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THEN & NOW: (Left) Unknown caver descending with block and tackle and "Watt's Corset", early 1940's. Photo by S.A. Loyd. (Right') R.E. Whittemore descending with more familiar equipment, late 1960's. Photo by G.D. McCutcheon.
VPI cavers take a break while digging the second entrance to Pig Hole, VA, Photo from VPI Grotto files
those halycon Days at
PIG HOLE
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In the mountains near Blacksburg, VA, a cave early explored by VPI cavers, is Pig Hole, now closed to cavers due to land owner problems (1977). Letters from two VPI! Cave Club cavers ca. 1944 tell of the first trip to the cave.
"In 1942, Pig Holewas explored for the first time. The cave was named after a dead pig in the bottom of the entrance drop, which we had to crawl around to explore the going passage. I can still smell the stink! Very little was in the cave but bats and bat guano in conical-shaped stalagmites; many were up to five feet in height. I remember going into Pig Hole on a borrowed winch and rope swing seat and safety line."----Clifford G. Dorn, Letter January 21, 1976.
"We were certainly some of the first to enter Pig Hole, and I remember it well. It was a usual practice to smoke arrows with our lamps on the walls pointing the way back to the entrance. We could usually tell the extent to which a cave had been explored by the number of arrows. Pig Hole was hardly penetrated at all on our first trip. We went down the open shaft by rope sling and, of course, had to leave two members at the top to pull the others back out. I believe the first trip was in the Fall of 1941. I well remember the dead pig on the talus slope just at the bottom of the opening; it was just beginning to decompose and become odorous. -William E. Abriel, Letter January 1, 1976.
After a trip to Smokehole, Drs. Husaman, Jackson, Fischer and Crabb, of VPI!, were told of another cave near Mountain Lake. George Crabb gives the particulars on it: "this one has a 200-foot sheer drop into it and no one has ever been in it and come out. Tradition has it that at least three people have fallen in it (not caving), and that we will find them at the bottom. We are planning. Don't know whether we will try it or not. But we will be careful."--BULLETIN OF THE NSS, Number 6, July 1944.
In August 1944 members of the VPI! Grotto entered Pig Holeusing a new set of telephones for top to bottom communications. It was purely a sightseeing trip, proceeding down the Wildcat Run, across the Hollow and into Bat Hall. The Queen's Bath was also checked, and the tour was finally completed at the beautiful red Mudway with its Crystal Room.- THE GROTTO GRAPEVINE, VPI Grotto, August 18, 1944.
| VPI cavers take a break while digging the second entrance to Pig Hole, VA, Photo from VPI Grotto files |
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