Is Caving History Considered Speleology?

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Is Caving History Considered Speleology?

Postby cavemanjonny » Oct 10, 2006 8:00 am

If not, maybe a moderator cave move this post to the correct forum. At any rate, to the meat of my post.

I stumbled on some pretty interesting video clips talking about caving in Grassy Cove in the early days. Anyone ever seen them before? I found them on Hubert Crowell's home page.

<a href="http://www.hucosystems.com/CAPS.html">Hubert Crowell's CAPS website</a>

Videos:
<a href="http://www.hucosystems.com/Discovery%20in%20Grassy%20Cove.asx">Movie clip of March 18th 1972 discovery in Grassy Cove Saltpeter Cave, Cumberland County, Tennessee</a>
<a href="http://www.hucosystems.com/DevilStep%20Hollow%20Cave.asx">Movie clip of DevilStep Hollow Cave, Cumberland County, Tennessee</a>
Last edited by cavemanjonny on Nov 25, 2006 11:31 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Account of the discovery of the Rabbit Hole in Grassy Cove

Postby Hubert Crowell » Nov 10, 2006 9:20 am

If you would like to read my account of the discovery of the Rabbit Hole and what is now refered to as the Nashville Extension in Grassy Cove Saltpeter Cave.

Visit my web site at:
Read Article on Grassy Cove Saltpeter Cave

You have my permission to reprint this article if you like.

Are there any pictures available of the formations in the lowe portions of the cave? I understand that this is a well decorated cave. :waving:
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Postby hewhocaves » Nov 11, 2006 9:51 am

just for the record, speleology is the study of caves - from a science point of view. i.e. the processes, development, etc...

To use an analogy the history of the united states would (obviously) not be called biology.

The category you're looking for (and which the forum does not have) would be something like 'spelean history'. Caving in the News might be an acceptable substitue as would the general discussion forum.

you might want to ask for a move anyway as those forums get a lot more views than the speleology forum :-)

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Postby Teresa » Nov 11, 2006 10:35 am

hewhocaves wrote:just for the record, speleology is the study of caves - from a science point of view. i.e. the processes, development, etc...
The category you're looking for (and which the forum does not have) would be something like 'spelean history'. Caving in the News might be an acceptable substitue as would the general discussion forum.


I have to disagree with hewhocaves. He perhaps has never heard of the 'Social Sciences' --i.e. history, sociology, psychology, political sciences etc., etc. There is a vast difference between the news and history-- to paraphrase Wordsworth: history is the news recollected (and analyzed) in tranquility.

There is (and likely always will be) a dispute between practitioners of classical rhetoric who believe history should be lumped in with the liberal arts such as drawing or music and those who believe it is quantifiable-- sort of in the same way that the story told by historical geology is quite different than doing an XRD rock analysis in a lab, but both are considered geology. The methods of historical research are no less rigorous than doing a review of the literature in one of the hard sciences.

In any event, there likely isn't enough traffic to support a separate forum, much as the Spelean History section is usually one of the smaller ones in the NSS. All disciplines are artificial divisions anyway, as anyone who has ever encountered biogeochemistry can attest.

Thanks for the post.
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Grassy Cove Saltpeter Cave

Postby Larry E. Matthews » Nov 13, 2006 5:03 pm

I would love to get a copy, somehow, of those tapes talking about Grassy Cove Saltpeter Cave and Devilstep Hollow Cave from 1972. Maybe on a CD?

One of these days, I hope to write a history of the exploration of Grassy Cove Saltpeter Cave and this would be wonderful source material.

Right now, I'm working on a book on the history of the nine (9) commercial caves of the greater Chattanooga area. Maybe, when I finish that, I can start on Grassy Cove.

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Grassy Cove Saltpeter Cave

Postby Larry E. Matthews » Nov 13, 2006 5:13 pm

Speaking of Speleology, and all the disciplines of Science that it encompasses:

Probably back in the 1960's, Richard Finch and others found some bones in Grassy Cove Saltpeter Cave. It was interesting to note that one of the bones strangely resembled a penis.

None of us knew a lot of biology at the time, but it turned out that the skeleton was that of an extinct species of bear, Tremarctos floridanus, and that bone was, indeed its penis bone. You learn something new, everyday.

A few other animals have penis bones, too including raccoons, walruses, and polar bears.

Local Coon Hunters use them for toothpicks. They call them coon-dick toothpicks. Who said some of those locals weren't strange????

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Re: Account of the discovery of the Rabbit Hole in Grassy Co

Postby cavemanjonny » Nov 13, 2006 10:54 pm

Hubert Crowell wrote:If you would like to read my account of the discovery of the Rabbit Hole and what is now refered to as the Nashville Extension in Grassy Cove Saltpeter Cave.

Visit my web site at:
Read Article on Grassy Cove Saltpeter Cave

You have my permission to reprint this article if you like.

Are there any pictures available of the formations in the lowe portions of the cave? I understand that this is a well decorated cave. :waving:


Wow, I wasn't expecting the author to respond to this post! I really enjoyed your webpage, it is terribly interesting. I think it's great to put treasures like that up on the internet. Hopefully you've got much more to share!
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New Article on Caving in New Fern Cave Alabama

Postby Hubert Crowell » Nov 14, 2006 10:48 am

I have just posted a new article about my caving experences in New Fern Cave. I do plan to include more articles about caving on my web site for others to enjoy. :grin:
Read new Article about caving in New Fern during the 1970's
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