Past John Van Swearingen IV Stewardship Award Winners:

2007: Bill Overton

Beginning in the fall of 1997 Bill began working on what he called a “project” at TDA10 Hardins/Junkyard Cave, in Davidson County just west of Nashville, Tennessee near the newly constructed Hwy 12. After finding a suitable location for the gate he began work on designing a gate and door he felt would be strong enough. He told me he was confident people would try to destroy the gate once built and wanted to do the very best he could to avoid problems. Bill contacted several organizations about how best to design the gate but finally decided on the information supplied by Bat Conservation International as the basis for his design.

After deciding on a gate design he began building the door at his place of business. He spent several weeks work evenings before he completed the door unit with a strong enough lock, he said there is another way to open the door but I don’t know anyone who has seen it. The door has one of the strongest and highest security locks made with a key that cannot be duplicated in order to keep unwanted copies from being made. Bill has told me if you have total control of the keys you have control of access. In December 1998 the gate Bill designed was constructed and the door installed by grotto members and donated to the SCCI the next year.

Bill convinced Hardins Cave owner Barry to attend the 1999 SCCi Winter Business meeting at Radnor Lake in Nashville where Barry signed the lease for the cave. Bill makes reports to Barry several times a year to keep Barry in the loop on the dealings of his property and condition of the cave. Barry told me at a party last year how pleased he is with everything the committee and Bill is doing at Hardins Cave.

Later that same year after vandals cut out and removed a part of the gate, he made the repairs by himself. He told me that it looked like someone had driven a screwdriver into the keyhole of the lock, but he was glad the door had not been opened. Repairs consisted of replacing the key cylinder and locking unit. Bill has had to replace the lock several times when vandals have beaten it or broken it. It seems like he is always doing some kind of maintenance on the gate.

Over the years since the gate was built several acts of vandalism have required gate and door repairs, Bill always sees to it the gate is repaired. He has met with the police to make reports, and still goes to the cave every week to check it out and be sure everything locked and proper. Sometimes he just gets a feeling and makes the thirty mile round trip to the cave just to be sure everything is okay.

For years Bill has been removing graffiti from the cave, he goes every couple of weeks and cleans for a few hours. Last winter he told me about two thousand feet of cave have been cleaned.

The Cave Property Management Committee was formed in 1998, as chairman Bill had to establish a “mission statement”, guidelines to follow,

meeting schedules, and committee member duties for the newly formed committee, all these are still being used by the committee. Along with three caves for the SCCi the committee manages one cave with The Nature Conservancy.

Hardins was the first cave managed by the SCCi that was gated, required keys and a signed release for access so Bill worked with the SCCi to workout the details and wording for the release they are using today.

In the spring of 2003 a new entrance to Hardins Cave washed open due to excessive rains. Bill contacted the owner and got permission to temporarily re-close the entrance until research can be done to determine if another gate is going to be required.

In 1997 Bill designed and built a gate at the entrance of TDA 46 Swirl Canyon Cave, Davidson County, Nashville Tennessee. The cave floods and required an unusual gate design to allow access afer heavy rains.

He has been going to Swirl Canyon once or twice a month since 1998 to check-up on the property and gate. The drive is about twenty-five miles one-way and takes several hours every time he goes.

In the summer of 2003 Bill spoke on behalf of Swirl Canyon Cave before the Nashville Metro Planning Commission against a rezoning request. If the rezoning request were allowed about twenty acres of land would have been developed with over 150 homes. Bill worked with local residents to fight this. The request was denied and two weeks later he went to the Nashville City Council to oppose the Bill, when the sponsor saw the amount of opposing to the Bill he withdrew it and killed the development. He is still working with the area landowners planning their next step in case the developer should present the bill again.

Blue Spring Cave remains open in part due to the gate Bill designed and built. The cave was closed after a rescue; the owner was concerned about lack of access if another accident happened. Bill was asked to come up with a design for a strong gate large enough for rescue equipment for a newly made entrance to the cave. To date no one has broken into the cave and the owner has reopened the longest cave in Tennessee to cavers again.

Because of these projects, plus many others that are not described here, Bill Overton is awarded the 2007 John Van Swearingen IV Stewardship Award.