Part 33

LAND COMPANY'S CAVE.--This is 7 miles northeast of Dunlap. To enter, one must crawl between the rock front and the detritus, descending 10 or 12 feet. The floor is fairly level, where it can be found, but is nearly hidden from sight by rocks of all sizes, over and between which it is necessary to scramble almost from the starting point.

HENSON'S CAVE.--This cave, 9 or 10 miles northeast from Dunlap, and perhaps in Bledsoe County, is somewhere on Raccoon Mountains, near the head of a valley up which a mountain road winds along in the bed of a stream. It is said to have a dry dirt floor, with an entrance through which one must crawl. After driving until the horses were tired out and being assured at several scattered cabins that it was "jest a leetle mite furder up thar," search for it was abandoned.

GRUNDY COUNTY

HUBLIN'S OR BAT CAVE.--Numerous caves and rock-shelters are reported in the region about Beersheba Springs. The shelters seem to be shallow with comparatively little earth on the floor. Of the caves, the description given of all but the one named was such as to show them not worth visiting. It is about 10 miles northwest of the springs. Its course is approximately parallel with the mountain ridge, passing under two low foothills or spurs separated by a ravine. When the stream flowing through the latter had cut its channel down to the top of the cave it poured into the hole it had worn. Frost and the natural erosion have made an opening more than 60 feet long. Both parts of the cave remain open, being too large at this point to become choked by the small amount of material which the brook had left as a roof. In some places, so far as it was examined, the ceiling is 50 feet or more above the rocks covering the floor; and one end, that into which the ravine drains, has a continuous and rather steep descent, along the natural dip, as far as it could be followed. Where the exploration ended logs, drift, brush, etc., piled 10 or 12 feet high against huge rocks that had tumbled down, proved a current strong enough to wash away any deposits that may ever have existed; consequently the only earth in this end was that brought by floods.

The other end of the cave is large, with an entrance of such size that small print could easily be read 100 feet from the front if the broad fence across it were removed. This fence was made to close the cave against changes of temperature and also against marauders, it having been used until lately as a storage room for fruit, potatoes, etc.

During the Civil War it was worked for saltpeter. All the earth, down to the rock floor, was removed, even in crevices only wide enough for a man to squeeze through. An incline was built so that horses could be brought into the cave, and no earth now remains within reach of daylight. The rock floor is almost as clean as if swept.

Their exhaustive digging extended for about 200 yards from the entrance. The "face" of the earth is here about 15 feet high; for some reason, which could not be learned, the miners continued their work from here by means of a tunnel 4 or 5 feet high and wide, leaving a floor of earth, and a covering of the same nearly 6 feet thick. This tunnel was not followed.

Near the entrance a crevice barely wide enough for a man to walk in and in some places only 4 feet high turns off toward the left and holds practically the same size for about 100 yards. Here it becomes larger and higher. Earth has been carried out of this and its narrow branches wherever there is room to use a shovel. In a large chamber 200 yards from the front, at the end of the crevice, much digging was done; the "face" left is 13 or 14 feet high.

As far as the diggers went, there is nothing left to explore. Beyond that it is not probable any remains can be found, as it is totally dark long before any remaining earth is reached.

FRANKLIN COUNTY

Several caves were reported in the vicinity of Sewanee and Monteagle. They are objects of curiosity to students and summer residents who frequently visit and make tours through them. They have thus acquired a fame much beyond what is justified by their real interest. They seem to be wet, or with contracted entrances and front chambers, or difficult of access, and, so far as could be judged by the descriptions given, none of them is worth examining.

MARION COUNTY

ACCOUNT'S CAVES.--There are two of these, both with high and large openings, on the right bank of the Tennessee, 2 miles above Shellmound or Nickajack. One is in the face of the bluff, the entrance 50 feet above the river bottom land. Huge rocks lie in front and over nearly all the floor. Surface water flows in at the entrance and after winding its crooked way among the rocks sinks at a point 25 or 30 feet below the top of the debris in front of the entrance. This indicates an open way to the river, so the bottom of the cave is probably down nearly or quite to the water level.

