30 Million Year Old Smoky Mountain Cave!

originally posted by: Snarl
a reply to: TNMockingbird

You've got the longest cave system in the world just north of ya. Walked one of the easier guided tours there and had a very good experience.

In my younger years I enjoyed exploring caves while submerged.

I know, I am so lame!
It is only 2 1/2 hours away!
I always wind up at the beach for extended trips but I really should change that.
As long as I'm outside doing something...

originally posted by: esteay812
a reply to: Missmissie173
Oh yeah, I have some ideas. There is so much to do here that it's not hard to figure something out. I'd like to do a "Missing in the Mountains" video that details some of the mysterious cases of people vanishing into thin air. My next video may be more to do with the Appalachian Mountain settlers and how they lived. Either way, it's a lot of fun making them and coming here to talk about them.

Don't know if you take requests ...
...but if you felt like soliciting votes for which of the two ideas above you do first - the "Missing in the Mountains" one would get my vote..

Okay, I suppose I should admit that there is actually somewhat of an 'agenda' to my post -

--Everyone please forgive my interruption/intrusion of the thread to explain the following--

OP please forgive me as I impose 'too much information' in order to express why I would be extremely grateful if you happen to choose this particular subject matter for your next video..

As briefly as possible:
I have been wanting to do an 'Appalachian Mountain' driving/scenic sights, etc. trip in the Fall ...my husband is all for it, but my 18 year old daughter is significantly lacking in interest...

...However; if you did your video on "mysterious cases" - perhaps even expanding beyond "people vanishing" to 'spooky stuff/places' in general - well, seeing the video would make the trip a huge enticement for my daughter, as we share an interest in that type of thing..

*Now comes the 'tug on your heartstrings' part*

*She's my one and only child;
*I've actually sort of 'missed out' on a lot of her life due to suffering severe Clinical Depression with Chronic Fatigue since her birth;
*AND in just 7 short months (Jan. 2018) she leaves for a special college program which will keep her away from home for eighteen months straight (!) while she earns a degree in Zoo Keeping..

Sssoooooo - given the above, I'm sure you can understand why I am very keen on the idea of convincing my daughter to go on this trip with us before going away to school..

---Okay, apologies again for 'highjacking' the thread and especially for doing so with such a manipulative narrative

And please feel free to ignore the whole thing - honestly, no hard feelings, I promise!

originally posted by: esteay812
a reply to: Miracula2

That's a nightmare scenario for sure. I know a lot of people like to do the underwater caving, but I just don't think I could ever do it. Scares the crap out of me just thinking about it. I really don't like to even watch someone else doing it.

Yeah. Unfortunately kids don't rationalize the dangers like oxygen depletion. They should have sealed that cave off long before those kids died. Some adults should have heard that story about that cave those kids like to visit and realized...oh oxygen deprivation in that cave. We should seal that off.

a reply to: lostgirl

Is she into the spooky stuff? I've been thinking about doing the mysterious one for a while, the only problem is that the sites are pretty far apart for each case and most of them are several mile hikes to each location. I'd like to do it before it gets too hot outside though.

I'll do a little more research and see what I can come up with.

originally posted by: esteay812
a reply to: Sillyolme

I like the Shenandoah Valley, beautiful area.

They turned off the lights in this one and it is absolute black. My eyes still played tricks on me and made me think I could see my eyelids when I would blink.

TNmock was telling me about Bluegrass Underground, where they have concerts, a few posts above. It's pretty cool to learn that there are places where the caves are used for entertainment like this. It would be pretty neat to go to one to see how everything looks and sounds different inside.

Oh yeah, they warned us about touching the formations. They said the oils and acids would turns the formations' appearance to a dull and more fragile state. I've wondered how many kids playing in a place like this may have broken down some 20-30k year old formation and used it as a toy rifle. Sounds like something I would've done as a kid, lol.

I'd love to go spelunking through caves. We once went on one of the cave tours in the Brecon Beacons in Wales. Went down deep into a cave system with stalagmites, stalagtites and huge caverns. They did the switching off all the lights and it was complete darkness. Not room dark where there's a little light from the night sky, but completely thick suffocating darkness.

originally posted by: stormcell

originally posted by: esteay812
a reply to: Sillyolme

I like the Shenandoah Valley, beautiful area.

They turned off the lights in this one and it is absolute black. My eyes still played tricks on me and made me think I could see my eyelids when I would blink.

TNmock was telling me about Bluegrass Underground, where they have concerts, a few posts above. It's pretty cool to learn that there are places where the caves are used for entertainment like this. It would be pretty neat to go to one to see how everything looks and sounds different inside.

