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the bird
the best graffiti! (if not food) in Virginia |
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Good caving areas seem to generate special spots for caver gathering and camaraderie. Swago Creek has the Sugar Shack, Germany Valley has the Fieldhouse, and WVACS has the Court. But there is one other such meeting place within the confines of the Virginia Region. Although it is located in a caving area usually held in disdain and laughed at by all except a small band of intrepid speleologists, and although it doesnt have the wind of the Sugar Shack, the stove of the Fieldhouse, or the excellent food of the Court, the Flamingo Grill & Steakhouse holds a warm spot in the heart of every southwestern Virginia caver.
Located on the outskirts of Gate City, VA, the Flamingo Grill, or The Bird, as it is affectionately known by the in crowd, provides a pink neon haven for hungry and thirsty cavers in the Gate City-Rye Cove karst area of southwestern Virginia.
The Bird offers the usual caver delicacies in bountiful quantities and at speleological prices. The beer flows foamy at the Bird. Who can forget, a rib eye steak, the fantastic spaghetti or the Polish sausage and sauerkraut washed down by a creamy, golden Bird beer? After a wet day in Rye Cove, or an exhausting trip into Hairy Hole, the Birds repasts bring saliva to every cavers tongue.
The Birds popularity, notoriety and infamy stem not from the gourmet dishes and golden foam alone however, but also from the inexhaustible collection of spelean graffiti found on the walls and door of the mens room. Yes, fellow spelean-graffiti nuts, the Bird collection is a classic. Found around the corner from the sink, and just adjacent to the trough and the bank of prophylactic dispensers, the throne room ramblings offer every speleo-graffiti freak a welcome diversion from the otherwise distasteful job of using a beer-joint John. The Birds bathroom ballads lead a brief life, and one must be regular to catch the goodies. Tomes on Dirty Old Men of the Virginia Region, bombastic attacks on one Easter Pig, and raging battles concerning the relative merits of sexy teeny-boppers make up the bulk of the Birds toilet texts. But once in a while feature , articles, such as Baroody and God, F. Pig and Baroody, and L. Hixsons Virginity appear to whet the appetite. Some say that a certain balding, Arabian Porsch camel jockey even contributed some karsty cartoons to the collection at one time.
In the early days of the Holsinger-Mauck six-day lightening attacks on the southwestern Virginia karst area, most contributions to the Birds walls were in pencil, but the washability of graphite soon dissuaded most pencil users. Now contributions to the file of Flamingo favorites are in more durable Flair-tip pen and Rapidiograph.
The most interesting phenomenon of the collection is that although the karst area cavers are few (and most of these enjoy the septic-spotlight regularly), nobody knows who contributes the watercloset comics. Much debate and many heated arguments crop up when the subject of authors arises. But argue or not, all karst area cavers look forward to Bird trips. They anxiously anticipate a head- swelling, ego-building, mind-blowing moment of climax when they discover that someone cared enough to mention them in the urinaluberalles, the Trail of the Lonesome Pines answer to the New York Port Authority basement mens room. --Tom Vigour, The REGION RECORD, Autumn 1970.
(Copy of ancient document on Clark Cavernfurnished by Mr. W.G. Clark, McClung, VA
Away back nearly 200 years ago perhaps in the seventeens, an old Indian by the name of Tommy Goens was bear hunting on what is known as Tower Hill Mountain. He shot and crippled a large black bear. The bear in a rage took an eastward course leaving Goens behind. There being snow on the ground the wounded bear could be easily tracked as now and then an occasional blood stains could be seen on the snow. The pursuit was continued for several miles, over hills, through fields, and to the Cow pasture River. The bear travelled and, crossing the river, found refuge in what is now known as Clarks Wonderful Caverns. At this time, it was almost dark and Goens could not see to follow the bear any further.
Several years passed, and one day this man, who had perhaps forgotten about his exciting hunt which took place a great many years previous, decided to go in the cave and look around, and to his surprise, the bones of the bear were still intact.
No more that we know of were these Caverns visited until the war between the states, 1861 to 1865, when they were searched for salt peter. This was dug up and carried out by men in bags on their shoulders. It was put through a process by boiling in large kettles for several hours, and then let stand until cold when the crude stuff could be readily skimmed off the top. This was sent to Richmond, Virginia, where a certain percent went to the manufacture of gunpowder.
At times, some 100 men worked in the cave. They are ridiculed by some folks now as being slackers, but they saw a pretty hard life, sometimes very hungry as food was scarce. Sometimes the soldiers would take their dogs with them to work. At times the dogs would get lost and wander through the Caverns until instinct would give them the idea to retrace their steps and they would track themselves out. At one time one dog failed to come back and a week later came out at what is known as Blowing Cave near Windy Cove Church several miles distant. The dog was almost overcome with fatigue and almost starved to death. He could hardly walk.---BULLETIN OF THE NSS, Number 3, January 1942.
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