Maxwelton Sink Cave

MAXWELTON SINK CAVE

Maxwelton Sink Cave is located in West Virginia. The cave had 2 original entrances. Over time one of the entrances was closed due to expanding development and the entrance was filled in. The other entrance, which was dug open, was located in a blind valley where the stream ran under the headwall into the cave. This entrance was silted shut due to extremely heavy rain from a hurricane in 1969. It was dug open again only to be completely shut again by another hurricane in 1972. This time it would be impossible to re-open the entrance to Cove Creek. Many years went by before another attempt was made to enter the cave via another dig site. After several years of digging and perseverance, another entrance was created into the old Heaven passage. This new entrance consists of a 40-foot rappel down a 36-inch diameter culvert pipe which was installed to protect the entrance. To proceed into the cave one must negotiate narrow passages for quite a distance only to arrive at the top of another vertical drop. The old survey of the cave had Maxwelton Sink Cave at approximately 10 miles of surveyed passage. Cove Creek Passage is the main drainage of the cave and trends North/South. ENJOY THE PHOTOS!

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