East along a nice bench road at about 800 feet of elevation, and finally downhill to a 740 foot elevation is the large entrance of Steele Saltpeter Cave, which is the 609^th cave listed in the state.  This was first explored by organized cavers of the Chattanooga Grotto chapter of the National Speleological Society on Feb. 10, 1962.  With us today was the man who mapped the cave in January, 1971 to a length of 557 feet.  Signs of saltpeter mining, which is an ingredient of gunpowder, are found in a passage that trends to the left several hundred feet below the entrance.  There are pick marks on the walls, rocks piled up on ledges to get them out of the way, and much dirt has obviously been removed.  All along on the walls are very old signatures, many hard to read, which should be preserved as a historical record of the early visitors.  I would like to go back there and copy as many of the names as I can before they are destroyed.  Some of these people are buried in the small Tate family cemetery behind the very old two-story house.  Other names we could read were Allison and Burchfield.