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Deepest in the East (or: 'Where's Katy"?')
"On April 24, members Charleston Grotto set a new record by accomplishing the 304, foot descent to the bottom of the deepest, vertical shaft cave in the eastern United States. known as Knott Hole, the cave received its name as the result of an incident which reportedly occurred during the Civil war when, Kate Mott, a red-haired farm girl who was tending cows, was murdered thrown into the deep shaft. The exploring party found no evidence to support this legend.
By toss of a coin, Bob Barnes was chosen from among three of the Grotto's more adventurous members (Barnes, Flack and Handley) who aspired to the honor of making the first descent. The hazardous journey was begun at 12:30 PM with Bob Flack, Bob Handley and Dic Barry handling the ropes, while Polly Baume maintained telephone communications from the surface.
"Barnes was only 200 feet down an hour later, for the descent been hindered by numerous ledges and boulders which jutted from the sides of the shaft and drenching waterfalls through which he had to pass. Standing on a ledge, with all available safety rope having, been used, he reported that the bottom of the shaft was still far below.
"After a hurried telephone conference with the surface party, it was decided to continue the descent by lowering Barnes on a longer rope which he had been using for rappelling. When the change was made, however, the ropes became entangled with the telephone wire and nearly an hour of strenuous work was required before the descent could be continued.
"Barnes reached the bottom without further incident and the roar of the rushing water became audible in the telephone at the surface. A large system of passages was found at the bottom, but complete exploration was left for future trips. Augmented by nine additional members who arrived from another cave, the rope crew pulled a tired, wet and excited explorer from the cave about three hours and fifteen minutes after the descent started. "A second trip was made to the entrance to introduce dye in an unsuccessful attempt to locate the resurgence of the stream."
For some years this shaft cavern in Monroe County, WV has aroused considerable interest among the NSS members and other cavers. It was first entered by the Charleston Grotto in 1949 when Bob Barneswas lowered down to the bottom and reported that there was considerable passage at the bottom of the 304 feet of vertical cave. That report of 304 feet presented the problem; no one had enough cable ladder to get down into a cave that deep.
Wytheville and VPI cavers finally pooled ladders an arrived at a grand total of 350 feet. On September 27, 1952, three of us from the Wytheville Grotto drove up to Sinks Grove, then on out the road toward Alderson and after getting lost several times finally arrived at the cave entrance about12 noon ate lunch and carried the ladder, 800 feet of rope, two telephones and 500 feet of telephone wire to the cave just as three carloads of Charleston cavers joined us.
Instead of a straight shaft going down some 300 feet, we soon found that the descent was a series of drops from ledge to ledge. We had 300 feet of cable ladder strung down the hole, and it just reached the bottom. Much of this was taken up in the sloping ledges and the actual vertical distance from the entrance to the bottom of the cave is about 260 feet. Roy Charlton was the first down and I followed with the telephone. We explored the bottom to see if it would require a larger party. The two of us covered all the 500 feet of passage on the bottom in about an hour. We reported back. to the surface by telephone about 5:00 PM and were told that some of the rest of the party wanted to come down even if all the leads had been explored. Roy went on back out, and Bill Cuddington, Bob Barnes, Bob Handley, Tom McDaniel, Bob Sayre and Don Engel made the trip down. As our 300 feet of, rope was not in a single piece, the splices would get hung when they safetied from the top. Thus, they lowered each other from ledge to ledge (except for the last man who used the surface safety). They safetied me up to the Big Ledge where Don and I stayed while the rest worked their way to the bottom. All of us staggered out of the cave about 10:00 PM pulling the rigging out as we came.--
Goerge Titcomb tells of a trip to Friars Hole. He and Lew Bicking were looking for a big trunk channel which would lead to miles and miles of cave, perhaps connecting with other caves known in the area. Finally, they came to a large room with passages going off of it like spokes of a bicycle wheel. They rigged it, and followed the passage at the bottom to a similar pit. They had used up their rope on the first pit, and in desperation to get down this second pit to find more big cave they tore up a shirt making it into a handline. Just as he was about to make his descent, George noticed that a rope was hanging down the opposite wall. Thus, the name Two-Time Pit, for they were about to descend the pit a second time.--
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