Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1919-06-25
OUR ICE CAVE
COOL PLACE NOW
Decorah's Remarkable Cave Given q
Writeup in the Des MOines
Capital. Nothing Like it
Anywhere
MIGHTY FINE PLACE
THESE HOT SUMMER DAYS
The Hotter the Weather, the Cooler
the Cave, and the Most Ice
|. Forms on the Walls

The following article appeared in
a recent issue Of the Des Moines
Capital, which gives our famous ice
Cave some more advertising:
Are you anxiously reading about
the threatened ice shortage and
nervously wondering what one could
possibly do without ice and lying
awake nights worrying now that
Iowa's famous unique brand Of fine
corn weather begins to warm up?
If so, take heart!
Let it be 100 in the shade and Iowa
goes right on congealing water into
ice-that is, one place in Iowa does.
If you don't believe it, some sizzling
day this July, when the ice dealer
cuts you short as he is almost certain
to do, just lug the ice cream freezer
up to Decorah, in Winneshiek coun-
ty, and the townspeopIe there will
direct you to a place in the woods
where, after mopping the sweat
/
icicles, you walk right into a hill.
About hundred feet inside you will
cross the Artic circle and come up
against a wall of ice
Some Famous Caves.
Kentucky has it's Mammoth cave.
South Dakota has it's wind cave and
Iowa has its ice cave. All the world
knows about the Mammoth cave, for
it is writ in the Biographies one Of
the Seven Wonders of the World"
The government made a national
park of the Wind cave AS for the
lice cave-well. it is in Iowa, so al
most nobody knows anything about
it, for the state has been the modest
little violet about it, as she has been
about so many Of the great things
within her borders.
But the everyday person in as
well as out of Iowa is unaware of
this summer natural ice plant, that
us not the case with scientific folks.
Men of science from many parts Of
America and even from Europe know
of it, have come to Decorah to in
vestigate the cave and have advanced
all kinds of theories about it. Some
scientific journals have treated Of
the subject. Just at present it is
threatened with real recognition be-
cause Iowa scientific men are strong
ly urging its candidacy as a state
park.
At End of Rayine.
The Decorah Commercial club has
built road along the face of the
bluff from the town to the Ice cave.
Near the end of the road, park your
car and climb little ways up a for
est rayine with an atmosphere which
gets several degrees cooler at each
step. The ravine ends abruptly in
great triangular opening. This is
the entrance of the Ice cave The
cave has several chambers that have
been explored and others, it is be-
lieved, that have never been pene-
IidICo. bcOlo5OSlS Sdy 1t WdS lOi mcu
by great masses of rock separating
from the main part OF the cliff and
slipping on their bases.
Many theories have been advanced
by scientists to explain the mysteri-
Gus freezing qualities of the cave.
Here is one that Assistant State
Geologist James H. Lees quotes DR..
Calvin as giving:
"The rocks of the Ice cave region
, is penetrated by cracks and tissues
and hidden caverns. During the win
, ter cold, dry air is drawn into these
open spaces in the rocks. In the
spring and early summer, when the
suns heat is warming up out of
doors, the air in the tissues and cav
erns is also warmed and expanded s
and some of it driven by this expan-
sion out into the open. When this
cold, dry air meets the quiet warm
moist air it causes precipitation of
moisture upon the inner wall of the
cave and the temperature Of the out
coming air is still so low as to freeze
this condensed moisture, forming a
coating of ice on the wall"
--O-