The Journal of Spelean History OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE AMERICAN SPELEAN HISTORY ASSOCIATION Vol:. 29 jqi No. 2 ~ ~~ . April-June 1995 The Journal of Spelean History Vol. 29 No.2 April-June 1995 The Assoc/Stlon Spe/ean History on a quarterly basis. Pertinent articles or reprints are welcomed. The American Spelean History Association is Manuscripts should be typed and double­ chartered as a non-profit corporation for the spaced. Submissions of rough drafts for study, dissemination, and interpretation of preliminary editing is encouraged. Illustrations spelean history and related purposes. All require special handling and arrangements persons who are interested in these goals are should be made with the editor in advance. cordially invited to become members. Annual Photos and illustrations will be returned upon membership is $8. Meetings are held in request. conjunction with the annual convention of the National Speleological Society and sometimes Back Issues at West Virginia's Old Timer's Reunion. Most back issues of the Journal are available. Early issues are photocopied. Indices are Qfflcer.s also available for Volumes 1-6 and 13. Send your requests to Fred Grady (address given President: Susan Holler . with the officers). All issues of Volumes 1-7:2 P.O. Box 100 are available on microfiche from : Old Fort, NC 28762 Kraus Reprint Company Vice President: Carolyn E. Cronk Route 100 1595 Blueberry Hills Rd Millwood, New York 10546 Monument, CO 80132 Official Quarterly Publication Secretary-Treasurer: Fred Grady American Spelean History 1202 S. Scott Street #123 Association Arlington, VA 22204 History Section National Speleological Society Trustees production Larry E. Matthews Gary K. Soule Marion O. Smith Jack Speece Editor: Mike Rogers 3900 Papermill Sq Apt. J Knoxville, TN 37909 The .Joucoal of Spelean History Printing: D. C. Grotto . The Association publishes the Journal of Potomac Speleological.Club Press Front Cover: Photograpllic stat ofAaron Higginbotham, courtesy of Jim Whidby and Byron's Graphic Arts. Photo used with permiSSion of the National Speleological Society, Huntsville, AL 35810. AARON HIGGINBOTHAM AND THE ROCKHOUSE by Joseph C. Doug/as Aaron Higginbotham' (1776-1867) is known by most speleologists as the discoverer of Higginbotham Cave in Warren County, Tennessee, around 1810. Higginbotham Cave was . large and soon well known; it became the site of many visits over the ensuing years. Today it is part of a large system of passages and is known by its c~mmercial name, Cumberland Caverns. The folklore concerning Higginbotham's discovery and exploration of the cave which bears his name is well.:.told in several works. 2 What is less well-known, however, is that folklore links Aaron Higginbotham to another cave in Warren County, prior to his 1810 discovery. This cave is called the Rockhouse (TWR 167). The author first heard of the cave and its link with Higginbotham while ridgewalking and exploring caves on the western side of the northern end of Nunley Mountain in 1986. While on several trips to the area, members of the Cathcart family3 related to the author that Aaron Higginbotham had spent his first winter in Warren County living in the Rockhouse. He apparently arrived too late in the year4 to build a cabin by winter, so he and his family5 lived in a small cave with several entrances up on Nunley Mountain. The cave was near a small gap and was suited for habitation, being dry. The following spring he built a cabin in the Collins River valley and moved out of the Rockhouse. This folklore has been preserved in the area but apparently never before recorded. In November of 1991 members of the Barnes family6 on the other (east) side of the mountain essentially repeated the same story concerning Aaron Higginbotham's stay at the Rockhouse, which lends additional credence to the tale. On 21 October 1986 Jeff Noffsinger and the writer hiked from the Cathcart's field up the gap to examine a number of sinkholes marked on the topographic map. After ascertaining that they . were not easily enterable, we hiked up to the contact between the Hartselle formation and the Monteagle Limestone, contouring the mountain and looking for the cave called the Rockhouse. We soon located the cave and examined it, looking particularly for evidence of habitation or suitability for that use. The cave has four entrances opening in a honeycomb fashion in a low Hartselle bluff. The entrances connect just inside to form a dry, room-sized space, with a flat dirt floor. The cave also contains several dry crawls arranged in a typical Hartselle maze. The total length of the cave is perhaps 200 feet. The surface of the dirt floor and the walls contain no hints that the cave had been used as a habitation site, though the cave was certainly suitable for it, especially if Higginbotham had