34798 JACOBS DAVE 12156 JAGNOW DAN JAGNOW DAVID 8177 JAGNOW LA VONNE 44225 JAGNOW REBECCA 10655 JAMES STELLA 58664 JAMESON CARL JASPER JON 33710 JEFFS WAYNE 29883 JENKINSON DONALD 20313 JENNINGS BRAD 39557 JENNINGS LARRY 39985 JERNIGAN Dr H C 7985 JESSUP KARL 7705 JIERREE CANDICE 55254 JOHNSON ALAN 22715 JOHNSON ANN
JOHNSON BILL Jr JOHNSON BILL SR 25694 JOHNSON CARL JOHNSON DANE JOHNSON DAVID 18774 JOHNSON EMILY 26568 JOHNSON RALPH 12522 JOHNSON RON JOHNSON-DEAN LYNN JOHNSTON HARRY JOHNSTON MARK 31171 JONES BOB JONES DONNA 10785 JONES ERIC 17320 JONES PETER 11412 JONES ROBERT 10784 JONES ROY 4157 JONES TODD 13782 JOOP MARK 46846 JORDAN BLAKE 43030 JORGENSEN GARRETT 62280 JOYCE DANIEL 24041 JOYCE NANCY 59357 JOYCE PETER 59356 JUDD BOB JUNGMAN ANN JUST CHRISTOPHER 35933 KALER TOM 27372 KAMBESIS PAT 17304 KAMINSKI WALTER 23394 KANIM STEPHEN 29524 KAPEL SHAUNA 61404 KAPLAN HARLAN 27594 KARASZ PETER 19280 KAUZ LAURENCE 40716 KEELER RAY 23245 KEELING RUTH KELLER FRANK 10736 KELLSTEDT LYMAN (KELLY) 13093 KELSCH STEVE 29077 KELTON DAVID 27164 KENDRICK ALEXANDER 50126 KENDRICK BRIAN 50125 KENDRICK COLEMAN 55811 KENNEDY BRUCE KENNY EDDY KENWARD AMELIA 59451 KERBO RON 11539 KERR BRUCE KETTERING KEN 7986 KIBLER JOHN 13105 KIDD RANDALL 18375 KIEFFER CRYSTAL 58042 KINCEY HERBERT 23253 KINDEL TOM 32152 KING CHARLES 41411 KING JOHN 8653 KING KAREN 63062 KIPER JIM KIRCHGRABER FRANK 15281 KIRKPATRICK TERRI 33983 KIRN JEFF KIRSHGRABBER JERRY KITT ROGER 23210 KNAPP RICH 19715 KNIGHT WILLIAM 9385 KNOX BOB KOBY JOSEPH 59800 KOCH LANCE 35839
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KOCIPAK SUE KOCZAN STEVE 16603 KOEHLER MARY 29280 KOEHLER STEVEN 29281 KOENIG TOM KOERSCHNER KATHRYN 26106 KOERSCHNER ROBYN 12829 KOERSCHNER WILLIAM 16506 KOMENSKY ANDY 8164 KOMENSKY LEE 9018 KONKLE TANNER 61290 KOOSER ARA 59763 KOPF DANA 32663 KORBLEY LETITA 16345 KOSKI KATRINA 55942 KOUTS PAUL 17666 KOWALSKI GARY 23805 KRAUSE ALBERT 7617 KREISCHER NANCY 27015 KRENEK BRENDA KRONNEKER BARRY KRUGER ROGER 15571 KUHNLE KALE KUPER REBECCA 26614 LaBRECQUE DOUG LaGARDE LAURA ROSALES 57980 LAGROTERRIA DAWN LAKINS KENNETH 49179 LAMB NANCY (HEATH) 29693 LAMPHEAR NEAL 37428 LANG JERI LAPPIN EDWARD 22298 LAPPIN TED 22209 LARKINS LOIS 25899 LARSON DICK 24653 LARSON JAMES 43572 LARSON LAYREN LaRUE PETER 46412 LATIMER BRIAN 44456 LATIMER VANCE 45890 LAWSON DONNA LAWSON JEFF 12949 LAZELLE