The Roxy Regional School of the Arts gave us 11 actors to do our three skits in the cave with Brendan Cataldo as their director. The Roxy Theatre also gave us a delightful gatekeeper.

The 2009 Haunting History Tour Actors

Swan Lake Golf Course allowed us to use their parking lot for overflow parking.

Volunteers stand ready to serve refreshing drinks

Over 40 volunteers poured and stirred complimentary cups of hot chocolate, put up and took down the tiki torches that lined the lake, sold glow necklaces and tickets, took us into the cave to see the skits and manned the parking lot. The volunteers were a happy bunch, their enthusiasm catchy.

Haunting History is a fundraiser by the non-profit group, Friends of Dunbar Cave. Monies raised are used to help preserve and protect the park and educate the public.

• The Friends Group was able to talk APSU’s Clean Cut Productions into producing an Introductory Film that explains the history of Dunbar Cave.
• The Friends group filmed interviews of local residents who have stories to tell about the Good Ole Days at Dunbar Cave.
• The Friends group designed, bought and installed a monitor in the lobby that shows films to the public especially the one made by Clean Cut Productions.
• The Friends group runs Trees to Trails, Cooling at the Cave and Spring Fling each year. These events are free to the public.
• The Friends group bought interpretive signage for the park and will continue to do so.
• The Friends group pushes for an Interpretive Center at Dunbar Cave. They’ve used the money they have raised as an incentive for the State to also support that effort.

The 40+ Haunting History volunteers were an impressive bunch. They came willing to do whatever was needed and also to have a good time. They did both. This event has side benefits, like making everyone fall in love with the cave and the Friends of Dunbar Cave group. Several people became members during the event.

The Skits

The first skit

I received a lot of positive feedback about the skits from the public and the volunteers. I was thrilled to overhear a man quote the first skit about bats to his wife and talk about how many mosquitoes bats eat. They both agreed that they should build a bat house to try and attract bats to their property.

The first skit was meant to dispel fears about bats and replace them with true information. At the end of the skit the actors showed the audience that a live bat was hanging on the ceiling. It was with excitement and awe that people looked at it, not with horror and fear.

An Eastern Pipistrel Bat

The second skit

The second skit, Haunting Memories, was created from what certain people had to say about the good ole days at Dunbar Cave. Woman 1 represents Marguerite Rubel and Mary McDaniel. Woman 2 is Rachel Tate and Jacquie Miles. Man 1 is Jimmy Dunn and Ronnie Hunter. Man 2 is Zoot Parker who was known as the best dancer in Clarksville. While talking to the actors I was able to fill them in on who they were representing.

The third skit

Skit three, Haunting Questions, is about the Native Americans who made the art on the walls in Dunbar Cave. Information about the topic was gathered on visits to Indian Mound sites, like Pinson Mounds in West Tennessee and from books purchased there.

Many people come out of the event smiling and saying, “Wow, I learned a lot!” They seemed pleasantly surprised by that, maybe because they were older by far than the children doing the skits.

The Roxy actors were great. I watched them rehearse and was totally impressed. Then, of course, they just kept getting better. A week before the event we took them and the director into the cave to see how the “stages” looked. After that we were treated to a bit of a tour by Michael Fulbright who works at the Park. The kids were thrilled and learned a lot about the cave.

One of the many tour groups heading to the cave

Sponsors

The Friends of Dunbar Cave wish to give special thanks to these sponsors:

Some of the many young people who enjoyed their haunting tour of Dunbar Cave

• The Roxy Regional School of the Arts. With a more than busy (as usual) schedule, John McDonald gave us wonderful actors and director.
• Bill Larson of Clarksville Online gave us free advertisement and negotiated the using of the Swan Lake Golf Course for overflow parking. He also brought the actors and early volunteers a lovely dinner on Saturday and ran activities in the cave during the walk-through and the event. Thanks to Bill also for pictures of the actors.
• Thanks for the cooking of that Saturday dinner goes out to Mr. and Mrs. William Keen.
• Thanks to Mr. Jeff Vaughn the City’s Golf Pro and manager of Swan Lake Golf Course for the use of their parking lot.
• Thanks to David Shelton, Christine Piesyk, Turner McCullough Jr., Gabe Redel, and Curtis Davis; for dinner Friday, and their help manning the tables on both nights.
• Thanks to Jack and Suva Bastin for all their hard work and help.
• Thanks to Tennessee Trails making Haunting History their event also.
• Thanks for donations from Batteries Plus, Lowes, Rural King and Krogers.
• Thanks for their invaluable help in promoting the event: WJZM 1400 AM Radio, Clarksville Online, the Leaf Chronicle and Clarksville Family Magazine.

