SpeJean History190.1. This glacial gorge contains about a dozen speleological features including a sinking stream, small ~averns, potholes and waterfalls. The caves are mostly voids

THE JOURNAL OF

SpeJean History OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE AMERICAN SPELEAN HISTORY ASSOCIATIOM middot

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N H Route 112 NOlth Woodstock N H

~4 JAN-MAR 1980VOLUME 14 NO 1

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Volume 14 No middot 1

THE ASSoCIATIoN _

T~e ~er~can SpeleanHistory AssoshyClat1on ~s charte~ed as a non-profit corporat10n for the Study disseminashyt~on and interpretaiioh of speleanh1story and related purposes All persons of high ethical and moral character who are interested in those goals are cordially invited to become members Annual membership is $500 family membership is $600 and library subscriptions are $400

THE CoVER

Lost Hiver is a part of the New Hampshire Forests which has been protected by a group of people dedicated to this purpose since 1901 This glacial gorge contains about a dozen speleological features including a sinking stream small ~averns potholes and waterfalls The caves are mostly voids among the jumble of large boulders and cracks in the wall of the granite gorge a result of a glacier some 25000 years ago It is described by Clay Perry in his first book UNDERGROUND NEW ENGLAND printed in 1939 The area has been commercialized since 1926 It has been a sought-after spectacle of nature since its disshycovery in 1852 Numerous post cards and folders have been produced on these geological wonders over the years The advert~semept on the cover was printed 1n green on th1n 3-i x 5i white paper and was u~ed as an inexpensive flyer Mater1als of this nature are of great interest to the cave collector

JoURNAL STAFF Editor Jack H Speece

711 East Atlantic Avenue Altoona Pennsylvania 16602

Assistant Audrey N Speece

January-March 1980

middotTHE JoURNAL

The Association publishes the Journal of Spelean History middoton a quarterly basis Pertinent articles or reprints are welcomed Manuscripts should be typed and double-spaced Submission of rough drafts for preliminary edit shying is encouraged Illustrations require specialhandiing and arrange- ~ ments should be made with the editor in advance bull Photos and illustrations will be returned upon request

BACK ISSUES Some back issues of all volumes of the Journal are available from Jack H Speece 711 East Atlantic Avenue Altoona Pennsylvania 16602 Outshyof-print issues are in the processof being republished and will be available soon All issues of I Volumes 1-72 are available on Microfiche from Kraus ReprintCompany Route 100 Millwood New York 10546

official Quarterly Publication of the AMERICAN SPELEAN HISToRY ASSoCIATION

Officers

President Paul Damon 1244 Holy Cross Drive Monroeville Pennsylvania 15146

Vice President Kevin R Downey 39 Highlawn Drive Pittsfield Massachusetts 01201

Secretary-Treasurers Jack H Speece711 East Atlantic Avenue Altoona Pennsylvania 16602

McFAlLS CAVE NEW YORK

Kevin R Downey

McFails Cave is located near Carlisle Center Schoharie County New York and 1S the largest surveyed system 1n northeastern United States although other caves such ~s Skull Cave in Albany County may eventually prove to be larger The cavern 1S presently owned by the National Speleological Society Access can be made through the McFails Cave Committee and must be applied for in advance by writing

Local residents have long been aware of a major subsurface drainage system1n the area In 1765 Browns Mill and BeCkers Mill were both built situated on streams which rose- at large springs1 BeCkers Spring was from its descripshytion most likely what is now known as Doc Shauls Spring a large rise some 80 feet in diameter2 which is the resurgence for several cave streams includ~ng the McFails System J (This should not be confused with the present Beekers Spring in Schoharie at Lasalle Park) The residents of this period appear to have made some enlightened guesses as to the course of these streams and as to which streams led to which springs long before any modern dye-tracing technique was known Materials such as black walnuts sawdust and corn dropped into disshyappearing streams were used to demonstrate which springs were their destination An 1898 account of these activities gives an intriguing description of investi shy4gations done thena

In the lower part of Carlisle township a stream large enough to run several mills bursts from the rocks After a rapid course of two miles it disappears through the surface opening of one of these caves The first settlers who came into the region thought this stream fed some underground lake and did not appear again An immense springoiclear cold water its outlet being a good-sized brook was another wonder these settlers found three miles from the spot where the stream so suddenly dropped into the earth The spring is now in the town of Cobleskill on the old Becker farm Soon after the country in that vicinity was settled a sawmill was built on Sinking Creek and people who lived near the Great Spring began to notice that quantities of sawdust and pieces of wood appeared in the spring This led to the reasonable theory that the spring was formed by the lost water of the creek or had some connection with it All doubt as to the correctness of this theory was removed one day in a reshymarkable manner A woman had hung out her wash in a yard not far from the spot where the creek entered the ground The day was windy and two or three garments were blown from the clothesline into the stream Before they could be reached they were swept out of sightinto the caverns entrance A few days afterwards these same garshyments were found in BeCkers spring Through similar occurrences it was discovered that other streams in the neighborhood whose waters disappeared in the same way reappeared in other localities one having an under~round course of seven miles Another s~re~ which rises in Howe s Cave drops out of sight into an open1ng 1n the floor Half a mile from the cave the waters of this stream come to the light of day and empty into Schoharie Creek a mile further on

