HISTORY

Donaldson Cave has been popular with cavers in the eastern panhandle area for a number of years. The cave was described in the 1949 edition of Caverns of West Virginia (Davies, 1949) and is about the twentieth longest cave in Berkeley and Jefferson Counties. The cave reportedly contains the largest room of any cave in the eastern panhandle of West Virginia.

The cave contains several speleothems and pools of water that probably represent the water table in this area. At times the cave can fill up almost to the entrance, although there is probably little potential for “flash flooding”. The cave has been heavily visited in the past and some evidence of broken formations and graffiti may be found throughout the passages. No cave-adapted animals were observed in the cave during a December 2003 visit. A considerable volume of trash and broken glass was removed from the cave by the Tri-State Grotto at the time the gate was constructed (September, 2003).

Donaldson Cave is developed in the Cambrian Elbrook Formation on the western flank of an anticline. The cave was surveyed in 1977 by Wingert and Gulden to a length of 761 feet and a depth of 45 feet. At this time it appears that the main significance of this cave is as a recreational resource. The cave does not have any unusual hazards and is probably well suited for supervised visits by beginning cavers.