The New Year began with the sad news. A pillar of Texas and Mexico speleology has passed away. Orion Knox was one of the discoverers of Natural Bridge Caverns in 1960, and one of the first cavers to go to Huantla, Oaxaca, Mexico. He started into caving in 1957 while still in high school; and, at age 78 was on a trip to the Dome Pit in Natural Bridge Caverns in 2019.
He met his wife, Jan, through the local grotto at University of Texas in Austin. Together they became a surveying team and worked on Harrison’s Cave in Barbados and Kartchner Caverns in Arizona, Natural Bridge Caverns TX plus numerous others. When traveling they would include a stop at any local caves that were open.
Upon graduation he went to work for Texas Parks and Wildlife. Starting as a park planner and later becoming the head of the Historic Sites branch in Texas Parks. He worked on the first restoration for the Battleship Texas. He said that crawling in the battleship was similar to caving.
He will always be remembered as friendly, smiling and a good storyteller. He will be greatly missed.
Memorial donations can be made to Texas Cave Management Association or Texas Nature Conservancy.