By Lambe Lamis 
Might 15, 1971, John Van Swearinger IV introduced us to New Fern Cave. John Wallace, Bill Meier and I ended up psyched to see what all the cavers in the nation were talking about at the time. A substantial cave process experienced been learned in north Alabama. Vertical cavers from all about north The usa had been coming to fall the deepest pit at that time in the japanese United States, Fern Cave.
The Fern Cave Method is found in the west side of Nat Mountain in North Alabama. Fern Cave was found out June 4, 1961 by Jim Johnston, Invoice Torode, Louis Fox, Chris Kroger, and Butch Dill. It consists largely of Shock Pit, 437-foot deep and much more than 200 feet long.
Morgue Cave was discovered June 9, 1968 by Bob Clark, John Cole, Jim Johnston, Don Myrick, Arch Swank and Lynne Swank. It is composed of quite a few pits 100 to 200-foot deep. The Morgue is a hibernating and nursery cave for roughly 50% of the complete Grey Bat species and potentially 75% of the Grey Bat populace in the south United States.
On January 11, 1969, New Fern Cave was discovered by Jim Johnston and is normally referred to as the Johnston Entrance to the Fern Cave Method. New Fern Cave consists of additional than 15 miles of horizontal cave with a few primary stages connected by pits and canyons.
New Fern Cave was linked to the Morgue in January of 1969 and in April of that similar year the reduce degree of New Fern Cave was reached. There was uncovered evidence of pasts take a look at to the cave by torch barriers and large animals, some that are now extinct. Lookups had been created for a lower entrance, but none has been identified. Caving in the Fern Cave Process involves a long hike up Nat Mountain or if you know the roadways, a drive to the prime and a hike down to the entrances. It appeared peculiar to climb the outside the house of the mountain then go within and climb back again down the inside of of the mountain.
Finely on Oct 10, 1971, the reduced stream passages of Fern Cave and New Fern Cave was linked by digging out a stream in the chilly drinking water. This completed the Fern Cave System by connecting the a few key caves and a couple of insignificant ones on the mountain. The map and most of the exploration of the Fern Cave Program had been completed Monthly bill Torode and associates of the Huntsville Grotto.
Our group consisted of horizontal cavers, only having concerned in vertical work when there was no other possibility. We built quite a few excursions in 1971, 1972 and 1973, at a time when the past discoveries were being remaining created and the mapping was concluded. I experimented with some film using in the cave but was not delighted with the results, which can be viewed on my world wide web web page. A single scene does show the Elephant ears soon immediately after staying broken and on the initial journey and I have a photograph of the Elephant ears just before getting broken with John Van Swearingern IV and John Wallace.
On November 20, 1971, we manufactured our second excursion into New Fern Cave, we would park by the river at the foot of the mountain and hike up to the Johnston Entrance. Just inside of the entrance there is a drop of about eight feet the place a wooden ladder was put in.
We ongoing to the southeast to the Upper Formation Rooms crammed with helectites expanding in all instructions. We also frequented the Crimson Lilly Pad Place. The area experienced spherical formations that appeared like Lilly Pads in a pool of h2o and some of them had stalagmites growing up from the centre.
The helectites are fashioned when the wind blows as a result of the cave forcing the h2o droplets to blow off the sides of the formations, leaving mineral deposits. At distinct situations the wind blows in distinctive instructions leading to the odd shapes.
Following exploring quite a few of the formations areas, we ongoing south to the Elephant Ears and the Inexperienced Passage. The Green Passage is a more compact crawl and walking passage that sales opportunities to the Blowing Hole. The Blowing Hole is a brief reduce to the middle amount of the cave. Invoice Torode cleared the dust from all over the gap, placed a bolt in the wall and set up a cable ladder. The hole is about 4 feet all around and an uncomplicated area to belay climbers as they go down the ladder. The previous person down has to be belayed from below with the rope likely up and through the carabineer at the bolt.
At the bottom of the middle stage we ongoing down the canyon of the Gold Passage to the Crystal Place with substantial five inch gypsum crystals that jut out from the wall. The wall is much more than ten ft large and just about as wide with these crystals side by aspect all in excess of the wall. The crystals are pointed with smooth sides producing the most putting development place that I have ever observed. From the Crystal Home we continued to the Balcony Home. You actually can set on the edge of a balcony and glimpse into a enormous round place about eighty ft high and consists of a massive circulation stone referred to as Myrick’s Monument that reaches from the base to the leading of the room.
On July 21, 1973, I returned with Jack Speed and we put in 8 several hours discovering up stream from the Johnston Entrance. We passed the next dome and climbed more than a ledge and into virgin cave. The place experienced lots of soda straws and helectites and no tracks or signals that anybody had been there. We still left the development room and reentered the stream passage at study mark #18, just to the left of a dry stream mattress.
On October 20, 1973, John Wallace, Jack Rate and I returned and went right down to the Green Passage and the Blowing Hole. We continued to the Lunch Space, then climbed down the h2o tumble fall rigging a rope for the return climb. We mentioned the white glacier movement stone and the modest cave pearls. We climbed down into the first Significant Place and just after discovering it exited the cave just after one more eight-hour trip.