Wow, that's some really interesting information. Has there ever been another
attempt to get something like that going again/would there even be a need?
Sounds like I owe you a million thanks as many of the parks you mentioned
greatly influenced my love of nature, and I've spent many many hours in them as
a child and an adult.
Matt Turner
"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without
accepting it." - Aristotle
"Empty pockets never held anyone back.Only empty heads and empty hearts can do
that."- Norman Vincent Peale
________________________________
From: "dirt...@comcast.net" <dirt...@comcast.net>
To: Bill Bentley <ca...@caver.net>; Matt Turner <kat...@yahoo.com>;
texascavers@texascavers.com
Sent: Wednesday, December 3, 2008 3:48:42 PM
Subject: [Texascavers] Cave potential in The Solitario
I have spent 8 or 9 months (literally - over about 17 years) in The Solitario
and Big Bend Ranch in the 70's running the field programs for the Texas Natural
Areas Survey (NAS) (those reports formed the scientific justification for the
acquisition of the land from Mr. Anderson), using it as a field location from
1967 on for numerous university geology programs, and for field trips for the
Houston Geological Society and the American Association of Petrolium
Geologists. I have walked essentially all of The Solitario and Fresno Canyon
several times and the most likely places for caves many times. No Luck as far
as real caves are concerned, although there are many shelters and
archaeological sites. Tom Meador also gave it a good shot, with the same
result.
Some surprise could always show up as I did not crawl over every inch (The
Solitario is huge and is 7 miles across, essentially filling an entire USGS
7.5-minute quad), but it has been pretty carefully looked at by some really
experienced cavers. Ridge-walking in the Guads has shown us that you can walk
within a few feet of a significant cave and not know it. The best geological
settings in The Solitario and Fesno Canyon for caves, however, are not
encouraging.
It is remote, geologically fascinating, and wonderful country. I suggest you
visit if you can and try to find something that we did not see. I am so
pleased that the NAS field work that I lead for those 6 years resulted in the
acquisition of Big Bend Ranch as a Texas State Park. At the time we were doing
the work, we were definitely not sure if we were doing something meaningful or
just pissing in the wind. If you are into scenery and secret waterholes and
not caves, the west side of Fresno Canyon is even more wonderful.
By the way, other public acquisitions that resulted directly or indirectly from
the Texas NAS scientific studies included the Lower Canyons of the Rio Grande,
Mt Livermore, Enchanted Rock (Ernst Kastening did the geology), Rosillos Mts,
Elephant Mountain, Devil's Stinkhole (I hired Ronnie Fieseler and other Texas
cavers to help out on that one and some others). There is at least one other
special parcel that has only recently been acquired but is being kept quiet as
ingress and egress is being negotiated. Other studies included the Franklin
Mts, Hueco Mts, Matagordo Island, the Breaks of the Canadian River, Capote
Falls, and the Blue Elbow Swamp on the Lousiana border. There are some other
Wildlife Management and other areas that also have benefited.
DirtDoc
-------------- Original message --------------
From: "Bill Bentley" <ca...@caver.net>
Matt (Turner),
I was there in September 2007 with a group of hikers for a weekend.... I
didn't see anything that looked like a cave or even cave like... We hiked in
some of the canyons and they look a lot like the ones in Big Bend National
Park, only not as tall... It is pretty remote and if I remember we hiked about
13 to 14 miles round trip...
Bill
