| Name | Age | Sex | Injuries | Injured areas |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Graham, John | Not recorded | Not recorded | Not recorded | Not recorded |
| Mills, Curtis | Not recorded | Not recorded | Not recorded | Not recorded |
On May 4 a group of five college students were visiting fellow student John Graham at his home near Stevenson, Alabama. About a quarter-mile from the house is a large horseshoe-shaped sink with walls up to fifty feet high. A stream cascades over the high side and flows into Stillhouse Cave. The cave is an easy walk down one side of the sink. The site is very scenic and popular with locals. None of the students were cavers nor had any caving equipment.
At about 5:15 p.m. the group was scattered about the vicinity of the falls when one, Curtis Mills (early twenties), said he was going to the bathroom and walked down the sink and into the cave. A few minutes later, John Graham, standing at the cave entrance, hear a "big slap." He called to Mills but there was no reply.
The cave has a walk-in entrance fifteen by ten feet high; a short way in it turns to the right and drops over a thirty foot free-fall pit. The outside light was growing dim at this time of day and the pit could not be seen. The floor is a relatively smooth streambed, free of obstacles. Graham entered and called again - still no answer. Though at first he thought it might be a joke, he couldn't find Mills so he told the rest of the group and he and a companion ran back to the house and got a flashlight. The light showed Mills at the bottom of the pit, inert, in the spray of the waterfall. Graham ran back to the house and called the Stevenson Police.
This produced several ambulances, several law-enforcement agencies, the Scottsboro Fire Department, and the Sand Mountain Rescue Team. The first paramedic reached Mills at 7:10 p.m. He was unconscious and severely hypothermic. He was quickly evacuated, loaded in a helicopter and flown twenty minutes to a hospital in Huntsville (reached at 9:02 p.m.). He was found to have suffered a skull fracture and injured hand and his body temperature had slipped to 80 degrees F. He recovered.
After being treated for hypothermia Mills was in neurological intensive care for ten days. He was hospitalized for another 11 days and spent the summer undergoing speech and physical therapy. After six months he was still not 100%. He remembered nothing of the accident. He apparently stepped over the drop totally unaware of it. He is lucky to have survived.
Curtis Mills suffered a skull fracture and hand injury after falling into a pit in Stillhouse Cave due to inadequate lighting and lack of caving experience.