Volunteers who helped on this event

Actors:

• Scene 1 – Haunting Facts:Becca Winters, Patrick Long, Hallie Sampson, Tim O. Smith
• Scene 2 – Haunting Memories: Kayla Coleman, Jacob Ritchart, Emily Ritchart, Autumn Crafton, Jaymin Burr
• Scene 3 – Haunting Questions: Frances Dennis, Christian Boyd

Contributers and Volunteers:

Volunteers Kim Chandler and Blayne Clements on Friday night

Barbara Wilbur, Jim Hancock, Richard Gildrie, Meredith Gildrie, Jack Bastin, Suva Bastin, John Sneed, David Boen, Randall Boen, Bill Larson, Kitty Madden, Beverly Fisher, Paul Schwab, Merri Hinton, Bob Lyon, Carol Sequra, Kyle Sequra, Christine Pieysk, Kelly LaPlante, Bobby LaPlante, David Shelton, Curtis Davis, Turner McCullough, Mike Vogt, Kathy Vogt, Kim Chandler, Blayne Clements, Stephen Walker, J.B., Brooklyn Lyle, Dan Racklin, Marilyn Racklin, Beth Racklin, Jill Eichhorn, Barry Kitterman, Hannah Kitterman, Lee Gray, Gabriel Redel, Bryan Valentin, Kathryn Myracle, Matthew Fowler, Beth Robinson, Faith Robinson, Katherine Kolodzie, Gloria Miliken, Elaine Foust, Carl J. Powell, Mr. and Mrs. William Keen

We wish to give a special thanks to the Dunbar Cave Park Staff! Amy Wallace, Adam Neblett, Robert Wells, Teresa Campbell, Michael Fulbright and Blaine Hargis

Park Interpreter Amy Wallace with some of the many pumpkins carved by Suva Bastin and herself

Photo Gallery

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Swamp Milkweed Pods

A triggered Jewelweed seed pod and seeds

You also saw the jewelweed, with its orange dangling flowers. The flowers are still present, but now we are seeing the fat seedpods as well. Another name for jewelweed is Touch-me-Not. If you lightly touch a seedpod, it will pop and the seeds will be shot out several inches or even feet away. This keeps the seeds from falling directly under the parent plant and competing for food and sunlight when they grow into plants themselves. Note in the photo how the split pod has a little curlicue, and the seed to the left. If you can catch a seed, remember if you peel the outer covering off it is a pretty pale blue inside.

A Monarch Butterfly Chrysalis

As you walk around the lake, instead of focusing on the algae on the water (which is natural and good, but doesn’t look so great), look instead at the beautiful things you can see. A Viceroy butterfly on a plant. The chrysalis of the monarch, a small green capsule with gold lines and dots on it, hanging from a branch. The caterpillar is curled up in there, changing into that orange and brown butterfly. You might see several Tiger Swallowtail butterflies, feeding on something on a piece of wood in the water. The weird and wonderful seeds of the Virgin’s Bower vine (also called Old Man’s Beard – can you see why?) are found on a vine twining on vegetation growing at the lake’s edge. We certainly are glad we didn’t cut that vegetation to “make it look better”. We think it looks pretty good the way it is. Most people walk right by and never see something like this. Look at the pretty pink seeds of the smartweed against the green of the plants around it. You can find something like this everywhere you look.

Tiger Swallowtails on Swan Lake

An orange and yellow Sulfur Fungus

Fall is also a great time to see different types and colors of fungi. Look on dead trees for a bright orange and yellow, sometimes very large, wavy fungus. This is the Sulfur Fungus, also called the “Chicken of the Woods” – at least, I think that is what it is. Mushrooms and other fungi can be hard to identify, and I am not an expert on these.

And of course, the leaves are turning and soon we will have wonderful colors. They look even better on a misty rainy day than they do in the sunlight. These photos were taken last year.

Glorious fall colors on Sweetgum Beech Trees

Come out and enjoy nature.

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Does anyone remember the old song about picking up paw paws, putting them in your pocket, way down yonder in the pawpaw patch? You can find the famous paw paws at Dunbar Cave right now, as well as at other places– and if you beat the possums to them, taste one – kind of like a sickly sweet very ripe banana. How do you know if one is ripe? Shake the tree (and duck) – if they fall off, they are ripe. Some people make breads and puddings from the pulp. We prefer to leave them for the possums and other creatures that need them for food. The leaves of pawpaw trees are also neat – they smell like green peppers.

Pawpaw fruits

Mistflower

If you come to the park this month, you will also see goldenrod, boneset, mistflower, snakeroot, thistles, jewelweed, asters, lettuces (nothing to do with the garden vegetable) and other flowers. The predominant colors are yellow, white and lavender.

Butterfly on Thistle

Some might call them weeds, but if you look closely most of these “weeds” are covered with insects, especially butterflies, getting a good meal. That is why we let our weeds grow and flower – to feed the inhabitants of the Natural Area and to provide shelter for them.

