It was a beautiful day for a field trip yesterday! We had a great time at Smallin Civil War Cave!
We started with an hour-long cave tour. We learned so much! First, we learned about how caves are formed. Did you know that water seeps through small cracks in rocks and slowly wears away the rock until a cave is formed? It can take thousands of years for a cave to form! Although they’re so old, caves are constantly changing all the time due to water erosion, human interaction, and the development of cave formations like stalactites and stalagmites.
We learned about the history of the cave and how the cave was used for shelter, leisure, exploration and more for many, many years. It was once even used as a hideout for a Union spy during the civil war! People who explored the cave long ago used symbols carved into the cave walls to help other people find their way. Now it’s a federal crime to carve into a cave wall!
While inside the cave, we learned about many cave features and searched for cave animals and fossils. A favorite was a fossil of a sea star. We saw the guano (bat poop) from a group of baby bats, a very large spider, some cave crickets, and the path where a fox travels. We even saw a few cave crawdads and learned about why they are translucent and blind (because they don’t need to see or be seen in the dark of the cave)!
Next, we left the cave for some other neat activities. Students got to climb through a cave-simulation climbing gym, created with small passageways similar to the deep and narrow tunnels a cave might have. We also sifted through sand to find gems and then compared them by their color, texture and shape to figure out the names of the gems we had found. Everyone got to bring home a few gems! It was such a great trip and we were so lucky to have had lovely weather today. What a fun and interesting morning! Thank you to the parents who joined us yesterday!