texascavers Digest 21 Nov 2010 14:06:19 -0000 Issue 1197
texascavers Digest 21 Nov 2010 14:06:19 - Issue 1197 Topics (messages 16545 through 16547): Super-secret 'bat bomb' project from So. Texas caves might have ended WW II : 16545 by: JerryAtkin.aol.com 16546 by: Don Cooper 16547 by: wa5pok Administrivia: To subscribe to the digest, e-mail: texascavers-digest-subscr...@texascavers.com To unsubscribe from the digest, e-mail: texascavers-digest-unsubscr...@texascavers.com To post to the list, e-mail: texascavers@texascavers.com -- ---BeginMessage--- Super-secret 'bat bomb' project from So. Texas caves might have ended WW II Randy Beamer Published: 11/19 9:41 pm Updated: 11/20 2:47 pm KAPOW! It was a super-secret project that was developed and researched in San Antonio and South Texas during World War II. And as I discovered, it's still a big mystery today even to some top San Antonio historians. I stumbled onto this story of one of the strangest episodes in San Antonio and even U.S. military history after a bat-slap. Remember when Manu Ginobili made every highlight reel in the world last year when he swatted a wayward bat out of mid-air? The little bat had delayed the game for several minutes swooping around the players at the ATT Center until Manu stunned it with a quick left, picked it up, and walked it off the court . That one weird little incident got me thinking and remembering how bats have played a surprisingly important role in San Antonio history. Then I started doing a little research in my own bat-time. But I had no idea where that little bat-slap would lead me. TO THE BAT CAVE! The smell of guano is overhwhelming. Standing at the mouth of the Bracken Bat Cave north of San Antonio, it's not so much a smell but a vice grip that reaches up your nose and into your head. Your nose twitches and your eyes start to water. Fran Hutchins helps out as a caretaker of the privately-owned cave. He tells me 40 to 50 tons of bat poop -- that's guano -- have been harvested out of the cave since the mid 1850's. And Hutchins, I see, has come prepared. He and a friend have shown up with white bio-suits and masks because they're going deep into the cave after our interview to check on poop levels and such. I had planned only for an interview, not a poop-check, so I don't have a bat-mask. Our interview doesn't last terribly long once we reach the edge of the stench. But Hutchins is one of the few people I found around San Antonio who knew anything about the bat-bomb project. Those I talked with at some of our military and research facilities in town as well as historians who I expected would know all about it -- didn't. Or they knew only a little. Maybe it was that guano smell. Or the fact that the whole thing was so unbelievably weird -- and ultimately never used. ON THE ROAD TO THE BAT BOMB I did know something about our batty history and what bats have meant here. After shooting and reporting on n all kinds of stories here for more than 25 years, I love the history of San Antonio, especially the odd stuff. I had heard, for example, that the old courthouse/city hall that stood on Municipal Plaza in the mid-1800's was called The Bat Cave because it was infested with so many bats. I knew that bat caves here provide tons of valuable guano that's used as high-grade fertilizer that's rich with nitrates. And I also knew that Bracken Cave is home to the biggest single bat colony in the world with millions of Mexican Free-Tailed Bats roosting there. And they have millions more bat-buddies hanging out in caves, nooks, crannies, under bridges and kinds of places all over the Hill Country and South Texas from spring to autumn, when they fly down to Mexico for the winter. They're most impressive just before dusk when they swirl out of caves like Bracken like an immense swarm of bees. Hutchins describes it as a tornado blasting out of the mouth of the cave. A tornado that keeps going for several hours until all those millions of bats are out feasting on insects like mosquitoes. And I remembered stories I shot just last year when the new stretch of the San Antonio River Walk opened and the discovery of a bat-roost above the river and under the I-35 bridge turned the whole thing into even more of a tourist attraction. SERIOUSLY? But the stuff about our bats playing a role in two wars and even the quest for a Nobel Prize? That I don't remember hearing about. You see as it turns out, guano isn't just a great fertilizer. It can also be leached into saltpeter which is used to make gunpowder. And during the Civil War the Confederate Forces here used our caves to mine tons of guano to help manufacture ammunition. Caves were even guarded as there were plenty of Union sympathizers in Texas, though it was officially a part
Re: [Texascavers] Super-secret 'bat bomb' project from So. Texas caves might have ended WW II :
