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All we know about the Lexington Grotto is that it was formed in 1946 after John S. Petrie had read a newspaper account of four boys becoming lost in Spring Hill Cave near Lexington, VA. Soon after, he made contact with the students, John Funkhouser end Larry Englert of VMI, and they and seven others visited Clover Hollow Cave with Petrie. Pete assisted the two boys in becoming NSS members; they in turn organized a grotto which included students from VMI and Washington & Lee, as well as Lexington townspeople. Dr. M.H. Stow of W&L, and Col. Carroll of VMI served as advisors to the new group.
By 1949--50 the grotto consisted mostly of students from VMI and W&L. With little transportation facilities, the group was limited to mapping end photographing caves within the vicinity of Lexington. Meetings were held once each month with emphasis on cave safety and the collection of biological specimens. Several field trips were made to collect salamanders and spiders from local caves, and at the 1950 NSS convention at Natural bridge, the grotto displayed the collection of salamanders. The collection was then turned over to Charles Mohr and James Fowler for photographic purposes as well as to advance the scientific knowledge about the critters.
The years of 1951-53 were also active years for the grotto. A trip log shows that trips went to New River Cave, Botetourt and other surrounding counties, as well as the vicinity of Franklin, WV. Collections of cave life, both flora and fauna, continued; meetings were held twice a month.
In the spring of 1954, the Lexington Grotto was deactivated.-NSS I/O Committee Files.
In December 1959, however, W.N. Denton wrote to the NSS for information concerning the formation of a Lexington Grotto. He noted that he had already formed a caving club at W&L with ten active members and with two faculty advisors, Dr. Spencer of W&L and Col. Carroll of VMI. Because of a hassle over the proposed constitution of the new group, it is not clear whether the grotto was indeed reactivated. If it was, it apparently did not remain intact very long. In 1973, the VMI grotto was chartered; it was deactivated in the fall of 1978.
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1947
Elkins |
Bob Lutzwith other Elkins Grotto cavers at Raines' homestead, around 1946. Photo contributed by B. Lutz. |
Known prior to its association with the National Speleological Society as the Association of Cave Explorers, the Elkins Grotto was chartered by the NSS in 1947. Two of the first members were Andy Clark and Robert L. Lutz; later Richard C. Bishop was also a member. The group was one of the most active grottos to have existed in the West Virginia cave country. Members kept copious notes on all caves explored, and had discovered many more caves in the state than Bill Davies listed in his West Virginia Geological Survey publication, CAVERNS OF WEST VIRGINIA.
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The grotto sponsored several NSS field trips to caves, one being an assault on Simmons-Mingo Gave.
During 1951 the grotto was listed as inactive due to their failure to turn in an annual report. This apparently caused a lot of hard feelings as the grotto members did not know they were required to perform this act; at the time reports were due every six months! Subsequent correspondence between Dick Bishop and Robert Flack, then chairman of the Grottos Committee resolved the matter. Then in 1953 Betty Sabatinos, member of the Committee for the Mid-Atlantic area tried to contact Robert Lutz and Dick Bishop concerning the failure to submit the past four semiannual reports. There was no reply, and in December 1953, Betty recommended that the Elkins Grotto be deactivated at the next board meeting.
Dick Bishop of the Elkins Grotto reports of a trip to Trout Cave south of Franklin, WV. After spending about five hours in the cave, they succeeded in coming out the other side of the mountain a feat few people have done. The back part of the cave, Dick reports, is in a very dangerous condition, and he recommends that no one try to go through to the other side of the mountain .--THE NEWS, August 1955.
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The esteemed Dick Bishop, early West Virginia caver and member of Elkins Grotto, 1968. Photographer unknown. |
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