West Virginia argus. [volume] (Kingwood, W. Va.) 1877-1946, 1894-07-12
CHEAT RIVER CAVERNS.
WONDERFUL LIMESTONE CAVE
RECENTLY DISCOVERED ON
THE BANhS OF THE
WINDING RIVER
CHEAT"
Hundreds of Passages Leading In
Every Direction, Hung With
Stalactites and Many Beau.
tirul and Wonderful
Formations.

Having heard so much about this
wonderful underground world, dis
covered about the 21th OF May last, ,
the editor of this paper made a
special visit last Saturday week to
see aud explore the new wonder
himself. We wero accompanied by
"A young man of this place, who had
been there before, and we went
specially prepared Cor exploring aud
investigating the place. We had
three or four thousand feet of
strong twine, to keep from getting
lost IN the many passages good
lantern apiece, filled with oil; box
of matches each, some chalk and "A
heavy carpenter pencil hammer
and chsel aud lunch for dinner
and supper and last but not least n
little good liquor in case OF snake
bite, as we didn't want to take any
risk. | may say here pnrenthotic-
ally that, we didn't see On OF "A
snake aud didn't wait for one to
bite US before using the medicine,
for believing that prevention is bet
ter than cure we drank the liquor
anyhow and was ready for the snake,
Cor we didn't want to get bi. IN
order to get to use the medicine.
1t is about eight miles to the cave
from kingwood, and mile from
Edward Sucks, the nearest resi-
dent. We drove there aud left our
team and walked or slid down the
river hill, rs il is very steep and
easy to get down, but terrible
harl climb back. The mouth of the
cave is about three feet wide by five
feet high and has been dug out like
the entrance to coal bank. We
found two young fellows there pre-
parng to lock it up in order to
keep irresponsible parties from
destroying The beauties Of the IN
terror. Tho place had already been
visited by quite number Of people
and many Of the finest formations
broken Oft lying around, loose as
though done in wantou manner
and entirely uncalled for. The en-
trance is about hundred yards
above the river and slopes down
some distance. You have TO stoop
down for apiece gong in and then
you come to five principally pas
sages lending of in as many dlrec-
tious, the general direction beng
west. Take anyone Of these a short
distance and you find lots Of other
passages leading OF, so that it is
not safe at all TO 90 in any distance
without line or you are almost
sure to get lost. We spent five or
six hours in there, climbing. crawl
ing and doing our beet TO find the
end, but owing to tho apparently
numberess passages and rooms, we
could not possibly find the end or
tell which was the main part. The
river bill seems honcycombed, and
II is truly wonderful place. The
rooms or halls, range from two feet
to forty or fifty in height and aver
age about ten feet in width. In
some places many beautiful stalac-
tites hang from above, forming
many queer figures. The average
in size from an inch in length to
SIX feet and from n quarter inch to
two feet in diameter. One curious
formation, standing in a ditch,
looks very much like an old hip
popotamus and another like bear.
in another room we found o large
stone shaped something like cof-
fin and reminding me Of the Giants
Coffin in the Mammoth Cave. One
room has continuous shower Of
rain coming down from tho black
depths overhead an the time.
70 be- C0HfiHuod
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