Jewelweed

The tiny orange spotted jewelweed is my favorite flower right now – if you wonder about the name, take a look at the photo – they look like little eardrops – and if you look closely, you will also see the water droplets shining like jewels. If you hold a leaf underwater, it looks like it is covered in tinfoil. The jewelweed is also good for poison ivy (rub the mashed up leaves on the rash) – and just plain fun. It will have seedpods that look like little okras – if you touch one it will shoot seeds out three or more feet (another name for this plant is touch-me-not. And if you can catch one of the seeds and peel it – the inside is robin’s-egg-blue and tastes like a peanut!

Our swallows are gone; soon we will be seeing ducks and warblers migrating through the area. The local Audubon Society will have a field trip to Dunbar on September 26 to look for those fall warblers – check out the Warioto Audubon Society website for details.

Flowers that are blooming now include Swamp Milkweed, a pink ballerina-looking flower that can be found at the edge of the lake; Ironweed, a rich deep purple flower with a stem that can reach 9 feet or more; Orange Coneflower, found in one spot along the lake shore (looks a lot like a black-eyed Susan); Creeping Primrose, a yellow flower that actually grows in the water at the edge of the lake; Wild Sensitive Plant, that looks like a small mimosa tree, has small yellow flowers; Tick Trefoil, with three leaflets and a pealike lavender or pink flower (this will later have the brown triangular seeds that stick all over your clothes); and Tall Bellflower, with blue flowers, found growing near the rock walls on the way to the cave.

Clematis fruit

We also have the fruits of flowers from earlier in the summer – the alien looking fruit of the Wild Clematis and the round green ball (will turn dark purple later) that is the fruit of the Yellow Passion Flower.

Our crayfish are coming out onto the banks of the lake and making chimneys to hide while they shed their exoskeleton and the new one hardens.

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We did our last school group yesterday. It was a fun time, considering we had to slog through four to five inches of mud to get through the first room of the cave. The heavy rain we had the weekend of Mother’s Day flooded the first room of the cave and halfway into the first passageway, depositing sticky slippery clay mud. On that Saturday morning, the water was up to chin height (estimate, we didn’t wade in to see exactly how high it was).

While I was sitting at the cave entrance waiting for a group one day, I saw an Eastern Phoebe feeding her young at the nest at the cave entrance and a Carolina Wren flying to a nest in the window of the old concession stand. In fifteen minutes I heard a Red-Shouldered Hawk, a Gray Cheeked Thrush, a Blue Jay, a Ruby-throated Hummingbird, a Common Crow, a Yellow-throated Warbler, a Black-and-White Warbler, a Parula Warbler and a Black-throated Green Warbler. In the same amount of time I saw a Green Heron and a Great Blue Heron. You don’t even have to walk up on the trails to see birds – these were all at or near the cave entrance.

Our best flowers right now are the Indian Pink, Wild Petunia and Wild Clematis. All can be found along the lake trail.

Schedule of events:

7:00-8:30 am – Early Morning Bird Hike: Hike the trails at the park; watch and identify birds with members of the Warioto Audubon Chapter. Bring binoculars and field guides if you have them.

8:45-9:45 am – Backpacking with Tennessee Trail Association: Bob Lyon, an experienced backpacker and long-distance hiker, will demonstrate the needed equipment for backpacking, day hiking and camping.

8:45-10:15 am – Wildflower/Plant Walk: Amy Wallace, the park’s naturalist, will lead you on a hike to appreciate the abundant wild flowers & other plants found in the park.

10:00-11:00 am – Raptors with SOAR, Inc.: Save Our American Raptors will give an educational program showing various native birds of prey.  They will tell about each bird and its personal history, describe its species and how it fits into the natural world.  Several of the birds are flighted which should make for some lively audience encounters.

11:15 am-12:15 pm – Native Amphibians and Reptile: Nathan Parker, APSU naturalist, will present a program on some of our local native salamanders, frogs and snakes.

11:15 am-12:15 pm – The Story of Dunbar Cave: Enjoy this new 14 minute film developed by the Friends of Dunbar Cave and Austin Peay’s Department of Communication. The film will be shown several times.

12:30-1:30 pm – Urban Wildlife: Bettina Bowers-Schwan of Walden’s Puddle Wildlife Rehabilitation and Education Center will discuss some of the animals that you will find living in your town or community. Live animals will be displayed.

12:30-1:30 pm – Raptors with SOAR, Inc.: Save Our American Raptors will provide an educational program showing various birds of prey.

1:45-2:45 pm – Snakes and Reptiles: Sherry and Donny Howell, local reptile experts, show you native and exotic snakes and other reptiles. Learn why these gentle creatures are so important to our ecology.

Snakes and Reptiles

1:45-2:45 pm – Bluebirds in your Backyard: Duane Rice, local Audubon Society leader and bluebird expert will talk about how to host Eastern Bluebirds around your home and property.

