Dead Dog Cave!

Recently the world held its breath as boys and coach of a Thai soccer team were stranded in a cave. Austin had its own cave drama, albeit not on the scale of the Thai soccer team. I’m referring to Dead Dog Cave[1], its entrance now buried beneath Luby’s parking lot near Steck and Mopac Service Road.

The cave was first brought to the attention of cavers about 1958. A gentleman exploring a sink hole crossed a ledge which gave way, climber and rock falling to the bottom of the sink. Subsequent exploration and removal of dirt, rocks, and dog bones (hence the name) revealed a cave 175 feet long, with a depth of 91 feet.

The cave features tight crawl spaces only 8 inches wide; not for the claustrophobic! At one point a narrow vertical passage opens in the ceiling of a walking-size passage. The walking passage extends 15 feet to a six-foot drop into the “Big Room," a room 60 feet long, 30 feet wide, and 30 feet high. Big by Travis County cave standards. The drop into the Big Room is undercut and unclimbable without climbing aids. Inside the Big Room, from a fissure issues a small stream creating a waterfall which falls to the floor creating an area of flowstone. The water flows to a small drain at the lowest point in the cave, 91 feet below the surface.

Even though relatively few braved the difficult path to the Big Room, the cave had a reputation among cavers. The cave also had a reputation among teens!

July 5, 1978, three teenagers from the neighborhood decided to visit the cave. The trip was uneventful until the three attempted to exit. The boy in the lead became pinned in a two-foot-wide passage, 25 feet from the surface by a cave-in, rocks crushing his legs several inches below his hips. The exit thus blocked, his friends behind him were trapped as well. It was about 8:30 pm when the call went out for help from an adult who had gone with the teens, staying near the entrance, presumably for just this reason.

First on the scene was the Fire Department but they were unable to free the boy using a rope, at which time cavers from the Austin Cave Club were called in for assistance. The plan then was to dig out the loose rocks holding the boy in the narrow passage. The most effective implement was a coffee can from the Red Cross truck that had arrived to provide refreshment for the rescuers. After hours of digging the boy was freed about 12:30 am as applause rang out from a crowd of hundreds of onlookers. "All I could think of," said the boy "was that if the rest came down I would be dead."

That was not the first incident at Dead Dog Cave. Another gentleman told me he got stuck in 1959 when he was a 10th grader at McCallum High; once again cavers came to the rescue. But speculation on the 1978 incident was that construction activities for the extension of MoPac had destabilized the cave leading to the cave-in that pinned the teen. State highway engineers made plans to close the cave with concrete. Cavers talked with engineers, and they agreed to include a manhole cover to permit access to the cave. Unfortunately, when Luby's was built, the significance of that manhole was not appreciated and was paved over, cutting off access to the infamous Dead Dog Cave!

Photos

Click photos to enlarge

Profile and plan view of Dead Dog Cave

Graphic depicting the three trapped youth, The Austin American Statesman, July, 7, 1978

 

Footnote, References

[1] The cave is officially known as Dead Dog Cave #2 (yes, there is a Dead Dog Cave #1), and also as Steck Cave. Here I’ll refer to it simply as Dead Dog Cave. My thanks to Jerry Atkinson for his help on this article, and William Russell for use of his write-up, “Major and significant caves and karst features of Travis County, Texas.” Texas Speleological Survey, Austin, Texas (in publication 2018).

Kelly, Lee. "Cave-in won't stop teens: Better preparation planned for next exploration", The Austin American Statesman, Nov 19, 1978

Turner, Allan. "Youngsters avoid injury in cave-in; entrance sealed", The Austin American Statesman, July 6, 1978

Turner, Allan. "Cave where 3 trapped one of hundreds here", The Austin American Statesman, July, 7, 1978

For more on caves in Texas, Texas Cave Management Association, https://www.tcmacaves.org/

Old Burnet Road: Mt. Bonnell to Comanche Peak and Beyond

Janet Long Fish in an oral interview in 2000 speculated on the connection between the north-south Comanche trail along Shoal Creek and the trail to Mount Bonnell, on past Bull Creek to Comanche Peak. In this blog I'll elaborate on that topic. The connection was a road to the general area of today's Burnet, Texas.

While we have here in Austin a road today called “Comanche Trail” running next to Comanche Peak by Lake Travis, I think it’s relevant to look at the bigger picture and consider the road of which today's Comanche Trail was a part. That road is (or was) one of two roads connecting Burnet and Austin. Segments of that old road still exist by Lake Travis as Old Burnet Road.

