Three tired men unsaddled their horses where the mountain stream
disappeared into the ground. They had fought their way 15 miles over
wild, rugged mountains since leaving Williams Valley at dawn. Yet rest
was far from their minds. Hurriedly they stuck tallow candles into
lanterns made from tin cans, untied a lariat from a saddle, then walked
down the valley. They stopped where the stream, now larger, reappeared
from a shadowy crevice under a cliff.
“This must be it,” said one of them eagerly, “just like Davidson said.”
And with mixed feelings of excitement, fear, and the overwhelming grip
of adventure, they followed flickering candlelight into the dark
opening. Tales of persons lost for days in other caves were fresh in
their minds, so they uncoiled a ball of string as they went. Later they
could follow it back out.
Soon they knew the Davidson story was true, more than true. Crawling
from one chamber to another, they found a fairyland of weird grottoes
and exquisite stone formations—pillars and spires, drapes, frozen
waterfalls and grotesque forms—in shapes and sizes beyond their
imaginations. Some they named from resemblance to familiar objects. At
others they could only stare in awe and wonder _how can it be?_ Using
the rope in steep places, they probed upward into another level of
caverns where they were thrilled to find even more elaborate formations.
At one place they wrote their names and the date, July 11, 1879. Here
and there they saw evidence left by the few others who had entered the
cave in the five years since it was discovered by their neighbor, Elijah
Davidson. On and on they explored, returning to the entrance only when
their last candle was growing short. Outside, stars lighted a midnight
sky. Exhausted, happy, they vowed to return, then fell into bedrolls.
Thus early visitors responded to the lure of Oregon Caves: to see the
unseen and to know the unknown. Today, thousands of people enjoy the
caves under less demanding circumstances. Yet the joy of personal
discovery endures. For each visitor about to enter the cave, the thrill
of learning something new and interesting about the earth beneath us is
born anew.
Throughout the world, caves loom large in the scope of history. Early
man used them as dwelling and fortifications. Fugitives hid in them and
thieves used them to cache their loot. Others have found them fine
places to grow mushrooms. During the War of 1812 and the Civil War,
Americans mined certain caves for saltpetre which was desperately needed
to make gunpowder. Much of our knowledge of long extinct mammals has
been gleaned from perfectly preserved remains, and even prehistoric
drawings, uncovered by cave-probing scientists.
To most of us, however, the greatest value of caves is the delight of
seeing the strange beauties wrought by nature through countless
centuries. And from this comes the challenge to understand the
imperceptibly slow, relentless forces which produce them. This booklet
sketches the processes which form, alter and eventually destroy caves.
It is an attempt to share present knowledge with those who visit Oregon
Caves National Monument.
Before going on, let us define the word _cave_ as we consider it here.
True caves are formed in soluble rock—limestone, marble, gypsum or
dolomite. They usually contain some redeposited mineral in the form of
stalactites, etc. As most caves occur in limestone, the term _limestone
cave_ is often used to describe any true cave, even though it may
actually occur in dolomite or marble. The cave-forming process will be
basically the same for either type of soluble rock. We exclude from this
definition mines, lava tubes, ice caves, and sandstone depressions such
as those used by cliff-dwellers in the Southwest. While they are “holes
in the ground,” they are formed in different ways than are the limestone
type caves, and therefore are not usually referred to in geological
discussions of caves.