2:45-3:45 pm – Trail Hike with Suva Bastin: Suva Bastin, member of Clarksville’s Tennessee Trails Association, will lead us on a hike on the park’s trails. She can provide valuable pointers for day-hiking in our region.

Canoeing on Swan Lake

2:45-4:45 pm – Canoeing: Enjoy the beauty of Swan Lake and Dunbar Cave State Natural Area from a canoe. Canoes, paddle and life jackets provided for brief excursions on the lake. Sign-up will begin earlier in the day.

Purple Larkspur

Many flowers are blooming – more and more every year. The best right now are the Fire Pink, bright red splashes of color on the hillside above the lake; Dwarf Crested Iris, the small blue and yellow flowers that grow in patches on the hillside, patches that are getting larger every year; and the Violet Wood Sorrel, lavender trumpets with a yellow throat and leaves which look like shamrocks. This is a great year for the wood sorrel, it seems to be everywhere. We also have shooting star, larkspur, and spring beauty, among others.

Of course, things change every day – I swear that there were flowers out in the afternoon that were not  there in the morning. Most of our flowers are more plentiful every year (as long as no one picks them) – some have disappeared, either due to habitat change or human destruction, but those are the minority.

A Pileated Woodpecker (Mike and Jean Drummond's Birds of Texas)

The birds are also coming in, back from winter elsewhere, either here for the summer or just passing through. Yesterday I saw a Yellow-throated Warbler, a Black and White Warbler, a Black-throated Green Warbler, and a Yellow-throated Vireo, all for the first time this year. I also had a wonderful sight of a Pileated Woodpecker, which is here all the time, but the sun caught its crest just right and it glowed a bright red.

Many of the trees already have leaves, but the beeches are just before leafing out. They have golden brown buds that are 1-1/2 to 2 inches long – hard to believe that leaves are packed into those buds. I was glad to find some beeches (they are the ones with nice smooth bark) that WEREN’T carved with initials or names – far from where people pass on the trail.

I also did my good deed(s) for the day – freed four Jack-in-the-Pulpits – they (and other flowers) sometimes come up through a tear in last year’s leaves on the forest floor and are kept from opening up by the leaves tightly packed around them – I pulled the leaves off from around them so that they could open up and grow freely. I like to think they were grateful.

One good thing about tromping is you discover things you did not know were there – we had thought that most of our Lycopodium (a primitive plant, evergreen and low-growing, not found in many places, which was once plentiful on the park), was killed by the extreme cold and then a drought two years ago, but I came upon a large patch growing in the middle of the woods.

We hope you will come out and enjoy the life, beauty and peace of the Dunbar Cave State Natural Area.

Cave Tours are available Saturday and Sunday at 1pm and 3pm. Cost is 5$ per person. Each individual must bring their own flashlight. Call for reservations (At least one week in advance, Mon-Fri 8am-4:30pm) 931-648-5526

The Friends of Dunbar Cave are also preparing for their 10th annual trees to trails effort.  Volunteers will be spreading the mulch generated from donated Christmas trees on the trails around the state natural area, between 9am and 12pm on Saturday April 25th, the first Saturday after Earth day. The group usually has a great turn out, but they never turn down additional volunteers.

The volunteers that helped the friends of Dunbar Cave spread the mulch during Trees to Trails in 2008.

Events

Cave Tours – Saturday and Sunday at 1pm and 3pm. Cost is 5$ per person. Each individual must bring their own flashlight. Call for reservations (At least one week in advance, Mon-Fri 8am-4:30pm) 931-648-5526

Spring Fling – all day educational event on Saturday May 9th includes raptors, canoes, snakes, and lots of fun. SOAR will return for another great show. 2009 is our 11th year.

Cooling at the Cave – music and fun at the cool mouth of the cave, held on the last Saturday of July which is usually about the hottest day of the year. 2009 is our 3rd year of Cooling at the Cave.

Amy Wallace Park Interpreter

Wildflowers are blooming now! We are amazed at how many flowers we have in places that once had none. Guess that’s what comes from protecting the area for 30+ years.

Bufflehead - (Photo Courtesy of King County Water and Land Resources Division.)

We had a Bufflehead, Blue-winged Teal, and two Lesser Scaup on the lake at once one day in mid-March. It was nice to see some ducks other than mallards on the lake. The barn swallows returned on April 1, later than they arrived last year by a few days. Our Blue-gray Gnatcatchers (small birds that nest here, they look a bit like tiny mockingbirds) also are back. Frogs are singing – spring is here, don’t care what the thermometer says (and it says 37 degrees right now.)

Several visitors got an up close look at a small water snake that was sunning on the paved trail to the lake. It was then relocated off the paved trail so that no one would “help” by harming it.

Unfortunately someone knocked the tops off of dozens of May Apples coming up along the trail.