Thank you, George Veni, for your part in making this happen! What a fantastic honor for CWAN!
julia germany -----Original Message----- From: Joe & Evelynn Mitchell <joe-evel...@satx.rr.com> To: texascavers@texascavers.com Sent: Wed, 4 Feb 2009 6:34 pm Subject: [Texascavers] Kendall cave now a national landmark http://www.mysanantonio.com/entertainment/Kendall_cave_now_a_national_landmark.html Web Posted: 02/04/2009 11:49 CST Kendall cave now a national landmark By Zeke MacCormack - Express-News National honors have been bestowed upon The Cave Without A Name, an underground attraction that’s off the beaten path – but been a favorite for 70 years – in Kendall County. The National Parks Service today announced that the cave owned by Houston business man Tom Summers is among four sites added to the list of National Natural Landmarks – bringing the total number of listed sites to 586 under the program begun in 1962. “I don’t know if it will change the business much, but it’s nice to have the recognition,” said Mike Burrell, manager of the cave off Kreutzberg Road, northeast of Boerne, which attracts about 11,000 visitors annually. “Its not like we’re going to become a national park or anything.” The cave stands out, in the view of the National Parks Service, for “its unique speleothems, significant paleontological deposits and important cave fauna, said Heather Germaine, regional national natural landmark coordinator with the park service. In plain language, it has lots of cool rock formations and rare salamanders that visitors can enjoy, as well as an underground river, during hourlong tours that are offered every day but Thanksgiving and Christmas. The cave opened to the public in 1939, and a contest was held to name it the next year. Cave lore holds that the winning entry came from a local student who said the cave was "too pretty to have a name." The non-name stuck, except for a few years in the 1970s when it was temporarily called "Century Cave." Until the 1990s, the low-key cave was promoted primarily with hand-scrawled plywood signs erected along Kreutzberg Road. Boerne Mayor Dan Heckler cheered the cave’s elevation to the status of official landmark, saying, "Our local attraction has now become a national at traction that will draw more people to our historic Hill Country paradise.” Germaine said the cave’s landmark designation may boost business but that’s not the parks service’s primary aim. “We’re trying to provide recognition that this site is nationally significant,” she said Wednesday. Only six new sites have been designated as national landmarks in the last 20 years, she said, and the cave was deemed worthy in an evaluation conducted by George Veni, an independent scientist who first submitted his findings=2 0on it in 2003 to the parks service. Germaine, who also visited the cave years ago, said, “It is quite a beautiful cave with specific geologic features that make it eligible for a national landmark designation.” Burrell, agreed, saying, “It’s one of the few commercial caves where you can get down to an underground river, and it has nice big rooms with flat floors and nice formations. “Customers often say it looks like it was created, not natural, because it’s so perfect,” Burrell said from the small stone building that doubles as the gift shop and offices for the cave's four employees. Additional details at cavewithoutaname.com =
