Bisbee daily review., 1912-01-21
BISBEE CAVE EXCITES WONDER Dr. Hovey Noted Geologist Tells of Grotto
 in the New York Times
in the New York Times

The American Museum of Natural History has recently come into pos session Of an almost entire cavern rom the great Copper Queen mine at Bisbee, Ariz. which Dr. Edmund Otis HOyey declares to be the most beautiful and maryelously formed underground chamber he ha seven seen.
 The grotto and practically all the other desirable formations have now Usen transported with great care across the continent to the museum here, and await only 8 resetting be- fore being opened 10 public inspec- tion and admiration.
 The cavern was only recently dis covered by the miners at Bisbee. and Dr. HOvey was the first scientist to explore it. He reached Bisbee only a short while after the walls of the cavern had yielded to the picks of the mlDers Caves have frequently been discovered in the limestone of Queen Hill, which is the eminence that forms the southw est wall of Tomb stone canyon at Bisbee and one of these ciyerns. broken into twenty or twenty-five years ago, had already furnished the famous green and white curved stalacites and stalagmltes in the Gem and Mineral Halls Of the museum.
 Dr. Hovey remarks. therefore, that the news oi the finding of new and even more wonderful cavern just be- fore his arrival at Bisbee a little while ago naturally set his ears to tinglins.
 The word reached me says he. immediately on my arrival at B.s- e. where ! had gone with three men to collect the data needed in the con sruction of the great Copper Queen model which is being made Tor the museum through the generosity of friend ot the institution. The cave had been discovered some tune be- fore. but immediate steps having been taken to control access to it, its rooms and their formations were still in their pristine perfection and beauty.
 Having dcnned regulation mine costumes early one morning, We started for the underground cavern. After descending the Czar shaft POO feet to the second level, we walked southwestward toward a point almost directly beneath The summit of Queen Hill A quarter of a mile or more it seemed at least a mile-from the big shaft we came to the foot of
 raise up which We were drawn 400 feet by an electric hoist The jour ney from the shaft along the level through solid limestone had been cool and comfort bic, but as we went up the "a SC both the moisture and tenn |. peIaure of the air increased, because , we had entered the Ieached ground, 2 where the oxidation Of Jhe original ores produced heat, just as does burn 1. ing coil A few yards from the rzise' D we reached the top ot a man hole . cut through the heating ore. Now it was necessary to climb forty feet down vertical ladders to the heavy . plank door that guarded the cave. Squeezing through a small hole beyond the doorway, we found our selves at tEa bottom of a cave in a . small room whose ceiling scarcely per ? mitted one to stand erect. The bright light of onr acetylene mine lamps showed that the room was lined with . alabaster, tinted delicate green with . carbonate of copper. Walls and cell e lngs were comparatively smooth, but : encrusted with minute crystalline sub stances that glitteTed in the rays from - our lamps, while the floor was un- even With knobby clusters of cllcite and held here and there a shallow pool of limpid water. The upper exit from this first chamber was almost closed with great rocks that fell from the ceiling so long ago as to have re- Ceived their own coating of dripstOne. Worming our way upward among these for a few yards. We emerged in- to a clear chamber fully thirty feet high and forty feet across. The floor rose at a steep angle, and its coating became part of great stalagmite.
 This large room was one of the most beautiful sights imaginable in the brilliant illumination of burning magnesium ribbon. It's floor was a thick mass of dripstone. it's walls were partly smooth calcite and partly toy.ard the top, the deep velvety brown. red and black of the iron and manganese stained residue of the de- . composed country limestone, while the ceiling was mainly Cl the lime stone but banded with sheets and small staiacites of c5fc-te. These oc- cured along the old cracks in the