The border vidette., 1924-12-20
THE COLOSSAL GAVE.
(By A. H. Gardrer)

the entrance of Colossal Cave,
the biggest natural cave in the
world, without a doubt, since
forty miles of it has explored to
date and the end is not yet. 1t
is five miles from Vail Station
and a fairly good road takes you
from the Old Spanish Trail. but
a better one is now being built
by Pima county.
At present the Cave, which is
on state land, is leased by Frank
Schmidt of Tucson, who is max.
ing and has made hundreds OF
dollars of improvements, and if
be gets a lease of several years
duration he plans to erect fine
resort there.
The mouth of the cave, which
has been enlarged so that one
may walk through it upright, is
$500 feet above sea level. A
few feet back of the entrance is
the electric light plant which at
present supplies juice for two
miles of wire. An admission fee
of one dollar per person gives
you a guide and about an hours
walk, climb, descent and all
kinds of exercises as you pass
up here, down there and then
climb, stretch and put every
muscle in your body into play
before you have made the so
called Circle" (which, after com.
pleting it, will make you want to
eat everything in sight. The
The Circle trip is about one and
one half miles in length and is
very interesting experience. Our
party had the pleasure of hav.
ing for our guide the lessee of
the place, and we thoroughly
enjoyed Mr.. Schmidt's descrip
ton of the various points of in
terest as we passed from one
chamber to another.
The Devils Chamber was quite
fascinating because of our inter.
est in the future, and all it lack.
ed was Satan himself, sitting on
the throne that is there for him.
A very interesting place is the
| point where the seventy thous-
and dollars, stolen some thirty
odd years ago from Wells Fargo
Express, lay hidden for years.
I will admit that one of our party
walked right into the trap when
Mr.. Schmidt announced: Here
is where the seventy thousand
dollars lay hidden so Tonga
silence fell over the party as
they looked at the place and one
of US spoke up and said Let's
dig, maybe there is an odd TWEEN,
ty dollar gold piece there yet"
Mr.. Schmidt states that he has
never piloted a party through
yet that has not expressed a de-,
sire to get their hands on piece
of coin that might have been
left behind. The lure of hidden
treasure.
The Altar Room is very inter.
esting, as is the Purple Room,
the large Elephants Head and
the Chandelier, the immense
Petrifed Frog, all are very in.
teresting formations, but two
things, yes, I may say three, in.
terested me immensely, one was
Jacobs Ladder, where with some
stone instrument a people of
either hundreds or thousands of
years ago cut out some steps to
ascend this natural passage way,
but the river bed at the lowest
point on this trip interested me
very much, especially from a
contemplative angle. Another
thing is the Ola in the store
which Mr.. Schmidt found in the
cave, black as the Ace of Spades,
it displays far better workman,
ship than any of our Indians
make today, and is smoother
product than any of the works
of similar nature that / have
seen from Aztec or Indian
| Mound recoveries.
The story Of the train hold up
and the death connected with
the cave and prosecution and
conviction of one of the bandits
is a story Of itself, but at any
rate, Colossal Cave is destined
to become another magnet for
tourists and will take its place
alongside Of the Grand Canyon
The Pinnacles in the Chiricahua
National Monument, the Mis-
sions and other wonders in Ari
IONA.
The people, through the legis
lature, must make this state