Jackson Gap Cave, Dade County, Georgia

JACKSON GAP CAVE, DADE COUNTY, GEORGIA
Marion O. Smith

During the last few years Chattanooga cavers have discovered several significant caves near the
northern end or on the western slope of Lookout Mountain. The 1988 and 1989 finds, Whiteside Well
(322.62 feet deep, 1,643.5 feet long) and Twenty-Seven Spider Cave (190 plus feet deep, 4,000 feet
long), were in Hamilton County, Tennessee, but the main 1990 discovery was on the Hooker Quadrangle
in Dade County, Georgia.

On February 24 Dennis Curry, Rodger Ling, and Buzz Chalmers walked from the top of the
mountain to a sink south.of Skyuka Spring and some 500 to 600 feet above the valley floor. The sink
had been found a few days earlier by Dennis and his wife Jeanie. When they reached the sink, where
they planned to dig, Dennis, remembering a similar situation at Twenty-Seven Spider Cave, asked Rodger
to walk down the nearby ravine to make sure no caves were missed.

About 400 feet above the valley Rodger indeed managed to find a cave: an obscure, narrow,
eight foot long, horizontal crack through a large sandstone boulder on the south edge of the ravine, facing
downhill. Just inside there was a three or four foot dropoff into a small room, maybe five by ten feet.
Rodger made a quick investigation. From the small room he moved a few rocks and negotiated two short
vertical squeezes to a ten or twelve foot handline climb. He then went out for the others and they |
descended the handline drop and freeclimbed a long ways further down from one breakdown chamber
to another before the cave became horizontal. Then they explored 800 or more feet of mostly walking

_ passages, punctuated by a number of up and down climbs and a twenty to thirty foot deep canyon. They
bypassed a thirtyish foot pit by crawling along a muddy slope and eventually were stopped by another
pit, thirty-two feet deep.

On March 3, two teams, consisting of Buddy Lane, Otis Farmer, Dan Twilley, Jeff Harris, Bill
Putnam, and Buzz Chalmers, surveyed the passages found the previous trip, plus a few additional nooks
and crannies, for a length and depth of 928.8 and 127.66 feet. Twilley descended the thirty-two foot pit
and explored ahead about 500 feet, including a low spot later called the Wet Belly Dip. The entrance
climbs alone were determined to be eighty-five feet deep. When they were exiting the cave they met
Dennis Curry and Beth Elliott some fifteen feet from the surface, who also left.

Within the next few days Dennis and Buddy named the new grotto Jackson Gap Cave for a
nearby topographical feature. The next Wednesday night, March 7, Dennis instigated what was supposed
to be a "map-push" trip, but which ended up being only a “push" trip. Other members of this effort were
Rodger Ling, Maureen Handler, and Dan Twilley, Dennis rigged a traverse line in one of the canyons
of the “old" section and Rodger attempted to push above and past the thirty-two foot pit but got stopped
after only fifty feet. First Dan and Maureen and later Dennis and Rodger descended the thirty-two foot
pit and traveled about 1,200 feet (including the distance previously explored by Dan) of predominantly
crawl to stoop height meandering stream passage before reaching a second pit of fifteen feet. Only
Twilley descended this drop and scouted several hundred feet beyond before he stopped in a narrow,
walking height, cleanwashed, downcutting passage.

On March 24 Buddy Lane initiated a trip with Dan Twilley and Marion O. Smith. At the
entrance Buddy decided he did not feel well enough to participate and he waited for many hours in his
Chevy Blazer. Dan and Marion moved one of the two handlines from the entrance climb, re-rigged the
thirty-two foot pit with a shorter rope, and went forward with considerable additional rope. They
descended the fifteen foot pit and soon reached virgin passage, exploring perhaps 400-500 feet until they
found a third pit. Before the new pit there was a series of freeclimbs totaling at least thirty-five or forty
feet.

: The third pit at the stream level, only about twenty-four or twenty-five feet deep, was not rigged.
Instead, to the left of the stream a dry, upper opening through flowstone, measuring thirty feet, was used.
Before Dan and Marion (in that order) descended, they agreed not to carry ropes or vertical gear any

B2AT

further, for fear of upsetting the original discoverers, a fear which turned out to be unfounded. At the
bottom the only way forward was a low, nasty crawl. After only fifty feet they were stopped by a chert-
topped, wet fifteen foot pit.

Another two-team survey trip took place on April 7. Marion, Jim Smith, Laura Campbell, and
Tom Coker set seventy-five stations from the top of the thirty-two foot pit to the top of the fifteen foot
pit, and Dan, Alan Cressler, and Jack Thomison set fifty-four stations from the top of the fifteen foot pit,
down the thirty foot pit, and into virgin passage. Dan’s team bypassed the wet fifteen foot fourth pit via
a twelve or fifteen foot chert crawl and by rigging a handline down an eight foot drop into a room
parallel to the stream. They surveyed a few more hundred feet, down more steep gradient, and into a
crawl-stoop avenue nearly level. They terminated their survey and explored ahead about 125-150 feet
to where the passage did a right turn. Here water was pooled and there was only three or four inches
of airspace. Cressler slipped through this near sump and less than a hundred feet further reached the true
‘sump. Later that day Marion Smith and Coker toured to but not through the near sump.

i The survey data was forwarded to Buddy Lane, who also possessed the notes from the March 3
effort. On April 23 Buddy reported that Jackson Gap Cave was 3,500.1 feet long and 297.97 feet deep.

| Now that the cave had been bottomed and had not led all the way to Skyuka Spring, enthusiasm
for additional "deep" trips lessened. On Wednesday night, May 16, Chattanooga cavers Dennis Curry,
Otis Farmer, Neeld J. Messler, and Bethany Jablonsky went to the immediate vicinity of the thirty-two
foot pit. There, Messler freeclimbed into an upper level and explored an estimated 500-600 feet of
muddy passage.

Three and a half months later, Marion, for the sole purpose of adding Jackson Gap Cave to the
TAG regional 300 foot deep list, launched an effort to survey the few remaining feet to Cressler’s Sump.
This trip, which "came together" only two nights before, occurred September 8, 1990, with a crew
composed of Marion, Jeff Dilcher, Pat Kambesis, and Tom Coker. The cave was re-rigged, mostly with
5/16 inch ropes, and travel to and from the objective was routine. By the time the survey reached the
near sump, Coker got cold and exited. The others finished the survey through the near sump to
Cressler’s Sump, and then completely de-rigged the cave, including Lane’s 200 foot rope which had been
underground since March 3.

Only 244.7 feet of passage were mapped on September 8, bringing the survey to a grand total
of 3,744.8 feet. Also, 6.32 feet of depth was gained, for an aggregate of 304.29 feet, which makes
Jackson Gap Georgia’s third or fourth deepest cave. Dogwood Sink is listed as 303 feet deep, which
according to Bill Putnam, makes it too close to know which cave is actually the deeper. Including the
500-600 feet of upper level found by Messler, Jackson Gap Cave is at least 4,300 feet long, which for
Georgia is a significant discovery. It is possible that more upper level discoveries could be made by
climbing above the stream, especially between the second and third pits. But a new group of explorers
will have to pursue that prospect. :

The explorers and mappers would like to thank Dr. Bill King, the owner of Jackson Gap Cave,
for his cooperation in allowing easy access. At the time Dr. King lived in a house directly below the
cave, but in September he and his family moved to another location.