Show Stranger J r han the mimmot 1c Cave South Dakota Possesses the > Most Wonderful l Cavern In America 800 Miles l f Subterranean Subter-ranean Roads Eight Stories Bewildering Labyrinths of Hidden < Passages More 1 Than Two Miles Square Probably An Ancient Geyser S i Copyright 1S90 by S S McClure Co I The Black His of South Dakota described I J de-scribed as the richest 100 miles square Ot the face of the earth possesses in addition to their mineral richness one of t the greatest wonders of the world This is Wind cave in Custer county i tyeve miles north of the city of Hot Springs in the southern portion of the I Black Hills I This cave is in an Immense bed of limestone bewildering labyrinth of boxwork stalactites stalagmites geodes geo-des and frostwork of glistening whiteness white-ness so delicate that at the slightest touch it crumbles to pieces A fitting playground for the little people with whom the superstition of the Indians peopled the Black Hills in the days when they were afraid of the somber mountains before the pale face came and the iron horse followed after and I the spirits of the hills were driven out Professor Morrill of the Smithsonian Institute says the formation of the cave is unknown Other geologists incline to Jthe opinion that it is an extinct gey a perhaps a former outlet for the r outet warm mineral t waters which now come I Ho the surface at Hot Springs and vicinity i vi-cinity Some of the formations show the evidence of having been formed by I watera warm mineral water and I some notably the frostwork is so delicate del-icate that it could not owe its existence i to the action of water but must have been formed by a gas or vapor which congealed as it struck the limestone The prevailing formation in the cavo is what the guides for want of a scientific scen tific name have called boxwork Beautiful Formations The popcorn formation as its name implies looks very similar to a lot of iwell popped corn fastened to the walls and ceilings of the cave In places the balls are smaller than a pea in others they are several times as large This formation is usually pure white without with-out the brilliancy that makes the frost work dazzle the sight Akin to the popcorn pop-corn work is the snowball In various portions of the cave the walls and ceilings ceil-ings look as though a number of boys had been throwing snowballs at the walls and the snow was just wet enough to spatter and stick The frostwork furnishes the chief beauty of the cave I is formed in the softest rock and inthe upper parts of the cave it is suspended or shoots up 1 > or out from the base of limestone in clusters of tiny white needles formed of infinitesimal qrystals reminding one of pine trees The coarsest of this formation for-mation is not larger than a needle and tit decreases in size until i looks like I the finestcotton There is some of it 11n the cave which is called mineral cotton cot-ton that would deceive anyone if it wera away from the cave There ia I Tiojne of It hanging to atone beyond the Pearly Gates which the guides have called Noahs Beard that is a bunch of fine spun white wire several feet long and white as snow When the calcium light is thrown on the frostwork diamonds it flashes scintillates S like 110 Miles of Passages The cave is formed of fissures or crevices paralleling one another at a distance of from 50 to 300 feet apart These fissures range in height from 30 to over 100 feet They are all connected con-nected by numerous side passages scarcely large enough originally to I permit an ordinary sized man to get through it has been necessary neces-sary to widen and deepen these connecting con-necting passages in order to make the cave accessible to tourists There are eight tiers of these fissures the lowest being 500 feet below the entrance The chambers have all been found in the fissures and range in size from twelve feet square to a little more than three acres A recent survey of the cave disclosed the fact that it covers an area two miles square By a simple arithmetical calculation calcu-lation one can obtain some idea of the miles of cave there are to be yet explored ex-plored There are eight tiers of fissures fis-sures each fissure is two miles long in each tier the fissures are distant from fifty to 300 feet over a space two miles wide placing all the fissures 300 feet apart there would be fiftyfive on each tier or 110 miles then multiplying by the number of tiers the result will be 880 miles without counting the side or connecting passages and the size of the chambers There are some openings open-ings which lead below the eighth tier but these have not yet been explored Why It Is Called Wind CaVe Wind cave has been rightly named In every moment of the year the wind is rushing in or out of the entrance with terrific force its direction being regulated by the rise and fall of the barometer About 200 yards from the I entrance no matter whether coming in I or going out the current of the wind I is always in and this inward rush prevails pre-vails throughout the entire explored portion of the cave except in a small passage not far from the entrance out of the mouth of which the wind comes seemingly to meet the main current and back into the with it go cave in an unending and unvarying circle For days the wind has rushed out of the opening at the entrance and yet all the time there was no change in the direction of its course in the cave In last March for fifteen days the wind blew in continually except for a period of three hours one day This was during dur-ing the bitter cold weather of last winter I win-ter Sir Folsom who lives in the house I I above the entrance said that during I that time he saw icicles on the bottom of the passage leading to the entrance I that were two feet long and not larger i I than a lead pencil They were formed I 1 in this manner The cold current of wind as i came into the cave followed I the floor pushing the warmer air to the I top The evaporation caused by the meeting of the two currents was so I groat that a stream of vapor was I formed which rose to th top in the warm air collected into tiny drops of I I water which in turn fell back to the floor in the cold current freezing instantly in-stantly The dropping was so slow and i the drops so small that the Icicles were not given a chance to grow except in gven length I No Animal Life I Thesteady current of wind may be given credit for the perfect purity of the ll fn the cave I being dry sweet I and Jnvigoratingv and > as stated un I I i changeable in temperature On a warm day the explorer feels the chill upon I i i frt enteiing but In n few momenta Is om4Jt i comfortable and need not worry about drafts and coldsuntil the trip fs over i andt he steps out into the warm air i again The guide guard against 11 1 effects from the sudden return to heat by detaining tourists several min t tin t-In the room above the entrance before I