WIND CAVE CONTINUED.
THE FAIR GROUNDS ROUTE.
"At 9:30 in the morning the train bringing health-seekers and tourists
arrives at Hot Springs, a beautiful little city nestled in the
southernmost foot-hills of the world-reputed Black Hills of South
Dakota. The choice of a hotel is soon made, and when located, the
new-comers observe the other guests and acquaint themselves with the
attractions of the resort. Probably during the day they are approached
by the solicitor of the wonderful Wind Cave, who explains that the best
way to reach the cave is by means of the coach and four seen at the
hotel in the morning, and arrangements are made for the following day.
The next morning, seated in the tally-ho coach with strangers who are
soon acquaintances, you start on a beautiful twelve-mile drive to one of
nature's most interesting sights.
"Immediately after leaving town you begin to admire the scenery and
enjoy the cool, refreshing breezes, wafted from the mountains to the
north, down the slopes to the arid plains.
"After climbing a gently sloping 'hog-back' for about eight miles, you
are at the top of the divide and one thousand feet higher than Hot
Springs, which may be seen on the left. Looking ahead you can see Harney
Peak, the highest mountain in the Black Hills district; and on the right
you see Buffalo Gap, through which the creek runs that heads at
Min-ne-pa-juta Springs. The Indians used to drive buffalo through this
gap, hence its name. A small but thriving little town to the eastward
takes its name from this Buffalo Gap. From here you begin to go down a
gentle and winding incline to the cave, which is reached all too soon.
"At the office you register and procure tickets, and then have from
one-half to three-quarters of an hour in which to eat lunch or dine at
the hotel. Then all congregate in the office, from whence the start is
made, after every one has put on a cave cap, _not a suit, as such is
entirely unnecessary_. The guide leads the way to the entrance of the
cave which is separated from the office by some little distance, and is
located in the bed of a long since dry run, which in former times has
bared the carboniferous strata, and within this kind of rock the cave is
found.
"As the author has asked me for an article descriptive of the cave, I
will only attempt to say something of our medium length route to the
Fair Grounds, or in other words, the Fair Grounds' Route. A collective
description of the whole cave would take months--even years--to
complete. Besides, the above route is the one most used by visitors at
the present time.
"On entering the Cave House (a log structure) you will in all
probability ask from whence comes the murmur of a waterfall. The guide
answers that it is the rushing current of air at the mouth of the cave,
sometimes in and sometimes out. Prof. J.E. Todd, in bulletin No. 1, S.
Dakota Geological Survey, p. 48, says: 'This phenomenon is found to
correspond with the varying pressure of the barometer, and with its
single opening and capacious chambers is easily accounted for.'
"The rushing air is sometimes strong enough to require a man's weight to
open the entrance door. Five days and nights is the longest time the
wind has been known to move in one direction without ceasing. This is
one of nature's greatest atmospherical phenomena.
"Some one says, 'Tickets, please!' and into the hole we go, single file
down a lighted passageway to where we can light our candles. After
descending about one hundred and fifty-five feet we come into the Bridal
Chamber (named by some of the earlier explorers before the present
management took hold of the property), which is eight or ten feet in
length by twenty feet in breadth. Passing along some distance, the
Snow-ball Room is entered. It carries this name on account of little
rosettes of carbonate of lime sticking to the irregular ceiling. This
room is pretty narrow and some fifty feet in length.
"The Post Office is next and soon reached. The ceiling is covered with
the box work formation somewhat resembling Post Office boxes. You will
no doubt wonder why it carries such a common name.
"Just because after searching in what books on geology and other
sciences we could get, we could not find it described nor any formation
resembling it; hence its common name, as we have named the pop-corn
work, frost work etc., from their appearance.
"The dimensions of the Post Office are some eighty feet in length by
twenty feet in width, with an average ceiling height of probably twelve
feet. Red Hall is the room next in order, and has on either side a red
bank of sandy, micaceous clay.
"Just to the left is a very pretty little grotto of box work. This room
is very odd in make-up. The floor is very rough and dips about fifteen
feet in its length of sixty feet, and includes a short flight of stairs.
The lowest end of the room is prettily decorated, and some pleasing
blends of color attract the eye. To the left is the Old Maids' Grotto, a
pretty little nook that would please any maid old or young.
"After passing through the White Room we turn to the left along the
crevice, and after traveling some little distance reach The Grand Opera,
a very narrow room but some forty feet in length. Chopin's Nocturne is a
small grotto in the right hand wall named by the famous violinist,
Edouard Remenji.
"The Devil's Lookout is reached by a few steps. It is a crevice about
ten feet wide at the base and sixty-five feet in height. This place is
remarkable for its columns of rock just over head. The pathway leads to
Milton's Study, some fifty feet distant. Turning into the crevice again,
some twenty feet are traveled when attention is called to Seal Rocks.
Sampson's Palace is the next room in order: here we see some stalagmitic
water formation on the left wall and the ceiling is one of the most
beautiful yet seen on the trip.