Little if any effort Was made to investigate or open up the caves at these locations

During the years that Lester Howe was building up his tourist cave some local people were still actively searching for and exploring caves Although a desire to imitate Howes successful operation certainly served as a stimulUS for many local cavers much of the interest seems to have been born simply of strong curiosity During those years the great discoveries in Mammoth Cave and 1n the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia were widely publicized and certa1nly had some effect on the Schoharie residents

One such resident T N McFail (or A N McFail McPhail or McFlail depending on the source) was involved in these explorations Little is known about McFail (who is occasionally referred to as Professor ) except that he spent his last year at the Carlisle Seminary a large board1ng f~c1l1ty for JOO scholars which only remained open two years 5 In Selleck s Cave the flowstone-covered initials T N M 1844 carved on a wall are thought to be those of McFail 6 Perry notes that ~cFail was a geologist of some note and

JJOURNAL OF SPELEAN HISTORY

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evidently had been investigating several of the caverns of the Carlisle area6 Whatever his background McFail died in a cave which now bears his name

The most common description of MCFails death is detailed in Roscoes hisshytory7

Professor McFail an accomplished gentleman met an untimely death at the entrance of the Cavern after exploring its depths with others in 1853 The professor was on a rope used to draw persons up from the pit and on coming in contact with the outer air he fainted and fell backward striking upon his head which badly fractured the skull and from which he survived only a short time Since that time few if any visits have been made to the cave Logs have been rolled in and a small stream running into it has nearly closed the entrance which will in a few more years shutmiddot from knowledge and except by tradition its existence

Today this pit is 90 feet deep and in two steps with the lower 40 feet sealed with rock fill

A differing version of this fatality was published in 1898 Despite the great discrepancies it seems to be the same event 4

Such is not the case with McFlails Cave (referring to its safety) near Carlisle Center This is rarely visited owing to the peril of its exploration Its discovery and the first attempt to explore it in 1854 were followed by a tragedy Alexander McFlail a venturesome Scotchman its discoverer lost his life by falling from a jutting rock on which he was creeping to get round an obstruction in a chamber he was exploring He was alone in the cavern and a day and a night having passed since he entered it some courageous young men ventured in to look for him His dead body was found lying on the edge of a pool of water at the foot of the high ledge One of the young men was let down with ropes and the body was hoisted from the pool McFlail s Cave is a ser-ies of narrow passages opening into irregularly shaped chambers and coursed by rapid streams and here and there a small lake fathom less pits and steep rugged descents Not a few credulous natives declare that the lake is haunted and those who have ventured into its depths say that the weird responses a shout awakens among its deep aisles and openings might easily be taken for unearthly voices

Local papers also carried several accounts of the tragedy The Albany Argus described MCFails death saying~

In ascending the precipice with ropes he lost his grip and fell several hundred feet and was killed almost instantly bullbullbull He leaves a broken hearted wife to mourn his untimely end

The Schoharie Republican stated simply that Thomas Alfred McFail died instantly while ascending the Ice Mole 9 In the files of the Old Stone Fort is an account dated 1924 by E S Ryderl 10

Account of McPhails death - accompanied by Dr Roscoe in an unshyexplored cave he was let down into the cavern by a rope- with a smaller rope in his hand which later he was to use to signal when he was ready to return After a long wait and no signal given fears were entertained that not all was well with the profess~r Help was summoned and men lowered and at the bottom they found the professor unconscious After much difficulty he was raised to the surface only to find that life was extinct No marks were found on the body to indicate a fall from a ledge of rocks and the inference was that foul air had overcome him and caused his death

Perhaps someday the actual circumstances will become known There has been some confusion also over the actual location of McFails hole where he supposedlydied Roscoe mentions uThe cave in which McFail died is in Carlisle on the Ira Young farm~ and was discovered and entered by Professor John Selleck and bears his nameHI This would make Ira Youngs Cave SelleCks Cave and McFails Cave one and the same To add to the confusion the cave today known as Sellecks

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(which i s s i milar to McFail s) has the carved i ni t ials T N M which are supshyposedly McFails Also nearby is another Young s Cave known too as Runkle Cave named fo~ i~s present owne~s The identification of McFails Cave today is based on descrlptlons by Van VorlS (1931) and Cook (1907) Van Voris places the cave in the midst of a deep wood on what was known as the Ira Young farm (now Les~er~ Woods) where a nUmber of caves and pits are located He goes on to dlstlngulsh the cave from Sltrllek s whLh i s sinilar in its basic description11

lIt appears that SdIne confusion has existed in the past regarding the locatlon of the Selleck Caverns as it has in some instances been referred to as identical with the McFail Hole also in the same genshyeral section of the county After consulting with various families in the Carlisle and Carlisle Center area famili es whose residence dates back many years and supplementing this with looking over existing historical references in County histories and in the State library it now seems to the writer that the McFail Hole and the Selleck Cavern are two separate and distinct units

