The Journal of SpeJean Historycaves.org/section/asha/issues/092.pdfThe Journal of . SpeJean ....

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The Journal of Sp eJe an History OFFICIAL PUBLlCkflON OF THE AMERICAN SPElEAN HISTORY Cave Explorer Scientist Photographer Russell TraIl Neville "-" Volume 27, No . 4 :I'f October-December 1993

Transcript of The Journal of SpeJean Historycaves.org/section/asha/issues/092.pdfThe Journal of . SpeJean ....

The Journal of

SpeJean History OFFICIAL PUBLlCkflON OF THE AMERICAN SPElEAN HISTORY A~SOCIATION

Cave Explorer Scientist

Photographer

Russell TraIl Neville

~1

- Volume 27 No 4 If October-December 1993

THE JOURNAL OF SPELEAN HISTORY

Volume 27 No 4

The Association

The American Spelean History Association is chartered as a non-profit corporation for the study dissemination and interpretation of spelean history and related purposes All persons who are interested in those middotgoals are cordially invited to become members Annual membership is $8 Meetings are held in conjunction with the annual convention of the National Speleological Society and sometimes at West Virginias Old Timers Reunion

Front Cover

Russell Trail Neville nicknamed The Cave Man produced early black and white cave photographs and during 1925-1927 the first good quality film of caves being explored for sport

Officers

President

Susan Holler PO Box 100 Old Fort NC 28762

Vice - President

Carolyn E Cronk 1595 Blueberry Hills Road Monument CO 80132

Secrelary-Treasurer

Fred Grady 1202 South Scott Street 123 Arl ington V A 22204

Trustees

Russ Gurnee Larry E Matthews Marion O Smith Gary K Soule Jack Speece

October-D~cember 1993

The Journal of Spelean History

The Association publishes the Journal ofSpelean History on a quarterly basis Pertinent articles or reprints are welcomed Manuscripts should be typed and double-spaced Submissions of rough drafts for preliminary editing is encouraged Illustrations require special handling and arrangements should be made with the editor in advance Photos and illustrations will be returned upon request

Back Issues

Most back issues of the Journal are available Early issues are photocopied Indexes are also available for Volumes 1-6 and 13 Send your requests to Fred Grady (address given with officers) All issues of Volumes 1 to 72 are available on microfiche from Kraus Reprint Company Route 100 Millwood New York 10546

Official Quarterly Publication AMERICAN SPElEAN HISTCRY ASSCXJATIQJ

History Section National Speleological Society

Editor for this issue

Carolyn E Cronk

Layout and Proofreading

Robert N Cronk

Printing

DC Grotto Potomac Speleological Club Press

----------------------------------------HOWES CAVE IN 1850 Trevor R Shaw

This note draws attention to the European publication in a magazine of 1851 1 of an arlicle about Howes Cave already known from a New York periodical 2 of the same year It also seeks Lo

clanfy some of the published statements3 about the latter

The article concerned titled Visit to Howes Cave is identical in both publications the visit iaking place on the morning of August seventh 1850 The author was one of a party of eight gentlemen who rode over from Sharon-Springs to Cobleskill to visit Howes Cave but there is no indication of his identity either in the article or in the lists of contents of the volumes

In a previous article in the Journal of Spelean History3 Kevin Downeys text correctly places the visit in 1850 and dates the account as of 1851 the year of its publication But his reference 17 to the New York publication gives the title as 1852 Visit to Howe Cave which is misleading as well as inaccurate

Downey also attributes the authorship of the article to Simeon North though he has been unable to provide the source of his information for this4 It is noticeable that elsewhere in his text Downey refers to Norths popular Visit to Howe Caverns without calling up a reference but in a context which suggests that this may be the same article under a second variant title

It is important for historians and bibliographers that the identity of the author (and visitor of 1850) should be identified if possible The presence of errors in Downeys text and his inability to recall his source for the authors name leave this identity in doubt

Can readers of this Journal who may know more about the literature of Howes Cave throw any light on this problem

Jlteerellces

1 Anon 185l Visit to Howes Cave Sharpes London Journal 14 for 1851 88-92 (this issue may have appeared in 1852)

2 Anon 1851 Visit to Howes Cave The Knickerbocker or New-York Monlhly Magazine 37 (3) March 1851 2111-217

3 Downey K R [1980] Lester Howe and his cave The Journal of Spelean History 13 (3) for July-Sept 1979 67-73

4 Enquiry dated Feb 22 1993 from T R Shaw

63Journal of Speleall History

Cave Inscriptions

Unconfirmed reports indicate that the oldest dated cave inscription is in Postojna Jama Yugoslavia 1213 III America the names ofB Bollong and I Bell 1700 appear in Wilsolls Cave 011 Willis Mountain Virginia

Promotional Flyers of the Cave Man Russell Trail Neville William R Halliday MD

In part because his active years preceded the creation of the National Speleological Society the name of Russell Trail Neville increasingly is fading into obscurity Yet in the two decades between the Royd Collins debacle and the end of World War II many Americans came to associate his name with the work CAVE Only incidentally an author he became known to millions of Americans as a spellbinding lecturer and pioneer speleophotographer Today his work lives on largely in the work of current speleoauthors who turn to his historic photographs to document the bygone days of pre-NSS American speleology

But Russell Trall Neville deserves more than this Scattered biographical material would easily make possible a published study of his life and times notably illustrated with his best works But scattered is perhaps the key word In 40 years of collecting I have obtained only three of his promotional flyers The earliest a double-sided three-leaf folder came to me from George F Jackson who caved with him in Kentucky in 1927 The other two are post-1940 8- 112 x 11 inch two-sided standard format flyers differing only slightly from each other None is dated

Jointly the three flyers fill in many details of Nevilles obscure life Together with his scattered articles and unpublished book-length manuscript (in my possession) they form a skeleton for a full-length biography of this pioneer of the modern period of American speleology

Probably other collectors of American spelean history have copies of other Russell Trail Neville fl yers I suggest that the American Spelean History Association serve as a cleari nghouse for information on other Neville flyers and other biographical data Probably I will never get around to writing the biography he merits but someone should

Journal of Speleall History 64

Cave Explorer Scientist

Photographer

RUSSELL TRALL NEVILLE middotTHE CAVE MAN

PRESENTING

In t he Cellarsof the World Home Address KEWANEE ILLINOIS

bull

a~ EXPLORE THE UNKNOWN ~ ~ ~

With THE CAVE MAN Let him take you adventuring into marvelous underground fairylands Mr Ne vi lle shows you wonderfully beautiful pictures especially selected from thousands of his world famous cave photographs There is no other living man who has been in more American caves or tra ve lled so many miles in so many caverns Floyd C ollin s whose tragic death in Sand Cave aroused the sympathy of the wor ld and Mr Neville two intrepid cave explorers rpached places in caves never before seen by human eyes

IN THE CELLARS OF THE WORLD is packed full of thrills surprises adventure and beauty and IS illustrated wif ~ hoic c coloree lant ern slides

You are sure to be delighted with this unique educationai illustrated lecture Millions have heard it from the plaHo rm and over the radio

A FEW OPINIONS Pe rhaps you read Mr Clay Perrys article in the July 12th 1941 issue of the Saturday Evening Post In which he paid hiGh tribute to Mr Ne villes Cave explorations

An excerp t But Im a novice alongside Russell Trail Neville the Cave Man of Kewanee Illinois Neville has travelled morc J~an a

thousand miles underground and taken more than 5000 photographs of what he calls TH CELLARS OF THE WORLD

Th e late Lorado Taft famous artist said You certainly have a unique and notable lecture Your pictures are wonderfully fine and the adventures thaf lie behind

them ore ery thrilling In spite of all of the beauty that you have brought to light I heartily testify that no reward would vpr get me into those tight places

Mr Arthur C Page Editor pa~ri~ Farmer ~riting to a College President Mr Nevi lle has spoken several~ trT1es over WLS (The Prairie Farmer Radio Station) and I have seen a great man y of his

wonaerful pictures He is one of the most fascinating speakers I have ever lis te ned to

Mr D E Northam Chairman Entertainment Committee The Adventurers Club Chicago Illinois I Vl ant to convey to you the thanks of the entire member~hip of the Adventurers Club for the most interesting educa

tiona l ar~d thri ll ing program you gave us at our last Ladies Night I hope we may have you again

Dr Charl es D Sneller Past President Illinois State Academy of Sciences I have heard the CAVE MAN deliver his lecture many times He thrills children and adults alike He has spo~en beforr

th e Peor ia Rotary Club the Peoria Kiwanis Club and the Peoria Academy of Scipnces and always capti va ted his Judiences His pictures are a marvel and his lecture is unusually interesting

lr e iIle cave photographs have been shown literally all over the world in the rnot important Inte rshynationa l P hotographic Salons winning many special medals and diplomas

In the Cellars of the World delight ~ d edu c ated aud thrilled audiences at

Fiel d ~fuseum of Natural History Chicago Chicago Ca dem of Sciences Rod ro rd Coll e~ e Rockford Illinois VS II Iowa Cit Iowa Cnlvlrsity C lu b Evanston Illinois D eKa lb Teachers Institute Sycamore Illinois BI ~(kbl11l Coll e ge Carlinville Illinois Oll io Stn te Ulli (lsi tl Bowling Green Ohio Carn(~le [ uselllll Pittsburgh Pennsylvania L1ke S hore A t hl etic Club Chicago The middot c lt1demy of Sciences Buffalo New York v~IA0 The Chi cago Daily News Station The fil allk0e Iuselm Milwaukee Wisconsin Allis- Ch a lmers Foremans Club Ylilwaukee Wisconsin IIlin 0is Veslea1 Unhersity Bloomington Illinois Am erican Instit lte of Electrical Enbineers Pittsfield

Iassa c huse tls Tile TIrio ) I11n s Educational Club Toledo Ctah State T chers College St George Utah LaSall e Juni o r Co llege Auburndale lassachusetts Vest ern Illi no is State Teachers College Macomb Illinois La ke Erie Co llege Paines v ille Ohio Go e rnment Ind ian School Poplar Ylontana Vom a n Cit) Club Portsmouth -lew Hampshire orcestcl ( adem Worcester ~fassachuserts Linel HO IIse B()s ton RI C lub IPtt stO Il PennsIania Slal( T ( a(hers C()l l e~e Dickinson orth Dakotu shy s ( 11 h lllHlrlds ()f other Schoo ls Colleges Womans ()IIIJ - 1 1111 (1oll Cluh IIH1 others Ill oyer the United --Oltll( middot

THE CAvE IAI ITH HIS OiDERFLL PICTURES LKES YOU INTO THE REALM OF StBTERRAiEAi OlI)ERS PLACES YOU CAOT POSSIBLY VISIT SAFELY rOIshyFORTASLY AlD EASILY

COMPLETE PROJECTIOl EQClPIET IS PHOVI[)ED

ONE OF THE LlL Y PADS

NATURES UNDERGROUND BEAUTY SPOTS

_

PRESENTING

In the

CELLARS of the

WORLD

RUSSELL TRALL NEVILLE T HE CAVE MAN

Cave Explorer

Scientist

Photographer

r~ ~ bull y

I~XPLUHE THE UNKNOWN

Witl THE CAVE MAN Let him take you adventuring into marvelous underground fairylands Mr Neville shows you wonderfully beautiful pictures especially selected from thousands of his world famous cave photographs There is no other living man who has been in more American caves or travelled so many miles in so many caverns Floyd Collins whose tragic death in Sand Cave aroused the sympathy of the world and Mr Neville two intrepid cave explorers reached places in caves never before seen by humiln eyes

IN THE CELLARS OF THE WORLD is packed full of thrills surprises adventure and beauty and IS illustrated with choce color ~d lantern slides

You are sure to be delighted with this clnlque educationai illustrated lecture Millions have heard it from the platform and over the radio

FEW OPINIONS

PerhiJps you read Mr Cla y Perrys article in the July 12th 1941 issue of the Saturday Evening Post n which he paid high tribute to Mr Nevilles Cave explorations

An excerpt But Im a novice alongside Russell Trail Neville the Cave Man of Kewanee Illinois Neville has travelled more than a

IllOU il nd miles underground and taken more than ~UUU photographs ot whaT he calls I HI CELLARS OF THE WORLD

T IO de L010dc Taft fofTv Jdit 2+ You certainly hive a uniqu~ and notable lecture Your pictures are wonderfully fine and the adventures that lie behind

them are very thrilling In spite of all of the beauty that you have brought to light I heartily testify that ~o reNard would ever get me into those tight places

Mr Arlhur C Paqe Editor Prairie Farmer writing to a College President Mr Neville has spoken several times over WLS (The Prairie Farmer Radio Station) and I have seen a great many of his

wonderful pictures He is one of the most fascinating speakers I have ever listened to

Mr D E Northam Chairman Entertainment Committee The Adventurers Club Chicago Illinois I want to convey to you the thanks of the entire membership of the Adventurers Club for the most interesting educashy

tional and thrilling program you gave us at our last Ladies Night I hope we may have you again

Dr Charles D Sneller Past President Illinois State Academy of Sciences I have heard the CAVE MAN deli ver his lecture many times He thrills children and adults alike He has spoken before

the Peoria Rotary Club the Peoria Kiwanis Club and the Peoria Academy of Sciences and always captiv~ted hi s Judiences His pictures are a marvel and his lecture is unusually interesting

l r C iJl cs cave photoJraphs have heen shown literally allover the world In the most important Intershynational Photog-raphic Salons winninJ many special medals and diplomas

THE CAn- t1AX WITH HIS OXDtRFlL IICTLRtS TAKES YOU IITO THE REALM OF SUBTERRAE X O~)ERS

delighted educated alld thrilled audiences at

In the Cellars 0 the World PLACES YOU CAIIOT POSSIBLY nSIT SAFELY COMshyFORTABLY ID EASILY

Clliclgo Academy of Sciences Horkforrl Colleue Roekforrl Illinois Slmiddotr Tow~ City Iowa lfnin rsity Club Evanston Illinois In his cave work Mr Neville hs had Illany entershyrkl~lh TearIHr Institute SIlm)rr Illillo

Fielcl Iuseum of Natural Histor Chicago

taininl4 alllllsinl and thrillinJ experience IN THERIldlln CollECE Carlinvill~ I11nos Ohio ~LaLE lJniv~rsitv Bowlingt Green Ohio CELLARS OF THE WORLD Carneg-ie Museum Pittsburg-h Pennsylvania Lake Shore Athletic Club Chicag-o lear him tell some of these The cademy of Sciences Buffalo New York WMAQ The Chicago Daily News Station See his wonderful colored pictures The llilwaukee Museum 1ilwaukee Wisconsin AllismiddotChalmers Foremans Club Iilwaukee Wisconsin Illinois Wesleyan University Bloomington Illinois A merican Institute of Electrical Enhince ls Pittsfield AN INTERESTJiIC CR WLW Y

Massachusetts The Toledo Vomans Educational Club Toledo i~ II - ~ Utah Stu te Teac hers College St George Utah K ~

LaSa lie J u nior Colleg-e Auburndale 1assach usetts Vestern Illinois State Teachers College Macomh Illinoi ~

Lake Fri e College Painesille Ohio t lt bullbull bull _~ -11(1shy

Goernment Indian School Poplar vlontana oll1an s Cit Club Portsmouth New Hal11psllill~ ~ii7~ c

IClslrr e adem orces ter lassarllllsetLs Ita ri ners HOllse Boston Hotar y Cluh Pottstown P(nnsIania SLI( 1ltI ( il lr5 Cllege Dickinson Nortll Dakota s pi l h u nltirttis of other Sc llOOIs Colleg( 1)111111 ( 1111 1lt1 )( 1)( 1 Clull al1d nll lI all ltICI I Ill [11 1 lt1 ~I tll-

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ernment and () gter Hed fnr t he pleasure p the pur-Ilc LInder the directir T) f t he ~ tion ~1 Plr i

Service Lone ()f the worlds I ~tgshyesi and most wonderfu I e lVes

Mr N vdk wns ghen gtltc id permission by the Derarrment of the Interi0r to make mm io n lIld still photographs in this mighty suhterranean wondcrlmd

With the co-()rtr~tion of the Superintendent and his ~ t a ff Mr Neville i ~ ited rlrts ltIt the Cavern I)() t re-n In the llIll ie

Urili ing al l ll th e exrnence gained 11 rho og rlgthingl hunshydred caes he m11ltmiddot nHHio n lnd still pictures of 11 mti frm shyHllms you mny ne(r 1gt 11gt1 to see The lre Jt~) i ( tt l Iith the skill md arri try then Mr Neville Igtrings ((I l1 his rholOshygraphic ork You wi ll have a new a[preci ati o n of rlw ond t rs of NI(ure after y()U hIc seen thSt ullusual [icrllrcs

ml ~ )middotIIJ l I ltxll r W i n ~ lIl1 rIH)togr 1 I hing the Caves of Kltntlldy )[1 1-Ili1I11 fo r slt tT d Yr DlIff th1t timt h h I S trlmiddote1I1 ~ rh l rs a thoulnd mile 1111-ic rgrltgtllnd

He ha ( ~ rr it h C3 mlt r3 up ond I pw n ltwr huge rock s crnwl el thngtugh lItT worn crev ices so smlll ir eemed imshypossihilt to neglHil te rh em even witho ut rhe heavy ca men1 equip menc-a ll the whi le Illaking hi wond eriul seri e )f interestm g cave pictures

Wlgtrking undr Ihorograrh ic difficultie I n1 rhysICa l h~zard s wh ic h eltIlle1 unsurmoun raH lt Mr Neille has succeeded ntvshyenhelts in Igtrin gi ng Igtcfo re the pulgtlic fy means oi morion ricshycures lnd by lantern slides beautiful scenes and views of formations yUU lta nnm possiLly see fo r yourself

Combined with this he rreshysents them in a highly artistic and cntcrtaining manner

ALADDINS GROTTO

~( A Camera Journey through Underground Fairylands ~ with Russell T Neville the Cave Man

m R Neville is a cave lxrlorer 1nd rhor)grapher Bc)innin~ a a hlgtbh this ~ work has Jevelored into a serious utempt t gt 1()nr1Y ancl present rhee little known heauties hidden tar lgteJuw Ih~ surface of he earth

Interesting experienltcs galore have fdlen tll Mr Nilie Igtt in this exploration rk ( llS have heen iiscltlnrJ wdl knwn caves Ioae heen exrlorel (Ll greuer distan(ts and all til rime his (nmeras have been l1llking a lirhful anJ unique recorl f his travels into rh e Realms f Ni)ht

Mr Nevilles exrtlitiol1 lI1t OIJ Salts Ca e (July 192 1 went into places never hefore st~n by white exrlorers The pnrry was in the Cave ltgtn rhis trir for fifty-one hours anJ rhirry-five minutes They liLltereJ and 1T()ughr to light a co nsiderable quantity lIt materini left hy rhe mysrerio us C 1e Men ot long ago This is shown in rhe pictures and commented upo n bv M r Neville who ha s Jen)[cd much rime to

the study ot the prehistoric folk wh o inhahit 1 rhis l11ighty sulgtrerranenn labyrinth many hundreds of y~1rs ago

Q A VE photography is essentially ver hn1rdou~ md tlifficulr C(gtmtgtined With tht risks pi origina l caw eplorarinn- rraversing unc harted pathways ShTtgtlldcl

in eernal darkness whlre unseen unknown dangers lurk in even shaJ(l there are serious photographic tehllical prohlems t(l be solved

Well gr(lund~d in the rtquir ~ l1lellts of a pkasing picrure Mr Neillc has usel 111 his lbility in the rnkillcrion of wonlerful lighting~ and pkwrial Clgtmpsitigtns PrllJucshying his own light 1 mtans of [()erflll fIlr~ elch giving 72 000 cnndle r ower he comhats the unfavrahle condicigtns which are found in aves Jnd interesting effects nre picwred which lend ench1 lltment to rhe cenes

Three ree Is lit standard ie i 35mm ) motion ricrllre film are al ilahle for use A portable morion ricure pwjecto r can be furnished

Many heautifully ha nd co lor~J lantern sliJes may he used if desi reJ This motion picture film is rhe fi rst and on ly attempt ever made ro prcsem o n t he

screen rhe hidJen undergrour J mancls of Narure

Remarks on the Potential of Underground Space for Defense Against Attack Jack Hurley DC Speleograph June 1960

1 Todays threat from the Soviets is political economic and military Thelalter includes chemical and biological warfare radio-logical fall-out and the weapon of the future - the neutron-ray gun not to mention others yet to be developed

2 The good earth which sustains uswill inevitably have its underground spaces explQited and developed to an unprecedented degree in a return to what might be called the era or the Jmodern cave man for nothing can protect us so well and for minimum cost as the underground spaces

3 In recent times we have the example of Nazi Germany in World War II with some) 000 underground storage depots light assembly plants and factories as well as the present day state or the art middot~ exemplified in Sweden In this country government and commercial interests possess bu~ a few underground sites not all of which can be discussed because of their classified nature However those not classified offer good examples of a good beginning - but only a beginning

Some of the underground sites that have been developed and are presently in usc principally for storage of various kinds are located in Kansas (Hutchinson and elsewhere) Neosho Missouri California and Iron Mountain New York as well as the development by my company of the Annandale Mine Butler Pennsylvania into a huge modern underground storage vault for irreplaceable records Some of our cl ients are the Jones and Laughl in Steel Co the U S Steel Co and the First National Bank oCNew York City Other sites are being usedJor cold storage and for hospitals but as yet the uses are extremely limited

Some of the potential uses are for light manufacturing and assembly plants permal1ent housing for some of our fabulously expensive data computers headquarters for command posts fo r national state and local civil defense storage of items essential for human survival in the event of atomic attack as well as items essential to the process of industrial rehabilitation To a limited extent they may also be utilized as shelters for at least some of the population in case of disaster

Why is it that the underground has not been more fully exploited and developed

1 Th~aver~ge individual dislikes the idea 2 The potential of the ul1derground for storage and housing has only been slightly understood 3 Existing sites are not always conveniently located 4 Those who cculd spark such development do not fully understand the nature and perhaps the imminency of the threat 5 I n some cases development has been stifled because of the cost even though this is but a fraction of that iiwolvedin creating a totally man-made facility for similar purposes Also there have been mistaken efforts to use underground space for purposes for which itwas not suited 6 The average human being strongly resists change in his essential concepts The so-called vested interests must first realize a scarcity of suitable top-side space before they will begin acquiringund~rground space

71Journal of Speleall History

Some of the advantages of good mines and caves are

1 They are generally removed from critical target areas 2 Development costs no more than on the surface and is frequently considerable less 3 In the long run maintenance and operating costs are much lower 4 In business and industry the absenteeism of workers due to illness extremes of temperature etc frequently becomes a real problem In my opinion working in the quiet atmosphere underground in a steady temperature and humidity level would have a beneficial and healthful effect This same situation makes it far easier to create a static condition beneficial to tl)e preservation and long life of records and other materials stored underground 5 The standard earth cover for modern missile bases is 25 feet Nearly all mines and caves of any consequence have far more cover than this thus increasing their protection potential

You as cave explorers and members of the National Speleological Society can assist by

1 Providing inventories of the most suitable caves for various purposes 2 Assist in developing guides or standards for caves for specific purposes 3 Talk about how mines and caves can be utilized and thus influence those who are in a ~tjon to initiate action in this direction

The above is the substance oj a talk given by Mr Hurley 10 the members oj the DC ChilP4tl oj the NSS on June 7 1960

Comment of the Designation of Certain Caves as Fallout Shelters William H Peters DC Speleograph April 1963

I believe all of us as members of the National Speleological Society have been aware for the past several years of the interest in utilizing selected caves for the protection of civilian population in the event of a national emergency The interest up until now remote has materialized into an actual requisitioning of caves in Pendleton County West Virginia and other communities in that state anxious to utilize all of their resources for what can certainly be called a noteworthy if not heroic program There has been at first a rejection of the idea among speleologists We are at first repelled by the idea of giving up our almost absolute sovereignty of the underground The realities of the world invading our isolated laboratories is unacceptable to us as scientists~ and of course the whole concept of nuclear war is still psychologically repugnant Our first reaction is expressed in many ways - useless protests exclamations of impossibility and we formulate every reason for the programs failure

But as citizens we have a responsibility to study the problem and the facts are not pleasing Repugnant as it is nuclear warfare lives not too far from the pleasantries of our life This is

72 JOllrllal of Speleall History

proven by the not so far removed Cuban Crisis In November 1962 LS Finkelstein at the Harvard University Center for International Affairs writing of the Soviet position on Arms Inspection is quoted It is hard to escape the conclusion that the Soviet Union for at least much of the time seems to have been interested more in employing the negotiations as a means of weakening the military and political position of the West that as a route to a viable disarmament system He goes on to quote James P Wadsworth to the effect that the Soviet Union has employed arms control negotiation as a part of a grand strategy aimed at the eventual total defeat of the other side 1 Thus for those persons who hope for an easy solution it is hard to find the substance to nourish those hopes

The possibility of reducing the probable use of nuclear weapons is diminished by the cruel fact that reduction in armaments only increases the probability of escalation in armament by lessening the factor required for decisive advantage while additionally making the elements of decisive advantage available to many other countries who may aspire to greater roles than current economic or scientific resources have relegated them This point is well illustrated by HA Kissinger nuclear disarmament has revealed the paradoxical fact that there is a certain safety in numbers And this is true even if both sides religiously observe an agreement to limit nuclear weapons Instability is greater if each side possesses ten missiles that if the equilibrium is stabilized at say 500 For an attack which is 90 successful when the opponent has ten missiles leaves him one or a number hardly able to inflict unacceptable damage An attack of similar effectiveness when the opponent possesses 500 missiles leaves 50 - perhaps sufficient to pose an unacceptable risk 2

We can easily conclude that the probability of removing nuclear weapons from the field of War Science is remote from purely tactical necessity What is also critical to our thinking is that the War Sciences are advancing in their ability to assess more and more elements and their relationship to decisive advantage Von Neumann in formulating the Minimax Game Theory and its reduction to mathematical models applied to computers increases the number of factors to be considered beyond the capability of the human mind International politics are founded upon economic and strategic factors rather than ethical or moral principle It is not impossible that in the cold realistic logic of the Game Theory3 that some remote event passing unseen by the casual observer will relate itself to decisive advantage for the opponent and may demand immediate action by one or the other side We cannot hope that in every instance the situation will escalate as did the Cuban Crisis so that the population can prepare itself

The comparison of Civil Preparedness to Ostrichism is not a fair comparison Civil Preparedness adds another factor for a potential enemy and complicates his game It makes it more difficult to game reliability Kissinger points out four considerations for reducing the possibility of decisive advantage the second of which is Since invulnerability is a relative term the purpose of arms control measures must be to strengthen so far as possible the relative position of the defender either by enhancing the security of his force or by complicating the calculations of the aggressor2 It is thus that civil preparedness serves a two fold purpose of deterring and of providing some measure

of survi val

The remoteness of the areas under consideration enhances the desirability of taking appropriate measures God forbid that it should come to pass but in the event of a nuclear holocaust it is these areas that could become the springboard for the reconstruction of our democracy and for the continuation of our cultural heritage

As members of the National Speleological Society we have the opportunity of not only participating but of making a definite contribution No other organization has more resources in

73Journal of Speeall History

scientific personnel experience or knowledge relating to caves Failure to meet our responsibilities at this time will only widen possible misunderstandings between the National Speleological Society and Civil Defense Organizations We must accept the fact that as the civil defense program expands more cave resources will be requisitioned Our opposition will only serve as a barrier to continued parallel use of these resources

The Society can assist in both the areas of applied practical knowledge and of basic research To list bnt a few are - advising and monitoring storage in areas of historical underground hydrological fluctuations monitoring humidity temperature and air circulation locating suitable areas in caves that will minimize the possibility of vandalism recommending types of closures of gates and assisting in their installation checking periodically the condition of supplies and reporting this to appropriate authority and condemnation of areas due to strata imperfection and probability of breakdown

There are many questions in need of investigation What is the relationship in a multiple stream capture theory and the possible concentration of radioactive or other contaminates in a cave duc to fIltration What is the probability of infection by intake of foods contaminated by histoplasma ir any What is the relationship of bat rabies to human cave habitation What provision must be made for sanitation - control of rats and possible damage to supplies and in the event of human habitation control of rat fleas as possible communicators of typhUS or other epidemic diseases) What is the probability of excessive amounts of radioactive materials being introduced to the cavc environment by animals such as bats that enter and leave the cave frequently These represent only a portion of the questions which should be examined to determine their relevance and what precautionary measures should be taken if relevant

I would like to propose that at a special meeting of the Board of Governors a Civil Defense Advisory Committee composed of competent scientists and speleologists be formed for the purpose of formulating suitable policies initiating scientific investigation and in general assuming the role of representing and coordinating the Societys Civil Defense effort The question as to whether we can afford to undertake such a program with its inherent socialpolitical implications should be answered - Can we afford not to

References

1 Arms Inspection International Conciliation Nov 1962 (It is interesting to note that in my upinion this publication follows closely the United Nations activities It is surprising to observe this pessimistic attitude in that area)

2 Foreign Affairs Volume 39 no 4 July 1960 Inspection and Surprise Attack p 56l

3 A current article on Game Theory appears in the December 1962 issue of Scientific Americall by Anatol Rapoport The Use and Misuse of Game Theory

Journal of Speleall History 74

1922 Trip Reports

Maud Orr Howell

Trip 10 Bear Cave

Gordon Brown led eight of us including Elizabeth Hord George Raudebush Benie Weaver Tom Weaver Johnny Connor Boyte and me to Bear Cave in Savage Gulch

We left the Observatory at 900 am went down Clark Cottage Path and across the valley to the clearing in front of the old Savage home

The girls rested while the boys went up the side of Peak Mountain to a ~pring and brought back some water Then we explored the old house In one of the upstairs rooms that had newspapers on the walls we read in the Society section of a newspaper dated August 17 1908 that Mr and Mrs Sanford Duncan had gone to spend a few days with Mrs Robert Orr in Maury County

We cut across the field to the right of the house and climbed along the side of Peak Mountain then straight down the side of the mountain to Savage Creek After drinking water from a spring running into the creek we followed the creek up a few yards then climbed up the mountain on the left a few yards to the cave This is Coppenger Mountain It was 11 45 so we ate our Iunch and rested until 1 10 when all but Elizabeth and Tom went in the cave We had candles and carbide lights and Gordon led the way It saw 220 when we got out After resting a few minutes and taking some Kodak pictures we all including Elizabeth and Tom went in again and stayed until 300 pm

We gathered our things which included sticks which Gordon had cut for us the Kodak the lunch bag canteen etc and set out straight up the mountain with Gordon pulling us up some of the places until we hit the cliffs We followed the cliffs along until we found a place to climb up When we got on the top we walked along the mountain until we got to the end of it which is just above the Savage house We went down a path which went straight down the mountain to the Savage house rested while the boys got water then came home to Howell cottage the same way we had gone arriving here at 700 pm

Trip to Bats Cave

Saturday September 2 1922

We first planned to walk to Tatesville but not knowing how far it was we gave it up and decided to walk to Bats Cave The night before the trip we gave that up too as it was so far and the weather so hot

As we were eating breakfast Mr George Mitchell came and he had breakfast with us He suggested getting a wagon for our trip so immediately after breakfast Mr George Bettie Martha and Tom Weaver Boyte and I went to the store and got Earnest Rubleys wagon

75Journal of Speleall History

We all met on the Observatory There were 19 of us Five including Mr George Jennings and George Bailey Torn and Charlie Trabue IV left first and went down the Backbone Road intending to meet us at the Collins River bridge The rest of us Elliott and David Adams Lucy and Elizabeth Bailey Lucinda Trabue Irene Langford Elizabeth Mclane Kate Keene Johnson Susan Lewis Bettie and Martha Weaver Boyte and I walked down the mountain from the Observatory and met the wagon a little piece up the valley We missed the other bunch and they did not catch up with us until we had left the wagon and were eating lunch at the spring

We finished lunch and walked up the mountain to the cave We went to the big room where we stopped last year which is just beyond the small ladder We climbed the ladder then all but Irene Tom Elizabeth and I went on further We waited at the top of the ladder until they came back They had gone to another big room and circled around it about three times before finally finding the way out They found an old Nashville newspaper dated 1847 and another paper with some names on it They added their names to this list

When we got out of the cave it was nearly 500 We had been in there three hours

We went back to the wagon and started horne We got to Collins River bridge about dark The moon was almost full and the ride up the valley in the moonlight in a wagon filled with hay and pulled by mules was beautiful We stopped at Mortons store and Mr George telephoned up lo Beersheba and told them where we were and assured them that we would be home soon He brought out oodles of cookies and we had a grand time eating them We sang and yelled and relaxed on the hay We left the wagon at the bottom of Beersheba Mountain Martha led the way up the mountain in the dark with only the moon to help guide us We had Oashlights but it was hard to keep in the path But it was fun We reached the top at the Observatory at 845 pm and no one seemed to be tired

Trip to Peak Mountain

A crowd of us left Aunt Mats Cottage at 930 am on Monday August 28 1922 There were 19 of us including Mr George Mitchell Elizabeth Hord Mr Colville Elliott Adams Jennings Bailey Lucy Bailey Kate Keene Johnson George Eldred Mary Wilson Eldred Irene Langford Elizabeth Mclane Bettie Orr Martha Weaver Tom Weaver Alfred Williams Mary Phillips Street Susan Lewis Boyte Howell Jr and me (Maud Orr Howell)

We went down Clark Cottage Path to the valley The crowd was separated going down but we all got together at the foot of the mountain crossed the valley and climbed Peak Mountain There was no path we just went up the side of the mountain and went thru a pass up the cliffs We got there about 1200 pm rested then ate lunch We put up a nag (Elizabeth Hords petticoat)

Aoout 100 pm we left to find the old stage coach road to Chattanooga We went straight across the top of the mountain and found the road at the spring and a little log cabin We followed the road to the valley We heard Marshall Eldred mooing answered him and he found us Gordon Bro n who was with him led us to Peter Rock Cave on the side of Peak Mountain Marshall did not start out with us because he helped Gordon fix the leaks in Laurel Mill Dam Elliott led us in the cave and we did not go back very far It was pretty but wet and muddy

We c~me home by Dishroon Springs drank some of the water and ate the rest of our lunch [hen came on up the mountain A few of us stopped at the Johnson place and looked across the valley at Elilabeth Hords petticoat which we had left on a tree on Peak Mountain We came on horne arriving here about 500 pm

Journal of Speleall History 76

No Old Gold or Bones A Skeptical Review of Caverna del Oro Legendry Donald G Davis reprinledfrom Rocky Mountain Caving Summer 1992

In the thin air of timberline on Marble Mountain in the Sangre de Cristo range icy wind blows from the entrance to a deep and cryptic cave marked by the damaged remnant of a rust-red cross Known today as Spanish Cave it is the most publicized non-commercial cave in Colorado It has been featured for more than 70 years in media - first newspapers then magazines books and television specials Most of this publicity recounts stories that it is La Caverna del Oro where Indian slaves mined gold for 17th century Spaniards Many people take this as fact Recently a Colorado caver told me he had spoken with a journalist who assured him that the cave was bottomless and contains untold treasures

Spanish Cave was important in the start of my own caving career in 1957 While attending Colorado A amp M College (later CSU) I saw in scrapbooks in the Fort Collins Museum clippings of the Colorado Question Box column from the Rocky Mountain News circa 1955 They told stories of a Maltese-cross-marked entrance lost gold mine and chained skeleton reported in the caverns depths After correcting the first error we found in the accounts (that the cave was on Homs Peak several miles north of Marble Mountain) two of us (Vin Hoeman and myself) in the college Hikers Club located the cave the next year In subsequent years with Frank and Paul Leskinen James W Meachan and others in the Southern Colorado Grotto of the NSS I led the discovery of about two-thirds of its presently known passage

Finding that the Western History Department of the Denver Public Library had a clipping file on the cave I also undertook research on its history which I have continued intermittently since The mure I learned about the real cave the more disillusioned I became with the stories sensationalizing it I learned much about the rules of logic and evidence during the investi galion and was ultimately convinced that there was no satisfactory confirmation that Spanish explorers ever saw or entered the cave much less mined gold from it Following are some of the reasons for that concl usion

The most readily available summary of the legendry is in Lloyd Parris Caves oCoLorado (1973) pp 24-32 Parris precedes his Treasure Caves accounts with a confused and equivocal disclaimer The following tales for the most part have the validity of history behind them and in most cases the caves are known Undoubtedly though some of the legends connected with these caves belong in Chapter IV under hoax and humbug And if these legends seem to disagree or contradict what is previously known it is because they were selected not for entertainment alone but as a presentation of the known facts or legends as the case may be An evaluation of the authenticity has not been attempted This is left for the reader to do

This reader hereby takes up the challenge

The Spanish Mille Legends

A number of accounts (including Parriss) relate that Spanish Monastery Latin documents record gold being brought to pre-Columbian Mexican Indian kingdoms Acolhua Aztec and Tepance

Jourllal of Speleall History 77

from the north Then in 1541 three monks were supposedly left behind by Coronado (the Rocky MOllntain News June 3 1923 says 1598) One Fray Juan de la Cruz reportedly reopened a mine using forced labor by Pecos I ndians (a northern New Mexico Pueblq trib~)and packed treasure toward Mexico City but never arrived there Nuggets and gold bars reported found by one Baca in 1811 were speculated to be part of this treasure and a prospector searching (according to Parris) for Cavema del Oro half a century later found a silver cup engraved with the name Hermione Taken at face value all this gives the impression that stories about Caverna del Oro are of great antiquity though the original Spanish documents are never cited

This suite of tales was first widely distributed in an article by Alberta Pike headlines OLD MANUSCRIPT INDICATES VAST RICHES IN COLORADO CA VE GUARDED BY SKELETON in the Rocky Mountain News of Sept 6 1932 Subsequent Spanish Cave popularizers have recopied them from one article to the next without naming a source for them I recently made an enlightening discovery in the Colorado Historical Society library about where this material came from

Before any known Spanish Cave article was written Louis Bernhardt Sporleder -- early resident and prominent citizen of Walsenburg Colorado -- published a souvenir booklet titled Huajalolla Breasts of the World (1916) An article in The Trail June 1922 reprinted much of this booklet and said Sporleder had a number of unpublished manuscripts giving information historical and legendary about the Spanish Peaks (as the Huajatolla are more commonly known) Sporleders booklet included word for word most of the above Spanish mine material copied by later Cavema del Oro writers

Even his misspelling of the Tepance kingdom (properly Tepanec) has been faithfully reproduced by authors as late as Parris

As to the actual historicity of Sporleders items I know little but his writings (eg The Roses of Huajatolla The Trail Dec 1922) were prone to wild flights of romantic fiction incorporating gross errors about natural history He claimed for instance that the otherwise extinct passenger pigeon still survived on the Spanish Peaks in fact it has never been recorded in Colorado His human history appears similarly colored But even if he was accurate it is crucial to our study that his stories were exclusively about the Spanish Peaks making no connection whatever to Marble Mountain 50 miles to the northwest He specifically stated that the silver cup was found beside a spring in a grotto at the base of East Spanish Peak (the name Hermione moreover is Greek not Spanish) All of this is therefore irrelevant to the cavern on Marble Mountain that we know as Spanish Cave

In Sporleders 1916 version the prospector who found the cup was searching for Huajatollas mines of gold In Pikes 1932 recounting he was seeking the lost mine but she associates it with the cave on Marble Mountain Parris in 1973 transmutes the object of the searchers quest explicitly into the Caverna del Oro Thus by insidious mutations does spurious lore enshroud our cave

