Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1872-08-21
" yandOtte Cave.

NEW AND WONDERFUL DISCOVERIES rs As
OLD PLACE.
\ correspondent Of the Louisville Coul
merciqI gives an interesting account OF
| Wyandottc Cave, which is situated in
| Crawford county, Ind, some five miles
back of Leavcnworth, tho county seat
sixty miles below Louisville, which Is said
to be so cool in the hottest wea ther that
the thermometer never reaches more than
| - degrees above zero.
To reach this cave one takes the Louis
Vile and Henderson packets, leaving
| Louisville at > O'Clock in the evening and
arriving at Leavenworth at about q clock
| the same night. After a good nights rest the
visitor takes a carriage, and after ride
over a fine country road, and through
beautiful scenery, Of some five miles, ar
rives at the cave hotel Here, after a
brief rest the tourist dons a suit Of old
clothes and proceeds to the mouth Of the
cave, distant from the hotel some two hun
dred yards, \ rugged fssure in the side
of the hill, about thirty feet wide and six
to eight feet high, and from which the cool
breath Of the cavern pOurs, is the entrance
to wonder land. Under the guidance Of
G.. w. Rothrock, one Of the proprietors
of the cave, who has been acting in the
capacity of guide for more than twenty
years, each member of the party Is sup
piled with light, and is ready for entrance
into what would well pass for the mouth Of
the bottomless pit. We must pass in
slowly, for the change Of temperature IS
too great to be suddenly endured.
One entering the cave it is difficult
matter to see well, as the daylight and
candle light conflict, producing '' cross
lights" but after getting some distance
from the mouth the candles get rather the
best of it, and the tourists are able to pick
their way without difficulty through Fan
euil Hall, Columbian Arch (which bears
a striking resemblance to y railroad tun-
nell, and Washington avenue to Falling
Rock, an immense block of limestone,
tons in weight, and apparently so slightly
supported that people involuntarily hold
their breath as they pass under it, fearful
that the slightest jar may bring it on their
heads But it has stood thus since the
cave was first discovered, seventy years
ago.
Immediately over Falling Rock is very
correct representation, on the ceiling, OF an
Indian chief, scalp-lock and all. Leaving
him TO his eternal watch, we pass on
through Banditti Hall and come to the
Scuttle, the entrance to the new cave.
1t was not until 1850 that this was dis
covered, and then only by the merest ac-
cident 1t is narrow passage-way, some
fifteen or twenty feet long, and when first
discovered was scarcely large enough to
admit a mans hand. We hurry on
through Bats Lodge. Counterfeiter's
Trench, over Rugged Mountain, through
Coon's Council Chamber, up the Hill of
Difficulty, and stand at the entrance of
Mammoth Hall, the greatest wonder Of
the cave. Before US, towering upward to
the height of It's feet, stands Monument
Mount ain, confused pile of rocks, while
above all, 245 feet from where we stand,
and 20 feet from the summit of the NOUN
tain, is Wallace's Grand Dome, arching
gently in every way to the shape OF the
huge pile which looms up beneath it.
Judge Hovery visited the cave some years
ago. and in a letter published in the In
dianapolis Journal says of it:
"This dome has hardly superior in
the world. Standing on the summit of the
mountain, which rises to the height of one