Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1898-05-28
Caves In Indiana.

1lnClHfldtl AOIllnCItlul liiOhhO. ~
little city of Bedford, Ind, is situated
in the heart of one of the strangest
and most mysterious regions in Uncle
Sans broad domains-the cavern re-
gion of southern Indiana; the afore-
said embracing the counties of Owen,
Monroe, Washington, Lawrence, Or
ange, Harrison and Crawford.
This section is literally honeycombed
with caves varying in size from small
tunnels of a few rods in length to i'm
mense vaulted caverns, such as the
famous Wyandotte of Crawford coun-
ty, whose lofty subterranean halls
wind for miles far underground and
through the solid rock.
As wonderful as this latter is in its
wealth of crystalized limestone forma-
tons, there are smaller caves in this
and adjoining counties that far surpass
it in beautiful formations OF staiactite
and stalagmite, that CLEAN like gems
or shine LUMINOSITY white 1 X carVed
marble in the light of torches.
Some of the larger of the Indiana
cayerns possess great domed rooms,
bottomless pits, lofty, roaring catar-
acts and streams of water large
enough TO be ~navigable by a good sized
launch; yet the fame Of these won
ders has seldom reached beyond the
borders of this upfrequented and
sparsely settled region, where the in
habitants have neither time nor in
clination for cave exploration. The
caves are usually looked on as wierd,
~uncanny places, the abode OF number
less "harnts," besides various danger.
- II -.aI a.1 nANArNnPhnnh
snakes, Notwithstanding that nothing
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 sun
light too well to spend much tim I'M
der ground.
Besides the many caverns OF note
| that are known to have been partially
explored. there are certainly many as
vet undiscovered. Down among the
breaks of the Ohio in Crawford and
among the rocky wilds of Orange and
Harrison counties are countless sink
holes and crevices i'm the cliffs that
have all the indications of being en-
frances to cayerns. At some tuture
day, when this picturesque country is,
populated, when the great OF
southern Indiana in the way of the SUI
perb building stone that is found here
i'm such quantities is better appreci-
ated, there will doubtless be discov-
cred caverns of vast extent thai will
rival or mayhap surpass those whose
fame we know today.
These caves all owe their existence
TO the slow and ceaseless action of
water on the peculiar limestone in
which they always occur-a part of the
observation-disclosures limestone of Indiana,
which all through the cavern region is
found in immensely thick beds. Per-
pendicular cliffs of it of great height
crop out on the rugged hillsides and
narrow, deep ravines that are a distin-
gushing feature of the region, and
form landscape features Of rugged
grandeur. Lofty cataracts and natural
| bridges are often met with; lost rivers
that mysteriously disappear from the
surface Of the ground to continue then
meanderings in undiscovered suptcr-
ranean channels. Some times they re-
appear miles away, sometimes they are
never seen again. There is something
| decidedly uncanny about this pictur-
esquc region.
The cave bearing rock is not con-
fined to the area menIlOneu, DuI con-
tinues on across the Ohio river and
down through Kentucky. The giant
cliffs along Green river n the Nam
moth cave are due to it.
As stated, these caves are formed
bv the action Of water on the stone.
Carbon dioXide is found everywhere in
the atmosphere, and this, uniting with
the rain as it falls, proves a weak car
bonic acid, strong enough, however, to
dissolve the solid limestone, and this
\iny force, whose work of n century is
scarcely appreciable to the eye, has in
vll the unmeasured con Of past time
carved dome and t]ortuous passage, bot.
tomless pit and subterranean marble
hall from the solid rock and deposited
the w~ondrously beautiful pillars and
plabaster drapery that underlie such q
great part of southern Indiana.