Newberry - Bane's

DISCOVERY . . .

BILL CUDDINGTON:

During the summer of 1952 we started work on Bigwalker Mountain in Bland County. This was to be the golden age of caving in that area; for me anyway. We first found Bane's Cave, then Bane's Spring Cave, and then, Penley's Cave. These are all pretty nice. Then we were told about Newberry Cave, but the farmers didn't really think it would be too big. You know the entrance is a small crack, and we just didn't check it out. We knew about the entrance a month or so before we went into it. Petriewas down one weekend with Maguerite Kleinand some other people from D.C. It was a three-day weekend. We decided to go in to check Newberry's Cave, and just see how far it went. By that time I was getting pretty well used to drops, and really liking them.

We got in down in that passage below the 59-foot entrance drop, and you know how it seeps down in those little cascade plunge pools. I kept telling the party, we're to come to a big, drop. We're going to come to a big drop! Well, as you know, we did come to a big drop. That was as far as we got that day. We came to the 66 foot drop, the Straddle Pit, as it's called now. I remember Eddie Bartonand I chimneyed over the 66 foot drop, and went on down that passage and came to a big huge pit which turned out to be the 175 foot Rappel Well. We dropped rocks down that, and we could actually hear a whistling sound. We were pretty impressed. Anyway, we came on out and didn't do anything more on that cave that weekend because we were exploring Bane's Cave, Penley's Cave, and poking around in some other leads.

So it was early fall of 1952 before we really tried to get to the bottom of the big pit. On this first trip, it was Earl Thierry, myself, and Larry and Betty Sabatinos. 'We took right much ladder, and a fair amount of rope. By this time I had learned how to rappel, and I was beginning to worry some people; they were afraid I would rappel down a drop and never get out. We rigged the Straddle Pit first, and we all went down the first pitch of 66 feet. The pit divides at this level, and there was a drop of about 70 or 80 feet headed back toward the entrance. Larry and Betty went down that. They didn't find much except for some tight crawlways. They came back up, and then you know you have to climb up to get to the other pit, so we all climbed up, and I rappelled down about 25 feet to a nice room, and immediately found the other pit. We got all the ropes to the other side, and Larry and Betty let me go down the big drop. I was real excited, and real enthused about going down. Naturally. This drop turned out to be a fine well of 92 feet, sculptured nicely. Out of the bottom of that there was another drop. We were running out of tackle again, but they figured out a way to lower a ladder part of the way down. I used that. I got on the ladder to go down the next drop, and really didn't use a safety. The next drop out of there is a 60 foot thing, sort of messy to get down, but you do need a ladder or a rope. When I got down, there was a narrow, sinuous muddy passage running, out of the bottom of that. I followed it for about 100 yards and came into the Vault Room. It nearly blew my mind when I walked out into that room, because you know you can see leads going everywhere. It was one of the biggest thrills in caving that I've ever had. I'll never forget that day!

continued

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