THE TEXAS CAVER ALTERNATING EDITORS Volume 38, No.3, September 1993 This Issue Oren Tranbarger 3407 Hopecrest 47 PBSS Continues Restoration San Antonio, TX 78230-3905 in Carlsbad 210-522-2710-D Gralin Coffin 210-349-5573-N FAX: 210-522-5499 49 Broken Leg Saga in Lechuguilla [email protected] [email protected] Peter Jones Next Issue 51 World Depth Records Keith Heuss Set in Cueva Cheve 3816 S. Lamar Blvd., Apt. 2307 Louise Hose Austin, TX 78704 512-385-7131-D 512-362-9574-N 52 A Regional Cave Rescue Seminar Comes to Pass Joe Ivy PROOFREADING Barbara Tranbarger 54 Nine Cave Vandals Grammatik 5 Apprehended at Ft. Stanton Cave Oren Tranbarger PRINTED BY RAINES GRAPHICS 55 The Vandalism and Restoration 471 Limestone Lane of Cave Without a Name Driftwood, TX 78619 George Veni THE TEXAS CAVER is a quarterly publication of the Texas Speleological Association (TSA), an internal organization of the National Speleological Society 58 New Owners of Bracken (NSS). Issues are published quarterly in March, June, September, and Decem ber. Bat Cave Have Big Plans Send all correspondence (other than material for The Texas Caver), subscription fees, and newsletter exchanges to: The Texas Caver, P.O. Box 8026, Austin, Texas Kurt Menking 78713. SUBSCRIPTION for The Texas Caver is $15.00 per year. For Texas cavers ,TSA 60 Report on the 11th International membership is included in the subscription fee. Single or back issues are available for $3.00 each by mail, postpaid; $2.00 each at conventions. Congress of Speleology ARTICLES AND MATERIAL for The Texas Caver should be sent to tht George and Karen Veni alternating editors listed above. The Texas Caver openly invites articles , tri r reports, photographs (35-mm slides or any size black and white or color pri nt or glossy paper), cave maps, equipment items, news events, cartoons, and/or any othe1 64 The Caves of Bexar, Comal, and caving-related material for publication. Deadline for submitting material is the 15tt Kendall Counties day of the month prior to the month of publication. George Veni © COPYRIGHT 1993 by the Texas Speleological Association. lntema organizations of NSS may reprint any item first appearing in The Texas Caver a! long as proper credit is given and a copy of the newsletter containing the materi al il 67 mailed to the proper alternating editors. Other organizations should contact th t Camera Platform proper alternating editor about reprinted materials. James F. Jasek The FRONT COVER is a combination of artwork and computer graphics. The artwork is a reproduction of a water color painting by Andy Komensky, Carlsbad. New Mexico. The painting was scanned and imported into CoreiDraw. The CAVE RESCUE: graphics and page layout were done by Blake Barr, San Antonio, Texas. Blake iS a graphics layout specialist (and a leading expert in CoreiDraw) with New Cen tury Graphics, San Antonio, Texas. Andy is a ranger at Carlsbad Caverns National Pa rk. (Collect) 210-686-0234 For the past two years, Andy has sold his paintings at TOTR. BACK COVER (Patsy Copeland, Dec. 1992). From left to right: Oren Tranbarge r. Bill Sawyer, Wayne Walker, Mike Huber, and David Files on Sentinel trip. PBSS CONTINUES RESTORATION IN CARLSBAD Permian Basin Grotto Hauls Where No Grotto Has Hauled Before November 21, 1992 By Gralin Coffin Photos by Walter Feaster Introduction Carlsbad Caverns in Southeastern New Mexico has been one of the won­ ders of the cave world since the turn of the century and remains so today with hundreds of thousands of visitors each year. The Cave Resources Office at Carlsbad Caverns National Park (CCNP) strives to better portray the cave in its natural and untouched way. Certain volunteer groups are enlisted for this purpose to restore areas of the cave that require cleanup, trash removal, and gen­ eral restoration to areas of the cave that have been changed by the human ele­ ment to make the cave more accessible for the park visitors. (Those Present at First Work Trip) Front Row: Bill Bentley, Tony Jones; Second Over the past eight years, the Cave Row: Walter Feaster, Don Carlton, Tony Greico, Terry Cargile; Third Row: Research Foundation (CRF) in coopera­ Gralin Coffin, Steve Franks, Ken Kamon; Not Pictured: Larry Gray tion with the National Speleological Society (NSS) and the National Park group of cavers, we had no idea that idea of what we were asking to do because Service (NPS) has held a week-long any would want to do what most folks of our past involvement with other projects restoration field camp for this