Oh yeah, they warned us about touching the formations. They said the oils and acids would turns the formations' appearance to a dull and more fragile state. I've wondered how many kids playing in a place like this may have broken down some 20-30k year old formation and used it as a toy rifle. Sounds like something I would've done as a kid, lol.

I'd love to go spelunking through caves. We once went on one of the cave tours in the Brecon Beacons in Wales. Went down deep into a cave system with stalagmites, stalagtites and huge caverns. They did the switching off all the lights and it was complete darkness. Not room dark where there's a little light from the night sky, but completely thick suffocating darkness.

Oh i did that too in the Big Bone Cave on the Cumberland Plateau near the Smoky's and it was damned creepy to turn out the lights. Big Bone is a dry cave however and was used for a Salt Peter mine. Near me are some good caves in KY with wonderful cathedral ceilings and such. Cave animals like pack rats and scorpions are a bit strange but the blind catfish are pretty nice to see too.

a reply to: esteay812

I'll be living not too far from there, in south-central Tennessee by the end of the summer...

It's one of the things that convinced me to move with some of my family to the area. The history. I've never spelunked in my life, but it's something I'd like to at least look into.

a reply to: esteay812

Cool video. Thanks for sharing it.

a reply to: seagull

I think you'll love the area. You can get pretty much anywhere in a day drive and the Smoky Mountains have just about everything, except the beach.

Fascinating places and like being in another world. Did some cave exploring when I was much younger and it's best described as underground rock climbing unless you're in a commercialised one with fixed lighting and constructed walkways which takes much of the adventure aspect out of it. The less accessible caves (say 100'+ abseil to enter and wire ladder to exit) are where you'll see the most untouched formations although vandals will go to extreme measures to destroy in hours what nature spent millenia building.

The issue of danger in bat caves: there are a number of cases of cavers getting sick and even some fatalities due to histoplasmosis from inhaling fungus spores when piles of bat guano are disturbed so caves with large bat populations need special caution (avoidance is best). Golden rule is don't stir up the crap if you must explore there.

a reply to: Pilgrum

When I was a teenager I would've gone into a strange cave and tried to explore. Now I just try to avoid unnecessary danger. There's a lot of stuff that can make you sick or kill you and most of it doesn't even look dangerous at first.

The tour guide showed us where they first entered the cave. It was just a small opening with about a 25' drop. They threw ropes over a rock sticking out and scaled down. They didn't have electric lighting, it must've been pretty dark and spooky. It's amazing some of the crazy stuff we'll do when we have a friend or two with us.

a reply to: esteay812

Yes, she and I are both 'into spooky stuff'...though, "several mile hikes" might be pretty problematic, as I'm 53 and not the best health..

I can see why that would be a difficult video to put together at this time of year, it is going to get too warm for extended hikes pretty soon..

You're so sweet to reply so nicely, I felt like an idiot the morning after posting all that!!

I really enjoy your videos, as my mother was born and raised in the Sevierville, TN area (her granddad was Jonas Ogle - you probably know a lot of his kin), and I grew up visiting there every year at Thanksgiving and some summers as well..


P.S. For those who enjoy movies about Smoky Mountain history, I highly recommend "Songcatcher" with Janet Mcteer and Aiden Quinn...

...The plot and characters are fictional, but the 'history' part, regarding the discovery in the early 1900s, that the people of the Smoky Mountains retained remnants of old English folk songs (such as "Barbara Allen") that had been thought completely lost to time, is true..

Lovely movie and very scenically shot..

never heard of this place, I'm going up to the smokies for our anniversary so we'll stop by there and see them in person.

a reply to: xstealth

You guys will love it. The video is cool, but it is nothing like seeing it in person.

a reply to: lostgirl

I did a bit of looking around and have a couple of ideas. Coincidentally, what I found doesn't require any hiking or anything outside of normal sightseeing. I'll see what it will take to make the video, should be fairly easy.

a reply to: esteay812

Is this from a movie or something? The earth is only 6000 years old.

a reply to: Winstonian



I've got food in my fridge that's older than that...just sayin'.

a reply to: Winstonian

Not sure if serious. . .

I haven't done any scientific research, but - through firsthand experience, I can say for a fact that it's at least 4 days old.

a reply to: esteay812

Or is it?

We may have all gotten out of bed this morning, and it may be the very first day of the existence of the universe. Al of our "memories" may be falsely generated into our minds. We might have popped into existence as of 20 minutes ago. We might actually not exist at all, and might be contained within one second of computer code. How can we trust our memory, our eyes, our senses?

We might be living inside of a dream, and this is the only day we have, had, or will have.

a reply to: esteay812

Oh wow! That's great!!!

I'll look forward to seeing it!