The Canon City record with which is consolidated the Canon City cannon., 1916-08-03
PROF. FOLSOM
DESCRIBES THE
MARBLE CAVE
SAYS CAVERN IS AN INTEREST
ING ONE AND NOT AS WELL
KNOWN in CANON CITY AS 1T
SHOULD BE.


who was the house guest of Postmaster
and Mrs. Clark Cooper and family last
week. has furnished The Record with
the following very Interesting account
of visit to Marble cave. Mr.. Folsom
says:
with Mr.. Cooper and his son Irving
/ had the pleasure of trip to Marble
cave last Thursday. The cave is 10
Gated about fourteen miles northeast
of Canon City along the Cripple Greek
road. where II is easily accessible.
ut appears that this interesting cav
ern is not so weIl known to the resi-
dents OF Canon City as 1t might be.
morning on the Cripple Creek auto
stage. riding up the beautiful valley
of Oil creek. through picturesque can
ons and across an open park country.
An hour later we were at the cave.
1t is situated about two miles north
ing down through a wooded canon in
the Cooper mountain. joins OIL creek
The cave Is only a few hundred feet
east of the highway and the path to
Il is marked by sign placed on the
roe cside fence.
"A short walk throusa the field
brought US TO an area OF exposed
pinkish rock and in a small hollow
we saw the entrance TO the cavern
II will be noted that most OF the land
in this part of Colorado is composed
of what geclogists call stratified or
sedimentary rock. That is. they are
simply deposits OF mud. sand, sea
shells. etc. which settled in layers
upon the bottom of the shallow ocean.
which ages ago covered all OF this
section OF the country. Then. when
the land again arose and the sea re-
treated these deposits. or sediments.
were left high and dry again because
of their own weight. hardened into
rock. One can observe easily when
he looks at the hills about here that
the rocks are arranged in layers or.
as geologiss tell US. in strata Many
of the strata are horizontal. as we
should expect. since they were laid
down under water. but are inclined.
or tilted. This Is because many
cr1tmpiings and foldings OF the earth
crust have taken place and have tilted
and twisted them in various direc-
lions.
The principal kinds OF stratihed
rocks are sandstones. shales and lime
stones. The sand deposits itself near
the shores OF a body OF water and be-
comes sandstone. In the deeper wa
tiers the chief deposits are the shells
of very small sea animals. and II Is
these which form limestone. We sell
dom realize that limestone is com
posed of the hard parts OF former
living creatures. Both sandstoncs
and limestones of different coiors and
textures are found abundantly in the
rock beds OF this country. The colors
are produced by iron salts and various
other mineral salts which are scat
tered through the rocks.
Now when limestone beds are sub
jected to great heat and pressure and
other changes produced by the great
earth foldinRs and unheavals which
have taken place in past ages they fire.
uuently harden into marble. Marble
is simply a hard form OF limestone
which is rather durable and takes
high polish. So here and there among
the rock layers we find bed of mar
BILE. The bed may extend through
many square miles down below in the
earth, but II is only at points where
II outcrops. that is. comes to the sur
face. that is easy to get at II.
'The marble at the cave is of unus.
uaiiy beautiful color and pattern. 1t
is largely rich pink. with white and
bun markings. and an occasional we'll
preserved she'll of some ancient oys-
ter. A small specimen of this material
was secured by Wards Natural Sci
Y. This pleased the establishment so
much that they desired to secure
larger quantity for exhibition speci-
mems. Mr.. Cooper undertook to get
this material and found that all we
collected was more beautiful than the
original specimen. About three hun
dred pounds of the rock has been
shipped.
Before collecting the specimens we
spent some time exploring the cav
ern. There is only one entrance.
This FIRST leads vertically downward
about thirty feet and reliable ladder
has been placed In II for the accom-.