Rensselaer Republican, Volume 22, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 February 1890 — A STRANGE CAVE. [ARTICLE]

A STRANGE CAVE.

Dae of the Wonders of the Black Hills, Dakota. The Latest Explorer Says It Has Hundreds of Passages, the Mysteries of Which Have Never Been Explored—A Wonderful Sight In the northwest corner of Martin valley, at the basin of the second range of hills, in the bottom of a small ravine, is a hole about two feet Wide and four feet long. This is the entrance to the wind cave. It is covered by a small log house buiit for the accommodation of visitors and to protect the entrance from the severe storms that visit that locality, says S. C. Odell in Buffalo Gap News. About the wind part of it. It may be late in the afternoon when you arrive at the cave the wind 1 may be “going in.” If it is going in it will continue that way for several hours, and then change and come out They call it breathing. Large, heavy pads are se wed over the elbows and knees of our coats and pants. The first one starts in feet first and takes a lantern; the rest follow one ! by one, the last one with lantern and ball of binder twine. The end of the twine is fastened at the entrance and unrolled as we go along, serving as a

guide to return by. ggg|| Flat on our backs or side, we shove Ourselves along down this narrow passage covered with small stones, which are anything but soft to crawl orn When the first one reaches the divide at his left the passage goes straight down like a wall, entering a large chamber at the top, but this time we will take the one to our right Shoving ourselves along a little further we drop down about four feet into a small vestibule the entrance to the “chute,” a round tunnel about twenty feet long and very steep, and it requires no “shoving” or “wiggling” to get down, hut with your hands and feet braced out on all sides, and wishi ing you had several more pairs to hang I on with, you go down with more speed than grace. From this chamber there are many different passages, each leading in a different direction, the general course being down. Some of theih you can enter on your hands and knees, but in most eases one must lie down and crawl in. But we will take the passage that leads directly down from the chamber. * For the first few rods we crawl over rocks and under them and then find ourselves at the mouth of the “well.” We pause here for a minute and throw in a rock, thump, thump, thump, down, down, fainter and fainter, until ; the sound is lost to the ear, but you : have not heard it strike the bottom. How deep it is I have never heard and I have no curiosity to find out by experimenting. A little more of this crawling and we are at the middle of a great crack running up and down. This is called the “devil’s crack.” The orack is narrow and you are obliged to go in sideways. The path is quite steep and about twenty feet long. On leaving this we turn short to our | right over a short ridge, and down an--1 other crack similar to the “devil’s crack.” At the end of this passage is the “bride’s chamber.” Another long passage and we are at the “postoffice.” | At the bride’s chamber and postoffice we gather our first specimens placing them together to be picked up on our return. Before we leave we register at the postoffice. There were i twenty-two names with ours, three of j them being ladies’ names.

The passage from here on is more open, and the walls and ceilings are the grandest sight a person ever saw. The walls are of a light purple, thickly studied with lime crystals and covered with the most beautiful frostwork conceivaole. The sparkle of the frostwork, the deathlike stillness, the feeling of awe which pervades the entire surroundings, contribute to make * scene moat beautiful and weird. As we go further in the crystal work is more consolidated and the frostwork is much heavier—more coral shaped—until it runs into a heavy solid mass. The courthouse is the next place visited. The ceiling of this room appears to be 100 feet high or more, and the floor »6 100 feet across. The ceiling and walls were covered with areddishbrown, lattice-work formation, thickly studded with the frostwork and literally covered with crystals. The ceiling is thickly covered with stalactites, which look liko large icicles. The lady who visited it a few weeks ago remarked “that she could not see how heaven could be more beautiful.” I will say here that the cave from the entrance down is very dry, and the air is as pure as jt is above ground. The frostwork that I have spoken of and also the other formations are of lime, which has crystalized. From the entr nee to the bride’s chamber there are no formations worthy of mention. The trip up into the stalactite region is very interesting, but we will leave that for some future time.