I recently found the cover which bears a manuscript marking from Blowing Cave dated March 10 (1855). Blowing Cave, now called Glory Hole or Willder Cave, is located in extreme southwest Georgia, not far from the Florida and Alabama borders.

The cave has been part of three counties. Prior to 1825 the entire southwest corner of Georgia was made into Early County, but in 1825 the county was divided and the southern part became Decatur County. A year later part of Decatur County was split off, and the eastern portion became Thomas County (1).

Indian paths became roads and are shown on Bonner’s map of 1847. The Newton to Tallahassee Road, which was known as the Hawthorne Trail, passed Blowing Cave. The cave is located in Section 16 on the maps shown in references (2,3).

In 1905, Decatur and Thomas counties were again split, and the adjoining parts became Grady County. Blowing Cave was then in Grady County. The counties have held their shape constant since 1905.

An article that appeared in the Atlanta Journal Magazine of March 22, 1931, discuss-ed breathing caves of Georgia. One of the caves is ten miles north of Whigham in Grady County. The article stated, “that the cavern continuously inhales and exhales great puffs of air. Accompanying its breathing is a shrill whistling sound, and at certain periods of the day and night the whistling changes to a long, rumbling groan, as though a giant is struggling to break through the stone walls that pen him in.”The phenomenon described in this article is due to the slight changes in atmospheric pressure. The whistling sound could be heard more than 30 feet away from the cave.

In 1961 the National Park Service sent a research team to study the feasibility of making Blowing Cave, now known as Glory Hole Cave, a national park. It was determined that because of the uniqueness of the cave, and its small narrow rooms and crawlways, that the cave and the surrounding land was not suitable for a national park.(4)

In 1964 the Atlanta Grotto made a sketch map of the cave and called it Willder Cave. The cave name in the Georgia Speleological Survey (G.S.S.) records was either Glory Hole Cave or Willder Cave. 5 In 1978, the Florida State Cave Club and the Fort Rucker – Ozark Grotto completed a detailed map of Glory Cave (G.S.S. No. 56). The total surveyed length of the cave was 14, 300 feet or 2.7 miles.

Blowing Cave (Willder Cave, Glory Hole Cave) was in Early County, Decatur, Thomas and finally Grady County. The manuscript cover was mailed from Blowing Cave Post Office when the cave was in Decatur County.

References:

(1) GEORIGA edited by Allen D. Candler and Clement A Evans, Vol. 1
 State Historical Assn., 1906, p. 582.

(2) Grady County Georgia by Yvonne Miller Brunton
Heritage Papers, Second Edition, 1981, pp. 5 – 7.

(3) William G. Bonners, Map of Georgia 1847
Original in Surveyor’s General Department
Secretary of State and Surveyor General
Atlanta, GA 30334.

(4) Georgia Spelunker, Vol. 9, No. 1 (Jan – Mar 1965), p. 8.

(5) Georgia Spelunker, Vol. 10, No. 2 (April – June 1966), centerfold pullout.