Forbes Parkhill asserted that Marble cave Legends connect the Spanish cross and the ancient timber found in the mine [sic] with the gold hunting and exploring expeditions of Juan de Onate in 1597 and the Escalante-Dominguez expedition in 1776 (Explorers to Seek Mysteries of Caves in San Isabel Wilds Discovered Four Centuries Ago Denver Post Oct 9 1921) Even Parris rejects these suggestions because those expeditions did not come close to Marble Mountain

Jourllal of Speleall History 78

Earliest Known Accounts ofthe Cave middot

In 1919 appeared a brochure Out-ol-door Piaygroullds of the Sansabel National Forest USDA middot Circular 5 by Henry S Graves Forester It declared that The Caves of the Winds [not to be confused with Cave of the Winds at Manitou Springs] a system of giant crevices in a mountain or solid white marble is one of the principal natural wonders of the Forest These caves have been penetrated to a depth of over 1200 feet without the end being reached Theymay be reached by wagon road from Westcliffe

On Oct 12 1919 the Denver Post ran an anonymous article San Isabels Caves of Winds Among Wonders of Colorado It stated The Caves of the Winds have been known to exist for many years They are described brieOy in the report of the San Isabel national forest A party of Denver business men is planning to visit the caves this autumn with a view to exploring them to their depths if pOssible If it is found that the natural wonders said to exist in the interior of the caves are equal to reports which have been received these men will ask the government for the I

privilege of developing the caves as a tourist attraction

That Spanish Cave is the object of these writings is indicated by the emphasis on wind great depth (four times the actual depth of the cave as then known) and incomplete exploration the nearby Cave of the White Marble Halls is less strongly windy nearly horizontal and was already well explored (The accompanying entrance photo is not Marble Mountain) A similar item in the Post of June 27 1920 mentions a huge cave on Marble mountain which has never been explored by man beyond a depth of 1800 feet and which may rival the famed Mammoth Cave of Kentucky Neither treasure legends nor stories ofSpanish exploration are me11lioned in any of these earliest printed accounts

Apollina Apodacas Story

The real genesis of treasure stories as applied to Spanish Cave so far as I can find is with Apollina Apodaca (her name is variously spelled in different accounts I use the spelling that seems most probable) In 1919 (not 1920 as said in Caves oColorado) Paul Gilbert later District Ranger in the Forest heard wonderful tales from this old woman As he recalled in The Bulletin of the Rocky Mountain Region of the US Forest Service (Dec 1936)

She stated that the Spaniards used to get gold from it and further stated that if one were to descend to a sufficient depth [in some accounts she is said to have specified 90 or 93 feet] a set of oak doors would be found and if they were forced open one would find a tunnel leading back into the bowels of the mountain -- and the source of the gold would be found She further stated that when she was a child they used to take a blanket wrap it around a heavy stone and throw it down the shaft In the course of a short time the blanket would be blown back minus the rock by the strong winds that come continually from the shaft

The following spring Gilbert located the cave which he misinterpreted as more of a volcanic fissure than it is a cave and visited it with Arthur C Carhart An item mentioning this trip (Mystery Caves in ColoradoRocky Mountain News Sept 21 1921) is the earliest I have found that makes a Spanish or lost-mine connection Old timers in the hills up there declare the place is the shaft of the old Three Step mine famous in Spanish history Carhart himself in the POSl of Jan 1 1922 says it is reported that it is an old Spanish mine entrance marked with a red cross of Malta and has old timber and a log chain inside

Jourllal of Speleall History 79

Gilberts writings are not entirely consistent about his informants statistics in the above report she is Mexican 105 years old in 1919 and died at 110 In his letter to Robert 1 OConnell of Feb 18 1957 (as published in History ojthe Colorado Grotto Nov 1961) she is Spanish and died in 1923 at age 103 A followup letter of Feb 25 adds that she spent most of her life in the vicinity of San Luis [in the San Luis Valley on the opposite side of the Sangre de Cristos] Another source (Dayle Molen Pueblo Star-Jollmal Nov 18 1956) says she lived near Gardner Perry Eberhart in his sensationalistic Treasure Tales of the Rockies (11) calls her an Indian squaw Raymond Thorp in American ForesTs Aug 1935 citing Gilbert says she died eight years ago which would have been 1927 (this is the date used by Parris) These points may be quibbles yet they indicate a lack of precision in recording the facts about her And since the account attributed to Ms Apodaca is pivotal to the entire Caverna del Oro oeuvre let us dissect it critically

Every element is either improbable or impossible Leaving the geologic aspect until later take the oaken doors There are no oaks for many miles and where they do appear they are scrub oak which would have provided door-size timber only in rare cases (though oaks of that size were more common in the Rockies then than now) And why haul heavy oak to timberline when (though strong when new) it does not resist rot as well as say the more easily obtained juniper There is not in any case any opening near the 9O-foot level where such doors could have been used

The blanket story is completely fanciful As we proved in 1961 (NSS News Aug 1962 part I) the cave wind comes from upper Spanish Cave not from the pit Even if it did the pit is about 15 feet wide whereas the entrance constricts to a narrow crawlway A wind strong enough to blow a blanket back up the pit would rise to such tornadic speed in the crawl as to stop a person from fighting through it to the pit Nor does it seem sensible that people would be blithely tossing their blankets down weighted with rocks After all the rock might fail to unwind and the blanket be lost or shredded at the bottom With so incredible a yarn in it why should not the whole narrative be dismissed as fantasy

The Skeletons

At least three human skeletons have been attested as evidence of Spanish involvement with the cave Two were introduced by reporter Kenneth C Lightburn in a front-page article in the Rocky Mountain News of Sept 4 1932 He claimed that the caves original discovery is credited to Capt Elisha P Hom one of the first settlers in the Wet Mountain Valley in 1869 About its entrance he found the remnants of what might have been a fort and also a skeleton in Spanish armor Through the armor was an Indian arrow (Lightburn also began the misconception that the cave was on Homs Peak) I have not been able to trace the origin of this anecdote but it sounds unlikely if only because the purpose of Spanish armor was to prevent things like stoneshypointed arrows from penetrating ones torso and it generally worked Halls History of Colorado (1895) confirms Elisha P Hom as a pioneer Wet Mountain Valley settler in 1869 but does not mention this story

However the skeleton that Lightburn intended to feature was the one in his articles melodramatic headlines SKELETON FOUND CHAINED BY NECK DEEP IN COLORADO MYSTERY CAVECAVERN IS HIGH IN MOUNTAIN WILDS OF STATEDenver Man Discovers Manacled Bones in Sangre de Cristo Range Moldering 500 Feet Below Surface in Awesome CavitySIGNS INDICATE MINE WORKED IN EARLY DAYSFind Recalls Legends of Fabulous Cavern [sic] del Oro of 17th Century Spaniards The headlines are emphasized by a lurid though regrettably nonphotographic picture of the skeleton and an entrance shot with the cross touched up to show better

80 Journal of Speleall History

Journal of Speean History

The article relates that Peter Moser of Denver with companions Victor Barth and his two sons Donald and Jack had just returned from a descent into the cave (Derivative accounts refer to Victor Donald and Jack Barth the former being a fictitious person born of the omission of an original comma between Victor and Donald)

According to Lightburn the Moser party had climbed down until they reached a vertical pit They lowered a lantern Forty feet downward they saw the bottom and in the light or the lantern could clearly make out the skeleton With a metal strap encircling the neck the pile of bones reclined against the rocky wall as if the person who died there centuries ago hall been chained in a sitting position and left to starve An investigatory trip reported in followup articles of Sept 11 12 arid 18 found no skeleton (If an entrance photo with the story of the 18th is any indication they might not even have found the cave -- the picture is obviously not on Marble Mountain -- it may be at Marble Cave near Canon City) It was speculated that Moser may have seen the skeleton at another point in the cave or that it had been done away with by mysterious parties unknown who had blasted the cave entrance between the two trips

In reality it is not surprising that the chained skeleton was never found There is no sound testimony that it was ever there Unlike Fray Juan de la Cruz Elisha Horn or Apollina Apodaca Peter Moser was still available to me to question when I first researched Lightburns article I found in 1959 that Moser still lived at the same address in Denver as in 1932 On New Years Eve 19591 telephoned him and asked about the story His description made it clear that his party had indeed reached the top of the pit that cavers now call the Jug At that point they had lowered a kerosene lantern on a line and he saw what in his own words looked like a pile of bones on a ledge near the bottom This he said is all he reported to the secretary of the Colorado Mountain Club who in tum contacted the newspaper which -- as Moser put it to me -- dressed it up a little (l printed a more complete record of Mosers hour-long interview in the Southern Colorado Grotto newsletter Spelunk Junk Mar 1960)

This embroidery was to be expected in an era when the Denver papers were battling for readers during the Great Depressiun and were notorious for sensationalism But even if Mosers own explanation did not debunk the skeleton he reportedly found it would not be believable The Jug is about 80 feet deep Have you ever tried to see in cavernous darkness where your breath makes mist clouds by a kerosene lantern at that range Then you will agree that a chaincd skeleton even in fine preservation could hardly have been seen well enough from the top to be recognized unequivocally

81

Caves oColorado complicates the matter by citing a letter to me from James W Meacham in vhich a bone found by Meacham at the bottom of the Jug in 1959 was pronounced human by John A Murphy of the Denver Museum of Natural History What Parris does not say is that I had written him in 1969 -- four years before his book was published -- that another expert at the University of Colorado Museum had declared it a deer bone (This water-worn two-inch fragment might well challenge a forensic specialist)

Not content with two skeletons Thorp (American Forests Aug 1935 op cit) adds a third to this spooky company A strange legend that still haunts the native people concerns a skeleton hung with buckskin which guarded Marble Cave just on the other side of Caverna del Oro It was the first quarter of the 19th century and an American free trapper wandered too far west The Spaniards for fear he would reveal their hiding place crucified him For a half century he remained pinioned to a wcxxlcn cross Aside from the improbably sadistic mode of execution this image typical of cartoons or folklore reveals ignorance of the properties of real skeletons which do not long remain articulated when exposed to weather decay and scavengers

Others find ulterior significance in our discovery of bones of bison and pronghorn antelope in upper Spanish Cave in the 1960s calling them plains species that would never ascend to such lofty heights Unless someone had used the cave for storing or curing meat (Bill Kaiser The Treasure of Caverna del Oro Colorful Colorado May-June 1973) I did not know this then but these animals have been known to ascend to the alpine tundra in historic ti mes and might have done so more often when they were abundant and unfenced The cave is much too wet to be good ror storing perishables

The Artifacts

Many reliable observers from Carhart and Gilbert onward report finding in the 1920s and 30s old artifacts of unknown provenance in Spanish Cave These include a winch chains whiskey bottle jug timber ladders shovel single-jack and a hammer They have all disappeared or been reduced to fragments but claims made for some of them purport to establish archeological evidence of Spanish presence

Thorp (1935 op CiL) in describing the 1932 Rocky Mountain News expedition states that on the second ledge they found the remains of a rudely constructed ladder which Dr LeRoy Hafen ( then editor historian and curator of the State Historical Society) after carefully examining asserted was at least 200 years old Below after being lowered 110 feet they found a crude hand-forged hammer which the historian declared was of 17th century vintage Gilbert (The Bulletin Dec 1936 op cit) and an Alamosa Courier article (from June 1937) repeat these avowals

These are very important allegations since the Spanish were the only people who could have left such artifacts in the 17th century To investigate them I wrote in 1960 to LeRoy Hafen inquiring about his trip to the cave and his knowledge of its history and specifically whether he had certified the hammer as of 17th-century manufacture and if so who now had it His reply was less specific than my questions but it is a primary document on one of the major claims about Spanish Cave and I reproduce it below verbatim

If LeRoy Hafen made claims of antiquity for the Spanish Cave artifacts in 1932 he obviously did not stand by them later His wife Ann W Hafen in Detective Historian (Denver WesTerners Monthly Roundup July 1954) had also recounted his 1932 cave trip and commented disproving a baseless story is important it is part of the search for truth She elaborated To the party the venture was disappointing No treasure found No relic of the ancient conquistadores But to the

Jourllal of Speleall History 82

detective Historian it was just another clue pursued another myth exploded another triumph for the scholars code -- to build history on fact not on fossilized fiction

Thorp (1935 op cit) relates that the timbers of their ladder system were about eight inches in diameter squared on four sides with an ax Auger holes were bored into their sides and they were fitted with wooden rungs pegged into the holes No nails were used al though this probably would have been done by early Germans or Americans [the wood is] now decayed and may be broken in many ins tances by the hand This construction however is not strong evidence for Spanish work Before the railroad reached the Wet Mountain Valley in the 1880s commodities such as nails would have been scarce and expensive anyone building such structures before then might well have used no metal It would also be stronger than tacking on rungs with nails when not using sawed lumber Concerning the other cave artifacts there is not enough information to suggest a date

BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY PROVOUTAH

January 13 1960

11r Donald G Davia P O Box 145 T1lnlath Colorado

Dear Hr Davia

I ~ intereat~d to learn f~ your letter of January J 1960 of your study and COllCen WJth the Caverna del Oro Hy visit to the cave and descent into it was with a party directed and financed by the Tourist Bureau or its counterpart of the period The contemporary ewspal6rs gave som~ accowtof the venture

I made the firat descant into the cave kt that time ging down the rope bS

you doubtless have done ince I recall at the edg~ of the pit th~re were s(XlIe rotted logs that may have been the framework of a windlass At tho bott~ of the pit I found a suall sledge ~er encrusted with limestone formation I dont recall what was done with this haa-er I remember no other relics in the pit

Our purposo was to investigate certain rumors a3 to early use of the cave as a SVanish mine I think middot there is little~~ion for that as the limestone fonnation is a poor VlOspect fot middotormation

The legnd hat a skeleton was chained to the wall gave added impetus to the trip Needless to eay nothing of the sort was found That cav and some near were epoken of colloctively os the Karble Campve and sune referred to this one as the Caverna del Or~ cave of gold The Kaltes cross painted on the rock at the entrllJce to tle cave already had a faded appearance I know nothi8 of the rk of Capto1n Hom regarding the di Scove ry of ~ he cave

i~J At the bottOlll of the pit Carl Dlaurohpersucd tho crevice out 5 far dS ~ ~ could go and found nothi8 to reward our efforts If Hr Ulaurot is still living i Denver he could give you sooe sidelights on th cave as ho visited it after our initial exploration

Cordially yours

LO 91+-LeRoy R IlcIen DeparUent of History

Some writers (eg Jesse Ball Canon City Daily Record Sept 14 1933) speculate that the cave was used by the Spanish as a refuge from Indian attacks The cave itself being windy wet and ncar-freezing would not have been ideal for such occupancy A ruined fort was alleged to exist below Marble Mountain as early as 1881 (Golden City Transcript Aug 31 1881 citing Cusler City Prospect ) later articles mention rifle pits I have seen what I presume to be these features below timberline and could not distinguish them from the miners prospect pits common in the Colorado mountains The largest log breastwork structure has also been interpreted as an old corral (Jerry Hassemer oral communication) If defensive works they are cr Jde ones indeed

This leaves to be considered the famous cross beside the entrance It is about one and a half feet square with flared ends meeting at the corners It has been variously described as burnt on

Jou rnal of Speean History 83

deeply chiseled or etched but in reality is prosaically painted with what looks to be a stable iron oxide pigment perhaps using some sort of template Portions of It had a thm patma of calcite crust when I first saw it in 1958 Though almost always called Maltese it is not as can be seen by looking up a crosses illustration in any large dictionary The true Maltese cross has indented ends A G Birch (Denver Post Aug 11 1929) correctly pointed out that the cave marker isin the perfect form of a German Iron Cross But he also says it was old when the first white sehler saw it more than sixty years ago without explaining how he knew this A contradictory testimony (Trail and Timberline April 1957) asserts that there is one old-timer who states that he knCv the fellow who painted it years ago as ajoke I wiIl pass over both of these declarations as uncorroborated

Spanish crosses as I have seen them represented on coins and in art have narrow straight-sided arms often with the basal arm longer and with the ends variously embellished They are typically very different from German ones It is suggestive that the first sedentary settlers below Marble Mountain were Germans of the Colfax colony in 1870 The colony as an entity failed within a year but some thirty families took possession of quarter sections and prospered as can be seen by the many descendants still living in the area (Wet Mountain Tribune Centennial Edition Dec 20 1985) German immigrants also arrived later on and the ranches cl osest below the caves remained in possession of the German-derived Henrich and Neermann families into recent years Crosses in the square form seen at the cave were used in German decorative motifs (I have seen an antique coffee-grinder at an abandoned German homestead in eastern Colorado that was ornamented with them) The cross could have been painted by a Colfax settler exploring his surroundings soon after the colonys establishment The dispersal of most of the colony in 1871 would account for the failure of later inhabitants to know who had created it

Alternatively it might have been a product of prospector 1 H Yeoman He figures in one of the earliest known accounts of a Marble Mountain cave in History of the Arkansas Valley Colorado (1881) A later report on this cave (Denver Republican Feb 20 1888) appears to describe Cave of the White Marble Halls south of Spanish Cave and states that the cave was discovered by Yeoman on Sept 16 1880 Yeoman obligingly left a graffito confirming this in the cave and the Kings and Queens Chambers of the article are likewise identified (Another 1881 account -shyGolden Cty Transcript op cit -- describes a similar cave but claims discovery by Messrs Hendershot amp Dickson of Custer City) A red cross like that at Spanish Cave but smaller and with narrower arms marks the entrance the associated graffito in English 400 Feet to the White Marble Halls precludes a Spanish conquistador origin (A writing inside -- Mrs H G ReedSilver Cliff CololHere 8115197 -- is done in a similar ornate hand) I have also seen Yeomans signature in Moonmilk Cave just across the ravine south of Spanish and scarcely possible to reach without seeing the Spanish entrance He must have known of Spanish Cave and pesumably had entered it

[he Geology

Finally a point that seems so obvious that it should hardly need to be mentioned decades of repeated explorations in Spanish Cave have failed to turn up a trace of mining or of gold and there is excellent reason for this Gold is found either where hydrothermal solutions have mineralized host rock or where deposits originating in that fashion have been eroded and concentrated in placer gravels Neither situation applies at Marble Mountain where the caves occur in an unaltered Pennsylvanian biothermal limestone lens sandwiched almost vertically between shales and conglomeratic sandstones (The name Marble Mountain is a misnomer marble is limestone altered -- metamorphosed -- by heat andor pressure The abundance of well-preserved brachiopod and crinoid fossils shows that Marble Mountain is not metamorphosed) The only mineralization known on the mountain is a little low-grade copper on the south limestone outcrop

Jourllal of Speleall History 84

Paul Gilbert notwithstanding the caves are in no way volcanic but are relatively typical highshygradient alpine limestone solution caves dissolved probably by massive runoff from melting snov and ice during Pleistocene glacial epochs Writers have speculated that Spanish Cave had a lower entrance (possible since the cave water does emerge at a spring lower down) and an entrance on the west side of the mountain (not possible since the limestone does not outcrop there) Ironically the only new entrance cavers have actually found was in a direction not suggested by any known author above Its discovery explained the cave wind as a chimney effect between the entrances -- blowing down to the lower opening when it is warmer outside than inside reversing when it is colder outside

Conclusions

I know of no one else who has analyzed the Caverna del Oro stories as thoroughly but I am not the first to publish critical judgments on them Mrs Hafen has already been quoted Also on record (NSS Bulletin 8 July 1946) is a letter dated 10444 from Fred R Johnson Chief Information and Education US Forest Service

Carl Biaurock a member of the Colorado Mountain Club explored this cave in 1925 again in 1931 and later in more detail in 1932 On the last date the exploration was the result of several articles in the Rocky MOUnTain News in which an old yam was mentioned to the effect that the cave had been investigated in the Spanish explorations in the eighteenth [sic] century also that it is supposed to have yielded a large quantity of gold and other valuable minerals there are no signs of any mineral So far as Mr Blaurocks party could tell there is no evidence in the cave of any visitation of Spanish explorers several hundred years ago

Molen (opcit) wrote that this story [from Apodaca] has been disapproved [sic] The tools and ladder in the cave are of comparatively modern origin Blaurock believes Someone years ago must have explored the cave at least as thoroughly as we did he said He also expressed doubt that the rifle pits and fort are of Spanish origin I did not interview Carl Blaurock during my earlier research I telephoned him this summer but he is 98 years old and is too deaf to understand my questions I have sent him a letter of inquiry thus far unanswered

After organized caving had begun William R Halliday founder of the Colorado Grotto of the National Speleological Society also concluded that The fabulous stories are fables The story of Spanish Cave is told (Halliday however was too pessimistic in inferring that the cave was almost completely explored Most of what is now known was discovered just after he wrote but none of the new passage showed signs of human entry)

Diehard romantics might protest that Spanish Cave could still be La Caverna del Oro Caves can hide much perhaps somewhere in the depths there is a localized zone of thermal mineralization conceivably the Spaniards very cleverly concealed the way to the mine workings Such ideas are not impossible but do strain credulity For every verified feature that has been proposed as evidence for Spanish presence there is an alternative explanation that is more plausible The burden of proof then is on the proponents of the Spanish connection The lurid yarns about the cave reflect folklore creation greatly abetted by media exploitation assisted by atrociously sloppy research

The time sequenceof the several names applied to the cave fits this very neatly In sources from 1919 I find The Caves of the Winds From 1920 until 1932 I see Marble Cave Marble

85jOllrtlal of Speleall History

Caves or The Caves but no Spanish-related appellations It is still called Marble Cave at least as late as 1953 (Irma Zanoni Trail amp Timberline Dec 1953) I do not encounter La Cavema del Oro applied to our cave until Lightburns articles of 1932 after which it is common One of Lightburns headlines refers to the old Spanish Cave but Spanish Cave as a proper ~ame seems to appear only in the first Colorado Grotto News amp Notes of Feb 12 1952 where It IS a synonym for Caverna del Oro From then until now Spanish Cave has been the preferred form in the literature of organized caving and in popular media relying on it This unfortunately has helped to maintain the public assumption that the Spanish legendry is based in fact

The caves history is muddled by a series of misnomers a Caverna del Oro with no gold a Maltese cross that is not Maltese marble that is not marble -- and on analyzing the evidence I think that German Cave would have been a more appropriate if less provocative name than Spanish Cave

I expect my skeptical arguments to be ignored by future writers as long as there is a media markcL for exciting treasure tales Why is it important to be critically analytical

Since fact and fiction are not clearly distinguished in media information about the cave many people still believe nonsense about it Apparently the Spanish gold tales retain enough public acceptance to present problems to the Forest Service today It is reported that there was in recent years a proposal to build a road to the cave to facilitate treasure hunting (Jerry Hassemer oral comm)

Furthermore presentation of false gold stories as if they might be true is likely to tempt naive and poorly prepared readers to get in trouble seeking riches This is apparent in a 1957 letter from Roy Truman former District Ranger and colleague of Paul Gilberts (History of the Colorado Grotto 1961)

There was a time when it was very difficult to keep boys away from this cave and I received many calls from parents in Pueblo and other towns all times of the day and night concerning the safety of their boys that had left home with the ideas of exploring this cave with the high hopes of finding valuable ores or treasures they were equipped with a few pieces of small rope [this was probably arter the Depression-era articles]

This problem is also exemplified by a letter in my own files addressed in 1962 to Richard LeSage of the Southern Colorado Grotto from a Denverite He had twenty-four numbered questions including What type of equipiment [sic] will I need (exactly) I havent done much cave exploring Where can I obtain it What type of mask would I need for foul air He concludes We are intending to explore this cave at all cost so your information will be most vilal to us and most appreciable (We never replied deciding that was the safest thing to do)

The extravagance of peoples beliefs about Spanish Cave has sometimes reached quite ridiculous extremes The Colorado Historical Society library has a typescript of research material used by Perry Eberhart in preparing Treasure Tales of the Rockies One note is as follows

Robert Dunne head of Querida sez think cave comes out near Walsenburg or possibly the northern end of Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico never found end

James Dunne Querida

Not even Eberhart was so shameless as to print this in his book

Jourllal of Speleall History 86

There are still many legitimate mysteries left about Marble Mountain and its history How well explored are the ends of Spanish Cave even now Why was Yeomans cave otherwise so clearly White Marble Halls said to have a 275-foot pit Is this an error or a pit now lost Was the vertical Spanish Cave somehow grafted into the account Who really painted the Maltese cross and who put the artifacts into Spanish Why were detailed articles published on White Marble Halls in the 1880s but nothing seems to be on record about Spanish until 1919 in spite of the extensive early work done in it (If the relics were left by Colfax colonists in the 1870s they could not easily have published their explorations as there were yet no newspapers in the Wet Mountain Valley Later Yeoman or other prospectors might have been reticent about calling atlention to the cave if they built ladders down the shafts in the hope of rinding minerals Study 01 the county mining-claim records could be informative)

Future Opportunities

Most knowledge we now have on Marble Mountain history before organized caving is based on writings of big-city visitors from 1919 on When time allows I intend to search the microfilms of Custer County newspapers in the period 1880-1920 to see if items overlooked by library indexers may shed light on the gaps in our knowledge of the Marble Mountain caves Fascinating revelations are very likely to result Johnsons letter of 1944 (op cit) also stated There was evidence of early visitation [in Marble Cave] including names carved on rocks but these date mostly back about 50 years ago Informative graffiti are numerous in Cave of the White Marble Halls but I do not recall seeing any in Spanish Cave during my own explorations in the 1950s and 60s It should be carefully reexamined to see if we have overlooked signatures that could be keys to the solution of the puzzles

Better documentation of the cave itself would also be desirable The Colorado Grotto surveyed most of lower Spanish in the 1950s to the standards then prevailing I do not know the length of the CG survey but it probably included less than 1000 feet The Southern Colorado Grotto discoveries from 1959 to the early 1960s were not surveyed at the time

From 1975 to 1988 Jerry Hassemer led the mapping of 2642 feet of upper Spanish including the main route between entrances and the Rimstone Passage its longest side gallery (Hassemer personal comm Sept 13 1992) (About 1735 feet of this are along the through-route) His survey showed a vertical difference of 449 feet between lower and upper entrance by both internal mapping and a surface closure loop The old Colorado Grotto map appears to show a depth of just over 270 feet from lower entrance to deepest surveyed point thus total surveyed depth of Spanish Cave is about 720 fect (The entrance elevations of Spanish Cave have never been established by survey to a benchmark but altimeter readings and topographic maps suggest that the upper entrance is around 12000 feet)

Other side passages and superimposed levels in upper Spanish remain unmapped In lower Spanish an important branch the waterfall passage -- which may go deeper than the so-called Gold Diggings at the end of the existing map -- remains unsurveyed The high elevation and extremely cold wet conditions continue to inhibit complete exploration and mapping as they have for as long as the cave has been known

87Journal of Speleall History

THE JOURNAL OF SPELEAN HISTORY

Volume 27 No 4

The Association

The American Spelean History Association is chartered as a non-profit corporation for the study dissemination and interpretation of spelean history and related purposes All persons who are interested in those middotgoals are cordially invited to become members Annual membership is $8 Meetings are held in conjunction with the annual convention of the National Speleological Society and sometimes at West Virginias Old Timers Reunion

Front Cover

Russell Trail Neville nicknamed The Cave Man produced early black and white cave photographs and during 1925-1927 the first good quality film of caves being explored for sport

Officers

President

Susan Holler PO Box 100 Old Fort NC 28762

Vice - President

Carolyn E Cronk 1595 Blueberry Hills Road Monument CO 80132

Secrelary-Treasurer

Fred Grady 1202 South Scott Street 123 Arl ington V A 22204

Trustees

Russ Gurnee Larry E Matthews Marion O Smith Gary K Soule Jack Speece

October-D~cember 1993

The Journal of Spelean History

The Association publishes the Journal ofSpelean History on a quarterly basis Pertinent articles or reprints are welcomed Manuscripts should be typed and double-spaced Submissions of rough drafts for preliminary editing is encouraged Illustrations require special handling and arrangements should be made with the editor in advance Photos and illustrations will be returned upon request

Back Issues

Most back issues of the Journal are available Early issues are photocopied Indexes are also available for Volumes 1-6 and 13 Send your requests to Fred Grady (address given with officers) All issues of Volumes 1 to 72 are available on microfiche from Kraus Reprint Company Route 100 Millwood New York 10546

Official Quarterly Publication AMERICAN SPElEAN HISTCRY ASSCXJATIQJ

History Section National Speleological Society

Editor for this issue

Carolyn E Cronk

Layout and Proofreading

Robert N Cronk

Printing

DC Grotto Potomac Speleological Club Press

----------------------------------------HOWES CAVE IN 1850 Trevor R Shaw

This note draws attention to the European publication in a magazine of 1851 1 of an arlicle about Howes Cave already known from a New York periodical 2 of the same year It also seeks Lo

clanfy some of the published statements3 about the latter

The article concerned titled Visit to Howes Cave is identical in both publications the visit iaking place on the morning of August seventh 1850 The author was one of a party of eight gentlemen who rode over from Sharon-Springs to Cobleskill to visit Howes Cave but there is no indication of his identity either in the article or in the lists of contents of the volumes

In a previous article in the Journal of Spelean History3 Kevin Downeys text correctly places the visit in 1850 and dates the account as of 1851 the year of its publication But his reference 17 to the New York publication gives the title as 1852 Visit to Howe Cave which is misleading as well as inaccurate

Downey also attributes the authorship of the article to Simeon North though he has been unable to provide the source of his information for this4 It is noticeable that elsewhere in his text Downey refers to Norths popular Visit to Howe Caverns without calling up a reference but in a context which suggests that this may be the same article under a second variant title

It is important for historians and bibliographers that the identity of the author (and visitor of 1850) should be identified if possible The presence of errors in Downeys text and his inability to recall his source for the authors name leave this identity in doubt

Can readers of this Journal who may know more about the literature of Howes Cave throw any light on this problem

Jlteerellces

1 Anon 185l Visit to Howes Cave Sharpes London Journal 14 for 1851 88-92 (this issue may have appeared in 1852)

2 Anon 1851 Visit to Howes Cave The Knickerbocker or New-York Monlhly Magazine 37 (3) March 1851 2111-217

3 Downey K R [1980] Lester Howe and his cave The Journal of Spelean History 13 (3) for July-Sept 1979 67-73

4 Enquiry dated Feb 22 1993 from T R Shaw

63Journal of Speleall History

Cave Inscriptions

Unconfirmed reports indicate that the oldest dated cave inscription is in Postojna Jama Yugoslavia 1213 III America the names ofB Bollong and I Bell 1700 appear in Wilsolls Cave 011 Willis Mountain Virginia

Promotional Flyers of the Cave Man Russell Trail Neville William R Halliday MD

In part because his active years preceded the creation of the National Speleological Society the name of Russell Trail Neville increasingly is fading into obscurity Yet in the two decades between the Royd Collins debacle and the end of World War II many Americans came to associate his name with the work CAVE Only incidentally an author he became known to millions of Americans as a spellbinding lecturer and pioneer speleophotographer Today his work lives on largely in the work of current speleoauthors who turn to his historic photographs to document the bygone days of pre-NSS American speleology

But Russell Trall Neville deserves more than this Scattered biographical material would easily make possible a published study of his life and times notably illustrated with his best works But scattered is perhaps the key word In 40 years of collecting I have obtained only three of his promotional flyers The earliest a double-sided three-leaf folder came to me from George F Jackson who caved with him in Kentucky in 1927 The other two are post-1940 8- 112 x 11 inch two-sided standard format flyers differing only slightly from each other None is dated

Jointly the three flyers fill in many details of Nevilles obscure life Together with his scattered articles and unpublished book-length manuscript (in my possession) they form a skeleton for a full-length biography of this pioneer of the modern period of American speleology

Probably other collectors of American spelean history have copies of other Russell Trail Neville fl yers I suggest that the American Spelean History Association serve as a cleari nghouse for information on other Neville flyers and other biographical data Probably I will never get around to writing the biography he merits but someone should

Journal of Speleall History 64

Cave Explorer Scientist

Photographer

RUSSELL TRALL NEVILLE middotTHE CAVE MAN

PRESENTING

In t he Cellarsof the World Home Address KEWANEE ILLINOIS

bull

a~ EXPLORE THE UNKNOWN ~ ~ ~

With THE CAVE MAN Let him take you adventuring into marvelous underground fairylands Mr Ne vi lle shows you wonderfully beautiful pictures especially selected from thousands of his world famous cave photographs There is no other living man who has been in more American caves or tra ve lled so many miles in so many caverns Floyd C ollin s whose tragic death in Sand Cave aroused the sympathy of the wor ld and Mr Neville two intrepid cave explorers rpached places in caves never before seen by human eyes

IN THE CELLARS OF THE WORLD is packed full of thrills surprises adventure and beauty and IS illustrated wif ~ hoic c coloree lant ern slides

You are sure to be delighted with this unique educationai illustrated lecture Millions have heard it from the plaHo rm and over the radio

A FEW OPINIONS Pe rhaps you read Mr Clay Perrys article in the July 12th 1941 issue of the Saturday Evening Post In which he paid hiGh tribute to Mr Ne villes Cave explorations

An excerp t But Im a novice alongside Russell Trail Neville the Cave Man of Kewanee Illinois Neville has travelled morc J~an a

thousand miles underground and taken more than 5000 photographs of what he calls TH CELLARS OF THE WORLD

Th e late Lorado Taft famous artist said You certainly have a unique and notable lecture Your pictures are wonderfully fine and the adventures thaf lie behind

them ore ery thrilling In spite of all of the beauty that you have brought to light I heartily testify that no reward would vpr get me into those tight places

Mr Arthur C Page Editor pa~ri~ Farmer ~riting to a College President Mr Nevi lle has spoken several~ trT1es over WLS (The Prairie Farmer Radio Station) and I have seen a great man y of his

wonaerful pictures He is one of the most fascinating speakers I have ever lis te ned to

Mr D E Northam Chairman Entertainment Committee The Adventurers Club Chicago Illinois I Vl ant to convey to you the thanks of the entire member~hip of the Adventurers Club for the most interesting educa

tiona l ar~d thri ll ing program you gave us at our last Ladies Night I hope we may have you again

Dr Charl es D Sneller Past President Illinois State Academy of Sciences I have heard the CAVE MAN deliver his lecture many times He thrills children and adults alike He has spo~en beforr

th e Peor ia Rotary Club the Peoria Kiwanis Club and the Peoria Academy of Scipnces and always capti va ted his Judiences His pictures are a marvel and his lecture is unusually interesting

lr e iIle cave photographs have been shown literally all over the world in the rnot important Inte rshynationa l P hotographic Salons winning many special medals and diplomas

In the Cellars of the World delight ~ d edu c ated aud thrilled audiences at

Fiel d ~fuseum of Natural History Chicago Chicago Ca dem of Sciences Rod ro rd Coll e~ e Rockford Illinois VS II Iowa Cit Iowa Cnlvlrsity C lu b Evanston Illinois D eKa lb Teachers Institute Sycamore Illinois BI ~(kbl11l Coll e ge Carlinville Illinois Oll io Stn te Ulli (lsi tl Bowling Green Ohio Carn(~le [ uselllll Pittsburgh Pennsylvania L1ke S hore A t hl etic Club Chicago The middot c lt1demy of Sciences Buffalo New York v~IA0 The Chi cago Daily News Station The fil allk0e Iuselm Milwaukee Wisconsin Allis- Ch a lmers Foremans Club Ylilwaukee Wisconsin IIlin 0is Veslea1 Unhersity Bloomington Illinois Am erican Instit lte of Electrical Enbineers Pittsfield

Iassa c huse tls Tile TIrio ) I11n s Educational Club Toledo Ctah State T chers College St George Utah LaSall e Juni o r Co llege Auburndale lassachusetts Vest ern Illi no is State Teachers College Macomb Illinois La ke Erie Co llege Paines v ille Ohio Go e rnment Ind ian School Poplar Ylontana Vom a n Cit) Club Portsmouth -lew Hampshire orcestcl ( adem Worcester ~fassachuserts Linel HO IIse B()s ton RI C lub IPtt stO Il PennsIania Slal( T ( a(hers C()l l e~e Dickinson orth Dakotu shy s ( 11 h lllHlrlds ()f other Schoo ls Colleges Womans ()IIIJ - 1 1111 (1oll Cluh IIH1 others Ill oyer the United --Oltll( middot

THE CAvE IAI ITH HIS OiDERFLL PICTURES LKES YOU INTO THE REALM OF StBTERRAiEAi OlI)ERS PLACES YOU CAOT POSSIBLY VISIT SAFELY rOIshyFORTASLY AlD EASILY

COMPLETE PROJECTIOl EQClPIET IS PHOVI[)ED

ONE OF THE LlL Y PADS

NATURES UNDERGROUND BEAUTY SPOTS

_

PRESENTING

In the

CELLARS of the

WORLD

RUSSELL TRALL NEVILLE T HE CAVE MAN

Cave Explorer

Scientist

Photographer

r~ ~ bull y

I~XPLUHE THE UNKNOWN

Witl THE CAVE MAN Let him take you adventuring into marvelous underground fairylands Mr Neville shows you wonderfully beautiful pictures especially selected from thousands of his world famous cave photographs There is no other living man who has been in more American caves or travelled so many miles in so many caverns Floyd Collins whose tragic death in Sand Cave aroused the sympathy of the world and Mr Neville two intrepid cave explorers reached places in caves never before seen by humiln eyes

IN THE CELLARS OF THE WORLD is packed full of thrills surprises adventure and beauty and IS illustrated with choce color ~d lantern slides

You are sure to be delighted with this clnlque educationai illustrated lecture Millions have heard it from the platform and over the radio

FEW OPINIONS

PerhiJps you read Mr Cla y Perrys article in the July 12th 1941 issue of the Saturday Evening Post n which he paid high tribute to Mr Nevilles Cave explorations

An excerpt But Im a novice alongside Russell Trail Neville the Cave Man of Kewanee Illinois Neville has travelled more than a

IllOU il nd miles underground and taken more than ~UUU photographs ot whaT he calls I HI CELLARS OF THE WORLD

T IO de L010dc Taft fofTv Jdit 2+ You certainly hive a uniqu~ and notable lecture Your pictures are wonderfully fine and the adventures that lie behind

them are very thrilling In spite of all of the beauty that you have brought to light I heartily testify that ~o reNard would ever get me into those tight places

Mr Arlhur C Paqe Editor Prairie Farmer writing to a College President Mr Neville has spoken several times over WLS (The Prairie Farmer Radio Station) and I have seen a great many of his

wonderful pictures He is one of the most fascinating speakers I have ever listened to

Mr D E Northam Chairman Entertainment Committee The Adventurers Club Chicago Illinois I want to convey to you the thanks of the entire membership of the Adventurers Club for the most interesting educashy

tional and thrilling program you gave us at our last Ladies Night I hope we may have you again

Dr Charles D Sneller Past President Illinois State Academy of Sciences I have heard the CAVE MAN deli ver his lecture many times He thrills children and adults alike He has spoken before

the Peoria Rotary Club the Peoria Kiwanis Club and the Peoria Academy of Sciences and always captiv~ted hi s Judiences His pictures are a marvel and his lecture is unusually interesting

l r C iJl cs cave photoJraphs have heen shown literally allover the world In the most important Intershynational Photog-raphic Salons winninJ many special medals and diplomas

THE CAn- t1AX WITH HIS OXDtRFlL IICTLRtS TAKES YOU IITO THE REALM OF SUBTERRAE X O~)ERS

delighted educated alld thrilled audiences at

In the Cellars 0 the World PLACES YOU CAIIOT POSSIBLY nSIT SAFELY COMshyFORTABLY ID EASILY