The Van Voris location agrees roughly with Cooks 1907 location Cook apshyparently received his description from Dr R J Roscoe who reputedly was a memshyber of the original exploring party12 A Gazeteer of Schoharie County in 1812 also places the cave on the Ira Young farm but gives it a different slantlJ

~ear (Carlisle Center) is a cave the entrance to which is on a lot owned by Ira Young whose father John Young discovered it by having a horse fall into an opening in the surface above it The cave has been explored for a distance 0f about three miles A few years since while a party were engaged in making explorashytions in the cave Mr A B McFail while ascending by means of a rope fell and was injUled so that he diad in about five hours since which no further explorations [LaVe takfm place

This would make ~ungs Cave and McFail s Hole the same cave the name changeoccurring only after the death of McFail This also eliminates McFail as the original discoverer or explorer of the system According to Simms in 1845 Youngs Cave and Sellecks Cave were then the t JO principal caves of the area the most extensive of any yet explored and then they have only been but par~ tially soll As McFails Cave today is the largest mapped cavern in the northshyeastern United States perhaps the old three mile figure is not as exaggerated as it might seem But as Roger Johnson an active caver of the 1930s menshytioned in reference to the old cave descriptions Ita cave mile is just about

610 feet

There is only one remaining pr oblem ie which of the several vertical caves in t his woods was the McFail Hole The present McFail Hole has been idenshytified as such based mostly on assumption Possibly the Halls Hole Disa~point~ ment Cave etc would have been the death si te Halls Hole like McFail s has an entering s t ream and is a more easy rout e int o the main cave As time passed the locations became conf used and few if any visited the cave Today no one can be sure

In examining the caves of the Cobleskill Valley after the turn ot the century Professor John Cook i nvesti gated mapped and photographed Howe Caverns which was then closed t o the public He also correctly surmised that a major cavern must be someplace north of Carl isle and Came very close to discoveringthe McFails Cave system Noting t he rock-holes i~2that area Cook describes his attempts to locate the surmised master cave

Every effort was made to penetrate t o t he cavern beloW but these attempts were not crowned with conspicuous success Running water near the base of the Manlius was found in SelleCks Cave a deepfissure trav~rsing both Goeymans and Manlius on the farm of Chester Ottmani 1 mile S W of Carlisle village but the passage through which it flows is blocked off frum the fi s sure by the rubbish which has fallen through and almost closed the entrance Just north of Carlisle Center several small streams fall into rock holes and reach the Manlius limestone One of these shafts was opened with some difficulty and a small shaft was found below it This howshyever Was perfectly dry and no outlet could be discovered It was named Cave Disappointment Another of these shafts is known as McFails Cave It received its name from an unfortunate man who lost his life while exploring it more than half a century ago

5JOURNAL OF SPELEAN HISTORY

We were unable to penetrate into the cavern below but Dr R J Roscoe who was a member of the original exploring party has informed me that this runs Northeast and Southwest through the waterline (Manlius) carrying a stream rurming Southwest

COOks failure to find the master system (digging in either Disappointment or McFails Hole would have accomplished this) should not be judged too harshly as he did accomplishm~ch

In the late 1920s Arthur Van Voris was a particularly active local caver who investigated and later discovered several caves In 1929 he re-openedMcFails Cave which Professor Cook reported as being closed by logs and debrisl 11

It required considerable searching to find any further openingin the floor or side walls of this huge pit-like rock enclosure whose sides were sheer rock walls and whose floor was solid rock However after scrutinous searching it was discovered that one corner of this room seemed to contain a special accumulation of rubbish leaves sticks small stones and gravel and this from our previous experience in other caves generally betokened the presence of a blocked up waterway passage The visitors set to work and after removing some of the stones and larger pieces of wood in the very corner suddenly without warning the corner caved in and rocks gravel and stone disappeared into the depthsbelow with a great thumping and booming as they hit against the sides of the perpendicular passage in their abrupt drop

Van Voris recorded the depth of this pit as 44 feet and the total depth of the entrance pits as~05 feet

Passage into this cave was obstructed but not prevented by large logswhich Van Voris felt were those rolled into the cave after McFail had died there as reported by Roscoe earlier It should be noted that Van Voris group did not enter the main portions of this cave but described the area close to the entrance As Van Voris reminisced in 1977 at the age of 871

Now about McFails bullbullbull I do believe that after the professor fell in and perished somewhat later this put a terrible crimp in anyand all interest in local cave exploring and so from that time to our interest in the days of 1928-29 none of it was done

So then we must have been the first in McFails for a longtime and I can tell you bullbullbull we (none of us) ever even suspected it would ever amount to what your present group has discovered bullbullbull 1 would not have missed those days for anything by the same token today I would not bullbullbull and could not do what we did with our meager equipment bullbullbull not for all the tea in China as they say In fact I shudder to recall some of my experiences