covered the entrances with cane, brush, or logs in a lean-to fashion, as pioneers who lived in "rockhouses" on the Cumberland Plateau usually did. 7 A man or a small family living briefly in the cave 180 years prior might leave few surface traces, explaining the lack of obvious evidence in the cave. However, the only way to confirm the folklore would be to examine the dirt floor using archaeological methods and techniques. Still, it is quite plausible and probable that Aaron Higginbotham actually did briefly reside in the Rockhouse, around 1807. Higginbotham was a Virginia native who apparently secured a grant from North Carolina calling for lands in Warren County, Tennessee.s He worked as a surveyor most of his life and was quite successful at it. After he surveyed the Chickamauga Path, where he discovered Higginbotham Cave, the trail was referred to as "Higginbotham's Trace" on an early map of the state. The same map also noted a newer road running south from McMinnville which he apparently surveyed, as it is designated "Higginbotham's New Turnpike." It is well-known that Journal of Spelean History, Vol. 29 No. 2 page 43 he served as county surveyor in 1823. He also received land grants as late as the 1840's, possibly as payment for services as a surveyor and route chooser.9 In addition to our image of him as an explorer driven by curiosity ,Aaron Higginbotham's use of the Rockhouse as shelter adds a practical and utilitarian aspect to his interactions with the cave environment. There were wonders .in caves, as he found in 1810, but caves were also resources which made life easier (or even possible). Of course, in the larger scheme of things, his discovery of Higginbotham Cave was.j er more important than his winter in the Rockhouse, though that event does suggest the diver$e ways people used caves in Tennessee during the period . Still, Aaron Higginbotham will be remembered mostly;.though hopefully not solely, for the discovery of the cave which bears his name, with its miles of passages, big rooms, and speleothems. This cave became locally famous during his long lifetime, so much so that a history of the state, published twenty years after his death, described it as follows: Near Collins River, seven miles from McMinnville, running into Forest Peak, is Higginbotham Cave, which consists of numerous halls and grottoes, adorned and beautified with incrustations. Some of the chambers are magnificent in their proportions, one extending over an area of seven acres. The cave is of much interest to pleasure seekers.10 Notes 1. Unfortunately, recent authors have misspelled Aaron Higginbotham's name, using an e for the second i. This error appeared in Thomas C. Barr, Caves of Tennessee (Nashville: State of Tennessee, Division of Geology, BulieUn 64, 1961) and was repeated in Larry E. Matthews, Cumberland Caverns (Huntsville, AI.: National Speleological Society, 1989). Virtually all prior records use the spelling adopted in this article. For examples, see 1836 Warren County Tax List, Tennessee State Library and Archives (TSL&A), Nashville, Tenn .; Matthew Rhea, Map of the State of Tennessee (1832), copy on display, TSL&A; Thomas L. Bailey, "Report on the Caves of the Eastern Highland Rim and Cumberland Plateau," Resources of Tennessee vol. VIII, no. 2 (Nashville: State Geological Survey, 1918) pp. 135-6; Most telling, Thomas Jefferson Barnes, the late Warren County historian who provided historical information to Ba-rr and Matthews (through Roy Davis) always used the spelling adopted in this article. Thomas Jefferson Barnes (TJBP), Tennessee Historical Society, Tennessee State Library and Archives, Nashville, Tenn., file 97 pp. 1-17. These papers contain census, tax, and family records. 2. Barr pp. 470-473; Matthews pp. 20;24. In addition to relating the discovery of Higginbotham Cave, these authors give biographical information not repeated in this article. Also see William R. Halliday M.D., DepthS of the Earth: Caves and Cavers of the United States (New York: Harper and Row, 1976) pp. 203, 205-209. 3. The author took trips to the area on 8 March, 23 August, and sometime in Ma-y, all in 1986. The Cathcart family has lived continuously in the area since at least 1850. TJBP, file 30 p. 11. 4. Barr p. 470 states that Aaron Higgenbotham [sic] "came to Warren County about 1807." This information presumably came from Thomas Jefferson Barnes, but it is not recorded in his papers. TJBP, file 97. page 44 Journal ofSpelean History, Vol. 29 No. 2 5. Aaron Higginbotham married twice. His first marriage was to Francis Christain and produced four children. Presumably she also lived in the Rockhouse, although this is conjecture. After her death Aaron married Marry Brooks Allen and produced two additional children. T JBP, file 97 p. 8. 6. The Barnes family has lived continuously in the area since at least the 1810's.