Clliclgo Academy of Sciences Horkforrl Colleue Roekforrl Illinois Slmiddotr Tow~ City Iowa lfnin rsity Club Evanston Illinois In his cave work Mr Neville hs had Illany entershyrkl~lh TearIHr Institute SIlm)rr Illillo

Fielcl Iuseum of Natural Histor Chicago

taininl4 alllllsinl and thrillinJ experience IN THERIldlln CollECE Carlinvill~ I11nos Ohio ~LaLE lJniv~rsitv Bowlingt Green Ohio CELLARS OF THE WORLD Carneg-ie Museum Pittsburg-h Pennsylvania Lake Shore Athletic Club Chicag-o lear him tell some of these The cademy of Sciences Buffalo New York WMAQ The Chicago Daily News Station See his wonderful colored pictures The llilwaukee Museum 1ilwaukee Wisconsin AllismiddotChalmers Foremans Club Iilwaukee Wisconsin Illinois Wesleyan University Bloomington Illinois A merican Institute of Electrical Enhince ls Pittsfield AN INTERESTJiIC CR WLW Y

Massachusetts The Toledo Vomans Educational Club Toledo i~ II - ~ Utah Stu te Teac hers College St George Utah K ~

LaSa lie J u nior Colleg-e Auburndale 1assach usetts Vestern Illinois State Teachers College Macomh Illinoi ~

Lake Fri e College Painesille Ohio t lt bullbull bull _~ -11(1shy

Goernment Indian School Poplar vlontana oll1an s Cit Club Portsmouth New Hal11psllill~ ~ii7~ c

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ernment and () gter Hed fnr t he pleasure p the pur-Ilc LInder the directir T) f t he ~ tion ~1 Plr i

Service Lone ()f the worlds I ~tgshyesi and most wonderfu I e lVes

Mr N vdk wns ghen gtltc id permission by the Derarrment of the Interi0r to make mm io n lIld still photographs in this mighty suhterranean wondcrlmd

With the co-()rtr~tion of the Superintendent and his ~ t a ff Mr Neville i ~ ited rlrts ltIt the Cavern I)() t re-n In the llIll ie

Urili ing al l ll th e exrnence gained 11 rho og rlgthingl hunshydred caes he m11ltmiddot nHHio n lnd still pictures of 11 mti frm shyHllms you mny ne(r 1gt 11gt1 to see The lre Jt~) i ( tt l Iith the skill md arri try then Mr Neville Igtrings ((I l1 his rholOshygraphic ork You wi ll have a new a[preci ati o n of rlw ond t rs of NI(ure after y()U hIc seen thSt ullusual [icrllrcs

ml ~ )middotIIJ l I ltxll r W i n ~ lIl1 rIH)togr 1 I hing the Caves of Kltntlldy )[1 1-Ili1I11 fo r slt tT d Yr DlIff th1t timt h h I S trlmiddote1I1 ~ rh l rs a thoulnd mile 1111-ic rgrltgtllnd

He ha ( ~ rr it h C3 mlt r3 up ond I pw n ltwr huge rock s crnwl el thngtugh lItT worn crev ices so smlll ir eemed imshypossihilt to neglHil te rh em even witho ut rhe heavy ca men1 equip menc-a ll the whi le Illaking hi wond eriul seri e )f interestm g cave pictures

Wlgtrking undr Ihorograrh ic difficultie I n1 rhysICa l h~zard s wh ic h eltIlle1 unsurmoun raH lt Mr Neille has succeeded ntvshyenhelts in Igtrin gi ng Igtcfo re the pulgtlic fy means oi morion ricshycures lnd by lantern slides beautiful scenes and views of formations yUU lta nnm possiLly see fo r yourself

Combined with this he rreshysents them in a highly artistic and cntcrtaining manner

ALADDINS GROTTO

~( A Camera Journey through Underground Fairylands ~ with Russell T Neville the Cave Man

m R Neville is a cave lxrlorer 1nd rhor)grapher Bc)innin~ a a hlgtbh this ~ work has Jevelored into a serious utempt t gt 1()nr1Y ancl present rhee little known heauties hidden tar lgteJuw Ih~ surface of he earth

Interesting experienltcs galore have fdlen tll Mr Nilie Igtt in this exploration rk ( llS have heen iiscltlnrJ wdl knwn caves Ioae heen exrlorel (Ll greuer distan(ts and all til rime his (nmeras have been l1llking a lirhful anJ unique recorl f his travels into rh e Realms f Ni)ht

Mr Nevilles exrtlitiol1 lI1t OIJ Salts Ca e (July 192 1 went into places never hefore st~n by white exrlorers The pnrry was in the Cave ltgtn rhis trir for fifty-one hours anJ rhirry-five minutes They liLltereJ and 1T()ughr to light a co nsiderable quantity lIt materini left hy rhe mysrerio us C 1e Men ot long ago This is shown in rhe pictures and commented upo n bv M r Neville who ha s Jen)[cd much rime to

the study ot the prehistoric folk wh o inhahit 1 rhis l11ighty sulgtrerranenn labyrinth many hundreds of y~1rs ago

Q A VE photography is essentially ver hn1rdou~ md tlifficulr C(gtmtgtined With tht risks pi origina l caw eplorarinn- rraversing unc harted pathways ShTtgtlldcl

in eernal darkness whlre unseen unknown dangers lurk in even shaJ(l there are serious photographic tehllical prohlems t(l be solved

Well gr(lund~d in the rtquir ~ l1lellts of a pkasing picrure Mr Neillc has usel 111 his lbility in the rnkillcrion of wonlerful lighting~ and pkwrial Clgtmpsitigtns PrllJucshying his own light 1 mtans of [()erflll fIlr~ elch giving 72 000 cnndle r ower he comhats the unfavrahle condicigtns which are found in aves Jnd interesting effects nre picwred which lend ench1 lltment to rhe cenes

Three ree Is lit standard ie i 35mm ) motion ricrllre film are al ilahle for use A portable morion ricure pwjecto r can be furnished

Many heautifully ha nd co lor~J lantern sliJes may he used if desi reJ This motion picture film is rhe fi rst and on ly attempt ever made ro prcsem o n t he

screen rhe hidJen undergrour J mancls of Narure

Remarks on the Potential of Underground Space for Defense Against Attack Jack Hurley DC Speleograph June 1960

1 Todays threat from the Soviets is political economic and military Thelalter includes chemical and biological warfare radio-logical fall-out and the weapon of the future - the neutron-ray gun not to mention others yet to be developed

2 The good earth which sustains uswill inevitably have its underground spaces explQited and developed to an unprecedented degree in a return to what might be called the era or the Jmodern cave man for nothing can protect us so well and for minimum cost as the underground spaces

3 In recent times we have the example of Nazi Germany in World War II with some) 000 underground storage depots light assembly plants and factories as well as the present day state or the art middot~ exemplified in Sweden In this country government and commercial interests possess bu~ a few underground sites not all of which can be discussed because of their classified nature However those not classified offer good examples of a good beginning - but only a beginning

Some of the underground sites that have been developed and are presently in usc principally for storage of various kinds are located in Kansas (Hutchinson and elsewhere) Neosho Missouri California and Iron Mountain New York as well as the development by my company of the Annandale Mine Butler Pennsylvania into a huge modern underground storage vault for irreplaceable records Some of our cl ients are the Jones and Laughl in Steel Co the U S Steel Co and the First National Bank oCNew York City Other sites are being usedJor cold storage and for hospitals but as yet the uses are extremely limited

Some of the potential uses are for light manufacturing and assembly plants permal1ent housing for some of our fabulously expensive data computers headquarters for command posts fo r national state and local civil defense storage of items essential for human survival in the event of atomic attack as well as items essential to the process of industrial rehabilitation To a limited extent they may also be utilized as shelters for at least some of the population in case of disaster

Why is it that the underground has not been more fully exploited and developed

1 Th~aver~ge individual dislikes the idea 2 The potential of the ul1derground for storage and housing has only been slightly understood 3 Existing sites are not always conveniently located 4 Those who cculd spark such development do not fully understand the nature and perhaps the imminency of the threat 5 I n some cases development has been stifled because of the cost even though this is but a fraction of that iiwolvedin creating a totally man-made facility for similar purposes Also there have been mistaken efforts to use underground space for purposes for which itwas not suited 6 The average human being strongly resists change in his essential concepts The so-called vested interests must first realize a scarcity of suitable top-side space before they will begin acquiringund~rground space

71Journal of Speleall History

Some of the advantages of good mines and caves are

1 They are generally removed from critical target areas 2 Development costs no more than on the surface and is frequently considerable less 3 In the long run maintenance and operating costs are much lower 4 In business and industry the absenteeism of workers due to illness extremes of temperature etc frequently becomes a real problem In my opinion working in the quiet atmosphere underground in a steady temperature and humidity level would have a beneficial and healthful effect This same situation makes it far easier to create a static condition beneficial to tl)e preservation and long life of records and other materials stored underground 5 The standard earth cover for modern missile bases is 25 feet Nearly all mines and caves of any consequence have far more cover than this thus increasing their protection potential

You as cave explorers and members of the National Speleological Society can assist by

1 Providing inventories of the most suitable caves for various purposes 2 Assist in developing guides or standards for caves for specific purposes 3 Talk about how mines and caves can be utilized and thus influence those who are in a ~tjon to initiate action in this direction

The above is the substance oj a talk given by Mr Hurley 10 the members oj the DC ChilP4tl oj the NSS on June 7 1960

Comment of the Designation of Certain Caves as Fallout Shelters William H Peters DC Speleograph April 1963

I believe all of us as members of the National Speleological Society have been aware for the past several years of the interest in utilizing selected caves for the protection of civilian population in the event of a national emergency The interest up until now remote has materialized into an actual requisitioning of caves in Pendleton County West Virginia and other communities in that state anxious to utilize all of their resources for what can certainly be called a noteworthy if not heroic program There has been at first a rejection of the idea among speleologists We are at first repelled by the idea of giving up our almost absolute sovereignty of the underground The realities of the world invading our isolated laboratories is unacceptable to us as scientists~ and of course the whole concept of nuclear war is still psychologically repugnant Our first reaction is expressed in many ways - useless protests exclamations of impossibility and we formulate every reason for the programs failure

But as citizens we have a responsibility to study the problem and the facts are not pleasing Repugnant as it is nuclear warfare lives not too far from the pleasantries of our life This is

72 JOllrllal of Speleall History

proven by the not so far removed Cuban Crisis In November 1962 LS Finkelstein at the Harvard University Center for International Affairs writing of the Soviet position on Arms Inspection is quoted It is hard to escape the conclusion that the Soviet Union for at least much of the time seems to have been interested more in employing the negotiations as a means of weakening the military and political position of the West that as a route to a viable disarmament system He goes on to quote James P Wadsworth to the effect that the Soviet Union has employed arms control negotiation as a part of a grand strategy aimed at the eventual total defeat of the other side 1 Thus for those persons who hope for an easy solution it is hard to find the substance to nourish those hopes

The possibility of reducing the probable use of nuclear weapons is diminished by the cruel fact that reduction in armaments only increases the probability of escalation in armament by lessening the factor required for decisive advantage while additionally making the elements of decisive advantage available to many other countries who may aspire to greater roles than current economic or scientific resources have relegated them This point is well illustrated by HA Kissinger nuclear disarmament has revealed the paradoxical fact that there is a certain safety in numbers And this is true even if both sides religiously observe an agreement to limit nuclear weapons Instability is greater if each side possesses ten missiles that if the equilibrium is stabilized at say 500 For an attack which is 90 successful when the opponent has ten missiles leaves him one or a number hardly able to inflict unacceptable damage An attack of similar effectiveness when the opponent possesses 500 missiles leaves 50 - perhaps sufficient to pose an unacceptable risk 2

We can easily conclude that the probability of removing nuclear weapons from the field of War Science is remote from purely tactical necessity What is also critical to our thinking is that the War Sciences are advancing in their ability to assess more and more elements and their relationship to decisive advantage Von Neumann in formulating the Minimax Game Theory and its reduction to mathematical models applied to computers increases the number of factors to be considered beyond the capability of the human mind International politics are founded upon economic and strategic factors rather than ethical or moral principle It is not impossible that in the cold realistic logic of the Game Theory3 that some remote event passing unseen by the casual observer will relate itself to decisive advantage for the opponent and may demand immediate action by one or the other side We cannot hope that in every instance the situation will escalate as did the Cuban Crisis so that the population can prepare itself

The comparison of Civil Preparedness to Ostrichism is not a fair comparison Civil Preparedness adds another factor for a potential enemy and complicates his game It makes it more difficult to game reliability Kissinger points out four considerations for reducing the possibility of decisive advantage the second of which is Since invulnerability is a relative term the purpose of arms control measures must be to strengthen so far as possible the relative position of the defender either by enhancing the security of his force or by complicating the calculations of the aggressor2 It is thus that civil preparedness serves a two fold purpose of deterring and of providing some measure

of survi val

The remoteness of the areas under consideration enhances the desirability of taking appropriate measures God forbid that it should come to pass but in the event of a nuclear holocaust it is these areas that could become the springboard for the reconstruction of our democracy and for the continuation of our cultural heritage

As members of the National Speleological Society we have the opportunity of not only participating but of making a definite contribution No other organization has more resources in

73Journal of Speeall History

scientific personnel experience or knowledge relating to caves Failure to meet our responsibilities at this time will only widen possible misunderstandings between the National Speleological Society and Civil Defense Organizations We must accept the fact that as the civil defense program expands more cave resources will be requisitioned Our opposition will only serve as a barrier to continued parallel use of these resources

The Society can assist in both the areas of applied practical knowledge and of basic research To list bnt a few are - advising and monitoring storage in areas of historical underground hydrological fluctuations monitoring humidity temperature and air circulation locating suitable areas in caves that will minimize the possibility of vandalism recommending types of closures of gates and assisting in their installation checking periodically the condition of supplies and reporting this to appropriate authority and condemnation of areas due to strata imperfection and probability of breakdown

There are many questions in need of investigation What is the relationship in a multiple stream capture theory and the possible concentration of radioactive or other contaminates in a cave duc to fIltration What is the probability of infection by intake of foods contaminated by histoplasma ir any What is the relationship of bat rabies to human cave habitation What provision must be made for sanitation - control of rats and possible damage to supplies and in the event of human habitation control of rat fleas as possible communicators of typhUS or other epidemic diseases) What is the probability of excessive amounts of radioactive materials being introduced to the cavc environment by animals such as bats that enter and leave the cave frequently These represent only a portion of the questions which should be examined to determine their relevance and what precautionary measures should be taken if relevant

I would like to propose that at a special meeting of the Board of Governors a Civil Defense Advisory Committee composed of competent scientists and speleologists be formed for the purpose of formulating suitable policies initiating scientific investigation and in general assuming the role of representing and coordinating the Societys Civil Defense effort The question as to whether we can afford to undertake such a program with its inherent socialpolitical implications should be answered - Can we afford not to

References

1 Arms Inspection International Conciliation Nov 1962 (It is interesting to note that in my upinion this publication follows closely the United Nations activities It is surprising to observe this pessimistic attitude in that area)

2 Foreign Affairs Volume 39 no 4 July 1960 Inspection and Surprise Attack p 56l

3 A current article on Game Theory appears in the December 1962 issue of Scientific Americall by Anatol Rapoport The Use and Misuse of Game Theory

Journal of Speleall History 74

1922 Trip Reports

Maud Orr Howell

Trip 10 Bear Cave

Gordon Brown led eight of us including Elizabeth Hord George Raudebush Benie Weaver Tom Weaver Johnny Connor Boyte and me to Bear Cave in Savage Gulch

We left the Observatory at 900 am went down Clark Cottage Path and across the valley to the clearing in front of the old Savage home

The girls rested while the boys went up the side of Peak Mountain to a ~pring and brought back some water Then we explored the old house In one of the upstairs rooms that had newspapers on the walls we read in the Society section of a newspaper dated August 17 1908 that Mr and Mrs Sanford Duncan had gone to spend a few days with Mrs Robert Orr in Maury County

We cut across the field to the right of the house and climbed along the side of Peak Mountain then straight down the side of the mountain to Savage Creek After drinking water from a spring running into the creek we followed the creek up a few yards then climbed up the mountain on the left a few yards to the cave This is Coppenger Mountain It was 11 45 so we ate our Iunch and rested until 1 10 when all but Elizabeth and Tom went in the cave We had candles and carbide lights and Gordon led the way It saw 220 when we got out After resting a few minutes and taking some Kodak pictures we all including Elizabeth and Tom went in again and stayed until 300 pm

We gathered our things which included sticks which Gordon had cut for us the Kodak the lunch bag canteen etc and set out straight up the mountain with Gordon pulling us up some of the places until we hit the cliffs We followed the cliffs along until we found a place to climb up When we got on the top we walked along the mountain until we got to the end of it which is just above the Savage house We went down a path which went straight down the mountain to the Savage house rested while the boys got water then came home to Howell cottage the same way we had gone arriving here at 700 pm

Trip to Bats Cave

Saturday September 2 1922

We first planned to walk to Tatesville but not knowing how far it was we gave it up and decided to walk to Bats Cave The night before the trip we gave that up too as it was so far and the weather so hot

As we were eating breakfast Mr George Mitchell came and he had breakfast with us He suggested getting a wagon for our trip so immediately after breakfast Mr George Bettie Martha and Tom Weaver Boyte and I went to the store and got Earnest Rubleys wagon

75Journal of Speleall History

We all met on the Observatory There were 19 of us Five including Mr George Jennings and George Bailey Torn and Charlie Trabue IV left first and went down the Backbone Road intending to meet us at the Collins River bridge The rest of us Elliott and David Adams Lucy and Elizabeth Bailey Lucinda Trabue Irene Langford Elizabeth Mclane Kate Keene Johnson Susan Lewis Bettie and Martha Weaver Boyte and I walked down the mountain from the Observatory and met the wagon a little piece up the valley We missed the other bunch and they did not catch up with us until we had left the wagon and were eating lunch at the spring

We finished lunch and walked up the mountain to the cave We went to the big room where we stopped last year which is just beyond the small ladder We climbed the ladder then all but Irene Tom Elizabeth and I went on further We waited at the top of the ladder until they came back They had gone to another big room and circled around it about three times before finally finding the way out They found an old Nashville newspaper dated 1847 and another paper with some names on it They added their names to this list

When we got out of the cave it was nearly 500 We had been in there three hours

We went back to the wagon and started horne We got to Collins River bridge about dark The moon was almost full and the ride up the valley in the moonlight in a wagon filled with hay and pulled by mules was beautiful We stopped at Mortons store and Mr George telephoned up lo Beersheba and told them where we were and assured them that we would be home soon He brought out oodles of cookies and we had a grand time eating them We sang and yelled and relaxed on the hay We left the wagon at the bottom of Beersheba Mountain Martha led the way up the mountain in the dark with only the moon to help guide us We had Oashlights but it was hard to keep in the path But it was fun We reached the top at the Observatory at 845 pm and no one seemed to be tired

Trip to Peak Mountain

A crowd of us left Aunt Mats Cottage at 930 am on Monday August 28 1922 There were 19 of us including Mr George Mitchell Elizabeth Hord Mr Colville Elliott Adams Jennings Bailey Lucy Bailey Kate Keene Johnson George Eldred Mary Wilson Eldred Irene Langford Elizabeth Mclane Bettie Orr Martha Weaver Tom Weaver Alfred Williams Mary Phillips Street Susan Lewis Boyte Howell Jr and me (Maud Orr Howell)

We went down Clark Cottage Path to the valley The crowd was separated going down but we all got together at the foot of the mountain crossed the valley and climbed Peak Mountain There was no path we just went up the side of the mountain and went thru a pass up the cliffs We got there about 1200 pm rested then ate lunch We put up a nag (Elizabeth Hords petticoat)

Aoout 100 pm we left to find the old stage coach road to Chattanooga We went straight across the top of the mountain and found the road at the spring and a little log cabin We followed the road to the valley We heard Marshall Eldred mooing answered him and he found us Gordon Bro n who was with him led us to Peter Rock Cave on the side of Peak Mountain Marshall did not start out with us because he helped Gordon fix the leaks in Laurel Mill Dam Elliott led us in the cave and we did not go back very far It was pretty but wet and muddy

We c~me home by Dishroon Springs drank some of the water and ate the rest of our lunch [hen came on up the mountain A few of us stopped at the Johnson place and looked across the valley at Elilabeth Hords petticoat which we had left on a tree on Peak Mountain We came on horne arriving here about 500 pm

Journal of Speleall History 76

No Old Gold or Bones A Skeptical Review of Caverna del Oro Legendry Donald G Davis reprinledfrom Rocky Mountain Caving Summer 1992

In the thin air of timberline on Marble Mountain in the Sangre de Cristo range icy wind blows from the entrance to a deep and cryptic cave marked by the damaged remnant of a rust-red cross Known today as Spanish Cave it is the most publicized non-commercial cave in Colorado It has been featured for more than 70 years in media - first newspapers then magazines books and television specials Most of this publicity recounts stories that it is La Caverna del Oro where Indian slaves mined gold for 17th century Spaniards Many people take this as fact Recently a Colorado caver told me he had spoken with a journalist who assured him that the cave was bottomless and contains untold treasures

Spanish Cave was important in the start of my own caving career in 1957 While attending Colorado A amp M College (later CSU) I saw in scrapbooks in the Fort Collins Museum clippings of the Colorado Question Box column from the Rocky Mountain News circa 1955 They told stories of a Maltese-cross-marked entrance lost gold mine and chained skeleton reported in the caverns depths After correcting the first error we found in the accounts (that the cave was on Homs Peak several miles north of Marble Mountain) two of us (Vin Hoeman and myself) in the college Hikers Club located the cave the next year In subsequent years with Frank and Paul Leskinen James W Meachan and others in the Southern Colorado Grotto of the NSS I led the discovery of about two-thirds of its presently known passage

Finding that the Western History Department of the Denver Public Library had a clipping file on the cave I also undertook research on its history which I have continued intermittently since The mure I learned about the real cave the more disillusioned I became with the stories sensationalizing it I learned much about the rules of logic and evidence during the investi galion and was ultimately convinced that there was no satisfactory confirmation that Spanish explorers ever saw or entered the cave much less mined gold from it Following are some of the reasons for that concl usion

The most readily available summary of the legendry is in Lloyd Parris Caves oCoLorado (1973) pp 24-32 Parris precedes his Treasure Caves accounts with a confused and equivocal disclaimer The following tales for the most part have the validity of history behind them and in most cases the caves are known Undoubtedly though some of the legends connected with these caves belong in Chapter IV under hoax and humbug And if these legends seem to disagree or contradict what is previously known it is because they were selected not for entertainment alone but as a presentation of the known facts or legends as the case may be An evaluation of the authenticity has not been attempted This is left for the reader to do

This reader hereby takes up the challenge

The Spanish Mille Legends

A number of accounts (including Parriss) relate that Spanish Monastery Latin documents record gold being brought to pre-Columbian Mexican Indian kingdoms Acolhua Aztec and Tepance

Jourllal of Speleall History 77

from the north Then in 1541 three monks were supposedly left behind by Coronado (the Rocky MOllntain News June 3 1923 says 1598) One Fray Juan de la Cruz reportedly reopened a mine using forced labor by Pecos I ndians (a northern New Mexico Pueblq trib~)and packed treasure toward Mexico City but never arrived there Nuggets and gold bars reported found by one Baca in 1811 were speculated to be part of this treasure and a prospector searching (according to Parris) for Cavema del Oro half a century later found a silver cup engraved with the name Hermione Taken at face value all this gives the impression that stories about Caverna del Oro are of great antiquity though the original Spanish documents are never cited

This suite of tales was first widely distributed in an article by Alberta Pike headlines OLD MANUSCRIPT INDICATES VAST RICHES IN COLORADO CA VE GUARDED BY SKELETON in the Rocky Mountain News of Sept 6 1932 Subsequent Spanish Cave popularizers have recopied them from one article to the next without naming a source for them I recently made an enlightening discovery in the Colorado Historical Society library about where this material came from

Before any known Spanish Cave article was written Louis Bernhardt Sporleder -- early resident and prominent citizen of Walsenburg Colorado -- published a souvenir booklet titled Huajalolla Breasts of the World (1916) An article in The Trail June 1922 reprinted much of this booklet and said Sporleder had a number of unpublished manuscripts giving information historical and legendary about the Spanish Peaks (as the Huajatolla are more commonly known) Sporleders booklet included word for word most of the above Spanish mine material copied by later Cavema del Oro writers

Even his misspelling of the Tepance kingdom (properly Tepanec) has been faithfully reproduced by authors as late as Parris

As to the actual historicity of Sporleders items I know little but his writings (eg The Roses of Huajatolla The Trail Dec 1922) were prone to wild flights of romantic fiction incorporating gross errors about natural history He claimed for instance that the otherwise extinct passenger pigeon still survived on the Spanish Peaks in fact it has never been recorded in Colorado His human history appears similarly colored But even if he was accurate it is crucial to our study that his stories were exclusively about the Spanish Peaks making no connection whatever to Marble Mountain 50 miles to the northwest He specifically stated that the silver cup was found beside a spring in a grotto at the base of East Spanish Peak (the name Hermione moreover is Greek not Spanish) All of this is therefore irrelevant to the cavern on Marble Mountain that we know as Spanish Cave

In Sporleders 1916 version the prospector who found the cup was searching for Huajatollas mines of gold In Pikes 1932 recounting he was seeking the lost mine but she associates it with the cave on Marble Mountain Parris in 1973 transmutes the object of the searchers quest explicitly into the Caverna del Oro Thus by insidious mutations does spurious lore enshroud our cave

Forbes Parkhill asserted that Marble cave Legends connect the Spanish cross and the ancient timber found in the mine [sic] with the gold hunting and exploring expeditions of Juan de Onate in 1597 and the Escalante-Dominguez expedition in 1776 (Explorers to Seek Mysteries of Caves in San Isabel Wilds Discovered Four Centuries Ago Denver Post Oct 9 1921) Even Parris rejects these suggestions because those expeditions did not come close to Marble Mountain

Jourllal of Speleall History 78

Earliest Known Accounts ofthe Cave middot

In 1919 appeared a brochure Out-ol-door Piaygroullds of the Sansabel National Forest USDA middot Circular 5 by Henry S Graves Forester It declared that The Caves of the Winds [not to be confused with Cave of the Winds at Manitou Springs] a system of giant crevices in a mountain or solid white marble is one of the principal natural wonders of the Forest These caves have been penetrated to a depth of over 1200 feet without the end being reached Theymay be reached by wagon road from Westcliffe

On Oct 12 1919 the Denver Post ran an anonymous article San Isabels Caves of Winds Among Wonders of Colorado It stated The Caves of the Winds have been known to exist for many years They are described brieOy in the report of the San Isabel national forest A party of Denver business men is planning to visit the caves this autumn with a view to exploring them to their depths if pOssible If it is found that the natural wonders said to exist in the interior of the caves are equal to reports which have been received these men will ask the government for the I

privilege of developing the caves as a tourist attraction

That Spanish Cave is the object of these writings is indicated by the emphasis on wind great depth (four times the actual depth of the cave as then known) and incomplete exploration the nearby Cave of the White Marble Halls is less strongly windy nearly horizontal and was already well explored (The accompanying entrance photo is not Marble Mountain) A similar item in the Post of June 27 1920 mentions a huge cave on Marble mountain which has never been explored by man beyond a depth of 1800 feet and which may rival the famed Mammoth Cave of Kentucky Neither treasure legends nor stories ofSpanish exploration are me11lioned in any of these earliest printed accounts

Apollina Apodacas Story

The real genesis of treasure stories as applied to Spanish Cave so far as I can find is with Apollina Apodaca (her name is variously spelled in different accounts I use the spelling that seems most probable) In 1919 (not 1920 as said in Caves oColorado) Paul Gilbert later District Ranger in the Forest heard wonderful tales from this old woman As he recalled in The Bulletin of the Rocky Mountain Region of the US Forest Service (Dec 1936)

She stated that the Spaniards used to get gold from it and further stated that if one were to descend to a sufficient depth [in some accounts she is said to have specified 90 or 93 feet] a set of oak doors would be found and if they were forced open one would find a tunnel leading back into the bowels of the mountain -- and the source of the gold would be found She further stated that when she was a child they used to take a blanket wrap it around a heavy stone and throw it down the shaft In the course of a short time the blanket would be blown back minus the rock by the strong winds that come continually from the shaft

The following spring Gilbert located the cave which he misinterpreted as more of a volcanic fissure than it is a cave and visited it with Arthur C Carhart An item mentioning this trip (Mystery Caves in ColoradoRocky Mountain News Sept 21 1921) is the earliest I have found that makes a Spanish or lost-mine connection Old timers in the hills up there declare the place is the shaft of the old Three Step mine famous in Spanish history Carhart himself in the POSl of Jan 1 1922 says it is reported that it is an old Spanish mine entrance marked with a red cross of Malta and has old timber and a log chain inside

Jourllal of Speleall History 79

Gilberts writings are not entirely consistent about his informants statistics in the above report she is Mexican 105 years old in 1919 and died at 110 In his letter to Robert 1 OConnell of Feb 18 1957 (as published in History ojthe Colorado Grotto Nov 1961) she is Spanish and died in 1923 at age 103 A followup letter of Feb 25 adds that she spent most of her life in the vicinity of San Luis [in the San Luis Valley on the opposite side of the Sangre de Cristos] Another source (Dayle Molen Pueblo Star-Jollmal Nov 18 1956) says she lived near Gardner Perry Eberhart in his sensationalistic Treasure Tales of the Rockies (11) calls her an Indian squaw Raymond Thorp in American ForesTs Aug 1935 citing Gilbert says she died eight years ago which would have been 1927 (this is the date used by Parris) These points may be quibbles yet they indicate a lack of precision in recording the facts about her And since the account attributed to Ms Apodaca is pivotal to the entire Caverna del Oro oeuvre let us dissect it critically

Every element is either improbable or impossible Leaving the geologic aspect until later take the oaken doors There are no oaks for many miles and where they do appear they are scrub oak which would have provided door-size timber only in rare cases (though oaks of that size were more common in the Rockies then than now) And why haul heavy oak to timberline when (though strong when new) it does not resist rot as well as say the more easily obtained juniper There is not in any case any opening near the 9O-foot level where such doors could have been used

The blanket story is completely fanciful As we proved in 1961 (NSS News Aug 1962 part I) the cave wind comes from upper Spanish Cave not from the pit Even if it did the pit is about 15 feet wide whereas the entrance constricts to a narrow crawlway A wind strong enough to blow a blanket back up the pit would rise to such tornadic speed in the crawl as to stop a person from fighting through it to the pit Nor does it seem sensible that people would be blithely tossing their blankets down weighted with rocks After all the rock might fail to unwind and the blanket be lost or shredded at the bottom With so incredible a yarn in it why should not the whole narrative be dismissed as fantasy

The Skeletons

At least three human skeletons have been attested as evidence of Spanish involvement with the cave Two were introduced by reporter Kenneth C Lightburn in a front-page article in the Rocky Mountain News of Sept 4 1932 He claimed that the caves original discovery is credited to Capt Elisha P Hom one of the first settlers in the Wet Mountain Valley in 1869 About its entrance he found the remnants of what might have been a fort and also a skeleton in Spanish armor Through the armor was an Indian arrow (Lightburn also began the misconception that the cave was on Homs Peak) I have not been able to trace the origin of this anecdote but it sounds unlikely if only because the purpose of Spanish armor was to prevent things like stoneshypointed arrows from penetrating ones torso and it generally worked Halls History of Colorado (1895) confirms Elisha P Hom as a pioneer Wet Mountain Valley settler in 1869 but does not mention this story

However the skeleton that Lightburn intended to feature was the one in his articles melodramatic headlines SKELETON FOUND CHAINED BY NECK DEEP IN COLORADO MYSTERY CAVECAVERN IS HIGH IN MOUNTAIN WILDS OF STATEDenver Man Discovers Manacled Bones in Sangre de Cristo Range Moldering 500 Feet Below Surface in Awesome CavitySIGNS INDICATE MINE WORKED IN EARLY DAYSFind Recalls Legends of Fabulous Cavern [sic] del Oro of 17th Century Spaniards The headlines are emphasized by a lurid though regrettably nonphotographic picture of the skeleton and an entrance shot with the cross touched up to show better

80 Journal of Speleall History

Journal of Speean History

The article relates that Peter Moser of Denver with companions Victor Barth and his two sons Donald and Jack had just returned from a descent into the cave (Derivative accounts refer to Victor Donald and Jack Barth the former being a fictitious person born of the omission of an original comma between Victor and Donald)

According to Lightburn the Moser party had climbed down until they reached a vertical pit They lowered a lantern Forty feet downward they saw the bottom and in the light or the lantern could clearly make out the skeleton With a metal strap encircling the neck the pile of bones reclined against the rocky wall as if the person who died there centuries ago hall been chained in a sitting position and left to starve An investigatory trip reported in followup articles of Sept 11 12 arid 18 found no skeleton (If an entrance photo with the story of the 18th is any indication they might not even have found the cave -- the picture is obviously not on Marble Mountain -- it may be at Marble Cave near Canon City) It was speculated that Moser may have seen the skeleton at another point in the cave or that it had been done away with by mysterious parties unknown who had blasted the cave entrance between the two trips

In reality it is not surprising that the chained skeleton was never found There is no sound testimony that it was ever there Unlike Fray Juan de la Cruz Elisha Horn or Apollina Apodaca Peter Moser was still available to me to question when I first researched Lightburns article I found in 1959 that Moser still lived at the same address in Denver as in 1932 On New Years Eve 19591 telephoned him and asked about the story His description made it clear that his party had indeed reached the top of the pit that cavers now call the Jug At that point they had lowered a kerosene lantern on a line and he saw what in his own words looked like a pile of bones on a ledge near the bottom This he said is all he reported to the secretary of the Colorado Mountain Club who in tum contacted the newspaper which -- as Moser put it to me -- dressed it up a little (l printed a more complete record of Mosers hour-long interview in the Southern Colorado Grotto newsletter Spelunk Junk Mar 1960)

This embroidery was to be expected in an era when the Denver papers were battling for readers during the Great Depressiun and were notorious for sensationalism But even if Mosers own explanation did not debunk the skeleton he reportedly found it would not be believable The Jug is about 80 feet deep Have you ever tried to see in cavernous darkness where your breath makes mist clouds by a kerosene lantern at that range Then you will agree that a chaincd skeleton even in fine preservation could hardly have been seen well enough from the top to be recognized unequivocally

81

Caves oColorado complicates the matter by citing a letter to me from James W Meacham in vhich a bone found by Meacham at the bottom of the Jug in 1959 was pronounced human by John A Murphy of the Denver Museum of Natural History What Parris does not say is that I had written him in 1969 -- four years before his book was published -- that another expert at the University of Colorado Museum had declared it a deer bone (This water-worn two-inch fragment might well challenge a forensic specialist)

Not content with two skeletons Thorp (American Forests Aug 1935 op cit) adds a third to this spooky company A strange legend that still haunts the native people concerns a skeleton hung with buckskin which guarded Marble Cave just on the other side of Caverna del Oro It was the first quarter of the 19th century and an American free trapper wandered too far west The Spaniards for fear he would reveal their hiding place crucified him For a half century he remained pinioned to a wcxxlcn cross Aside from the improbably sadistic mode of execution this image typical of cartoons or folklore reveals ignorance of the properties of real skeletons which do not long remain articulated when exposed to weather decay and scavengers

Others find ulterior significance in our discovery of bones of bison and pronghorn antelope in upper Spanish Cave in the 1960s calling them plains species that would never ascend to such lofty heights Unless someone had used the cave for storing or curing meat (Bill Kaiser The Treasure of Caverna del Oro Colorful Colorado May-June 1973) I did not know this then but these animals have been known to ascend to the alpine tundra in historic ti mes and might have done so more often when they were abundant and unfenced The cave is much too wet to be good ror storing perishables

The Artifacts

Many reliable observers from Carhart and Gilbert onward report finding in the 1920s and 30s old artifacts of unknown provenance in Spanish Cave These include a winch chains whiskey bottle jug timber ladders shovel single-jack and a hammer They have all disappeared or been reduced to fragments but claims made for some of them purport to establish archeological evidence of Spanish presence

Thorp (1935 op CiL) in describing the 1932 Rocky Mountain News expedition states that on the second ledge they found the remains of a rudely constructed ladder which Dr LeRoy Hafen ( then editor historian and curator of the State Historical Society) after carefully examining asserted was at least 200 years old Below after being lowered 110 feet they found a crude hand-forged hammer which the historian declared was of 17th century vintage Gilbert (The Bulletin Dec 1936 op cit) and an Alamosa Courier article (from June 1937) repeat these avowals

These are very important allegations since the Spanish were the only people who could have left such artifacts in the 17th century To investigate them I wrote in 1960 to LeRoy Hafen inquiring about his trip to the cave and his knowledge of its history and specifically whether he had certified the hammer as of 17th-century manufacture and if so who now had it His reply was less specific than my questions but it is a primary document on one of the major claims about Spanish Cave and I reproduce it below verbatim

If LeRoy Hafen made claims of antiquity for the Spanish Cave artifacts in 1932 he obviously did not stand by them later His wife Ann W Hafen in Detective Historian (Denver WesTerners Monthly Roundup July 1954) had also recounted his 1932 cave trip and commented disproving a baseless story is important it is part of the search for truth She elaborated To the party the venture was disappointing No treasure found No relic of the ancient conquistadores But to the

Jourllal of Speleall History 82

detective Historian it was just another clue pursued another myth exploded another triumph for the scholars code -- to build history on fact not on fossilized fiction

Thorp (1935 op cit) relates that the timbers of their ladder system were about eight inches in diameter squared on four sides with an ax Auger holes were bored into their sides and they were fitted with wooden rungs pegged into the holes No nails were used al though this probably would have been done by early Germans or Americans [the wood is] now decayed and may be broken in many ins tances by the hand This construction however is not strong evidence for Spanish work Before the railroad reached the Wet Mountain Valley in the 1880s commodities such as nails would have been scarce and expensive anyone building such structures before then might well have used no metal It would also be stronger than tacking on rungs with nails when not using sawed lumber Concerning the other cave artifacts there is not enough information to suggest a date

BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY PROVOUTAH

January 13 1960

11r Donald G Davia P O Box 145 T1lnlath Colorado

Dear Hr Davia

I ~ intereat~d to learn f~ your letter of January J 1960 of your study and COllCen WJth the Caverna del Oro Hy visit to the cave and descent into it was with a party directed and financed by the Tourist Bureau or its counterpart of the period The contemporary ewspal6rs gave som~ accowtof the venture

I made the firat descant into the cave kt that time ging down the rope bS

you doubtless have done ince I recall at the edg~ of the pit th~re were s(XlIe rotted logs that may have been the framework of a windlass At tho bott~ of the pit I found a suall sledge ~er encrusted with limestone formation I dont recall what was done with this haa-er I remember no other relics in the pit

Our purposo was to investigate certain rumors a3 to early use of the cave as a SVanish mine I think middot there is little~~ion for that as the limestone fonnation is a poor VlOspect fot middotormation

The legnd hat a skeleton was chained to the wall gave added impetus to the trip Needless to eay nothing of the sort was found That cav and some near were epoken of colloctively os the Karble Campve and sune referred to this one as the Caverna del Or~ cave of gold The Kaltes cross painted on the rock at the entrllJce to tle cave already had a faded appearance I know nothi8 of the rk of Capto1n Hom regarding the di Scove ry of ~ he cave

i~J At the bottOlll of the pit Carl Dlaurohpersucd tho crevice out 5 far dS ~ ~ could go and found nothi8 to reward our efforts If Hr Ulaurot is still living i Denver he could give you sooe sidelights on th cave as ho visited it after our initial exploration

