Cave Regions of the Ozarks and Black HillsOwen, Luella Agnes
Science
Cave Regions of the Ozarks and Black Hills
Owen, Luella Agnes
Caves -- Black Hills (S.D. and Wyo.); Caves -- Ozark Mountains
Finally a resting place is reached where the grandeur of the view can be
enjoyed; and then a shorter stairway completes the ascent of the wall,
but not of the hill, so there is still a considerable upward walk
through the forest of tall pines all carpeted with brilliant mats of
kinnikinic with its shining leaves, glowing in shades of green and red,
trying to rival the bright scarlet berries. The kinnikinic here
resembles the wintergreen of the east, while in the mountains in
Colorado it grows in the form of a shrub two to three feet in height,
but with no variation in the leaf or berry.
At last perserverance is rewarded with a view of the cave buildings and
the summit of the hill rising yet higher beyond, and tall, straight
pines swaying in the rising wind over all.
One of the two houses was entered and preparations quickly made for
entering the cave, the artificial tunnel entrance being only a little
distance further on.
The door was unlocked, candle-sticks taken from a shelf within, candles
from the guide's supply lighted, and we went forward at last, into
Crystal Cave. At the end of the new tunnel, a second door was passed
through, which is locked on the inside during the visiting season by the
last guide to enter, in order that no chance late arrival may enter
alone and be lost.
The first room is a small one at the junction of the natural and
artificial entrances, from which we go upstairs to the Resting Room, in
the highest level of the cave, and perfectly dry but otherwise of no
special interest. After a short rest here we went down stairs at the
side opposite that on which we entered, into a passage leading to the
cave's first beauty, the Red Room. As the name indicates, the walls are
vividly colored and represent the uncertain line which separates the
Carboniferous strata from the Triassic rocks. The color is handsomely
brought out here in contrast with masses of calcite crystal, so as to
present by the combination a charmingly beautiful room, from which we
retired, feet first, down a "squeeze" to the Bridal Chamber, where we
found ourselves perched on an irregular narrow ledge, high up on the
wall, and cherishing a private conviction that exploration had met a
checkmate; but the guide reached the floor and my nephew, Herbert,
scrambled down with as much ease as the chipmunk he had chased to the
house top a while before; so a little application settled the difficulty
and re-united the party. The room is an artistic study in red, and the
only reason for its being called the Bridal Chamber is that the way out
is decidedly more rough and difficult than that by which the entrance is
effected; this, however, is an observation not based on official
information.
Off to one side of this room is Lost Man's Paradise, also in red and
crystal, named in honor of the timely rescue of one who had faced the
possibility of becoming a lost soul.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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