Archeological Investigations

by Gerard Fowke

Returning to the lower chamber and going back about 100 feet from the main entrance, a wall similar to the first is reached, above which is another large cave. Bats never inhabit this, and the floor is of loose dry earth. But no ray of daylight penetrates it, and as a great amount of saltpeter was made here during the War of 1812 scarcely any of the earth retains its original position. During the Civil War the floor of the lower or main cave was also dug up for making saltpeter and much of the leached earth piled in front of the cave. This acts as a dam against encroachment of the river except in the highest floods. There seems, however, to be a passage between the cavern and a spring under the river bank, for water appears on the floor as soon as it reaches the same height outside and the two surfaces maintain a constant level until the freshet subsides. On account of these facts no excavations were made.

Hardin's Cave.—Nine miles below Guntersville, on the right bank of the Tennessee, is a ferry known as Honey Landing. It is at the lower end of a steep bluff which forms the river front of a high hill or mountain, as such elevations are called here. A few feet above high-water mark a narrow ledge or shelf projects, which can be reached only from a point on the side of the hill just above the ferry. About 100 yards from here the ledge reaches a cave, which has a high and wide entrance, with ample space for several families to live on a fairly level, well lighted floor. If the cave were dry, it would be an ideal primitive home. But water continually seeps down the hill above and falls over the roof at the entrance, while a gully through the cave and several minor washes, as well as the mud spread over the floor, show that a large amount of water flows through the cave in wet seasons and covers all the floor except an area some 15 feet in diameter. This is dry on top, but would be muddy at a depth of 3 or 4 feet, the level of the bottom of the gully, so no exploration was attempted.

Welburn's Cave.—Six miles northeast of Guntersville is a cave in which many human bones have been found. It is only a burial place and could never have been used as a dwelling. The entrance, barely large enough to crawl into, is at one side of the bottom of a large sink hole due to the falling in of a cave roof. It receives all the rainfall of more than an acre and is nearly choked with mud and driftwood. It may have been somewhat larger at one time, as there is a tradition that a deer was chased through the cave, coming out at Bailey's Cave, a mile away. Within a few rods the water sinks into the earth, and the floor of the cave, rising beyond this point, is dry. It was on this dry earth, not in it, that the skeletons were found. The floor is uneven, at some places permitting a man to stand, and at others rising to within 3 feet of the roof. Explorations can not be made, as there is no method of disposing of the removed earth.

Bailey's Cave.—This cave is 7 miles northeast of Guntersville. The entrance is high and wide and there is a large, well-lighted area within; but the cave is flooded every time Town Creek gets out of its banks. Bailey's Cave is the other end of Welburn's Cave, as persons have gone through the hill from one to the other.

Barnard Cave.—This cave, which is also called Alford's and is still more commonly known as Saltpeter Cave, is on the left bank of the Tennessee 10 miles below Guntersville and opposite the Fearin property. The entrance is at the foot of a bluff overlooking a strip of bottom land a fourth of a mile wide, but the opening is above any flood that has occurred since the country was settled. At the foot of the slope is a bayou filled with Tupelo gums. Between this and the river the ground can be cultivated.

The cave is so straight and the walls so smooth as to look like an artificial tunnel. The entrance is in plain view from a point 380 feet back, and the change of direction, even at that distance, is very slight. The saltpeter miners started at the entrance and removed all the earth lying from 3 to 6 feet higher than the present floor, which is nearly level. They carried their work along the surface of a stratum of gravel, sand, and clay, which is so compact as to be difficult to remove with a pick, and seems to belong to the stream which carved out the cavern. The "face" where they quit work is 5 feet high, and the earth is quite dry, breaking down in angular fragments and separating from the walls so freely as to leave no residue on them. Its original depth at any point, however, may be very easily ascertained by noting the different tints or shading of the wall rock, the lower part, which was protected by earth, being distinctly lighter in color than that above, which was exposed to atmospheric weathering and, for a time, to the smoky torches and candles of the workmen.

The distinct lamination of the saltpeter earth, as shown in the "face," proves it to have been laid down slowly and intermittently in still water. It could not be determined whether this was due to the river in flood periods, or to a gentle stream from the interior whose volume varied in accordance with weather conditions. There is also a small channel along the top of the earth, filled with gravel and sand, as if the overflow of a stream far back in the mountain had been diverted in this direction after the laminated deposits had become dry and settled.

The walls are 10 feet apart near the entrance, but are not more than 8 feet elsewhere and in some places the width narrows to less than 3 feet. They also have an inward slope at the bottom, so the cave is either shallow or else so narrow at no great depth as to be uninhabitable. This fact, and the character of the material deposited by the ancient drainage stream, make it hopeless to expect result from exploration.

McDerment's Caves.—There are two caves 100 yards apart, in Brown's Valley, 11 miles southwest from Guntersville. The larger has a descent of 21 feet from the front to the general level of the first floor. All this part is well lighted. The drainage from several acres of the mountain side above pours over the roof at the entrance and runs down the inner slope. It has worn a gully, and the first level it reaches is quite muddy. Leaves and trash 3 or 4 inches deep are piled on and against the loose stones toward the side where the water seeks an outlet. It has worn a crooked channel along this side of the chamber, and falls into a hole which at a depth of 10 or 11 feet below the floor makes a turn and passes from sight. So it is certain that soft wet clay extends more than 30 feet below the level of the entrance. The drier deposits of this room have been extensively worked for saltpeter, and a much greater quantity of earth would have been removed but for the fact that masses of stalagmite, too thick to break off with a sledge hammer, and scores of columns, some of them 6 or 8 feet in diameter and many tons in weight, cover a considerable part of it. The first room is succeeded by several others, all of which are dry and of large size, but in total darkness, and the floors in all have been more or less disturbed in the search for niter. The general direction of the bottom is downward. The last floor is probably 50 or 60 feet lower than the entrance, and is reached by a slope on which it is difficult to retain a footing. In nearly every part the earth is covered by stalagmite, much of it so heavy that the miners could not remove it, but were compelled to dig under it as far as they could reach; and in no place is a rock floor to be seen.

The thickness of stalagmite on the floor, and the great size of the columns, is proof of their antiquity, while the depth of earth beneath must have been thousands of years in accumulating before the deposits began to cover them.