misswired
Absent Comrade
Back in the early 70's the Boy Scouts of America in this area had a troop in almost every small community. Moving across this small community, a friend suggested, since our troop was declining....we should join another local troop.
One of the first adventures was a trip to explore (New) Fern Cave. The scuttlebutt in the meetings were the troops desire to find,,the up until then discovery of one of the many formation rooms. This cave was miles long and three levels deep....we, as young scouts only explored the entrance level.... the scoutmaster would stop at a corridor and send two scouts to explore it looking for a formation room... On the way out of the cave(almost back to the entrance) I complained that Lantry and myself, being new members hadn't got to explore a corridor. Mr. Drake stops the troop and says OK,, y'all explore this one.... yep we found the only formation room this troop ever laid eyes on. It had signs posted on how these formations were ancient, and any small ripple disturbance of the water would upset natures work.... and requested that carbide from the carbide lights not been be dumped in the formation room. We troops were in a state of reverence ..
Had great pleasure reminiscing this with our old scoutmaster this week. He said the cave was closed to the public after the love and respect of nature was lost and the formation rooms were being destroyed. Said the crystal clear water with cow-paddy formations was muddied as a wading pool on his last visit. He also said the government caving authorities had moved the home office from Washington to Huntsville Al years ago due to the local abundance of caves.
One of the first adventures was a trip to explore (New) Fern Cave. The scuttlebutt in the meetings were the troops desire to find,,the up until then discovery of one of the many formation rooms. This cave was miles long and three levels deep....we, as young scouts only explored the entrance level.... the scoutmaster would stop at a corridor and send two scouts to explore it looking for a formation room... On the way out of the cave(almost back to the entrance) I complained that Lantry and myself, being new members hadn't got to explore a corridor. Mr. Drake stops the troop and says OK,, y'all explore this one.... yep we found the only formation room this troop ever laid eyes on. It had signs posted on how these formations were ancient, and any small ripple disturbance of the water would upset natures work.... and requested that carbide from the carbide lights not been be dumped in the formation room. We troops were in a state of reverence ..
Had great pleasure reminiscing this with our old scoutmaster this week. He said the cave was closed to the public after the love and respect of nature was lost and the formation rooms were being destroyed. Said the crystal clear water with cow-paddy formations was muddied as a wading pool on his last visit. He also said the government caving authorities had moved the home office from Washington to Huntsville Al years ago due to the local abundance of caves.