LYNNE 28404 LEAVELL BALM 51709 LEE CHRIS 33333 LEE MIKE 35348 LEE ROBYN 35349 LEGER GREGORY 22167 LEHR F MARK 47069 LENHOFF CHARLIE LENHOFF JOE LENIHAN DANIEL 17308 LEONARD THELMA 30172 LERUM HARLAN 27914 LESLIE COLIN 49971 LESLIE IAN 49970 LESTER LORRAINE 9610 LETSON R A LeVESQUE MARY LEWIN DAMON 28797 LEWIS DAVE LEWIS Dr WARREN 8856 LEWIS JERRY LEWIS LLOYD LEWIS TOM LIEBELT DAN 14708 LIEDENROAD JOHN LIGHTFOOT ADRIAN LILL DUNCAN 29096
LINDE GARY LINDLEY MIKE 18476 LINDSLEY KAREN 11854 LINDSLEY PETE 5566 LINDSLEY STEVEN 20436 LIPINSKI KENDRA 58436 LIPINSKI RONALD 23791 LLOYD HAL LOFTAN FRANK 19618 LOGAN DAVID 20456 LONG ALICE LOONEY JOE 9416 LOOSE RICHARD 9478 LORIMER MIKE 12558 LORMS KEVIN 30120 LORY JEFF K 13746 LOVELACE MICHAEL 44228 LOVELADY DAVID 49602 LUCAS JOHN 39789 LUCAS SUSAN (KANAT) 47923 LUCERO CAROL 42681 LUCERO STEPHEN 49252 LYLES JOHN 19871 MAAK BRUCE 4144 MABERRY STEVEN 44027 MacDONALD NICHOLAS 58799 MacDOWELL APRIL 26756 MACHOVEC CHARLES 17875 MACKENZIE DONALD 9627 MACKEY JOHN 61194 MacLEAN LAWRENCE 8078 MADISON DEIDRA 36366 MADISON LIZ 39426 MADISON TOM 34487 MADRID DINDY MAEHLER RONALD 59385 MALACHOWSKI JIM 40560 MALKIEL ALAN 11416 MALLOY MARGARET 24201 MANCUSCO ? MANDRELL DEBBI 16021 MANDRELL RONALD 16020 MANLEY JOAN 12912 MANLEY PETER 8387 MANNING DAN MANNO JACK 57615 MANSUR MICHAEL 26393 MANY HEATH 29574 MAPES DAVID 31929 MARINAKIS HARRY 42832 MARRS JOHNNY 37139 MARRS PEGGY 37140 MARSHALL MIKE MARSTON RALPH 1113 MARTEL ROLAND 10548 MARTIN DON 3796 MARTIN JAMES 2886 MARTIN JOHN 3971 MARTIN PAMELA MARTS LARRY 8798 MASON ROGER 14974 MASTERS MARIANNE 29383 MATHEWS DARYL MATHIS DICK MATHIS KELLY 45141 MATTHEWS DOUG MATTSON LANCE 35297 MATZNER PAT MAUSER MARGARET (WILSON) 29072
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MAUSER MAUREEN MAUSER MIKE 11135 MAUZEY DAM 39425 MAUZEY SAM 39424 MAXEY Dr STEPHEN 10966 MAXWELL SCOTT 61200 MAYER TOM MAYFIELD FROSTY 53515 MAYFIELD RICHARD 12079 MAYNARD STEPHEN 38891 MAYR TROY 2580 McARTHUR MARTHA 35327 McCART BILL McCAULEY NATHAN 62822 McCLELLAN WILSON 5399 McCLOUD DON McCLOUD ROY McCLURG DAI 10620 McCLURG DAVID 4608 McCLURG JANET 9301 McCOLLAUM KEN McCRADY RODNEY 61049 McCULLY DAN McDONOUGH JENNIE 42380 McDOUGALL DAVID 61198 MCDUFF GLEN 23471 MCDULL CINDY 25216 McGAHA JERRY McGAHEY NANCY 29786 McINTOSH BILL 32365 McINTOSH SUSAN 25036 McJEAN SUSAN 10605 McKAY CAMERON 39842 McKAY