I love your videos. Been watching for a while now, and I just had to pay you this compliment. Being a caver myself for over 30 years it’s so refreshing to watch a group that is safety conscious, and respectful of the cave environment. You guys do it right, and you’re not afraid to show the rigorous process of being responsible stewards of the caves you visit and so obviously respect. Thank you for all you do, and for sharing your adventures. 👍🏻
Thank you. One of the reasons that I started my UA-cam was to show that there is a responsible side to caving. It gives me a lot of anxiety to see how disrespectful some others are being in caves.
This is so amazing. Thank you so much for sharing your video and adventure. I absolutely enjoyed it ❤❤ P.s. Be careful with going into caves where there is bat guano especially in damp humid caves. Histoplasmosis sucks especially if it settles in your eyes. Look up ocular histoplasmosis. Please keep yourself checked. I am partially blind in my left eye from this disease. Just be careful.
Oh yes, we are very aware of the dangers of histo. We have been caving in this region for 20 years and have a lot of experience. Thank you for watching.
Really informative videos as far as safety, geology and history. You don't reveal locations much....and THAT keeps access open and idots from finding them and getting injured or terminated. With some 10,000 hrs on my speleometer, I know quality. There are plenty of Bevis and Butthead go spelunking vids on UA-cam to undanger the uninformed....the spelunkers. Subscribed!!....and thank you!!
I'm guessing the mature manure was an orange, pink, red color. Saltpeter is potassium nitrate (could be sodium nitrate too, but that has a tendency to absorb moisture from the air and wet black powder doesn't work well) and that would be about 75% of the black powder mix, the rest about 15% carbon and 10% sulfur.
I have seen large piles of bat guano in caves that are estimated to be hundreds of years old by biologists. I've never seen it any other color than black/dark brown. They would put the bat guano enriched dirt in the vats/hoppers and leech it out with water. It was then boiled off and other things added to it to make the gunpowder. It was very common here in the south.
@tag_caver My brother and I use to make some. After the manure pile behind the barn, from horses, sheep, etc. got spred on the pasture, we would scrap up a wheel barrel of the dirt under were it had sat. Pore hot water on it, mix, pour off the liquid and filter it and dehydrate it. Alot of work for a few ounces when we could get it pure for like $3 a pound, but fun seeing we could do it.
Wow ! Loved every second of this ! I can only imagine the artifacts that other people have walked away with cause you know there had to be things left behind by the miners Do we know was this mined by the south or north and were the miners military or civilians ?
I can hardly imagine how hard it was to haul the saltpeter out of the cave. You reckon they would have rigged a haul to get the saltpeter out by the upper entrance at some point from the upper vat room?
Yes, we believe they were coming in and out of a lower entrance and using the pit entrance to haul in and out their materials because it's relatively close the the vats and a lot easier to access that way.
@@tag_caver Some of my friends might be interested in looking. I’m getting too old to push new cave dives, but we still have a pretty active core of explorers in Wisconsin.
I marveled at cave vats roughly made of split logs to assist saltpeter industry. Enslaved Africans left their footprints and a stiffly rusted leg chain. Another cave mined for the War of 1812, it was.
I love your videos. Been watching for a while now, and I just had to pay you this compliment. Being a caver myself for over 30 years it’s so refreshing to watch a group that is safety conscious, and respectful of the cave environment. You guys do it right, and you’re not afraid to show the rigorous process of being responsible stewards of the caves you visit and so obviously respect. Thank you for all you do, and for sharing your adventures. 👍🏻
Thank you. One of the reasons that I started my UA-cam was to show that there is a responsible side to caving. It gives me a lot of anxiety to see how disrespectful some others are being in caves.
Thanks again for the videos. Safe travels
Thank you
This is so amazing. Thank you so much for sharing your video and adventure. I absolutely enjoyed it ❤❤
P.s. Be careful with going into caves where there is bat guano especially in damp humid caves. Histoplasmosis sucks especially if it settles in your eyes. Look up ocular histoplasmosis. Please keep yourself checked. I am partially blind in my left eye from this disease. Just be careful.
Oh yes, we are very aware of the dangers of histo. We have been caving in this region for 20 years and have a lot of experience. Thank you for watching.
Really informative videos as far as safety, geology and history. You don't reveal locations much....and THAT keeps access open and idots from finding them and getting injured or terminated. With some 10,000 hrs on my speleometer, I know quality. There are plenty of Bevis and Butthead go spelunking vids on UA-cam to undanger the uninformed....the spelunkers. Subscribed!!....and thank you!!
Thank you. We have been caving for 20 years here in Tennessee. I try to show there are people out here who really care about the caves.
Quite a cable and experience ! How this was accessed and mined is impressive, thank you for this.
Thank you.
Me, Siskel & Enert say 👍👍!!!
Thank you
I'm guessing the mature manure was an orange, pink, red color. Saltpeter is potassium nitrate (could be sodium nitrate too, but that has a tendency to absorb moisture from the air and wet black powder doesn't work well) and that would be about 75% of the black powder mix, the rest about 15% carbon and 10% sulfur.
I have seen large piles of bat guano in caves that are estimated to be hundreds of years old by biologists. I've never seen it any other color than black/dark brown. They would put the bat guano enriched dirt in the vats/hoppers and leech it out with water. It was then boiled off and other things added to it to make the gunpowder. It was very common here in the south.
@tag_caver My brother and I use to make some. After the manure pile behind the barn, from horses, sheep, etc. got spred on the pasture, we would scrap up a wheel barrel of the dirt under were it had sat. Pore hot water on it, mix, pour off the liquid and filter it and dehydrate it. Alot of work for a few ounces when we could get it pure for like $3 a pound, but fun seeing we could do it.
@@putteslaintxtbks5166 for sure, fun science experiement!
It shows us today what Saltpertermen went through
Wow ! Loved every second of this !
I can only imagine the artifacts that other people have walked away with cause you know there had to be things left behind by the miners
Do we know was this mined by the south or north and were the miners military or civilians ?
Right! Mined by the south possibly civil war
I can hardly imagine how hard it was to haul the saltpeter out of the cave. You reckon they would have rigged a haul to get the saltpeter out by the upper entrance at some point from the upper vat room?
Yes, we believe they were coming in and out of a lower entrance and using the pit entrance to haul in and out their materials because it's relatively close the the vats and a lot easier to access that way.
How long ago since water flowed through the cave to contour the ceiling rock?
Many thousands....
This is so cool. Is the lower entrance still accessible to cave divers, or has it been collapsed?
The lower entrance has been flooded since the 1930s. No one that I know of has dove or explored the underwater entrance.
@@tag_caver Some of my friends might be interested in looking. I’m getting too old to push new cave dives, but we still have a pretty active core of explorers in Wisconsin.
@@GeorgeMayhew It would be an exploratory dive as no one to my knowledge knows exactly where it is at, just a general area in the lake.
@@tag_caver I’ll ask if anyone would be interested in a road trip. What’s the best time of year to dive the lake?
It’s the bats fault we lost. GOD BLESS DIXIE.
Lol
I marveled at cave vats roughly made of split logs to assist saltpeter industry.
Enslaved Africans left their footprints and a stiffly rusted leg chain. Another
cave mined for the War of 1812, it was.
I thought the was a "G" rated channel. I had to turn it off with all that talk about "wood", "tally's" and "peters"! 😕😇
😂😂😂