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SERA Cave Carnival 2003 - Big Bone Cave Trip By Bill Walker Trip Participants: Larry Matthews, Jay and Susan Landt, Stephanie Juiliano, Julie Ryan, Ashley Morgan, Allen Mossler, Bill Birdsall, Scott Fee, Joe Douglas, Bill Walker, Caitlyn Walker, and a few more (we had 17 in all, but I didn’t get everyone’s name.) Big Bone cave was one of the larger, “industrial” size Saltpeter operations. Most of the saltpeter caves in Tennessee were small scale operations, with a few vats. Usually the landowner worked the mine during the winter months when he couldn’t farm. Big Bone was one of only a few large scale operations in the country, with 300 miners working at one time. Today, the cave still holds a majority of the artifacts, with many intact vats, pipes, and even an elevated tramway to transport earth to the front of the cave. Big Bone is the 7th longest cave in Tennessee at 9.6 miles. The cave gets its name from the giant Pleistocene ground sloth discovered in 1811 during mining operations. The ribs were reported to be so large that a man could stand underneath them. We arrived at the cave entrance around noon on Saturday and unlocked the gate. Big Bone has two main sections, the Arch Cave and Big Bone branches, so we started down Arch Cave. Almost immediately we had to put on our dust masks. This is a very dusty, dry cave. My daughter Caitlyn kept right at the front of the group, behind Larry Mathews. It was a great trip for her because she was very interested in all he had to say. She asked a lot of questions and I appreciate his patience with her. After touring the area we made our way through the Muster Ground, about a 1000’ feet of large passage filled with vats in varying states of condition. The area looked like the miners laid down their tools yesterday. We went back through Chinatown – a low maze area that cuts back to near the beginning of the Arch Branch. Someone asked Larry how many times he had been in the cave and he commented that it was a bunch. Five minutes after he said that, we were lost! We were walking though a narrow canyon section and Larry said, “Well this doesn’t look familiar. Someone ask Joe if we are going the right way.” Joe had no idea either. We spent about twenty minutes poking around side leads, until someone sent Scott Fee down a low passage and he found the way on. One of the interesting things I learned about Scott is that he started caving with the FSS when he was a student at UF. He cut his teeth surveying in White Cliff and some of the other Florida caves. When we arrived back at the entrance, half the group exited while Joe Douglas took the rest down Big Bone to the beginning of the Skyway. Along the way, we saw the network of elevated pipes that the miners had fashioned out of logs. When we arrived at the beginning of the Skyway, we climbed up a ladder to a ledge that overlooked it. The Skyway is a 1000’ long elevated tramway, built around 1863. It was used to transport niter earth to the front of the cave and the twenty five hoppers that occupy the space below. I really appreciate Larry and Joe guiding us through the cave. I learned a lot. It was a great trip.
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