Cordially yours

LO 91+-LeRoy R IlcIen DeparUent of History

Some writers (eg Jesse Ball Canon City Daily Record Sept 14 1933) speculate that the cave was used by the Spanish as a refuge from Indian attacks The cave itself being windy wet and ncar-freezing would not have been ideal for such occupancy A ruined fort was alleged to exist below Marble Mountain as early as 1881 (Golden City Transcript Aug 31 1881 citing Cusler City Prospect ) later articles mention rifle pits I have seen what I presume to be these features below timberline and could not distinguish them from the miners prospect pits common in the Colorado mountains The largest log breastwork structure has also been interpreted as an old corral (Jerry Hassemer oral communication) If defensive works they are cr Jde ones indeed

This leaves to be considered the famous cross beside the entrance It is about one and a half feet square with flared ends meeting at the corners It has been variously described as burnt on

Jou rnal of Speean History 83

deeply chiseled or etched but in reality is prosaically painted with what looks to be a stable iron oxide pigment perhaps using some sort of template Portions of It had a thm patma of calcite crust when I first saw it in 1958 Though almost always called Maltese it is not as can be seen by looking up a crosses illustration in any large dictionary The true Maltese cross has indented ends A G Birch (Denver Post Aug 11 1929) correctly pointed out that the cave marker isin the perfect form of a German Iron Cross But he also says it was old when the first white sehler saw it more than sixty years ago without explaining how he knew this A contradictory testimony (Trail and Timberline April 1957) asserts that there is one old-timer who states that he knCv the fellow who painted it years ago as ajoke I wiIl pass over both of these declarations as uncorroborated

Spanish crosses as I have seen them represented on coins and in art have narrow straight-sided arms often with the basal arm longer and with the ends variously embellished They are typically very different from German ones It is suggestive that the first sedentary settlers below Marble Mountain were Germans of the Colfax colony in 1870 The colony as an entity failed within a year but some thirty families took possession of quarter sections and prospered as can be seen by the many descendants still living in the area (Wet Mountain Tribune Centennial Edition Dec 20 1985) German immigrants also arrived later on and the ranches cl osest below the caves remained in possession of the German-derived Henrich and Neermann families into recent years Crosses in the square form seen at the cave were used in German decorative motifs (I have seen an antique coffee-grinder at an abandoned German homestead in eastern Colorado that was ornamented with them) The cross could have been painted by a Colfax settler exploring his surroundings soon after the colonys establishment The dispersal of most of the colony in 1871 would account for the failure of later inhabitants to know who had created it

Alternatively it might have been a product of prospector 1 H Yeoman He figures in one of the earliest known accounts of a Marble Mountain cave in History of the Arkansas Valley Colorado (1881) A later report on this cave (Denver Republican Feb 20 1888) appears to describe Cave of the White Marble Halls south of Spanish Cave and states that the cave was discovered by Yeoman on Sept 16 1880 Yeoman obligingly left a graffito confirming this in the cave and the Kings and Queens Chambers of the article are likewise identified (Another 1881 account -shyGolden Cty Transcript op cit -- describes a similar cave but claims discovery by Messrs Hendershot amp Dickson of Custer City) A red cross like that at Spanish Cave but smaller and with narrower arms marks the entrance the associated graffito in English 400 Feet to the White Marble Halls precludes a Spanish conquistador origin (A writing inside -- Mrs H G ReedSilver Cliff CololHere 8115197 -- is done in a similar ornate hand) I have also seen Yeomans signature in Moonmilk Cave just across the ravine south of Spanish and scarcely possible to reach without seeing the Spanish entrance He must have known of Spanish Cave and pesumably had entered it

[he Geology

Finally a point that seems so obvious that it should hardly need to be mentioned decades of repeated explorations in Spanish Cave have failed to turn up a trace of mining or of gold and there is excellent reason for this Gold is found either where hydrothermal solutions have mineralized host rock or where deposits originating in that fashion have been eroded and concentrated in placer gravels Neither situation applies at Marble Mountain where the caves occur in an unaltered Pennsylvanian biothermal limestone lens sandwiched almost vertically between shales and conglomeratic sandstones (The name Marble Mountain is a misnomer marble is limestone altered -- metamorphosed -- by heat andor pressure The abundance of well-preserved brachiopod and crinoid fossils shows that Marble Mountain is not metamorphosed) The only mineralization known on the mountain is a little low-grade copper on the south limestone outcrop

Jourllal of Speleall History 84

Paul Gilbert notwithstanding the caves are in no way volcanic but are relatively typical highshygradient alpine limestone solution caves dissolved probably by massive runoff from melting snov and ice during Pleistocene glacial epochs Writers have speculated that Spanish Cave had a lower entrance (possible since the cave water does emerge at a spring lower down) and an entrance on the west side of the mountain (not possible since the limestone does not outcrop there) Ironically the only new entrance cavers have actually found was in a direction not suggested by any known author above Its discovery explained the cave wind as a chimney effect between the entrances -- blowing down to the lower opening when it is warmer outside than inside reversing when it is colder outside

Conclusions

I know of no one else who has analyzed the Caverna del Oro stories as thoroughly but I am not the first to publish critical judgments on them Mrs Hafen has already been quoted Also on record (NSS Bulletin 8 July 1946) is a letter dated 10444 from Fred R Johnson Chief Information and Education US Forest Service

Carl Biaurock a member of the Colorado Mountain Club explored this cave in 1925 again in 1931 and later in more detail in 1932 On the last date the exploration was the result of several articles in the Rocky MOUnTain News in which an old yam was mentioned to the effect that the cave had been investigated in the Spanish explorations in the eighteenth [sic] century also that it is supposed to have yielded a large quantity of gold and other valuable minerals there are no signs of any mineral So far as Mr Blaurocks party could tell there is no evidence in the cave of any visitation of Spanish explorers several hundred years ago

Molen (opcit) wrote that this story [from Apodaca] has been disapproved [sic] The tools and ladder in the cave are of comparatively modern origin Blaurock believes Someone years ago must have explored the cave at least as thoroughly as we did he said He also expressed doubt that the rifle pits and fort are of Spanish origin I did not interview Carl Blaurock during my earlier research I telephoned him this summer but he is 98 years old and is too deaf to understand my questions I have sent him a letter of inquiry thus far unanswered

After organized caving had begun William R Halliday founder of the Colorado Grotto of the National Speleological Society also concluded that The fabulous stories are fables The story of Spanish Cave is told (Halliday however was too pessimistic in inferring that the cave was almost completely explored Most of what is now known was discovered just after he wrote but none of the new passage showed signs of human entry)

Diehard romantics might protest that Spanish Cave could still be La Caverna del Oro Caves can hide much perhaps somewhere in the depths there is a localized zone of thermal mineralization conceivably the Spaniards very cleverly concealed the way to the mine workings Such ideas are not impossible but do strain credulity For every verified feature that has been proposed as evidence for Spanish presence there is an alternative explanation that is more plausible The burden of proof then is on the proponents of the Spanish connection The lurid yarns about the cave reflect folklore creation greatly abetted by media exploitation assisted by atrociously sloppy research

The time sequenceof the several names applied to the cave fits this very neatly In sources from 1919 I find The Caves of the Winds From 1920 until 1932 I see Marble Cave Marble

85jOllrtlal of Speleall History

Caves or The Caves but no Spanish-related appellations It is still called Marble Cave at least as late as 1953 (Irma Zanoni Trail amp Timberline Dec 1953) I do not encounter La Cavema del Oro applied to our cave until Lightburns articles of 1932 after which it is common One of Lightburns headlines refers to the old Spanish Cave but Spanish Cave as a proper ~ame seems to appear only in the first Colorado Grotto News amp Notes of Feb 12 1952 where It IS a synonym for Caverna del Oro From then until now Spanish Cave has been the preferred form in the literature of organized caving and in popular media relying on it This unfortunately has helped to maintain the public assumption that the Spanish legendry is based in fact

The caves history is muddled by a series of misnomers a Caverna del Oro with no gold a Maltese cross that is not Maltese marble that is not marble -- and on analyzing the evidence I think that German Cave would have been a more appropriate if less provocative name than Spanish Cave

I expect my skeptical arguments to be ignored by future writers as long as there is a media markcL for exciting treasure tales Why is it important to be critically analytical

Since fact and fiction are not clearly distinguished in media information about the cave many people still believe nonsense about it Apparently the Spanish gold tales retain enough public acceptance to present problems to the Forest Service today It is reported that there was in recent years a proposal to build a road to the cave to facilitate treasure hunting (Jerry Hassemer oral comm)

Furthermore presentation of false gold stories as if they might be true is likely to tempt naive and poorly prepared readers to get in trouble seeking riches This is apparent in a 1957 letter from Roy Truman former District Ranger and colleague of Paul Gilberts (History of the Colorado Grotto 1961)

There was a time when it was very difficult to keep boys away from this cave and I received many calls from parents in Pueblo and other towns all times of the day and night concerning the safety of their boys that had left home with the ideas of exploring this cave with the high hopes of finding valuable ores or treasures they were equipped with a few pieces of small rope [this was probably arter the Depression-era articles]

This problem is also exemplified by a letter in my own files addressed in 1962 to Richard LeSage of the Southern Colorado Grotto from a Denverite He had twenty-four numbered questions including What type of equipiment [sic] will I need (exactly) I havent done much cave exploring Where can I obtain it What type of mask would I need for foul air He concludes We are intending to explore this cave at all cost so your information will be most vilal to us and most appreciable (We never replied deciding that was the safest thing to do)

The extravagance of peoples beliefs about Spanish Cave has sometimes reached quite ridiculous extremes The Colorado Historical Society library has a typescript of research material used by Perry Eberhart in preparing Treasure Tales of the Rockies One note is as follows

Robert Dunne head of Querida sez think cave comes out near Walsenburg or possibly the northern end of Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico never found end

James Dunne Querida

Not even Eberhart was so shameless as to print this in his book

Jourllal of Speleall History 86

There are still many legitimate mysteries left about Marble Mountain and its history How well explored are the ends of Spanish Cave even now Why was Yeomans cave otherwise so clearly White Marble Halls said to have a 275-foot pit Is this an error or a pit now lost Was the vertical Spanish Cave somehow grafted into the account Who really painted the Maltese cross and who put the artifacts into Spanish Why were detailed articles published on White Marble Halls in the 1880s but nothing seems to be on record about Spanish until 1919 in spite of the extensive early work done in it (If the relics were left by Colfax colonists in the 1870s they could not easily have published their explorations as there were yet no newspapers in the Wet Mountain Valley Later Yeoman or other prospectors might have been reticent about calling atlention to the cave if they built ladders down the shafts in the hope of rinding minerals Study 01 the county mining-claim records could be informative)

Future Opportunities

Most knowledge we now have on Marble Mountain history before organized caving is based on writings of big-city visitors from 1919 on When time allows I intend to search the microfilms of Custer County newspapers in the period 1880-1920 to see if items overlooked by library indexers may shed light on the gaps in our knowledge of the Marble Mountain caves Fascinating revelations are very likely to result Johnsons letter of 1944 (op cit) also stated There was evidence of early visitation [in Marble Cave] including names carved on rocks but these date mostly back about 50 years ago Informative graffiti are numerous in Cave of the White Marble Halls but I do not recall seeing any in Spanish Cave during my own explorations in the 1950s and 60s It should be carefully reexamined to see if we have overlooked signatures that could be keys to the solution of the puzzles

Better documentation of the cave itself would also be desirable The Colorado Grotto surveyed most of lower Spanish in the 1950s to the standards then prevailing I do not know the length of the CG survey but it probably included less than 1000 feet The Southern Colorado Grotto discoveries from 1959 to the early 1960s were not surveyed at the time

From 1975 to 1988 Jerry Hassemer led the mapping of 2642 feet of upper Spanish including the main route between entrances and the Rimstone Passage its longest side gallery (Hassemer personal comm Sept 13 1992) (About 1735 feet of this are along the through-route) His survey showed a vertical difference of 449 feet between lower and upper entrance by both internal mapping and a surface closure loop The old Colorado Grotto map appears to show a depth of just over 270 feet from lower entrance to deepest surveyed point thus total surveyed depth of Spanish Cave is about 720 fect (The entrance elevations of Spanish Cave have never been established by survey to a benchmark but altimeter readings and topographic maps suggest that the upper entrance is around 12000 feet)

Other side passages and superimposed levels in upper Spanish remain unmapped In lower Spanish an important branch the waterfall passage -- which may go deeper than the so-called Gold Diggings at the end of the existing map -- remains unsurveyed The high elevation and extremely cold wet conditions continue to inhibit complete exploration and mapping as they have for as long as the cave has been known

87Journal of Speleall History

----------------------------------------HOWES CAVE IN 1850 Trevor R Shaw

This note draws attention to the European publication in a magazine of 1851 1 of an arlicle about Howes Cave already known from a New York periodical 2 of the same year It also seeks Lo

clanfy some of the published statements3 about the latter

The article concerned titled Visit to Howes Cave is identical in both publications the visit iaking place on the morning of August seventh 1850 The author was one of a party of eight gentlemen who rode over from Sharon-Springs to Cobleskill to visit Howes Cave but there is no indication of his identity either in the article or in the lists of contents of the volumes

In a previous article in the Journal of Spelean History3 Kevin Downeys text correctly places the visit in 1850 and dates the account as of 1851 the year of its publication But his reference 17 to the New York publication gives the title as 1852 Visit to Howe Cave which is misleading as well as inaccurate

Downey also attributes the authorship of the article to Simeon North though he has been unable to provide the source of his information for this4 It is noticeable that elsewhere in his text Downey refers to Norths popular Visit to Howe Caverns without calling up a reference but in a context which suggests that this may be the same article under a second variant title

It is important for historians and bibliographers that the identity of the author (and visitor of 1850) should be identified if possible The presence of errors in Downeys text and his inability to recall his source for the authors name leave this identity in doubt

Can readers of this Journal who may know more about the literature of Howes Cave throw any light on this problem

Jlteerellces

1 Anon 185l Visit to Howes Cave Sharpes London Journal 14 for 1851 88-92 (this issue may have appeared in 1852)

2 Anon 1851 Visit to Howes Cave The Knickerbocker or New-York Monlhly Magazine 37 (3) March 1851 2111-217

3 Downey K R [1980] Lester Howe and his cave The Journal of Spelean History 13 (3) for July-Sept 1979 67-73

4 Enquiry dated Feb 22 1993 from T R Shaw

63Journal of Speleall History

Cave Inscriptions

Unconfirmed reports indicate that the oldest dated cave inscription is in Postojna Jama Yugoslavia 1213 III America the names ofB Bollong and I Bell 1700 appear in Wilsolls Cave 011 Willis Mountain Virginia

Promotional Flyers of the Cave Man Russell Trail Neville William R Halliday MD

In part because his active years preceded the creation of the National Speleological Society the name of Russell Trail Neville increasingly is fading into obscurity Yet in the two decades between the Royd Collins debacle and the end of World War II many Americans came to associate his name with the work CAVE Only incidentally an author he became known to millions of Americans as a spellbinding lecturer and pioneer speleophotographer Today his work lives on largely in the work of current speleoauthors who turn to his historic photographs to document the bygone days of pre-NSS American speleology

But Russell Trall Neville deserves more than this Scattered biographical material would easily make possible a published study of his life and times notably illustrated with his best works But scattered is perhaps the key word In 40 years of collecting I have obtained only three of his promotional flyers The earliest a double-sided three-leaf folder came to me from George F Jackson who caved with him in Kentucky in 1927 The other two are post-1940 8- 112 x 11 inch two-sided standard format flyers differing only slightly from each other None is dated

Jointly the three flyers fill in many details of Nevilles obscure life Together with his scattered articles and unpublished book-length manuscript (in my possession) they form a skeleton for a full-length biography of this pioneer of the modern period of American speleology

Probably other collectors of American spelean history have copies of other Russell Trail Neville fl yers I suggest that the American Spelean History Association serve as a cleari nghouse for information on other Neville flyers and other biographical data Probably I will never get around to writing the biography he merits but someone should

Journal of Speleall History 64

Cave Explorer Scientist

Photographer

RUSSELL TRALL NEVILLE middotTHE CAVE MAN

PRESENTING

In t he Cellarsof the World Home Address KEWANEE ILLINOIS

bull

a~ EXPLORE THE UNKNOWN ~ ~ ~

With THE CAVE MAN Let him take you adventuring into marvelous underground fairylands Mr Ne vi lle shows you wonderfully beautiful pictures especially selected from thousands of his world famous cave photographs There is no other living man who has been in more American caves or tra ve lled so many miles in so many caverns Floyd C ollin s whose tragic death in Sand Cave aroused the sympathy of the wor ld and Mr Neville two intrepid cave explorers rpached places in caves never before seen by human eyes

IN THE CELLARS OF THE WORLD is packed full of thrills surprises adventure and beauty and IS illustrated wif ~ hoic c coloree lant ern slides

You are sure to be delighted with this unique educationai illustrated lecture Millions have heard it from the plaHo rm and over the radio

A FEW OPINIONS Pe rhaps you read Mr Clay Perrys article in the July 12th 1941 issue of the Saturday Evening Post In which he paid hiGh tribute to Mr Ne villes Cave explorations

An excerp t But Im a novice alongside Russell Trail Neville the Cave Man of Kewanee Illinois Neville has travelled morc J~an a

thousand miles underground and taken more than 5000 photographs of what he calls TH CELLARS OF THE WORLD

Th e late Lorado Taft famous artist said You certainly have a unique and notable lecture Your pictures are wonderfully fine and the adventures thaf lie behind

them ore ery thrilling In spite of all of the beauty that you have brought to light I heartily testify that no reward would vpr get me into those tight places

Mr Arthur C Page Editor pa~ri~ Farmer ~riting to a College President Mr Nevi lle has spoken several~ trT1es over WLS (The Prairie Farmer Radio Station) and I have seen a great man y of his

wonaerful pictures He is one of the most fascinating speakers I have ever lis te ned to

Mr D E Northam Chairman Entertainment Committee The Adventurers Club Chicago Illinois I Vl ant to convey to you the thanks of the entire member~hip of the Adventurers Club for the most interesting educa

tiona l ar~d thri ll ing program you gave us at our last Ladies Night I hope we may have you again

Dr Charl es D Sneller Past President Illinois State Academy of Sciences I have heard the CAVE MAN deliver his lecture many times He thrills children and adults alike He has spo~en beforr

th e Peor ia Rotary Club the Peoria Kiwanis Club and the Peoria Academy of Scipnces and always capti va ted his Judiences His pictures are a marvel and his lecture is unusually interesting

lr e iIle cave photographs have been shown literally all over the world in the rnot important Inte rshynationa l P hotographic Salons winning many special medals and diplomas

In the Cellars of the World delight ~ d edu c ated aud thrilled audiences at

Fiel d ~fuseum of Natural History Chicago Chicago Ca dem of Sciences Rod ro rd Coll e~ e Rockford Illinois VS II Iowa Cit Iowa Cnlvlrsity C lu b Evanston Illinois D eKa lb Teachers Institute Sycamore Illinois BI ~(kbl11l Coll e ge Carlinville Illinois Oll io Stn te Ulli (lsi tl Bowling Green Ohio Carn(~le [ uselllll Pittsburgh Pennsylvania L1ke S hore A t hl etic Club Chicago The middot c lt1demy of Sciences Buffalo New York v~IA0 The Chi cago Daily News Station The fil allk0e Iuselm Milwaukee Wisconsin Allis- Ch a lmers Foremans Club Ylilwaukee Wisconsin IIlin 0is Veslea1 Unhersity Bloomington Illinois Am erican Instit lte of Electrical Enbineers Pittsfield

Iassa c huse tls Tile TIrio ) I11n s Educational Club Toledo Ctah State T chers College St George Utah LaSall e Juni o r Co llege Auburndale lassachusetts Vest ern Illi no is State Teachers College Macomb Illinois La ke Erie Co llege Paines v ille Ohio Go e rnment Ind ian School Poplar Ylontana Vom a n Cit) Club Portsmouth -lew Hampshire orcestcl ( adem Worcester ~fassachuserts Linel HO IIse B()s ton RI C lub IPtt stO Il PennsIania Slal( T ( a(hers C()l l e~e Dickinson orth Dakotu shy s ( 11 h lllHlrlds ()f other Schoo ls Colleges Womans ()IIIJ - 1 1111 (1oll Cluh IIH1 others Ill oyer the United --Oltll( middot

THE CAvE IAI ITH HIS OiDERFLL PICTURES LKES YOU INTO THE REALM OF StBTERRAiEAi OlI)ERS PLACES YOU CAOT POSSIBLY VISIT SAFELY rOIshyFORTASLY AlD EASILY

COMPLETE PROJECTIOl EQClPIET IS PHOVI[)ED

ONE OF THE LlL Y PADS

NATURES UNDERGROUND BEAUTY SPOTS

_

PRESENTING

In the

CELLARS of the

WORLD

RUSSELL TRALL NEVILLE T HE CAVE MAN

Cave Explorer

Scientist

Photographer

r~ ~ bull y

I~XPLUHE THE UNKNOWN

Witl THE CAVE MAN Let him take you adventuring into marvelous underground fairylands Mr Neville shows you wonderfully beautiful pictures especially selected from thousands of his world famous cave photographs There is no other living man who has been in more American caves or travelled so many miles in so many caverns Floyd Collins whose tragic death in Sand Cave aroused the sympathy of the world and Mr Neville two intrepid cave explorers reached places in caves never before seen by humiln eyes

IN THE CELLARS OF THE WORLD is packed full of thrills surprises adventure and beauty and IS illustrated with choce color ~d lantern slides

You are sure to be delighted with this clnlque educationai illustrated lecture Millions have heard it from the platform and over the radio

FEW OPINIONS

PerhiJps you read Mr Cla y Perrys article in the July 12th 1941 issue of the Saturday Evening Post n which he paid high tribute to Mr Nevilles Cave explorations

An excerpt But Im a novice alongside Russell Trail Neville the Cave Man of Kewanee Illinois Neville has travelled more than a

IllOU il nd miles underground and taken more than ~UUU photographs ot whaT he calls I HI CELLARS OF THE WORLD

T IO de L010dc Taft fofTv Jdit 2+ You certainly hive a uniqu~ and notable lecture Your pictures are wonderfully fine and the adventures that lie behind

them are very thrilling In spite of all of the beauty that you have brought to light I heartily testify that ~o reNard would ever get me into those tight places

Mr Arlhur C Paqe Editor Prairie Farmer writing to a College President Mr Neville has spoken several times over WLS (The Prairie Farmer Radio Station) and I have seen a great many of his

wonderful pictures He is one of the most fascinating speakers I have ever listened to

Mr D E Northam Chairman Entertainment Committee The Adventurers Club Chicago Illinois I want to convey to you the thanks of the entire membership of the Adventurers Club for the most interesting educashy

tional and thrilling program you gave us at our last Ladies Night I hope we may have you again

Dr Charles D Sneller Past President Illinois State Academy of Sciences I have heard the CAVE MAN deli ver his lecture many times He thrills children and adults alike He has spoken before

the Peoria Rotary Club the Peoria Kiwanis Club and the Peoria Academy of Sciences and always captiv~ted hi s Judiences His pictures are a marvel and his lecture is unusually interesting

l r C iJl cs cave photoJraphs have heen shown literally allover the world In the most important Intershynational Photog-raphic Salons winninJ many special medals and diplomas

THE CAn- t1AX WITH HIS OXDtRFlL IICTLRtS TAKES YOU IITO THE REALM OF SUBTERRAE X O~)ERS

delighted educated alld thrilled audiences at

In the Cellars 0 the World PLACES YOU CAIIOT POSSIBLY nSIT SAFELY COMshyFORTABLY ID EASILY

Clliclgo Academy of Sciences Horkforrl Colleue Roekforrl Illinois Slmiddotr Tow~ City Iowa lfnin rsity Club Evanston Illinois In his cave work Mr Neville hs had Illany entershyrkl~lh TearIHr Institute SIlm)rr Illillo

Fielcl Iuseum of Natural Histor Chicago

taininl4 alllllsinl and thrillinJ experience IN THERIldlln CollECE Carlinvill~ I11nos Ohio ~LaLE lJniv~rsitv Bowlingt Green Ohio CELLARS OF THE WORLD Carneg-ie Museum Pittsburg-h Pennsylvania Lake Shore Athletic Club Chicag-o lear him tell some of these The cademy of Sciences Buffalo New York WMAQ The Chicago Daily News Station See his wonderful colored pictures The llilwaukee Museum 1ilwaukee Wisconsin AllismiddotChalmers Foremans Club Iilwaukee Wisconsin Illinois Wesleyan University Bloomington Illinois A merican Institute of Electrical Enhince ls Pittsfield AN INTERESTJiIC CR WLW Y

Massachusetts The Toledo Vomans Educational Club Toledo i~ II - ~ Utah Stu te Teac hers College St George Utah K ~

LaSa lie J u nior Colleg-e Auburndale 1assach usetts Vestern Illinois State Teachers College Macomh Illinoi ~

Lake Fri e College Painesille Ohio t lt bullbull bull _~ -11(1shy

Goernment Indian School Poplar vlontana oll1an s Cit Club Portsmouth New Hal11psllill~ ~ii7~ c

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Q ARl~e-~ ecrn 111lt1 hy the united -t~r Govshy

ernment and () gter Hed fnr t he pleasure p the pur-Ilc LInder the directir T) f t he ~ tion ~1 Plr i

Service Lone ()f the worlds I ~tgshyesi and most wonderfu I e lVes

Mr N vdk wns ghen gtltc id permission by the Derarrment of the Interi0r to make mm io n lIld still photographs in this mighty suhterranean wondcrlmd

With the co-()rtr~tion of the Superintendent and his ~ t a ff Mr Neville i ~ ited rlrts ltIt the Cavern I)() t re-n In the llIll ie

Urili ing al l ll th e exrnence gained 11 rho og rlgthingl hunshydred caes he m11ltmiddot nHHio n lnd still pictures of 11 mti frm shyHllms you mny ne(r 1gt 11gt1 to see The lre Jt~) i ( tt l Iith the skill md arri try then Mr Neville Igtrings ((I l1 his rholOshygraphic ork You wi ll have a new a[preci ati o n of rlw ond t rs of NI(ure after y()U hIc seen thSt ullusual [icrllrcs

ml ~ )middotIIJ l I ltxll r W i n ~ lIl1 rIH)togr 1 I hing the Caves of Kltntlldy )[1 1-Ili1I11 fo r slt tT d Yr DlIff th1t timt h h I S trlmiddote1I1 ~ rh l rs a thoulnd mile 1111-ic rgrltgtllnd

He ha ( ~ rr it h C3 mlt r3 up ond I pw n ltwr huge rock s crnwl el thngtugh lItT worn crev ices so smlll ir eemed imshypossihilt to neglHil te rh em even witho ut rhe heavy ca men1 equip menc-a ll the whi le Illaking hi wond eriul seri e )f interestm g cave pictures

Wlgtrking undr Ihorograrh ic difficultie I n1 rhysICa l h~zard s wh ic h eltIlle1 unsurmoun raH lt Mr Neille has succeeded ntvshyenhelts in Igtrin gi ng Igtcfo re the pulgtlic fy means oi morion ricshycures lnd by lantern slides beautiful scenes and views of formations yUU lta nnm possiLly see fo r yourself

Combined with this he rreshysents them in a highly artistic and cntcrtaining manner

ALADDINS GROTTO

~( A Camera Journey through Underground Fairylands ~ with Russell T Neville the Cave Man

m R Neville is a cave lxrlorer 1nd rhor)grapher Bc)innin~ a a hlgtbh this ~ work has Jevelored into a serious utempt t gt 1()nr1Y ancl present rhee little known heauties hidden tar lgteJuw Ih~ surface of he earth

Interesting experienltcs galore have fdlen tll Mr Nilie Igtt in this exploration rk ( llS have heen iiscltlnrJ wdl knwn caves Ioae heen exrlorel (Ll greuer distan(ts and all til rime his (nmeras have been l1llking a lirhful anJ unique recorl f his travels into rh e Realms f Ni)ht

Mr Nevilles exrtlitiol1 lI1t OIJ Salts Ca e (July 192 1 went into places never hefore st~n by white exrlorers The pnrry was in the Cave ltgtn rhis trir for fifty-one hours anJ rhirry-five minutes They liLltereJ and 1T()ughr to light a co nsiderable quantity lIt materini left hy rhe mysrerio us C 1e Men ot long ago This is shown in rhe pictures and commented upo n bv M r Neville who ha s Jen)[cd much rime to

the study ot the prehistoric folk wh o inhahit 1 rhis l11ighty sulgtrerranenn labyrinth many hundreds of y~1rs ago

Q A VE photography is essentially ver hn1rdou~ md tlifficulr C(gtmtgtined With tht risks pi origina l caw eplorarinn- rraversing unc harted pathways ShTtgtlldcl

in eernal darkness whlre unseen unknown dangers lurk in even shaJ(l there are serious photographic tehllical prohlems t(l be solved

Well gr(lund~d in the rtquir ~ l1lellts of a pkasing picrure Mr Neillc has usel 111 his lbility in the rnkillcrion of wonlerful lighting~ and pkwrial Clgtmpsitigtns PrllJucshying his own light 1 mtans of [()erflll fIlr~ elch giving 72 000 cnndle r ower he comhats the unfavrahle condicigtns which are found in aves Jnd interesting effects nre picwred which lend ench1 lltment to rhe cenes

Three ree Is lit standard ie i 35mm ) motion ricrllre film are al ilahle for use A portable morion ricure pwjecto r can be furnished

Many heautifully ha nd co lor~J lantern sliJes may he used if desi reJ This motion picture film is rhe fi rst and on ly attempt ever made ro prcsem o n t he

screen rhe hidJen undergrour J mancls of Narure

Remarks on the Potential of Underground Space for Defense Against Attack Jack Hurley DC Speleograph June 1960

1 Todays threat from the Soviets is political economic and military Thelalter includes chemical and biological warfare radio-logical fall-out and the weapon of the future - the neutron-ray gun not to mention others yet to be developed

2 The good earth which sustains uswill inevitably have its underground spaces explQited and developed to an unprecedented degree in a return to what might be called the era or the Jmodern cave man for nothing can protect us so well and for minimum cost as the underground spaces

3 In recent times we have the example of Nazi Germany in World War II with some) 000 underground storage depots light assembly plants and factories as well as the present day state or the art middot~ exemplified in Sweden In this country government and commercial interests possess bu~ a few underground sites not all of which can be discussed because of their classified nature However those not classified offer good examples of a good beginning - but only a beginning

Some of the underground sites that have been developed and are presently in usc principally for storage of various kinds are located in Kansas (Hutchinson and elsewhere) Neosho Missouri California and Iron Mountain New York as well as the development by my company of the Annandale Mine Butler Pennsylvania into a huge modern underground storage vault for irreplaceable records Some of our cl ients are the Jones and Laughl in Steel Co the U S Steel Co and the First National Bank oCNew York City Other sites are being usedJor cold storage and for hospitals but as yet the uses are extremely limited

Some of the potential uses are for light manufacturing and assembly plants permal1ent housing for some of our fabulously expensive data computers headquarters for command posts fo r national state and local civil defense storage of items essential for human survival in the event of atomic attack as well as items essential to the process of industrial rehabilitation To a limited extent they may also be utilized as shelters for at least some of the population in case of disaster

Why is it that the underground has not been more fully exploited and developed

1 Th~aver~ge individual dislikes the idea 2 The potential of the ul1derground for storage and housing has only been slightly understood 3 Existing sites are not always conveniently located 4 Those who cculd spark such development do not fully understand the nature and perhaps the imminency of the threat 5 I n some cases development has been stifled because of the cost even though this is but a fraction of that iiwolvedin creating a totally man-made facility for similar purposes Also there have been mistaken efforts to use underground space for purposes for which itwas not suited 6 The average human being strongly resists change in his essential concepts The so-called vested interests must first realize a scarcity of suitable top-side space before they will begin acquiringund~rground space

71Journal of Speleall History

Some of the advantages of good mines and caves are

1 They are generally removed from critical target areas 2 Development costs no more than on the surface and is frequently considerable less 3 In the long run maintenance and operating costs are much lower 4 In business and industry the absenteeism of workers due to illness extremes of temperature etc frequently becomes a real problem In my opinion working in the quiet atmosphere underground in a steady temperature and humidity level would have a beneficial and healthful effect This same situation makes it far easier to create a static condition beneficial to tl)e preservation and long life of records and other materials stored underground 5 The standard earth cover for modern missile bases is 25 feet Nearly all mines and caves of any consequence have far more cover than this thus increasing their protection potential

You as cave explorers and members of the National Speleological Society can assist by

1 Providing inventories of the most suitable caves for various purposes 2 Assist in developing guides or standards for caves for specific purposes 3 Talk about how mines and caves can be utilized and thus influence those who are in a ~tjon to initiate action in this direction

The above is the substance oj a talk given by Mr Hurley 10 the members oj the DC ChilP4tl oj the NSS on June 7 1960

Comment of the Designation of Certain Caves as Fallout Shelters William H Peters DC Speleograph April 1963

I believe all of us as members of the National Speleological Society have been aware for the past several years of the interest in utilizing selected caves for the protection of civilian population in the event of a national emergency The interest up until now remote has materialized into an actual requisitioning of caves in Pendleton County West Virginia and other communities in that state anxious to utilize all of their resources for what can certainly be called a noteworthy if not heroic program There has been at first a rejection of the idea among speleologists We are at first repelled by the idea of giving up our almost absolute sovereignty of the underground The realities of the world invading our isolated laboratories is unacceptable to us as scientists~ and of course the whole concept of nuclear war is still psychologically repugnant Our first reaction is expressed in many ways - useless protests exclamations of impossibility and we formulate every reason for the programs failure

But as citizens we have a responsibility to study the problem and the facts are not pleasing Repugnant as it is nuclear warfare lives not too far from the pleasantries of our life This is

72 JOllrllal of Speleall History

proven by the not so far removed Cuban Crisis In November 1962 LS Finkelstein at the Harvard University Center for International Affairs writing of the Soviet position on Arms Inspection is quoted It is hard to escape the conclusion that the Soviet Union for at least much of the time seems to have been interested more in employing the negotiations as a means of weakening the military and political position of the West that as a route to a viable disarmament system He goes on to quote James P Wadsworth to the effect that the Soviet Union has employed arms control negotiation as a part of a grand strategy aimed at the eventual total defeat of the other side 1 Thus for those persons who hope for an easy solution it is hard to find the substance to nourish those hopes

The possibility of reducing the probable use of nuclear weapons is diminished by the cruel fact that reduction in armaments only increases the probability of escalation in armament by lessening the factor required for decisive advantage while additionally making the elements of decisive advantage available to many other countries who may aspire to greater roles than current economic or scientific resources have relegated them This point is well illustrated by HA Kissinger nuclear disarmament has revealed the paradoxical fact that there is a certain safety in numbers And this is true even if both sides religiously observe an agreement to limit nuclear weapons Instability is greater if each side possesses ten missiles that if the equilibrium is stabilized at say 500 For an attack which is 90 successful when the opponent has ten missiles leaves him one or a number hardly able to inflict unacceptable damage An attack of similar effectiveness when the opponent possesses 500 missiles leaves 50 - perhaps sufficient to pose an unacceptable risk 2

We can easily conclude that the probability of removing nuclear weapons from the field of War Science is remote from purely tactical necessity What is also critical to our thinking is that the War Sciences are advancing in their ability to assess more and more elements and their relationship to decisive advantage Von Neumann in formulating the Minimax Game Theory and its reduction to mathematical models applied to computers increases the number of factors to be considered beyond the capability of the human mind International politics are founded upon economic and strategic factors rather than ethical or moral principle It is not impossible that in the cold realistic logic of the Game Theory3 that some remote event passing unseen by the casual observer will relate itself to decisive advantage for the opponent and may demand immediate action by one or the other side We cannot hope that in every instance the situation will escalate as did the Cuban Crisis so that the population can prepare itself

The comparison of Civil Preparedness to Ostrichism is not a fair comparison Civil Preparedness adds another factor for a potential enemy and complicates his game It makes it more difficult to game reliability Kissinger points out four considerations for reducing the possibility of decisive advantage the second of which is Since invulnerability is a relative term the purpose of arms control measures must be to strengthen so far as possible the relative position of the defender either by enhancing the security of his force or by complicating the calculations of the aggressor2 It is thus that civil preparedness serves a two fold purpose of deterring and of providing some measure

of survi val

The remoteness of the areas under consideration enhances the desirability of taking appropriate measures God forbid that it should come to pass but in the event of a nuclear holocaust it is these areas that could become the springboard for the reconstruction of our democracy and for the continuation of our cultural heritage

As members of the National Speleological Society we have the opportunity of not only participating but of making a definite contribution No other organization has more resources in

73Journal of Speeall History

scientific personnel experience or knowledge relating to caves Failure to meet our responsibilities at this time will only widen possible misunderstandings between the National Speleological Society and Civil Defense Organizations We must accept the fact that as the civil defense program expands more cave resources will be requisitioned Our opposition will only serve as a barrier to continued parallel use of these resources

The Society can assist in both the areas of applied practical knowledge and of basic research To list bnt a few are - advising and monitoring storage in areas of historical underground hydrological fluctuations monitoring humidity temperature and air circulation locating suitable areas in caves that will minimize the possibility of vandalism recommending types of closures of gates and assisting in their installation checking periodically the condition of supplies and reporting this to appropriate authority and condemnation of areas due to strata imperfection and probability of breakdown

There are many questions in need of investigation What is the relationship in a multiple stream capture theory and the possible concentration of radioactive or other contaminates in a cave duc to fIltration What is the probability of infection by intake of foods contaminated by histoplasma ir any What is the relationship of bat rabies to human cave habitation What provision must be made for sanitation - control of rats and possible damage to supplies and in the event of human habitation control of rat fleas as possible communicators of typhUS or other epidemic diseases) What is the probability of excessive amounts of radioactive materials being introduced to the cavc environment by animals such as bats that enter and leave the cave frequently These represent only a portion of the questions which should be examined to determine their relevance and what precautionary measures should be taken if relevant

I would like to propose that at a special meeting of the Board of Governors a Civil Defense Advisory Committee composed of competent scientists and speleologists be formed for the purpose of formulating suitable policies initiating scientific investigation and in general assuming the role of representing and coordinating the Societys Civil Defense effort The question as to whether we can afford to undertake such a program with its inherent socialpolitical implications should be answered - Can we afford not to

References

1 Arms Inspection International Conciliation Nov 1962 (It is interesting to note that in my upinion this publication follows closely the United Nations activities It is surprising to observe this pessimistic attitude in that area)

2 Foreign Affairs Volume 39 no 4 July 1960 Inspection and Surprise Attack p 56l

3 A current article on Game Theory appears in the December 1962 issue of Scientific Americall by Anatol Rapoport The Use and Misuse of Game Theory

Journal of Speleall History 74

1922 Trip Reports

Maud Orr Howell

Trip 10 Bear Cave

Gordon Brown led eight of us including Elizabeth Hord George Raudebush Benie Weaver Tom Weaver Johnny Connor Boyte and me to Bear Cave in Savage Gulch

We left the Observatory at 900 am went down Clark Cottage Path and across the valley to the clearing in front of the old Savage home

The girls rested while the boys went up the side of Peak Mountain to a ~pring and brought back some water Then we explored the old house In one of the upstairs rooms that had newspapers on the walls we read in the Society section of a newspaper dated August 17 1908 that Mr and Mrs Sanford Duncan had gone to spend a few days with Mrs Robert Orr in Maury County

