Perkins Cave Nature Preserve

The gated main entrance to Perkins Cave is in a small sinkhole. Beyond the gate is a complex maze of more than ten miles of passage. Many of these passages are low crawls; some of the notable ones are referred to as the 800 Foot Crawl, the 200 Foot Crawl, and the Torepeter Tube. The lateral extent of the mapped passage is about 2200 feet. The cave has several levels, with the vertical extent being almost 300 feet. Perkins Cave is noted for having extremely numerous helictites, soda straws, and other calcite formations. Development is strongly joint-controlled, with the passages trending along sets of major strike-oriented joints that trend NNE and SSW, with considerable modification by sets of subordinate cross joints. The cave is developed in the Tonoloway Formation which dips at a low angle to the SE (John Holsinger in Descriptions of Virginia Caves). Perkins Cave is managed by the Appalachian Cave Conservancy as part of a balanced cave conservation program to preserve the very significant caves, while providing opportunities to people to experience caving to expand their knowledge and appreciation of the natural phenomena. From a caver's perspective, the cave may be divided into three sections: The Main and historic Section, the DOM Section, and the 800 Foot Crawl and Beyond. The Main and Historic Section has more than three miles of passage and is the area that accounts for most of the caving in Perkins Cave. This area is quite varied, from large breakdown rooms, some that end with muddy crawls among large break down boulders that have never been completely explored, to formation choked passages with millions of helictites and soda straws. The extraordinary features include the thousand feet long Forest Trail to Ghost Town, First and Second Discovery rooms, and the Antlers Passages. This section also has many rooms that in geologic time have had past surface entrances and are in a breakdown phase. This process is especially noticeable in areas around the Poplar Tree (Wilson) entrance and the adjacent sinkhole. One careless moment in one of these rooms may result in rock detaching from the ceiling. The DOM (Dirty Old Men) Section is entered from the Historic section, through the Tight Place. This section has about one mile of passage with a significant number of low crawls. The Atlantis area is one of the most interesting parts of this section. The 800 Foot Crawl and Beyond Section has had relatively little visitation since the original mapping done in the early 1970s. There are several streams, many canyons, and much less secondary deposition compared to the other sections. In order to reach a balance between use and preservation, the Appalachian Cave Conservancy has modified the cave to enable cavers to travel through the Main Section with greater ease and safety. These improvements consist of a ladder at the entrance drop, safety lines at two significant ledges that have vertical exposure, steppingstones to keep the cavers out of pools of water and mud, and a deep channel to keep cavers out of the mud in the Toothpaste Crawl. These improvements, in addition to improving safety, also reduce the mud that clings to cavers and is then redistributed to some of the secondary deposition calcite formations. Nylon cord is also used to mark the boundaries of trails to clearly designate safe walking and crawling areas and reduce unintentional damage to the millions of tiny helictites and other small formations near trails. A side benefit of these improvements is that the time it takes to get to the 800 Foot Crawl has been reduced, allowing the mapping crews to spend more time mapping on each trip into the cave.

The cave is named for the Perkins family, who lived on the property from shortly after the Civil War until the early 20th century. The Historic Section of the cave near the entrance contains many signatures from early local explorers, none of whom appear to have gone beyond the Tight Place or into the large passages beyond the Humming Room, just below the small entrance sinkhole. The cave came to the attention of organized cavers in the 1960s, some of whom referred to it as “Killer Cave,” due to the numerous long crawls, such as the 200 Foot Crawl, the Torepeter Tube, and the 800 Foot Crawl. Cavers from VPI Grotto, including W. Douty, E. Morgan, T. Roehr, W. Royster, and R.E. Whittemore surveyed 9.1 miles of passage between 1968 and 1973, culminating in Tom Roehr’s 1973 map, which remains the best and most complete reference.

John and Mary Wilson purchased a large tract including the one known entrance to Perkins Cave in 1977. The Perkins Cave Conservation and Management Society (PerCCAMS) was founded in 1978 to manage and protect the cave. Early PerCCAMMS members including the Wilsons, Roy Powers, Tony McGee, Charlie Rice, and Joel Stevenson established a legacy of careful stewardship, protecting the cave for future generations. PerCCAMMS members built a secure bat-friendly gate at the main entrance, opened and gated a second entrance, known as the Poplar Tree or Wilson entrance, and surveyed additional passage bringing the known length to 10.0 miles. Improvements on the surface included a road gate, culverts, a hand-dug well, an outhouse known as the Wilson John, and a semi-finished space at one end of a large tobacco barn that serves as a fieldhouse. A farmhouse that stood on the property was destroyed by arsonists in the early 1980s.

PerCAMMS was reorganized under the name Appalachian Cave Conservancy (ACC) in 2006, with an expanded mission to provide management for additional caves in northeast Tennessee and southwest Virginia. ACC continues to manage Perkins Cave, in addition to owning one cave (Lee County, Virginia’s Gilley Cave), and managing several other area caves under private ownership.

ACC has undertaken numerous projects in the cave designed to facilitate travel through the main passages while limiting impact. For example, routes through sensitive areas have been marked with rot and rodent resistant nylon string, handlines and ladders have been installed, and steppingstones placed to reduce mud transfer to pristine sections of the cave. After more than 40 years of careful access control, sensitive areas such as the First and Second Discoveries, Ghosttown, and the Forest Trail remain nearly as they appeared when discovered, while remote areas, such as beyond the 800-Foot Crawl remain in a near-virgin state.

ACC members began a resurvey of the cave in 2005, which has been interrupted on occasion, but continues to the present day. Survey assistance has been provided by Walker Mountain Grotto, the Triangle Troglodytes, Flittermouse Grotto, and others. A total of 6.25 miles of passage has been surveyed as part of this effort, much of which, but not all, duplicates length shown on the Roehr map. It is highly likely that the final tally will exceed the current known length of 10.0 miles by a nontrivial margin.

In 2021, John and Mary Wilson donated two tracts of land including both known entrances to Perkins Cave to the NSS, forming the Perkins Cave Preserve. This generous gift will result in the continued long-term protection of this highly significant cave as part of a 136 acre preserve. As stipulated in a Memorandum of Understanding with the NSS, ACC will continue to manage the cave, as they have been doing for more than 40 years.

To ensure that the delicate features remain preserved in perpetuity, the management plan will continue to stipulate that the cave is not available for general access recreational caving. Allowable trips should have a specific purpose, small group size, and an approved leader familiar with the cave. Providing access to the cave for competent experienced cavers, especially NSS members, to whom the preserve ultimately belongs, will be an objective met through periodic organized trips offered by ACC, as has been done for recent VAR meetings and other events.

Current ACC projects at the preserve include the ongoing resurvey of the cave, maintenance of the fieldhouse, improvements to the farm lane that accesses the property, and development of a parking area near the road for low-clearance vehicles unable to negotiate the primitive access road. Further work will include marking the preserve boundary, cleaning up trash along the roadside and the upper portion of the property, inventory of the natural resources on the property, and repairs to the north end of the tobacco barn and to the Poplar Tree entrance gate.

To learn more and to support the Appalachian Cave Conservancy with their mission, visit: <https://acave.us/

In Progress

The Appalachian Cave Conservancy provides guided trips into Perkins Cave during expeditions and at other prearranged times by permission from the Preserve Management Team. A waiver must be completed and submitted to the Preserve Management Team to obtain a permit to visit this preserve. Access to the Preserve will be administered by the Preserve Management Team, and any questions about the preserve can be directed to them.

Requests for access can be made by contacting the Preserve Management Team via email at: PerkinsPreserve@caves.org with any questions.