Organ Cave

 Pipe Organ.    Image Source: here.

     Organ Cave is part of the third largest cave system in West Virginia, known as the Organ-Hedricks Cave System.  It was believed to be the largest for many years, until the Friars Hole Cave System and Hellhole cave systems were further explored.  It was registered as a National Natural Landmark in 1973 and the National Register of Historic Places in 2005.

     The cave got its name from its most impressive formation - which looks like a pipe organ.  The stalagmites are of different lengths and thicknesses, so they actually make different sounds when you tap on them.  Unfortunately, vandals have taken it upon themselves to break pieces off the bottom.  So far the organ remains standing, but its foundation has been compromised.  Hopefully the vandals will be caught and punished before any more damage is done.

Organ Cave Organ.  Image Source: here.

     Organ cave is rich is saltpeter, or nitre, which is an important ingredient in gunpowder.  General Robert E. Lee, of the Confederacy, and his men mined the cave during the Civil War. and the hoppers they used to produce the saltpeter are still there.  Native Americans are believed to have used to cave for its flint deposits.  Old Native American writing has also been found in the cave, but the meanings remain a mystery.  

     Animals have been living in and around the cave system since the ice age, probably even longer.  Many fossils have been discovered, including reindeer, sabre-toothed cats, grizzly bears, giant ground sloths, armadillo, and porcupine.

     In July 1948 this cave system was first surveyed by the National Speleological Society, and it was believed to be the longest in the world.  Well, many more caves have been discovered since then and it now ranks in at 39th longest in the world.  Organ-Hendricks cave system is known to be the 9th longest cave system in the United States, and many spelunkers believe much more is yet to be discovered.

   

 

FEBRUARY 16, 1871 

     The western portion of the State of Virginia is in many respects the most charming country in [the south?]  The country is mountainous.  [The Alleghany?] range crosses this ... In the sides of the cliffs ... there are in some places .... of them, however, are not ... safe retreats for the ground hogs which infest the whole country.  Some of them are very large and very noted.  One of these caves is known by the name of the organ cave.  It is in Greenbrier County, about twelve miles from the White Sulphur Springs.  The entrance to the cave is but a few feet from the road which leads from the Greenbrier Sulphur Springs to Union, the county seat of Monroe county.  The aperture is not, however, on a level with the road, and hence an individual might pass the place and see no signs of ...  The sides of the road are thickly ... brush-wood, and the mouth of the cave ... ravine at least thirty feet below the level of the road.  The cave seems to have been formed by a small stream forcing its was through a ridge into Second creek, which is about two miles distant.

     In order to enter the organ cave, you have to make a circuit of a few rods, that you may reach the bottom of the ravine.  So soon as you enter the ravine you see before you a huge opening in the ground sufficient to admit a large house.  The arch is rock.  On advancing a short distance, the opening becomes very small, just large enough to admit a moderate sized man with ease in a crawling posture.  Above you is a rock, and all around you is a cold clammy rock.  Sometimes you find it difficult to advance on account of the smallness of the aperture.  The light of day never enters this gloomy place.  In spite of yourself you will think of the grave.  You will imagine the awful condition in which you would be if the rock above you would sink only a few inches.  There you would be wedged in and forced to linger and die.  Again you imagine you awful condition were your light would be extinguished.  Soon the gloom is partly dispelled.  The opening grows larger and larger, and you find yourself in a vast field arched - not by the blue concave of heaven - but by limestone rock.

     The water filters through this rock, and strange limestone formations hang down from the ceiling above which resemble the icicles that hang down from the eves of houses in the midst of a sleet storm.  These when struck give forth a peculiar sound, from which circumstance the cave is called the organ cave.

     In many places the cave is very rough;  in others it is smooth.  In some places you have to wend your way along the side of rugged cliffs with fearful precipices below you.  Great caution is necessary at such points.  A misstep would be fatal.  You would be dashed to pieces against the rocks or drowned in some pit filled with water.

     The soil in some localities of the organ cave is mixed with nitrate of potash.  Many years ago the people in the neighborhood threw the soil in hoppers resembling ash-hoppers, and let the saltpetre drip out as lye is run off ashes.  From saltpatre thus obtained gunpowder was made.

     The organ cave has never been fully explored.  No one has yet discovered into what the little stream which winds its way through it, empties.   It is highly probable that it finds its way into Second creek, but at what point no one knows.

     Great precaution is necessary on going into the cave.  You must go well provided with candles and matches;  for as said before, the light of day never enters it.  You must take a straw of something by which you can mark your windings through the cave.  This precaution is very essential.  You might miss your way and be lost forever.  If your light would, by some misfortune, be extinguished, you would be left in total darkness, and if you should miss your way, you would be in a desperate condition.  In either event, the probability is you would remain in the cave and literally pine away and die.          

The Daily Telegram., July 15, 1914