KATHY McKAY ERIN 63114 McKENNA FRANK 9246 McKENZIE CHUCK 5841 McKEON DENIS 17478 McLEAN JAMES 53197 McLEAN JOHN 5840 McLEAN SUSAN 10905 McLEOD CHARLES 9687 McMAHON DOUG McMULLAN DUKE 13429 McPHERSON DAVID McWHIRTER MICHAEL 19154 MEAD JOHN 20552 MEADOR TOM 5205 MEERS CAROLYN METZ CHERYL 14572 MEYERHEIN RALPH 4523 MEYERS DALE 9756 MIDDAUGH GEOFFREY 10610 MIDDLETON DANIEL 57558 MIDDLETON LUCAS 56420 MIKESELL DORIS 5158 MIKESELL NEWTON 5156 MIKESELL ROBERT 5157 MILES JACK 50144 MILLARD JOHN 22811 MILLER CHRISTOPHER 53231 MILLER KATE 47485 MILLIGAN DAVE 26008 MINER ASIA 61590 MINTON MARK 58116 MIRACLE JOEY 42584 MIRACLE SARAH 42585 MITCHELL EUGENE 13821 MITCHELL GENE
MITCHELL ROSEMARY 13822 MODISETTE DAVE 27854 MODISETTE NANCY 27855 MOE JUDY MOERBE CHRISTY 57889 MOHR KEVIN 59641 MOLYNEUX JACQUE MONAHAN WILLIAM C 13745 MONROE THOMAS 4300 MONTOYA DAN 32434 MONTOYA JOE 26972 MOORE ALLEN MOORE GARY 9749 MOORE HARRY 5083 MOORE HELEN 5084 MOORE JIM 15744 MOQUIN MICHAEL 16969 MORGAN DAISY 63019 MORLEY SAM MORRELL CHARLES 6213 MORRIS DICK 769 MORRIS J A 38223 MORRISON WILLIAM A 13749 MORSE A C 11791 MOSCH CYNDI 20146 MOSES JOHN 7009 MOSS ARTHUR 26239 MOTIF TAMI 59280 MOULTON GAIL MOYERS VIRGINIA 61588 MOZER JOEL 52303 MOZER LYNNE 52304 MUELLER STEVE MURCHO MARY MURPHY JAMES 54887 MURPHY LARRY 16842 MUSILLO MICHAEL MUSTON JOE 17860 MUSTON LINDA 17861 MYER NANCY 15131 NAEGELE Dr THOMAS 25560 NAJDOWSKI MICHAEL 11508 NANCE RAYMOND 20348 NEAL JIM NELLER EARL 4581 NELSON KEITH 59868 NELSON KEN 22987 NELSON MARK NESS RICHARD 28732 NEWTON ROY NEWTON TALON 45983 NICOLAY SCOTT 52382 NIEDRINGHAUS ERIN 59480 NIELSEN KRISTEN 42114 NOFSINGER BARRY 48777 NOLAND WILLIAM 7736 NORTHUP DIANA 11561 NOVAK PEGGY 10947 NOVAK REX 10946 NOYA MONICA 60103 NYMEYER BOB 5235 O'BANYON TOM O'BRIAN MIEP 58287 O'CONNELL KAREN 44390 O'CONNELL KRISTINA 37919 O'CONNELL PAT 13878 O'CONNER ED 39939 O'NEAL WALTER B 770 OAKES AL 7502
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OAKLEY A R 12604 OBERSTEIN JILL 52108 OGDEN SUE OLHAUSEN KEN 3874 OLIVE HAROLD 10724 OLIVE MARY 10725 OLSEN THOR OLSON HARRISS 11690 OLSON JOHN OOST BARRY 43324 ORMAN JOE OROW HEATHER 50810 ORR JOE 17265 OSBURN BOB 14017 OSBURN JOANNE 20531 OSBURN MARK 53975 OSMER MARY 23606 OTTO GARY OVERFELT JAMES 48797 OVERTON JANE 59801 PAGANO CARL 32680 PAGE GARY PALLADINO KERRY 42256 PAPE BOB 13765 PAPE ESTY 13560 PARDUE