how to own a cave?

[bill fish]

Hi all


This is inspired by the buying White River Cave thats came up recently....

So...the question is something like this....and of course alot of this is probably state and country specific....though I'd have special interest in Georgia, USA since thats where White River Cave is...no...i personaly am not interested in white river cave specifically....but the caver that started that thread probably is....

Ok,,,,when do you own a cave and what does it take to own one?

For starters...."owning" a cave can be broken down into AT LEAST 2 distinct things....you actually OWN it in some legal sense....and/or you can CONTROL who does/doesnt go in it...

Well, the most obvious and optimum answer is you own ALL the land the cave is under, all the mineral rights as well....and the state/government has no say over its use...or at least hasnt prevented you from "using it" in some reasonable fashion..ie the extremely rare looks like the fat elvis cave beetle hasnt been found and the cave declared off limits...

Other than this most optimum (and expensive) scenario....I was wondering what others exist legally/economically or at least could exist and the pros and cons of such scenarios....and my guess is that "cave/caving rights" law has to be a fairly obscure/not well defined area of the law...

discussion, scenarios, questions?

Blll