By Brian Williams
Photos By Tom Feeney

A few weeks ago, Tom Feeney discovered a new cave out in the Archer karst. He had to hack his way to the entrance and then pull out logs and brush just to get to the entrance. There was a small pool of clear water at the bottom, similar to many of the caves in that area. Most of these caves have some water but little underwater passage to speak of, with the notable exception of one very large underwater room in an undisclosed location. Tom thought we should go out there and check it out to see if the underwater part went and could push the extent of the cave as well.

Saturday, Bill Walker, Buford Pruitt, Tom Feeney and Brian Williams decided we didn’t have anything more stupid to do on a hot and humid day in Florida and so we said, “Sure, let’s go plow through some briers in the middle of an overgrown clear-cut and look at a new cave.” Oh, yea, did I mention the vultures? Stinky, loud hissing feathered nasties lurking in one recess of the upper level of the cave.

Fortunately we were able to drive fairly close to the cave as all the land is currently for sale. It’s a good thing we could drive close as it was 102 degrees according to the thermometer. You haven’t lived till you put on a wetsuit in 102 degree heat after getting covered in sweat and standing

in the middle of a humid over grown clear-cut, fabulous!

We were able to get by the little stinky friends, who were getting their flight feathers and soon would scurry forth from their underground putrid palace to begin their career in the world of rotten carcass management.

Clearing the entrance during the initial discovery

A vulture in that awkward phase of development - not quite a cute baby and not quite a gruesome adult

Tom Feeney in the water passage

Brian Williams gearing up in the hot Florida sun

Bill Walker and Brian Williams

Brian diving in the zero vis water

Bill Walker and Buford Pruitt. Here's Bill thinking to himself, "this is the most absurd thing I've ever seen."

By Mike Gordon

When Buford put out the notice that he intended to do a little stomping around the Archer cave area on Saturday I jumped at the chance to tag along. Buford grew up in that neck of the woods and is as familiar with the lay of the land out there as anyone. Checking on water levels at some locations needing surveys and

a little SRT work was what we wanted to accomplish. Of course, In my head whenever I’m ridge walking, visions of finding the “big cave” is always on the agenda.

Meeting in the center of town went well enough so off we headed to one of Buford’s longtime friends with permission to do some walking. As we prepped our packs Buford recalled some of his adventures growing up not far from where we stood. Even remembering a huge dead pine that still stood like it had when he was a youth. The area of the dead tree was the beginning of our trek.

Walking through the woods as a child was always a learning experience for me. My Dad was a scout master who took every opportunity to share his knowledge of the outdoors. Pointing out subtle nuances around the wilderness always held my attention. I found myself once again on a nature walk with a purpose learning new things whenever we stopped for a rest.

The hike was strenuous, hot and humid, with hip high vines and sticker bushes taking their toll. After a few quick checks on the compass we headed for the area of interest. The water levels we found were even higher then the last time Buford made it out there. It didn’t matter to me. The region we were in had karst features peppered throughout. We checked on quite a few. While locating a cave Sean and he began mapping on a previous trip, I stumbled on an opening in the ground in the shape of a letter slot, maybe a little bigger. After showing Buford we decided it was small and obscure enough not to have been entered prior to this. It was tight and pitched at an awkward angle. Staging my helmet was a must for the first 8 or 9 feet. My first step on the bottom at 10 feet allowed me to turn and stand to see a small cave with a foot of water covering the floor. The opposite wall was a few strides away. It wasn’t the “big cave” that’s always in my head but it was well worth the squeeze. I’d like to return to map and survey it to be sure of its cave status. Buford and I collaborated on a name once the survey is done. I’m hoping he’ll join me this winter to tend to it.

So on we pushed to “Watch Cave”. This is a pretty little cave. The water was way up. As Buford tied off the rope and rebelay, I donned my

gear anxious to see this one. Not much of a rappel but a necessary one onto a ledge almost water level. As I skirted a column and amused myself in the cave looking at the formations and odd twists and turns of the passages Buford patiently waited topside. I climbed out not bothering with my rope walker and secured my gear. After a few more checks we headed back to our starting point. Our conversations were easy and without idle chatter. The hike was tough but fruitful. Though most of our day was spent doing leg lifts through the undergrowth we decided to take Jerry up on his offer to do some checking out his way. Jerry and Cheryl always go out of there way to make their guests feel welcome as was the case again. We headed east of his property with some easier hiking ahead. I believe the last of our energy drained away while sitting by a small frog pond in the woods.

