Haggard Cave, is a jewel of the Cumberland Plateau. Adding this 1,326-foot-long Tennessee cave to the society's nature preserves in November, 2017 was truly a grassroots effort, with two longtime members driving an aggressive campaign to purchase the property when the opportunity to acquire it arose.

Located at about 800 feet of elevation in the Bangor limestone, the cave has a 26-foot pit entrance, followed shortly by a second 16-foot pit. Early explorers traversed several rooms containing large formations and other interesting features before reaching the cave's total depth of 126 feet. The probability of more cave than the 1977 survey shows is high, and a new survey is planned soon along with a management plan for the cave.

NSS members Brad Long and Lesley Colton used a crowd funding approach to the cave conservation campaign over several weeks. It included setting up a gofundme page that raised more than $13,000 toward the purchase - along with multiple donations from several southeastern US grottoes, including the Dogwood City, Sewanee Mountain, Birmingham, Huntsville and East Tennessee Grottoes and other NSS internal organizations of the Tennessee-Alabama-Georgia (TAG) Region. NSS members Kelly Smallwood and Jason Hardy were also instrumental in drawing attention to the need to preserve Haggard Cave. Among those lending additional invaluable support were Julie Schenck-Brown, Jay Clark, Sam Moore, David Robison, and Kat Crispin.

If you have questions about this Preserve, e-mail Brad Long and Lesley Colton at HaggardPreserve@caves.org