WHATS THAT DOING IN HERE?

[paul snook]

I'm compiling a list of the weirdest or most out of place things found in caves, any body and every body please chime in and tell what it is that you've found and please tell where you found it( please don't give the cave name or location,) south, south east /state/ cave etc, will do, if possible include photo of item,

thus far the oddest I've found is a bell south, home connection junction box, and a 27lb bowling ball, the most disturbing thing
a Co2 cartridge from a pellet gun,

bowling ball , south east TN cave 2miles back in the stream.

Co2 cartridge, south, southeast TN cave in the first big room,

[Azurerana]

A 10 x 13 inch plastic American flag in a former show cave which had been closed to visitation for about 10 years when we found it. There was no stick, no bunting, or anything which would seem to indicate that it was part of some celebration. It was way off trail, too. In SW Missouri. No clue, except that it was 50 star flag..

[L Roebuck]

Gosh, we help clean a lot of trash out of caves on a regular basis so we see so many out-of-the-place things that it's hard to list the most unusual. Here goes........

Soda Vending Machines (Tennessee)
Vintage Refrigerator's (Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama)
1930's Vintage Clothing Iron (Tennessee)
Newspaper Boxes (Tennessee)
Vintage Ink Well (Tennessee)

[Karsthuntr]

The handles to a casket ,1800's vintage The wood and bones had washed deeper into the cave at a non passable pinch. Graveyard directly above cave. (West Virginia)

[gillip]

I once found a mini mag that was on in a cave. It took over 5 hours to get to the point (nearly one mile of alternating crawl and stoop). The light had a hallogen bulb and couldn't have had a run time of more than a few hours. I looked arround and tried to locate any other individual, buy did not suceede. It really freaked me out at the time. It turned out that I had actually passed the other party by taking the lower wet route while they took the dry route above. I didn't find out about the other party until a few days later.

[graveleye]

we kind of got a little startle when we saw this big rubber spider hanging on a string at the "Crossroads" in Case Cave last Saturday. On the way out, I heard someone saying that the spider was actually found in the cave during a clean-up, so they hung it up there for the fun of it. It gave me a little spook when I turned around and saw it.

The cave I help manage underwent a series of cleanups many moons ago, but we are still finding stuff in there all the time. Finding a beer can is usually an unremarkable event, but we've found a couple that were from that era in time that you needed a church-key to open the beer. We still find womens shoe-heels stuck in the mud in places too - these were probably the ladies Sunday best too lol

[paul snook]

thanks all for posting on this, please keep"em coming

graveleye, I have to say the spider would not have survived had I found it, fake or not, and as for the beer cans,,,
ever find one UN-opened?

[Rick Brinkman]

There's a cave here with an oversized plastic ear. It looks like something from a '50's or 60's halloween costume.

[L Roebuck]

Oh I remembered somthing else. We found an old sewing machine in a cave one time. It was the peddle power kind...

[Brian Roebuck]

Part of the body of a Model T complete with steering wheel mashed into the rocks by water flows.

Bill Walters' initials in a passage he swore he'd never been in before.

[graveleye]

unfortunately the spelunkers who left the beer cans in the cave were quite efficient at draining their contents before discarding the cans.

I'm 40 years old and all I have ever known was pop-tops and pull tops, so those cans must be a lot older than that. I really dont know when the pop-top came about. Maybe some old-timer can fill me in.

I also found a really old 7-Up bottle filled with strips of blue-jean material. I guess someone was using it as a torch or lantern of some sort. The logo was so old on the bottle that I almost didn't recognize it.

[L Roebuck]

graveleye said:

I'm 40 years old and all I have ever known was pop-tops and pull tops, so those cans must be a lot older than that. I really dont know when the pop-top came about.

Well I had to look that up and found this information online at RustyCans.com

" Flat Top: A can with a flat lid which required a can opener known as a "church key" to punch a hole in the can's lid in order to drink the contents. Flat tops were generally replaced in the early 1960s with the invention of the pull tab can."

" Pull Tab: a can with a tab on the top allowing the consumer to open the can without using a churchkey or other separate device. The consumer pulled on a ring or tab which pulled a piece of the lid away leaving an opening. Pull tops, or pop tops, became targets of anti-littering efforts in the 1970s and 1980s. The pull tab lid was invented in Dayton, Ohio in 1962. Pull tabs went though numerous improvements from 1962 until they were replaced by statabs in the late 1970s."

[Azurerana]

Oh my...now I feel *really old*. I went to the kitchen and looked at my churchkey collection. Budweiser, Falstaff and Carling Brewing Co. They're not in a special collection--they are in the utensil drawer. My grandpa ran a neighborhood tavern--when he retired, most of the glassware, flatware, etc., ended up in the attic, and I made off with the churchkeys as a teenager. (I've also got a Griesedeck Brothers beer glass. An original.)

I think that website is overly optimistic on the dates-- What really killed the churchkey was the change from steel cans to aluminum, and the twist-off crown cap for bottles. At the least, both were related-- you couldn't use a churchkey on an aluminum can because you would puncture it on the side. I didn't start drinking beer until it came mostly in aluminum, but soda pop continued in heavy steel cans requiring openers until I was well into my 30s and 40s (10 plus years ago). We used churchkeys to open food cans at camp (still do, in a pinch, because being left handed, I'm not coordinated to use a GI can opener-- and can only use the the hook one on my pocketknife because it is also left handed). One local soda company just went over to aluminum cans with tabs about 5 years ago, and I still use the bottle opener on Mexican soda, and a number of specialty sodas. Isn't there also imported beer which requires one of the two ends of a church key?

[paul snook]

additions to my list for those who might want to hold on to this
collection as well, and thank you all for adding in, keep'em coming , I'm seeing some really interesting stuff,

opinion time? would ya'll like to see a top ten list on this ?

additions,
15ft long section of garden hose, near pit in south TN cave

guts from a fishing real / with line attached and stretched through the passages, (maze type) cave south TN

small boot knife, laying in stream, approx 2miles back ,in south TN cave

[L Roebuck]

Here is a photo of a very unusual item we found in a Tennessee cave in 2002.

Baa Baa Doo Dehy Sheep Manure

[Mike Hood]

One of my favorite things I've seen is the bed pan that sits on a ledge about 150 feet off the floor of Ferris Pit. From where the rope hangs, you're about 20 feet or so from the ledge, and the ledge is pretty small, so I've always wondered how it got there.

[guanonoggin]

pretzlgirl said:

Here is a photo of a very unusual item we found in a Tennessee cave in 2002.

Baa Baa Doo Dehy Sheep Manure

He he - Baa Baa Doo! Good Karma on that one Lynn! Dudes it's totally natural stuff!

Chuckie

[paul snook]

I'm adding my recent finds to this list,
plastic dinosaurs, and snow chains.
both in middle TN caves