The Exploration History of the Greenbrier Valley Caves

Abstract

The earliest accounts of caves in the Greenbrier Valley document mining for saltpeter, which occurred in 23 caves at various periods from the late 1700s, through the War of 1812, and the American Civil War. Technical descriptions of the caves began in the late 1940s with the work of William E. Davies. Exploration by cavers began in the 1950s and expanded rapidly thereafter. Exploration and survey were greatly enhanced by the organization of the National Speleological Society (NSS), West Virginia Association for Cave Studies (WVACS) and the West Virginia Speleological Survey (WVASS). This chapter summarizes the overall exploration history and provides exploration details of 14 selected individual caves.