| Cass Cave | |
| Photo Width: | 220px |
| Location: | Pocahontas County, West Virginia, United States |
| Lighting: | None |
| Visitors: | Closed to the public |
Cass Cave is a cave located in Cass, West Virginia,[1] on Cheat Mountain. One of the rooms in the cave (the "Big Room") is long, high and wide.[2] Cass Cave has the highest subterranean waterfall in West Virginia and Virginia, Lacy Suicide Falls, with a height of . The waterfall was misnamed, as while a suicide did occur in the cave, it was at a small drop near the entrance. The cave is not open to the general public.[3]
The June 1964 Issue of National Geographic featured a two-page fold-out color photograph by Huntley Ingalls of a caver climbing a wire ladder adjacent to the waterfall.[4] The photo was illuminated by a series of #2 Press photo flashbulbs laid over an aluminum foil reflector spread on the slope below.
On March 16, 1968, eight people were trapped and later rescued in the cave.[5] [6] In 1976, an amateur caver was trapped in the cave for more than 15 hours, falling 40 feet to the cave floor after an equipment malfunction.[7] In 1977, a climber was trapped in the waterfall and died of hypothermia due to being drenched by falling water.[8]