LARRY 10119 PARKER KITTY 28808 PARSON BARBARA 41774 PASSMORE GARY 13008 PATE DALE 12704 PATLOVICH JEFF 26158 PATTERSON CALVIN 4287 PATTERSON JOHN 18964 PATTERSON KRYSTAL PATTERSON SUSANNAH 19621 PAVEY MARY PAWLIK CHESTER 33822 PAYNE ROBERT 24991 PEACHEY BILL 10881 PECK JIM 8367 PEEK RICHARD 11505 PEERMAN KATHY 18045 PEERMAN LUCAS 21780 PEERMAN STEVE 16158 PELLOW STAN PENNEBAKER SHERIE 45851 PERCIFIELD LEIF 55559 PERRIER COURTNEY 33905 PERRONE MORGAN 53350 PERRY ADRIANNE 37976 PERRY CURTIS 35449 PERRY JESSICA 37977 PERRY KAREN 45977 PERRY MICHELLE 35450 PERRY RAMON PERRY THOMAS 7847 PETERSON CHARLES 14241 PETERSON KNUTT 56790 PETTIT LAIRD 3568 PEYTON ED 38449 PICKERING RAYMOND 19366 PICKETT CATHY PICKETT CHUCK PICKLE JOHN 23162 PIERCE MIKE 23126 PIETRASS TANJA 54715 PINGLETON KAREN 43285 PINKERTON JIM 39492 PIPPIN KEVIN
PITTENGER ANITA 23390 PLEDGER DONALD 4318 PLUMMER MICHAEL 32363 POCKMAN WILLIAM 48479 POLYAK VICTOR 26681 PORTER JOHN 10228 POTTER MARNE 31593 POUND ARLIN 8521 POYNER TOM PRATHER JOHN PRATT STEPHEN 7731 PRESS ROBERT 25660 PRESTON RON PRESTON ZOE PRICE JOHN 22733 PRICE MITCH 32482 PRIDDY BRIAN 40658 PRIEDHORSKY WILLIAM 27905 PRIMER DAVID PROVENCIO PAULA (POLYAK) 38769 PRZYTULSKI BOB PULLIAM JIM QUEEN MICHAEL 13805 RAINFORTH EMMA 43702 RAMSEY PHILLIP 30876 RAUTER HAROLD RAY BILLY READ PSYCHE 40514 REAGAN DOUGLAS 8823 RECORD BARBARA 59875 RECORD STEVE 59874 RECTOR MICHAEL 43068 RECTOR STALEY W 13748 REED MOLLY 53325 REED TERRY 35726 REESE JACK REEVES CAROLINE 9998 REEVES LAURA 11384 REID MIKE 27059 REINARTZ KAY 10442 REMPE NORBERT 53025 RENSTROM SANDY (DEAL) 7945 REPA JOSEPH RESSIGUIE OREN REYNOLDS OLAND 15427 REYNOLDS PAUL REYNOLDS RANDY REYNOLDS RICK 37133 RHODES DOUG 6746 RHODES GLEN 23799 RHODES JEAN 8394 RIBA RICK 19395 RICHARD DENISE 32595 RICHARDS AEISHA 34314 RICHARDS ANN RICHARDS CAROL RICHARDS JASON 9528 RIDDER BOB RIDDLE ROBERT 12657 RIDLON MARK RIDPATH CHUCK 7206 RIDPATH KAREN 7207 RIGGS SHERRI 28838 RILEY BILL 8280 RILEY ELMER 8279 RITCHEY CURTIS 43735 RIVERA DEB 45836 RIVERA PHIL RIX KATHLEEN 51740
