History of the Greater Allentown Grotto
The first chapter in the history of the Greater Allentown
Grotto is quite simple. Most of our grotto members were introduced to caving
through a series of learning experiences. Two of the founding grotto members are school
teachers. One introduced the other to caving, who in turn began teaching students
about caving. After a few field trips run by the two teachers, the enthusiasm
increased. A few of the students took a greater interest in caving and began telling
relatives and friends. Love for the underground did not end with the school
year. They continued caving together and our small, informal fraternity was
formed. At the 1980 NSS convention in Minnesota, we decided to organize into an
official grotto.
During the late 80's and early 90's members
of the grotto worked on local projects including MAR Bulletins for Lehigh
and Northampton Counties, as well as a complete quarry survey of Berks
county. As interests began to diversify, the reach of the grotto
began to expand, and started to include frequent trips to Virginia and West
Virginia. During this time, the grotto members worked on Caves in the Richlands Area of Greenbrier
County.
Currently, members regularly participate
in caving events in Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia. Individual member's interests include casual site seeing trips, local cave
discovery explorations, surveying, photography, historical research, cave
biology and
hard core scientific exploration.
We now have about 40 members. For information about joining,
please contact our membership chairman
Vince Kappler.