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Two Letters Re: Using Natural Caves on Private Property
Greetings Jim, Memsahib, and Readers,
I wanted to mention a couple things regarding caves for shelter or storage.
Many years ago, in my youth, I became interested in Spelunking (Caving) and
was lucky enough to explore caves in Tennessee with seasoned Spelunkers with
fifteen years experience. Depending on your climate you will not only get
a 'wet
season' where you have to deal with a lot of dampness but you may actually
face the cave being almost totally under water. We found this out the hard
way when on one trip the cave we were going to explore a lower chamber we
found was totally submerged from the previous week's rains. We did manage
to explore a upper chamber that was well above the water line. Even though
the cave we explored was well hidden, as the one Linda H mentioned, others
had used the entrance chamber because of discarded beer cans and trash left
behind. And, yes, we packed out other's trash. Once we left the entrance
chamber signs of others having frequented the other chambers faded away.
But if you are curious about a cave, you can bet someone else has been curious
also. After our trek of nearly six hours into the mountain we thought we
found the end of the chamber's run. As all humans like to put their mark
wherever they go I found a name, that was not very legible, and a date of
1784 carved (heavily scratched) into the rock. After looking around we located
another chamber through a very small opening that had remnants of an old
hemp rope leading through what would have been the ceiling of the extended
chamber below us. Yep, we were reluctant to go farther or look to closely
into the chamber just in case we found the remains of the person who explored
before us.
To safely utilize a cave you have to have a very good knowledge
of yearly rainfall patterns, and it is best to have a compilation of several
years to give you a baseline of rainfall, and have a good knowledge of the
variations of the water table in the area. Using a cave for shelter or storage
in its natural state is one way to utilize a cave. However if the size of
the chamber is large enough you may want to expend a bit more energy and
expense if you intend to pass on the property to family later on. The perfect
example of the best utilization of a cave for long term shelter and or storage
is the old NORAD Cheyenne
Mountain [Command and Control] Complex. Within the natural cavern is built
a shelter system with all the comforts of home, and a few I wish
I had. Of course our tax dollars built it and to go to those lengths would
be problematic at best. But the basic concept of a shelter within a cave
is not a far stretch and would provide a lot of comfort and protection for
the occupants provided the cave is deemed habitable for the long term after
compiling the climatic data. You would have to weigh such construction against
not only costs but also to factors such as:
1. Would enlarging the entrance to accommodate construction materials, tooling,
and manpower (even immediate family only) compromise the location?
2. Would the cave/constructed shelter be susceptible to flooding during prolonged
rainy seasons?
3. Would the cave provide a source of water, or is there a close source of
water that could provide the needed water or water storage for the shelter?
4. What type of power could be provided? The cave we explored could potentially
provide hydropower if properly set up.
5. What are the range of temperatures through the seasons, and would prevailing
winds impact the cave's temperature ranges; especially during winter months?
You would have to consider ways of mitigating winter winds whipping through
the cave.
6. Will the cave need a ventilation system to make sure that you don't have
a buildup of carbon dioxide or carbon monoxide when occupied full time?
7. Does the cave, consistently or periodically, capture and retain any gases
such as methane or other harmful gases that can be emitted from deeper in the
earth from the geologic formation? And it would be a good idea to know the
basic geology of the area so you know the stability of the cave. A cave in
even with a constructed shelter within the cave could still pose a serious
danger. And you may want to reinforce the cave ceiling just in case the geology
slightly active (small tremors).
8. Is there an alternate or secondary entrance that could be utilized as an
emergency exit or could it prove to be an access point for others to enter
during a crisis.
9. If there is no other entrance or exit point, is it possible to construct
one as an emergency exit? I would be reluctant to have a single entrance and
exit point. If you have to dig an emergency exit you will need some very specialized
equipment and skills to prevent a cave in, or suddenly finding yourself flooding
the cave by hitting an underground spring or other high volume water source.
It would be too easy for an adversary to simply block a single entrance and
either starve you out or to fire on your position and use the rock walls to
ricochet around until they hit someone, or to build a fire at the entrance
to smoke you out. And a worse scenario would be for an adversary to cave in
the entrance and seal you in until you died of suffocation.
10. Could the shelter or the cave provide any method of hydroponic gardening?
If your shelter is the cave proper you will have to have access to an area
where you can garden if you intend to occupy the shelter over a protracted
period of time as the result of a nuke exchange or protracted pandemic.
These are just a few questions that come to mind and there are others that
must be answered depending on how you want to utilize the cave. If you want
to really kick your 'creative engine' into overdrive and see how mankind has
utilized natural and man made underground structures then watch the History
Channel program "Cities of the Underworld". It is absolutely amazing
how people through the centuries utilized natural underground formations, and
expanded them or built and utilized underground spaces. Mankind has covered
over entire cities over the centuries as new construction has been built over
old. Some of these underground areas have been done as far back as the Celtics
of Ireland and Scotland as well as through the Middle Ages and Renaissance
as well as the modern eras. There is one common thread, of different iterations
but a singular concept, which runs through all of the construction techniques
from the beginning; whether utilizing natural features or new construction
over old cities. And this thread is utilized today. But I'll leave that to
you to discover for yourself. - The Rabid One
Hi Jim,
The best way I know of to camouflage stuff (entrances, equipment, traps, etc.)
with respect to its environment is to paint it with spray-on adhesive, the
same kind that automotive upholsterers use, then simply take dry dirt and sprinkle
it all over the painted areas (some moving parts, etc. you would of course
want to mask-off, just like regular painting).
This provides an excellent base coat, even for things attached to trees, buildings,
etc.
I still think the best book on the subject is the US Army "Camouflage" field
manual (FM
5-20) from 1969: Regards, - Jerry E.
