Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1912-03-19
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ARIZONA CAVE FOR A MUSEUM.
DR.. Hovey Describes the Beauty Of
the Caves Natural Setting.

ureS is a genuine Arizona copper mine
cave. which will be set up in New
York city for the American museum
of natural history. The museum has
recently come into possession of an
almost entire cavern from the great
Copper Queen mine at Bisbee, Ariz,.
which DR. Edmund Otis Hovey, cura-
tor of the department of geology and
inVertebratc paleontology at the
museum declares 30 be the most
beautiful and marvelously formed un-
foreground chamber he has ever seen.
The grotto and practically all the
other desirable formations have now
been transported with great care
.aeross the continent to the museum
here and await only resetting be-
fore being opened to public inspection
and admiration.
The cavern was only recently dis
lowered 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
miners. Caves have frequently been
discovered in the limestone of Queen
hill, which is the emincnce that forms
the southwest wall of Tombstone
canyon at Bisbee. and one of these
caverns. broken into 20 or % years
ago. had already furnished the ia
nous green and white curved sta
lactites and stalagmites in the gem
and mineral halls of the museum.
DR.. HoVey remarks. therefore, that
the news Of the finding OF a new and
even more wonderful cavern just be-
fore his arrival at Bisbee a little while
ago naturally set his ears to tinglng
The word reached me" says he,
Immediately on my arrival at Bis
bee, where | had gone with three men
to collect the data needed in the con-
struetion of the great Copper Queen
model which is being made for the
museum through the generosity of Il
friend OF the institution. The cave
had been discovered some time be-
fore, but immediate steps having
been taken to control access to it. its
rooms and their formations were still
il their pristine perfection and
beautf
Having donned regulation mine
costumes early one morning. we
started for the underground cavern.
After descending the ear shaft 200
feet to the second level we walked
southwestWard toward point almost
directly beneath the summit of Queen
hill y quarter Of mile or more-it
seemed at least mile-from the big
shaft We came To the foot of raise
up which we were drawn 400 feet by
an electric hoist The journey from
!, H., l.,
limestone had been cool and COM
Portable. bat as we went up the raise
both the moisture and temperature of
the air increased, because we had en-
tered the 'leached ground. where the
oxidation of the original ores pro-
dueed heatt just as does burning coal
\ few yards from the raise we
reached the top of man hole cut
through the heating ore. Now it was
necessary to climb 40 feet down verti-
cal ladders to the heavy plank door
that guarded the cave.
Squeezing through small hole
beyond the doorway, we found our
selves at the bottom of cave in
small room whose ceiling scarcely
permitted one to stand erect. The
lamps showed that the room was lined
with aiabaster tinted delicate green
with carbonate of copper Walls and
ceilings were comparatively smooth,
but encrusted with minute crystal
line substances that glittered in the
rays from our lamps, while the floor
vas uneven with knobby clusters of
caleite. and held here and there
shallow pool of linpid water The
upper exit from this first chamber
was almost closed with great blocks
of rock that fell from the ceiling so
long ago as to have received their
own coating of dripstone. Worming
our way upward among these for a
few yards, we emerged into a clear
chamber fully 80 feet high and 40 feet
across The floor rose at steep
angle, and its coating became part of
the base of a 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
thick mass of dripstone it's walls we're
partly smooth white calcite and part
~, toward 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 of the limestone.
but banded with sheets and small
stalactites of 'calcite. These occurred
along the old cracks in the mountain
mass which formed the channels for
pefcoiatlng waters. an important fac
tor i'll the formation and incrustation
OF the cave. The lower part of the
walls was thickly covered with
botryoidal clusters of white calcite,
some areas of which were tinted a
| delicate salmon color with carbonate