A book title up there with others in the Should be a movie category - like 'Confederacy of Dunces'. (Maybe the latter could be it's subtitle). -WaV On Sun, Nov 21, 2010 at 1:52 AM, jerryat...@aol.com wrote: Super-secret 'bat bomb' project from So. Texas caves might have ended WW II *Randy Beamer* Published: 11/19 9:41 pm Updated: 11/20 2:47 pm KAPOW! It was a super-secret project that was developed and researched in San Antonio and South Texas during World War II. And as I discovered, it's still a big mystery today even to some top San Antonio historians. I stumbled onto this story of one of the strangest episodes in San Antonio and even U.S. military history after a bat-slap. Remember when Manu Ginobili made every highlight reel in the world last year when he swatted a wayward bat out of mid-air? The little bat had delayed the game for several minutes swooping around the players at the ATT Center until Manu stunned it with a quick left, picked it up, and walked it off the court . That one weird little incident got me thinking and remembering how bats have played a surprisingly important role in San Antonio history. Then I started doing a little research in my own bat-time. But I had no idea where that little bat-slap would lead me. TO THE BAT CAVE! The smell of guano is overhwhelming. Standing at the mouth of the Bracken Bat Cave north of San Antonio, it's not so much a smell but a vice grip that reaches up your nose and into your head. Your nose twitches and your eyes start to water. Fran Hutchins helps out as a caretaker of the privately-owned cave. He tells me 40 to 50 tons of bat poop -- that's guano -- have been harvested out of the cave since the mid 1850's. And Hutchins, I see, has come prepared. He and a friend have shown up with white bio-suits and masks because they're going deep into the cave after our interview to check on poop levels and such. I had planned only for an interview, not a poop-check, so I don't have a bat-mask. Our interview doesn't last terribly long once we reach the edge of the stench. But Hutchins is one of the few people I found around San Antonio who knew anything about the bat-bomb project. Those I talked with at some of our military and research facilities in town as well as historians who I expected would know all about it -- didn't. Or they knew only a little. Maybe it was that guano smell. Or the fact that the whole thing was so unbelievably weird -- and ultimately never used. ON THE ROAD TO THE BAT BOMB I did know something about our batty history and what bats have meant here. After shooting and reporting on n all kinds of stories here for more than 25 years, I love the history of San Antonio, especially the odd stuff. I had heard, for example, that the old courthouse/city hall that stood on Municipal Plaza in the mid-1800's was called The Bat Cave because it was infested with so many bats. I knew that bat caves here provide tons of valuable guano that's used as high-grade fertilizer that's rich with nitrates. And I also knew that Bracken Cave is home to the biggest single bat colony in the world with millions of Mexican Free-Tailed Bats roosting there. And they have millions more bat-buddies hanging out in caves, nooks, crannies, under bridges and kinds of places all over the Hill Country and South Texas from spring to autumn, when they fly down to Mexico for the winter. They're most impressive just before dusk when they swirl out of caves like Bracken like an immense swarm of bees. Hutchins describes it as a tornado blasting out of the mouth of the cave. A tornado that keeps going for several hours until all those millions of bats are out feasting on insects like mosquitoes. And I remembered stories I shot just last year when the new stretch of the San Antonio River Walk opened and the discovery of a bat-roost above the river and under the I-35 bridge turned the whole thing into even more of a tourist attraction. SERIOUSLY? But the stuff about our bats playing a role in two wars and even the quest for a Nobel Prize? That I don't remember hearing about. You see as it turns out, guano isn't just a great fertilizer. It can also be leached into saltpeter which is used to make gunpowder. And during the Civil War the Confederate Forces here used our caves to mine tons of guano to help manufacture ammunition. Caves were even guarded as there were plenty of Union sympathizers in Texas, though it was officially a part of the Confederacy. You could say bat poop -- at that time -- was the stuff of bullets, not bombs, though that would change. But first it was back to fertilizing. After the Civil War, guano mining resumed for peaceful ends. Hill Country bat cave droppings helped green up lawns, gardens and crops for the growing population across the Southwest. As they still do. NOBEL BATS Then in the early 1900's the Texas Legislature nominated a top San
Re: [Texascavers] Super-secret 'bat bomb' project from So. Texas caves might have ended WW II :