purpose. would call hard labor, in a cave that is. with the NPS, the CRF in Carlsbad, and the In June of 1992, Walter Feaster, Bill Walter and I discussed the idea for a Texas Cave Management Association Bentley, and I attended the CRF Field couple of months and decided that (TCMA). In working with the TCMA (a Restoration Camp. Although working permission from the NPS would have conservancy of the NSS), Walter and I had ex tremely hard for a week, we felt that to be the frrst order of business. Walter previously arranged a cleanup project for this was a very worthwhile endeavor contacted Dale Pate, Cave Specialist, the Amazing Maze Cave. This is not that enabled us to give something back and Jason Richards, his assistant, with withstanding the fac! that Dale needed a to nature (the cave}, since it is so much the Cave Resources Office of the NPS lot of rock moved and whether he under­ a part of our lives. After that week of to get their thoughts on the idea. stood it or not, we were asking to do it! work, we came back to our grotto telling Granted, there had been several Tbe Job of the good times we had and the work groups of cavers in Carlsbad doing The job was easy to describe al­ we had done to help ensure that the various types of volunteer work for though it might not be easy to accomplish. beauty of the cave is preserved for future the NPS and the CRF during the week­ It involved shoveling rock into 5-gallon generations. long restoration camp for the past buckets, then into wheelbarrows, and then Project Idea several years, but this was a first for a pushing the wheelbarrows along the Although the Permian Basin Spe­ volunteer grotto. Dale and Jason knew visitor's trail (with the rock) approximately leological Society (PBSS) has a good that Walter, Bill, and I had a good 1,000 feet ( 1,600 feet round trip with the September 1993 The TEXAS CAVER 47 The Big Weekend The story begins Friday night, like any other good mystery. Walter and I got to the CRF huts at CCNP around 11:00 p.m. Bill was already there, but that was it. No problem, it was early, and there was plenty of time for the other folks to show up. Later, only three more arrived for a total of six. Bill and I were getting a little worried, so we knew Walter was a little more than that because he had set the work trip up and his name was on the line. But there was always in the morning, and at that, we finally called it a night. The next morning when we awoke, we were sure or at least hoping that cavers turned workaholics would be beating a path to our hut door. Alas, there were no workaholics or even Working on Flowstone Floor, Gralin Coffin, Terry Cargile, Tony Greico and cavers, just very cold air, a little mist, Steve Franks are Filling Buckets and Wheelbarrows. Area in Background is and it was snowing like hell to the south From Past CRF Restoration Projects. toward Guadalupe Peak. It was coming wheelbarrow). found including: ( 1) power cables; (2) a north. We knew that if the bad weather The restoration work to be accom­ water line; (3) meters and meters of persisted, the chances of getting any­ plished was a continuation of the current blasting wire used for the detonation of thing close to another six people there project started two years ago by the explosives in excavating the elevator would go down the tubes. The weather CRF. It consisted of removing rock shafts; (4) old coins; (5) an old catsup or did blow in, boy did it blow and snow. from a flowstone floor area immediate­ mustard bottle; (6) other pieces of glass; There was too much wind, however,and ly west of the present lunch room. The (7) several rock-embedded fossils; and the snow continued to the north. But the east portion of this area was the first (8) even chicken bones- yes the Cavern wind did blow in six more cavers. We "lunch room," and the remainder of the Supply Company was selling "chicken had the required caver/rock haulers, and area is believed to be flowstone floor box lunches" even back then. All these we were off to the caverns to start our with a pit in the center covered with rock items were turned over to the Park Ser­ from three to 60 feet deep. vice for possible inclusion in a future The question first asked by the exhibit for the visitor's center. people on any of the past restoration Goals crews and subsequently by a great ma­ There were to be eleven workers jority of the visitors as they pass the area on our crew for the workday on Satur­ is, "Where did all the rock come from day, November 21, 1992.