To all PSC members:
As chairman of the Potomac Speleological Club, I am honored to announce the purchase by the club of two acres of land near Dunmore, West Virginia. This field station, named the Lutz Fieldstation in honor of Bob Lutz, is available to members of the club and their guests for camping for a small nightly fee. There is also a camper with a working toilet on the property [Ed. We later learned that the toilet was not useable.]. The site has electricity and spring-fed water (that can be used for showers). A detailed management plan is being developed and will be available soon. For more information, contact Pete Penczer, the station manager.
The field station is located about a half hour south of the town of Cass and about a half hour north of the town of Marlinton, making it an ideal base for caving trips to the Simmons-Mingo, Friars Hole, and Cassell Cave areas. To see pictures of the field station, go to the Lutz Fieldstation Gallery. http://www.psc-cavers.org/lutz/lutzpics.htm
As with any piece of property, the field station will require maintenance. At the moment Pete is planning a work weekend for sometime in the fall. The focus will be on planting some fast-growing bushes and trees along the property line to provide us some privacy from the road. If you are interested in helping contact Pete.
In spring 2002 Pete Penczer approached me (as one of the members of the PSC board) with the idea of the club purchasing some land in the Simmons-Mingo area to use as a field station. The idea was, rather than replace the present PSC fieldhouse (which everyone likes), the club should supplement the fieldhouse with a land purchase in a different area of West Virginia, which could then be used as a campsite.
I was immediately sold on the idea, and described it to both the board and trustees, all of whom were interested. Considering the low interest rates that banks are presently offering, both the board and the trustees believed that the purchase of land would not only be useful to the membership, it would be a better investment of the club's savings. PSC had approximately $80,000 in assets and one-fourth of this (about $20,000) was used to purchase the property. When Bob Lutz died in 2002 he left PSC $10,000 and this money effectively paid half the cost of the field station that bears his name.
Pete then ran for the board, promising in his campaign platform to do the legwork to find this piece of property. In April he visited a number of sites, and found the above land. In May the board and trustees approved the purchase. In June Pete made the final arrangements for purchase, with the closing taking place on June 22, 2003.
Note that the board is interested in purchasing additional land, preferable farther south in the Monroe County area. Such a location would give our membership another base of operations should they wish to cave in that area. If some other member wishes to repeat Pete's effort and find us something, we would be interested in hearing about it.
Thanks again to Pete Penczer for doing the work to make this purchase happen. Without his efforts, this field station would not exist.
Last updated: May 25, 2004This webpage was created using Xywrite 3.55, a DOS word processing program so good and fast it even makes me look smart.