by GroundquestMSA » Mar 23, 2015 9:28 am
Not sure about states, but here is what I know about a few "regions."
Until recently, my county didn't have a beer cave, and so the most popular was probably Blacks Run Cave. In fact, I saw a few kids going in there yesterday evening. It is a 394' "slump-block" cave, well trashed and scattered with graffiti.
The most popular caves in southern Ohio (maybe all of Ohio) were the caves of Rocky Fork Gorge, or 7 Caves, until they were bought ten years ago by a preservationist group. They were operated commercially for more than 100 years and many thousands of people enjoyed self-guided tours of the caves, which range from 108 to 807' long. Fifteen years ago, some of my family visited and we took my great-grandmother to 7 Caves. She lived nearby, and had been there many times. She wore herself out and started to feel strange that evening, and two days later she had a stroke and died. She was 80.
I would guess that now the most popular Ohio cave is Ohio Caverns (Reams' Cave). It is Ohio's longest and most impressively decorated, though not really "big" (the passages on the tour routes have all been excavated to allow walking). It too has been operated as a show cave for more than 100 years.
In the days before it was mostly abandoned by cavers, Tazewell Co., VA had some very popular wild caves. The Higgenbotham Caves, Glenwood Church Cave, and Cauliflower Cave, were all very popular with cavers from the '50s to probably the '70s.
Now, most popular cave in Tazewell Co. is Steele's Cave. It is the subject of most of the idiotic cave stories I've heard in that area. It is full, especially nearest the main entrance, of trash and graffiti. I like this cave quite a lot. It is roughly 180' deep and 1500' long, and despite the fact that it has been known forever and overrun by vandals, there are still a few clean (and unsurveyed) sections. I would like to clean it up and survey, but the owner says no. The Keep Out and No Trespassing signs at the entrance haven't slowed destructive local traffic.