The late 50s saw at least one group enter the cave as described in the 1958 Schoharie Guide They apparently saw only the first few hundred feet of stream passage and noted that there was more cave to be seen Not until the 1960 s did an organized group of cavers enter while working em the Howe Cave Project This project was to foous on the area under Howe Cave Village It was essentially a serious study but this time the Qavers got ~idetraoked as theybegan investigating 1ittle MoFail s Hole in Carlisle Center 1gt

McFails Hole had again beoome plugged with deode ami Wae sealed Even relocating the cave proved difficult but eventually they found a narrow pitwhich looked right in Loessers woods However it Was only 40 teet deep and old desoriptions were of a70 to 100 foot pit Peter Van Note desoended the pitand found the debris plug in the same corner that Oook and Van Voris had eeen y~ars earlier Pr~bing the plug it simply disappeared dropping down a 2 foot P1t leaving an opeo route to the cave beyond and a startled Van Note at the end of his belay rope 1) The cave itself was entered on July 24 1960 and the first of a series of explorations begun The area below the pit was a bell-shaped room where passages lead off on either side running east and west The passages were followed on several trips through a series of deep pools and long wet crawls Approximately 14 of a mile of passage was found surveyed and plotted Side passages were found to run to within a few feet of two other nearby pits--Acks Shack (named for Ernst Ackerly) and Professor Cooks Cave Disappointment Alshythough the cave was quite wet it was relatively lengthy and invited many return

Vol 14 No1 6

trips Eventually about a half mile of passage was found in the upstream areas ofthe cave

However in 1961 a Ypass around the siphon at the downstream end was found by ~~d Stneacasual v1~1tor ~hohad not been in the cave before and was unshyfam111ar w1th 1t ~e caV1ng tr1P that followed was unequalled by any other in the Northeast and 1S a storJ well known to most U S cavers Here the cavers a~ last penetrated the master cave lng predicted by residents and cavers and f1nally entered the heartofthe dra1nage system This description of the breakshythrough by cave-author WJJ~1amHalliday is an excellent account16

Excitedly he led onward for several nunared feet Alas I It seemed nothing more than the typical New York cave wet barren and small

Eventually the t~ encuntered a dismayingly deep pool 60 feet long The low ce111ng d1pped even lower to a bare two inches of air space Nose to ceiling Fred grimly wallowed on--into the main part of McFails Cave

Thousands of feet of high sinuous waterfall-fringed canyon drew the cavers baCk and back through 1961 trip after misery trip The new discoveries led them southwestward just as Professor Cook had been told a half century earlier In time the cave angled sharply to the right along a prominent cross joint Tighter and tighter it squeezed the exploring team middot These ~ere ominous signs famlliar to all northeastern cavers Obviously the cave was going to end atlong last

But this was McFails Cave obstinately different from its fellows Instead of middote)lding it continued expanded amazed The next few thousand feet of cave was surprising enough for its very existence but beyond was a series of large rooms In the best New York trashy

dition huge blocks of limestone hungmeriacingly from their ceilings Vast accumulations of new-shattered rock amply confirmed that the

ceilings were as loose as they looked Softly the explorers trod

middot BeYondmiddot these tiptoe chambers lay still more caVe as low and wet middot as in the entranqe section Surely this would end the cave bullbullbull yet middot still the cave middot went bull Still further inward the cavers hal ted trUlY awestruck at the key junction of the entire cavern Eight thousand feet from the once terminal siphon a spacious tubular middot cro3s-passageengulfed their miserable little waterway In their yellowish carbide beams it looked amazingly like the splendid main corridor of Howe middotCavern not far distant

This great Northwest Passage however led the awed explorers precisely away from Howe Cavern bull Splendidly spacious it extended straight northWest for more than a mile before ending in an impass of breakdownand fill bull In the other direction straight towards Howe Cavern it momentarily took on Kentucky size--as much as 60 feet wide and 25 feet high But that wouldnt do beneath New York The lowering ceiling led to a siphon after less than a half mile

middot --perhapstheoruy time that phrase has seemed suitable in a New York State cave I Five miles of the finest cave this side of the Virginias the exhilarated explorers told their friends bullbullbull II

Professor Cook had predicted and searched for this great cavern based on t he regional drainage The water in this cave eventually exits far to the southwest at the fOrmer Beckers Spring now called Doc Shauls Spring This was the springwhere a resident of long ago found her laundry it having been swept through McFails Cave after it was washed down a sinking stream Here too was the cave where early explorers claimed to have penetrated three miles ~though the cayeappeared virgin this old story suddenly seemed much less incre1ble Schohar1e County gained a major cave which was far larger than any other 1n the northeast McFails Cave was soon a center of active research

The discovery of this cave was not widely reported unlike the caves found by the tri-county grotto 12 years before This time the entrance of the cave (and its location) were kept secret The discoverers feared severa~ effects of publicity ~rst the pristine nature of the cave was quiteexcept10nal bull Vanshydalism destruction of formations spray paint and destruct10n of cave I1fe were