I have the book Bat Bomb, an interesting read. Got it on Amazon. ~F~ From: Don Cooper Sent: Sunday, November 21, 2010 5:14 AM To: jerryat...@aol.com Cc: Cavers, Texas Subject: Re: [Texascavers] Super-secret 'bat bomb' project from So. Texas caves might have ended WW II : A book title up there with others in the Should be a movie category - like 'Confederacy of Dunces'. (Maybe the latter could be it's subtitle). -WaV On Sun, Nov 21, 2010 at 1:52 AM, jerryat...@aol.com wrote: Super-secret 'bat bomb' project from So. Texas caves might have ended WW II Randy Beamer Published: 11/19 9:41 pm Updated: 11/20 2:47 pm KAPOW! It was a super-secret project that was developed and researched in San Antonio and South Texas during World War II. And as I discovered, it's still a big mystery today even to some top San Antonio historians. I stumbled onto this story of one of the strangest episodes in San Antonio and even U.S. military history after a bat-slap. Remember when Manu Ginobili made every highlight reel in the world last year when he swatted a wayward bat out of mid-air? The little bat had delayed the game for several minutes swooping around the players at the ATT Center until Manu stunned it with a quick left, picked it up, and walked it off the court . That one weird little incident got me thinking and remembering how bats have played a surprisingly important role in San Antonio history. Then I started doing a little research in my own bat-time. But I had no idea where that little bat-slap would lead me. TO THE BAT CAVE! The smell of guano is overhwhelming. Standing at the mouth of the Bracken Bat Cave north of San Antonio, it's not so much a smell but a vice grip that reaches up your nose and into your head. Your nose twitches and your eyes start to water. Fran Hutchins helps out as a caretaker of the privately-owned cave. He tells me 40 to 50 tons of bat poop -- that's guano -- have been harvested out of the cave since the mid 1850's. And Hutchins, I see, has come prepared. He and a friend have shown up with white bio-suits and masks because they're going deep into the cave after our interview to check on poop levels and such. I had planned only for an interview, not a poop-check, so I don't have a bat-mask. Our interview doesn't last terribly long once we reach the edge of the stench. But Hutchins is one of the few people I found around San Antonio who knew anything about the bat-bomb project. Those I talked with at some of our military and research facilities in town as well as historians who I expected would know all about it -- didn't. Or they knew only a little. Maybe it was that guano smell. Or the fact that the whole thing was so unbelievably weird -- and ultimately never used. ON THE ROAD TO THE BAT BOMB I did know something about our batty history and what bats have meant here. After shooting and reporting on n all kinds of stories here for more than 25 years, I love the history of San Antonio, especially the odd stuff. I had heard, for example, that the old courthouse/city hall that stood on Municipal Plaza in the mid-1800's was called The Bat Cave because it was infested with so many bats. I knew that bat caves here provide tons of valuable guano that's used as high-grade fertilizer that's rich with nitrates. And I also knew that Bracken Cave is home to the biggest single bat colony in the world with millions of Mexican Free-Tailed Bats roosting there. And they have millions more bat-buddies hanging out in caves, nooks, crannies, under bridges and kinds of places all over the Hill Country and South Texas from spring to autumn, when they fly down to Mexico for the winter. They're most impressive just before dusk when they swirl out of caves like Bracken like an immense swarm of bees. Hutchins describes it as a tornado blasting out of the mouth of the cave. A tornado that keeps going for several hours until all those millions of bats are out feasting on insects like mosquitoes. And I remembered stories I shot just last year when the new stretch of the San Antonio River Walk opened and the discovery of a bat-roost above the river and under the I-35 bridge turned the whole thing into even more of a tourist attraction. SERIOUSLY? But the stuff about our bats playing a role in two wars and even the quest for a Nobel Prize? That I don't remember hearing about. You see as it turns out, guano isn't just a great fertilizer. It can also be leached into saltpeter which is used to make gunpowder. And during the Civil War the Confederate Forces here used our caves to mine tons of guano to help manufacture ammunition. Caves were even guarded as there were plenty of Union sympathizers in Texas, though it was officially a part of the Confederacy. You could say bat poop -- at that time -- was the stuff of bullets, not bombs, though that would change. But first it was
Re: [Texascavers] Super-secret 'bat bomb' project from So. Texas caves might have ended WW II :
Devil Bill Adams was a good friend of mine and fellow ski patroller at Sierra Banca. He became the Director of the Pro Patrol there and one of the best New Mexico EMT instructors. You will see a youthfull Devil Bill with his father, Doc Adams, in one of the photos in the book, I think at the entrance of Bracken Bat Cave. His tales were even more interesting than the book. A good read. And yes, his father actally named him Devil Bill. Dirt Doc.
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[Texascavers] Video of the Day
This video gets pretty good at 2:15 and has a nice ending. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Q9QuKYkoFw The only word that I caught was, galeria, and Jack Daniels, which I presume has something to do with the whiskey, and the discover's nickname was Jack. - Visit our website: http://texascavers.com To unsubscribe, e-mail: texascavers-unsubscr...@texascavers.com For additional commands, e-mail: texascavers-h...@texascavers.com