The second cave is 100 yards above the first. A little stream, whose head is in a valley, nearly a mile away, flows around the foot of the bluff and into the mouth of the cave. When the Tennessee rises to flood height the backwater comes into the bed of this stream through the cave before submerging the low ridge between it and the river.

CALDWELL'S CAVE.--This is on the right bank of the Sequatchie River, a mile above its junction with the Tennessee. It is said that formerly a man could walk into it easily for 20 or 30 feet and then crawl 50 or 60 feet farther. This is probably an error of memory. By stooping one can now go in about 10 feet from the edge of the roof, and with a pole feel where the floor and roof come together, nowhere more than 10 or 12 feet beyond. It is said, also, that this accumulation results from throwing in earth to prevent foxes from having a den in the cave. A small hole might thus be closed, but it is too much to believe that the people now living around here would carry in many hundred cubic yards of earth for any such purpose.

Human bones are reported unearthed near the surface; at least bones of some sort were found which the discoverers supposed were human.

The entrance to the cave is more than 25 feet in width, and about 25 feet above the flood plain of the Sequatchie, or only 15 feet above extreme high water. It is in the only exposure of rock for nearly half a mile along the bluff. On either side of the opening the walls are solid, down to the alluvial earth, but in front of the cavity only detritus can be seen from top to bottom. For this reason it is improbable that any solid bottom could be found above the level of the river. Much of the stone weathers out in small fragments, and the process of disintegration is going on continually, as shown by the fresh appearance of the sheltered fragments. How rapid or how regular it may have been in former time is impossible to guess, so that excavation, to be of any value, would have to begin at the bottom of the slope, with the knowledge that the original floor of the cave may be still lower.

NICKAJACK CAVE.--This is the largest and most widely known cave in Tennessee. It is half a mile from and within plain sight of the railway station of Shellmound, 20 miles west of Chattanooga. The entrance is fully 100 feet wide and 40 feet high; a short distance within the cave enlarges, a little farther it contracts somewhat. Daylight penetrates, in spite of curves and immense piles of debris, for more than 500 feet. It has been a resort from time out of mind; first, for Indians and pioneers, then for refugees, now for various social gatherings.

All the earth in sight has been worked for saltpeter, leached, and thrown aside. A vastly greater quantity than now remains has been washed out of the cave by Nickajack Creek, which always has some flowing water and in wet weather rises 5 or 6 feet. Long bridges are required where the highway and railroad cross it.

It takes its name from the Nickajack Indians, who once dwelt here. The field in front is strewn with flint chips and other indications of aboriginal settlement.

There is nothing in the cave to dig for. The saltpeter miners moved all the earth they could reach, while the immense rocks and the creek make any further excavations impossible.

HAMILTON COUNTY

There are many caves in the vicinity of Chattanooga, but all that were visited possess some feature which makes examination appear useless. Most of them have small, inconvenient entrances; others are subject to overflow or have running water in them. None could be heard of in which conditions were better.

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ALABAMA

LAUDERDALE COUNTY

SMITHSONIA.--There is a noted cave at Smithsonia, near Cheatham's Ferry, 15 miles west of Florence. It was reported as suitable for a dwelling, but at the entrance the roof is not more than 4 feet high, and a stream a foot deep reaches to the wall on either side.

KEY'S CAVE.--On the Buck Key farm, 6 miles west of Florence, is a cave which may have afforded shelter to the earliest man in the region. There are two entrances or antechambers, separated by a solid rock partition a few yards thick. One is partially filled with huge solid blocks, some of them several hundred cubic feet in size; the other has in it and in front of it a mass of earth and loose rock whose crest is fully 20 feet above the highest part of the inside floor a few feet back from the front margin of the roof. From here an additional descent of 10 feet leads to the floor behind the first-mentioned entrance, and there is about the same descent to a nearly level floor in the cave a short distance beyond. The way is partially blocked by large rocks which, it is said, have fallen within a few years. For this reason persons in the neighborhood are afraid to venture in. There is a rumor that the corpse of a woman, coated with stalagmite, can be seen in this cave; also several bodies (sex apparently indeterminate) lying like spokes in a wheel, with heads at the center. No one could be persuaded to go in and point out the place where they lie.