JOURNAL OF SPELEAN HISTORY 7

all too common in the better known caves of the county Secondly landowner reshylations had been strained and damaged as some caves were over-popularized leading to their being posted or blasted closed Also this cave was somewhat technically challenging The dangers were quite real and an improperly experienced or equipshyped group would be tempting disaster Finally the cave seemed ideal as a site for biological research Hevewas the deepest cavern in the northeast a superb opporshytunity to observe biota which had found refuge from the Ice Ages Since many inshytrusions would natur~lN disrupt the delicate biological cycles secrecy was mainshytained

As the cavers began cautiously mapping and studying the cavern it became apparent that the McFails Hole entrance was extremely unstable Despite the forshytuitous opening of the pit earlier it was again collapsing into itself Here rockfalls narrowly missed two separate parties and gave cause for concern Another entrance was needed and the nearby Acks Shack Pit was close to the passages of McFails Cave The pit had been named Shack because it seemed so worthless at the time Yet here cavers excavated a crawlway into McFails Cave Using the more stable new entrance work continued and the former entrance slowly sealed itself and is now again tightly sealed 1b

Seeking a more permanent access arrangement Fred stone and others purchaf3ed about one acre of property including Hanors Cave ACks Shack Featherstonhaughs Flop Disappointment Cave and McFails Hole The property was then donated to the National Speleological Society in 1964 the first cave to be owned by them 16 An access policy was worked out and the property posted against trespass Mapping proceeded in the cave as biological and geological studies were done As of this writing the majority of the mapping has been done but a few areas remain unsurshyveyed

The donation of the property to the Society was accomplished in a way which would almost certainly be impossible today The cavers simply placed the Societys name on the deed and when the property was to be auctioned off for back taxes the NSS Board of Directors was suddenly made aware of their possession They paid off the taxes and have owned the property ever since

The cave saw a moderate amount of traffic over the years and due to its challenging nature trips for both scientific and recreational reasons were uBually comprised of well-equipped and experienced cavers There were however occasional exceptions On March 16 1968 a group of four cavers entered Acks Shack for a short trip without permission and despite the spring thaw Upon attempting to exit the cave they encountered difficulty due to runoff and their meager equipment Only one member of the group ~anaged to climb out and summon help from the nearby farmhouse

Within a few hours three fire departments the State Police Boy Scouts and several local residents were on hand Rescue personnel was not notified until later No one on the scene was aware of proper cave rescue teChniques or the nature of the cave itself Two of the cavers were helped out of the pit but the last pershyson Jerry Alderman was unable to climb out The rescue crew attempted to pull him out using a rope However they only succeeded in wedging him tightly under the waterfall Attempts by firemen to reach Alderman failed along with lowering a local youth down the pit other attempts to move Alderman from the crack were also unsuccessful Perhaps he was already dead

When Aldermans body was finally removed those on the scene noted that the rope had made marks where it had laid across his neck His head was also at an unusual angle There was speculation that he had suffered a broken neck or drowned in the rescue attempt Death was later pronounced due to hypothermia

The other survivors were treated at the local hospital and fined for tresshypassing before they were released Shortly afterwards the locked gate was placed over the pit entrance and a stricter management policy was set up by the local cavers

Eventually the cave mapping was completed and drafted and despite some minor side passages which missed the survey over five miles of passage was realized This included several hundred feet of passage beyond the main passage which was surveyed by Brian Pease and Barry Allan using scuba gear It wasnt until the late 1970s that another concentrated effort was made to expand the system In a series of 20-plus hour trips the 70 foot high Nethaway Dome was climbed and traversed leading Bob Jefferies John Mylroie Kevin Downey John

Vol 14 No1 8

Evans and others to a few hundred feet of wet upper level passage running close to the surface below a farmers field Later radio locations showed the end of these passages a hope~ess 360 feet away and 70 feet below the surface openings although a smoke connect~on was made

Other domes such as Coymans seemed to possess potential However before this dome could be acaleC1 middotfr)m below it was entered from the top by Warren Hall who had forced al9itiking stream entrance known as Halls Hole 114 mile from the NSS property With a new easy access route established the NSS purchased the land surrounding the new entrance and installed a gate Another dome the remote Northshywest dome is next to be scaled

Regional drainage indicates potential connections between McFails and Howe Oaverns and to the northwest towards Selleck Cave The possible discovery of this significant system has had much impact on Northeastern caving In particular-itllas stimulated a massive effort to examine old eaves and search for new ones Perhaps this renewed interest in Schoharie area caving has been a mixed blessingbue a new knowledge has been gained

