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New Blairsville center digs into area cave history

Blairsville soon could become a regional destination for those interested in exploration and research of cave formations.

Area residents will have the chance to find out why on Saturday, when the Mid-Atlantic Karst Conservancy, a group dedicated to caves and caving, will hold an open house from 1 to 3 p.m. at its library and resource center in a small, two-story house at 137 E. Campbell St., Blairsville.

During the event, the public will be able to view items including maps of area caves, a cave model, caving equipment and shelves of books on a variety of cave-related topics.

Karst is a geographic term denoting terrain that supports cave formation -- for example, a pit, an open passage that leads to a cave; or a sinkhole, a depression that indicates part of the ground underneath may have sunken into a cave passage.

"Our mission is the study, conservation and preservation of caves and karst resources and the education of the public about such resources," said Kim Metzgar of Derry, a founding board member and current chairman of the Mid-Atlantic Karst Conservancy. "We formed in November of 1997, with 10 people pitching in $10 dues."

How they've grown

Since that time, the conservancy has incorporated and has purchased a 9.45-acre property in Huntingdon County, Pa., and a 2.45-acre parcel in Pocahontas County, W.Va., containing two caves. It also leases several properties where it manages caves -- including two sites in Westmoreland County, other properties in Cumberland, Huntingdon and Lawrence counties, as well as a property in Front Royal, Va.

The Westmoreland County sites include Bear Cave, owned by Metzgar and her husband, Tom, near the Derry Township village of Hillside, and Copperhead Cave, part of the Trout Run Woods Preserve on Chestnut Ridge.

In Lawrence County, the group manages Harlansburg Cave -- one of the longest caves in Pennsylvania, with passages extending for more than four miles.

In March 2009, MAKC was able to purchase the Blairsville house, now dubbed the Bob and Bev Danielson Cave and Karst Education Center and Library, at a cost of less than $30,000. The building also functions as MAKC's headquarters.

According to Kim Metzgar, purchase of the house was made possible through a generous donation from the Danielsons, who "modestly requested we tone down the name part. They now live in Colorado, but Bob was a longtime Cleveland Grotto caver who frequented Western Pennsylvania and West Virginia to cave.

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