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ROBB DON 10504 ROBERTS TODD 48351 ROBEY KENNETH 26780 ROBINS MARY ROBINSON DENNIS ROBINSON EDWARD E 4269 RODGERS ALEXANDRIA 53324 RODGERS BOB 43917 RODGERS CHRISTIE 50462 RODGERS KAREN 7306 RODRIGUEZ BERNIE ROE CHERYL ROGERS TOM ROHRER TOM 4959 ROHWER RALPH ROLFS ELLSWORTH A 6338 ROLFS ELLSWORTH K 11694 ROLFS ESTER 9120 ROLFS ETHAN 16384 ROLLINGS CHERYL 15506 ROLLINGS RAYMOND 12233 ROMERO DEBORAH 51503 ROMERO JOHN 51504 ROMIKE HOWARD 12023 ROMINGER ALICE 12632 ROMINGER CHUCK 7342 ROMINGER RANDY 13402 ROOK BILL ROOK SUSAN ROSALES LAGARDE LAURA 55463 ROSS CORDELIA 60025 ROSS WILLIAM ROSTRO HENRY ROTH CAROL 35108 ROTH JOHN 37877 ROTH MARY ANN 26083 ROUECHE DAVID 47431 ROWLAND ED 15887 ROY MIKE 45778 ROZINSKI JOHN 7012 RUPERT FLOYD 11042 RUPERT IMA 11043 RUSSELL BOB RUSSELL CHARLES W 13740 RUSSELL LISA 63250 RUTLEDGE JEREMY 54064 RUTLEDGE WALTER 54063 RYBACKI KYLE 58338 SAFFORD MATT 21170 SAFFORD SANDRA 29443 SALAS JIM 23175 SALAS STEVE SALES PAMELA 51998 SALYER ROBERT 5569 SAMPSON STEVE 43402 SANCHEZ DOROTHY SANCHEZ MICHAEL 16259 SANCHEZ ROQUE 41970 SANGSTER JAKKY 27173 SARABIA BOB 20975 SARES STEVEN 23175 SASAKI TASASUMI 54728 SATER PAT 32420 SAUER HANNAH 62754 SAUER STEVE SAUER TOM SAUNDERS IRA 61427 SAWYER DON 16113 SCATES KEN 49245
SCHWAB CHARLES 7358 SCHEIBNER SCOTT 20949 SCHLENDER PAMELA 57994 SCHLUTER ERIC C SCHLUTER YVONNE SCHMITT ROBERT 44081 SCHNEIDER BETH SCHNEIKER HENRY 16768 SCHRIBNER SCOTT SCHULTZ ROBERT 5334 SCHULYER CORT 9693 SCHWEIKER VI 15362 SCHWINGE HEINZ T 4926 SCOTT JOSEPH 26515 SEARCY PAUL 26488 SEDGWICK GARY SEESE LETITIA 16345 SEISER PAT 28650 SEISER VIRGINIA 30586 SELKIRK JOHN 20739 SELTZER PAMELA 25780 SERAFINO GERALD 27771 SERAFINO MARK 24701 SERAFINO MICHAEL 25764 SERFACE ROBERTA 36757 SERNS CHIP 45768 SEXTON ANNE SHAFFER DOUGLAS 13254 SHAFFER SKIP SHARP CHRIS SHARPTON LESTER 34989 SHAW CHARLES 31941 SHAW JOANN 31942 SHAW STAN 16115 SHAYDACK JOHN 3594 SHELTON RICKI 43398 SHEPPARD C D 8337 SHEPPARD MARILYN 8653 SHERIFF RICK SHIELDS LEWIS 4563 SHOEMAKER DAVID SHOPE STEPHEN 29924 SHORES KERRY 55118 SHUBERRT PAUL 49986 SILVERS JANET SIMMONS JOYCE 4561 SIMPSON MAGGIE 53326 SIMS HAL 27106 SIMS JAMES 15053 SINCLAIR DAVID SINGLETON PAUL 11087 SINKULA BARBARA SINKULA CARL SIRE DAVE 23958 SISSON DONALD 11349 SITARZEWSKI JOE SITES ROY 8701 SKEEAN RICHARD SKELTON NAT 53981 SKINNER LEE 4807 SLABODA STEVE SLINKARD JEANINE (CORN) SLIPE LORI SLUSHER R C SLUSHER ROBBIE 19787 SMART GAYLE 22852 SMILGYS RUSSELL SMITH ASHLEY 62491 SMITH BRIAN 15208
