Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1898-05-12
CAVES IN INDIANA.
They Form 4 Subterranean Network
in the Southern Section.

HI she SectIOn.
From the Cincinnati Commercial Tribune
The little city of Bedford, Ind. is situ-
ated in the heart of one of the strangest
and most mysterious regions in Uncle
Sans broad domains-the cav ern region
of southern Indiana; the aforesaid en-
bracing the counties of Owen, Monroe,
Washington, Lawrence, Orange, Harrison
and Crawford.
This section is literally honeycombed with
caves varying in size from small tunnels
OF few rods in length to immense vault
ed caverns. such as the famous Wyandotte
of Crawford county, whose lofty subter-
r6nean halls wind for miles far under
ground and through the solid rock.
AS wonderful as this latter is in its
wealth of crystallized limestone formations
there are smaller caves in this and ad-
Joining counties that far surpass it in
beautiful formations of stalactite and stall
aSinite, that CLEAN like gems or shine
lumiuouSly white like carved marble in the
light of torches.
Some of the larger of the Indiana cav
erns possess great domed rooms. bottom
less pits, lofty, roaring cataracts and
streams of water large enough to be nav
1Sable for good-sized launch: yet the
fame of these wonders has seldom reached
beyond the borders of this unfrequented
ard sparsely settled region, where the in
habitants have neither time nor inclina-
ton for cave exploration. The caves are
usually looked on as wierd, uncanny places
the abode of numberless 'harnts." besides
various dangerous wild animals and cop
perhead snakes, notwithstanding that moth
ing more ferocious than the 'possum and
the noXious skunk have been seen in these
rocky Businesses for some years and that
the copperhead loves the sunlight too wel
TO spend much time underground
Besides the many cavernS of note that
are known to have been partially explored
there are certainly many as yet undiscov-
cred. Down among the breaks of the Ohio
IN Crawford and among the rocky wilds
of Orange and Harrison counties are
countless sinkholes and crevices in the
cliffs that have all the indications of being
entrances to caVerns. At some future day.
W hen this picturesque country is populated.
when the great resources of southern In
diana in the way of the superb building
stone that is found here in such quantities
Is better appreciated, there will doubtless be
discovered caverns of vast extent that Will
rival or mayhap surpass those whose fame
know to-day.
These caves all owe their existence to
the slow and ceaseless action of water on
the peculiar limestone in which they al
ways occur-a part of the subcarbonifer-
Gus limestone of Indiana, which all through
the cavern region is found in immensely
timex BEDS. Perpendicular cliffs of it of
great helght crop out on the rugged hill
Sides and narrow, deep ravines that are
a distinguishing feature of the region. and
FORM landscape features of rugged gran
deur. Lofty cataractS and natural bridges
teriously disappear from the surface of the
ground to continue their meanderings in
undiscovered subterranean channels. Some
times they reappear miles away sometimes
they are never seen again. There is some
thlng decidedly uncanny about this pIctur-
esque region.
The cave-bearipg rock is not confined to
the area mentioned. but continues on across
the Ohio river and down through Ken
lucky. The giant cliffs along Green river
and the Mammoth Cave are due to it.
AS stated, these caves are formed by the
action Of water on the stone. Carbon d.
oxide is found everywhere in the atmos-
phere and this, uniting with the rains as
II faiis, proves weak carbonic acid,
strong enough, however, to dissolve the
solid limestone, and this tiny force, whose
work Of a century is scarcely appreciable
to the eye. has in all the unmeasured cons
of past time carved dome and tortuous
passage, bottomfess pit and subterranean
marble hall from the solid rock and dep.js-
tied the wondrously beautiful pillars and
alabaster drapery that underIie such a
great part of southern Indiana.