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Show MECCA FOR TRAVELERS Mysteries of Underground World Beckon Adventurous WNU Features. Caves have fascinated man from the dawn of antiquity to the present day. Stories of them abound in history, folklore and mythology, yet these mysterious underground worlds still beckon the adventurous and the weird scenes to be dis- . covered there fire imaginations. Three great cave systems in the United States have been established as national parks Mammoth cave in Kentucky, Carlsbad caverns in New Mexico and Wind cave in South tan, The descent from the natural i entrance to the 750 foot level is made via the Green Lake Room, J the King's Palace, the Queen's Chamber and the Papoose Room. After lunch in the underground cafeteria caf-eteria comes the main event, a tour of the "Big Room." This tremendous tremen-dous chamber is about 4,000 feet long, 500 feet wide and 300 feet from floor to ceiling. In this room many city skyscrapers would seem small. Here one sees the Temple of the Sun and the pagoda-like stalagmite, called "Rock of Ages." The trip takes about seven hours. WIND CAVE near the Black Hills in South Dakota, a national park since 1903, is much smaller in extent ex-tent than either Mammoth cave or Carlsbad caverns, but it has unusual un-usual formations known as "box work" found In no other caves in the United States. The tour of Wind cave requires from one to two hours and the return to the surface is made by elevator. An additional interesting feature of Wind Cave National park is a large buffalo herd which may be seen from the park road. MAMMOTH CAVE, Carlsbad caverns cav-erns and Wind cave are accessible by paved highways, and all have bus or taxi connections with one or more railroads. There are no overnight over-night facilities at Carlsbad caverns, but there are tourist camps near the park entrance and hotels in Carlsbad, N. M. A free campsite is provided in Wind Cave National park, but the nearest hotels or cabins cab-ins will be found in Hot Springs, S. D. At Mammoth Cave National park hotels, cottages and park transportation are furnished. Here also National Park service has free campsites and picnic areas. All three caves are illuminated by modern electric systems; however, in the historic section of Mammoth cave parties still are guided by the traditional lanterns and flickering pine torches. There are no elevators in Mammoth cave and visitors in poor physical condition should not descend to the level of Echo river as the climb to the surface is steep. k All trips in the cave are conducted f by National Park service guides and rangers. i Dakota. In 1946 these three national parks were visited by more than half a million people. Mammoth cave has been world -famous for more than a century. It is believed to I I have been National Parks discovered in ciyh fcy a pi0; 01111 neer named In a Series HoucMn who followed a wounded bear into the cave entrance. A few years later salt petre taken from the cave was used in the manufacture manufac-ture of gunpowder for American troops in the War of 1812, and not long after that the great passageways passage-ways and domed chambers of Mammoth Mam-moth cave became an international mecca for travelers. There are galleries gal-leries on five distinct levels in Mammoth Mam-moth cave and during the course of the underground trip, the visitor descends de-scends 860 feet to the lowest level where the Echo river winds its tortuous tor-tuous way in eternal darkness. Echo river is probably the most distinctive distinc-tive and interesting feature of the cave and a short trip is made on it in a flat-bottomed boat. Strange eyeless fish live in the river. There are now more than 150 miles of explored passageways in Mammoth cave and the visitor is offered a choice of several tours which vary in length from 2Vz to IVi hours. On the all-day trip one has lunch at the Snowball Dining Room, 267 feet below the surface. An indication indi-cation of what one may expect to see is given by the names of some of the formations in the cave: Bottomless Bot-tomless Pit, Fat Man's Misery, Ruins of Karnak, Frozen Niagara, Violet City, Jenny Lind's Armchair and Martha Washington's Statue. Long under private ownership. Mammoth cave became a national park in 1941 largely through the foresight and generosity of the people peo-ple of the State of Kentucky, who through personal contributions made possible purchase of the cave . property and its donation to the federal government. ... CARLSBAD CAVERNS was proclaimed pro-claimed a national monument in 1923 and given national park status in 1930. Probably its earliest explorer ex-plorer was Jim White, a cowboy, who entered it in 1901. Seeing a dark, moving column issuing from the top of a mountain. White investigated inves-tigated and found a natural opening in the earth which led him down to the caverns. The dark, smokelike column proved to be alive, a moving mov-ing stream of bats from down in the darkness of the caves. This spectacular spec-tacular flight of bats, may be seen every afternoon at dusk during the warm months of the year. The descent into Carlsbad caverns from the natural entrance en-trance is an unforgettable experience. ex-perience. From a point well below be-low the surface one may look back through the semi-gloom to see an endless procession of people zig - zagging downward amid huge boulders and grotesque gro-tesque rock formations. The scene reminds one of descriptions descrip-tions from Dante's "Inferno." Elevators are available for those who do not wish to descend de-scend or ascend on foot. Everything in Carlsbad caverns is on a vast scale. The rooms are huge and the stalactites and stalag-mites stalag-mites are larger than in any other known cave. Some of the stalagmites stalag-mites have the shape and size of church spires. The dominant colors in Carlsbad are varying shades of ' i i SCENE FROM 'INFERNO . . . Like a scene from Dante's "Inferno," "In-ferno," giant stalagmites and grotesque rock formations abound in Carlsbad caverns in New Mex-tc. |