Lobelia Cave

Lobelia Saltpeter Cave by Garth Varian On New Years day, and the last day of CCGs most recent trip to West Virginia, we were given a guided tour of Lobelia Saltpeter Cave by John Pearson, a steward of the cave. Several of our cavers had already headed home, so it was just Mark and Diane Lucas, Jon Lemay, John Pearson, and myself. The cave, which has an open access policy, is owned by the Southeast Cave Conservancy and is co-managed by the West Virginia Cave Conservancy. It is east of the town of Lobelia and not far from the route we usually take from WVACS to Friars Hole. I had been told by local cavers on previous trips that Lobelia Saltpeter was “not really worth going to”. I guess by West Virginia standards it isn’t big enough to appeal to those jaded cavers who are surrounded by major cave systems like Friars Hole, Culverson Creek, and the Boartal. However, Lobelia is a very interesting cave, both historically and geologically, and a major cave by New England standards. Its’ total length is 2,360 feet, with a maximum vertical of 77 feet. Its’ main entrance is the resurgence of Cave Run Creek. There are large breakdown rooms, tight crawls under the breakdown and a lower level river passage. Jon Lemay chimneyed to an upper level where we expected to find a connection to the back “Bumblebee” entrance, but we ran out of leads and time. Because we had been up late at an excellent New Year’s Eve party at the home of Dave and Sandy Cowan, and because it was day five of our caving trip, some of us (me mostly) were in particularly low gear in this cave. As a result, we did not find a large part of this cave or the rear entrance. But that gave me more time to hear John’s recounting of the history of the cave. Originally known as Saltpeter Cave, then Lobelia Cave, and then finally Lobelia Saltpeter, it was probably mined during the Civil War. However the dates we saw carved in the diggings were mostly 1899 (Diane found a previously unnoticed 1897 signature) The Bruffey Family (five of the signatures we found) probably supplemented their farming income during the winter months by mining near the entrance, and their workings are still intact. As a conservation project we assisted John in taping off the leaching trough, used for washing nitrates from the cave soil, its water supply trough, and an area where the mattock marks of the original diggers are still visible. The nitrates were used in the manufacture of gun powder. The more sordid history, which John related to us, pertains to Peter M. Hauer who owned the cave during the late sixties/ early seventies. Peter was a noted caver whose name was given posthumously to the Spelean History Award. However according to legend, a local eighteen year old boy was allegedly murdered by Hauer and buried in a shallow stone grave just inside the entrance to Lobelia Saltpeter Cave, which was behind Hauers’ house. As the story goes, Hauer was involved in a “love triangle” and after the boy’s body was found, Hauer disappeared. A year later hunters found Hauer’s body hanging from a tree with his hands tied behind his back. The police ruled it a suicide to clear the case. Hauer’s house mysteriously burned, and today there is just an overgrown field in front of the cave. John Pearson is a co-founder of the Bubble Cave Conservancy LLC in West Virginia. John has promised us a trip to Bubble Cave (also known as Burr #2) the next time we come down, and I would like to go back and explore the rest of Lobelia Saltpeter and make the connection to the back entrance. Many thanks to John for the guided tour with the historical perspective, and also for picking up the key to WVACS for us and turning on the hot water before we arrived!! I look forward to caving with John again and assisting him with future cave conservation projects.