Workers, volunteers clean cave pit in south-central Kentucky
Posted: Aug 12, 2007 5:10 pmSOMERSET, Ky. --Workers rappel into the cool, dark cave, then dig trash from the mud. They put it into large bags and hook the bags to a rope from a winch.
High above them, a worker backs a truck to pull up the load, then others pull the bag into a small front-end loader and take it to truck-size trash bins set up in the field.
So goes the efforts to clean up the cave in south-central Kentucky called a Saltpeter Pit - so named because it once was a source of the gunpowder ingredient.
Workers have found a lot of variety in the trash, from soft-drink cans to a cow skeleton, refrigerators and a 17-foot john boat, along with license plates from as far away as New Jersey.
The cleanup effort developed after a team from Bat Conservation International found the cave in a rural, hilly part of eastern Pulaski County in while searching for old saltpeter caves, said Jim Kennedy, a resource specialist with the organization.
<a href="http://www.kentucky.com/471/story/148084.html">Full Story</a>
High above them, a worker backs a truck to pull up the load, then others pull the bag into a small front-end loader and take it to truck-size trash bins set up in the field.
So goes the efforts to clean up the cave in south-central Kentucky called a Saltpeter Pit - so named because it once was a source of the gunpowder ingredient.
Workers have found a lot of variety in the trash, from soft-drink cans to a cow skeleton, refrigerators and a 17-foot john boat, along with license plates from as far away as New Jersey.
The cleanup effort developed after a team from Bat Conservation International found the cave in a rural, hilly part of eastern Pulaski County in while searching for old saltpeter caves, said Jim Kennedy, a resource specialist with the organization.
<a href="http://www.kentucky.com/471/story/148084.html">Full Story</a>
