History Sinks of Gandy

the tunnel of gandy appeared in 1850s. source: strother s 1873 harper s article, mountains .

gandy creek — , sinks — named uriah gandy (or gandee) settled in area around 1781. local settlers aware of sinks 1830s. earliest recorded reference sinks may november 1833 letter sent randolph county physician benjamin dolbeare virginia historical , philosophical society in richmond. dolbeare described several local caves including 1 follows (with original spellings).

between, here called, aleghany , rich mountains, heads branch of dry fork tributary of cheat river, ridge extends quiet across, 1 mountain other, , branc[h], after keeping course 3 miles runs under ridge [is] ¾ of mile wide @ base, , high.

the sinks noted locally site of last known killings of elk hunters in randolph county, 1830 , 1835. (the last elk killed in of west virginia shot around 1843 in nearby canaan valley.)

in march 1864, minor incident of civil war occurred @ sinks. 8 men of general imboden’s confederate command, had been waylaying wagon trains in north, crossed neighboring tucker county robbed general store 3 miles town of saint george. pursued union captain , lieutenant closed on them next day @ sinks. 3 rebels killed in ensuing shootout, 2 captured , stolen property recovered.

the sinks first came widespread public notice way of tongue-in-cheek account of pleasure expedition region published david hunter strother in harper’s magazine in 1872 , 1873, although visit upon based occurred around 1854. story, entitled mountains , details high jinx of group of lively “virginia gentlemen” bumble through then-virgin forest, annoying sullen local “mountaineers”, in search of “tunnel of gandy”. semi-fictionalized narrative treated locals in rather xenophobic terms , recounted lurid tale of cattle rustling, abduction , desperate escape in cave , surrounding area.

the sinks again became object of popularization effort when west virginia writer jack preble published series of articles , booklets them between 1940s , 1960s. preble’s anecdotal , romanticizing approach little more reliable strother’s @ giving accurate account of cave. during period west virginia highway department began, eye toward tourist potential, replace designation of “osceola” of “the sinks” on official roadmaps.

the sinks first formally surveyed , mapped members of national speleological society on 1 september 1940 resulting in figure of 3,056 feet (931 m) of passage. cave resurveyed in 1990 resulting in 5,058 additional feet total of 8,114 feet (2,473 m) of passage. makes sinks 669th longest surveyed cave in u.s. of 10 march 2014