St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-08-09
OREG0N'S GREATCAVE
Kentueky's Cavernous Won
der Has a New Rival in the
Pacific State.
Long and Toilsome Exploring
Expedition Through It's
Many Corridors.
An Abundance of All the Well
Known Subterranean
SpeetaeleS.
Chambers Fitted Up With
Beautiful and Curious
Formations.

Near the head OF long canon Ill
Southern Oregon there is a long cave.
Two openings give access to it. These
openings look like small assures in a
big limestone bluff, says the San Fran
cisco Examiner. This limestone ex-
tends for miles. 1t looks as massive
and solid outside as any mountain In
the world, but it is honeycombed like
pile that has been exposed to the tor
nado for years. For miles and miles
these cracks and creYasSeS extend, with
out any apparent order or system. Strike
q block of ice with a mallet and the
cracks that show inside the transparent
block indicate the manner of the faults
in the great limestone bluffs. Many of
these passages are of surprising beauty,
semi-ransparent stalactites, giant milk
white pillars. and pools and streams of
the purest clearest water in the world
making the underground maze a Yerl-
table fairyland.
The cave is situated in Josephine
county, Or, about twelve miles north
of the California line and about forty
miles from the coast.
1t took two full days for the Examiner
expedition to reach the cave from Ker-
by, but that was mainly because the
road was badly INSTRUCTED. Now, since
the trees are cut through and the trail
has been made around the bad places,
il should be made in day, or at most
day and a half.
Half a dozen tOrches-the regular
hurrah-for- Observation-Disclosures kind
were taken along TO illuminate the
cave. Five miles OF Irvine Suthced to
keep the way among the labyrlnthlan
caverns. These, with a camera and
enough flash powder to light up ''chaos
and old night" constituted the outht OF
the explorers.
The main mouth of the cave is big
triangular gap in the face of an enor-
nous limestone bluff. From there tum-
bles a mountain stream so bright and
sparkling that it seems to be laughing
with delight at having escaped from the
gloomy darkness of that great cave. 1t
was in this hole that wounded black
bear took refuge and so revealed the
cave to the hunter, Elijah Davidson.
Mr.. Davidson lighted pine bOughs and
threw them down into the black hole,
and by their light saw his quarry was
dead The next day he returned to eX-
plore his find. He left his horse at the
foot of the mountain with note pinned
to the saddle telling where he had gone.
At the mouth of the cave he left his coat
with another note. Then, with fat pine
stick for a tarch, he plunged in.He went
on and on from one chamber to another
for several hundred yards, but found
no end. BY this time he was chilled
through, and he decided to postpone
further exploration for day or two.
He crawled back in the direction he
had come, but he could not find day
light again For four hours he thread
ed the fantastic grOttOeS where no man
had trOd before. He broke off Stalac-
titles and marked where he went, so as
not to tread the same path twice, and
at last. when his last pine stick was
burning his fingers. he saw CLEAN OF
light and soon was III the open air
again. But his coat was not there. He
had come out at another opening quar-
ter of mile from where he vent In, and
up on top of the bluff.
Each Party Finds Wonders.
Other people heard of the strange
cave and went into it until they thought
they knew all about it. But every time
got into the rocks he found another pas
sage leading still further into the
depths.
The cave-or rather the country
around it. for there are no statutes re-
garding the taking up of caves-is COW
cred by notice of location OF mineral
claim. The IOcaters are w. J. Hender-
son ard T. NJ. NickerSOn, Of kerby, and
Capt. Smith, of San Diego.
1t was early in the morning of the
3Oth of June when the Examiner party
entered the cave-a cool, mountain
morning, with a breeze that had the
chill OF the snowy SiskiyOus on it. 1t
was d cool morning, and yet when the
party reached the mouth of the cave the
air outside was warm IN comparison
with the frigid wave that came from the
opening.
The main opening from which the
creek flows was the first entered. For
q dozen feet only could you stand up
right. But, almost double, we pushed
on, up 10 our ankles in Swift-f1Owing
water cold as ice. Thirty feet from the
mouth the daylight was no longer Wis
ible, and there the cavern was larger
again and the passage was divided. 4
great boulder. caught midway between
the walls, made an upper and lower
corridor. To the left great hole CAPPED,
and on the right the floor broke off
abruptly in a grinning crack.
The left-hand passage was the only
one that did not lead to a long series of
rooms. and it was the largest opening of
the four. Stopping under great rock
that jutted from the wall. the first of
the party found himself in all Octagonal
chamber dozen feet high and as much
in diameter. 1t was tWO-stOry room.
half way to the ceiling comparatively
thin sheet of rock made ceiling for
the lower room and floor for the up
per. There were bones in this room of
deer and smaller ANIMALS, and there
were other indications that it was or
had been the den of some t1eSh-eating
beast. probably bear. There are bears
in this section of the country, fine black
fellows, shyer than deer, but able to
make things very interesting to the
hunter that wounds one in the brush.
This double room was the only place
in the cave where evidences of animal
life were found. The clear. cold waters
that ran noiselessIy on the floors of some
of the corridors or Numbered down the
walls of others were destitute of inhab-
itantS, though outside, q short distance
from where the creek boilS from the
mouth of the cave, there are trout in
abundance.
Even the still, mysterious lake that
was found miles away from the light
seemed to hide nothing living. Not a
bat OF a mouse or a worm futtered or
craWled IN the long, tortuOus passage.
OF the other openings just inside this
mouth of the cave the two that had run
ahead-one above and the other below
90 on for many miles. The passage to
the right-down the cash in the rock
was followed for half a mile. 1t is a
succession of high, narrow rooms and
small corridors. On the walls the stalac-
tites and stalagmites have united and
formed pillars, thus making the rooms
still narrower. Probably these pillars,
which frOmtheir size seem to be among
the oldest in the cave, have covered up
and hidden many openings. Indeed.
some parts of the pillared wall gave
back a hollow sound when struck.
The last man in the the party had in
his pocket a ball of Irvine. One end of
the Irvine was fast TO a rock at the
mouth of the cave, and as they walked
forward the line was unwOund.
As we clambered through the narrow
passages, WOnder-Struck at their fan