The Penateka, our local division of the Comanche, called the headwaters of the Colorado River home. It was near Colorado City, TX John Moore attacked a village of Comanche in 1840. That attack was the culmination of a string of conflicts that year between Texans and Penateka beginning with what is variously called the Council House fight or massacre; followed by a revenge attack by the Penateka on the towns of Victoria and Linnville; followed by the battle at Plum Creek. The attack by John Moore was intended to take the fight to the Penateka in their homeland.

Along the swath of the Colorado River and its tributaries closer to Austin, the area of Burnet, Texas was a favored campsite, hence the reason for Fort Croghan’s location. In 1847 Texas Rangers under Henry McCulloch (Ben McCulloch's brother) set up a camp south of today's Burnet to disrupt Comanche occupation and protect settlement. The location was later moved north of Hamilton Creek at the base of Post Mountain and became U.S. Fort Croghan. As was often the case, where there was a fort, a town sprang up giving us today's Burnet, Texas (originally called Hamilton Valley as is shown on some old maps).

TX A&M Forest Service’s official Indian Marker Tree was located on Hamilton Creek, near the fort, in Burnet. From their website: "In the fall, [the Comanche] passed through Central Texas and one of their favorite camping spots was along Hamilton Creek which flows through Burnet"

Comanche Chief Yellow Wolf made appearances at the fort, had his portrait painted there, and camped neared what would later be the site of Gabriel Mills. It was atop nearby Mt. Gabriel, AKA, Pilot Knob, a mesa and highest point in Williamson County, Comanches said to have been associated with Yellow Wolf watched the approach of the ill-fated Webster wagon train in 1839. It was Yellow Wolf, camped near Gabriel Mills, Frank Dobie wrote about in his classic Coronado’s Children telling tales to Samuel Mather of a silver mine "three suns to the West".

Burnet Road(s) are from a time when roads were named for their destination, in this case Burnet, Texas. From Austin, there were historically two Burnet Roads. The “high road” was east of the Colorado, out of the river valley and the route most travelers today would take; it is the general route of today’s US 183 / SH 29. On this route was Tumlinson’s blockhouse fort, built 1836, burned by the Comanche in 1837. On this route was the attack on the Webster wagon train by Comanches in 1839 near today’s Leander. And this route was also known as the “military road” which ran through Bagdad, so-called because it was the road to Fort Croghan. Not much is left of Bagdad today but the cemetery.

But there was a second “Burnet Road”. Any traffic into Austin down the Colorado river valley would, of geographic necessity, probably have tracked this route which I’ll refer to as Old Burnet Road as there are remnants of that road by that name around Lake Travis. A GLO map surveyed in 1877 shows the length of the road. The skirmish at Defeat Hollow, near Comanche Peak, between Joel Harris and Indians (probably Comanche) had occurred only years before this map was surveyed, probably ca. 1870. It is likely today’s Comanche Trail (the road) was a side road off this longer road; i.e. a pull-off from the main road to reach the top of Comanche Peak. Comanche Peak may well have been what the Spanish called a “paraje”; a stopping / camping place along a longer trail. And a review of the earliest known aerial photo of Comanche Peak, taken in 1937 by Tobin Imagery, shows today's road, Comanche Trail, was indeed just a trail in 1937.

Starting from Austin, Old Burnet Road was today’s 2222 to 4-points, then straight ahead on what is today Bullick Hollow Rd. It ran to Anderson Mill, to Volente, Travis Peak and on to Burnet. Parts of the road emerge from Lake Travis today (in Google Maps search for “Old Burnet Road, Leander, Texas”). Commissioners Court Minutes show the route between Anderson Mill to Burnet (then still called Hamilton Valley) being discussed as early as 1853 [Commissioners Court Minutes, book B, p.39].

Mt. Bonnell was a historically referenced entry to Austin for Native Americans. Julia Lee Sinks talked of the "beaten track of the Indians into town from the pass of Mount Bonnell”. Of Bigfoot Wallace's refuge in the cave on Mount Bonnell, when asked why there, he responded "Well ... the cave was right on the old Indian trail leading down to Austin”. It was route of escape of Indians (probably Comanche) that abducted the Simpson children from West Pecan in 1844. Old Burnet Road was the road that connected Burnet to Mt. Bonnell, passing at the base of Comanche Peak.

Old Burnet Road is probably the most significant route coming down the Colorado River in connection with Comanche Peak because it passes at the foot of the Comanche Peak. But once there Comanche Peak would have been a jumping off point for other trails. In particular there was likely a trail from Comanche Peak to Santa Monica Springs, said to have been a Comanche watering stop, and a ford across the Colorado leading to trails tracking today's Bee Caves Road.