We cut across the field to the right of the house and climbed along the side of Peak Mountain then straight down the side of the mountain to Savage Creek After drinking water from a spring running into the creek we followed the creek up a few yards then climbed up the mountain on the left a few yards to the cave This is Coppenger Mountain It was 11 45 so we ate our Iunch and rested until 1 10 when all but Elizabeth and Tom went in the cave We had candles and carbide lights and Gordon led the way It saw 220 when we got out After resting a few minutes and taking some Kodak pictures we all including Elizabeth and Tom went in again and stayed until 300 pm

We gathered our things which included sticks which Gordon had cut for us the Kodak the lunch bag canteen etc and set out straight up the mountain with Gordon pulling us up some of the places until we hit the cliffs We followed the cliffs along until we found a place to climb up When we got on the top we walked along the mountain until we got to the end of it which is just above the Savage house We went down a path which went straight down the mountain to the Savage house rested while the boys got water then came home to Howell cottage the same way we had gone arriving here at 700 pm

Trip to Bats Cave

Saturday September 2 1922

We first planned to walk to Tatesville but not knowing how far it was we gave it up and decided to walk to Bats Cave The night before the trip we gave that up too as it was so far and the weather so hot

As we were eating breakfast Mr George Mitchell came and he had breakfast with us He suggested getting a wagon for our trip so immediately after breakfast Mr George Bettie Martha and Tom Weaver Boyte and I went to the store and got Earnest Rubleys wagon

75Journal of Speleall History

We all met on the Observatory There were 19 of us Five including Mr George Jennings and George Bailey Torn and Charlie Trabue IV left first and went down the Backbone Road intending to meet us at the Collins River bridge The rest of us Elliott and David Adams Lucy and Elizabeth Bailey Lucinda Trabue Irene Langford Elizabeth Mclane Kate Keene Johnson Susan Lewis Bettie and Martha Weaver Boyte and I walked down the mountain from the Observatory and met the wagon a little piece up the valley We missed the other bunch and they did not catch up with us until we had left the wagon and were eating lunch at the spring

We finished lunch and walked up the mountain to the cave We went to the big room where we stopped last year which is just beyond the small ladder We climbed the ladder then all but Irene Tom Elizabeth and I went on further We waited at the top of the ladder until they came back They had gone to another big room and circled around it about three times before finally finding the way out They found an old Nashville newspaper dated 1847 and another paper with some names on it They added their names to this list

When we got out of the cave it was nearly 500 We had been in there three hours

We went back to the wagon and started horne We got to Collins River bridge about dark The moon was almost full and the ride up the valley in the moonlight in a wagon filled with hay and pulled by mules was beautiful We stopped at Mortons store and Mr George telephoned up lo Beersheba and told them where we were and assured them that we would be home soon He brought out oodles of cookies and we had a grand time eating them We sang and yelled and relaxed on the hay We left the wagon at the bottom of Beersheba Mountain Martha led the way up the mountain in the dark with only the moon to help guide us We had Oashlights but it was hard to keep in the path But it was fun We reached the top at the Observatory at 845 pm and no one seemed to be tired

Trip to Peak Mountain

A crowd of us left Aunt Mats Cottage at 930 am on Monday August 28 1922 There were 19 of us including Mr George Mitchell Elizabeth Hord Mr Colville Elliott Adams Jennings Bailey Lucy Bailey Kate Keene Johnson George Eldred Mary Wilson Eldred Irene Langford Elizabeth Mclane Bettie Orr Martha Weaver Tom Weaver Alfred Williams Mary Phillips Street Susan Lewis Boyte Howell Jr and me (Maud Orr Howell)

We went down Clark Cottage Path to the valley The crowd was separated going down but we all got together at the foot of the mountain crossed the valley and climbed Peak Mountain There was no path we just went up the side of the mountain and went thru a pass up the cliffs We got there about 1200 pm rested then ate lunch We put up a nag (Elizabeth Hords petticoat)

Aoout 100 pm we left to find the old stage coach road to Chattanooga We went straight across the top of the mountain and found the road at the spring and a little log cabin We followed the road to the valley We heard Marshall Eldred mooing answered him and he found us Gordon Bro n who was with him led us to Peter Rock Cave on the side of Peak Mountain Marshall did not start out with us because he helped Gordon fix the leaks in Laurel Mill Dam Elliott led us in the cave and we did not go back very far It was pretty but wet and muddy

We c~me home by Dishroon Springs drank some of the water and ate the rest of our lunch [hen came on up the mountain A few of us stopped at the Johnson place and looked across the valley at Elilabeth Hords petticoat which we had left on a tree on Peak Mountain We came on horne arriving here about 500 pm

Journal of Speleall History 76

No Old Gold or Bones A Skeptical Review of Caverna del Oro Legendry Donald G Davis reprinledfrom Rocky Mountain Caving Summer 1992

In the thin air of timberline on Marble Mountain in the Sangre de Cristo range icy wind blows from the entrance to a deep and cryptic cave marked by the damaged remnant of a rust-red cross Known today as Spanish Cave it is the most publicized non-commercial cave in Colorado It has been featured for more than 70 years in media - first newspapers then magazines books and television specials Most of this publicity recounts stories that it is La Caverna del Oro where Indian slaves mined gold for 17th century Spaniards Many people take this as fact Recently a Colorado caver told me he had spoken with a journalist who assured him that the cave was bottomless and contains untold treasures

Spanish Cave was important in the start of my own caving career in 1957 While attending Colorado A amp M College (later CSU) I saw in scrapbooks in the Fort Collins Museum clippings of the Colorado Question Box column from the Rocky Mountain News circa 1955 They told stories of a Maltese-cross-marked entrance lost gold mine and chained skeleton reported in the caverns depths After correcting the first error we found in the accounts (that the cave was on Homs Peak several miles north of Marble Mountain) two of us (Vin Hoeman and myself) in the college Hikers Club located the cave the next year In subsequent years with Frank and Paul Leskinen James W Meachan and others in the Southern Colorado Grotto of the NSS I led the discovery of about two-thirds of its presently known passage

Finding that the Western History Department of the Denver Public Library had a clipping file on the cave I also undertook research on its history which I have continued intermittently since The mure I learned about the real cave the more disillusioned I became with the stories sensationalizing it I learned much about the rules of logic and evidence during the investi galion and was ultimately convinced that there was no satisfactory confirmation that Spanish explorers ever saw or entered the cave much less mined gold from it Following are some of the reasons for that concl usion

The most readily available summary of the legendry is in Lloyd Parris Caves oCoLorado (1973) pp 24-32 Parris precedes his Treasure Caves accounts with a confused and equivocal disclaimer The following tales for the most part have the validity of history behind them and in most cases the caves are known Undoubtedly though some of the legends connected with these caves belong in Chapter IV under hoax and humbug And if these legends seem to disagree or contradict what is previously known it is because they were selected not for entertainment alone but as a presentation of the known facts or legends as the case may be An evaluation of the authenticity has not been attempted This is left for the reader to do

This reader hereby takes up the challenge

The Spanish Mille Legends

A number of accounts (including Parriss) relate that Spanish Monastery Latin documents record gold being brought to pre-Columbian Mexican Indian kingdoms Acolhua Aztec and Tepance

Jourllal of Speleall History 77

from the north Then in 1541 three monks were supposedly left behind by Coronado (the Rocky MOllntain News June 3 1923 says 1598) One Fray Juan de la Cruz reportedly reopened a mine using forced labor by Pecos I ndians (a northern New Mexico Pueblq trib~)and packed treasure toward Mexico City but never arrived there Nuggets and gold bars reported found by one Baca in 1811 were speculated to be part of this treasure and a prospector searching (according to Parris) for Cavema del Oro half a century later found a silver cup engraved with the name Hermione Taken at face value all this gives the impression that stories about Caverna del Oro are of great antiquity though the original Spanish documents are never cited

This suite of tales was first widely distributed in an article by Alberta Pike headlines OLD MANUSCRIPT INDICATES VAST RICHES IN COLORADO CA VE GUARDED BY SKELETON in the Rocky Mountain News of Sept 6 1932 Subsequent Spanish Cave popularizers have recopied them from one article to the next without naming a source for them I recently made an enlightening discovery in the Colorado Historical Society library about where this material came from

Before any known Spanish Cave article was written Louis Bernhardt Sporleder -- early resident and prominent citizen of Walsenburg Colorado -- published a souvenir booklet titled Huajalolla Breasts of the World (1916) An article in The Trail June 1922 reprinted much of this booklet and said Sporleder had a number of unpublished manuscripts giving information historical and legendary about the Spanish Peaks (as the Huajatolla are more commonly known) Sporleders booklet included word for word most of the above Spanish mine material copied by later Cavema del Oro writers

Even his misspelling of the Tepance kingdom (properly Tepanec) has been faithfully reproduced by authors as late as Parris

As to the actual historicity of Sporleders items I know little but his writings (eg The Roses of Huajatolla The Trail Dec 1922) were prone to wild flights of romantic fiction incorporating gross errors about natural history He claimed for instance that the otherwise extinct passenger pigeon still survived on the Spanish Peaks in fact it has never been recorded in Colorado His human history appears similarly colored But even if he was accurate it is crucial to our study that his stories were exclusively about the Spanish Peaks making no connection whatever to Marble Mountain 50 miles to the northwest He specifically stated that the silver cup was found beside a spring in a grotto at the base of East Spanish Peak (the name Hermione moreover is Greek not Spanish) All of this is therefore irrelevant to the cavern on Marble Mountain that we know as Spanish Cave

In Sporleders 1916 version the prospector who found the cup was searching for Huajatollas mines of gold In Pikes 1932 recounting he was seeking the lost mine but she associates it with the cave on Marble Mountain Parris in 1973 transmutes the object of the searchers quest explicitly into the Caverna del Oro Thus by insidious mutations does spurious lore enshroud our cave

Forbes Parkhill asserted that Marble cave Legends connect the Spanish cross and the ancient timber found in the mine [sic] with the gold hunting and exploring expeditions of Juan de Onate in 1597 and the Escalante-Dominguez expedition in 1776 (Explorers to Seek Mysteries of Caves in San Isabel Wilds Discovered Four Centuries Ago Denver Post Oct 9 1921) Even Parris rejects these suggestions because those expeditions did not come close to Marble Mountain

Jourllal of Speleall History 78

Earliest Known Accounts ofthe Cave middot

In 1919 appeared a brochure Out-ol-door Piaygroullds of the Sansabel National Forest USDA middot Circular 5 by Henry S Graves Forester It declared that The Caves of the Winds [not to be confused with Cave of the Winds at Manitou Springs] a system of giant crevices in a mountain or solid white marble is one of the principal natural wonders of the Forest These caves have been penetrated to a depth of over 1200 feet without the end being reached Theymay be reached by wagon road from Westcliffe

On Oct 12 1919 the Denver Post ran an anonymous article San Isabels Caves of Winds Among Wonders of Colorado It stated The Caves of the Winds have been known to exist for many years They are described brieOy in the report of the San Isabel national forest A party of Denver business men is planning to visit the caves this autumn with a view to exploring them to their depths if pOssible If it is found that the natural wonders said to exist in the interior of the caves are equal to reports which have been received these men will ask the government for the I

privilege of developing the caves as a tourist attraction

That Spanish Cave is the object of these writings is indicated by the emphasis on wind great depth (four times the actual depth of the cave as then known) and incomplete exploration the nearby Cave of the White Marble Halls is less strongly windy nearly horizontal and was already well explored (The accompanying entrance photo is not Marble Mountain) A similar item in the Post of June 27 1920 mentions a huge cave on Marble mountain which has never been explored by man beyond a depth of 1800 feet and which may rival the famed Mammoth Cave of Kentucky Neither treasure legends nor stories ofSpanish exploration are me11lioned in any of these earliest printed accounts

Apollina Apodacas Story

The real genesis of treasure stories as applied to Spanish Cave so far as I can find is with Apollina Apodaca (her name is variously spelled in different accounts I use the spelling that seems most probable) In 1919 (not 1920 as said in Caves oColorado) Paul Gilbert later District Ranger in the Forest heard wonderful tales from this old woman As he recalled in The Bulletin of the Rocky Mountain Region of the US Forest Service (Dec 1936)

She stated that the Spaniards used to get gold from it and further stated that if one were to descend to a sufficient depth [in some accounts she is said to have specified 90 or 93 feet] a set of oak doors would be found and if they were forced open one would find a tunnel leading back into the bowels of the mountain -- and the source of the gold would be found She further stated that when she was a child they used to take a blanket wrap it around a heavy stone and throw it down the shaft In the course of a short time the blanket would be blown back minus the rock by the strong winds that come continually from the shaft

The following spring Gilbert located the cave which he misinterpreted as more of a volcanic fissure than it is a cave and visited it with Arthur C Carhart An item mentioning this trip (Mystery Caves in ColoradoRocky Mountain News Sept 21 1921) is the earliest I have found that makes a Spanish or lost-mine connection Old timers in the hills up there declare the place is the shaft of the old Three Step mine famous in Spanish history Carhart himself in the POSl of Jan 1 1922 says it is reported that it is an old Spanish mine entrance marked with a red cross of Malta and has old timber and a log chain inside

Jourllal of Speleall History 79

Gilberts writings are not entirely consistent about his informants statistics in the above report she is Mexican 105 years old in 1919 and died at 110 In his letter to Robert 1 OConnell of Feb 18 1957 (as published in History ojthe Colorado Grotto Nov 1961) she is Spanish and died in 1923 at age 103 A followup letter of Feb 25 adds that she spent most of her life in the vicinity of San Luis [in the San Luis Valley on the opposite side of the Sangre de Cristos] Another source (Dayle Molen Pueblo Star-Jollmal Nov 18 1956) says she lived near Gardner Perry Eberhart in his sensationalistic Treasure Tales of the Rockies (11) calls her an Indian squaw Raymond Thorp in American ForesTs Aug 1935 citing Gilbert says she died eight years ago which would have been 1927 (this is the date used by Parris) These points may be quibbles yet they indicate a lack of precision in recording the facts about her And since the account attributed to Ms Apodaca is pivotal to the entire Caverna del Oro oeuvre let us dissect it critically

Every element is either improbable or impossible Leaving the geologic aspect until later take the oaken doors There are no oaks for many miles and where they do appear they are scrub oak which would have provided door-size timber only in rare cases (though oaks of that size were more common in the Rockies then than now) And why haul heavy oak to timberline when (though strong when new) it does not resist rot as well as say the more easily obtained juniper There is not in any case any opening near the 9O-foot level where such doors could have been used

The blanket story is completely fanciful As we proved in 1961 (NSS News Aug 1962 part I) the cave wind comes from upper Spanish Cave not from the pit Even if it did the pit is about 15 feet wide whereas the entrance constricts to a narrow crawlway A wind strong enough to blow a blanket back up the pit would rise to such tornadic speed in the crawl as to stop a person from fighting through it to the pit Nor does it seem sensible that people would be blithely tossing their blankets down weighted with rocks After all the rock might fail to unwind and the blanket be lost or shredded at the bottom With so incredible a yarn in it why should not the whole narrative be dismissed as fantasy

The Skeletons

At least three human skeletons have been attested as evidence of Spanish involvement with the cave Two were introduced by reporter Kenneth C Lightburn in a front-page article in the Rocky Mountain News of Sept 4 1932 He claimed that the caves original discovery is credited to Capt Elisha P Hom one of the first settlers in the Wet Mountain Valley in 1869 About its entrance he found the remnants of what might have been a fort and also a skeleton in Spanish armor Through the armor was an Indian arrow (Lightburn also began the misconception that the cave was on Homs Peak) I have not been able to trace the origin of this anecdote but it sounds unlikely if only because the purpose of Spanish armor was to prevent things like stoneshypointed arrows from penetrating ones torso and it generally worked Halls History of Colorado (1895) confirms Elisha P Hom as a pioneer Wet Mountain Valley settler in 1869 but does not mention this story

However the skeleton that Lightburn intended to feature was the one in his articles melodramatic headlines SKELETON FOUND CHAINED BY NECK DEEP IN COLORADO MYSTERY CAVECAVERN IS HIGH IN MOUNTAIN WILDS OF STATEDenver Man Discovers Manacled Bones in Sangre de Cristo Range Moldering 500 Feet Below Surface in Awesome CavitySIGNS INDICATE MINE WORKED IN EARLY DAYSFind Recalls Legends of Fabulous Cavern [sic] del Oro of 17th Century Spaniards The headlines are emphasized by a lurid though regrettably nonphotographic picture of the skeleton and an entrance shot with the cross touched up to show better

80 Journal of Speleall History

Journal of Speean History

The article relates that Peter Moser of Denver with companions Victor Barth and his two sons Donald and Jack had just returned from a descent into the cave (Derivative accounts refer to Victor Donald and Jack Barth the former being a fictitious person born of the omission of an original comma between Victor and Donald)

According to Lightburn the Moser party had climbed down until they reached a vertical pit They lowered a lantern Forty feet downward they saw the bottom and in the light or the lantern could clearly make out the skeleton With a metal strap encircling the neck the pile of bones reclined against the rocky wall as if the person who died there centuries ago hall been chained in a sitting position and left to starve An investigatory trip reported in followup articles of Sept 11 12 arid 18 found no skeleton (If an entrance photo with the story of the 18th is any indication they might not even have found the cave -- the picture is obviously not on Marble Mountain -- it may be at Marble Cave near Canon City) It was speculated that Moser may have seen the skeleton at another point in the cave or that it had been done away with by mysterious parties unknown who had blasted the cave entrance between the two trips

In reality it is not surprising that the chained skeleton was never found There is no sound testimony that it was ever there Unlike Fray Juan de la Cruz Elisha Horn or Apollina Apodaca Peter Moser was still available to me to question when I first researched Lightburns article I found in 1959 that Moser still lived at the same address in Denver as in 1932 On New Years Eve 19591 telephoned him and asked about the story His description made it clear that his party had indeed reached the top of the pit that cavers now call the Jug At that point they had lowered a kerosene lantern on a line and he saw what in his own words looked like a pile of bones on a ledge near the bottom This he said is all he reported to the secretary of the Colorado Mountain Club who in tum contacted the newspaper which -- as Moser put it to me -- dressed it up a little (l printed a more complete record of Mosers hour-long interview in the Southern Colorado Grotto newsletter Spelunk Junk Mar 1960)

This embroidery was to be expected in an era when the Denver papers were battling for readers during the Great Depressiun and were notorious for sensationalism But even if Mosers own explanation did not debunk the skeleton he reportedly found it would not be believable The Jug is about 80 feet deep Have you ever tried to see in cavernous darkness where your breath makes mist clouds by a kerosene lantern at that range Then you will agree that a chaincd skeleton even in fine preservation could hardly have been seen well enough from the top to be recognized unequivocally

81

Caves oColorado complicates the matter by citing a letter to me from James W Meacham in vhich a bone found by Meacham at the bottom of the Jug in 1959 was pronounced human by John A Murphy of the Denver Museum of Natural History What Parris does not say is that I had written him in 1969 -- four years before his book was published -- that another expert at the University of Colorado Museum had declared it a deer bone (This water-worn two-inch fragment might well challenge a forensic specialist)

Not content with two skeletons Thorp (American Forests Aug 1935 op cit) adds a third to this spooky company A strange legend that still haunts the native people concerns a skeleton hung with buckskin which guarded Marble Cave just on the other side of Caverna del Oro It was the first quarter of the 19th century and an American free trapper wandered too far west The Spaniards for fear he would reveal their hiding place crucified him For a half century he remained pinioned to a wcxxlcn cross Aside from the improbably sadistic mode of execution this image typical of cartoons or folklore reveals ignorance of the properties of real skeletons which do not long remain articulated when exposed to weather decay and scavengers

Others find ulterior significance in our discovery of bones of bison and pronghorn antelope in upper Spanish Cave in the 1960s calling them plains species that would never ascend to such lofty heights Unless someone had used the cave for storing or curing meat (Bill Kaiser The Treasure of Caverna del Oro Colorful Colorado May-June 1973) I did not know this then but these animals have been known to ascend to the alpine tundra in historic ti mes and might have done so more often when they were abundant and unfenced The cave is much too wet to be good ror storing perishables

The Artifacts

Many reliable observers from Carhart and Gilbert onward report finding in the 1920s and 30s old artifacts of unknown provenance in Spanish Cave These include a winch chains whiskey bottle jug timber ladders shovel single-jack and a hammer They have all disappeared or been reduced to fragments but claims made for some of them purport to establish archeological evidence of Spanish presence

Thorp (1935 op CiL) in describing the 1932 Rocky Mountain News expedition states that on the second ledge they found the remains of a rudely constructed ladder which Dr LeRoy Hafen ( then editor historian and curator of the State Historical Society) after carefully examining asserted was at least 200 years old Below after being lowered 110 feet they found a crude hand-forged hammer which the historian declared was of 17th century vintage Gilbert (The Bulletin Dec 1936 op cit) and an Alamosa Courier article (from June 1937) repeat these avowals

These are very important allegations since the Spanish were the only people who could have left such artifacts in the 17th century To investigate them I wrote in 1960 to LeRoy Hafen inquiring about his trip to the cave and his knowledge of its history and specifically whether he had certified the hammer as of 17th-century manufacture and if so who now had it His reply was less specific than my questions but it is a primary document on one of the major claims about Spanish Cave and I reproduce it below verbatim

If LeRoy Hafen made claims of antiquity for the Spanish Cave artifacts in 1932 he obviously did not stand by them later His wife Ann W Hafen in Detective Historian (Denver WesTerners Monthly Roundup July 1954) had also recounted his 1932 cave trip and commented disproving a baseless story is important it is part of the search for truth She elaborated To the party the venture was disappointing No treasure found No relic of the ancient conquistadores But to the

Jourllal of Speleall History 82

detective Historian it was just another clue pursued another myth exploded another triumph for the scholars code -- to build history on fact not on fossilized fiction

Thorp (1935 op cit) relates that the timbers of their ladder system were about eight inches in diameter squared on four sides with an ax Auger holes were bored into their sides and they were fitted with wooden rungs pegged into the holes No nails were used al though this probably would have been done by early Germans or Americans [the wood is] now decayed and may be broken in many ins tances by the hand This construction however is not strong evidence for Spanish work Before the railroad reached the Wet Mountain Valley in the 1880s commodities such as nails would have been scarce and expensive anyone building such structures before then might well have used no metal It would also be stronger than tacking on rungs with nails when not using sawed lumber Concerning the other cave artifacts there is not enough information to suggest a date

BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY PROVOUTAH

January 13 1960

11r Donald G Davia P O Box 145 T1lnlath Colorado

Dear Hr Davia

I ~ intereat~d to learn f~ your letter of January J 1960 of your study and COllCen WJth the Caverna del Oro Hy visit to the cave and descent into it was with a party directed and financed by the Tourist Bureau or its counterpart of the period The contemporary ewspal6rs gave som~ accowtof the venture

I made the firat descant into the cave kt that time ging down the rope bS

you doubtless have done ince I recall at the edg~ of the pit th~re were s(XlIe rotted logs that may have been the framework of a windlass At tho bott~ of the pit I found a suall sledge ~er encrusted with limestone formation I dont recall what was done with this haa-er I remember no other relics in the pit

Our purposo was to investigate certain rumors a3 to early use of the cave as a SVanish mine I think middot there is little~~ion for that as the limestone fonnation is a poor VlOspect fot middotormation

The legnd hat a skeleton was chained to the wall gave added impetus to the trip Needless to eay nothing of the sort was found That cav and some near were epoken of colloctively os the Karble Campve and sune referred to this one as the Caverna del Or~ cave of gold The Kaltes cross painted on the rock at the entrllJce to tle cave already had a faded appearance I know nothi8 of the rk of Capto1n Hom regarding the di Scove ry of ~ he cave

i~J At the bottOlll of the pit Carl Dlaurohpersucd tho crevice out 5 far dS ~ ~ could go and found nothi8 to reward our efforts If Hr Ulaurot is still living i Denver he could give you sooe sidelights on th cave as ho visited it after our initial exploration

Cordially yours

LO 91+-LeRoy R IlcIen DeparUent of History

Some writers (eg Jesse Ball Canon City Daily Record Sept 14 1933) speculate that the cave was used by the Spanish as a refuge from Indian attacks The cave itself being windy wet and ncar-freezing would not have been ideal for such occupancy A ruined fort was alleged to exist below Marble Mountain as early as 1881 (Golden City Transcript Aug 31 1881 citing Cusler City Prospect ) later articles mention rifle pits I have seen what I presume to be these features below timberline and could not distinguish them from the miners prospect pits common in the Colorado mountains The largest log breastwork structure has also been interpreted as an old corral (Jerry Hassemer oral communication) If defensive works they are cr Jde ones indeed

This leaves to be considered the famous cross beside the entrance It is about one and a half feet square with flared ends meeting at the corners It has been variously described as burnt on

Jou rnal of Speean History 83

deeply chiseled or etched but in reality is prosaically painted with what looks to be a stable iron oxide pigment perhaps using some sort of template Portions of It had a thm patma of calcite crust when I first saw it in 1958 Though almost always called Maltese it is not as can be seen by looking up a crosses illustration in any large dictionary The true Maltese cross has indented ends A G Birch (Denver Post Aug 11 1929) correctly pointed out that the cave marker isin the perfect form of a German Iron Cross But he also says it was old when the first white sehler saw it more than sixty years ago without explaining how he knew this A contradictory testimony (Trail and Timberline April 1957) asserts that there is one old-timer who states that he knCv the fellow who painted it years ago as ajoke I wiIl pass over both of these declarations as uncorroborated

Spanish crosses as I have seen them represented on coins and in art have narrow straight-sided arms often with the basal arm longer and with the ends variously embellished They are typically very different from German ones It is suggestive that the first sedentary settlers below Marble Mountain were Germans of the Colfax colony in 1870 The colony as an entity failed within a year but some thirty families took possession of quarter sections and prospered as can be seen by the many descendants still living in the area (Wet Mountain Tribune Centennial Edition Dec 20 1985) German immigrants also arrived later on and the ranches cl osest below the caves remained in possession of the German-derived Henrich and Neermann families into recent years Crosses in the square form seen at the cave were used in German decorative motifs (I have seen an antique coffee-grinder at an abandoned German homestead in eastern Colorado that was ornamented with them) The cross could have been painted by a Colfax settler exploring his surroundings soon after the colonys establishment The dispersal of most of the colony in 1871 would account for the failure of later inhabitants to know who had created it

Alternatively it might have been a product of prospector 1 H Yeoman He figures in one of the earliest known accounts of a Marble Mountain cave in History of the Arkansas Valley Colorado (1881) A later report on this cave (Denver Republican Feb 20 1888) appears to describe Cave of the White Marble Halls south of Spanish Cave and states that the cave was discovered by Yeoman on Sept 16 1880 Yeoman obligingly left a graffito confirming this in the cave and the Kings and Queens Chambers of the article are likewise identified (Another 1881 account -shyGolden Cty Transcript op cit -- describes a similar cave but claims discovery by Messrs Hendershot amp Dickson of Custer City) A red cross like that at Spanish Cave but smaller and with narrower arms marks the entrance the associated graffito in English 400 Feet to the White Marble Halls precludes a Spanish conquistador origin (A writing inside -- Mrs H G ReedSilver Cliff CololHere 8115197 -- is done in a similar ornate hand) I have also seen Yeomans signature in Moonmilk Cave just across the ravine south of Spanish and scarcely possible to reach without seeing the Spanish entrance He must have known of Spanish Cave and pesumably had entered it

[he Geology

Finally a point that seems so obvious that it should hardly need to be mentioned decades of repeated explorations in Spanish Cave have failed to turn up a trace of mining or of gold and there is excellent reason for this Gold is found either where hydrothermal solutions have mineralized host rock or where deposits originating in that fashion have been eroded and concentrated in placer gravels Neither situation applies at Marble Mountain where the caves occur in an unaltered Pennsylvanian biothermal limestone lens sandwiched almost vertically between shales and conglomeratic sandstones (The name Marble Mountain is a misnomer marble is limestone altered -- metamorphosed -- by heat andor pressure The abundance of well-preserved brachiopod and crinoid fossils shows that Marble Mountain is not metamorphosed) The only mineralization known on the mountain is a little low-grade copper on the south limestone outcrop

Jourllal of Speleall History 84

Paul Gilbert notwithstanding the caves are in no way volcanic but are relatively typical highshygradient alpine limestone solution caves dissolved probably by massive runoff from melting snov and ice during Pleistocene glacial epochs Writers have speculated that Spanish Cave had a lower entrance (possible since the cave water does emerge at a spring lower down) and an entrance on the west side of the mountain (not possible since the limestone does not outcrop there) Ironically the only new entrance cavers have actually found was in a direction not suggested by any known author above Its discovery explained the cave wind as a chimney effect between the entrances -- blowing down to the lower opening when it is warmer outside than inside reversing when it is colder outside

Conclusions

I know of no one else who has analyzed the Caverna del Oro stories as thoroughly but I am not the first to publish critical judgments on them Mrs Hafen has already been quoted Also on record (NSS Bulletin 8 July 1946) is a letter dated 10444 from Fred R Johnson Chief Information and Education US Forest Service

Carl Biaurock a member of the Colorado Mountain Club explored this cave in 1925 again in 1931 and later in more detail in 1932 On the last date the exploration was the result of several articles in the Rocky MOUnTain News in which an old yam was mentioned to the effect that the cave had been investigated in the Spanish explorations in the eighteenth [sic] century also that it is supposed to have yielded a large quantity of gold and other valuable minerals there are no signs of any mineral So far as Mr Blaurocks party could tell there is no evidence in the cave of any visitation of Spanish explorers several hundred years ago

Molen (opcit) wrote that this story [from Apodaca] has been disapproved [sic] The tools and ladder in the cave are of comparatively modern origin Blaurock believes Someone years ago must have explored the cave at least as thoroughly as we did he said He also expressed doubt that the rifle pits and fort are of Spanish origin I did not interview Carl Blaurock during my earlier research I telephoned him this summer but he is 98 years old and is too deaf to understand my questions I have sent him a letter of inquiry thus far unanswered

After organized caving had begun William R Halliday founder of the Colorado Grotto of the National Speleological Society also concluded that The fabulous stories are fables The story of Spanish Cave is told (Halliday however was too pessimistic in inferring that the cave was almost completely explored Most of what is now known was discovered just after he wrote but none of the new passage showed signs of human entry)

Diehard romantics might protest that Spanish Cave could still be La Caverna del Oro Caves can hide much perhaps somewhere in the depths there is a localized zone of thermal mineralization conceivably the Spaniards very cleverly concealed the way to the mine workings Such ideas are not impossible but do strain credulity For every verified feature that has been proposed as evidence for Spanish presence there is an alternative explanation that is more plausible The burden of proof then is on the proponents of the Spanish connection The lurid yarns about the cave reflect folklore creation greatly abetted by media exploitation assisted by atrociously sloppy research

The time sequenceof the several names applied to the cave fits this very neatly In sources from 1919 I find The Caves of the Winds From 1920 until 1932 I see Marble Cave Marble

85jOllrtlal of Speleall History

Caves or The Caves but no Spanish-related appellations It is still called Marble Cave at least as late as 1953 (Irma Zanoni Trail amp Timberline Dec 1953) I do not encounter La Cavema del Oro applied to our cave until Lightburns articles of 1932 after which it is common One of Lightburns headlines refers to the old Spanish Cave but Spanish Cave as a proper ~ame seems to appear only in the first Colorado Grotto News amp Notes of Feb 12 1952 where It IS a synonym for Caverna del Oro From then until now Spanish Cave has been the preferred form in the literature of organized caving and in popular media relying on it This unfortunately has helped to maintain the public assumption that the Spanish legendry is based in fact

The caves history is muddled by a series of misnomers a Caverna del Oro with no gold a Maltese cross that is not Maltese marble that is not marble -- and on analyzing the evidence I think that German Cave would have been a more appropriate if less provocative name than Spanish Cave

I expect my skeptical arguments to be ignored by future writers as long as there is a media markcL for exciting treasure tales Why is it important to be critically analytical

Since fact and fiction are not clearly distinguished in media information about the cave many people still believe nonsense about it Apparently the Spanish gold tales retain enough public acceptance to present problems to the Forest Service today It is reported that there was in recent years a proposal to build a road to the cave to facilitate treasure hunting (Jerry Hassemer oral comm)

Furthermore presentation of false gold stories as if they might be true is likely to tempt naive and poorly prepared readers to get in trouble seeking riches This is apparent in a 1957 letter from Roy Truman former District Ranger and colleague of Paul Gilberts (History of the Colorado Grotto 1961)

There was a time when it was very difficult to keep boys away from this cave and I received many calls from parents in Pueblo and other towns all times of the day and night concerning the safety of their boys that had left home with the ideas of exploring this cave with the high hopes of finding valuable ores or treasures they were equipped with a few pieces of small rope [this was probably arter the Depression-era articles]

This problem is also exemplified by a letter in my own files addressed in 1962 to Richard LeSage of the Southern Colorado Grotto from a Denverite He had twenty-four numbered questions including What type of equipiment [sic] will I need (exactly) I havent done much cave exploring Where can I obtain it What type of mask would I need for foul air He concludes We are intending to explore this cave at all cost so your information will be most vilal to us and most appreciable (We never replied deciding that was the safest thing to do)

The extravagance of peoples beliefs about Spanish Cave has sometimes reached quite ridiculous extremes The Colorado Historical Society library has a typescript of research material used by Perry Eberhart in preparing Treasure Tales of the Rockies One note is as follows

Robert Dunne head of Querida sez think cave comes out near Walsenburg or possibly the northern end of Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico never found end

James Dunne Querida

Not even Eberhart was so shameless as to print this in his book

Jourllal of Speleall History 86

There are still many legitimate mysteries left about Marble Mountain and its history How well explored are the ends of Spanish Cave even now Why was Yeomans cave otherwise so clearly White Marble Halls said to have a 275-foot pit Is this an error or a pit now lost Was the vertical Spanish Cave somehow grafted into the account Who really painted the Maltese cross and who put the artifacts into Spanish Why were detailed articles published on White Marble Halls in the 1880s but nothing seems to be on record about Spanish until 1919 in spite of the extensive early work done in it (If the relics were left by Colfax colonists in the 1870s they could not easily have published their explorations as there were yet no newspapers in the Wet Mountain Valley Later Yeoman or other prospectors might have been reticent about calling atlention to the cave if they built ladders down the shafts in the hope of rinding minerals Study 01 the county mining-claim records could be informative)

Future Opportunities

Most knowledge we now have on Marble Mountain history before organized caving is based on writings of big-city visitors from 1919 on When time allows I intend to search the microfilms of Custer County newspapers in the period 1880-1920 to see if items overlooked by library indexers may shed light on the gaps in our knowledge of the Marble Mountain caves Fascinating revelations are very likely to result Johnsons letter of 1944 (op cit) also stated There was evidence of early visitation [in Marble Cave] including names carved on rocks but these date mostly back about 50 years ago Informative graffiti are numerous in Cave of the White Marble Halls but I do not recall seeing any in Spanish Cave during my own explorations in the 1950s and 60s It should be carefully reexamined to see if we have overlooked signatures that could be keys to the solution of the puzzles

Better documentation of the cave itself would also be desirable The Colorado Grotto surveyed most of lower Spanish in the 1950s to the standards then prevailing I do not know the length of the CG survey but it probably included less than 1000 feet The Southern Colorado Grotto discoveries from 1959 to the early 1960s were not surveyed at the time

From 1975 to 1988 Jerry Hassemer led the mapping of 2642 feet of upper Spanish including the main route between entrances and the Rimstone Passage its longest side gallery (Hassemer personal comm Sept 13 1992) (About 1735 feet of this are along the through-route) His survey showed a vertical difference of 449 feet between lower and upper entrance by both internal mapping and a surface closure loop The old Colorado Grotto map appears to show a depth of just over 270 feet from lower entrance to deepest surveyed point thus total surveyed depth of Spanish Cave is about 720 fect (The entrance elevations of Spanish Cave have never been established by survey to a benchmark but altimeter readings and topographic maps suggest that the upper entrance is around 12000 feet)

Other side passages and superimposed levels in upper Spanish remain unmapped In lower Spanish an important branch the waterfall passage -- which may go deeper than the so-called Gold Diggings at the end of the existing map -- remains unsurveyed The high elevation and extremely cold wet conditions continue to inhibit complete exploration and mapping as they have for as long as the cave has been known

87Journal of Speleall History

Cave Inscriptions

Unconfirmed reports indicate that the oldest dated cave inscription is in Postojna Jama Yugoslavia 1213 III America the names ofB Bollong and I Bell 1700 appear in Wilsolls Cave 011 Willis Mountain Virginia

Promotional Flyers of the Cave Man Russell Trail Neville William R Halliday MD

In part because his active years preceded the creation of the National Speleological Society the name of Russell Trail Neville increasingly is fading into obscurity Yet in the two decades between the Royd Collins debacle and the end of World War II many Americans came to associate his name with the work CAVE Only incidentally an author he became known to millions of Americans as a spellbinding lecturer and pioneer speleophotographer Today his work lives on largely in the work of current speleoauthors who turn to his historic photographs to document the bygone days of pre-NSS American speleology

But Russell Trall Neville deserves more than this Scattered biographical material would easily make possible a published study of his life and times notably illustrated with his best works But scattered is perhaps the key word In 40 years of collecting I have obtained only three of his promotional flyers The earliest a double-sided three-leaf folder came to me from George F Jackson who caved with him in Kentucky in 1927 The other two are post-1940 8- 112 x 11 inch two-sided standard format flyers differing only slightly from each other None is dated

Jointly the three flyers fill in many details of Nevilles obscure life Together with his scattered articles and unpublished book-length manuscript (in my possession) they form a skeleton for a full-length biography of this pioneer of the modern period of American speleology

Probably other collectors of American spelean history have copies of other Russell Trail Neville fl yers I suggest that the American Spelean History Association serve as a cleari nghouse for information on other Neville flyers and other biographical data Probably I will never get around to writing the biography he merits but someone should

Journal of Speleall History 64

Cave Explorer Scientist

Photographer

RUSSELL TRALL NEVILLE middotTHE CAVE MAN

PRESENTING

In t he Cellarsof the World Home Address KEWANEE ILLINOIS

bull

a~ EXPLORE THE UNKNOWN ~ ~ ~

With THE CAVE MAN Let him take you adventuring into marvelous underground fairylands Mr Ne vi lle shows you wonderfully beautiful pictures especially selected from thousands of his world famous cave photographs There is no other living man who has been in more American caves or tra ve lled so many miles in so many caverns Floyd C ollin s whose tragic death in Sand Cave aroused the sympathy of the wor ld and Mr Neville two intrepid cave explorers rpached places in caves never before seen by human eyes

IN THE CELLARS OF THE WORLD is packed full of thrills surprises adventure and beauty and IS illustrated wif ~ hoic c coloree lant ern slides

You are sure to be delighted with this unique educationai illustrated lecture Millions have heard it from the plaHo rm and over the radio

A FEW OPINIONS Pe rhaps you read Mr Clay Perrys article in the July 12th 1941 issue of the Saturday Evening Post In which he paid hiGh tribute to Mr Ne villes Cave explorations

An excerp t But Im a novice alongside Russell Trail Neville the Cave Man of Kewanee Illinois Neville has travelled morc J~an a

thousand miles underground and taken more than 5000 photographs of what he calls TH CELLARS OF THE WORLD

Th e late Lorado Taft famous artist said You certainly have a unique and notable lecture Your pictures are wonderfully fine and the adventures thaf lie behind

them ore ery thrilling In spite of all of the beauty that you have brought to light I heartily testify that no reward would vpr get me into those tight places

