Jan and Herb Conn

For the Canadian geneticist and poet, see Jan Conn. For the American bacteriologist and educator, see Herbert William Conn.
Jan and Herb Conn
Known for pioneer rock climbers and cavers
Jan Conn
Born circa 1924
Maryland suburbs of Washington, DC
Herb Conn
Born Herbert William Conn
April 16, 1920
upstate New York[1]
Died February 1, 2012
Custer, South Dakota
Jan and Herb Conn at Devils Tower, 1956
Jan and Herb Conn climbing in the Needles - 2000s. Herb belaying using hip belay technique. Conns did not use harness or belaying devices. They used 80[2] foot ropes, which are about a quarter of the length of modern ropes, and they usually downclimbed instead of rappelling.[3]

Jan Conn (born c. 1924[4] ) and Herb Conn (April 16, 1920 - February 1, 2012[5]) were climbing and caving pioneers. They are credited with establishing many classic climbs in areas like Carderock in Maryland, Seneca Rocks in West Virginia, Cannon Cliff in New Hampshire and Black Hills of South Dakota. They are also well known as cave explorers who in 1960s and 70s discovered and mapped over 60 miles of Jewel Cave, making it the world’s third longest cave system.

East Coast

Herb Conn Chimneying in 1950s

Both Herb and Jan were born and raised on the East Coast.[6] Jan grew up in Maryland, just outside of Washington, DC in a household with two older sisters.[7] Jan loved music and played flute, classical guitar and several other instruments.[7] Herb, whose full name was Herbert William Conn, grew up in upstate New York,[1] possibly in Geneva, New York,[5] and graduated from the University of Colorado.[8] They married in 1944.[1]

During World War II, Herb served as an electrical engineer for the Navy Department in Washington, DC.[6] Jan and Herb spent their spare time exploring the rocks surrounding Washington DC, most notably Carderock where they began climbing in 1942. They climbed and named lots of the routes at Carderock, including Herbie’s Horror, Spider Walk and Ronnie’s Leap, which was named after their dog. Herbie’s Horror, first climbed by Herb, was one of the first 5.9 routes in the eastern United States.[9] They also made the first documented ascents of the routes Conn's East and Conn's West at Seneca Rocks,[10] following the pitons left by the mountain troops who trained there. In a letter to the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club Mountaineering Section the Conns describe a visit to Seneca with Don Hubbard: "Don and the two of us climbed the south peak on a gorgeous moonlit evening, carrying sleeping bags, and spent the night on the narrow summit ridge. Don woke up in the night to see the lower half of Jan’s bag flapping over the edge. But Jan was safely curled up in the top half, still anchored to a piton in the rock."[10] In 1944 they started publishing "Up Rope" magazine, which became the official newsletter of the Mountaineering Section of the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club (PATC).[11][2][12]

Traveling climbers

Jan and Herb Conn in their camper

In 1946, Herb was discharged from the US army and the Conns began five year period of traveling and climbing around the US with short forays into Canada and Mexico. They become pioneers of what is now praisingly refereed to as dirtbag climbing, which they described in the We work in out spare time article:[13] "it is a simple matter of mathematics - two people working six months a year are just as good as one person working twelve months to support two people". They lived in self equipped camper converted from a "panel delivery truck".[13] For several years they worked odd jobs and climbed from Yosemite in California to Katahdn in Maine, making scattered first ascents along the way. In 1952, Jan and her partner Jane Showacre, become the first all woman team to free-climb Devils Tower.[6] Before the development of specialized shoes, harnesses and the use of chalk, Herb and Jan climbed in cheap tennis shoes with a single strand of nylon rope about the waist and used heavy iron pitons for protection.[14][15]

In 1947 on a trip to climb Devils Tower,[7][16] the Conns passed through the Black Hills of South Dakota. It was then that they discovered the Needles, with a seemingly unlimited quantity of excellent climbing. They settled in the Black Hills and made around 220 first ascents in the Needles, and published a climbing guidebook to the area. With no other climbers in the area they felt as Herb put it, “like a couple of cats in an untended fish market.”[15][17][18]

Herb Conn doing maintenance work on Mt. Rushmore in 1960s or 1970s
Jan and Herb Conn's self-build house "Conncave"

In 1949 they bought 20 acres in the Custer area and adjacent to the Needles.[1][13][16] A couple years after that they built a small, rustic stone home they called Conncave where the couple lived off the grid, and without running water or electricity for next 60 years.[19][20] To help finance their climbing and later caving adventures they created customized leather[21] and wood products. In addition, each fall for 13 years Herb spend a week[2] doing maintenance work filling in cracks on the four faces of Mount Rushmore,[1][8][10][14] and Jan taught guitar and flute lessons.

