I Thought I Had Seen Everything....

[Larry E. Matthews]

Bob Biddix, Rebecca James, and I went to Mystic Caverns in Hamilton County, Tennessee on March 3, 2007.

We knew from Gerald Moni that part of the cave had been quarried away since it had been described as Chickamauga Cave by Barr in 1961.

When we got to the quarry, there were three red-neck teenagers hanging out there. Bob and Rebecca went in the small crawlway entrance that we located, to see if it went anywhere, and I continued looking for a larger entrance. When I got back to the small entrance, they had come back and gotten their gear and gone on into the cave, so I decided to just sit and wait for them.

The three red-neck teenagers eventually worked there way over to where I was and proceeded into the cave with flashlights and no helmets. They returned shortly. The creepist looking of the three proceeded to pull bats out of his jacket pocket that he had "collected" while he was in the cave. Next, he takes a string, ties it to two sticks, then pokes the sticks into the ground, creating a tightline between the two sticks. I could not for the life of me figure out what this idiot was doing.

Finally, he picks up the bats, one by one, and hangs them from the line like laundry. Wierdest thing I ever saw. He carefully pried their feet open, so that he could hang them by their feet.

I felt pretty confident the bats were dead, but finally, they woke up, and eventually they flew off, one by one.

Bob and Rebecca returned out of the cave and I told them the story as we walked back to our car.

Larry E. Matthews
NSS #6792-F

[Stridergdm]

Hmm, aren't there some laws against that sort of thing?

Of course who knows, next time they might just kill the bats. :-(

[Scott McCrea]

[Scott McCrea]

[GypsumWolf]

That cave is a complete mess from the entrance to quite a distance in with graffiti, trash and possibly a little meth lab.

[mabercrombie]

I was wondering were I left my red rider!

[Dane]

That is a sad and shocking story, Larry.
A group of us went in to Old Chickamauga cave about a month ago.
It was known that there was normally a large bat population in the back of the cave, and we wanted to determine if a meth lab bust last spring had any detrimental effects on their roosting.
Unfortunately, that did turn out to be the case. One room with a large guano pile as a result of the normally hibernating bats is now empty.
Hopefully they found other lodgings, but it was disheartening to all of us.
And while it is easy to sit here and say that you should leave such matters to the authorities (as has been suggested in other similar cases), it is clear that it would be very difficult to do when actually confronted with such disregard.

[Evan G]

Wow!!!
That is a heck of a story, Larry! I hope never to see something like that!

[wendy]

That cave is a complete mess from the entrance to quite a distance in with graffiti, trash and possibly a little meth lab.

If you do suspect that a meth lab is in the cave you shoudl not go in there. There is a reason that we call hazmat teams to clean that stuff up. Please be very very careful. It can be very dangerous to breathe or come into contact with the bi-products of a meth lab.

[Larry E. Matthews]

I'm quite sure it is illegal here in Tennessee to disturb the bats like that, but trying to contact the TN Wildlife Resources Agency and prosecute people like that is difficult, at best.

I'm sure they are probably neighborhood residents and probably hang out there on a regular basis.

I think those photos that were posted of the cave show how totally they have trashed this poor cave.

These people were creepy. Made me wish I had some "protection" on me, if you know what I mean.

Larry

[graveleye]

and some people wonder why some of us caves arm ourselves.

Did you not even confront these rednecks about what they were doing to the bats and how it's illegal to disturb them? That whole scene makes me ill.

[Evan G]

These people were creepy. Made me wish I had some "protection" on me, if you know what I mean.

A six pack of "PBR" or a good beer "Natural Light" would be a good form "protection" and infomation bartering tool. The problem with "Reds" is that they are usual also armed and sometimes more willing to use it.

[Larry E. Matthews]

I did ask the guy with the bats why he would want to kill them.

His reply was that he hadn't killed them. Of course, disturbing them in hibernation will use up their fat supply, so they may very well die, anyway. But, I think that explanation would have been beyond his grasp.

One of his friends even mentioned to him that he thought "Bats have rabies", so I used that approach and said that "a few bats" do have rabies and therefore, he should not be handling them with his bare hands.

You hate to take the rabies scenario too far. I just becomes a good excuse to "kill them all'.

Larry

[graveleye]

i find this all very distressing.

[John Chenger]

Anyone caving or otherwise out in the woods alot will enounter this kind of thing in one form or another. All you need is the liscense plate of the car. Once I even took photos of some guys proudly showing me the stalactites they pulled from a cave.

If you carry around a cave rescue call out list in your car, maybe consider adding the local wildlife law enforcement agency's # to it....the dispatcher #, not the number people call to buy a hunting liscense, etc.

When you report this kind of thing from your cell phone and mention that the activity is "in progress" to the dispatcher, you may be suprised how quickly a wildlife agent will descend on your location.

This is exactly the kind of crap that gives organized caves a very very bad name....once in awhile you may be in a position to change that image to land managers and law enforcement.

BTW--- meth people are usually extremely suspicious and may be violent (and armed) if they think you know what they are up to.

Good luck,
JC