Cave Survey begins at The Caverns

The Caverns, or as cavers know it, Big Mouth Cave, is a music venue in Grundy County, Tennessee. I made my second trip there this last weekend to photograph the beginning of the survey of the cave by Sewannee Mountain Grotto members, Kyle Lassiter, Kristine Ebrey, Sue Milburn, and Martha G. Bryant. I attempted to recreate my photos from the first trip in 2015, and I include those for comparison.

2015/11/21 2020/06/14
Big Mouth Cave twilight, Grundy County, Tennessee 1
Big Mouth Cave twilight, Grundy County, Tennessee 3
Big Mouth Cave entrance, Grundy County, Tennessee 2

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Missing People Map

Image
Sometime around middle to late November of 2019, I started getting tagged in posts on Reddit and Facebook where a map purported to show a correlation between missing person cases and caves. The two maps in question were of terrible quality in both content and image quality (so very much JPG compression). Somehow these maps managed to capture the public's attention for several weeks. In fact, more than two months later I am still being asked questions about the map. What follows is a critical analysis of the maps from both a cartographer's perspective, as well as a caver's. Origin Where did each image come from that comprised the map? The top image is titled " North America Cluster Map " and is produced by the Canam Missing Project / Missing 411. I cannot comment on the methods used to produce the map since they aren't stated. For this reason I am immediately suspect that this is conveying real information. I'll touch on why the form of this ma...
Read more

Sandstone Boxwork

Image
Photo credit: Brian Solomon / @waterfall_hillbilly Photo credit: Bryan Melton Sandstone boxwork is a unusual phenomenon that we see on the margins of the Cumberland Plateau. There are three things that must happen first to produce boxwork. Jointing Mineralization Weathering Jointing Produced in a parent rock of sandstone, this type of boxwork originates as small joints which run in a box shape. The origins of these joints could be from frost wedging - where water in the rock freezes and cracks the rock, or it could unloading pressure from the rock de-watering, or it could be from some other physical process. The origins of the boxwork joints are still a bit of a mystery. If the following steps occur without previous jointing then one gets Liesegang Rings. Mineralization The joints become a place of preferential mineralization. Groundwater loaded with iron minerals moves through the pores of the sandstone. Where it finds a void, like...
Read more

Jungle Book Film (1994) and the Upper Cumberland

Image
Table of Contents The Story David Starnes's Photos April Moore's Photos Watch Guide for Locals THE STORY BEHIND WALT DISNEY'S DECISION TO FILM RUDYARD KIPLING'S JUNGLE BOOK MOVIE AT LOST CREEK CAVE AND WATERFALL A PERSONAL RECOLLECTION BY DAVID STARNES RETIRED PRINCIPAL PLANNER LOCAL PLANNING ASSISTANCE OFFICE TENNESSEE DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMIC AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT I was employed by the State of Tennessee as a community planner from October 1990 to August 2011. The Local Planning Assistance Office of the Upper Cumberland region was based in Cookeville. Our agency was in the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development, which also included the Tennessee Film Commission. Occasionally, different agencies would meet to explain their role in fostering economic growth in the state, and this was how my love for caving became entwined in the 1994 Walt Disney live-actio...
Read more