NINE PIT CAVE AND THE QUEST FOR CRUMBLING ROCK CAVE Marion O. Smith Years ago, on March 14, 19/1, George Plumblee, Steve Pierce, Jerry keeves, and I searched a portion of the west aide of Lookout Mountain north of Trenton, Georgia, for GSS 134, Nine Pit Cave, and GSS 128, Crumbling Rock Cave, which had been explored by the Rockeater Grotto in the late 1960's. We only found Nine Pit Cave, which has a crawl entrance in a small bluff above a sink. About twenty-five feet inside we rigged a rope and George and I hand over handed a Fitceen foot pit and toured all the easy passage on that level. We did not attempt to descend a chimney at the far end or a fifteen foot pit just below the entrance pit. We saw some mud names on the walls with 1914 and 1932 dates but did not copy them. Jerry installed a pipe register near the top of the entrance pit, and all four of us signed it. A ways to the north of Nine Pit Cave we saw what I remember as a shallow sink. There, a small opening, which Jerry said was the entrance to Crumbling Rock, was entirely blocked by a boulder. Our opinion at the time was that cavers had deliberately ieee it. I noted on my topo that this entrance and that of Nine Pit were 1,200 to 1,500 feet apart, but in those days my distance estimating ability was still developing. Almost a generation later, on a beautiful fall day, October 28, 1989, armed with all sorts of tools, Jerry Reeves, Tom and Nicholas T. Coker, Teresa Williams, Ken Pennington, Jim Youmans, and I returned to Lookout with the intention of relocating Crumbling Rock, digging it open, and reexploring it. We crossed Look- out Creek on an old bridge, secured permission from Mr. Rex Clark, and started up the mountain some 500 feet south of the northmost of two power lines, gaining 250 to 300 feet in elevation. About 600 feet north of the second power cut we easily relocated Nine Pit Cave. Jerry removed the register since no one had stened it since we were there eighteen years earlier. This time we made a more thorough investigation of the cave. Di Jerry, myself, Tom, and Teresa descended the fifteen foot pit and the twenty foot oHienewee the back. Below that we rigged a second pit of twenty feet and all but Jerry descended. At the bottom was a sloping room in which some digging had sceteeent Under an overhang we found the following tools and artifacts: a five foot long iron bar with a two inch wide flared end, a flat shovel, a pick, an eight-pound rectangular sledge hammer, a rusty kerosene lantern with some fuel, a corroded flashlight ogee one intact and one broken coca-cola bottles, and a five inch long iron wedge. All the wooden handles of the pick, shovel, and sledge had nearly rotten away. The owners of these tools had obviously been min- ing the cave, but for what? I copied all the names, initials, and dates we could find, many of which were written in mud relief. All were in the main level above the chimney and twenty foot pit. Most were near the chimney but a few were near the end of an updipping side passage; timely er . hi. Ka U- EDF C W Handy(?) Goot RBD | STARLING PRATER 1932 ae ee. Oe > RB PETE 1932 SALES gh Us: 3 mR SALES 61. 1. 1915 H. R. | LES Fe Rae ae On our way out Tom and I descended the second fifteen foot pit very near the entrance drop, and Teresa explored a parallel chimney entil if¢got too tignt. Altogether, Nine Pit Cave, or should it be called Mine Pit Cave, has about 250 of passage and a depth near seventy feet. While we were inside Nine Pit Cave, Ken and Jim walked further north. Approx- imately 500 away they noticed a shallow, fifteen foot diameter sink with a small yertical hole in it, and still further they found a large, fresh-looking sink which had almost literally swallowed trees, | Soon, all seven of us converged at the shallow sink, which seemed to ive with my vague recollections of the entrance Jerry had showed us in 1971. But the hole O/T0 we now saw was not plugged, only small. Tom.and I enlarged it, put in a handline, and managed to descend a twelve foot chimney. Beyond a small sloping room was a snug vertical squeeze to an eight foot climb, followed by a narrow, meandering, Houueuerene passage. An awkward crawl led to a pitlike fifteen foot chimney where a hand line is recommended. Just past the bottom of this was a pit, which i seumnaeed at 32 feet. At its top was an old piton driven in a crevice. This ae broken one pound canister of carbide found in the passage above were evi- donee bnee this cave was NOT virgin, in spite of the fact that the entrance Looked like it had never been entered. Tom and Teresa, who was now in the cave, went back to the entrance to obtain gear and ropes. In due time all three of us descended the 32 foot pit. Below, there was a six or seven foot downclimb to a twelve foot Ae geese tilted-etawl, meaning the floor dipped up from the right wall to the left wall at about 35 degrees. Beyond was a six foot climbdown to a series of very irregularly shaped rooms, up to thirty feet in width, interspersed by crawlways, totaling 350 or more feet. All but the last seventy-five feet, which ee past a tight spot, had been previously explored, and there were several more spent carbide dumps. Tom, Teresa, and I ended up spending about 3:45 hours in this 120 foot deep, 500 foot. long cave. But what cave was it? oe Reeves and Ken Pennington, both former Rockeaters, say that Crumbling Rock did not have a pit and that the entrance was a little larger. Whether Ehede memory is correct or not I have no way of knowing, but the position of this cave, north of Nine Pit Cave, is consistent with what Jerry indicated in 19/.. ios atone: I suggest that it is likely that this — was Crumbling Rock. Or was it?