Travel

By STEVE KNIGHT
Outdoor Editor

ARLSBAD, N.M. – The fact that something as grand as Carlsbad Caverns was discovered by a Texan is not surprising.

That it is located across the border in southeastern New Mexico is just a technicality.

According to lore, 16-year-old Jeff White was working on a New Mexico ranch as a fence mender late in the 1800s to help make money for his destitute family back in Texas. Working a remote portion of the ranch alone one summer evening, he saw a black cloud rising from ground. White thought it was a wildfire and went to investigate.

What he found was 1.5 million Mexican free-tailed bats flying from a giant hole in the ground.

The young cowboy immediately became fascinated by the cave located 25 miles south of today’s town of Carlsbad and returned regularly to investigate. White, who would spend the remainder of his life around the caverns, sought a way to descend into the cavern. His only method of determining how deep the entrance was to kick a rock and listen for it to hit bottom and then build a ladder using fencing material. He missed by about six feet, so when he got to the bottom rung he just dropped into the cave.

With only a candle and later a small amount of fuel oil and a wick to find his way around, White spent the next four years exploring the cave to its 756-foot depth.

On one of his early trips White could have gone one of two directions. The one he chose led him into a massive hall of bat guano that led to the cave’s early commercialization. The rich fertilizer, hauled by mule-drawn wagon to a rail line in Carlsbad, was used to fertilize new orange groves in California.

Because of the cost of production and hauling the fertilizer and its high nitrogen content, the venture failed even though 200,000 tons were hauled away.

White served as the project foreman during the guano mining days and continued to explore the cave. He had abandoned his crude ladder and used the buckets that were used to bring the guano to the service as a makeshift elevator. He began to take others into the mine including a local photographer, who spent days underground taking pictures of the massive halls and geological formations. To pay for processing his glass plates, the photographer made postcards from the pictures and some of those found their way to New York where they picked up by the newspapers.

Then-President Herbert Hoover sent an inspector from the Department of the Interior to look at the cave, and after receiving a report that the stories and pictures from New Mexico were not an exaggeration. Hoover soon declared the cave a National Historic Monument in 1923, which provided the site protection, and seven years later it became the national park known as Carlsbad Caverns. The park actually includes 83 caverns, however, only one is open to the public.

Although the modern history of the site goes back just over 100 years, the formation of the cave goes back 250 million years.

Carlsbad is considered the most decorated cave in the world. At any point visitors have a panoramic view of stalactites (the “c” means they grow from the ceiling), stalagmites (the “g” means they grow from the ground), soda straws and curtains.

Carlsbad Caverns was created by the formation of a 400-mile reef in an island sea that covered the region more than 200 million years ago. The reef was created from the remains of sponges, algae and seashells, and from calcite that fell from the water above.

The sea eventually evaporated and the reef was buried under deposits of gypsum and salt.

In a more recent time frame, just millions of years ago, uplift and erosion began to uncover the reef. During this period of uplift, which formed the Delaware Mountains stretching from New Mexico into Texas, rain water seeped through cracks and faults in the limestone. According to geologists, at the same time hydrogen sulfide-rich water rose upward from gas and oil fields below. The two waters mixed forming sulfuric acid, which etched away the limestone and formed the cave.

The decorations of stalactites, stalagmites and other formations began to form about 500,000 years ago with water dripping off the limestone.

There are two ways into the cave, a minutes-long ride more than 700 feet down and elevator shaft carved out of rock one stick of dynamite at a time. The other, called the Natural Entrance, is a mile-plus through the same hole.

White, of course, first climbed down from rock to rock. The switch-back trail, which results in an hour-long walk, is the equivalent of descending an 80-story building. It is a route recommended only for those strong of heart and leg, and without a fear of darkness and sharp drop offs.

Along with the self-guided tour down through the Natural Entrance there is another hour-and-a-half-long tour through the Big Room.

The Big Room passes a number of well-know formations on the way into the 8.2-acre hall. The tour is accessible either by walking down the Natural Entrance or by elevator.

There are also a number of guided tours. One of the most popular goes through the Kings Palace. The two-hour walk is the best way to learn about the history and geology of the cave. The guided tour costs only $8 for adults, plus the $6 park admission. Children under 15 are free, but the tour is restricted to youth 4 and older. There are five other guided tours available.

There is one caveat, however. At one point the park rangers are going to turn the lights off inside the cave, showing what White saw, or didn’t see, when he lost his candle or fuel oil lamp. The blackout only last minutes and can best be compared to closing your eyes to sleep.

Carlsbad Caverns is so massive in size and decoration that it overwhelms everyone who enters it. On the other hand, the adventure turns even the oldest visitor into a child for a while.

A cave at Carlsbad Caverns is seen.
(Staff Photo by Steve Knight)