Mr Arthur C Page Editor pa~ri~ Farmer ~riting to a College President Mr Nevi lle has spoken several~ trT1es over WLS (The Prairie Farmer Radio Station) and I have seen a great man y of his

wonaerful pictures He is one of the most fascinating speakers I have ever lis te ned to

Mr D E Northam Chairman Entertainment Committee The Adventurers Club Chicago Illinois I Vl ant to convey to you the thanks of the entire member~hip of the Adventurers Club for the most interesting educa

tiona l ar~d thri ll ing program you gave us at our last Ladies Night I hope we may have you again

Dr Charl es D Sneller Past President Illinois State Academy of Sciences I have heard the CAVE MAN deliver his lecture many times He thrills children and adults alike He has spo~en beforr

th e Peor ia Rotary Club the Peoria Kiwanis Club and the Peoria Academy of Scipnces and always capti va ted his Judiences His pictures are a marvel and his lecture is unusually interesting

lr e iIle cave photographs have been shown literally all over the world in the rnot important Inte rshynationa l P hotographic Salons winning many special medals and diplomas

In the Cellars of the World delight ~ d edu c ated aud thrilled audiences at

Fiel d ~fuseum of Natural History Chicago Chicago Ca dem of Sciences Rod ro rd Coll e~ e Rockford Illinois VS II Iowa Cit Iowa Cnlvlrsity C lu b Evanston Illinois D eKa lb Teachers Institute Sycamore Illinois BI ~(kbl11l Coll e ge Carlinville Illinois Oll io Stn te Ulli (lsi tl Bowling Green Ohio Carn(~le [ uselllll Pittsburgh Pennsylvania L1ke S hore A t hl etic Club Chicago The middot c lt1demy of Sciences Buffalo New York v~IA0 The Chi cago Daily News Station The fil allk0e Iuselm Milwaukee Wisconsin Allis- Ch a lmers Foremans Club Ylilwaukee Wisconsin IIlin 0is Veslea1 Unhersity Bloomington Illinois Am erican Instit lte of Electrical Enbineers Pittsfield

Iassa c huse tls Tile TIrio ) I11n s Educational Club Toledo Ctah State T chers College St George Utah LaSall e Juni o r Co llege Auburndale lassachusetts Vest ern Illi no is State Teachers College Macomb Illinois La ke Erie Co llege Paines v ille Ohio Go e rnment Ind ian School Poplar Ylontana Vom a n Cit) Club Portsmouth -lew Hampshire orcestcl ( adem Worcester ~fassachuserts Linel HO IIse B()s ton RI C lub IPtt stO Il PennsIania Slal( T ( a(hers C()l l e~e Dickinson orth Dakotu shy s ( 11 h lllHlrlds ()f other Schoo ls Colleges Womans ()IIIJ - 1 1111 (1oll Cluh IIH1 others Ill oyer the United --Oltll( middot

THE CAvE IAI ITH HIS OiDERFLL PICTURES LKES YOU INTO THE REALM OF StBTERRAiEAi OlI)ERS PLACES YOU CAOT POSSIBLY VISIT SAFELY rOIshyFORTASLY AlD EASILY

COMPLETE PROJECTIOl EQClPIET IS PHOVI[)ED

ONE OF THE LlL Y PADS

NATURES UNDERGROUND BEAUTY SPOTS

_

PRESENTING

In the

CELLARS of the

WORLD

RUSSELL TRALL NEVILLE T HE CAVE MAN

Cave Explorer

Scientist

Photographer

r~ ~ bull y

I~XPLUHE THE UNKNOWN

Witl THE CAVE MAN Let him take you adventuring into marvelous underground fairylands Mr Neville shows you wonderfully beautiful pictures especially selected from thousands of his world famous cave photographs There is no other living man who has been in more American caves or travelled so many miles in so many caverns Floyd Collins whose tragic death in Sand Cave aroused the sympathy of the world and Mr Neville two intrepid cave explorers reached places in caves never before seen by humiln eyes

IN THE CELLARS OF THE WORLD is packed full of thrills surprises adventure and beauty and IS illustrated with choce color ~d lantern slides

You are sure to be delighted with this clnlque educationai illustrated lecture Millions have heard it from the platform and over the radio

FEW OPINIONS

PerhiJps you read Mr Cla y Perrys article in the July 12th 1941 issue of the Saturday Evening Post n which he paid high tribute to Mr Nevilles Cave explorations

An excerpt But Im a novice alongside Russell Trail Neville the Cave Man of Kewanee Illinois Neville has travelled more than a

IllOU il nd miles underground and taken more than ~UUU photographs ot whaT he calls I HI CELLARS OF THE WORLD

T IO de L010dc Taft fofTv Jdit 2+ You certainly hive a uniqu~ and notable lecture Your pictures are wonderfully fine and the adventures that lie behind

them are very thrilling In spite of all of the beauty that you have brought to light I heartily testify that ~o reNard would ever get me into those tight places

Mr Arlhur C Paqe Editor Prairie Farmer writing to a College President Mr Neville has spoken several times over WLS (The Prairie Farmer Radio Station) and I have seen a great many of his

wonderful pictures He is one of the most fascinating speakers I have ever listened to

Mr D E Northam Chairman Entertainment Committee The Adventurers Club Chicago Illinois I want to convey to you the thanks of the entire membership of the Adventurers Club for the most interesting educashy

tional and thrilling program you gave us at our last Ladies Night I hope we may have you again

Dr Charles D Sneller Past President Illinois State Academy of Sciences I have heard the CAVE MAN deli ver his lecture many times He thrills children and adults alike He has spoken before

the Peoria Rotary Club the Peoria Kiwanis Club and the Peoria Academy of Sciences and always captiv~ted hi s Judiences His pictures are a marvel and his lecture is unusually interesting

l r C iJl cs cave photoJraphs have heen shown literally allover the world In the most important Intershynational Photog-raphic Salons winninJ many special medals and diplomas

THE CAn- t1AX WITH HIS OXDtRFlL IICTLRtS TAKES YOU IITO THE REALM OF SUBTERRAE X O~)ERS

delighted educated alld thrilled audiences at

In the Cellars 0 the World PLACES YOU CAIIOT POSSIBLY nSIT SAFELY COMshyFORTABLY ID EASILY

Clliclgo Academy of Sciences Horkforrl Colleue Roekforrl Illinois Slmiddotr Tow~ City Iowa lfnin rsity Club Evanston Illinois In his cave work Mr Neville hs had Illany entershyrkl~lh TearIHr Institute SIlm)rr Illillo

Fielcl Iuseum of Natural Histor Chicago

taininl4 alllllsinl and thrillinJ experience IN THERIldlln CollECE Carlinvill~ I11nos Ohio ~LaLE lJniv~rsitv Bowlingt Green Ohio CELLARS OF THE WORLD Carneg-ie Museum Pittsburg-h Pennsylvania Lake Shore Athletic Club Chicag-o lear him tell some of these The cademy of Sciences Buffalo New York WMAQ The Chicago Daily News Station See his wonderful colored pictures The llilwaukee Museum 1ilwaukee Wisconsin AllismiddotChalmers Foremans Club Iilwaukee Wisconsin Illinois Wesleyan University Bloomington Illinois A merican Institute of Electrical Enhince ls Pittsfield AN INTERESTJiIC CR WLW Y

Massachusetts The Toledo Vomans Educational Club Toledo i~ II - ~ Utah Stu te Teac hers College St George Utah K ~

LaSa lie J u nior Colleg-e Auburndale 1assach usetts Vestern Illinois State Teachers College Macomh Illinoi ~

Lake Fri e College Painesille Ohio t lt bullbull bull _~ -11(1shy

Goernment Indian School Poplar vlontana oll1an s Cit Club Portsmouth New Hal11psllill~ ~ii7~ c

IClslrr e adem orces ter lassarllllsetLs Ita ri ners HOllse Boston Hotar y Cluh Pottstown P(nnsIania SLI( 1ltI ( il lr5 Cllege Dickinson Nortll Dakota s pi l h u nltirttis of other Sc llOOIs Colleg( 1)111111 ( 1111 1lt1 )( 1)( 1 Clull al1d nll lI all ltICI I Ill [11 1 lt1 ~I tll-

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Q ARl~e-~ ecrn 111lt1 hy the united -t~r Govshy

ernment and () gter Hed fnr t he pleasure p the pur-Ilc LInder the directir T) f t he ~ tion ~1 Plr i

Service Lone ()f the worlds I ~tgshyesi and most wonderfu I e lVes

Mr N vdk wns ghen gtltc id permission by the Derarrment of the Interi0r to make mm io n lIld still photographs in this mighty suhterranean wondcrlmd

With the co-()rtr~tion of the Superintendent and his ~ t a ff Mr Neville i ~ ited rlrts ltIt the Cavern I)() t re-n In the llIll ie

Urili ing al l ll th e exrnence gained 11 rho og rlgthingl hunshydred caes he m11ltmiddot nHHio n lnd still pictures of 11 mti frm shyHllms you mny ne(r 1gt 11gt1 to see The lre Jt~) i ( tt l Iith the skill md arri try then Mr Neville Igtrings ((I l1 his rholOshygraphic ork You wi ll have a new a[preci ati o n of rlw ond t rs of NI(ure after y()U hIc seen thSt ullusual [icrllrcs

ml ~ )middotIIJ l I ltxll r W i n ~ lIl1 rIH)togr 1 I hing the Caves of Kltntlldy )[1 1-Ili1I11 fo r slt tT d Yr DlIff th1t timt h h I S trlmiddote1I1 ~ rh l rs a thoulnd mile 1111-ic rgrltgtllnd

He ha ( ~ rr it h C3 mlt r3 up ond I pw n ltwr huge rock s crnwl el thngtugh lItT worn crev ices so smlll ir eemed imshypossihilt to neglHil te rh em even witho ut rhe heavy ca men1 equip menc-a ll the whi le Illaking hi wond eriul seri e )f interestm g cave pictures

Wlgtrking undr Ihorograrh ic difficultie I n1 rhysICa l h~zard s wh ic h eltIlle1 unsurmoun raH lt Mr Neille has succeeded ntvshyenhelts in Igtrin gi ng Igtcfo re the pulgtlic fy means oi morion ricshycures lnd by lantern slides beautiful scenes and views of formations yUU lta nnm possiLly see fo r yourself

Combined with this he rreshysents them in a highly artistic and cntcrtaining manner

ALADDINS GROTTO

~( A Camera Journey through Underground Fairylands ~ with Russell T Neville the Cave Man

m R Neville is a cave lxrlorer 1nd rhor)grapher Bc)innin~ a a hlgtbh this ~ work has Jevelored into a serious utempt t gt 1()nr1Y ancl present rhee little known heauties hidden tar lgteJuw Ih~ surface of he earth

Interesting experienltcs galore have fdlen tll Mr Nilie Igtt in this exploration rk ( llS have heen iiscltlnrJ wdl knwn caves Ioae heen exrlorel (Ll greuer distan(ts and all til rime his (nmeras have been l1llking a lirhful anJ unique recorl f his travels into rh e Realms f Ni)ht

Mr Nevilles exrtlitiol1 lI1t OIJ Salts Ca e (July 192 1 went into places never hefore st~n by white exrlorers The pnrry was in the Cave ltgtn rhis trir for fifty-one hours anJ rhirry-five minutes They liLltereJ and 1T()ughr to light a co nsiderable quantity lIt materini left hy rhe mysrerio us C 1e Men ot long ago This is shown in rhe pictures and commented upo n bv M r Neville who ha s Jen)[cd much rime to

the study ot the prehistoric folk wh o inhahit 1 rhis l11ighty sulgtrerranenn labyrinth many hundreds of y~1rs ago

Q A VE photography is essentially ver hn1rdou~ md tlifficulr C(gtmtgtined With tht risks pi origina l caw eplorarinn- rraversing unc harted pathways ShTtgtlldcl

in eernal darkness whlre unseen unknown dangers lurk in even shaJ(l there are serious photographic tehllical prohlems t(l be solved

Well gr(lund~d in the rtquir ~ l1lellts of a pkasing picrure Mr Neillc has usel 111 his lbility in the rnkillcrion of wonlerful lighting~ and pkwrial Clgtmpsitigtns PrllJucshying his own light 1 mtans of [()erflll fIlr~ elch giving 72 000 cnndle r ower he comhats the unfavrahle condicigtns which are found in aves Jnd interesting effects nre picwred which lend ench1 lltment to rhe cenes

Three ree Is lit standard ie i 35mm ) motion ricrllre film are al ilahle for use A portable morion ricure pwjecto r can be furnished

Many heautifully ha nd co lor~J lantern sliJes may he used if desi reJ This motion picture film is rhe fi rst and on ly attempt ever made ro prcsem o n t he

screen rhe hidJen undergrour J mancls of Narure

Remarks on the Potential of Underground Space for Defense Against Attack Jack Hurley DC Speleograph June 1960

1 Todays threat from the Soviets is political economic and military Thelalter includes chemical and biological warfare radio-logical fall-out and the weapon of the future - the neutron-ray gun not to mention others yet to be developed

2 The good earth which sustains uswill inevitably have its underground spaces explQited and developed to an unprecedented degree in a return to what might be called the era or the Jmodern cave man for nothing can protect us so well and for minimum cost as the underground spaces

3 In recent times we have the example of Nazi Germany in World War II with some) 000 underground storage depots light assembly plants and factories as well as the present day state or the art middot~ exemplified in Sweden In this country government and commercial interests possess bu~ a few underground sites not all of which can be discussed because of their classified nature However those not classified offer good examples of a good beginning - but only a beginning

Some of the underground sites that have been developed and are presently in usc principally for storage of various kinds are located in Kansas (Hutchinson and elsewhere) Neosho Missouri California and Iron Mountain New York as well as the development by my company of the Annandale Mine Butler Pennsylvania into a huge modern underground storage vault for irreplaceable records Some of our cl ients are the Jones and Laughl in Steel Co the U S Steel Co and the First National Bank oCNew York City Other sites are being usedJor cold storage and for hospitals but as yet the uses are extremely limited

Some of the potential uses are for light manufacturing and assembly plants permal1ent housing for some of our fabulously expensive data computers headquarters for command posts fo r national state and local civil defense storage of items essential for human survival in the event of atomic attack as well as items essential to the process of industrial rehabilitation To a limited extent they may also be utilized as shelters for at least some of the population in case of disaster

Why is it that the underground has not been more fully exploited and developed

1 Th~aver~ge individual dislikes the idea 2 The potential of the ul1derground for storage and housing has only been slightly understood 3 Existing sites are not always conveniently located 4 Those who cculd spark such development do not fully understand the nature and perhaps the imminency of the threat 5 I n some cases development has been stifled because of the cost even though this is but a fraction of that iiwolvedin creating a totally man-made facility for similar purposes Also there have been mistaken efforts to use underground space for purposes for which itwas not suited 6 The average human being strongly resists change in his essential concepts The so-called vested interests must first realize a scarcity of suitable top-side space before they will begin acquiringund~rground space

71Journal of Speleall History

Some of the advantages of good mines and caves are

1 They are generally removed from critical target areas 2 Development costs no more than on the surface and is frequently considerable less 3 In the long run maintenance and operating costs are much lower 4 In business and industry the absenteeism of workers due to illness extremes of temperature etc frequently becomes a real problem In my opinion working in the quiet atmosphere underground in a steady temperature and humidity level would have a beneficial and healthful effect This same situation makes it far easier to create a static condition beneficial to tl)e preservation and long life of records and other materials stored underground 5 The standard earth cover for modern missile bases is 25 feet Nearly all mines and caves of any consequence have far more cover than this thus increasing their protection potential

You as cave explorers and members of the National Speleological Society can assist by

1 Providing inventories of the most suitable caves for various purposes 2 Assist in developing guides or standards for caves for specific purposes 3 Talk about how mines and caves can be utilized and thus influence those who are in a ~tjon to initiate action in this direction

The above is the substance oj a talk given by Mr Hurley 10 the members oj the DC ChilP4tl oj the NSS on June 7 1960

Comment of the Designation of Certain Caves as Fallout Shelters William H Peters DC Speleograph April 1963

I believe all of us as members of the National Speleological Society have been aware for the past several years of the interest in utilizing selected caves for the protection of civilian population in the event of a national emergency The interest up until now remote has materialized into an actual requisitioning of caves in Pendleton County West Virginia and other communities in that state anxious to utilize all of their resources for what can certainly be called a noteworthy if not heroic program There has been at first a rejection of the idea among speleologists We are at first repelled by the idea of giving up our almost absolute sovereignty of the underground The realities of the world invading our isolated laboratories is unacceptable to us as scientists~ and of course the whole concept of nuclear war is still psychologically repugnant Our first reaction is expressed in many ways - useless protests exclamations of impossibility and we formulate every reason for the programs failure

But as citizens we have a responsibility to study the problem and the facts are not pleasing Repugnant as it is nuclear warfare lives not too far from the pleasantries of our life This is

72 JOllrllal of Speleall History

proven by the not so far removed Cuban Crisis In November 1962 LS Finkelstein at the Harvard University Center for International Affairs writing of the Soviet position on Arms Inspection is quoted It is hard to escape the conclusion that the Soviet Union for at least much of the time seems to have been interested more in employing the negotiations as a means of weakening the military and political position of the West that as a route to a viable disarmament system He goes on to quote James P Wadsworth to the effect that the Soviet Union has employed arms control negotiation as a part of a grand strategy aimed at the eventual total defeat of the other side 1 Thus for those persons who hope for an easy solution it is hard to find the substance to nourish those hopes

The possibility of reducing the probable use of nuclear weapons is diminished by the cruel fact that reduction in armaments only increases the probability of escalation in armament by lessening the factor required for decisive advantage while additionally making the elements of decisive advantage available to many other countries who may aspire to greater roles than current economic or scientific resources have relegated them This point is well illustrated by HA Kissinger nuclear disarmament has revealed the paradoxical fact that there is a certain safety in numbers And this is true even if both sides religiously observe an agreement to limit nuclear weapons Instability is greater if each side possesses ten missiles that if the equilibrium is stabilized at say 500 For an attack which is 90 successful when the opponent has ten missiles leaves him one or a number hardly able to inflict unacceptable damage An attack of similar effectiveness when the opponent possesses 500 missiles leaves 50 - perhaps sufficient to pose an unacceptable risk 2

We can easily conclude that the probability of removing nuclear weapons from the field of War Science is remote from purely tactical necessity What is also critical to our thinking is that the War Sciences are advancing in their ability to assess more and more elements and their relationship to decisive advantage Von Neumann in formulating the Minimax Game Theory and its reduction to mathematical models applied to computers increases the number of factors to be considered beyond the capability of the human mind International politics are founded upon economic and strategic factors rather than ethical or moral principle It is not impossible that in the cold realistic logic of the Game Theory3 that some remote event passing unseen by the casual observer will relate itself to decisive advantage for the opponent and may demand immediate action by one or the other side We cannot hope that in every instance the situation will escalate as did the Cuban Crisis so that the population can prepare itself

The comparison of Civil Preparedness to Ostrichism is not a fair comparison Civil Preparedness adds another factor for a potential enemy and complicates his game It makes it more difficult to game reliability Kissinger points out four considerations for reducing the possibility of decisive advantage the second of which is Since invulnerability is a relative term the purpose of arms control measures must be to strengthen so far as possible the relative position of the defender either by enhancing the security of his force or by complicating the calculations of the aggressor2 It is thus that civil preparedness serves a two fold purpose of deterring and of providing some measure

of survi val

The remoteness of the areas under consideration enhances the desirability of taking appropriate measures God forbid that it should come to pass but in the event of a nuclear holocaust it is these areas that could become the springboard for the reconstruction of our democracy and for the continuation of our cultural heritage

As members of the National Speleological Society we have the opportunity of not only participating but of making a definite contribution No other organization has more resources in

73Journal of Speeall History

scientific personnel experience or knowledge relating to caves Failure to meet our responsibilities at this time will only widen possible misunderstandings between the National Speleological Society and Civil Defense Organizations We must accept the fact that as the civil defense program expands more cave resources will be requisitioned Our opposition will only serve as a barrier to continued parallel use of these resources

The Society can assist in both the areas of applied practical knowledge and of basic research To list bnt a few are - advising and monitoring storage in areas of historical underground hydrological fluctuations monitoring humidity temperature and air circulation locating suitable areas in caves that will minimize the possibility of vandalism recommending types of closures of gates and assisting in their installation checking periodically the condition of supplies and reporting this to appropriate authority and condemnation of areas due to strata imperfection and probability of breakdown

There are many questions in need of investigation What is the relationship in a multiple stream capture theory and the possible concentration of radioactive or other contaminates in a cave duc to fIltration What is the probability of infection by intake of foods contaminated by histoplasma ir any What is the relationship of bat rabies to human cave habitation What provision must be made for sanitation - control of rats and possible damage to supplies and in the event of human habitation control of rat fleas as possible communicators of typhUS or other epidemic diseases) What is the probability of excessive amounts of radioactive materials being introduced to the cavc environment by animals such as bats that enter and leave the cave frequently These represent only a portion of the questions which should be examined to determine their relevance and what precautionary measures should be taken if relevant

I would like to propose that at a special meeting of the Board of Governors a Civil Defense Advisory Committee composed of competent scientists and speleologists be formed for the purpose of formulating suitable policies initiating scientific investigation and in general assuming the role of representing and coordinating the Societys Civil Defense effort The question as to whether we can afford to undertake such a program with its inherent socialpolitical implications should be answered - Can we afford not to

References

1 Arms Inspection International Conciliation Nov 1962 (It is interesting to note that in my upinion this publication follows closely the United Nations activities It is surprising to observe this pessimistic attitude in that area)

2 Foreign Affairs Volume 39 no 4 July 1960 Inspection and Surprise Attack p 56l

3 A current article on Game Theory appears in the December 1962 issue of Scientific Americall by Anatol Rapoport The Use and Misuse of Game Theory

Journal of Speleall History 74

1922 Trip Reports

Maud Orr Howell

Trip 10 Bear Cave

Gordon Brown led eight of us including Elizabeth Hord George Raudebush Benie Weaver Tom Weaver Johnny Connor Boyte and me to Bear Cave in Savage Gulch

We left the Observatory at 900 am went down Clark Cottage Path and across the valley to the clearing in front of the old Savage home

The girls rested while the boys went up the side of Peak Mountain to a ~pring and brought back some water Then we explored the old house In one of the upstairs rooms that had newspapers on the walls we read in the Society section of a newspaper dated August 17 1908 that Mr and Mrs Sanford Duncan had gone to spend a few days with Mrs Robert Orr in Maury County

We cut across the field to the right of the house and climbed along the side of Peak Mountain then straight down the side of the mountain to Savage Creek After drinking water from a spring running into the creek we followed the creek up a few yards then climbed up the mountain on the left a few yards to the cave This is Coppenger Mountain It was 11 45 so we ate our Iunch and rested until 1 10 when all but Elizabeth and Tom went in the cave We had candles and carbide lights and Gordon led the way It saw 220 when we got out After resting a few minutes and taking some Kodak pictures we all including Elizabeth and Tom went in again and stayed until 300 pm

We gathered our things which included sticks which Gordon had cut for us the Kodak the lunch bag canteen etc and set out straight up the mountain with Gordon pulling us up some of the places until we hit the cliffs We followed the cliffs along until we found a place to climb up When we got on the top we walked along the mountain until we got to the end of it which is just above the Savage house We went down a path which went straight down the mountain to the Savage house rested while the boys got water then came home to Howell cottage the same way we had gone arriving here at 700 pm

Trip to Bats Cave

Saturday September 2 1922

We first planned to walk to Tatesville but not knowing how far it was we gave it up and decided to walk to Bats Cave The night before the trip we gave that up too as it was so far and the weather so hot

As we were eating breakfast Mr George Mitchell came and he had breakfast with us He suggested getting a wagon for our trip so immediately after breakfast Mr George Bettie Martha and Tom Weaver Boyte and I went to the store and got Earnest Rubleys wagon

75Journal of Speleall History

We all met on the Observatory There were 19 of us Five including Mr George Jennings and George Bailey Torn and Charlie Trabue IV left first and went down the Backbone Road intending to meet us at the Collins River bridge The rest of us Elliott and David Adams Lucy and Elizabeth Bailey Lucinda Trabue Irene Langford Elizabeth Mclane Kate Keene Johnson Susan Lewis Bettie and Martha Weaver Boyte and I walked down the mountain from the Observatory and met the wagon a little piece up the valley We missed the other bunch and they did not catch up with us until we had left the wagon and were eating lunch at the spring

We finished lunch and walked up the mountain to the cave We went to the big room where we stopped last year which is just beyond the small ladder We climbed the ladder then all but Irene Tom Elizabeth and I went on further We waited at the top of the ladder until they came back They had gone to another big room and circled around it about three times before finally finding the way out They found an old Nashville newspaper dated 1847 and another paper with some names on it They added their names to this list

When we got out of the cave it was nearly 500 We had been in there three hours

We went back to the wagon and started horne We got to Collins River bridge about dark The moon was almost full and the ride up the valley in the moonlight in a wagon filled with hay and pulled by mules was beautiful We stopped at Mortons store and Mr George telephoned up lo Beersheba and told them where we were and assured them that we would be home soon He brought out oodles of cookies and we had a grand time eating them We sang and yelled and relaxed on the hay We left the wagon at the bottom of Beersheba Mountain Martha led the way up the mountain in the dark with only the moon to help guide us We had Oashlights but it was hard to keep in the path But it was fun We reached the top at the Observatory at 845 pm and no one seemed to be tired

Trip to Peak Mountain

A crowd of us left Aunt Mats Cottage at 930 am on Monday August 28 1922 There were 19 of us including Mr George Mitchell Elizabeth Hord Mr Colville Elliott Adams Jennings Bailey Lucy Bailey Kate Keene Johnson George Eldred Mary Wilson Eldred Irene Langford Elizabeth Mclane Bettie Orr Martha Weaver Tom Weaver Alfred Williams Mary Phillips Street Susan Lewis Boyte Howell Jr and me (Maud Orr Howell)

We went down Clark Cottage Path to the valley The crowd was separated going down but we all got together at the foot of the mountain crossed the valley and climbed Peak Mountain There was no path we just went up the side of the mountain and went thru a pass up the cliffs We got there about 1200 pm rested then ate lunch We put up a nag (Elizabeth Hords petticoat)

Aoout 100 pm we left to find the old stage coach road to Chattanooga We went straight across the top of the mountain and found the road at the spring and a little log cabin We followed the road to the valley We heard Marshall Eldred mooing answered him and he found us Gordon Bro n who was with him led us to Peter Rock Cave on the side of Peak Mountain Marshall did not start out with us because he helped Gordon fix the leaks in Laurel Mill Dam Elliott led us in the cave and we did not go back very far It was pretty but wet and muddy

We c~me home by Dishroon Springs drank some of the water and ate the rest of our lunch [hen came on up the mountain A few of us stopped at the Johnson place and looked across the valley at Elilabeth Hords petticoat which we had left on a tree on Peak Mountain We came on horne arriving here about 500 pm

Journal of Speleall History 76

No Old Gold or Bones A Skeptical Review of Caverna del Oro Legendry Donald G Davis reprinledfrom Rocky Mountain Caving Summer 1992

In the thin air of timberline on Marble Mountain in the Sangre de Cristo range icy wind blows from the entrance to a deep and cryptic cave marked by the damaged remnant of a rust-red cross Known today as Spanish Cave it is the most publicized non-commercial cave in Colorado It has been featured for more than 70 years in media - first newspapers then magazines books and television specials Most of this publicity recounts stories that it is La Caverna del Oro where Indian slaves mined gold for 17th century Spaniards Many people take this as fact Recently a Colorado caver told me he had spoken with a journalist who assured him that the cave was bottomless and contains untold treasures

Spanish Cave was important in the start of my own caving career in 1957 While attending Colorado A amp M College (later CSU) I saw in scrapbooks in the Fort Collins Museum clippings of the Colorado Question Box column from the Rocky Mountain News circa 1955 They told stories of a Maltese-cross-marked entrance lost gold mine and chained skeleton reported in the caverns depths After correcting the first error we found in the accounts (that the cave was on Homs Peak several miles north of Marble Mountain) two of us (Vin Hoeman and myself) in the college Hikers Club located the cave the next year In subsequent years with Frank and Paul Leskinen James W Meachan and others in the Southern Colorado Grotto of the NSS I led the discovery of about two-thirds of its presently known passage

Finding that the Western History Department of the Denver Public Library had a clipping file on the cave I also undertook research on its history which I have continued intermittently since The mure I learned about the real cave the more disillusioned I became with the stories sensationalizing it I learned much about the rules of logic and evidence during the investi galion and was ultimately convinced that there was no satisfactory confirmation that Spanish explorers ever saw or entered the cave much less mined gold from it Following are some of the reasons for that concl usion

The most readily available summary of the legendry is in Lloyd Parris Caves oCoLorado (1973) pp 24-32 Parris precedes his Treasure Caves accounts with a confused and equivocal disclaimer The following tales for the most part have the validity of history behind them and in most cases the caves are known Undoubtedly though some of the legends connected with these caves belong in Chapter IV under hoax and humbug And if these legends seem to disagree or contradict what is previously known it is because they were selected not for entertainment alone but as a presentation of the known facts or legends as the case may be An evaluation of the authenticity has not been attempted This is left for the reader to do

This reader hereby takes up the challenge

The Spanish Mille Legends

A number of accounts (including Parriss) relate that Spanish Monastery Latin documents record gold being brought to pre-Columbian Mexican Indian kingdoms Acolhua Aztec and Tepance

Jourllal of Speleall History 77

from the north Then in 1541 three monks were supposedly left behind by Coronado (the Rocky MOllntain News June 3 1923 says 1598) One Fray Juan de la Cruz reportedly reopened a mine using forced labor by Pecos I ndians (a northern New Mexico Pueblq trib~)and packed treasure toward Mexico City but never arrived there Nuggets and gold bars reported found by one Baca in 1811 were speculated to be part of this treasure and a prospector searching (according to Parris) for Cavema del Oro half a century later found a silver cup engraved with the name Hermione Taken at face value all this gives the impression that stories about Caverna del Oro are of great antiquity though the original Spanish documents are never cited

This suite of tales was first widely distributed in an article by Alberta Pike headlines OLD MANUSCRIPT INDICATES VAST RICHES IN COLORADO CA VE GUARDED BY SKELETON in the Rocky Mountain News of Sept 6 1932 Subsequent Spanish Cave popularizers have recopied them from one article to the next without naming a source for them I recently made an enlightening discovery in the Colorado Historical Society library about where this material came from

Before any known Spanish Cave article was written Louis Bernhardt Sporleder -- early resident and prominent citizen of Walsenburg Colorado -- published a souvenir booklet titled Huajalolla Breasts of the World (1916) An article in The Trail June 1922 reprinted much of this booklet and said Sporleder had a number of unpublished manuscripts giving information historical and legendary about the Spanish Peaks (as the Huajatolla are more commonly known) Sporleders booklet included word for word most of the above Spanish mine material copied by later Cavema del Oro writers

Even his misspelling of the Tepance kingdom (properly Tepanec) has been faithfully reproduced by authors as late as Parris

As to the actual historicity of Sporleders items I know little but his writings (eg The Roses of Huajatolla The Trail Dec 1922) were prone to wild flights of romantic fiction incorporating gross errors about natural history He claimed for instance that the otherwise extinct passenger pigeon still survived on the Spanish Peaks in fact it has never been recorded in Colorado His human history appears similarly colored But even if he was accurate it is crucial to our study that his stories were exclusively about the Spanish Peaks making no connection whatever to Marble Mountain 50 miles to the northwest He specifically stated that the silver cup was found beside a spring in a grotto at the base of East Spanish Peak (the name Hermione moreover is Greek not Spanish) All of this is therefore irrelevant to the cavern on Marble Mountain that we know as Spanish Cave

In Sporleders 1916 version the prospector who found the cup was searching for Huajatollas mines of gold In Pikes 1932 recounting he was seeking the lost mine but she associates it with the cave on Marble Mountain Parris in 1973 transmutes the object of the searchers quest explicitly into the Caverna del Oro Thus by insidious mutations does spurious lore enshroud our cave

Forbes Parkhill asserted that Marble cave Legends connect the Spanish cross and the ancient timber found in the mine [sic] with the gold hunting and exploring expeditions of Juan de Onate in 1597 and the Escalante-Dominguez expedition in 1776 (Explorers to Seek Mysteries of Caves in San Isabel Wilds Discovered Four Centuries Ago Denver Post Oct 9 1921) Even Parris rejects these suggestions because those expeditions did not come close to Marble Mountain

Jourllal of Speleall History 78

Earliest Known Accounts ofthe Cave middot

In 1919 appeared a brochure Out-ol-door Piaygroullds of the Sansabel National Forest USDA middot Circular 5 by Henry S Graves Forester It declared that The Caves of the Winds [not to be confused with Cave of the Winds at Manitou Springs] a system of giant crevices in a mountain or solid white marble is one of the principal natural wonders of the Forest These caves have been penetrated to a depth of over 1200 feet without the end being reached Theymay be reached by wagon road from Westcliffe

On Oct 12 1919 the Denver Post ran an anonymous article San Isabels Caves of Winds Among Wonders of Colorado It stated The Caves of the Winds have been known to exist for many years They are described brieOy in the report of the San Isabel national forest A party of Denver business men is planning to visit the caves this autumn with a view to exploring them to their depths if pOssible If it is found that the natural wonders said to exist in the interior of the caves are equal to reports which have been received these men will ask the government for the I

privilege of developing the caves as a tourist attraction

That Spanish Cave is the object of these writings is indicated by the emphasis on wind great depth (four times the actual depth of the cave as then known) and incomplete exploration the nearby Cave of the White Marble Halls is less strongly windy nearly horizontal and was already well explored (The accompanying entrance photo is not Marble Mountain) A similar item in the Post of June 27 1920 mentions a huge cave on Marble mountain which has never been explored by man beyond a depth of 1800 feet and which may rival the famed Mammoth Cave of Kentucky Neither treasure legends nor stories ofSpanish exploration are me11lioned in any of these earliest printed accounts

Apollina Apodacas Story

The real genesis of treasure stories as applied to Spanish Cave so far as I can find is with Apollina Apodaca (her name is variously spelled in different accounts I use the spelling that seems most probable) In 1919 (not 1920 as said in Caves oColorado) Paul Gilbert later District Ranger in the Forest heard wonderful tales from this old woman As he recalled in The Bulletin of the Rocky Mountain Region of the US Forest Service (Dec 1936)

She stated that the Spaniards used to get gold from it and further stated that if one were to descend to a sufficient depth [in some accounts she is said to have specified 90 or 93 feet] a set of oak doors would be found and if they were forced open one would find a tunnel leading back into the bowels of the mountain -- and the source of the gold would be found She further stated that when she was a child they used to take a blanket wrap it around a heavy stone and throw it down the shaft In the course of a short time the blanket would be blown back minus the rock by the strong winds that come continually from the shaft

The following spring Gilbert located the cave which he misinterpreted as more of a volcanic fissure than it is a cave and visited it with Arthur C Carhart An item mentioning this trip (Mystery Caves in ColoradoRocky Mountain News Sept 21 1921) is the earliest I have found that makes a Spanish or lost-mine connection Old timers in the hills up there declare the place is the shaft of the old Three Step mine famous in Spanish history Carhart himself in the POSl of Jan 1 1922 says it is reported that it is an old Spanish mine entrance marked with a red cross of Malta and has old timber and a log chain inside

Jourllal of Speleall History 79

Gilberts writings are not entirely consistent about his informants statistics in the above report she is Mexican 105 years old in 1919 and died at 110 In his letter to Robert 1 OConnell of Feb 18 1957 (as published in History ojthe Colorado Grotto Nov 1961) she is Spanish and died in 1923 at age 103 A followup letter of Feb 25 adds that she spent most of her life in the vicinity of San Luis [in the San Luis Valley on the opposite side of the Sangre de Cristos] Another source (Dayle Molen Pueblo Star-Jollmal Nov 18 1956) says she lived near Gardner Perry Eberhart in his sensationalistic Treasure Tales of the Rockies (11) calls her an Indian squaw Raymond Thorp in American ForesTs Aug 1935 citing Gilbert says she died eight years ago which would have been 1927 (this is the date used by Parris) These points may be quibbles yet they indicate a lack of precision in recording the facts about her And since the account attributed to Ms Apodaca is pivotal to the entire Caverna del Oro oeuvre let us dissect it critically

Every element is either improbable or impossible Leaving the geologic aspect until later take the oaken doors There are no oaks for many miles and where they do appear they are scrub oak which would have provided door-size timber only in rare cases (though oaks of that size were more common in the Rockies then than now) And why haul heavy oak to timberline when (though strong when new) it does not resist rot as well as say the more easily obtained juniper There is not in any case any opening near the 9O-foot level where such doors could have been used

The blanket story is completely fanciful As we proved in 1961 (NSS News Aug 1962 part I) the cave wind comes from upper Spanish Cave not from the pit Even if it did the pit is about 15 feet wide whereas the entrance constricts to a narrow crawlway A wind strong enough to blow a blanket back up the pit would rise to such tornadic speed in the crawl as to stop a person from fighting through it to the pit Nor does it seem sensible that people would be blithely tossing their blankets down weighted with rocks After all the rock might fail to unwind and the blanket be lost or shredded at the bottom With so incredible a yarn in it why should not the whole narrative be dismissed as fantasy

The Skeletons

At least three human skeletons have been attested as evidence of Spanish involvement with the cave Two were introduced by reporter Kenneth C Lightburn in a front-page article in the Rocky Mountain News of Sept 4 1932 He claimed that the caves original discovery is credited to Capt Elisha P Hom one of the first settlers in the Wet Mountain Valley in 1869 About its entrance he found the remnants of what might have been a fort and also a skeleton in Spanish armor Through the armor was an Indian arrow (Lightburn also began the misconception that the cave was on Homs Peak) I have not been able to trace the origin of this anecdote but it sounds unlikely if only because the purpose of Spanish armor was to prevent things like stoneshypointed arrows from penetrating ones torso and it generally worked Halls History of Colorado (1895) confirms Elisha P Hom as a pioneer Wet Mountain Valley settler in 1869 but does not mention this story

However the skeleton that Lightburn intended to feature was the one in his articles melodramatic headlines SKELETON FOUND CHAINED BY NECK DEEP IN COLORADO MYSTERY CAVECAVERN IS HIGH IN MOUNTAIN WILDS OF STATEDenver Man Discovers Manacled Bones in Sangre de Cristo Range Moldering 500 Feet Below Surface in Awesome CavitySIGNS INDICATE MINE WORKED IN EARLY DAYSFind Recalls Legends of Fabulous Cavern [sic] del Oro of 17th Century Spaniards The headlines are emphasized by a lurid though regrettably nonphotographic picture of the skeleton and an entrance shot with the cross touched up to show better

80 Journal of Speleall History

Journal of Speean History

The article relates that Peter Moser of Denver with companions Victor Barth and his two sons Donald and Jack had just returned from a descent into the cave (Derivative accounts refer to Victor Donald and Jack Barth the former being a fictitious person born of the omission of an original comma between Victor and Donald)

According to Lightburn the Moser party had climbed down until they reached a vertical pit They lowered a lantern Forty feet downward they saw the bottom and in the light or the lantern could clearly make out the skeleton With a metal strap encircling the neck the pile of bones reclined against the rocky wall as if the person who died there centuries ago hall been chained in a sitting position and left to starve An investigatory trip reported in followup articles of Sept 11 12 arid 18 found no skeleton (If an entrance photo with the story of the 18th is any indication they might not even have found the cave -- the picture is obviously not on Marble Mountain -- it may be at Marble Cave near Canon City) It was speculated that Moser may have seen the skeleton at another point in the cave or that it had been done away with by mysterious parties unknown who had blasted the cave entrance between the two trips

