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Sinnet
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Thorn
"Hall of the Mounain king", Sinnet Cave, WV Photo by P.C. Lucas |
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The July 1956 NSSfeatures an article by Burton Faustdescribing the salt petre works of Sinnet Cave, WV. On their first trip to the cave, the party was led by a local resident who had told Burton of a cave in which there was a room half a mile in length. Picking their way along a well defined path in a head-high, tunnel-like passage, the group stopped at a large table-like rock. The guide explained that this was known as "Rail Rock." Behind the adjacent wall, at the base of a high cleft. was the point to which the petre dirt landed when the miners dumped their loads from the big room high above. It was then bagged here and carried to the surface.
After crawling, climbing and canyon-straddling, they arrived at the bottom of a steep sloping climb. After boosting each other up, and up, and up the "silo", one man anchored a safety line so that the equipment could be hauled up. Moving over several breakdown, they found in a room with the ceiling so distant as to give an illusion that they were at the top of a mountain covered by a dark, cloudy sky. In exploring the room, they found that a more or less straight path stretched along the long axis of the room. To the left was a huge bank of earth 40 feet wide, over 100 feet long and of undetermined depth. Opposite this, to the right of the long axis were two large pits which had served the petre miners as hoppers through which they had dumped the mined cave earth to "Rail Rock." In order to get a better perspective of the size of the room the group left burning candles along the long path. It was an awesome sight to see the flickering candles stretching into the distance; the room was named "The Hall of the Mountain King". Measuring the room it was found to be 870 feet long, 80 to 100 feet wide, and an estimated 80 feet high.
Sinnet Cave, Pendleton County, is quite a place. It has attractions for almost all classes of cavers. The cave has a long history, local legend even extending knowledge of its passages to the Indians. It is a saltpetre cave, and was extensively mined during the Civil War. Mattock marks are still visible in some of the damper sections of the wall, although much of the cave is dry and dusty.
Much exploration has been carried on in the cave; behind the waterfall, under the breakdown in the back of the Big Room and, recently in the "alcove" of the Hall of the Mountain King.
In the north wall of the Hall is an opening with an easy climb from the floor. The opening leads to the "alcove", a hallway with a hole in its side, running parallel to the Hall, and 15-20 feet from it. Several years ago air flow was noticed in this alcove, and traced to a half-inch by five inch crack, at floor level, at the west end of this passageway.
Members of the Yale Speleological Society started to dig out this crack, but stopped before much progress was made. They left a sign saying "keep digging".
in the fall of 1958 a group from the Richmond Grotto was appraised of the situation, and in November, descended on the hole with shovels and mattocks. A hole in the clay floor three by five by five feet deep was dug, and a horizontal shaft perpendicular to the wall extended for five feet. After removing many cubic feet of clay, dust and good-sized rocks, hammering the end off a piece of breakdown, and cleaning out a four by four by one and a half foot room, a crack was enlarged from six to nine inches wide. The Sinnett Annex was opened.
Virgin cave! Or, at least it seemed to be, as the Dugway was obviously untraversed. In the room, however, footprints were found. There were five, about the size of a #11 boot, and obviously very old. They were quite shallow and partially dusted in. They were unnoticed and unfortunately obliterated by the second party into the Annex.--
Upon completion of the map, a section in Thorn Mountainwas determined to be not more than fifteen feet from Sinnett. On February 25, 1962, a group led by Karl Geil entered Sinnett, and proceeded to the end of the Annex. Another group led by Bill Nelson went to a designated point in Thorn Mountain Cave. First, vocal contact was made, and later physical contact was made by Geil and Nelson. The breakthrough was not attempted due to extreme danger from collapsing breakdown.
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