On 5 July 2014, Annette S. Engel, Matthew Niemiller and Audrey Paterson visited TSV36 in Sevier County. We had tried to locate landowners for several caves in northern Sevier County that Saturday morning but without much luck. After several hours without success and many miles registered on the odometer, we were headed underground. The entrance to TSV36 is located near the Sevier-Knox County line in a large sink. Thave was formerly used as a water supply for a local farm and the pipes still extend down into the cave. The entrance is quite impressive measuring 40 ft high and 50 ft wide with a large sandbar extending from the entrance into the cave. A large stream is active in the cave flowing from breakdown just below the entrance and into the cave. TSV36 is estimated to extend some 1,200 ft, consisting of largely walking passage. However, large mud banks make traversing the cave without getting wet in the stream very difficult. A couple areas are particularly difficult without a handline (which we had forgotten). During periods of wet weather, the cave floods considerably, evidenced by large logs, limbs and other debris washed into the cave.
With respect to cave life, Banded Sculpin (Cottus carolinae), Appalachian Valley Crayfish (Cambarus bartoni), cave isopods and snails were observed in the cave stream. In an area perched above the stream were shallow, isolated pools. Within these pools we found cave amphipods, cave isopods and possibly aquatic cave snails on the undersurfaces of rocks. Spiders, cave millipedes, springtails and diplurans were found on the mud banks and at the interface of mud banks and limestone rocks along the stream but generally above the high-water line. Within the entrance room, we found Cave Salamanders (Eurycea lucifuga) and Northern Green Frogs (Lithobates clamitans melanota).
