LARSON'S WELL, THE MAKING OF A CLASSIC

Despite all the good trips that were leaving the Cave-in, on Saturday, October 8, I managed to lure a crew consisting of Chris Hudson, John Adler, and Harald Anderson to look for Orme Pit # 1. We were equipped with a better point than I had back in 1992. It didn't take long for us to find it. The pit is a mostly freefall 96 foot blind shaft. Our plan was to do the pit then head across the valley to Waterworks Cave but when we got back to the vehicles, my friend Little Wayne Godsby was home at his trailer near the parking area. I talked to Little Wayne for a while about life in Orme and going to Waterworks Cave. Just as we were about to leave, he told me about a man up the "haller" that had a deep hole that he might want checked out.

After getting directions to Mr. M.C. Larson's house and a warning that he was old and a little funny to get along with, we walked up into Payne Cove to the end of the road. Mr. Larson was sitting outside his rustic house in an old chair under a mulberry tree. We found him to be rather pleasing. He indeed did have a hole that he had known about for thirty years. He told us that it was 200 ft deep and had a lake at the bottom. How many times have we heard that, I thought. After looking at all of us, he said he didn't think we would fit. I convinced him that we were skinnier that we looked. Being 70 years old and with steel hip parts, he had no trouble climbing the mountain to the area. I recognized the contact and started looking on my own. I basically walked right to the small sink. Everyone showed up after I bowed them down.

Mr. Larson was right, the crack in the bottom of the shallow sink was only six inchs wide and 6 ft long. There wasn't a rats-ass-chance-in-hell that we would fit. Harald is one skinny man and he couldn't even get his butt cheeks into the crack. We dropped our first rock down; there was a significant delay before we heard an echoing boom and splash. Talking about exited! We dropped rock after rock down the pit. We could even see the lake at the bottom with a wheat lamp. There was one major problem, we could see that the crack was too narrow for 15 ft before it belled out to 40 ft in diameter. Blasting would be the only way. I knew just the man for the job. Before we left, we did the only digging we could do with a hammer. We also tied the two ropes we had together with a rock on one end and lowered the rock to the bottom and hand-stroked the rope as it was pulled out. Our hand-stroked figure was 150 ft.

I talked to Mr. Larson about blasting. He had done plenty of time in the old coal mines of Orme, so blasting was no problem to him. Besides, he wanted to know what was at the bottom as bad as we did. Before we left the cove, we located two other caves that he had told us about. Larson's Spring Cave was 60 feet long and 25 feet vertical and Home Brew Cave was 60 feet long and 30 feet vertical.

Back at the Cave-in, the story circulated quickly. I for one being a blabbermouth, told all my blabbermouth friends and before long we not only had our blaster but a cast-o-thousands to help. The rain that began Sunday morning wimpered all but eleven of the truely crazed. Andy Porter, Chris Hudson, John Adler, Harald Anderson, Jerry Reeves, Marion Smith, Maury Benamy, Shawna Owen, Jim Smith, Doug Strait and I were equipped with tarps and other rain protection. Jim was going to use his gasoline powered drill with 9 and 18 inch drill bits to make the shot holes and the wonder powder to make a classic. It rained about half of the day. A total of six blast echoed down upper Doran Cove. Hours were spent cleaning shattered rock between each blast. Jim is so good with his technique that we were going down about 18 inchs at a time. At the end of the day, the right wall was large enough for nine feet. We were not only out of time, but out of blast.

Andy, Doug, Jim and I spent the night near the Sinkhole. Monday was Columbus Day so we had the day off. Jim had to drive to Chattanooga to buy some more blast. He met us at Russell Cave around 1100am. We stopped and chatted with Little Wayne and Mr. Larson for a while before we headed up the mountain. They were going to join us after a bit. Andy worked on the hole before Jim stated drilling. While Jim was drilling, Little Wayne and Mr. Larson showed up with a bag full of Diet Pepsi and a tall Budweiser for Mr. Larson. Jim did three more flawless blast that barely made Mr. Larson flinch as he told us very entertaining stories about the old days and coal mining.

After one more hour of wall cleaning, I got my gear on and rapelled though the narrow spot and into the huge void. We had made a freefall classic that we taped at 161 feet! I landed on the edge of the large pool. I stepped into the continuing canyon and yelled off rope and to bring more rope. Jim was the next down. A walking canyon went about 30 feet to a pit that looked to be 40 feet deep. Water issued from the left wall and made the next pit wet. Jim found a rig point and yelled as he rapelled through the waterfall. We taped the pit at 39 feet. Andy and Doug were quickly down and we began scooping the continuing canyon. Jim was in front as I improved the passage behind him. Within 150 feet, the narrow canyon began to drop as we encountered climbdowns of 4, 7, and 8 feet into a large room with massive breakdown on the floor. Jim, Doug, and Andy continued into the big room and I investigated where the water was going. I cleared some breakdown and found a 25 foot pit. We didn't have any more rope so I began looking for a climbdown bypass. After finding a route that looked like it would work, I joined the rest of the crew in the big room. I found the skeleton of a small carnivore, most likely a weasel or mink like animal, in the passage that Jim and Andy were in.

We never found a way out of the room so we went back to my lead. A 20 foot climbdown reached the bottom of the 25 foot pit. At the bottom, there were some massive sandstone boulders, that most likely originated from the surface ravine, that formed a 15 foot climbdown to a point where the water went into a way too tight, rubble-filled crack. After that, we began our journey out. Doug checked out an upclimb in the 150 foot long canyon, that connected back to the 39 foot pit, about 25 feet up. We pushed the most obvious passages, but the cave was by no means totally pushed. Chris Hudson's mapping project may yield a way on. Our official estimate on the depth is 265 feet, with a length of 400 feet. The cave continues over 100 feet below the valley floor.

Mr. Larson was very pleased to find out what he had. I provided him some pictures of his cave. The pit is a true classic, even if we did have to improve the first 13 feet. In a couple of years, only the most astute will recognize it as a blast site. As a general precaution, everyone who does the pit should be aware that it is a blast site and the possibility of rock fall does exist. We worked for many hours to prevent this. Don't get flatrocked, REMOVE any loose rock that you see. We have only one request from Mr. Larson. He wants the pit covered after each use. We have provided an old cedar tree top that should be placed in the hole. Lets keep this now friendly landowner happy. Chris Hudson completed the survey several trips later. His reduced data revealed the cave to be 270 feet deep and a horizontal extent of 403 feet. The cave went to near base level very quickly. The survey did not produce a way out of the big room. I am still convenced that there is a major cave type drain in Payne Cove, Larson's Well could still be the way in.

Larsons Well Map