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SMITH CLAUDE 11980 SMITH DAN 4704 SMITH DAVID SMITH DIANE (DEE DEE) 15436 SMITH JEFF 15152 SMITH JOAN SMITH LANCE SMITH LINDA 11384 SMITH LORI 20455 SMITH MARY BELLE 13894 SMITH MICHAEL 59789 SMITH MIKE SMITH PHILIP 25236 SMITH RICHARD SMITH ROBBIE SMITH ROBERT 18103 SMITH RON SNIDER JESSICA 49995 SNOW ABIGAIL 38362 SNYDER ED 8057 SOLLAMI DONALD 26920 SOLLAMI MARGARET 27697 SOLLAMI REBECCA 33663 SONNIER WADE 51137 SONNTAG STEVE 33706 SORENSEN MARGARET (FLEMING) 26779 SPARROLD RICK 16388 SPARROLD SUE 18301 SPENCER JOHN 13958 SPENCER JOSEPH 11547 SPERKA ROGER SPERRY JOHN 4621 SPIETH MIKE 26143 SPILDE MIKE 46784 SPILLERS LISA 31663 SPRAY RICHARD 17048 SPURLIN JERRY 14788 SPURLIN JERRY ST PETERS JULIA STABINSKY KENNY 40781 STADLEMAN STEVE STAGNER MICHAEL 34810 STALEY CHRIS 11572 STALEY JOANNE 15135 STAPLES KENNETH STARK LAURA 49352 STARK PAUL 47939 STARK PHILIP 47938 STARK SCOTT 47937 STARLING FRED 11640 STARLING KIM 12577 STARLING MARY 11641 STARLING RON 19970 STARR LINDA 11384 STARR-JENKINSON DYLAN 24884 STEEB ROGER 25053 STEINAU RICH STEPHENSON JOHN 29614 STEPHENSON LOGAN 51867 STEPHENSON MARIA 33925 STERLING JIM 22725 STEVENS LARIS STEVENS LEE 16985 STEVENS PAUL 13049 STEVENS PHILIP 26566 STICH LAWRENCE 4564 STIDHAM NOBLE 26240 STIFF M L 10476 STITT ROBERT 5403
STOCK MICHAEL 63018 STOCKTON AARON 46918 STONE BARBARA STONE DALE STOUT JOEL 4560 STOUT KATHLEEN 11041 STRAIT ANNE 13218 STRAUCH TIM 19108 STRAUSS STEPHEN 2229 STREEPER CRAIG 31425 STREICHER KEN 6274 STROMBERG GEROLD 5585 STRONG BLYTHE 29319 STRONG TOM 9110 STROUGH MARGARET 771 STUPAK MATT 8018 STURDIVANT LARRY 24161 STURROCK ELIZABETH 11654 STURROCK JAMES 7982 SUBLETT KEVIN 17273 SUGGS MARK 31789 SUMMERS CURLEY 8458 SWAIN GEORGE 20693 SWARTZ DAKOTA 62628 SWARTZ ESTER 62629 SWARTZ LLOYD 32843 SWEENHART GARY SWEENHART LYNN SWEET DAVE SWEET TERRY 29568 SWINSON DEREK SWINSON GIBB SWINSON SHELAGH SWITZER JOE 34888 SWITZER SANDY 34889 SYLVESTER BARRY 17316 SZERLIP SANDY 7620 TABINSKI JAMES 62209 TAFOYA ALBERTO 38016 TAFOYA MARGARET 38015 TAGGART DAMIAM 62047 TAPPAN STEVE 45341 TAPSCOTT ROBERT 29656 TAYLOR HUGH TAYLOR WILLIAM 6291 TEFFIT WILLIAM TELLES ROY THAANUM MEL THAYER BARB THAYER PHIL THEBO ERNEST THERRIEN DAVID 8397 THERRIEN PATRICIA 8398 THIESSE MARY 38522 THOMAS ARVEL 25840 THOMAS JACQUI 47718 THOMAS KEL 57559 THOMAS NEAL 13865 THOMAS RICHARD 4305 THOMAS SHAWN 48610 THOMMES PHIL 63332 THOMPSON BRUCE 21680 THOMPSON JAMES E 3801 THOMPSON JIMME 4297 THOMPSON KATE 6385 THOMPSON MARY 45599 THOMPSON R P 34558 THOMPSON RYAN 47252 THOMPSON WARREN 4283