REFERENCES

1 Horatio Gates Spafford Lld Gazeteer of New York (New York t811)bull

2 Harold Davis Daniel Hartline Peter Hauer Margaret Sease Caves of Schoharie County (Ma 1966) p 43

4 Schoharies Many Caves New York Sun (New York June 27 1898)

5 French p 604

6 Clay Perry Underground Empire Stephen Oaye Press NY 1948

7 William E Roscoe History of Schoharie County (New York 1882) p 317

8 Anohymous Albany Argus July 11 1854

9 Anonymous Schoharie Republican July 5 1854

10 E S Ryder Account of McFails death unpublished 1924

11 Arthur Van Voris The Lesser Caverns of Schoharie County (1931 reprintedSchenectady 1970)

12 J H Cook Limestone Caverns of Eastern New York Albany N Y 1906

1J Hamilton Child The Gazeteer and Business DirectorY of Schoharie County ~(New York 1872) p 94

14 J R Simms History of Schoharie County and Borderwars New York 1845 p 618

15 Norman Olsen ~owe Cave Project Schoharie County New York National Speleological Society News (Jan 1961) p 4-5

16 William R Halliday Depths of the Earth Harper amp Row N Y 1976 pp184-190

17 Duane Featherstonhaugh ~ortheastern New York Cavers Investigate DeepSinkholes National Speleological Society News (Feb 1949) p 5


HORACE CARTER HOVEY -- An Unfinished Story William R Halliday M D

Much has been written about the Reverend Horace Carter Hovey and his unique place in American speleology So much in fact that the need for further research into his life and conshytributions somehow seems to have been forgotten in recent years A recent accidental discovery by Rick Banning discussed below shows how important such research may be

Hovey was born in a log cabin near the pioneer community of Rob Roy in western Indiana in 1833 His father was a young clergyman-educator only recently dispatched to the Indiana wildershyness to establish churches and to found Wabash College The family moved to the brand-new campus two years later and in later life the senior Hovey became Mr Wabash College serving it for nearly half a century in almost every capacity including professor of geology Young Hovey grew up with a wide range of campus-oriented interests At the age of nine he discovered a notable fossil deposit near their home In later years he continued many of these interests writing on topics which ranged from music to engineering to the sturgeon industry At the age of 15 he began caving near Madison Indiana and was enthralled Many years later he wrote that he headed straight for Mammoth Cave but evidently he ran out of money in Louisville- and didnt get there for thirty years

In Louisville however I bought a copy of Rambles in the Mammoth Cave It fired my boyish enthusiasm and it gave shape to much of my after life (Hovey 1909 p 5) By 1854 he had already 2Xplored a score or more of smaller caverns (Hovey 1882 p 125) Then he joined a scientific party to explore the great Wyandot Cavern (ibid) which evidently sprang from the publicity surrounding the discovery of the New Cave He helped map the cave and discussed it in at least two formal papers which are not known today Quite possibly they remain undisturbed in Hoveys private papers even today

Further it is well documented that both the Indianapolis Journal and New York Tribune printed his accounts of the expedition Neither reference has been located by todays speleologists

Until fairly recently the years from 1854 to 1878 seemed an unexplained void in Hoveys life A few years ago I located an extensive Hovey family correspondence in the Wabash College Library They show routine acceptance of what we of today would view as incredible struggles against grinding poverty Shortly after _graduation Hovey met a delightful girl and soon was faced with supporting a growing family on much less than $1000 per year A son Edmund Otis Hovey (named for his paternal grandfather) eventually became geological curator and Director of the American Museum of Natural History and a noted speleologist in his own right

During these years supporting his family left little opportunity for other activities Yet occasional letters reveal a continuing interest in geologizing even during the darkest days

With increasing maturity Hovey forged ahead in his chosen profession moving to inshycreasingly better pulpits His road was not uniformly smooth Some of the family letters refer to his having supported another minister who was on the losing side of a bitter church trial Evidently quite a bit was published in ecclesiastic journals at the time and Hovey bore the brunt of part of the dispute Details are infuriatingly scant in the correspondence as if the family had read all about the situation

During the Civil War Hovey served two tours of duty as a chaplain first on the battlefields of The Wilderness North Anna and Cold Harbor and later in Washington and Richmond Immeshydiately after the capture of Richmond he supervised the feeding of its conquered populace Virshytually all his Civil War correspondence is missing from the Wabash College Library My guess is that some member of his family w i thheld these important letters quite possibly planning their pubshylication Their current whereabouts is anybodys guess

In 1866 the Hoveys moved to New Albany Indiana for three years Here like George F Jackson fifty years later he was barely thirty miles from Wyandotte Cave In July he wrote his father about Stelles book on that cave in which Stelle had attributed to a Judge Hovey the

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Reverend Hoveys now-lost 1854 articles Within a year the Rothrocks of Wyandotte were urguig him to make a book about it Evidently he was writing numerous geological articles at this time -- some in return for free subscriptions to local newspapers Not one of these articles is known today

Hovey moved on 10 Peor~ Illinois and Kansas City Missouri He traveled as far afield as Manitou Springs C~lorado and visited a few more caves More and more in this period of his life he developed a notable taIent for lecturing on caves and other geological subjects Probably his writings continued apace also None are known to speleology and the only accounts of his lectures are found in the Wabash College Library