It was a good day. Nothing remarkable happened. I still have to search for the “big cave.” The one we found isn’t big enough to stop looking. But it was a good day. Thanks Buford, for sharing some of your knowledge and friendship with me. Count me in on the next journey.

Buford Pruitt, Jr.
June 22, 2005

A week or so ago a friend called saying that she read about a lot for sale in newspaper classifieds that had the words, “cave on property.” She called me and, because it was in the Archer area and I knew that The Karst Conservancy was interested in acquiring such properties, I called Bill Walker. He set up a meeting with the seller but then had a conflict and asked me to meet the seller. Beth and I met the seller on site earlier today (June 22, 2005), and the landowner led me around the property where I obtained data on three karst features for the Florida Cave Survey.

The 8-acre property is quite karstic, and flanks the eastern side of the Newberry extension of Brooksville Ridge, in roughly the same geological setting as the Archer Caves that are further south. (Just because this site is adjacent to the town of Archer, doesn’t mean that it

is in the Archer Caves region, you see).

The first feature is a 30ft wide by 4ft deep convex sinkhole that appears inactive, but on one side of it is a recently opened shaft (1,5ft – 2ft wide) that drops down about 8ft and then

pinches off in the direction of the center of the sinkhole. The shaft is completely surfaced in marbled cream-and-red clay, as is the bottom of the shaft, without a trace of limestone evident. Presumably, over time the clay would wash off whatever rock is covered. This feature is within a recently cleared portion of the property, and may have opened up as a result of bulldozing operations.

The second karst feature is a genuine solution pipe approximately 4ft wide by 12ft deep, and is further back in the woods, beautiful woods, with parson’s-pulpit and other wildflowers, dense ferns around rock outcrops and karst features, and a species-rich mesic forest dominated by live oak and pignut hickory. I descended the solution pipe and found that it, too, was closed at the bottom. There were several 4-inch-high horizontal alcoves just above the bottom of the pipe that extended a short distances (3ft – 4ft) into the rock. One of these had a

woodrat (Neotoma floridana) nest

just beyond the drip line.

The third karst feature is a long, winding sinkhole that is fairly large and extends off-site to the west. On the property, at the east edge of the sink, is a cavern entrance. I hesitate to call it a cave, because… The entrance is a very narrow crack in the rock that

I can squeeze into just far enough to see a closet-sized room that is

large enough to stand up in. At the north end of that room is a cantalope-sized opening in cobbles that might go if dug or pushed. The crack was almost big enough for me to get through; possibly, smaller cavers can pass the entrance restriction. This entrance is a crack in bedrock above and below, so some bang would be needed to make it large enough for most cavers. Incidentally, there was another woodrat nest at this entrance.

I believe the landowner would be willing to allow smaller cavers to try pushing the third feature, and suspect he would also be willing to allow some minor explosives used to gain entry. If anyone is interested in either, contact me and I will set it up for you.

Evidently, Bill struck a chord in conversation with the landowner regarding conservation easements. The landowner had been approached by a developer who wanted to carve out 16 lots on this 8-acre parcel, but the owner was having nothing doing with that plan. He wanted very low density residential out there; i.e., a single residence on the lot. Thus, he is very interested in placing some sort of easement over the land to keep it from being cleared or subdivided. Cavers ARE making a difference! Keep up the good work, Bill.

By Buford Pruitt, Jr.

Annette and Danny Brinton, James Brown, Peggy Young and I visited some of the Archer Caves on April 9, 2005. Our primary goals were to visit Watch Cave and survey Possum Pipes Cave. James and Peggy live nearby and were interested in seeing both caves for the first time, and the Brintons and I were planning to survey Possum Pipes. Sean Roberts had intended to join us to finish the survey of Watch Cave but was unable to do so.

