Organ Cave, Pocahontas County, WV
I visited this cave during the Old Timers Reunion (Labor Day weekend, 2001) in Randolph County, WV. Seven of us drove the 2.5 hours south to the cave and what a fun drive it was. The roads are really twisty and due to drug interaction, I got to hold up everyone several times while I vomited along the roadside. I had scratched my cornea the night before and stopped at the med tent for some help. They gave me some sort of pain killer which I think might have been Demoral. Three hours later, Alan woke me up and said we were leaving in a half hour and since my eye still hurt, I took a few Ibuprofen tablets. Soon, I was sick. By the time we got to the cave I decided that I would attempt the excursion rather than sit around for hours while everyone else went exploring. I felt fine after getting into the cave.
This cave is said to have over 38 miles of passage so far. It's so extensive that surveying and leads continue to be pursued on a regular basis. We stopped at a store to make copies of a few pages of the 50 page map. As it turns out, we only needed 4 pages to navigate during the 5 hours we were inside.
On the trip were Alan Horn (which had been here once before), Dan Johnston, Harry Sowers, Paul Lubaczewski, Leslie Lubaczewski, George Bange and me. Once again, I send my apologies to these folks for my sickness and need for repetitive and urgent stops along the way.
This group picture was taken in a fairly confined area with lots of formations around us. The area is called Treasure Passage and rightfully so. The ribbons behind us are magnificent and the thousands of helectites and soda straws in this area are amazing. (It looks as though I am leaning toward Dan a bit far but I was actually behind him trying to keep from blocking Harry out of the picture.) Here are some photos:
 |
This particular picture was taken because of the helectite
in the right middle which resembles the image of the devil. From a
closer perspective the image becomes less apparent.
This is god's work anyway.
|
(Click on this thumbnail for an enlarged view of these spectacular ribbons.)
There are quite a few narrow, crawling tunnels we took in order to get to the Treasure Room. It's surprising passage for a WV cave but there were formations and interesting things to see along the way too.
 |
Left and below: This is chert in the ceiling. The very
interesting part is that there was this layer about 2 inches thick of
chert curds all at the same layer in the ceiling. Where the layer
spanned more than 16 inches or so, the chert had fallen away in the
middle. It apparently doesn't support it's own weight very well.
|
Ever seen a gypsum flower? I hadn't before this trip. Here are
two that I spotted on the way out.
 Harry
stopped, looked up and saw this shape in a crevice in the ceiling.
He pointed out that it looks like a T-Rex. |
 It
appears as though Harry has a third arm and hand at his chin but that's
just Alan trying to back light Harry for this photo. Although the
back lighting didn't work, the picture was intended to and does show the
shape of this passage: wide at the bottom, narrow at shoulder height and
wide above our heads. This continued for a few hundred feet. |
 |
The Pendulum Room is named for this chunk of rock which appears to have broken loose from the ceiling but got stuck as it tried to fall. This didn't happen while we were in the cave.
E-mail me if you like these photos or have questions.