In reality it is not surprising that the chained skeleton was never found There is no sound testimony that it was ever there Unlike Fray Juan de la Cruz Elisha Horn or Apollina Apodaca Peter Moser was still available to me to question when I first researched Lightburns article I found in 1959 that Moser still lived at the same address in Denver as in 1932 On New Years Eve 19591 telephoned him and asked about the story His description made it clear that his party had indeed reached the top of the pit that cavers now call the Jug At that point they had lowered a kerosene lantern on a line and he saw what in his own words looked like a pile of bones on a ledge near the bottom This he said is all he reported to the secretary of the Colorado Mountain Club who in tum contacted the newspaper which -- as Moser put it to me -- dressed it up a little (l printed a more complete record of Mosers hour-long interview in the Southern Colorado Grotto newsletter Spelunk Junk Mar 1960)

This embroidery was to be expected in an era when the Denver papers were battling for readers during the Great Depressiun and were notorious for sensationalism But even if Mosers own explanation did not debunk the skeleton he reportedly found it would not be believable The Jug is about 80 feet deep Have you ever tried to see in cavernous darkness where your breath makes mist clouds by a kerosene lantern at that range Then you will agree that a chaincd skeleton even in fine preservation could hardly have been seen well enough from the top to be recognized unequivocally

81

Caves oColorado complicates the matter by citing a letter to me from James W Meacham in vhich a bone found by Meacham at the bottom of the Jug in 1959 was pronounced human by John A Murphy of the Denver Museum of Natural History What Parris does not say is that I had written him in 1969 -- four years before his book was published -- that another expert at the University of Colorado Museum had declared it a deer bone (This water-worn two-inch fragment might well challenge a forensic specialist)

Not content with two skeletons Thorp (American Forests Aug 1935 op cit) adds a third to this spooky company A strange legend that still haunts the native people concerns a skeleton hung with buckskin which guarded Marble Cave just on the other side of Caverna del Oro It was the first quarter of the 19th century and an American free trapper wandered too far west The Spaniards for fear he would reveal their hiding place crucified him For a half century he remained pinioned to a wcxxlcn cross Aside from the improbably sadistic mode of execution this image typical of cartoons or folklore reveals ignorance of the properties of real skeletons which do not long remain articulated when exposed to weather decay and scavengers

Others find ulterior significance in our discovery of bones of bison and pronghorn antelope in upper Spanish Cave in the 1960s calling them plains species that would never ascend to such lofty heights Unless someone had used the cave for storing or curing meat (Bill Kaiser The Treasure of Caverna del Oro Colorful Colorado May-June 1973) I did not know this then but these animals have been known to ascend to the alpine tundra in historic ti mes and might have done so more often when they were abundant and unfenced The cave is much too wet to be good ror storing perishables

The Artifacts

Many reliable observers from Carhart and Gilbert onward report finding in the 1920s and 30s old artifacts of unknown provenance in Spanish Cave These include a winch chains whiskey bottle jug timber ladders shovel single-jack and a hammer They have all disappeared or been reduced to fragments but claims made for some of them purport to establish archeological evidence of Spanish presence

Thorp (1935 op CiL) in describing the 1932 Rocky Mountain News expedition states that on the second ledge they found the remains of a rudely constructed ladder which Dr LeRoy Hafen ( then editor historian and curator of the State Historical Society) after carefully examining asserted was at least 200 years old Below after being lowered 110 feet they found a crude hand-forged hammer which the historian declared was of 17th century vintage Gilbert (The Bulletin Dec 1936 op cit) and an Alamosa Courier article (from June 1937) repeat these avowals

These are very important allegations since the Spanish were the only people who could have left such artifacts in the 17th century To investigate them I wrote in 1960 to LeRoy Hafen inquiring about his trip to the cave and his knowledge of its history and specifically whether he had certified the hammer as of 17th-century manufacture and if so who now had it His reply was less specific than my questions but it is a primary document on one of the major claims about Spanish Cave and I reproduce it below verbatim

If LeRoy Hafen made claims of antiquity for the Spanish Cave artifacts in 1932 he obviously did not stand by them later His wife Ann W Hafen in Detective Historian (Denver WesTerners Monthly Roundup July 1954) had also recounted his 1932 cave trip and commented disproving a baseless story is important it is part of the search for truth She elaborated To the party the venture was disappointing No treasure found No relic of the ancient conquistadores But to the

Jourllal of Speleall History 82

detective Historian it was just another clue pursued another myth exploded another triumph for the scholars code -- to build history on fact not on fossilized fiction

Thorp (1935 op cit) relates that the timbers of their ladder system were about eight inches in diameter squared on four sides with an ax Auger holes were bored into their sides and they were fitted with wooden rungs pegged into the holes No nails were used al though this probably would have been done by early Germans or Americans [the wood is] now decayed and may be broken in many ins tances by the hand This construction however is not strong evidence for Spanish work Before the railroad reached the Wet Mountain Valley in the 1880s commodities such as nails would have been scarce and expensive anyone building such structures before then might well have used no metal It would also be stronger than tacking on rungs with nails when not using sawed lumber Concerning the other cave artifacts there is not enough information to suggest a date

BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY PROVOUTAH

January 13 1960

11r Donald G Davia P O Box 145 T1lnlath Colorado

Dear Hr Davia

I ~ intereat~d to learn f~ your letter of January J 1960 of your study and COllCen WJth the Caverna del Oro Hy visit to the cave and descent into it was with a party directed and financed by the Tourist Bureau or its counterpart of the period The contemporary ewspal6rs gave som~ accowtof the venture

I made the firat descant into the cave kt that time ging down the rope bS

you doubtless have done ince I recall at the edg~ of the pit th~re were s(XlIe rotted logs that may have been the framework of a windlass At tho bott~ of the pit I found a suall sledge ~er encrusted with limestone formation I dont recall what was done with this haa-er I remember no other relics in the pit

Our purposo was to investigate certain rumors a3 to early use of the cave as a SVanish mine I think middot there is little~~ion for that as the limestone fonnation is a poor VlOspect fot middotormation

The legnd hat a skeleton was chained to the wall gave added impetus to the trip Needless to eay nothing of the sort was found That cav and some near were epoken of colloctively os the Karble Campve and sune referred to this one as the Caverna del Or~ cave of gold The Kaltes cross painted on the rock at the entrllJce to tle cave already had a faded appearance I know nothi8 of the rk of Capto1n Hom regarding the di Scove ry of ~ he cave

i~J At the bottOlll of the pit Carl Dlaurohpersucd tho crevice out 5 far dS ~ ~ could go and found nothi8 to reward our efforts If Hr Ulaurot is still living i Denver he could give you sooe sidelights on th cave as ho visited it after our initial exploration

Cordially yours

LO 91+-LeRoy R IlcIen DeparUent of History

Some writers (eg Jesse Ball Canon City Daily Record Sept 14 1933) speculate that the cave was used by the Spanish as a refuge from Indian attacks The cave itself being windy wet and ncar-freezing would not have been ideal for such occupancy A ruined fort was alleged to exist below Marble Mountain as early as 1881 (Golden City Transcript Aug 31 1881 citing Cusler City Prospect ) later articles mention rifle pits I have seen what I presume to be these features below timberline and could not distinguish them from the miners prospect pits common in the Colorado mountains The largest log breastwork structure has also been interpreted as an old corral (Jerry Hassemer oral communication) If defensive works they are cr Jde ones indeed

This leaves to be considered the famous cross beside the entrance It is about one and a half feet square with flared ends meeting at the corners It has been variously described as burnt on

Jou rnal of Speean History 83

deeply chiseled or etched but in reality is prosaically painted with what looks to be a stable iron oxide pigment perhaps using some sort of template Portions of It had a thm patma of calcite crust when I first saw it in 1958 Though almost always called Maltese it is not as can be seen by looking up a crosses illustration in any large dictionary The true Maltese cross has indented ends A G Birch (Denver Post Aug 11 1929) correctly pointed out that the cave marker isin the perfect form of a German Iron Cross But he also says it was old when the first white sehler saw it more than sixty years ago without explaining how he knew this A contradictory testimony (Trail and Timberline April 1957) asserts that there is one old-timer who states that he knCv the fellow who painted it years ago as ajoke I wiIl pass over both of these declarations as uncorroborated

Spanish crosses as I have seen them represented on coins and in art have narrow straight-sided arms often with the basal arm longer and with the ends variously embellished They are typically very different from German ones It is suggestive that the first sedentary settlers below Marble Mountain were Germans of the Colfax colony in 1870 The colony as an entity failed within a year but some thirty families took possession of quarter sections and prospered as can be seen by the many descendants still living in the area (Wet Mountain Tribune Centennial Edition Dec 20 1985) German immigrants also arrived later on and the ranches cl osest below the caves remained in possession of the German-derived Henrich and Neermann families into recent years Crosses in the square form seen at the cave were used in German decorative motifs (I have seen an antique coffee-grinder at an abandoned German homestead in eastern Colorado that was ornamented with them) The cross could have been painted by a Colfax settler exploring his surroundings soon after the colonys establishment The dispersal of most of the colony in 1871 would account for the failure of later inhabitants to know who had created it

Alternatively it might have been a product of prospector 1 H Yeoman He figures in one of the earliest known accounts of a Marble Mountain cave in History of the Arkansas Valley Colorado (1881) A later report on this cave (Denver Republican Feb 20 1888) appears to describe Cave of the White Marble Halls south of Spanish Cave and states that the cave was discovered by Yeoman on Sept 16 1880 Yeoman obligingly left a graffito confirming this in the cave and the Kings and Queens Chambers of the article are likewise identified (Another 1881 account -shyGolden Cty Transcript op cit -- describes a similar cave but claims discovery by Messrs Hendershot amp Dickson of Custer City) A red cross like that at Spanish Cave but smaller and with narrower arms marks the entrance the associated graffito in English 400 Feet to the White Marble Halls precludes a Spanish conquistador origin (A writing inside -- Mrs H G ReedSilver Cliff CololHere 8115197 -- is done in a similar ornate hand) I have also seen Yeomans signature in Moonmilk Cave just across the ravine south of Spanish and scarcely possible to reach without seeing the Spanish entrance He must have known of Spanish Cave and pesumably had entered it

[he Geology

Finally a point that seems so obvious that it should hardly need to be mentioned decades of repeated explorations in Spanish Cave have failed to turn up a trace of mining or of gold and there is excellent reason for this Gold is found either where hydrothermal solutions have mineralized host rock or where deposits originating in that fashion have been eroded and concentrated in placer gravels Neither situation applies at Marble Mountain where the caves occur in an unaltered Pennsylvanian biothermal limestone lens sandwiched almost vertically between shales and conglomeratic sandstones (The name Marble Mountain is a misnomer marble is limestone altered -- metamorphosed -- by heat andor pressure The abundance of well-preserved brachiopod and crinoid fossils shows that Marble Mountain is not metamorphosed) The only mineralization known on the mountain is a little low-grade copper on the south limestone outcrop

Jourllal of Speleall History 84

Paul Gilbert notwithstanding the caves are in no way volcanic but are relatively typical highshygradient alpine limestone solution caves dissolved probably by massive runoff from melting snov and ice during Pleistocene glacial epochs Writers have speculated that Spanish Cave had a lower entrance (possible since the cave water does emerge at a spring lower down) and an entrance on the west side of the mountain (not possible since the limestone does not outcrop there) Ironically the only new entrance cavers have actually found was in a direction not suggested by any known author above Its discovery explained the cave wind as a chimney effect between the entrances -- blowing down to the lower opening when it is warmer outside than inside reversing when it is colder outside

Conclusions

I know of no one else who has analyzed the Caverna del Oro stories as thoroughly but I am not the first to publish critical judgments on them Mrs Hafen has already been quoted Also on record (NSS Bulletin 8 July 1946) is a letter dated 10444 from Fred R Johnson Chief Information and Education US Forest Service

Carl Biaurock a member of the Colorado Mountain Club explored this cave in 1925 again in 1931 and later in more detail in 1932 On the last date the exploration was the result of several articles in the Rocky MOUnTain News in which an old yam was mentioned to the effect that the cave had been investigated in the Spanish explorations in the eighteenth [sic] century also that it is supposed to have yielded a large quantity of gold and other valuable minerals there are no signs of any mineral So far as Mr Blaurocks party could tell there is no evidence in the cave of any visitation of Spanish explorers several hundred years ago

Molen (opcit) wrote that this story [from Apodaca] has been disapproved [sic] The tools and ladder in the cave are of comparatively modern origin Blaurock believes Someone years ago must have explored the cave at least as thoroughly as we did he said He also expressed doubt that the rifle pits and fort are of Spanish origin I did not interview Carl Blaurock during my earlier research I telephoned him this summer but he is 98 years old and is too deaf to understand my questions I have sent him a letter of inquiry thus far unanswered

After organized caving had begun William R Halliday founder of the Colorado Grotto of the National Speleological Society also concluded that The fabulous stories are fables The story of Spanish Cave is told (Halliday however was too pessimistic in inferring that the cave was almost completely explored Most of what is now known was discovered just after he wrote but none of the new passage showed signs of human entry)

Diehard romantics might protest that Spanish Cave could still be La Caverna del Oro Caves can hide much perhaps somewhere in the depths there is a localized zone of thermal mineralization conceivably the Spaniards very cleverly concealed the way to the mine workings Such ideas are not impossible but do strain credulity For every verified feature that has been proposed as evidence for Spanish presence there is an alternative explanation that is more plausible The burden of proof then is on the proponents of the Spanish connection The lurid yarns about the cave reflect folklore creation greatly abetted by media exploitation assisted by atrociously sloppy research

The time sequenceof the several names applied to the cave fits this very neatly In sources from 1919 I find The Caves of the Winds From 1920 until 1932 I see Marble Cave Marble

85jOllrtlal of Speleall History

Caves or The Caves but no Spanish-related appellations It is still called Marble Cave at least as late as 1953 (Irma Zanoni Trail amp Timberline Dec 1953) I do not encounter La Cavema del Oro applied to our cave until Lightburns articles of 1932 after which it is common One of Lightburns headlines refers to the old Spanish Cave but Spanish Cave as a proper ~ame seems to appear only in the first Colorado Grotto News amp Notes of Feb 12 1952 where It IS a synonym for Caverna del Oro From then until now Spanish Cave has been the preferred form in the literature of organized caving and in popular media relying on it This unfortunately has helped to maintain the public assumption that the Spanish legendry is based in fact

The caves history is muddled by a series of misnomers a Caverna del Oro with no gold a Maltese cross that is not Maltese marble that is not marble -- and on analyzing the evidence I think that German Cave would have been a more appropriate if less provocative name than Spanish Cave

I expect my skeptical arguments to be ignored by future writers as long as there is a media markcL for exciting treasure tales Why is it important to be critically analytical

Since fact and fiction are not clearly distinguished in media information about the cave many people still believe nonsense about it Apparently the Spanish gold tales retain enough public acceptance to present problems to the Forest Service today It is reported that there was in recent years a proposal to build a road to the cave to facilitate treasure hunting (Jerry Hassemer oral comm)

Furthermore presentation of false gold stories as if they might be true is likely to tempt naive and poorly prepared readers to get in trouble seeking riches This is apparent in a 1957 letter from Roy Truman former District Ranger and colleague of Paul Gilberts (History of the Colorado Grotto 1961)

There was a time when it was very difficult to keep boys away from this cave and I received many calls from parents in Pueblo and other towns all times of the day and night concerning the safety of their boys that had left home with the ideas of exploring this cave with the high hopes of finding valuable ores or treasures they were equipped with a few pieces of small rope [this was probably arter the Depression-era articles]

This problem is also exemplified by a letter in my own files addressed in 1962 to Richard LeSage of the Southern Colorado Grotto from a Denverite He had twenty-four numbered questions including What type of equipiment [sic] will I need (exactly) I havent done much cave exploring Where can I obtain it What type of mask would I need for foul air He concludes We are intending to explore this cave at all cost so your information will be most vilal to us and most appreciable (We never replied deciding that was the safest thing to do)

The extravagance of peoples beliefs about Spanish Cave has sometimes reached quite ridiculous extremes The Colorado Historical Society library has a typescript of research material used by Perry Eberhart in preparing Treasure Tales of the Rockies One note is as follows

Robert Dunne head of Querida sez think cave comes out near Walsenburg or possibly the northern end of Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico never found end

James Dunne Querida

Not even Eberhart was so shameless as to print this in his book

Jourllal of Speleall History 86

There are still many legitimate mysteries left about Marble Mountain and its history How well explored are the ends of Spanish Cave even now Why was Yeomans cave otherwise so clearly White Marble Halls said to have a 275-foot pit Is this an error or a pit now lost Was the vertical Spanish Cave somehow grafted into the account Who really painted the Maltese cross and who put the artifacts into Spanish Why were detailed articles published on White Marble Halls in the 1880s but nothing seems to be on record about Spanish until 1919 in spite of the extensive early work done in it (If the relics were left by Colfax colonists in the 1870s they could not easily have published their explorations as there were yet no newspapers in the Wet Mountain Valley Later Yeoman or other prospectors might have been reticent about calling atlention to the cave if they built ladders down the shafts in the hope of rinding minerals Study 01 the county mining-claim records could be informative)

Future Opportunities

Most knowledge we now have on Marble Mountain history before organized caving is based on writings of big-city visitors from 1919 on When time allows I intend to search the microfilms of Custer County newspapers in the period 1880-1920 to see if items overlooked by library indexers may shed light on the gaps in our knowledge of the Marble Mountain caves Fascinating revelations are very likely to result Johnsons letter of 1944 (op cit) also stated There was evidence of early visitation [in Marble Cave] including names carved on rocks but these date mostly back about 50 years ago Informative graffiti are numerous in Cave of the White Marble Halls but I do not recall seeing any in Spanish Cave during my own explorations in the 1950s and 60s It should be carefully reexamined to see if we have overlooked signatures that could be keys to the solution of the puzzles

Better documentation of the cave itself would also be desirable The Colorado Grotto surveyed most of lower Spanish in the 1950s to the standards then prevailing I do not know the length of the CG survey but it probably included less than 1000 feet The Southern Colorado Grotto discoveries from 1959 to the early 1960s were not surveyed at the time

From 1975 to 1988 Jerry Hassemer led the mapping of 2642 feet of upper Spanish including the main route between entrances and the Rimstone Passage its longest side gallery (Hassemer personal comm Sept 13 1992) (About 1735 feet of this are along the through-route) His survey showed a vertical difference of 449 feet between lower and upper entrance by both internal mapping and a surface closure loop The old Colorado Grotto map appears to show a depth of just over 270 feet from lower entrance to deepest surveyed point thus total surveyed depth of Spanish Cave is about 720 fect (The entrance elevations of Spanish Cave have never been established by survey to a benchmark but altimeter readings and topographic maps suggest that the upper entrance is around 12000 feet)

Other side passages and superimposed levels in upper Spanish remain unmapped In lower Spanish an important branch the waterfall passage -- which may go deeper than the so-called Gold Diggings at the end of the existing map -- remains unsurveyed The high elevation and extremely cold wet conditions continue to inhibit complete exploration and mapping as they have for as long as the cave has been known

87Journal of Speleall History

Cave Explorer Scientist

Photographer

RUSSELL TRALL NEVILLE middotTHE CAVE MAN

PRESENTING

In t he Cellarsof the World Home Address KEWANEE ILLINOIS

bull

a~ EXPLORE THE UNKNOWN ~ ~ ~

With THE CAVE MAN Let him take you adventuring into marvelous underground fairylands Mr Ne vi lle shows you wonderfully beautiful pictures especially selected from thousands of his world famous cave photographs There is no other living man who has been in more American caves or tra ve lled so many miles in so many caverns Floyd C ollin s whose tragic death in Sand Cave aroused the sympathy of the wor ld and Mr Neville two intrepid cave explorers rpached places in caves never before seen by human eyes

IN THE CELLARS OF THE WORLD is packed full of thrills surprises adventure and beauty and IS illustrated wif ~ hoic c coloree lant ern slides

You are sure to be delighted with this unique educationai illustrated lecture Millions have heard it from the plaHo rm and over the radio

A FEW OPINIONS Pe rhaps you read Mr Clay Perrys article in the July 12th 1941 issue of the Saturday Evening Post In which he paid hiGh tribute to Mr Ne villes Cave explorations

An excerp t But Im a novice alongside Russell Trail Neville the Cave Man of Kewanee Illinois Neville has travelled morc J~an a

thousand miles underground and taken more than 5000 photographs of what he calls TH CELLARS OF THE WORLD

Th e late Lorado Taft famous artist said You certainly have a unique and notable lecture Your pictures are wonderfully fine and the adventures thaf lie behind

them ore ery thrilling In spite of all of the beauty that you have brought to light I heartily testify that no reward would vpr get me into those tight places

Mr Arthur C Page Editor pa~ri~ Farmer ~riting to a College President Mr Nevi lle has spoken several~ trT1es over WLS (The Prairie Farmer Radio Station) and I have seen a great man y of his

wonaerful pictures He is one of the most fascinating speakers I have ever lis te ned to

Mr D E Northam Chairman Entertainment Committee The Adventurers Club Chicago Illinois I Vl ant to convey to you the thanks of the entire member~hip of the Adventurers Club for the most interesting educa

tiona l ar~d thri ll ing program you gave us at our last Ladies Night I hope we may have you again

Dr Charl es D Sneller Past President Illinois State Academy of Sciences I have heard the CAVE MAN deliver his lecture many times He thrills children and adults alike He has spo~en beforr

th e Peor ia Rotary Club the Peoria Kiwanis Club and the Peoria Academy of Scipnces and always capti va ted his Judiences His pictures are a marvel and his lecture is unusually interesting

lr e iIle cave photographs have been shown literally all over the world in the rnot important Inte rshynationa l P hotographic Salons winning many special medals and diplomas

In the Cellars of the World delight ~ d edu c ated aud thrilled audiences at

Fiel d ~fuseum of Natural History Chicago Chicago Ca dem of Sciences Rod ro rd Coll e~ e Rockford Illinois VS II Iowa Cit Iowa Cnlvlrsity C lu b Evanston Illinois D eKa lb Teachers Institute Sycamore Illinois BI ~(kbl11l Coll e ge Carlinville Illinois Oll io Stn te Ulli (lsi tl Bowling Green Ohio Carn(~le [ uselllll Pittsburgh Pennsylvania L1ke S hore A t hl etic Club Chicago The middot c lt1demy of Sciences Buffalo New York v~IA0 The Chi cago Daily News Station The fil allk0e Iuselm Milwaukee Wisconsin Allis- Ch a lmers Foremans Club Ylilwaukee Wisconsin IIlin 0is Veslea1 Unhersity Bloomington Illinois Am erican Instit lte of Electrical Enbineers Pittsfield

Iassa c huse tls Tile TIrio ) I11n s Educational Club Toledo Ctah State T chers College St George Utah LaSall e Juni o r Co llege Auburndale lassachusetts Vest ern Illi no is State Teachers College Macomb Illinois La ke Erie Co llege Paines v ille Ohio Go e rnment Ind ian School Poplar Ylontana Vom a n Cit) Club Portsmouth -lew Hampshire orcestcl ( adem Worcester ~fassachuserts Linel HO IIse B()s ton RI C lub IPtt stO Il PennsIania Slal( T ( a(hers C()l l e~e Dickinson orth Dakotu shy s ( 11 h lllHlrlds ()f other Schoo ls Colleges Womans ()IIIJ - 1 1111 (1oll Cluh IIH1 others Ill oyer the United --Oltll( middot

THE CAvE IAI ITH HIS OiDERFLL PICTURES LKES YOU INTO THE REALM OF StBTERRAiEAi OlI)ERS PLACES YOU CAOT POSSIBLY VISIT SAFELY rOIshyFORTASLY AlD EASILY

COMPLETE PROJECTIOl EQClPIET IS PHOVI[)ED

ONE OF THE LlL Y PADS

NATURES UNDERGROUND BEAUTY SPOTS

_

PRESENTING

In the

CELLARS of the

WORLD

RUSSELL TRALL NEVILLE T HE CAVE MAN

Cave Explorer

Scientist

Photographer

r~ ~ bull y

I~XPLUHE THE UNKNOWN

Witl THE CAVE MAN Let him take you adventuring into marvelous underground fairylands Mr Neville shows you wonderfully beautiful pictures especially selected from thousands of his world famous cave photographs There is no other living man who has been in more American caves or travelled so many miles in so many caverns Floyd Collins whose tragic death in Sand Cave aroused the sympathy of the world and Mr Neville two intrepid cave explorers reached places in caves never before seen by humiln eyes

IN THE CELLARS OF THE WORLD is packed full of thrills surprises adventure and beauty and IS illustrated with choce color ~d lantern slides

You are sure to be delighted with this clnlque educationai illustrated lecture Millions have heard it from the platform and over the radio

FEW OPINIONS

PerhiJps you read Mr Cla y Perrys article in the July 12th 1941 issue of the Saturday Evening Post n which he paid high tribute to Mr Nevilles Cave explorations

An excerpt But Im a novice alongside Russell Trail Neville the Cave Man of Kewanee Illinois Neville has travelled more than a

IllOU il nd miles underground and taken more than ~UUU photographs ot whaT he calls I HI CELLARS OF THE WORLD

T IO de L010dc Taft fofTv Jdit 2+ You certainly hive a uniqu~ and notable lecture Your pictures are wonderfully fine and the adventures that lie behind

them are very thrilling In spite of all of the beauty that you have brought to light I heartily testify that ~o reNard would ever get me into those tight places

Mr Arlhur C Paqe Editor Prairie Farmer writing to a College President Mr Neville has spoken several times over WLS (The Prairie Farmer Radio Station) and I have seen a great many of his

wonderful pictures He is one of the most fascinating speakers I have ever listened to

Mr D E Northam Chairman Entertainment Committee The Adventurers Club Chicago Illinois I want to convey to you the thanks of the entire membership of the Adventurers Club for the most interesting educashy

tional and thrilling program you gave us at our last Ladies Night I hope we may have you again

Dr Charles D Sneller Past President Illinois State Academy of Sciences I have heard the CAVE MAN deli ver his lecture many times He thrills children and adults alike He has spoken before

the Peoria Rotary Club the Peoria Kiwanis Club and the Peoria Academy of Sciences and always captiv~ted hi s Judiences His pictures are a marvel and his lecture is unusually interesting

l r C iJl cs cave photoJraphs have heen shown literally allover the world In the most important Intershynational Photog-raphic Salons winninJ many special medals and diplomas

THE CAn- t1AX WITH HIS OXDtRFlL IICTLRtS TAKES YOU IITO THE REALM OF SUBTERRAE X O~)ERS

delighted educated alld thrilled audiences at

In the Cellars 0 the World PLACES YOU CAIIOT POSSIBLY nSIT SAFELY COMshyFORTABLY ID EASILY

Clliclgo Academy of Sciences Horkforrl Colleue Roekforrl Illinois Slmiddotr Tow~ City Iowa lfnin rsity Club Evanston Illinois In his cave work Mr Neville hs had Illany entershyrkl~lh TearIHr Institute SIlm)rr Illillo

Fielcl Iuseum of Natural Histor Chicago

taininl4 alllllsinl and thrillinJ experience IN THERIldlln CollECE Carlinvill~ I11nos Ohio ~LaLE lJniv~rsitv Bowlingt Green Ohio CELLARS OF THE WORLD Carneg-ie Museum Pittsburg-h Pennsylvania Lake Shore Athletic Club Chicag-o lear him tell some of these The cademy of Sciences Buffalo New York WMAQ The Chicago Daily News Station See his wonderful colored pictures The llilwaukee Museum 1ilwaukee Wisconsin AllismiddotChalmers Foremans Club Iilwaukee Wisconsin Illinois Wesleyan University Bloomington Illinois A merican Institute of Electrical Enhince ls Pittsfield AN INTERESTJiIC CR WLW Y

Massachusetts The Toledo Vomans Educational Club Toledo i~ II - ~ Utah Stu te Teac hers College St George Utah K ~

LaSa lie J u nior Colleg-e Auburndale 1assach usetts Vestern Illinois State Teachers College Macomh Illinoi ~

Lake Fri e College Painesille Ohio t lt bullbull bull _~ -11(1shy

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Urili ing al l ll th e exrnence gained 11 rho og rlgthingl hunshydred caes he m11ltmiddot nHHio n lnd still pictures of 11 mti frm shyHllms you mny ne(r 1gt 11gt1 to see The lre Jt~) i ( tt l Iith the skill md arri try then Mr Neville Igtrings ((I l1 his rholOshygraphic ork You wi ll have a new a[preci ati o n of rlw ond t rs of NI(ure after y()U hIc seen thSt ullusual [icrllrcs

ml ~ )middotIIJ l I ltxll r W i n ~ lIl1 rIH)togr 1 I hing the Caves of Kltntlldy )[1 1-Ili1I11 fo r slt tT d Yr DlIff th1t timt h h I S trlmiddote1I1 ~ rh l rs a thoulnd mile 1111-ic rgrltgtllnd

He ha ( ~ rr it h C3 mlt r3 up ond I pw n ltwr huge rock s crnwl el thngtugh lItT worn crev ices so smlll ir eemed imshypossihilt to neglHil te rh em even witho ut rhe heavy ca men1 equip menc-a ll the whi le Illaking hi wond eriul seri e )f interestm g cave pictures

Wlgtrking undr Ihorograrh ic difficultie I n1 rhysICa l h~zard s wh ic h eltIlle1 unsurmoun raH lt Mr Neille has succeeded ntvshyenhelts in Igtrin gi ng Igtcfo re the pulgtlic fy means oi morion ricshycures lnd by lantern slides beautiful scenes and views of formations yUU lta nnm possiLly see fo r yourself

Combined with this he rreshysents them in a highly artistic and cntcrtaining manner

ALADDINS GROTTO

~( A Camera Journey through Underground Fairylands ~ with Russell T Neville the Cave Man

m R Neville is a cave lxrlorer 1nd rhor)grapher Bc)innin~ a a hlgtbh this ~ work has Jevelored into a serious utempt t gt 1()nr1Y ancl present rhee little known heauties hidden tar lgteJuw Ih~ surface of he earth

Interesting experienltcs galore have fdlen tll Mr Nilie Igtt in this exploration rk ( llS have heen iiscltlnrJ wdl knwn caves Ioae heen exrlorel (Ll greuer distan(ts and all til rime his (nmeras have been l1llking a lirhful anJ unique recorl f his travels into rh e Realms f Ni)ht

Mr Nevilles exrtlitiol1 lI1t OIJ Salts Ca e (July 192 1 went into places never hefore st~n by white exrlorers The pnrry was in the Cave ltgtn rhis trir for fifty-one hours anJ rhirry-five minutes They liLltereJ and 1T()ughr to light a co nsiderable quantity lIt materini left hy rhe mysrerio us C 1e Men ot long ago This is shown in rhe pictures and commented upo n bv M r Neville who ha s Jen)[cd much rime to

the study ot the prehistoric folk wh o inhahit 1 rhis l11ighty sulgtrerranenn labyrinth many hundreds of y~1rs ago

Q A VE photography is essentially ver hn1rdou~ md tlifficulr C(gtmtgtined With tht risks pi origina l caw eplorarinn- rraversing unc harted pathways ShTtgtlldcl

in eernal darkness whlre unseen unknown dangers lurk in even shaJ(l there are serious photographic tehllical prohlems t(l be solved

Well gr(lund~d in the rtquir ~ l1lellts of a pkasing picrure Mr Neillc has usel 111 his lbility in the rnkillcrion of wonlerful lighting~ and pkwrial Clgtmpsitigtns PrllJucshying his own light 1 mtans of [()erflll fIlr~ elch giving 72 000 cnndle r ower he comhats the unfavrahle condicigtns which are found in aves Jnd interesting effects nre picwred which lend ench1 lltment to rhe cenes

Three ree Is lit standard ie i 35mm ) motion ricrllre film are al ilahle for use A portable morion ricure pwjecto r can be furnished

Many heautifully ha nd co lor~J lantern sliJes may he used if desi reJ This motion picture film is rhe fi rst and on ly attempt ever made ro prcsem o n t he

screen rhe hidJen undergrour J mancls of Narure

Remarks on the Potential of Underground Space for Defense Against Attack Jack Hurley DC Speleograph June 1960

1 Todays threat from the Soviets is political economic and military Thelalter includes chemical and biological warfare radio-logical fall-out and the weapon of the future - the neutron-ray gun not to mention others yet to be developed

2 The good earth which sustains uswill inevitably have its underground spaces explQited and developed to an unprecedented degree in a return to what might be called the era or the Jmodern cave man for nothing can protect us so well and for minimum cost as the underground spaces

3 In recent times we have the example of Nazi Germany in World War II with some) 000 underground storage depots light assembly plants and factories as well as the present day state or the art middot~ exemplified in Sweden In this country government and commercial interests possess bu~ a few underground sites not all of which can be discussed because of their classified nature However those not classified offer good examples of a good beginning - but only a beginning

Some of the underground sites that have been developed and are presently in usc principally for storage of various kinds are located in Kansas (Hutchinson and elsewhere) Neosho Missouri California and Iron Mountain New York as well as the development by my company of the Annandale Mine Butler Pennsylvania into a huge modern underground storage vault for irreplaceable records Some of our cl ients are the Jones and Laughl in Steel Co the U S Steel Co and the First National Bank oCNew York City Other sites are being usedJor cold storage and for hospitals but as yet the uses are extremely limited

Some of the potential uses are for light manufacturing and assembly plants permal1ent housing for some of our fabulously expensive data computers headquarters for command posts fo r national state and local civil defense storage of items essential for human survival in the event of atomic attack as well as items essential to the process of industrial rehabilitation To a limited extent they may also be utilized as shelters for at least some of the population in case of disaster

Why is it that the underground has not been more fully exploited and developed

1 Th~aver~ge individual dislikes the idea 2 The potential of the ul1derground for storage and housing has only been slightly understood 3 Existing sites are not always conveniently located 4 Those who cculd spark such development do not fully understand the nature and perhaps the imminency of the threat 5 I n some cases development has been stifled because of the cost even though this is but a fraction of that iiwolvedin creating a totally man-made facility for similar purposes Also there have been mistaken efforts to use underground space for purposes for which itwas not suited 6 The average human being strongly resists change in his essential concepts The so-called vested interests must first realize a scarcity of suitable top-side space before they will begin acquiringund~rground space

71Journal of Speleall History

Some of the advantages of good mines and caves are

1 They are generally removed from critical target areas 2 Development costs no more than on the surface and is frequently considerable less 3 In the long run maintenance and operating costs are much lower 4 In business and industry the absenteeism of workers due to illness extremes of temperature etc frequently becomes a real problem In my opinion working in the quiet atmosphere underground in a steady temperature and humidity level would have a beneficial and healthful effect This same situation makes it far easier to create a static condition beneficial to tl)e preservation and long life of records and other materials stored underground 5 The standard earth cover for modern missile bases is 25 feet Nearly all mines and caves of any consequence have far more cover than this thus increasing their protection potential

You as cave explorers and members of the National Speleological Society can assist by

1 Providing inventories of the most suitable caves for various purposes 2 Assist in developing guides or standards for caves for specific purposes 3 Talk about how mines and caves can be utilized and thus influence those who are in a ~tjon to initiate action in this direction

The above is the substance oj a talk given by Mr Hurley 10 the members oj the DC ChilP4tl oj the NSS on June 7 1960

Comment of the Designation of Certain Caves as Fallout Shelters William H Peters DC Speleograph April 1963

I believe all of us as members of the National Speleological Society have been aware for the past several years of the interest in utilizing selected caves for the protection of civilian population in the event of a national emergency The interest up until now remote has materialized into an actual requisitioning of caves in Pendleton County West Virginia and other communities in that state anxious to utilize all of their resources for what can certainly be called a noteworthy if not heroic program There has been at first a rejection of the idea among speleologists We are at first repelled by the idea of giving up our almost absolute sovereignty of the underground The realities of the world invading our isolated laboratories is unacceptable to us as scientists~ and of course the whole concept of nuclear war is still psychologically repugnant Our first reaction is expressed in many ways - useless protests exclamations of impossibility and we formulate every reason for the programs failure

But as citizens we have a responsibility to study the problem and the facts are not pleasing Repugnant as it is nuclear warfare lives not too far from the pleasantries of our life This is

72 JOllrllal of Speleall History

proven by the not so far removed Cuban Crisis In November 1962 LS Finkelstein at the Harvard University Center for International Affairs writing of the Soviet position on Arms Inspection is quoted It is hard to escape the conclusion that the Soviet Union for at least much of the time seems to have been interested more in employing the negotiations as a means of weakening the military and political position of the West that as a route to a viable disarmament system He goes on to quote James P Wadsworth to the effect that the Soviet Union has employed arms control negotiation as a part of a grand strategy aimed at the eventual total defeat of the other side 1 Thus for those persons who hope for an easy solution it is hard to find the substance to nourish those hopes

The possibility of reducing the probable use of nuclear weapons is diminished by the cruel fact that reduction in armaments only increases the probability of escalation in armament by lessening the factor required for decisive advantage while additionally making the elements of decisive advantage available to many other countries who may aspire to greater roles than current economic or scientific resources have relegated them This point is well illustrated by HA Kissinger nuclear disarmament has revealed the paradoxical fact that there is a certain safety in numbers And this is true even if both sides religiously observe an agreement to limit nuclear weapons Instability is greater if each side possesses ten missiles that if the equilibrium is stabilized at say 500 For an attack which is 90 successful when the opponent has ten missiles leaves him one or a number hardly able to inflict unacceptable damage An attack of similar effectiveness when the opponent possesses 500 missiles leaves 50 - perhaps sufficient to pose an unacceptable risk 2

We can easily conclude that the probability of removing nuclear weapons from the field of War Science is remote from purely tactical necessity What is also critical to our thinking is that the War Sciences are advancing in their ability to assess more and more elements and their relationship to decisive advantage Von Neumann in formulating the Minimax Game Theory and its reduction to mathematical models applied to computers increases the number of factors to be considered beyond the capability of the human mind International politics are founded upon economic and strategic factors rather than ethical or moral principle It is not impossible that in the cold realistic logic of the Game Theory3 that some remote event passing unseen by the casual observer will relate itself to decisive advantage for the opponent and may demand immediate action by one or the other side We cannot hope that in every instance the situation will escalate as did the Cuban Crisis so that the population can prepare itself

The comparison of Civil Preparedness to Ostrichism is not a fair comparison Civil Preparedness adds another factor for a potential enemy and complicates his game It makes it more difficult to game reliability Kissinger points out four considerations for reducing the possibility of decisive advantage the second of which is Since invulnerability is a relative term the purpose of arms control measures must be to strengthen so far as possible the relative position of the defender either by enhancing the security of his force or by complicating the calculations of the aggressor2 It is thus that civil preparedness serves a two fold purpose of deterring and of providing some measure

of survi val

The remoteness of the areas under consideration enhances the desirability of taking appropriate measures God forbid that it should come to pass but in the event of a nuclear holocaust it is these areas that could become the springboard for the reconstruction of our democracy and for the continuation of our cultural heritage

As members of the National Speleological Society we have the opportunity of not only participating but of making a definite contribution No other organization has more resources in