Caving years

Jan and Herb Conn, Dave Schnute and Dwight Deal in the Jewel Cave, 1959.
Jan in Janny's Cranny,[22][23] Jewel Cave, 1959.
Dwight Deal, Jan and Herb Conn in the Visitor's Center of Jewel Cave National Monument in 1989 on the 30th anniversary of the Deal-Conn exploration effort. In the background Herb's maps of the cave.

In 1959, geologist, mountaineer and caver Dwight Deal had done some exploration in a small cave called Jewel Cave, a little known monument in the National Park System . He needed some companions who might help him continue his exploration trips there and turned to his friends, Herb and Jan. He asked if they would be interested in grubbing around underground and, after thinking it over, they replied they would try it "once". That one trip turned into a passion of exploring Jewel Cave that lasted for over 22 years, and took over 6,000 volunteer hours on 700 trips.[19] From 1959 to 1979, Herb and Jan mapped 62.36 miles of the interior of Jewel Cave.[6] The Conns discovered what is now the Scenic Cave Tour route in 1961. The National Park Service was intrigued by their reports of high, narrow passageways, huge rooms and unusual speleothems (cave decorations) and opened a new tour route. In addition to assisting with the construction of this trail, Herb also designed the lighting system and dramatic placement of lights still in use today. The cave winds that enticed the explorers further into the cave fascinated Herb, and in 1966 he produced an important scientific paper explaining reasons for these barometric winds. The Conn's book, "The Jewel Cave Adventure" serves not only as a record of their years of cave exploration here, but as an exciting tale of adventure even for non-cavers.

In years 1963-1965, when exploration trips into Jewel Cave were restricted, Conns joined David Schnute, exploring Wind Cave. In 1963 the trio found new passages breaking-away from the known portion of the cave and allowing them to discover, name, and survey 15,740 feet of virgin cave.[24][25] They largely retired from caving by the early 1980s.

Legacy

Search for the mystery fern cartoon depicting search for Asplenium × alternifolium in Black Hills[26]

Jan's musical play, Run to Catch a Pine Cone, has been performed throughout the country.[1] She is also an accomplished rubber stamp artist[27][28] In 2008 interview for Climbing Magazine one of the said “I know sometimes people think we had this high dream of living like this, in a place like this … it wasn’t that way. We just kept backing away from the things we didn’t like. This is where we landed.”[4] In a 2008 talk, Jan said that they no longer climb rocks, but still enjoy the outdoors. She said, "Fortunately, the slower we move the more we see.[7]

On September 17, 2011, Herb and Jan were inducted into the South Dakota Hall of Fame in recognition of their pioneering exploration.[10][14][29] Soon afterward Herb's health failed and on February 1, 2012, he died in sleep in his home near Custer, at the age of 91.[14][19]

First ascents and significant climbs

Publications

Herb and Jan, in their 80s, walking back to the Conn Cave after a day of climbing
Publications by Conns
Publications about Conns

