No injured cavers recorded.
Saturday, 8 November 1975 Around noon, a group of eight young people from a Romney, West Virginia school for the deaf entered Nutt Cave equipped with flashlights and Butterfly carbide lamps. In the stream passage, they encountered another party, whom they followed through the breakdown maze to the formation rooms in the rear of the cave. Apparently because of the deaf people's handicap in communicating, they were left behind when the other group departed, and were unable to find their way back through the breakdown. The group pooled their limited number of lights for the use of three of their members. As five students remained, the three were eventually able to get out of the cave-but not until 10 a.m. Sunday. The cave is probably less than 1000 feet in its entirety. The Franklin Volunteer Fire Department/Rescue Squad notified NSS member Dave Hubbs who was able to find the youths within 15 minutes of entering the cave. The people were unharmed but chilled and frightened and did not realize they had been in the cave over 24 hours.
Analysis: The students were inexperienced and lacked a capable leader. Undoubtedly the deaf students had considerable difficulty communicat- ing among themselves and organizing a concerted search effort. The group which led them to the back of the cave and then left them when they could not keep up is to be condemned.