"We pass along to Swiss Scenery, a very prettily decorated room fifty
feet in length by fifteen in height. The box work is very pretty,
shading from yellow to dark brown. The general appearance of the room
would suggest its name, it being rougher than any other in the immediate
vicinity. Passing under an arch we enter the Queen's Drawing-room. Here
the box work has been developed beyond any on our pathway thus far. From
the ceiling it hangs like draperies and on the left wall is about
twenty-four inches in depth. On the whole this room is elegant enough
for the most exacting queen. We step from this room into the M.E.
Church. Rev. Mr. Hancher, President of the Black Hills Methodist
College, was I believe the first to hold song and prayer service in this
room; the pulpit is on the left as you pass through. The guides always
ask if any wish to sing or worship, as any one has a perfect right in a
dedicated Chapel.
"The Giant's Causeway is only a few steps beyond. This bit of scenery
has some resemblance to the famed basalt attraction on the coast of
Ireland. We 'duck' our heads under the Arch of Politeness and rise to a
standing position in Lena's Arbor, a very irregular shaped room admired
by a great many of our visitors.
"We enter Capitol Hall at the side, about midway between the ends. It is
the largest room yet visited, being some two hundred feet from end to
end, with a very high ceiling. Here we notice the walls and ceiling are
bare of box work and other formation, and are clean and white. The
decorative appearance exceeds any room yet visited. After getting into
line again we go down a flight of stairs to Odd Fellows' Hall, a chamber
that on examination suggests its name. In the ceiling is situated the
'All seeing eye,' one of the emblems of that august body, and at a
little distance the 'Three links;' also in the ceiling, and just under
the latter is situated a rock very much resembling a goat. Attention is
called to the first appearance of pop-corn work, a very peculiar
formation resembling pop-corn after it has broken open, and in this part
of the cave it is quite plentiful.
"We now descend another flight of stairs into Turtle Pass, where a large
turtle rests beside the path, and just beyond is the Confederate
Cross-roads, where the fissure is crossed by another forming a cross
with perfect right angles. The right hand passage is used for specimens
only; straight ahead leads to the Garden of Eden, the end of our
shortest route; we take the left hand path and journey through Summer
Avenue, some seventy feet in length, and reach the Scenes of Wiclow, a
large and high room, beautifully decorated with box work and pop-corn.
The ceiling and the left wall from floor to ceiling are fine box work.
On the right you see dark space, as a very large portion of this room is
unused, but we pass the Piper's Pig. List! The guide is pounding on the
Salvation Army Drum, a large projecting rock that on being struck with
the closed hand gives a sound very much like a bass drum.
"After walking across a short plank we enter Kimball's Music Hall, a
very beautiful room settled between two crevices and lined with box
work. Viewing the ceiling from the fissure on the right it is seen to
be smooth and fringed with pop-corn. In some places the boxes are
closed, resembling finished honey-comb. Over head box work can be seen
as high as the light penetrates. On the whole, I think this is the
finest crevice in the explored cave.
"Looking straight ahead you wonder how the party can travel over such a
road as presents itself to view, but the guide turns into an arch in the
right hand wall and enters Whitney Avenue. After walking across the
bridge over shadowy depths, our pathway lies for some fifty feet in one
of the most interesting ovens in the cave, at the end of which we enter
Monte Cristo's Palace by going down a flight of stairs. This room has
the greatest depth beneath the surface of any of the Fair Grounds'
Route, which is four hundred and fifty feet. In this room is noticed a
decided change in the box work, which is much heavier than any seen, or
that will be seen on this route, and the color is light blue.
"I guess I will give the party a talk while we rest under Monte Cristo's
Diamonds, a very sparkling cluster, about six inches in diameter, of
silica crystals.
"After studying the cave, it appears that it did not form in the same
manner as most others; on account of the absence of sink holes, the
regular arrangement of the chambers, the regular dip of the rock to the
south-east from five to ten degrees, and the regularity of the long
vertical fissures running north-west south-east. In fact, the whole cave
is made up of these fissures and it seems that the water has entered
narrow crevices opened by some eruptive force.
"You see small holes eaten in the ceilings and walls in every direction,
which indicates that the water came from a higher level, and being under
great pressure, wanted passage out. It seems the cave was a reservoir
for a long time, then after the water stopped flowing in it slowly
receded, and in settling the overcharged waters covered the rocks and
specimens with a calcareous coating, very thin in the upper portions of
the cave and getting thicker the deeper you go, giving evidence as you
see, of slowly settling. Had the waters rushed out they would in all
probability have left the rocks uncoated as in all other caves, with one
exception, the Crystal Cave, some seventy-five miles to the north of
Wind Cave.
"As we have some more caves to see we must journey on.
