The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1907-01-13
LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN
CAVE is EXPLORED
Underground Falls of Remark
able Height Discovered
COMPARES WITH NIAGARA
Tunneling Crew of Southern Railway
Proves the Story Told BY the Late
C. C. Anderson of chatta-
nooga to Be True.

| Lookout mountains falls and cave really
exist 1t is no longer a myth. During
the past week the telegraph wires flashed
all over the country the brief statement
that the cave had been explored by a
party of young men. The dispatches sent
out were interesting but were brief. Not
ore-tenth was told
c. c. Anderson, now dead startled the
people of Chattanooga by the statement
that falls higher than Niagara" had
| been found by him in Lookout mountain
There were many who doubted It,
1t was the tunneling crow of the South
ern railway that recently struck a part Of
the cave in the mountain. Now every part
has been explored The new cave, which.
when the tunnel crew struck it, was
called the "bottomless pitt appears to
have no connection with the old cave
which many people In Chattanooga have
| explored, several to their sorrow-one man
in the grave and another in the lunatc
asylum-bearing testimony of its mazlal
passages.
No such possibilities are offered by the
newly discovered cave, however, and it
seems to be but n huge subterranean
chamber, say a hundred and fifty feet
In diameter and two hundred feet in
height. The filing In of the crevice by
the tunneling crews had made possible
to know just how deep and how high
the cave was before the crew struck It.
When the gigantic chamber was first
found an electric light with a long wire
was Immediately dropped into 1t, but it
went clear out of sight, so deep was the
cavity. The filling 1t has left leaves no
means of egress from the chamber Wis
ible with the exception of the underground
stream, which leads to the Tennessee
river, which it enters at a lower level
| than the river. The only other exit from
| the cave is from the top of the falls,
which is, of course, inaccessible.
Scene In the Cave.
The cave Is several hundred yards from
| the eastern end of the new tunnel In the
digging of the tunnel it was encountered
abruptly and a huge hole seemingly bot
| tomless appeared The contractors for the
tunnel at first feared that 1t would be
necessary to build a permanent suspen-
| sion bridge over this, which would have
represented an expenditure of thousands
| of dollars. Just think of 1t, a suspension
| bridge In a tunnel!
Later however, 1t was found that the
| crevice could be filled with rocks,
AS the decent In the cave is begun the
emplorer finds a huge stalagmite prob
| ably twenty feet in diamater, in the form
| of a haystack. The rock is a beautiful
specimen. and in itself is worth journey
to see. There are many smaller specimens
| both stalaetite and stalagmite, clinging
| to the large one in the rear, which to-
| gether make as pretty a collection of geo.
logic specimens as could be found
The dome" and falls are to be seen
| directly to the right. The latter name
IS given by the impression so far as the
| ordinary eye will pierce the darkness that
| the walls of the cave slope upward to a
| point very much as the interior of a
dome.
The falls are most remarkable. Most
| waterfalls If course, drop down with a
| protecting ledge of rock under them, but
| the water in these falls seems to come
| directly from the point of the dome and
| fall nerpendcularly to the floor of the
| cave The stream is about the size Of
mans body, and the spray and breeze
| from the same are SO intense that 1t Is
difficult to keep an ordinary light burn
| ing.
Falls Are Quite High.
Evidently the height of the fall is con-
sderaby over 100 feet, and will proba bly,
reach $50, or would have done so before
| the filling in by the tunnelers cut off
a norton of the gigantic drop
| With the use of ladder the explorers
| descended to a clear limpid mountain
stream below The water from this stream
was cool and refreshing. An exit was
| found here by following the banks of the
| stream. but as the banks had recently
| been covered by water. the mud was
| knee deep. and the recent exploring party
did not attempt this massage, which was
| the one travelled by the Anderson party.
/ Turning back into the cave the party
| found another passage, back of the sta
| laPmite and above the passage of the
| stream. but this was quite inaccessible
The exploring party took a turn through
| the old cave, and explored the upper pas
| sage, going for several miles under the
| historic old mountain. about one-third
| of which distance was passed on hands
and knees in passages, but all with ex-
eeedngly low ceiling. One hole was found
| about thirty feet deep leading to another
crevice about fifteen feet deep. which
| discovered tho existence of a good-slzed
| underground lake
| When the Southern railway commences
| to run trains through the tunnel the
| passengers will have an opportunity of
seeing q part of the newly, discovered
| cave and its surroundings.