Cave Mountain Cave

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CAVE MOUNTAIN CAVE
Cave Mountain Cave, also known under the names Barnard, Salitpeter, ALTOrG,
and Long Hollow, is located in a bluff on the south side of the Tennessee River
within sight of Guntersville Dam. Surveyed by Huntsville cavers Bill Torode and
Chuck Hummel to a distance of 2,680 feet, this cave has been known since pioneer
' days and probably before that by various Indian cultures. It was mined for salt-
peter sometime prior to 1840 and attracted a number of visitors, as indicated by
names on its walls with 1836, 1843, 1845, 1850, and other dates.

During the Civil War it was again mined for saltpeter, possibly as early as

1862, when Francis Marion Couch signed its wall. The Confederate Nitre Bureau
definitely worked the cave in 1864, with fourteen men in April and twenty-nine

men in May. During the latter month the superintendent was John R. Hopkins (1835-
1909), a citizen of Gwinnett County, Georgia, and the cave foreman was J. M.
Blackwell. One of the laborers was A. C. McMinn, who also left his name on the
cave's wall. The mining then and earlier was conducted in the first thousand

feet of passage, a dry, straight natural tunnel five to ten feet wide and usually
of walking height except for a hundred and fifty foot crawl. Physical evidence
indicates that the miners excavated a layer of earth from the floor two or three
feet thick. By May 23, 1864, the first box of saltpeter was made, and on the 28th
the eighth hopper was under construction. But that same day Hopkins was ordered
to hide: his kettles and tools and "fall back" to Big Spring | cuntersville Caverns|
"as Rapidly as possible." The men fled just in time to escape pabiune, The next
day a detachment of the 18th Wisconsin Infantry, under Lieutenant Colonel Charles
H. Jackson, raided the Confederate operation and "destroyed all their works...
and fire in their furnaces."

REFERENCES

Gerard Fowke, Archeological Investigations (Washington, D. C., 1922), 140-41.

Marion O. Smith, "Confederate Saltpetre Mining Northern Alabama," Alabama
Historical Quarterly, 42(Spring and Summer, 1980), 79-85.

List of Cave Mountain Cave names copied March 9, 1980, by Marion O. Smith and
Merilyn Osterlund.

Confederate Payrolls, Record Group 109, National Archives (Long Hollow Nitre
Works).

THREE GEORGIA CAVE CLIPPINGS.

Smith

Contributed by Marion O.

OLD CASSVILLE

Cassville is honored with the graves of many confederate dead. ... Justa
little ways from where the old court house once stood in all its glory, a cave of
interest can be found known as the "Georgia lay rock cave." At the bottom of this
cave is a spring of mineral water, the depth of which has never been sounded.

Fish of perculiar kind are caught by those who visit there. Some say they are
Similar to the fish caught in the Mammoth cave.

G. C. Walker

(Cartersville Courant American, June 9, 1892)

INTERESTING CAVE NEAR ADATRSVILLE

Some days ago Mr. Ammons, who resides some nine miles east of here, was at
work in a cave on his brother's farm when he unearthed a skeleton of a human being.
The cave has been known for years and for a long time has been visited by
people, in fact, it was the hiding place for valuables of the country people who

had valuables to secret during the civil war.

There is one large room with solid rock ceiling. In the rear was a small
opening just large enough for a man to crawl through.

Mr. Frank Ammons decided for the accommodation of the public he would enlarge
this opening so one could walk through it instead of crawl. He was engaged in
this task when he found the skull. He gave the alarm and soon enough bones were
gotten together to make 18 skeletons, all apparently adults.

These bones were found in sacks and boxes and are now at Mr. Ammons" barn.
There did not seem to be any special system observed in their burial, but seemed
to have been thrown in promiscously. _Two-round objects were found that are about
the size of large buttons with one hole in the center, also an arrow head made
of flint rock, a lower jaw bone of some animal supposed to be that of a bear with
one tooth in it, was also uncovered. The bone has the appearance of having been
cut with some wind of instrument. :

. The burial of these people is an absolute mystery as is their identity. Who
they are and where they came from is a question that is agitating the quiet section
of Cedar Creek.

© e @ e

, Joe P. Bowdoin
(Cartersville Bartow Tribune, March 12, 1916)

CONCERNING CAVES

Many think that the town of Chickamauga is built over one or more caves. T. D.-
Harris, of this city, tells of a former citizen who explored this caye and found
that it extended far beyond what is now used as the school ground. According to
Mr. Harris, this gentleman from Missouri entered the cave at what is known as Craw-
fish Springs, from which flows 25,000,000 gallons of water every twenty-four hours.
There is just enough space between the water and the top of the opening in the
cave for a man to crawl through. The explorer, not knowing what lay beyond the
opening, equipped himself with boards, which he fastened to his limbs, and made
his way, walking, floating and swimming until he had trayeled several hundred feet.
It is believed by some that this cave extends six or seven miles beyond the city.
Mr. Harris says he proved this by pouring red paint into a cave at Pond Springs,
CA9

six miles above Chickamauga, and that he discovered this paint later in the Craw-
fish spring.

| W. J. De Bardeleben

(Chattanooga Sunday Times Magazine, December 19, 1937)