We met at Peggy’s house and walked south to the area where Watch Cave is located and spent a little while searching for it. I had forgotten a few details of the route, but when a flash of memory returned I was able to walk directly to it. I had told everyone that SRT would not be necessary so no one brought SRT gear, but I was wrong, SRT is indeed needed, so I didn’t get to show them the cave. Oh well.

Retracing our steps, we hiked back to Possum Pipes and, yep, had a little trouble re-finding that cave, too. But find it we did and we all explored the entrance area of the cave. At that point Peggy and James left us as they had other plans for the remainder of the day. I pulled out my surveying gear and we began the survey, but we didn’t get far. I had only sketched the entrance area and we had surveyed 5 stations when it became apparent that the remainder of the cave had sumped. Oh well.

There was nothing we could do but go looking for a cave with AIR in it, so we wandered around and found six other karst features worth noting. One, named Not Today, is a 19ft pit requiring SRT gear, which as I said we didn’t have that day.

Another feature is a solution pipe plastered with slick mud that inspired me to name it Mud Pipey, sort of after Mudpuppy (Peter Michaud), the well-known TAG caver. Mud Pipey is a narrow solution pipe averaging perhaps 2 feet wide or less from the surface to about 10 feet down, at which point it has a very tight restriction that could be composed of either mud or bedrock. We determined that we would need SRT gear to descend to it in order to determine which.

The last hole in the ground we checked out was a small joint-controlled cave with two entrance pits and a skylight. It met the Florida Cave Survey’s definition of a cave so we did a Grade 5 survey of it. The cave contained some vertebrate bones including turtle, deer, pig and the horn from a skull believed to be a water buffalo. Unsure if there is already a Horn Cave in Florida, we named it Horn Bone Cave to ensure a unique name. We were able to survey all but a single water-filled passage in 7 survey stations for a total horizontal length of 63ft and a vertical extent of 13 ft. The cave has a few nice formations, including some really pretty ones that Danny found in a tiny alcove in the ceiling of the southern passage that you have to climb up to in order to see.

Fortunately, all the caves and pits mentioned are on the Goethe State Forest property and therefore will be protected for the foreseeable future.

Photos By Sean Roberts

On December 4, 2004, Adam Scherer, Jen, Buford Pruitt

and Sean Roberts surveyed the cave on a long time FSS member’s property. The cave, located in the Archer Cave area, was unknown to cavers until the property was recently purchased. One of the highlights of the trip was Adam being chased by a killer Emu.

By Buford Pruitt

Nov. 13, 2004 – 80-acre tract. Peggy Young reported that the landowner had mellowed a lot since the October field trip, so she, James Brown, Rick Reynolds, James Morris, and Buford Pruitt went back to the landowner’s third tract. The tract is a pasture grazed by water buffalo. The purposes of today’s trip were to see if any caves could be found and if there were any sinkholes that needed trash cleaned out.

This tract is mostly open pasture with occasional scattered trees and clumps of trees, a fringe of trees along its south side, and a 500 – 1000ft band of trees along its north side. Many of the isolated trees and tree clumps in the field mark the locations of sinkholes. Coming toward the tract from the south, on DEP land (Goethe Tract), is a karst slough that heads NNE from a small pond (doline) centered appx ¼ mile south of the tract’s south property line. Much of the east half of the property is a 70ft “plateau.”

There are two obvious lineaments of sinkholes stretching from the south to the north property lines, both in gentle west-facing concave curves that are sub-parallel. The easterly lineament extends from the northern tip of the off-site karst slough. Both lineaments pass through the “plateau,” so
possibly there are caves associated with one or both of the lineaments.

We excavated rocks and water buffalo bones from three of the most promising sinkholes, two that were in the east lineament and the third in the west lineament. All three excavations revealed fissures that narrowed in cross-section down to widths of only a few inches, none of which appeared
passable by cavers without dynamite enlargement, and even then it does not appear that any of the fissures lead to cave passage.

