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ARCHER CAVE FIELD TRIP By Buford Pruitt October 13, 2004 - 65-acre tract. Present were Peggy Young, James Brown, William Walker, Stephanie Juiliano, Sean Roberts, Rebecca Roberts, Brandon Roberts, Thomas Feeney, Rebecca Dettorre, Brian Williams, and Buford Pruitt, Jr. The tract is a pasture grazed by water buffalo. We met the landowners at their house on Levy County in the morning to look for caves and assess for cleanup several sinkholes on the 65-acre tract. The purposes of today's trip were to see if any caves could be found and if there were any sinkholes that needed trash cleaned out. This tract is mostly open pasture with occasional scattered trees and clumps of trees, fringes of trees along its east and south sides, and a wider band of trees along its west and north sides. We found numerous small sinkholes but no caves. Several relatively new sinkholes were centrally-located within the open field, containing clear aquifer water (the water table here is the top of the unconfined Floridan Aquifer), steep to vertical sides of dirt, with some limestone visible. There was a promising sinkhole next to the County Road that had been used as a field rock dump. We moved some of the rocks and determined that it would require a lot of dirt removal to go any further. This sink has nicely defined solution pipe walls. It also contains farm trash (steel cans, fence wire, etc.). Near the middle of the west edge of the tract is a limestone "well." I cannot tell if it is a natural solution pipe or if it was dug out by residents. It is about 20ft deep and goes to water, and has an old board platform around it that I guess people used to stand on to fetch water. A little to the north of the well is a series of three 15ft+ deep, 50ft+ wide sinkholes oriented roughly N-S in a line appx 300-400ft long. Much farm trash has been dumped in one (?) of these sinkholes. Betty was especially interested in getting the trash hauled out of that sink. We told her that the county might bring in a dumpster, and if so the FSS might be willing to clean it out for them. -------------- October 13, 2004 - 80-acre tract. Present were William Walker, Stephanie Juiliano, Sean Roberts, Rebecca Roberts, Brandon Roberts, Rebecca Dettorre, Brian Williams, Adam Scherer and Jen. Thomas Feeney was present but spent the whole time lying sick in his van from the strange illness he had contracted several weeks before in Blackfoot Cave (Alachua County). The tract is a pasture grazed by water buffalo. The purposes of today's trip were to see if any caves could be found and if there were any sinkholes that needed trash cleaned out. After looking over most of the property, we located Ann's Cave. It was one-third full of water, and I was the only one willing to get wet up to my thighs exploring it. After leaving Ann's Cave, the landowner drove up. We were not expecting to see him and he was not expecting to see us, even though I had told him several times that we were going to visit that tract when we were through with the 65-acre tract. Several members of our entourage panicked and ran when they saw his car, which, coupled with his surprise at seeing us there, caused him to become anxious and unhappy, and he chewed me out royally. I want to thank Brian Williams for the kind sympathy he gave me afterward. Bill and Sean and I succeeded in calming the landowner down, but by that time we were peeved and decided to leave the property. I believe there are no other caves on this tract, and there are no sinkholes needing cleaned out. |