Logan's bio

[William R. Elliott]

Dear friends, 

Some of you younger cavers don't know Logan McNatt well. While we still have Logan with us, I wanted to give you his bio. I also attached some photos of him from younger years that capture his personality well. We have many more photos and docs from Logan on file in the Texas Speleology Center and with Eric McNatt, his nephew. Thanks for sharing with us, Logan!

Logan McNatt 

A Brief Biography by William R. Elliott, 2026  

Logan McNatt is a famous caver and archaeologist from Austin, Texas, who worked in Texas, Mexico, New Mexico, and Belize. I can account for at least 338 caves that he visited: 74 in Texas, 1 in New Mexico, 1 in Alabama, 30 in Mexico, and about 232 in Belize.

Logan began caving in 1968 and started working as an archaeologist in 1972. In 1972, he co-discovered, with Craig Bittinger, Mexico’s El Sótano del Barro, one of the world’s largest and deepest pits. He first visited Belize in 1973, and worked there in the field of Mayan cave archaeology. He then worked for the Archaeological Survey Program of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

Logan lived and worked in Belize four times in 1973, 1976-1977, 1982-1983, and 1992-1993. He probably worked in about 232 caves for the Department of Archaeology, Belmopan, for whom he first worked as a Peace Corps volunteer. I visited 12  Belizean caves with Logan and/or the Foster film crew in 1992-1993, during the filming of the NGS Explorer TV program, “Journey through the Underworld.” Logan got me recruited into that film. I searched Logan’s voluminous personal journals and letters with the help of his nephew, Eric McNatt, and cousin, Crystal Kinney. I am grateful to Logan for his steadfast friendship and help since 1968.

 

Logan Dale McNatt

 

Born Aug 5, 1950, Abilene, TX. Lived there for 5 years.

 

1955 Grew up in Brownwood. Lived in San Marcos, Austin, Lubbock, Texas A&M, Belize...

 

1968 Graduated from Brownwood High School. State level tennis player

 

1968-1971 Member of SWTSU Student Grotto, UTG, NSS...

 

1971-74 Lived at Kirkwood caver house, Austin

 

1972  With Craig Bittinger he co-discovered and explored Mexico’s El Sótano del Barro

 

1973  Visited Belize, met Barb McLeod and CJ Rushin. He was on his way to Guatemala with Pete Strickland to work on an archaeological project, and was in Belize for a month. Went to Guatemala with someone else, then returned to work with Barb and CJ.

 

July 1977, Logan worked at the Lubbock Lake Site. Visited Upper Hinton Creek Cave with Bill Elliott and Craig Rudolph.

 

Aug 1977  Photo with Mitchell, Tom Miller, et al. in Belmopan at Logan’s house. See “Caving with Mitch” by Francis E. Abernethy,  2022.

 

1980-1981 Worked on MS at Texas A&M, but dropped out.

 

1983-1993  Lived in Belmopan, Belize, and at Richard and Carol Foster’s studio at the Old Belize Zoo. He worked with the Fosters on wildlife films, at the Department of Archaeology as a Peace Corps Volunteer, and with Tom Miller on his PhD study, “Hydrochemistry, hydrology, and morphology of the Caves Branch Karst, Belize.”

 

1993  Returned to Austin. Lived several places. Terry Sayther said he could stay in his old house to keep the druggies away.

 

1993-2003 Worked at Texas Parks and Wildlife Department as an archaeologist.

 

Contributor to AMCS, Texas Caver, Journal of Cave and Karst Studies, archaeological journals...

 

Caver, archaeologist, book collector and dealer, inveterate letter writer and talker. Knows many people. In Belize everyone knew "Logan Mon!" We call him “LowGun”. 

1969 Sótano de Matapalma-Nov -front Joe Sumbera, Logan McNatt, mid Ed Fomby Jim Jarl, back Brian Peterson, by Mike Walsh & Joe Sumbera

1973 El Sótano Logan McNatt by Steve Bittinger

2019 Oct Logan McNatt with Pam Lynn & Barbara Wolf, by Pam Lynn

William R. (Bill) Elliott

30105 Briarcrest Court

Georgetown, Texas 78628

speod...@gmail.com

573-291-5093 cell

[George Veni]

Bill,

Thanks for the biography of Logan. I'll add one detail for those who don't know. Logan dropped out of his masters program because he wanted to do a thesis on cave archeology. His "advisor" (only as officially known, in my view) felt cave archeology was a waste of time and wanted Logan to work on his (the advisor's) project, a topic where Logan had no interest and would have benefited little except for getting his masters, which is why he dropped out. That was a low and frustrating point in his career, but he climbed out of it to become the highly accomplished archeologist you describe.

