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previous--VPI4 pg211
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1943
Richmond |
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"Burton Faust, 1958.
Photo by K. Perry |
G. Alexander Robbie Roberston.
Photo by R. C. Bishop |
The organizational meeting of this group was held November 9, 1943. Charter members included William Foster, Burton Faust, J.S. Petrie, W.J. Stephenson and others many of whom were from the U.S. Patent Office which had been transferred to Richmond from Washington, D.C. as a precaution during World War II.
In the annual report for 1945-46, the group reported having held five executive committee meetings, three general meetings, fifteen field trips and visited 23 caves. The officers included Burton Faust as chairman, Betty V. Loyd as secretary and G. Alexander "Robbie" Robertson as treasurer.
In another annual report submitted by Betty V. Loyd, then chairman, in 1949, the group reported fifteen members. At that time the Grotto handled NSS membership certificates and operated the Cavers Mail Order Supply House for the Society. They also made an official lapel emblem for NSS members.
In 1949-1950 only two meetings were held during each year, and by 1951 membership had increased to 20 persons with five meetings held. In 1952, there were apparently no meetings or trips, and Joe Lawrence (I/O Committee chairman) decided to deactivate them.
Interest in the grotto was revived in 1956, and the group lasted until 1968. Some of the members during this era were Howard Urbach, Forrest Rabenhorst, Frank Tyler, Don McMillen, Gene Rawlings, Marty Haase, Rick Peterson and Mike Hamilton. The group died as members let their NSS membership lapse.
New interest developed in 1973 with C.W. Bennett being the groups spokesman. Today the groups bears the name of the Richmond Area Speleological Society, or RASS as it is commonly called. I/O Committee Files.
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Simon Graham, Charleston Grotto caver, 1954. Contributed by R. L. Lutz 
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1946
Charleston
Information on the Grotto's history comes from a number of sources: notes of Earl Thierry, a taped interview from Bob Handley, NSS NEWS articles, I/O Committee Files, and have been edited, reshuffled and written down by ye olde editoresse for your enjoyment. Some attempt has been made to attach the source to various parts of the following tale, but if it isn't listed, don't complain. Just read, muse; don't fuse. Dream and relive those wonderful days of yesteryear!
Prior to 1946 there were two fellows, Johnny Wingfield and John Suiter, that had done some caving in Grapevine Cave, but caving in an organized fashion didn't get started until March 1946. The grotto originated then, but wasn't chartered by the NSS until March 1947 with eight members. The group was an active one, initiating many mapping projects in southern West Virginia, as well as countless exploratory trips. Active members at that time were George Dyer, Alice Williams, Tommy and Emmons Graham, Laurie and Marzina Bennetts, Burt Ash, and Bob Flack.
One of the first restaurants to have a cave register or cavers' guest book was Oscar's Restaurant in Lewisburg, placed there by the Charleston Grotto in 1947. Oscar was a grand old guy who liked to talk to all the cavers passing through and caving in the area.
Several of the highlighted trips of 1947 included a joint trip with VPI Grotto members to Grapevine Cave. Unfortunately no descent was attempted due to the presence of a freshly dead cow in the entrance shaft. In June, a number of Charleston Grotto cavers joined Bob Lutz of the Elkins Grotto and other NSS cavers to further exploration of "one of West Virginia's deepest and toughest cave's" (NSS NEWSLETTER, June 1947), Simmons' Cave, near Mingo. Prior to the trip it had been surveyed to a depth of 300 feet. On a fall weekend, three carloads of grotto members examined some cave possibilities located by continued
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