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THORNBERRY TOM 21049 THURLO JIMMY 30237 THURMAN PAUL 35227 TIPTON CHUCK TRACY ? 8421 TRAHAN BETTI 29168 TRAHAN NICHAEL 29167 TRAINER PAT TREACY AMANDA 36351 TREACY JENNIFER 32825 TREACY KAREN 25409 TREACY ROBERT 29895 TRIBBLE MIKE TROUT BOB, 4278 TROUT JERRY 4279 TROUT MARGUERITE 4314 TROUT RACHEL 8138 TRUJILLO RICHARD TUCKER JANICE 31863 TUCKER TAMMY 55567 TUCKER TIM 15551 TUCKER WILLIAM 55566 TUOHY LAURIE 61294 TURFLER ROBERT TURIN ALEXIS 30594 TURIN JAKE 24770 TURNER MICHAEL 14721 TURNER RANSOM 41552 TURNER ROGER TURTON BILL TYLER JESSE 7218 TYNER JOHN 20201 UNGLAUB LEROY 5733 UNGLAUB SHEILA 5734 UPCHURCH JIM VANDEVER GARY VANWINKLE DIRK VANWINKLE RIP VARNEL JOSEPH 35637 VAYER ROLAND 2875 VENDERELY ROCK 18473 VENI GEORGE 17322 VENI KAREN 29550 VENTERS DANA 20885 VENTERS DICK 20874 VETETO MARK 49624 VINING MARK 14173 VIRAMONTES GRADY 59978 VITT JOHN 7160 VITTETOE JUDY 19809 VITTETOE MARION 17051 VOGT MORGAN 53350 VON SCHWEINITZ HANS 8665 VOSBERG SUSAN (BONO) 47407 WACKER JASON 44776 WADSWORTH PAMELA 42424 WADSWORTH WILLIAM 40727 WAHL REX 22874 WAITES RAY 20529 WALKER BRUCE WALKER DEAN 17853 WALKER KATHY 15123 WALKER KENNETH 19692 WALKER KIMBERLY 19691 WALKER MARY 33574 WALKER PATRICIA 21648 WALKER SCOTT 20559 WALKER WAYNE 15122 WALL RANDY
WALLACE ARTHUR 29098 WALLACE ROBERT WALTER RICHARD 21742 WALTHALL GEORGE WALZ JASON 50638 WAPINSKI DAVID 8135 WARD FREDERICK 4617 WARD MIKE 31426 WARNER DOUG 41724 WARNER SIMEON 42760 WASHKO JOHN J 13296 WATERS AMY WATERS MARY WATSON DAN 11563 WATSON DON WATSON MARILYN WATSON PAUL WATSON ROCKY WATSON SAGE 61906 WATSON TROY 61905 WAYS CHARLES WEBSTER EDWARD 11044 WEHUNT CAROL WEIDENMANN BRENDA 55737 WEIDENMANN RICK 50237 WEITLAUF APRIL 61291 WELBOURN CAL 12005 WELBOURN KAREN WELLS ERNEST 7151 WELLS STEPHEN 10737 WENDT ROGER 12235 WENTZ DONALD 7188 WERKER JIM 31653 WEST STEVE 26289 WESTON BRIAN 34762 WESTON LARRY 34659 WESTON LUCY-JO 34763 WESTON PHYLISS 34600 WESTON WILLIAM 48425 WESTON HELMER DIANNA 35066 WETHERALD MARK 23435 WETHERALD SUE 23436 WHALEY GENE 61464 WHEELER THERESA 46467 WHITE RACHEL 44752 WHITEHEAD NEIL 6774 WHITT HORACE 12951 WHITT WINSTON 12932 WHITTAKER THOMAS 61561 WHITTE ALICE 44751 WHITTE MOLLY 44750 WHITTIER MIKE 6911 WIEDENMANN BRENDA 55737 WIEDENMANN RICK 50237 WIGGINS MARTY WILCOX CRAIG WILCOX PHIL 22827 WILKINSON CARL WILLIAMS CHUCK WILLIAMS ELAINE WILLIAMS GEORGIA WILLIAMS J CRAIG 58655 WILLIAMS JEAN R 33 WILLIAMS LARRY 12897 WILLIAMS RICHARD 53198 WILLIAMSON W J 8839 WILLIS AMY 7581 WILLIS DOTTIE 8053 WILLIS HANK