In 1876 Hovey moved on 1o New Haven Connecticut where the remainder of his life was moulded by the intellectual stimulation associated with Yale University This was a time of exciting American and European speleological studies and Hoveys near-latent enthusiasm lUld talent r esponded In mid-1878 he pursuaded Scribners Monthly to subsidize a trip to Mammoth and Wyandotte Caves and he was launched into his role as the foremost popularizer and catalyst of American caving descriptive speleology and scientific investigation For many years he wrote profusely in well-known magazines on caves ahd many other subjects Probably he continued to sell lesser pieces to obscure periodicals as well a few of these have come to p ublic attention and I suspect that these represent a small part of his total output of this sort

As a whole Hoveys writings brought his family a living considerablj better th~ the gentee l poverty of most ministers of his day Beginning in 1890 he devoted much of three years to nonpastoral matters traveling lecturing and writing Unfortunately the Wabash College correepon9ence file lacks information on these years and a number of particular puzzles continue to exist

Hovey traveled to France and Russia with an International Geological Congress in 1897 and viaited and went caving with E A Martel and other French speleologists As it chanced on that particular venture was the discovery of the spectacular Aven Armand -- via a fairly long ladder descent Hovey was 64 and the French accounts middotof the first descents fail to mention him Yet his Scientific American account leaves no doubt that he made the descent (Hovey 1898) French chauvinism editorial license by the Scientific American or a false claim by Hovey Research is needed

Also needed is clarification of why Hoveys travel to the American Southwest occurred a few weeks after the excursion to the Grand Canyon of the participants of another International Geological Congress rather than with the other registrants

One of the great tragedies of Hoveys life was the burning of the second edition of Celebrated American Caverns in a fire at the publishers Generally it has been assumed that this was a thorough revision of his classic book including the increasingly sophisticated speleogenetic reatooning expressed in articles which he published in the interim

Recently however Rick Banning was browsing in the new library of the U S Geological Survey in Reston Virginia In a copy of the 1896 edition he noted an inscription in Hoveys hartd

Library of the United States Geological Survey - with the compliments of the Author Horace Carter Hovey Newburyport Mass March 6 1905 Mem The entire edition of this work (except ten copies) was destroyed by fire - with the plates H CH

This implies that the 1896 printing -- which merely contains some minor additions about Mammoth Cav e previously printed elsewhere -- is the so-called second edition and that no drastically r evised edition was ever planned Or could there have been two fires destroyshying two editions Or could Hovey merely have become confused at the age of 72 I had never considered the 1896 printing particularly rare having owned and traded away two copies of it myself Research on this point might be particularly difficult but perhaps it would not be difficult to run a count of readily accessible copies to see if more than ten are immediately identifiable


With the death of Edmund Otis Hovey the male line of these Hoveys became extinct At least two daughters of Horace Carter Hovey lived to marriageable age the names of their spouses and dedcendants are not known nor is it known whether they preserved Hoveys files It seems more likely that they would have been preserved by Edmund Otis Hovey who probably died withshyout children and may have left them with his own files at the American Museum of Natural History Some years ago I inquired there and was told that they have many crates of such material and no time nor staff to iuvestigate ~m Perhaps now is the time for a follow-up of all channels to ascertain what of Hovey1s irrepfaceable files may still exist in the attics of his descendants or the back rooms of the museum in New York With so much to be learned and so many channels for further inquiry I look forward to many successes by members of this organization in the years to come

REFERENCES

Hovey Horace Carter 1882 Celebrated American Caverns Cincinnati Robert Clarke 8 Co bull 228 ppI I

ibid 1896 Same plus pages 122a-122e Also reprinted 1970 with new introductlon by William R Halliday pp v-xxxviii New York Johnson Reprint Company

ibid 1898 The Aven Armand Lozere France Sci Amer Vol 78 p 228 middot

ibid 1909 Hoveys Handbook of the Mammoth Cave of Kentucky Louisville J P Morton 8 Co 64 pp

ADDENDUM

This paper was presented at the meeting of the American Spelean History Association in Pittsfield Massachusetts on August 9 1979 At the close of the discussion Samuel Otis Raymond N S S Member 9789 and a member of the Boston Grotto informed me that he is a great-grandson of Horace Carter Hovey Clara Hovey (daughter of Horace Carter and Helen Blatchley Hovey) married a Reverend Raymond Their son waS Horace Carter Raymond This grandson of Horace Carter Hovey married Miss Grace Lillian Latin and begat four greatshygrandchildren of our subject Sam Raymond Jean Hovey Raymond George Blatchley Raymond and Richard Latin Raymond Their addresses

Samuel Otis Raymond Box 444 Northmiddot Falmouth MA 02556 (617) 540-1396

George Blatchley Raymond Country Club Road Middletown CT

The family pronunciation of Hovey is HUV-vy

are as follows

Jean Hovey Raymond 203 Hudson Street Berlin CT

Richard Latin Raymond Boscobel Boulderwood Halifax County Nova Scotia Canada

Vol 14 No1 12

BULLERS OF BUCHAN SCOTLAND

Jack H Speece

~he s~a Caves of Scotland ~e ver uni~ue and picturesque They have served a s cur10sit1es to man for centur1es F1ngle s Cave is perhaps the most celebrated of all of these but the Bullers of Buchan is also a spectacular natural feature bull

