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Show Scenic Caverns Get Additions for Tourist Season Visitors to two of the mountain moun-tain west's scenic caverns will benefit this season through completion com-pletion of twin "educative centers' cen-ters' at Timpanopas Cave National Na-tional Monument in Utah and at Lehman Caves National Monument Monu-ment in Nevada. A $150,000 visitor center at Tim-panogos Tim-panogos Cave near American Fork and Provo is now partially in use, according to monument superintendent Thomas A. Walker. Walk-er. Formal dedication ceremonies ceremon-ies for the Timpanogos center will be held in the autumn, after af-ter completion of displays and exhibits. The new visitors center at Lehman Leh-man Cave, on the slopes of 13,063 foot high ML Wheeler, between Ely, Nev. and Delta, Utah, were opened with formal ceremonies on Saturday, June 8, at 2 p. m. National Park Service officials and representatives of Utah and Nevada state agencies participated. Tours of the cave and the proposed ML Wheeler National Park are, music by school bands a public barbecue and a community com-munity square dance with participants parti-cipants from Utah, Nevada, Arizona Ari-zona and Idaho was on the program. pro-gram. Lehman Cave, rich in limestone lime-stone formations, pink and brown stalactites end stalagmites, was cared more than 125-miUion years ago by the work of underground, under-ground, water and earth movements. move-ments. Its series of connected rooms or caverns are electrically lighted, and are easily reached from the new parking area and visiting center without climbing. At the $150,000 center, displays, maps and models explain the manner in which Lofty ML Wheeler reared above the surrounding sur-rounding Snake Valley, and the geologic happenings that produced pro-duced the cool, deep, colorful caverns. The tiny hamlet of Baker, near the Nevada-Utah line, Is the closest population center to Lehman Leh-man Caves. However, U. S. 6-50, a transcontinental highway crossing central Utah, links Delta Del-ta and Ely, and passes almost within sight of the cavern entrance. en-trance. Ample motel and tourist tour-ist accommodations are located at Delta, some 92 miles east of the cftves. and at Ely, Nev., 60 miles to the wesL Utah State Highway 21 provides pro-vides an Interesting alternate route to Lehman Caves from Beaver Bea-ver and Milford, swinging past the old ghost mining town of Frisco and penetrating a rarely visited sector of peaks and deserts. des-erts. While the Timpanogos Cave National Monument visitor center cen-ter will not open formally until un-til the fall season, its facilities will greatly ease congestion at the heavily visited caverns on the Alpine Loop road in American Ameri-can Fork Canyon. Improved parking, park-ing, better access to the trail ascending to Timpanogos Cave, new restrooms and new refreshment refresh-ment facilities have all been added ad-ded at the 250 acre Timp site. After visiting the caverns, many vacationists will want to drive on over the scenic Alpine Loop to Provo Canyon, then swinging towards resorts at Heb-er Heb-er and Midway, or down Provo Canyon to Bridal Veil Falls. |