One small sink a few feet away from the east property fence line near the middle of the field is filled with railroad ties and fence posts, on top of which is a rusted steel trailer. The trailer is heavy, so any attempt to remove the trash would first require the trailer be hauled off. Peggy said she knows someone who might come get it, and I asked her to see if she could get that done. Even with the trash removed, I doubt this is an active sinkhole because it appears to have a shallow, concave cross-section.

There is one scenic sinkhole appx 75ft in diameter and 15ft+ deep that has a rock face on its west side, at the base of which is a potential dig. This will require a half-dozen or so people and serious effort, and I doubt it would be a productive endeavor.

One interesting thing: I saw a hollow tree with a large

hole at its base, and wondered if there might be any bats roosting in it for the day, so I lay on my back and stuck my head in the cavity and shined a flashlight up into it. There were no bats, but in the very top of the cavity, about 5ft above
my head, was a baby corn snake (Elaphe guttata guttata). Cool! On the way back to James’ house after the day’s wanderings were completed, an indigo snake (Drymarchon corais couperi) was seen crossing the sandhill dirt road on Peggy’s land. Rick and I weren’t present, unfortunately. Jimmy said that it had two small orange spots on its chin. Usually the orange “phase” indigo has an orange chin, not just spots. Cool!

October 13, 2004 – 65-acre tract. Present were Peggy Young, James Brown, William Walker, Stephanie Juiliano, Sean Roberts, Rebecca Roberts, Brandon Roberts, Thomas Feeney, Rebecca Dettorre, Brian Williams, and Buford Pruitt, Jr. The tract is a pasture grazed by water buffalo.

We met the landowners at their house on Levy County in the morning to look for caves and assess for cleanup several sinkholes on the 65-acre tract. The purposes of today’s trip were to see if any caves could be found and if there were any sinkholes that needed trash cleaned out.

This tract is mostly open pasture with occasional scattered trees and clumps of trees, fringes of trees along its east and south sides, and a wider band of trees along its west and north sides. We found numerous small sinkholes but no caves. Several relatively new sinkholes were centrally-located within the open field, containing clear aquifer water (the water table here is the top of the unconfined Floridan Aquifer), steep to vertical sides of dirt, with some limestone visible.

There was a promising sinkhole next to the County Road that had been used as a field rock dump. We moved some of the rocks and determined that it would require a lot of dirt removal to go any further. This sink has nicely defined solution pipe walls. It also contains farm trash (steel cans, fence wire, etc.).

Near the middle of the west edge of the tract is a limestone “well.” I cannot tell if it is a natural solution pipe or if it was dug out by residents. It is about 20ft deep and goes to water, and has an old board platform around it that I guess people used to stand on to fetch water.

A little to the north of the well is a series of three 15ft+ deep, 50ft+ wide sinkholes oriented roughly N-S in a line appx 300-400ft long. Much farm trash has been dumped in one (?) of these sinkholes. Betty was especially interested in getting the trash hauled out of that sink. We told her that the county might bring in a dumpster, and if so the FSS might be willing to clean it out for them.

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October 13, 2004 – 80-acre tract. Present were William Walker, Stephanie Juiliano, Sean Roberts, Rebecca Roberts, Brandon Roberts, Rebecca Dettorre, Brian Williams, Adam Scherer and Jen. Thomas Feeney was present but spent the whole time lying sick in his van from the strange
illness he had contracted several weeks before in Blackfoot Cave (Alachua County). The tract is a pasture grazed by water buffalo. The purposes of today’s trip were to see if any caves could be found and if there were any sinkholes that needed trash cleaned out.

After looking over most of the property, we located Ann’s Cave. It was one-third full of water, and I was the only one willing to get wet up to my thighs exploring it. After leaving Ann’s Cave, the landowner drove up. We

were not expecting to see him and he was not expecting to see us, even
though I had told him several times that we were going to visit that tract when we were through with the 65-acre tract. Several members of our entourage panicked and ran when they saw his car, which, coupled with his

surprise at seeing us there, caused him to become anxious and unhappy, and
he chewed me out royally. I want to thank Brian Williams for the kind sympathy he gave me afterward. Bill and Sean and I succeeded in calming the landowner down, but by that time we were peeved and decided to leave the property. I believe there are no other caves on this tract, and there are no sinkholes needing cleaned out.