Thanks again,

George 

********************
George Veni, PhD
George Veni and Associates
Carlsbad, New Mexico USA
gvenias...@gmail.com
210-863-5919
https://gveniassociates.com/

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[Mark Minton]

I've attached a few more old photos of Logan that I got from Mike Walsh. The one of Texas cavers in Mexico epitomizes my memory of Logan from the '70s.

Mark

[Jerry]

Here's a series of photos of Logan at the Grand Canyon. The following is Logan's recollections of the event.

BTW - Mark, where and when was the photo of the "Texas cavers in Mexico" next to the lumber truck taken ?

Jerry.

****************************************

My friend Mickey Burleson, widow of Bob, sent this to me in 2007.

The unidentified photographer in the photographs is actually me.

LowGun

The following photographs were taken by photographer Hans van de Vorst at the Grand Canyon, Arizona.  The descriptions are his own.  The identity of the photographer IN the photos is actually Logan but that was unknown by Hans at the time.


                I was simply stunned seeing this guy standing on this solitary rock IN the Grand Canyon.
                The canyon's depth is 900 meters here. The rock on the right is next to the canyon and safe.

                Watching this guy on his thong sandals, with a camera and a tripod I asked myself 3 questions:

                1. How did he climb that rock?
                2. Why not taking that sunset picture on that rock to the right, which is perfectly safe?
                3. How will he get back?

                This is the point of no return.

                After the sun set behind the canyon's horizon he packed his things (having only one hand available)
                and prepared himself for the jump. This took about 2 minutes.
                At that point he had the full attention of the crowd.

                After that, he jumped on his thong sandals...
                The canyon's depth is 900 meters here.

                Now you can see that the adjacent rock is higher so he tried to land lower, which is quite steep
                and tried to use his one hand to grab the rock.
                
                We've come to the end of this little story. Look carefully at the photographer.
                He has a camera, a tripod and also a plastic bag, all on his shoulder or in his left hand.
                Only his right hand is available to grab the rock and the weight of his stuff is a problem.

                He lands low on his flip flops and both his right hand and right foot slips away...
                At that moment I take the shot.

                He pushes his body against the rock.
                He waits for a few seconds, throws his stuff on the rock, climbs and walks away.

[William R. Elliott]

The legendary Logan McNatt doing a legendary leap. I did not know about this! Bill E. 

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[Mark Minton]

Jerry,

I have no idea when and where that photo of Texas cavers in Mexico was taken. None of the people in it were identified, and there is no date in the metadata. It's not a lumber truck, though; they're sitting on a corral fence. People I can readily identify are Peter Sprouse at top center, and Dino Lowrey, Steve Zeman, and Logan McNatt at bottom. Maybe Peter could say.

Mark

[Jocelyn Hooper]

I think the lady next to Sprouse is Ivy Atherton, and the guy in a dark t-shirt next to her is Dave Hutchings.

Jocie

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[Mark Minton]

Thanks, Jocie. I wonder if the woman on the other side of Peter is Patty Mothes.

Mark

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[Jocelyn Hooper]

Hmm...it might be.

Jocie

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[Dale Pate]

Mark and Jocie,

The woman next to Peter Sprouse is not Patty Mothes. I can't remember her name at the moment, but it may come to me. The name Julie comes to mind about the woman sitting behind her on the fence. 

The photo itself reminds me of the caver team that was doing archeology at the old Brewery in Shiner around that time.

Dale Pate

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[Mark Minton]

Thanks, Dale. Please let us know if you have any further insights into their identities.

Mark

[Bill Steele]



I’m thinking that the woman to Peter Sprouse’s left is Cindy _____?_____, who was his girlfriend when we went to Silvertip in Montana in 1974.

Bill Steele 

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[Dale Pate]

Bill - Cindy sounds correct.

Dale Pate

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[Bill Steele]

Maybe Cindy Cain?

On Jan 20, 2026, at 8:22 PM, Dale Pate <dale...@gmail.com> wrote:



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[Dale Pate]

Yes, I think it is Cindy Cain.

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