Cañon City record., 1911-03-23
PARTY OF YOUNG PEOPLE
FIND A new CAVE

a parry Vi ufS young peopltt Scu-
sisting of Misses Clara and Laura
Giem of this city, S Rutherford of
Lytle, Colo, and p. L. HuL.loy, a cow
boy from the Riverside cattle ranch
at Parkdale, went last Friday to ex-
plore the cave recently discovered in
the Royal Gorge. but, later. concluded
that 1t was too difficult an undertake
ing for the short time at their dispOs-
al. and they climbed the north wall
of the canon which resulted in the
discovery of a beautiful cavern, the
existence of which was not suspected
by any of them.
One member OF the party said: We
followed the Denver & Rio Grande
railroad track up the river several
miles. and, somewhere in the vicinity
of Gorge station we turned 10 the
right and ascended the side OF the
canon for considerable distance,
steepest place in all OF that part of
the gorge east OF the station After
half an hours hard climb we came
upon the cave. delightfully."- situated
in the solid rock at the foot of tow
ering cliff The opening OF the cav
ern was cleverly hidden by wild goose
berry bushes and clumps of small
cedar trees. After crossing the door
way there was a sort OF hallway
leading west, which we all entered.
The main part of 1t was almost per-
fectly square, although 1t narrowed
down towards the end. distance of.
perhaps. twenty feet from the en-
trance.
The end was banked up with wood
and elk horn cacti and no effort was
made to ascertain whether the cave
extended beyond the barricade or not.
About the opening was several large
bones, very long. about two and a
half feet in length. of kind we were
unable to identity. The roof OF the
cave was ornamented with points pro-
jecting downward. but all even and
of a beautiful rose pink In color,
blended with white. The sides were
also combination OF pink and white.
The floor was of stone and had sand
upon it. There were tracks in the
sand like those made by a dog. al
though somewhat larger
The boys applied matches TO the
dry wood and cacti at the farther end
of the cave and the smoke soon COM
PEELED us to move out where we set
tied ourselves comfortably and wait
a few minutes honey bees came
swarming out with the cloud OF
smoke. In the course OF about half
an hour the main portion of the cave
was cleared of smoke and the bees
| returned to the cavern, although the
smoke was pretty dense in that part
of it we most desired to explore. We
saw no trace OF human beings In the
cave, although on a smooth surface
of the rock near by we found some
almost undecipherable pencil writing
which we tried hard TO read. but were
not very successful. Only a portion
OF the date was plain enough TO be
made out, which was eighteen hundred
and something; / think II was eigh-
teen hundred and eighty-one.
II. was fast getting late when the
smoke had sufficiently cleared away
to enable US to go into the cave the
second time and we hurried away In
order TO get back to town before dark.
We were not afraid of getting lost on
the north side OF the river. although
a few people have been so unfortun-
ate ms TO do no; but how VIZ are un-
able 10 understand. as the directions
are easily eomprebended IN such To-
cnlitics. II is always an easy thing
10 nnd ones way down 10 the river
and the railroad trnet."
The membera of the IN ~ nkk fhry