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Higbee, Paul. "Explorers of an Unseen World". South Dakota Magazine. Retrieved 18 January 2014.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Jan Conn reviewed and send corrections of this article to Dwight Deal in August 2014.
  3. ↑ Stisser, Daryl. "Great post about the first climbing bums, the Conns.". 12 February 2012. Retrieved 21 January 2014.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Sometimes It Ain’t Rocket Science". 23 January 2014. semi-rad.com. Retrieved 4 February 2014. |first1= missing |last1= in Authors list (help)
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 www.findagrave.com. Retrieved 10 July 2014.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 "Cave Explorers: Herb & Jan Conn". Retrieved 17 January 2014.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 "Elders' Wisdom, Children's Song: South Dakota, Jan Conn". Retrieved 17 January 2014.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Pearson, Jaci Conrad (10 September 2011). "Hills couple makes hall of fame". Black Hills Pioneer. Retrieved 19 January 2014.
  9. ↑ Green, Stewart. "Carderock Rock Climbing: Climbing Near Washington DC". About.com. Retrieved 16 January 2014.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 "Herb and Jan Conn Inducted Into South Dakota Hall of Fame". Retrieved 17 January 2014.
  11. ↑ "List of Officers". Potomac Appalachian Trail Club. Retrieved 27 January 2014. (despite the page title Conns never belonged to PATC.)
  12. ↑ Deal, Dwight. "Jan Conn to talk in DC, October 10, 2012". 6 October 2012. Retrieved 27 January 2014.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 Conn, Jan and Herb (November 1957). We work in our spare time - Summit (PDF)
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 14.3 Blackwell, David (9 February 2012). "Herb Conn Dies at 91". Climbing. Retrieved 17 January 2014.
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 Green, Stewart. "The Needles Rock Climbing: Climbing in South Dakota". About.com. Retrieved 26 January 2014.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 Andy Busse and Andy Burr, The Needles of Rushmore - A climbing guide to Mt. Rushmore National Monument, with a special tribute to Herb and Jan Conn in the section The Birth of Climbing in the Black Hills, Pages 104 and 105
  17. ↑ Conn, Herb (June 1953). The Needles in Review. Appalachia XXIX: 356-365. (PDF)
  18. ↑ Dewell, Dan. "Conn Diagonal (5.7), Black Hills, South Dakota". Climbing. Retrieved 19 January 2014.
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 19.2 Garrigan, Mary (4 February 2012). "Jewel Cave pioneer Herb Conn dies". Rapid City Journal. Retrieved 17 January 2014.
  20. ↑ Pelczarski, Christopher. "Jan Conn". Fall 2012. Faces. Retrieved 18 January 2014.
  21. ↑ Conn, Jan and Herb (June 1955). "Climbing highlights of the Black Hills". Appalachia. Retrieved 17 January 2014.1
  22. ↑ Deal, Dwight (August 1962). Geology of Jewel Cave National Monument, with Special Reference to Cavern Development in the Black Hills of South Dakota (M.S. thesis). University of Wyoming. p. 192.
  23. ↑ Deal, Dwight (August 1962). "Cavern formation in the Black Hills of South Dakota, with special reference to Jewel Cave" (PDF). NSS News 20 (8): 119. Retrieved 15 July 2014.
  24. ↑ Conn, Jan and Herb (1987). "Diaries of Wing Cave Trips" (PDF). Retrieved 17 January 2014.
  25. ↑ "Cave Exploration - Herb and Jan Conn and Dave Schnute". National Park Service. Retrieved 17 January 2014.
  26. ↑ Marriott, Hollis J., Jan and Herb Conn. (2000). "Asplenium X alternifolium in the Black Hills of South Dakota". American Fern Journal 90: 109.
  27. ↑ Marriott, Hollis J. "Plants & Rocks: ferns and granite ... and climbers". 6 February 2012. Retrieved 18 January 2014.
  28. ↑ http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SwVweK1FzIU/T0VSamljzVI/AAAAAAAABJo/xbj1cNkrQvo/s1600/connifer.jpg
  29. ↑ Holland, Deb (11 September 2011). "Fourteen South Dakotans added to state hall of fame". Rapid City Journal. Retrieved 17 January 2014.
  30. ↑ Waterman, Laura; Waterman, Guy (2001). Yankee Rock & Ice: A History of Climbing in the Northeastern United States. Stackpole Books. p. 206. ISBN 9780811731034. Retrieved 16 June 2014.
  31. ↑ Bjornstad, E. (1996). Desert Rock I: Rock Climbs in the National Parks. Desert Rock Series. Globe Pequot Press. ISBN 9780934641920. LCCN 96165053.
  32. ↑ Green, S.M. (1999). Rock Climbing Arizona,. Classic Rock Climbs Series. Globe Pequot Press. ISBN 9781560448136. LCCN 99030358.
  33. ↑ Garner, Virginia (August 1950). "The First Ascent of Agathlan". Arizona Highways: 4–9.
  34. ↑ Roper, Steve (1970). "Four Corners". Ascent: 27.
  35. ↑ Garner, Ray (1950). "Agathlan". American Alpine Journal: 406–414.
  36. ↑ http://authorities.loc.gov/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?AuthRecID=423275&v1=1&HC=1&SEQ=20140125233143&PID=7xYE8YDIwmmU7_Au5sHoI0pwxM

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