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Dale Green Accepting The Conservation Award For The Timpanogos Grotto |
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In a phone conversation with Dale Green on April 29, 2009, Dale was able to share some of the fun finding those early caves. He received the lead to the Nutty Putty Cave thinking it was directions to the Blow Hole Cave. “The USGS somehow confused the caves because Blowhole Cave is not on Blowhole Hill,” Dale shared. He said that they headed south from Slat Lake on the old paved highway heading west out of Lehi. Once they got to the now popular 4 corners in Saratoga Springs, the paved highway turned to dirt road as you traveled south down the west side of Utah Lake towards US 6 in Elberta.
Dale said it was 3 years of several trips out there before they finally found the Nutty Putty Cave. He said that they came upon the cave and entered the first time and explored down the Big Slide and got to the end and they decided to call the exploration off when they got to the edge of the 15’ drop off where the cable ladder is now installed. When asked what he thought when he came to the surface he stated in a reflective gruff tone, “I didn’t like the cave!” Then he added, “But you have to understand that there were lots of other newly discovered caves with great things to see. There were no great features in this cave.”
When asked if there were any pictures or stories written of those first visits, Dale said, “In those days we had Kodachrome with a speed of 6. This cave was so dirty and dusty that we didn’t dare take our cameras inside. It’s not like it is today where I take my camera in my pocket with me everywhere.”
When asked about the terrain near the cave entry, Dale Stated, “The vegetation in general and a lot of the dirt, you know soil, with a few things growing on it shrubs, and what not, have all been tracked down. It’s all gone. It was very different, there was no road up there then either. You walked all the way.”
So you were given coordinates with a map and were just out there searching... Dale responded emphatically, “No. He (the rancher) just pointed from Allen’s Ranch (laughing), and I of course had a topographic map but a... I wanted to find Blowhole and he...he showed me Rassle Knoll instead, and I, uh can’t remember exactly but it was very confusing to find out that Blowhole was not on Blowhole Hill.”
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Dale Green resting in full cave gear. |
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At that point had anybody been into Blowhole either? “Oh Yeahhh, the ranchers had been in and they had lowered a 1” steel cable all the way to the bottom so that they could get down there and they used that to climb on and they thought that the steam coming out of Blowhole was coming from a lake down there. And they wanted the water but, well that didn’t work out. I think we had two trips to Blowhole before we went in just to get that cable out,... it weighed a ton!”
So who did you cave with back then? “Oh I can only think of one person and that was Earl Peterson, and he has long since quit.”
So where were you living at the time, Utah County? “Oh no. I lived in Salt Lake, in this same place. But that was over 60 years ago. I just... It’s sort of a blank, a blur you might say.”
So there was an old highway that went down the west side of the lake, is that how you found it? “Yeah, that highway that is paved now was all dirt road after you went south on the road that goes out to Eagle Mountain from Lehi. From there on clear to US 6 it was dirt road.”
You guys must have had a shortcut. You obviously didn’t head down to mile marker 7 and turn west... “No, they didn’t have any mile markers. Yeah we had to go all that way on a dirt road, then we went west on essentially the same area you use to get there now. They were all County roads.”
When you found the cave the first time, were you prepared to go inside? “Oh yeah, we were heading for Rabbit Trap cave so we had our caving gear.”
Then the recording abruptly stopped, so I only have my memory of the conversation that lasted another 5 minutes or so. I promise to sit down with him again and learn more about his early adventures exploring the caves on the west side of Utah Lake. Michael Leavitt
Here is another written account from Dale as he reflects and recites some of his brief jouranl entries regarding the discoveries in and around the Nutty Putty Cave. Most of the references are to what is now known then as Rassle Knoll Cave, then Windless Cave, and finally what we now call Sully Putty Cave today. He does make brief reference of finally finding the Snake Pit Cave that we now call the Nutty Putty Cave...
I began exploration of this area began in late 1957. On November
24th
of that year I had a long talk with John Hutchings of Lehi about many
topics, including the discovery of Timpanogos Cave. I got about 15
cave leads from him, including people to talk to. One of them was
Art
Allen, who maintained Allens Ranch. I was specifically looking for
Blowhole, as mentioned by Hutchings. On Saturday, December 14, I
made
a solo trip to an unnamed hill, decades later named Greeley Hill, and
found Blowhole. What a find.
On Sunday, December 15, I went to another nearby hill, mistakenly
named Blowhole Hill by the USGS, to look for Snake Cave. I
previously
had an interesting visit with Art Allen (can't remember when) who not
only told me how to find Blowhole, but of another "Snake Cave" on
what
he insisted was a hill called "Rassle Knoll". He said those USGS
guys
didn't know what they were doing. The knoll got that name from an
incident where either he or his brother, can't remember which, had a
'rasslin' fight' on top of the knoll with some sheep herder. In the
spring of some year in the mid '30s, a U. of U. biologist poured
yellow
paint all over a ball of rattlesnakes curled up in the entrance. Later, he came out and tried to trace where the snakes went.
Art
said
he remembered one winter when he was caught on top of the knoll in a
blizzard and spent several hours huddled in the warm, moist air
coming
from the cave. "Dang near saved my life" or words to that effect.
Anyway, from my diary - "Dec 15, 1957 - Found Rassle Knoll Cave. Pit
with iron winch. Art Allen at Allens Ranch told me of Snake Cave
nearby. ...Found Pink Lime Pit. 60-70 feet deep. Nice ladder climb.
Was unable to find warm air holes on West side of Boulter Mtns. Alone."
I returned a few weeks later with help. Again from the diary: "Jan
5,
1958. Pink Lime Pit. Pit 65' deep, 60' long. Once beautifully
decorated. Rassle Knoll Pit only 12' deep with lots of warm air from
small hole. Can be dug out. Found Rabbit Trap Cave. Lots of bones.
Dead rabbit in passage. About 100' long. Couldn't find Snake Cave.
Blowhole went down about 130' vertical. Lots more left. w/George
Beck of Pittsburg Grotto, Bill Clark, Pete Sanchez."
Much later, I believe in the late '80s, the pit was rediscovered and
renamed "Windless Cave" for reasons that escape me. Later it was
refound and renamed "Silly Putty Cave". Both renamings carried the
connotation of original discovery! What will it be renamed 10
years from now? The winch over the cave had long since disappeared.
When we found Nutty Putty Cave later (the Snake Cave I had looked
for), we made the
mistake
of taking college students from BYU there, and look what happened.
Dale Green
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