Tuesday’s column: Book in the works about ‘Catawba Murder Hole’
Marian McConnell with her dog, at the edge of Catawba Murder Hole as Roanoke Times' photographer Sam Dean takes a shot of t hem on Friday. She took Sam down to the bottom of the cave's upper level Monday. | Photo by Dan
Out in Catawba, a good ways off the beaten path, there’s a yawning gap in the earth that’s darkened in early-morning shadows cast by the craggy ridge of McAfee Knob.
Its ominous-sounding name is “Catawba Murder Hole.” To the naked eye, it’s 100 feet wide and another 120 feet deep. But that part, named “Daylight Cave,” is merely the visible section of a larger cave system that stretches beneath Dan and Marian McConnell’s 34-acre wooded spread .
Two unseen lower levels take its depth down to 234 feet. One of the underground chambers has a 75-foot-tall ceiling.
Talk to Marian and you’ll hear stories — some are fact and others are legend. There’s the one about the Virginia Tech student who fell and died there when his climbing rope snapped during a caving expedition in 1958.
That one’s a fact. Tragically, fibers in the rope had weakened because some toilet-bowl cleanser stored with the line had leaked onto it.
There’s another about a Civil War deserter angrily thrown into the pit for his cowardly transgressions. And another about a heartbroken young woman who despondently jumped into the cave because her parents disapproved of her beau.
And yet another tale about a traveling salesman whose horse-drawn wagon mysteriously disappeared in the Catawba area in the early 1900s century. Word is, a local farmer stole his goods, killed the tinkerer and disposed of his horse and wagon into Murder Hole.
Those are legends, so far unconfirmed.
Is the famed Beale Treasure hidden there? McConnell doubts it, though she’s heard that one, too.
Murder Hole has been featured in nonfiction books, such as “Caves of Virginia” and “Underground in the Appalachians,” and in fictional stories such as “Twilight at the Murder Hole” by Richard Raymond III of Roanoke.
Now the cave is getting its own book, a coffee table-style hardcover volume. McConnell is writing it; she hope to have it published by June. And she wants to hear your stories about it and see your pictures from Murder Hole, too.
READ THE REST OF THIS COLUMN HERE
A sketch of the Catawba Murder Hole cave system beneath the McConnell's property. It's one of about 16 caves on their 34 acres.
February 7, 2012 - 6:00 AM
Ok that is awesome. Dan, how far in did you go?
Cool stuff. Would love to read more columns and hear more stories like this.
Its called Murder Hole for a reason, so many people have slid down and cannot get out.
Pretty neat stuff. I’ve only trekked a few caves in my lifetime…some in Misourri and some here in Virginia, but it’s been quite fun each time. Never tried anything quite like that though, with rappeling. That would be adifferent.
We’ve got a small cave entance behind our house. Nothing major, but enough for a few bats to come out of at night. A couple groundhogs go in there too, and ocasionally, one of our cats. The opening is far too small to look in much farther than the opening itself though. I believe it connects to an underground stream that carries some stormwater down to the New River, because despite our backyard being a bowl/depression, there’s never been more than a few inches of standing water, and that never lasts long at all, even in prolonged heavy rain events.
Great article Dan! I like the map that’s on the blog (but wasn’t in the paper).
Bill we tried to find that map in our archive. We could not, and we looked for awhile. The one here is a photo I shot of the published original that I took with my camera phone at Marian McConnell’s place Friday.
I’ve been in Murder Hole many times (ALWAYS with permission from Dan and Marian). It’s definitely a cool cave.
I choose to be cremated because I despise being “underground”. I hate/fear caves and would really hate having one on my property. Not the money making kind and not the spooky story kind either.
“Its called Murder Hole for a reason, so many people have slid down and cannot get out.” Then, it should be called “Stupid Hole,” or “Be Careful Hole.” Maybe “Gravity Hole.”