The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1920-07-22
DOES CAVE EXIST?
German Spy Reported Alleged Cave
Under Stone Mountain.

A committee of noted geologists
from three Of the prominent eastern
universities, together with two we'll
known field Investigators of the
Smithsonian Institute are mobilizing :
at Hagerstown, Nd, for early en-
trainment to DeKalb county, Georgia,
where they will conduct extensive
borings and tunnelings in an effort
to prove that Andrew Withingham,
of Oil City, Penn, was in his right
mind when he declared that a stu
pendous cave exists under Stone
Mountain, one of Georgia's greatest
natural curiosities. ,
Withingham, in a lengthy letter to
the occupant of the chair of geology
of great New York University, set
forth mass of facts gathered by him
while in the service of the Imperial
German intelligence service in 1898.
He mailed his descriptions and his
drawing from Oil City On June 4.
He was run down by a taxicab in
Allentown, Pa, five days later. Now
the professors, deprived by the taxi
cab Of any possibility of conference
with this German spy, have determine
ed to find the truth for themselves.
Withingham, who in his opening
paragraph, says that his name is not
Withingham at all, but is something
radically Prussian, enters into minute
detail in his description of the cave
under Stone Mountain.
"The cave" he writes, .''is not in
the granite formation. That would
be impossible igneous rock. It is
however, vast hole caused by the
subsidence of the clays, shales and
limestones which underlie this inn
mense rock. Stone Mountain is not
where it was when it crystalized from
it's molten state, millions Of years
ago. Some action, probably glacial,
from the SCARED appearance Of the
nearly vertical face of the mountain,
has moved it's tremendous bulk over
miles of ground. It's not an integral
part of the earth's bedrock forma--
tion. 1t is nothing more
than pebble thrown by
child, except for it's size. tt
rests upon compact bed of red clay
and of what is known in Georgia as
fuller earth Beneath the rock are
compact beds of gravel, which once
formed the bottom of great prehis-
toric river.
''The cave, which can be entered
from the western side of the mountain
(chart No. A. is $50 feet long and
has an average width of $50 feet.
It's floor is irregular, and ravine shap-
ed, with a deep slope toward the
south. A small stream runs down
this ravine, and in the southern wall
of the cave. At this point (chart No.
g the distance from the floor Of the
cave to the roof, or the bottom Of the;
rock, must be zoe feet, certainly not
less, and probably more
"The entrance was plainly visible
when I found it, in 1898, but having
important plans for the use of this
cave, and having communicated these
plans to the imperial German intell-
gence service with recommendations
for use of the, cavern as military
base for certain operations which
designed, I did not feel at liberty to
leave the mouth of this cave open. :
blew part of the mountain over the
opening, and it remains buried now.
t'The unhappy result of the conflict
in which the Fatherland has been tenn 8
porarily crippled, and the impro babil-
ity of any future use Of this cavern
by the German government, moves me
to disclose the facts herein set forth
for the benefit of science"
Professor H. S. Terkle, in comment
ing upon this astonishing epistle.
said only: t'It may be true. We ex:
pect to have our party and our equip
ment in Atlanta during the month OF
August, and will begin our work with
in a few days after arrival. We can
not afford to be skeptical in matters
of this kind. If Stone Mountain is a
detached rock, we want to know it.
Bamberg Second Class.
Washington, July 15.-In the re-
adjustment OF the classification OF