(1/83 O. B. SMITH CAVE: A NEW DISCOVERY IN BOXES COVE Marion O. Smith On the afternoon of October 22, 1989, Alan Cressler and I went to Boxes Cove west of Scottsboro to recheck ACS 1359, Wet Pit, to see if it was really a blind hole. Our goal was a twenty-five foot chimney to a drippy thirty-five foot pit, and was indeed blind, or more accurately much too narrow to consider "pushing." We still had plenty of time so we ridgewalked to the head of the next major ravine or hollow. On the east side I found in the Pennington formation a twenty foot deep, fifty foot long hole with a wet dome draining into breakdown, which we named Bump Head Cave. Continuing our search, I walked above and Alan below a twenty foot bluff. After only a hundred yards we saw a sink below the bluff, which Alan, because he had easier access, reached first. There was a cave underneath the bluff which drained water into the breakdown rubble of the sink, plus there was a cave in the sink itself. When I arrived at the entrance of the sink cave Alan was already past the first breakdown squeeze. After kre went deeper and got clear I entered. Some forty or forty-five vertical and fifty horizontal feet from the entrance Alan and then I came to a wet twenty-five foot pit. Even before I relocated Alan I heard him ex- claim, "We gotta cave!" We went outside to get our gear and the few short ropes we had, and reentered to do a better recon. Alan was first down the twenty-five foot pit and some fifty feet further I was first down the next eighteen or twenty foot pit, also wet. The water went into a too low to follow passage although at that moment I did not know it. I saw high leads across the room from the waterfall of the second Dit a I climbed up twenty or more feet to explore about 150 feet of walk, stoop, and easy crawl passage. Alan never came up, so Il retreated and tried to push the base ne Channa. thinking he had found a passable route. He was not there. Then I heard him up high. So I returned to the high passage I had just explored. But when I got there I heard him lower! Alan had pushed a crawl I had not noticed, : C199 some dozen feet above the base of the second pit, and had found the "ooine. route. Alan led me about a hundred horizontal feet, through a tight crawl, down twenty and ae foot climbs, and via a paleo passage to # dry fortyish foot pit, for which we had insufficient rope. We rested for a ibe: savoring our moment of discovery, and then started for the ee tenuis our ropes in the cave. On the way out I prusikked both pits last. Berore I climbed the twenty-five footer I solo explored 250 feet in the still virgin upstream passage, forty percent of which was true walking dimensions. Therefore, I was some neGes behind Alan when I exited our nice little find, which we tentatively named "Wegotta Cave." Meanwhile, Alan had explored the sixty or more foot long resurgence cave above the sink, which we called Bump Resurge Cave. After I also toured it, we headed for our vehicles, ayy hleqeed with our luck. '"Wegotta Cave" was at least 600 feet long and 100 feet deep at the top of the third. pit, so we had reason to hope that it would "go" for a bit more. | Unknown to me ice we found these caves, my father, Orris Bomar Smith (born February 24, 1899) of Palmetto, Georgia, had died the day before. Il later asked Alan if it was okay if we changed the name "Wegotta Cave" to 0. B. Smith Cave, in my father’s honor, and he agreed. There was a massive urd ees on November 4 by the following people, besides wee and me: Jim Smith (Bowling Green, Ky.), Gary Chalmers, Gerald Moni (both of Nashville), Dave Black (of Indiana, temporarily living in Atlanta), Mike Rogers (Knoxville), Jack Thonteon (of Knoxville, temporarily living in Huntsville), Bob Coney, Kathy Minter, Jeff Oe cher. Paul Reinhard, Randy Heath, John W. Stembel, Carl F. Anderson, Karen Sotona, and Laura M. Campbell (all of the greater Atlanta area). {did mot feara everyone's movements and will therefore relate only what I know firsthand. In essence, the cave did not "go" and did not realize its mile long and 350 foot vertical potential. Basically, our small army broke up into the front push crew, the fat boys dig crew (Moni and Black), and a survey crew. Bob and Jim installed a . C90 bolt at the second pit before the push crew proceeded to and down the virgin third DLE. | The initial descenders of the third pit were Jim Smith, me, Alan, Paul, Bob. Kathy, and Gary. Later, Stembel and perhaps others rappelled it. At the botton, instead of the hoped for nice, downcutting stream passage, we found a floor level crawl, yea hashes and parallel multi-level breakdown chambers with short, blind avenues. After looking high for a while and only finding perhaps as much as 300 feet of nooks and crannies, Alan, Gary, and I turned our attention to the bottom crawl. After Sout twenty-five feet we had to dig. Alan led through to double four foot high pockets to thirty feet of low crawl to a tighter constriction. -Here he lose interest and left. I dug forward and managed to go ahead ten feet to a Z bend which caused me to contort my body all sorts of ways. Beyond this I next en- countered a narrow, twelve foot long flat out flowstone crawl which I also success- fully negotiated. Gary because of his length was not able to get past the Z bend. The passage improved, and for 200 feet I crawled ahead, without a hardhat, armed only .with see throw-away flashlight and a hammer. A tight squeeze soon led to a twelve ae climbdown to a subdivided breakdown terminus room, the true bitter end. By the time 1 parked my way back to Gary and then out of the crawl to the third pit, people were already leaving. Meanwhile, Moni and Black had worked to enlarge the squeeze between the second pit and twenty foot ee Carl Anderson had led a large survey team from the entrance to top of the second pit and then through the upstream passage underneath the first (31 instead of 25 feet) pit. At least seven people were out of the cave before me, and very soon everyone else followed. The trip time was five hours or less, depending on where in the lineup you were. Alto- gether, we explored maybe 600 feet of virgin passage and gained about 60 feet of depth, making the cave at least 1,200 feet long and 160 feet deep, not including eradient. Although not a great discovery, 0, B. Smith Cave proves that, without digging, it is still possible to find a totally virgin grotto in much-walked Jack- son County.