permitting them to go outside That the cave has other outlets for this con en stat stream of wind cannot be doubted doubt-ed but no evidence of any has been found Attempts have been made bY > < 1 il c < following the candle flame expecting it to lead W the oUtlet fame all such attempts I at-tempts have efidad in failure the explorers ex-plorers coming back to some already I explored portion of the cave as though the wind were losjt l t and Im i eitdeavorjpg to find is way let of the labyrinth goes round and round In all the miles off the cave there fs I not a bat rat or insect of any kind I There is no moisture in the atmosphere at any ylRce and no water except that which seeps through from the surface into the upper ties qf chambers 3000 Chambers Found About 100 miles have been explored since 1SS1 Three thousand rooms Or chambers by actual count have be n found every ona ac of which lha lieen named No end has been reached 1d happened In the history of WInd cave mind was 1 tho exploft of Johnstone the reader1 in 1S53 whence found t pinhead pin-head which had been hidden in the Standing Hock chambers about ten I miles from the entrance The thing was done by Johnstone to advertise r himself and he was assisted by the i people in charge of her cave to adver remained in I ice It While Johnstone tem Hot Springs two ctUzens carried q pins Rot prlgs Alva McDonald at head to > the cave a cDould that time the most expert of guides piloted them through tIe passages until un-til they thought they had found a suitable U drove back to able hiding place They dove back Hot Springs and the four with ohn stone standing behind the seat his eyes bllnt5fotde and one hand on their 1 wrists drove to the cave at breakneck speed making the twelve miles in for 5 I t1t t Vkt 1 iY i I LS fk I i I jIe k5cl VIEW TAKEN AT THE ENTRANCE OF WIND CAVE I no evidence of an ending has ben discovered dis-covered I The guides have laid off the cave in routes there being fourteen different ones only three of which are open to the public Of the three the opn the Garden is the shortest requiring a little tle over two hours the Fair Ground route is the next and can be made in about three and a half hours the ad Pearly Gates route is the longest in attempting which one must prepare for a jaunt of five hours All of these trips can be made without inconvenience the management I having expended a large sum of money in making paths enlarging the narrow and low places bridging the chasms and making the climbs easier by a liberal use of stairs How It Was Discovered There is some tradition of the cave having beef first discovered in 1877 by Lame Johnny one of the early stage robbers and outlaws of the Black Hills who was subsequently the central figure I fig-ure in a necktie party In the fall of 1881 JohnWells a granger located in Cold Brook canyon just outside the present limits of HotSprings followed the canyon in search of deer About thirteen miles from home his attention was attracted by a noise that sounded like an intensified whistling of the wind through the pines and upon investigating investi-gating found 100 yards away in the bottom of the canyon a hole alfout eight inches in diameter out of which a heavy wind was rushing Wells did nothing toward further investigation but in the spring1 of the following year two men Tom and Jess Bingham impelled im-pelled by a spirit of curiosity blasted out the hole until It was large enough to crawl into They went in a little distance when their further progress was stooped by a deep well and this ended their explorations In the fall of 1882 Joe Petty Henry Marty and Joe Can drove out from Hot Springs then called Mlnnekahta properly equipped with ropes lights and provisions They spent two days and a night at the cave and descended the well which had stopped the Bing hams and crawled along the bottom some distance when they were stopped by the passage becoming too small for them to get through In ISSa during the Worlds fair the largest chamber iu the cave was discovered dis-covered and named the Fair Grounds This room covers an area of a little over three acres and is in shape something some-thing like a mosque with a high central cen-tral dome > and numerous wings radiating radiat-ing from i The dome is about sixty feet in height th average height of the whole5 room beinsr about twelve or fifteen feet Chambers Wanfed By Visitors The cave will eventually be thoroughly thorough-ly developed lighted with electricity and an electric railway from the cave to Hot Springs constructed A targe number of the chambers have been named by the visitors Various social fraternal and religious organizations have rooms which have been properly dedicate Among these are Odd Fellows Fel-lows hall G AR hall W C T U hall Eastern Star I room Woodmen hal T F A headquarters A 0 U W hall K F hall Elk hal which was named and dedicated last l August and all the religious organizations V The i Odd Fellows hall is perhaps the most fittingly named t it are two go ts a large artfl a small one which are wonderfully won-derfully lifelike 1h three links the allteeing1 eye Jib a umber of little things which an Odds Fellow j would readily C in toe ceIling at the Monte Cristas palace are hiS diamonds they are two Open geodes six or se lr Inches OpEi and connected In one is a pure calotte crystal formation and in the other pure quartz crystal Geologists Ge-ologists always stop here and look and wonder for the two formations belong to periods that are eparated bY thousands thou-sands of years I Found a Pin Head The most remarkable thing that has tytwo minutes Arrived at the cave J 0 3i WJ Yi 1 1 1t t there was no delay With the wrists I of each of the two men in his bands his eyes still blindfolded Johnstone started in search of the pin head McDonald Mc-Donald followed in their rear with provisions water candles etc to watch them and find them should they become lost At times the two committeemen com-mitteemen would lose their bearing They would see a passage leading off somewhere which looked familiar and Johnstone would immediately pull them through i When they would stop lost the mind reader would groan and curse them for not knowing how to go and they would stand until McDonald Mc-Donald could reach them and start them off again During all this time Johnstone was nearly crazed I was almost impossible to make him stop to eat and when they wanted to rest they tied him to them The whole party was in the cave seventytwo hqnrs and twenty minutes before Johnstone found the pin head where i had been hidden under a rock The man did not recover from the intense nervous strain for some time and i Is thought that the trip was the principal cause of his death two years later The Wind cave is destined to take its place at the head of the cave wonders won-ders of the world b tb onaeeount of its size and its unusual and beautiful bequtUul I formations S PHILIP RUTHERFORD KELBAR |