"Taking one last look at Monte Cristo's Diamonds we pass into Milliner's
Avenue, a very pretty avenue indeed with nearly as many colors as a
milliner's show-window would present. About mid-way of this avenue we
cross the bridge over Castle Garden, a room in the eighth tier beneath
the surface. From this avenue we step into the Assembly Room. Here the
formations are covered with a gypsum crystal that sparkles with
wonderful brilliancy. On the right is a passage leading to the Masonic
Temple, a room that any body of Masons would be proud of could they hold
lodge meetings in it. The passage on the left is the terminus of the
Pearly Gates' Route, the longest developed route in the cave. After
moving along some distance we see the Bad Lands, and then come into the
Tennis Court. This room has the net in the ceiling and I suppose the
party can furnish the raquet (racket). On the right hand side of this
room there is tier upon tier of box work; looking to the left, you
shudder at the almost bottomless pit just beside the pathway. Here we
take a rest preparatory to climbing up to the Marble Quarry, a task of
two flights of stairs. This is a very large room and has the most uneven
floor, ceiling and walls of any that our visitors see, and is barren of
specimens excepting in the first part over the stairs where there is
some box work of very pretty structure and color. Some distance up the
path we see on one side the Ghost of 'She,' and on the other the Devil's
Punch Bowl, a large rock with a basin-shaped hole about thirty-six
inches across and sixteen inches deep, but lo! the bottom has been
broken out: which is very appropriate as South Dakota is at present a
prohibition state. A winding path is followed until attention is called
to the Sheep's Head above an arch over the passage, and the ceiling here
is of flint, the ledge of which is four inches thick.
"Passing under the arch we enter Johnstone's Camp Ground, so named
because Paul Alexander Johnstone camped in this room while accomplishing
the third of his greatest mind-reading feats, during which he remained
in the cave seventy-two hours. He was locked in his room at the Evans
Hotel while a committee secreted the head of a gold pin in the cave. On
their return, after being blindfolded, he led them to the livery stable,
and securing a team drove to the cave and found the pin in the Standing
Rock Chamber, beyond the Pearly Gates, and then drove back to the city
still blindfolded.
"Down one short flight of stairs and we are in the Waiting Room, so
called on account of persons waiting here while the rest of their party
finished the trip by climbing up the Alpine Way. This difficult climb
was made until the route was developed via the Marble Quarry. A steep
pathway and one flight of stairs now bring us to the Ticket Office, and
another short stairway leads into the room above, which is the Fair
Grounds. We enter the right wing, which measures two hundred and six
links in length and forty-nine in width at the narrowest place. We are
now in the third level and no box work is seen, but the ceiling (which
is low) shows many interesting fossils. The central dome is some fifty
feet in height, and passing to the right the guide seats the party in
such a position that the frost work on the wall can be seen to
advantage. This is the largest part of the Fair Grounds and measures six
hundred and forty-five links long, exclusive of the right wing, and has
a width of fifty-three links, which with a number of wings added, makes
it one of the largest under-ground rooms within American caverns.
"A great many visitors look at their cuff-buttons when told we have
twenty-five hundred rooms included in ninety-seven miles of passageways.
Of course they do not understand how we get the mileage. In going to the
Fair Grounds we travel about three miles. In each fissure there are
eight levels, which makes twenty-four miles of cave from the entrance to
the Fair Grounds.
"Of the formations in the cave, the different kinds are on different
levels, the stalactites and stalagmites nearest the surface on the
second, the frost work on the third. This formation is in most instances
as colorless as snow. The mode of its formation is not thoroughly
understood, but is found in such positions as suggest its being formed
by vapors overcharged as spoken of about the water. It is almost always
on an over-hanging rock, over or near some fissure leading to a deeper
portion of the cave. Box work in this level is scattering and fragile:
in the fourth it is the prevailing formation: in the fifth it is heavier
and a little darker; in the sixth it varies in style and color, and
pop-corn appears, a queer formation resembling pop-corn ready to eat. It
is not so purely white here as in the lower levels, seventh and eighth.
In the seventh the box work is heavier than any seen on the Fair
Grounds' Route and the color is nearly blue, having a faded appearance.
In this tier is also found a good deal of mineral wool, which must not
be mistaken for asbestos. It sometimes attains a length of eighteen
inches and at one place where it seems to come out of a hole two inches
in diameter, and drops down like a grey beard, we have named it Noah's
Beard.
"In the eighth tier we find very beautiful formations of carbonate of
lime, and the box work is decidedly blue, the boxes larger, and their
partitions one half inch thick.
"We have been deeper than the eighth tier but in narrow crevices barely
admitting a man of average stature. In these the calcareous coating is
much thicker than in any higher portions of the cave, but very little
sign of box work is seen.
"Sometimes we make a comparison between the cave and a sponge. Take for
instance a sponge as large as an apple barrel and there would be holes
in it as big as a man's thumb and closed hand. Now take a sponge, four
miles square and five hundred feet deep with holes in proportion to the
little sponge, and you have an illustration of The Wonderful Wind Cave,
of Custer County, South Dakota."