Oldham in his ~ Caves Qf Scotland describes the Bullers as being situated two m1les north of Cruden Bay a tremendous pothole JOO feet long by 100 feet wide and 100 feet deep Probably a cave with a collapsed roof In rough weather the waves rush in with immense Violence through a 40-foot-high natural archway at the bottom though in calm weather it may be approached by boat

In the May 1755 edition of The Gentlemans magazine and Historical Chronicle VOlwne 24 printed in London is an illustration entitled -UX-Sea Prospect of the Rock and Cave called the Bullers of Buchan The author (ST) describes this f eature in an articl~ Description of an Astonishing Natural Curiosity on pages198199

The harbour is formed by a rock of an irregular oval form which projects into the sea from the middle of a bay to the distance of about one hundred yards the middle of this rock is hollow down to the surface of the sea and open at thetoPJ that extremity of it which is near the sea is also open but not to the top this opening which is the entrance to the harbour has the appearance of a ruined arch or vault which time na~ reduced to an irregular figure The height of this arch from low water mark is about 50 yards the harbour wi thin from the entrance to the main land measures about 90 yards and from side to side about 70 The crust or walk that surshyrounds it is about 10 yards thick the two faces are irregularprecipices of naked stone and between them there is a bed of earth covered with verdure that in some places is not more than three feet wide and in scarce any more than ten This edge is flat and upon the same level with the main land and I was told that one of the Bloods of that neighbourhood thoughtfit- to ride round it full speed to shew his courage and dextershyitr

A second illustration showing the land prospect of the natural harbour also accompanies the article The place receives its name from the bullingM of the tide against the rocks which normally is done with great violence Th~ French word IfBouloir means boiling pot

Oldham also cites an older reference to this outB~anding natural feature J Boswell 17JJ The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides with Samuel Johnson The report was reprinted in Volume 14 of The British ~ ~age 8J


bullbullbull THE JoURNAL oF SPELEAN HISToRY bullbullbull

Volume 14 No middot 1

THE ASSoCIATIoN _

T~e ~er~can SpeleanHistory AssoshyClat1on ~s charte~ed as a non-profit corporat10n for the Study disseminashyt~on and interpretaiioh of speleanh1story and related purposes All persons of high ethical and moral character who are interested in those goals are cordially invited to become members Annual membership is $500 family membership is $600 and library subscriptions are $400

THE CoVER

Lost Hiver is a part of the New Hampshire Forests which has been protected by a group of people dedicated to this purpose since 1901 This glacial gorge contains about a dozen speleological features including a sinking stream small ~averns potholes and waterfalls The caves are mostly voids among the jumble of large boulders and cracks in the wall of the granite gorge a result of a glacier some 25000 years ago It is described by Clay Perry in his first book UNDERGROUND NEW ENGLAND printed in 1939 The area has been commercialized since 1926 It has been a sought-after spectacle of nature since its disshycovery in 1852 Numerous post cards and folders have been produced on these geological wonders over the years The advert~semept on the cover was printed 1n green on th1n 3-i x 5i white paper and was u~ed as an inexpensive flyer Mater1als of this nature are of great interest to the cave collector

JoURNAL STAFF Editor Jack H Speece

711 East Atlantic Avenue Altoona Pennsylvania 16602

Assistant Audrey N Speece

January-March 1980

middotTHE JoURNAL

The Association publishes the Journal of Spelean History middoton a quarterly basis Pertinent articles or reprints are welcomed Manuscripts should be typed and double-spaced Submission of rough drafts for preliminary edit shying is encouraged Illustrations require specialhandiing and arrange- ~ ments should be made with the editor in advance bull Photos and illustrations will be returned upon request

BACK ISSUES Some back issues of all volumes of the Journal are available from Jack H Speece 711 East Atlantic Avenue Altoona Pennsylvania 16602 Outshyof-print issues are in the processof being republished and will be available soon All issues of I Volumes 1-72 are available on Microfiche from Kraus ReprintCompany Route 100 Millwood New York 10546

official Quarterly Publication of the AMERICAN SPELEAN HISToRY ASSoCIATION

Officers

President Paul Damon 1244 Holy Cross Drive Monroeville Pennsylvania 15146

Vice President Kevin R Downey 39 Highlawn Drive Pittsfield Massachusetts 01201

Secretary-Treasurers Jack H Speece711 East Atlantic Avenue Altoona Pennsylvania 16602


Kevin R Downey








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Jack H Speece









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Vol 14 No1 12


Jack H Speece









Jack H Speece








Documents

SpeJean History190.1. This glacial gorge contains about a dozen speleological features including a sinking stream, small ~averns, potholes and waterfalls. The caves are mostly voids