BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//pretalx//talks.caving.dev//nss-convention-2026//talk//MZRKDU BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:EST BEGIN:STANDARD DTSTART:20001029T030000 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYDAY=-1SU;BYMONTH=10;UNTIL=20061029T070000Z TZNAME:EST TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 END:STANDARD BEGIN:STANDARD DTSTART:20071104T030000 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYDAY=1SU;BYMONTH=11 TZNAME:EST TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT DTSTART:20000402T030000 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYDAY=1SU;BYMONTH=4;UNTIL=20060402T080000Z TZNAME:EDT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:DAYLIGHT DTSTART:20070311T030000 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYDAY=2SU;BYMONTH=3 TZNAME:EDT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 END:DAYLIGHT END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT UID:pretalx-nss-convention-2026-MZRKDU@talks.caving.dev DTSTART;TZID=EST:20260708T123000 DTEND;TZID=EST:20260708T133000 DESCRIPTION:Gordon L. Smith (NSS 8847 CL\, F\, H)\nSixty-Seven Years in the Dark – And Counting . . .\n\nMy parents took me to Smokehole Caverns in West Virginia sometime in the early 1950s. Several years later my family went to Seneca Caverns\, but we couldn't afford to take the whole family i n the cave. Since I had already been in a show cave\, my Dad took my broth er in and I had to wait in the car with my Mother.\n\nIn October of 1959\, while a student at Potomac State\, after accidently reading "Caverns of W est Virginia"\, I went in my first wild cave with two geology students fro m Moorfield\, West Virginia. The cave was the Keyser Quarry Cave. Before l ong\, I was taking them to caves such as Kites Cave in Mineral County.\n\n In February of 1961\, in a snowstorm\, in a 1929 Model A Ford\, I went to Parsons in Tucker County to visit Cave Hollow Cave for the first time. How I survived that trip with five others (no hardhats\, "big" flashlights\, no idea what we were doing) is amazing to me. It turned out to be the firs t of many trips to Cave Hollow over the next ten years. It was about two-m iles long when we started with two entrances and when we "finished" the su rvey it was five-miles long and had five entrances. When Judy and I got ma rried\, the owner of the cave sent us a wedding present.\n\nI presented a paper on Cave Hollow at the American Association for the Advancement of Sc ience (AAAS) Geology meeting in Washington\, DC\, in 1966 and met Russ Gur nee who insisted that I join the NSS\, which I did with his recommendation . I also met Denny Burns\, who was the Chief Cartographer with the Cave Re search Foundation. Denny invited me to come to Flint Ridge for the Spring Expedition where I met Stan and Kay Sides. We are still in the Mammoth Cav e area.\n\nIn the Spring of 1973\, at a Louisville Grotto Meeting\, I lear ned that Marengo Cave\, a show cave in Southern Indiana\, was for sale. I visited Marengo shortly afterward and to my amazement learned that the own er was desperate to sell the cave. Buying a show cave was the farthest thi ng from my mind – I had just purchased my first home and didn't have a p enny to my name. Somehow\, I formed a group with Pat Stephens\, Gary Rober son\, and Terry Crayden (all cavers) and much to my surprise we were able to get a loan to buy the cave. I eventually bought out the other partners and owned the cave by myself from 2001 until 2017. I couldn't have done it without the support and encouragement of my wife Judy. While owning Maren go\, I (and others) discovered a passage in the cave that turned out to be the largest passage ever discovered in Indiana.\n\nIn 2002\, the State of Indiana was going to close Wyandotte Cave. I protested and the head of th e Indiana Department of Natural Resources said that the only way he would keep it open was if I operated the cave. I said hell no and he said to be in his office the next week in Indianapolis to discuss the details. I oper ated Wyandotte for seven years until white nose hit.\n\nIn 1968\, at my fi rst NSS Convention in Springfield\, MO\, I began my hobby (obsession) with collecting cave books\, postcards\, etc\, etc.\n\nOn Thanksgiving Day 196 8 Judy and I discovered Lee Cave on Joppa Ridge in Mammoth Cave National P ark. Lee Cave would become the second longest cave in the Park at about 18 miles. Soon after\, I was elected to be a Member of the Cave Research Fou ndation and Judy and I managed the Flint Ridge Field Station from 1967 unt il 1974. When the connection was made to Mammoth Cave in 1972\, I was the Expedition Leader on the surface.\n\nIn 1970\, I was elected a Fellow of t he NSS and\, in 1981\, I became the President of the National Show Cave As sociation. In 1979\, with a big push from Russ Gurnee\, I was elected to b e a Board Member of the National Speleological Foundation and served as Se cretary and Investment Committee Chairman until I "retired" in 2021 after 42 years.\n\nIn 1999\, I put together a group of cavers to purchase Diamon d Caverns in Park City\, Kentucky. The reason behind buying another show c ave was to locate the National Cave Museum at Diamond Caverns. The groundb reaking was at a NCKMS in 2016 at Diamond Caverns.\n\nIn about 2005\, Jack Herschend\, a good friend\, purchased Cumberland Caverns from Roy Davis. Roy strongly suggested that Jack put someone on the Board of Directors tha t knew the show cave business. I have been on the Board ever since.\n\nI h ave traveled extensively over the past ten years visiting caves in England \, France\, Iceland\, Spain\, Portugal\, Switzerland\, Belgium\, Slovenia\ , Italy\, Hungary\, Czech Republic\, Slovakia\, Sweden\, Bermuda\, Jamaica \, Grand Cayman\, Barbados\, Curacao\, Belize\, Brazil\, Australia\, and N ew Zealand with Judy and more recently with my partner Laura Allen.\n\nAt the 2024 NSS Convention in Monteagle\, Tennessee\, I was awarded Honorary Membership in the NSS\, the highest honor given by the Society. My cave ex ploring days now behind me\, I am the managing partner at Diamond Caverns and always delighted to show cavers through the National Cave Museum. Howe ver\, I'm not quite ready to fold my tent. At the 2022 NSS Convention in S outh Dakota I initiated a cave project that has recently been amazingly su ccessful. DTSTAMP:20260826T232336Z LOCATION:Auditorium SUMMARY:Luminary Speaker: Gordon Smith - URL:https://talks.caving.dev/nss-convention-2026/talk/MZRKDU/ END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR