THE EDGEWOOD CAVE
| Most
people my age had always heard that the cave on Edgewood Drive extended
to Rt 21 at the intersection of Washington Street W and Sissonville
Road. It's also very possible that it also extended to Sugar
Creek Drive according to the article below. The distance is the same! |
Charleston Daily Mail, 1940
If you can not read the article above, click HERE for a PDF file that you can make much larger
The opening on Rt 21, Sissonville Rd.
Inside
| The
tales of exploration of these caves goes back to the turn of the
century. I have no reason to disbelieve most of them. It
appears from the articles that the hole necessary to crawl through is
so small... as to only allow boys to wiggle through. Of course,
that was then. It's quite possible that even these entrances have
been blocked by falling rock by now as the entire area is
fairly unstable. I plotted the boys trip on a map, and it turns
out that the distance from Edgewood to Sissonville Rd, is almost
exactly the same as the distance to Sugar Creek Drive. That
surprised me, and so it's almost certain that the boys DID find another
entrance. |
|
UPDATE: I
posted this story in the hopes that someone would add-to, or take away
from the "myth". I have always had some doubt about the story due
to: 1... The "caves" are Sandstone. which means that it's almost
impossible to have long passageways. 2....I had never found any
official remarks by any geologists concerning caves in this area.
It's always fun to think some things are possible, even
if they're not. In this case, I feel it's "possible" that
the passagways back then were longer than today, especially on the Rt
21 side. It's also "possible" that heavy truck traffic and
construction caused the passageways to cave-in.
Not sure we'll ever know for sure, but a reader sent me the following letter.....
Hi Jerry,
Saw your Edgewood cave article. Nice newspaper find. I had always
heard these stories but this is the first time I've ever seen anything in print
to support it. You may want to take that story with a grain of salt though. I
was looking for information several years ago and got in touch with some guys in
the Charleston chapter of the National Speleological Society and here's what one
of the emails said:
"Edgewood Cave is a myth. Legend only. Legend has
it the opening on Edgewood Drive goes through the hillside and comes out in
Sissonville area. As far as I know this is myth. I can
only assume this came
from individuals who used to explore the clay mines off route 21 and claim it goes through. It doesn't. My brother Bob mapped
the overhang on Edgewood Drive years ago to a whopping 30 feet or so (best I
can remember) before it pinched out. As I'm sure
you are aware, Edgewood is in sandstone, not limestone so any type of cave
of any substantial size is just not possible. If someone knows better than I
am stating here, please post your info. " |
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