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Johnson's Saltpeter Cave

Johnson's Saltpeter Cave was used extensively for saltpeter mining during the United States Civil War. There were remains of catwalks, leaching vats, scaffolding, and other artifacts in this cave but sadly, the cave became well known and became a party cave. The landowner has recently placed a secure gate on the access road to the cave which has helped curb visitation but much damage has already been done.

The Upper Cumberland Grotto led a clean-up trip into Johnson's in 2000 with the goal of removing garbage from inside the cave. The entrance room and immediate passages had recently been cleaned by the landowner's family on an outing. This made our job considerably easier. The cave is quite large and we limited our work to the main passage from the entrance to the Hall of the Mountain King, where the register is located. We nitpicked our way through the passages, amazing ourselves at the amount of destruction and spray paint in the cave. There is nothing left of the salpteter works except some vague piles of dirt. The catwalks are all gone. There is at least one set of scaffolding still present that is still used for climbing down into the lower part of the passage.

Johnson's Salpeter Cave stands as a reminder of why cavers are so secretive about cave locations. When a good, easy cave becomes public knowledge the result is most often similar to the pictures on this page. Every caving area has it's sacrificial caves. It is a shame, but here are some photos to document what happens in party caves.

The UCG removed well over 100 pounds of loose garbage from the cave. We were meticulous though and removed every, single little piece that we could get our hands on. We could not do a thing about the spray paint. Below are photos.

All photos on this page taken with a Kodak DC 210 digital, 1.2 megapixal camera. Resolution has been reduced greatly to increase loading speed.

Upper Cumberland Grotto members suit up outside the cave entrance and get ready to haul garbage.

UCG members in the entrance chamber of the cave. There used to be saltpeter remains in this room.

UCG member Greg King picks garbage out of little nook.

"Sexy Thing" Andrew Dickins finds a place for a portrait photo. Isn't all the spray paint a nice touch?

This room is really neat with upper and lower entrances to a back room, but vandals and partiers have made it look like this. Too bad...

UCG members Nora and Andrew Dickins in the Hall of the Mountain King.

Greg King passes garbage bags up out of the cave after a long day.

The UCG crew poses with their cave booty. Over 100 pounds of garbage was removed from the main passage.

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