Capshaw Spring

Deanna Lack, Stephen Hewett, and myself got to hang out with the awesome cave diver, Jason Richards a few weeks ago. Here's a little about what he did, and some of the photos we each took.

I set up the access for Jason's dive so that he may make the connection from the 'blue hole' (resurgence, at the upstream end) at The Canal in Cookeville to Capshaw Cave. But his dive may have raised more questions than it gave us answers.

His dive went a length of 780 feet before he came up in walking borehole. By the description I had provided him of Capshaw Cave, he though he was in there, tied his line off, and returned. After mapping his dive out, it looked as if he was still several hundred feet short of reaching Capshaw Cave. The only way to prove he was there was to go to the downstream sump in the cave and look for Jason's dive line. I've been too busy between work and school to go check on this, but I finally recruited Stephen DeTroye to make the check. Jason did not make it into the known trunk of Capshaw Cave.

Since this is now a "separate" cave, Jason is turning this into the Tennessee Cave Survey as Capshaw Spring. However, we have little doubt that more work in this system will connect it to Capshaw, Stinkhole (Trash Compactor) and perhaps Red Kap.

At the moment, I am of the opinion that the borehole Jason found was trending towards Red Kap Cave.

Jason Richards, Capshaw resurgence, The Canal, Putnam County, Tennessee 1 Cave Dive Papparazzi img834a Cave Dive Capshaw resurgence, The Canal, Putnam County, Tennessee 2 _DSC8813 Capshaw resurgence, The Canal, Putnam County, Tennessee 1

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