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WILLIS ROBERT 6430 WILLIS WESLEY WILLMON STEFF 43724 WILLOUGHBY HUGH 7452 WILSON JOE 5237 WILSON KARL 44584 WILSON KEN 5239 WILSON LEE 62071 WILSON MARGARET 46418 WILSON MARY 25000 WILSON PAUL WILSON ROBIN 36105 WILTON TED WIMBERLY MARK WINKLER JANE 25171 WINKLESS DANIEL OWEN 14615 WINNETT DAVID 58896 WISE JIM, III 5780 WITHERSPOON LISA WOBBENHORST JANICE 12385 WOELLHOF SHON 49081 WOLFE GARRY 61354 WOLFORT RICH 14722 WOOD MARTHA (GOSE) 28694 WOODCOCK RICHARD WOODLE MARTIN WOODS CALVIN 25211 WOODWARD BOB WORRELL DAMON 39288 WORRELL DARON 39289 WORRELL JIMMIE 39287 WORRILL CHARLES WORTHINGTON DENNIS 32451 WORTHINGTON JANELLE 32432 WORTHINGTON JEFFREY 32453 WOTEN EDWARD 42801 WRIGHT ALLEN 38943 WRIGHT WILLIAM 7439 WULFF ROBERT 62038 WYNN CATHY (DAHMS) 23854 YARCHEVER HARRY YETT BILL 3604 YOUNG ALAN 41179 YOUNG FRANK 15573 YOUNG JOHN 35261 YOUNGBLOOD LARRY YOUNGER DEANNA 55438 ZANNES ALEXANDER 33501 ZANNES TOM 33500 ZEPP BRETT ZIEGLER BILL 26469 ZIMMER DICK ZIPKIN ADAM 63115 ZUFALL ROBERT 25565 ZURYK JOHN 12042
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A L ittle Something By E lls Rolfs Caves: old and new friends. I guess caves never get old, just our acquaintance with them. After all, if you judge human life spans versus that of most caves, there’s nary a blink. If you judge cave life spans versus that of humans, caves are forever. Unfortunately, that is not true of cave decorations – whose life span, as you know, can be long in coming, but oh, so very short in going.
Oh lovely, wonderful speleothem,
Loving you when I saw you, then
Thinking you would always be there.
And then I found you were – oh! Where?
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Art from the “Guadalupe Sketchbook” by Gary Davis. The sketchbook was intended as a guided tour through some of the caves of the Guadalupe Mountains. Clockwise from top left: Fig. 1. Top‐of‐he‐Hill (along Guadalupe Ridge, above Cottonwood Cave; Fig 2. The Entrance Hall, Cottonwood Cave; Left‐hand Passage, Carlsbad Caverns; Wonderland section, Cottonwood Cave. © 2012 by Gary Davis.