73Journal of Speeall History

scientific personnel experience or knowledge relating to caves Failure to meet our responsibilities at this time will only widen possible misunderstandings between the National Speleological Society and Civil Defense Organizations We must accept the fact that as the civil defense program expands more cave resources will be requisitioned Our opposition will only serve as a barrier to continued parallel use of these resources

The Society can assist in both the areas of applied practical knowledge and of basic research To list bnt a few are - advising and monitoring storage in areas of historical underground hydrological fluctuations monitoring humidity temperature and air circulation locating suitable areas in caves that will minimize the possibility of vandalism recommending types of closures of gates and assisting in their installation checking periodically the condition of supplies and reporting this to appropriate authority and condemnation of areas due to strata imperfection and probability of breakdown

There are many questions in need of investigation What is the relationship in a multiple stream capture theory and the possible concentration of radioactive or other contaminates in a cave duc to fIltration What is the probability of infection by intake of foods contaminated by histoplasma ir any What is the relationship of bat rabies to human cave habitation What provision must be made for sanitation - control of rats and possible damage to supplies and in the event of human habitation control of rat fleas as possible communicators of typhUS or other epidemic diseases) What is the probability of excessive amounts of radioactive materials being introduced to the cavc environment by animals such as bats that enter and leave the cave frequently These represent only a portion of the questions which should be examined to determine their relevance and what precautionary measures should be taken if relevant

I would like to propose that at a special meeting of the Board of Governors a Civil Defense Advisory Committee composed of competent scientists and speleologists be formed for the purpose of formulating suitable policies initiating scientific investigation and in general assuming the role of representing and coordinating the Societys Civil Defense effort The question as to whether we can afford to undertake such a program with its inherent socialpolitical implications should be answered - Can we afford not to

References

1 Arms Inspection International Conciliation Nov 1962 (It is interesting to note that in my upinion this publication follows closely the United Nations activities It is surprising to observe this pessimistic attitude in that area)

2 Foreign Affairs Volume 39 no 4 July 1960 Inspection and Surprise Attack p 56l

3 A current article on Game Theory appears in the December 1962 issue of Scientific Americall by Anatol Rapoport The Use and Misuse of Game Theory

Journal of Speleall History 74

1922 Trip Reports

Maud Orr Howell

Trip 10 Bear Cave

Gordon Brown led eight of us including Elizabeth Hord George Raudebush Benie Weaver Tom Weaver Johnny Connor Boyte and me to Bear Cave in Savage Gulch

We left the Observatory at 900 am went down Clark Cottage Path and across the valley to the clearing in front of the old Savage home

The girls rested while the boys went up the side of Peak Mountain to a ~pring and brought back some water Then we explored the old house In one of the upstairs rooms that had newspapers on the walls we read in the Society section of a newspaper dated August 17 1908 that Mr and Mrs Sanford Duncan had gone to spend a few days with Mrs Robert Orr in Maury County

We cut across the field to the right of the house and climbed along the side of Peak Mountain then straight down the side of the mountain to Savage Creek After drinking water from a spring running into the creek we followed the creek up a few yards then climbed up the mountain on the left a few yards to the cave This is Coppenger Mountain It was 11 45 so we ate our Iunch and rested until 1 10 when all but Elizabeth and Tom went in the cave We had candles and carbide lights and Gordon led the way It saw 220 when we got out After resting a few minutes and taking some Kodak pictures we all including Elizabeth and Tom went in again and stayed until 300 pm

We gathered our things which included sticks which Gordon had cut for us the Kodak the lunch bag canteen etc and set out straight up the mountain with Gordon pulling us up some of the places until we hit the cliffs We followed the cliffs along until we found a place to climb up When we got on the top we walked along the mountain until we got to the end of it which is just above the Savage house We went down a path which went straight down the mountain to the Savage house rested while the boys got water then came home to Howell cottage the same way we had gone arriving here at 700 pm

Trip to Bats Cave

Saturday September 2 1922

We first planned to walk to Tatesville but not knowing how far it was we gave it up and decided to walk to Bats Cave The night before the trip we gave that up too as it was so far and the weather so hot

As we were eating breakfast Mr George Mitchell came and he had breakfast with us He suggested getting a wagon for our trip so immediately after breakfast Mr George Bettie Martha and Tom Weaver Boyte and I went to the store and got Earnest Rubleys wagon

75Journal of Speleall History

We all met on the Observatory There were 19 of us Five including Mr George Jennings and George Bailey Torn and Charlie Trabue IV left first and went down the Backbone Road intending to meet us at the Collins River bridge The rest of us Elliott and David Adams Lucy and Elizabeth Bailey Lucinda Trabue Irene Langford Elizabeth Mclane Kate Keene Johnson Susan Lewis Bettie and Martha Weaver Boyte and I walked down the mountain from the Observatory and met the wagon a little piece up the valley We missed the other bunch and they did not catch up with us until we had left the wagon and were eating lunch at the spring

We finished lunch and walked up the mountain to the cave We went to the big room where we stopped last year which is just beyond the small ladder We climbed the ladder then all but Irene Tom Elizabeth and I went on further We waited at the top of the ladder until they came back They had gone to another big room and circled around it about three times before finally finding the way out They found an old Nashville newspaper dated 1847 and another paper with some names on it They added their names to this list

When we got out of the cave it was nearly 500 We had been in there three hours

We went back to the wagon and started horne We got to Collins River bridge about dark The moon was almost full and the ride up the valley in the moonlight in a wagon filled with hay and pulled by mules was beautiful We stopped at Mortons store and Mr George telephoned up lo Beersheba and told them where we were and assured them that we would be home soon He brought out oodles of cookies and we had a grand time eating them We sang and yelled and relaxed on the hay We left the wagon at the bottom of Beersheba Mountain Martha led the way up the mountain in the dark with only the moon to help guide us We had Oashlights but it was hard to keep in the path But it was fun We reached the top at the Observatory at 845 pm and no one seemed to be tired

Trip to Peak Mountain

A crowd of us left Aunt Mats Cottage at 930 am on Monday August 28 1922 There were 19 of us including Mr George Mitchell Elizabeth Hord Mr Colville Elliott Adams Jennings Bailey Lucy Bailey Kate Keene Johnson George Eldred Mary Wilson Eldred Irene Langford Elizabeth Mclane Bettie Orr Martha Weaver Tom Weaver Alfred Williams Mary Phillips Street Susan Lewis Boyte Howell Jr and me (Maud Orr Howell)

We went down Clark Cottage Path to the valley The crowd was separated going down but we all got together at the foot of the mountain crossed the valley and climbed Peak Mountain There was no path we just went up the side of the mountain and went thru a pass up the cliffs We got there about 1200 pm rested then ate lunch We put up a nag (Elizabeth Hords petticoat)

Aoout 100 pm we left to find the old stage coach road to Chattanooga We went straight across the top of the mountain and found the road at the spring and a little log cabin We followed the road to the valley We heard Marshall Eldred mooing answered him and he found us Gordon Bro n who was with him led us to Peter Rock Cave on the side of Peak Mountain Marshall did not start out with us because he helped Gordon fix the leaks in Laurel Mill Dam Elliott led us in the cave and we did not go back very far It was pretty but wet and muddy

We c~me home by Dishroon Springs drank some of the water and ate the rest of our lunch [hen came on up the mountain A few of us stopped at the Johnson place and looked across the valley at Elilabeth Hords petticoat which we had left on a tree on Peak Mountain We came on horne arriving here about 500 pm

Journal of Speleall History 76

No Old Gold or Bones A Skeptical Review of Caverna del Oro Legendry Donald G Davis reprinledfrom Rocky Mountain Caving Summer 1992

In the thin air of timberline on Marble Mountain in the Sangre de Cristo range icy wind blows from the entrance to a deep and cryptic cave marked by the damaged remnant of a rust-red cross Known today as Spanish Cave it is the most publicized non-commercial cave in Colorado It has been featured for more than 70 years in media - first newspapers then magazines books and television specials Most of this publicity recounts stories that it is La Caverna del Oro where Indian slaves mined gold for 17th century Spaniards Many people take this as fact Recently a Colorado caver told me he had spoken with a journalist who assured him that the cave was bottomless and contains untold treasures

Spanish Cave was important in the start of my own caving career in 1957 While attending Colorado A amp M College (later CSU) I saw in scrapbooks in the Fort Collins Museum clippings of the Colorado Question Box column from the Rocky Mountain News circa 1955 They told stories of a Maltese-cross-marked entrance lost gold mine and chained skeleton reported in the caverns depths After correcting the first error we found in the accounts (that the cave was on Homs Peak several miles north of Marble Mountain) two of us (Vin Hoeman and myself) in the college Hikers Club located the cave the next year In subsequent years with Frank and Paul Leskinen James W Meachan and others in the Southern Colorado Grotto of the NSS I led the discovery of about two-thirds of its presently known passage

Finding that the Western History Department of the Denver Public Library had a clipping file on the cave I also undertook research on its history which I have continued intermittently since The mure I learned about the real cave the more disillusioned I became with the stories sensationalizing it I learned much about the rules of logic and evidence during the investi galion and was ultimately convinced that there was no satisfactory confirmation that Spanish explorers ever saw or entered the cave much less mined gold from it Following are some of the reasons for that concl usion

The most readily available summary of the legendry is in Lloyd Parris Caves oCoLorado (1973) pp 24-32 Parris precedes his Treasure Caves accounts with a confused and equivocal disclaimer The following tales for the most part have the validity of history behind them and in most cases the caves are known Undoubtedly though some of the legends connected with these caves belong in Chapter IV under hoax and humbug And if these legends seem to disagree or contradict what is previously known it is because they were selected not for entertainment alone but as a presentation of the known facts or legends as the case may be An evaluation of the authenticity has not been attempted This is left for the reader to do

This reader hereby takes up the challenge

The Spanish Mille Legends

A number of accounts (including Parriss) relate that Spanish Monastery Latin documents record gold being brought to pre-Columbian Mexican Indian kingdoms Acolhua Aztec and Tepance

Jourllal of Speleall History 77

from the north Then in 1541 three monks were supposedly left behind by Coronado (the Rocky MOllntain News June 3 1923 says 1598) One Fray Juan de la Cruz reportedly reopened a mine using forced labor by Pecos I ndians (a northern New Mexico Pueblq trib~)and packed treasure toward Mexico City but never arrived there Nuggets and gold bars reported found by one Baca in 1811 were speculated to be part of this treasure and a prospector searching (according to Parris) for Cavema del Oro half a century later found a silver cup engraved with the name Hermione Taken at face value all this gives the impression that stories about Caverna del Oro are of great antiquity though the original Spanish documents are never cited

This suite of tales was first widely distributed in an article by Alberta Pike headlines OLD MANUSCRIPT INDICATES VAST RICHES IN COLORADO CA VE GUARDED BY SKELETON in the Rocky Mountain News of Sept 6 1932 Subsequent Spanish Cave popularizers have recopied them from one article to the next without naming a source for them I recently made an enlightening discovery in the Colorado Historical Society library about where this material came from

Before any known Spanish Cave article was written Louis Bernhardt Sporleder -- early resident and prominent citizen of Walsenburg Colorado -- published a souvenir booklet titled Huajalolla Breasts of the World (1916) An article in The Trail June 1922 reprinted much of this booklet and said Sporleder had a number of unpublished manuscripts giving information historical and legendary about the Spanish Peaks (as the Huajatolla are more commonly known) Sporleders booklet included word for word most of the above Spanish mine material copied by later Cavema del Oro writers

Even his misspelling of the Tepance kingdom (properly Tepanec) has been faithfully reproduced by authors as late as Parris

As to the actual historicity of Sporleders items I know little but his writings (eg The Roses of Huajatolla The Trail Dec 1922) were prone to wild flights of romantic fiction incorporating gross errors about natural history He claimed for instance that the otherwise extinct passenger pigeon still survived on the Spanish Peaks in fact it has never been recorded in Colorado His human history appears similarly colored But even if he was accurate it is crucial to our study that his stories were exclusively about the Spanish Peaks making no connection whatever to Marble Mountain 50 miles to the northwest He specifically stated that the silver cup was found beside a spring in a grotto at the base of East Spanish Peak (the name Hermione moreover is Greek not Spanish) All of this is therefore irrelevant to the cavern on Marble Mountain that we know as Spanish Cave

In Sporleders 1916 version the prospector who found the cup was searching for Huajatollas mines of gold In Pikes 1932 recounting he was seeking the lost mine but she associates it with the cave on Marble Mountain Parris in 1973 transmutes the object of the searchers quest explicitly into the Caverna del Oro Thus by insidious mutations does spurious lore enshroud our cave

Forbes Parkhill asserted that Marble cave Legends connect the Spanish cross and the ancient timber found in the mine [sic] with the gold hunting and exploring expeditions of Juan de Onate in 1597 and the Escalante-Dominguez expedition in 1776 (Explorers to Seek Mysteries of Caves in San Isabel Wilds Discovered Four Centuries Ago Denver Post Oct 9 1921) Even Parris rejects these suggestions because those expeditions did not come close to Marble Mountain

Jourllal of Speleall History 78

Earliest Known Accounts ofthe Cave middot

In 1919 appeared a brochure Out-ol-door Piaygroullds of the Sansabel National Forest USDA middot Circular 5 by Henry S Graves Forester It declared that The Caves of the Winds [not to be confused with Cave of the Winds at Manitou Springs] a system of giant crevices in a mountain or solid white marble is one of the principal natural wonders of the Forest These caves have been penetrated to a depth of over 1200 feet without the end being reached Theymay be reached by wagon road from Westcliffe

On Oct 12 1919 the Denver Post ran an anonymous article San Isabels Caves of Winds Among Wonders of Colorado It stated The Caves of the Winds have been known to exist for many years They are described brieOy in the report of the San Isabel national forest A party of Denver business men is planning to visit the caves this autumn with a view to exploring them to their depths if pOssible If it is found that the natural wonders said to exist in the interior of the caves are equal to reports which have been received these men will ask the government for the I

privilege of developing the caves as a tourist attraction

That Spanish Cave is the object of these writings is indicated by the emphasis on wind great depth (four times the actual depth of the cave as then known) and incomplete exploration the nearby Cave of the White Marble Halls is less strongly windy nearly horizontal and was already well explored (The accompanying entrance photo is not Marble Mountain) A similar item in the Post of June 27 1920 mentions a huge cave on Marble mountain which has never been explored by man beyond a depth of 1800 feet and which may rival the famed Mammoth Cave of Kentucky Neither treasure legends nor stories ofSpanish exploration are me11lioned in any of these earliest printed accounts

Apollina Apodacas Story

The real genesis of treasure stories as applied to Spanish Cave so far as I can find is with Apollina Apodaca (her name is variously spelled in different accounts I use the spelling that seems most probable) In 1919 (not 1920 as said in Caves oColorado) Paul Gilbert later District Ranger in the Forest heard wonderful tales from this old woman As he recalled in The Bulletin of the Rocky Mountain Region of the US Forest Service (Dec 1936)

She stated that the Spaniards used to get gold from it and further stated that if one were to descend to a sufficient depth [in some accounts she is said to have specified 90 or 93 feet] a set of oak doors would be found and if they were forced open one would find a tunnel leading back into the bowels of the mountain -- and the source of the gold would be found She further stated that when she was a child they used to take a blanket wrap it around a heavy stone and throw it down the shaft In the course of a short time the blanket would be blown back minus the rock by the strong winds that come continually from the shaft

The following spring Gilbert located the cave which he misinterpreted as more of a volcanic fissure than it is a cave and visited it with Arthur C Carhart An item mentioning this trip (Mystery Caves in ColoradoRocky Mountain News Sept 21 1921) is the earliest I have found that makes a Spanish or lost-mine connection Old timers in the hills up there declare the place is the shaft of the old Three Step mine famous in Spanish history Carhart himself in the POSl of Jan 1 1922 says it is reported that it is an old Spanish mine entrance marked with a red cross of Malta and has old timber and a log chain inside

Jourllal of Speleall History 79

Gilberts writings are not entirely consistent about his informants statistics in the above report she is Mexican 105 years old in 1919 and died at 110 In his letter to Robert 1 OConnell of Feb 18 1957 (as published in History ojthe Colorado Grotto Nov 1961) she is Spanish and died in 1923 at age 103 A followup letter of Feb 25 adds that she spent most of her life in the vicinity of San Luis [in the San Luis Valley on the opposite side of the Sangre de Cristos] Another source (Dayle Molen Pueblo Star-Jollmal Nov 18 1956) says she lived near Gardner Perry Eberhart in his sensationalistic Treasure Tales of the Rockies (11) calls her an Indian squaw Raymond Thorp in American ForesTs Aug 1935 citing Gilbert says she died eight years ago which would have been 1927 (this is the date used by Parris) These points may be quibbles yet they indicate a lack of precision in recording the facts about her And since the account attributed to Ms Apodaca is pivotal to the entire Caverna del Oro oeuvre let us dissect it critically

Every element is either improbable or impossible Leaving the geologic aspect until later take the oaken doors There are no oaks for many miles and where they do appear they are scrub oak which would have provided door-size timber only in rare cases (though oaks of that size were more common in the Rockies then than now) And why haul heavy oak to timberline when (though strong when new) it does not resist rot as well as say the more easily obtained juniper There is not in any case any opening near the 9O-foot level where such doors could have been used

The blanket story is completely fanciful As we proved in 1961 (NSS News Aug 1962 part I) the cave wind comes from upper Spanish Cave not from the pit Even if it did the pit is about 15 feet wide whereas the entrance constricts to a narrow crawlway A wind strong enough to blow a blanket back up the pit would rise to such tornadic speed in the crawl as to stop a person from fighting through it to the pit Nor does it seem sensible that people would be blithely tossing their blankets down weighted with rocks After all the rock might fail to unwind and the blanket be lost or shredded at the bottom With so incredible a yarn in it why should not the whole narrative be dismissed as fantasy

The Skeletons

At least three human skeletons have been attested as evidence of Spanish involvement with the cave Two were introduced by reporter Kenneth C Lightburn in a front-page article in the Rocky Mountain News of Sept 4 1932 He claimed that the caves original discovery is credited to Capt Elisha P Hom one of the first settlers in the Wet Mountain Valley in 1869 About its entrance he found the remnants of what might have been a fort and also a skeleton in Spanish armor Through the armor was an Indian arrow (Lightburn also began the misconception that the cave was on Homs Peak) I have not been able to trace the origin of this anecdote but it sounds unlikely if only because the purpose of Spanish armor was to prevent things like stoneshypointed arrows from penetrating ones torso and it generally worked Halls History of Colorado (1895) confirms Elisha P Hom as a pioneer Wet Mountain Valley settler in 1869 but does not mention this story

However the skeleton that Lightburn intended to feature was the one in his articles melodramatic headlines SKELETON FOUND CHAINED BY NECK DEEP IN COLORADO MYSTERY CAVECAVERN IS HIGH IN MOUNTAIN WILDS OF STATEDenver Man Discovers Manacled Bones in Sangre de Cristo Range Moldering 500 Feet Below Surface in Awesome CavitySIGNS INDICATE MINE WORKED IN EARLY DAYSFind Recalls Legends of Fabulous Cavern [sic] del Oro of 17th Century Spaniards The headlines are emphasized by a lurid though regrettably nonphotographic picture of the skeleton and an entrance shot with the cross touched up to show better

80 Journal of Speleall History

Journal of Speean History

The article relates that Peter Moser of Denver with companions Victor Barth and his two sons Donald and Jack had just returned from a descent into the cave (Derivative accounts refer to Victor Donald and Jack Barth the former being a fictitious person born of the omission of an original comma between Victor and Donald)

According to Lightburn the Moser party had climbed down until they reached a vertical pit They lowered a lantern Forty feet downward they saw the bottom and in the light or the lantern could clearly make out the skeleton With a metal strap encircling the neck the pile of bones reclined against the rocky wall as if the person who died there centuries ago hall been chained in a sitting position and left to starve An investigatory trip reported in followup articles of Sept 11 12 arid 18 found no skeleton (If an entrance photo with the story of the 18th is any indication they might not even have found the cave -- the picture is obviously not on Marble Mountain -- it may be at Marble Cave near Canon City) It was speculated that Moser may have seen the skeleton at another point in the cave or that it had been done away with by mysterious parties unknown who had blasted the cave entrance between the two trips

In reality it is not surprising that the chained skeleton was never found There is no sound testimony that it was ever there Unlike Fray Juan de la Cruz Elisha Horn or Apollina Apodaca Peter Moser was still available to me to question when I first researched Lightburns article I found in 1959 that Moser still lived at the same address in Denver as in 1932 On New Years Eve 19591 telephoned him and asked about the story His description made it clear that his party had indeed reached the top of the pit that cavers now call the Jug At that point they had lowered a kerosene lantern on a line and he saw what in his own words looked like a pile of bones on a ledge near the bottom This he said is all he reported to the secretary of the Colorado Mountain Club who in tum contacted the newspaper which -- as Moser put it to me -- dressed it up a little (l printed a more complete record of Mosers hour-long interview in the Southern Colorado Grotto newsletter Spelunk Junk Mar 1960)

This embroidery was to be expected in an era when the Denver papers were battling for readers during the Great Depressiun and were notorious for sensationalism But even if Mosers own explanation did not debunk the skeleton he reportedly found it would not be believable The Jug is about 80 feet deep Have you ever tried to see in cavernous darkness where your breath makes mist clouds by a kerosene lantern at that range Then you will agree that a chaincd skeleton even in fine preservation could hardly have been seen well enough from the top to be recognized unequivocally

81

Caves oColorado complicates the matter by citing a letter to me from James W Meacham in vhich a bone found by Meacham at the bottom of the Jug in 1959 was pronounced human by John A Murphy of the Denver Museum of Natural History What Parris does not say is that I had written him in 1969 -- four years before his book was published -- that another expert at the University of Colorado Museum had declared it a deer bone (This water-worn two-inch fragment might well challenge a forensic specialist)

Not content with two skeletons Thorp (American Forests Aug 1935 op cit) adds a third to this spooky company A strange legend that still haunts the native people concerns a skeleton hung with buckskin which guarded Marble Cave just on the other side of Caverna del Oro It was the first quarter of the 19th century and an American free trapper wandered too far west The Spaniards for fear he would reveal their hiding place crucified him For a half century he remained pinioned to a wcxxlcn cross Aside from the improbably sadistic mode of execution this image typical of cartoons or folklore reveals ignorance of the properties of real skeletons which do not long remain articulated when exposed to weather decay and scavengers

Others find ulterior significance in our discovery of bones of bison and pronghorn antelope in upper Spanish Cave in the 1960s calling them plains species that would never ascend to such lofty heights Unless someone had used the cave for storing or curing meat (Bill Kaiser The Treasure of Caverna del Oro Colorful Colorado May-June 1973) I did not know this then but these animals have been known to ascend to the alpine tundra in historic ti mes and might have done so more often when they were abundant and unfenced The cave is much too wet to be good ror storing perishables

The Artifacts

Many reliable observers from Carhart and Gilbert onward report finding in the 1920s and 30s old artifacts of unknown provenance in Spanish Cave These include a winch chains whiskey bottle jug timber ladders shovel single-jack and a hammer They have all disappeared or been reduced to fragments but claims made for some of them purport to establish archeological evidence of Spanish presence

Thorp (1935 op CiL) in describing the 1932 Rocky Mountain News expedition states that on the second ledge they found the remains of a rudely constructed ladder which Dr LeRoy Hafen ( then editor historian and curator of the State Historical Society) after carefully examining asserted was at least 200 years old Below after being lowered 110 feet they found a crude hand-forged hammer which the historian declared was of 17th century vintage Gilbert (The Bulletin Dec 1936 op cit) and an Alamosa Courier article (from June 1937) repeat these avowals

These are very important allegations since the Spanish were the only people who could have left such artifacts in the 17th century To investigate them I wrote in 1960 to LeRoy Hafen inquiring about his trip to the cave and his knowledge of its history and specifically whether he had certified the hammer as of 17th-century manufacture and if so who now had it His reply was less specific than my questions but it is a primary document on one of the major claims about Spanish Cave and I reproduce it below verbatim

If LeRoy Hafen made claims of antiquity for the Spanish Cave artifacts in 1932 he obviously did not stand by them later His wife Ann W Hafen in Detective Historian (Denver WesTerners Monthly Roundup July 1954) had also recounted his 1932 cave trip and commented disproving a baseless story is important it is part of the search for truth She elaborated To the party the venture was disappointing No treasure found No relic of the ancient conquistadores But to the

Jourllal of Speleall History 82

detective Historian it was just another clue pursued another myth exploded another triumph for the scholars code -- to build history on fact not on fossilized fiction

Thorp (1935 op cit) relates that the timbers of their ladder system were about eight inches in diameter squared on four sides with an ax Auger holes were bored into their sides and they were fitted with wooden rungs pegged into the holes No nails were used al though this probably would have been done by early Germans or Americans [the wood is] now decayed and may be broken in many ins tances by the hand This construction however is not strong evidence for Spanish work Before the railroad reached the Wet Mountain Valley in the 1880s commodities such as nails would have been scarce and expensive anyone building such structures before then might well have used no metal It would also be stronger than tacking on rungs with nails when not using sawed lumber Concerning the other cave artifacts there is not enough information to suggest a date

BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY PROVOUTAH

January 13 1960

11r Donald G Davia P O Box 145 T1lnlath Colorado

Dear Hr Davia

I ~ intereat~d to learn f~ your letter of January J 1960 of your study and COllCen WJth the Caverna del Oro Hy visit to the cave and descent into it was with a party directed and financed by the Tourist Bureau or its counterpart of the period The contemporary ewspal6rs gave som~ accowtof the venture

I made the firat descant into the cave kt that time ging down the rope bS

you doubtless have done ince I recall at the edg~ of the pit th~re were s(XlIe rotted logs that may have been the framework of a windlass At tho bott~ of the pit I found a suall sledge ~er encrusted with limestone formation I dont recall what was done with this haa-er I remember no other relics in the pit

Our purposo was to investigate certain rumors a3 to early use of the cave as a SVanish mine I think middot there is little~~ion for that as the limestone fonnation is a poor VlOspect fot middotormation

The legnd hat a skeleton was chained to the wall gave added impetus to the trip Needless to eay nothing of the sort was found That cav and some near were epoken of colloctively os the Karble Campve and sune referred to this one as the Caverna del Or~ cave of gold The Kaltes cross painted on the rock at the entrllJce to tle cave already had a faded appearance I know nothi8 of the rk of Capto1n Hom regarding the di Scove ry of ~ he cave

i~J At the bottOlll of the pit Carl Dlaurohpersucd tho crevice out 5 far dS ~ ~ could go and found nothi8 to reward our efforts If Hr Ulaurot is still living i Denver he could give you sooe sidelights on th cave as ho visited it after our initial exploration

Cordially yours

LO 91+-LeRoy R IlcIen DeparUent of History

Some writers (eg Jesse Ball Canon City Daily Record Sept 14 1933) speculate that the cave was used by the Spanish as a refuge from Indian attacks The cave itself being windy wet and ncar-freezing would not have been ideal for such occupancy A ruined fort was alleged to exist below Marble Mountain as early as 1881 (Golden City Transcript Aug 31 1881 citing Cusler City Prospect ) later articles mention rifle pits I have seen what I presume to be these features below timberline and could not distinguish them from the miners prospect pits common in the Colorado mountains The largest log breastwork structure has also been interpreted as an old corral (Jerry Hassemer oral communication) If defensive works they are cr Jde ones indeed

This leaves to be considered the famous cross beside the entrance It is about one and a half feet square with flared ends meeting at the corners It has been variously described as burnt on

Jou rnal of Speean History 83

deeply chiseled or etched but in reality is prosaically painted with what looks to be a stable iron oxide pigment perhaps using some sort of template Portions of It had a thm patma of calcite crust when I first saw it in 1958 Though almost always called Maltese it is not as can be seen by looking up a crosses illustration in any large dictionary The true Maltese cross has indented ends A G Birch (Denver Post Aug 11 1929) correctly pointed out that the cave marker isin the perfect form of a German Iron Cross But he also says it was old when the first white sehler saw it more than sixty years ago without explaining how he knew this A contradictory testimony (Trail and Timberline April 1957) asserts that there is one old-timer who states that he knCv the fellow who painted it years ago as ajoke I wiIl pass over both of these declarations as uncorroborated

Spanish crosses as I have seen them represented on coins and in art have narrow straight-sided arms often with the basal arm longer and with the ends variously embellished They are typically very different from German ones It is suggestive that the first sedentary settlers below Marble Mountain were Germans of the Colfax colony in 1870 The colony as an entity failed within a year but some thirty families took possession of quarter sections and prospered as can be seen by the many descendants still living in the area (Wet Mountain Tribune Centennial Edition Dec 20 1985) German immigrants also arrived later on and the ranches cl osest below the caves remained in possession of the German-derived Henrich and Neermann families into recent years Crosses in the square form seen at the cave were used in German decorative motifs (I have seen an antique coffee-grinder at an abandoned German homestead in eastern Colorado that was ornamented with them) The cross could have been painted by a Colfax settler exploring his surroundings soon after the colonys establishment The dispersal of most of the colony in 1871 would account for the failure of later inhabitants to know who had created it

Alternatively it might have been a product of prospector 1 H Yeoman He figures in one of the earliest known accounts of a Marble Mountain cave in History of the Arkansas Valley Colorado (1881) A later report on this cave (Denver Republican Feb 20 1888) appears to describe Cave of the White Marble Halls south of Spanish Cave and states that the cave was discovered by Yeoman on Sept 16 1880 Yeoman obligingly left a graffito confirming this in the cave and the Kings and Queens Chambers of the article are likewise identified (Another 1881 account -shyGolden Cty Transcript op cit -- describes a similar cave but claims discovery by Messrs Hendershot amp Dickson of Custer City) A red cross like that at Spanish Cave but smaller and with narrower arms marks the entrance the associated graffito in English 400 Feet to the White Marble Halls precludes a Spanish conquistador origin (A writing inside -- Mrs H G ReedSilver Cliff CololHere 8115197 -- is done in a similar ornate hand) I have also seen Yeomans signature in Moonmilk Cave just across the ravine south of Spanish and scarcely possible to reach without seeing the Spanish entrance He must have known of Spanish Cave and pesumably had entered it

[he Geology

Finally a point that seems so obvious that it should hardly need to be mentioned decades of repeated explorations in Spanish Cave have failed to turn up a trace of mining or of gold and there is excellent reason for this Gold is found either where hydrothermal solutions have mineralized host rock or where deposits originating in that fashion have been eroded and concentrated in placer gravels Neither situation applies at Marble Mountain where the caves occur in an unaltered Pennsylvanian biothermal limestone lens sandwiched almost vertically between shales and conglomeratic sandstones (The name Marble Mountain is a misnomer marble is limestone altered -- metamorphosed -- by heat andor pressure The abundance of well-preserved brachiopod and crinoid fossils shows that Marble Mountain is not metamorphosed) The only mineralization known on the mountain is a little low-grade copper on the south limestone outcrop

Jourllal of Speleall History 84

Paul Gilbert notwithstanding the caves are in no way volcanic but are relatively typical highshygradient alpine limestone solution caves dissolved probably by massive runoff from melting snov and ice during Pleistocene glacial epochs Writers have speculated that Spanish Cave had a lower entrance (possible since the cave water does emerge at a spring lower down) and an entrance on the west side of the mountain (not possible since the limestone does not outcrop there) Ironically the only new entrance cavers have actually found was in a direction not suggested by any known author above Its discovery explained the cave wind as a chimney effect between the entrances -- blowing down to the lower opening when it is warmer outside than inside reversing when it is colder outside

Conclusions

I know of no one else who has analyzed the Caverna del Oro stories as thoroughly but I am not the first to publish critical judgments on them Mrs Hafen has already been quoted Also on record (NSS Bulletin 8 July 1946) is a letter dated 10444 from Fred R Johnson Chief Information and Education US Forest Service

Carl Biaurock a member of the Colorado Mountain Club explored this cave in 1925 again in 1931 and later in more detail in 1932 On the last date the exploration was the result of several articles in the Rocky MOUnTain News in which an old yam was mentioned to the effect that the cave had been investigated in the Spanish explorations in the eighteenth [sic] century also that it is supposed to have yielded a large quantity of gold and other valuable minerals there are no signs of any mineral So far as Mr Blaurocks party could tell there is no evidence in the cave of any visitation of Spanish explorers several hundred years ago

Molen (opcit) wrote that this story [from Apodaca] has been disapproved [sic] The tools and ladder in the cave are of comparatively modern origin Blaurock believes Someone years ago must have explored the cave at least as thoroughly as we did he said He also expressed doubt that the rifle pits and fort are of Spanish origin I did not interview Carl Blaurock during my earlier research I telephoned him this summer but he is 98 years old and is too deaf to understand my questions I have sent him a letter of inquiry thus far unanswered

After organized caving had begun William R Halliday founder of the Colorado Grotto of the National Speleological Society also concluded that The fabulous stories are fables The story of Spanish Cave is told (Halliday however was too pessimistic in inferring that the cave was almost completely explored Most of what is now known was discovered just after he wrote but none of the new passage showed signs of human entry)

Diehard romantics might protest that Spanish Cave could still be La Caverna del Oro Caves can hide much perhaps somewhere in the depths there is a localized zone of thermal mineralization conceivably the Spaniards very cleverly concealed the way to the mine workings Such ideas are not impossible but do strain credulity For every verified feature that has been proposed as evidence for Spanish presence there is an alternative explanation that is more plausible The burden of proof then is on the proponents of the Spanish connection The lurid yarns about the cave reflect folklore creation greatly abetted by media exploitation assisted by atrociously sloppy research

The time sequenceof the several names applied to the cave fits this very neatly In sources from 1919 I find The Caves of the Winds From 1920 until 1932 I see Marble Cave Marble

85jOllrtlal of Speleall History

Caves or The Caves but no Spanish-related appellations It is still called Marble Cave at least as late as 1953 (Irma Zanoni Trail amp Timberline Dec 1953) I do not encounter La Cavema del Oro applied to our cave until Lightburns articles of 1932 after which it is common One of Lightburns headlines refers to the old Spanish Cave but Spanish Cave as a proper ~ame seems to appear only in the first Colorado Grotto News amp Notes of Feb 12 1952 where It IS a synonym for Caverna del Oro From then until now Spanish Cave has been the preferred form in the literature of organized caving and in popular media relying on it This unfortunately has helped to maintain the public assumption that the Spanish legendry is based in fact

The caves history is muddled by a series of misnomers a Caverna del Oro with no gold a Maltese cross that is not Maltese marble that is not marble -- and on analyzing the evidence I think that German Cave would have been a more appropriate if less provocative name than Spanish Cave

I expect my skeptical arguments to be ignored by future writers as long as there is a media markcL for exciting treasure tales Why is it important to be critically analytical

Since fact and fiction are not clearly distinguished in media information about the cave many people still believe nonsense about it Apparently the Spanish gold tales retain enough public acceptance to present problems to the Forest Service today It is reported that there was in recent years a proposal to build a road to the cave to facilitate treasure hunting (Jerry Hassemer oral comm)

Furthermore presentation of false gold stories as if they might be true is likely to tempt naive and poorly prepared readers to get in trouble seeking riches This is apparent in a 1957 letter from Roy Truman former District Ranger and colleague of Paul Gilberts (History of the Colorado Grotto 1961)

There was a time when it was very difficult to keep boys away from this cave and I received many calls from parents in Pueblo and other towns all times of the day and night concerning the safety of their boys that had left home with the ideas of exploring this cave with the high hopes of finding valuable ores or treasures they were equipped with a few pieces of small rope [this was probably arter the Depression-era articles]

This problem is also exemplified by a letter in my own files addressed in 1962 to Richard LeSage of the Southern Colorado Grotto from a Denverite He had twenty-four numbered questions including What type of equipiment [sic] will I need (exactly) I havent done much cave exploring Where can I obtain it What type of mask would I need for foul air He concludes We are intending to explore this cave at all cost so your information will be most vilal to us and most appreciable (We never replied deciding that was the safest thing to do)

The extravagance of peoples beliefs about Spanish Cave has sometimes reached quite ridiculous extremes The Colorado Historical Society library has a typescript of research material used by Perry Eberhart in preparing Treasure Tales of the Rockies One note is as follows

Robert Dunne head of Querida sez think cave comes out near Walsenburg or possibly the northern end of Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico never found end

James Dunne Querida

Not even Eberhart was so shameless as to print this in his book

Jourllal of Speleall History 86

There are still many legitimate mysteries left about Marble Mountain and its history How well explored are the ends of Spanish Cave even now Why was Yeomans cave otherwise so clearly White Marble Halls said to have a 275-foot pit Is this an error or a pit now lost Was the vertical Spanish Cave somehow grafted into the account Who really painted the Maltese cross and who put the artifacts into Spanish Why were detailed articles published on White Marble Halls in the 1880s but nothing seems to be on record about Spanish until 1919 in spite of the extensive early work done in it (If the relics were left by Colfax colonists in the 1870s they could not easily have published their explorations as there were yet no newspapers in the Wet Mountain Valley Later Yeoman or other prospectors might have been reticent about calling atlention to the cave if they built ladders down the shafts in the hope of rinding minerals Study 01 the county mining-claim records could be informative)

Future Opportunities

Most knowledge we now have on Marble Mountain history before organized caving is based on writings of big-city visitors from 1919 on When time allows I intend to search the microfilms of Custer County newspapers in the period 1880-1920 to see if items overlooked by library indexers may shed light on the gaps in our knowledge of the Marble Mountain caves Fascinating revelations are very likely to result Johnsons letter of 1944 (op cit) also stated There was evidence of early visitation [in Marble Cave] including names carved on rocks but these date mostly back about 50 years ago Informative graffiti are numerous in Cave of the White Marble Halls but I do not recall seeing any in Spanish Cave during my own explorations in the 1950s and 60s It should be carefully reexamined to see if we have overlooked signatures that could be keys to the solution of the puzzles

Better documentation of the cave itself would also be desirable The Colorado Grotto surveyed most of lower Spanish in the 1950s to the standards then prevailing I do not know the length of the CG survey but it probably included less than 1000 feet The Southern Colorado Grotto discoveries from 1959 to the early 1960s were not surveyed at the time

From 1975 to 1988 Jerry Hassemer led the mapping of 2642 feet of upper Spanish including the main route between entrances and the Rimstone Passage its longest side gallery (Hassemer personal comm Sept 13 1992) (About 1735 feet of this are along the through-route) His survey showed a vertical difference of 449 feet between lower and upper entrance by both internal mapping and a surface closure loop The old Colorado Grotto map appears to show a depth of just over 270 feet from lower entrance to deepest surveyed point thus total surveyed depth of Spanish Cave is about 720 fect (The entrance elevations of Spanish Cave have never been established by survey to a benchmark but altimeter readings and topographic maps suggest that the upper entrance is around 12000 feet)

Other side passages and superimposed levels in upper Spanish remain unmapped In lower Spanish an important branch the waterfall passage -- which may go deeper than the so-called Gold Diggings at the end of the existing map -- remains unsurveyed The high elevation and extremely cold wet conditions continue to inhibit complete exploration and mapping as they have for as long as the cave has been known

87Journal of Speleall History

bull

a~ EXPLORE THE UNKNOWN ~ ~ ~

With THE CAVE MAN Let him take you adventuring into marvelous underground fairylands Mr Ne vi lle shows you wonderfully beautiful pictures especially selected from thousands of his world famous cave photographs There is no other living man who has been in more American caves or tra ve lled so many miles in so many caverns Floyd C ollin s whose tragic death in Sand Cave aroused the sympathy of the wor ld and Mr Neville two intrepid cave explorers rpached places in caves never before seen by human eyes

IN THE CELLARS OF THE WORLD is packed full of thrills surprises adventure and beauty and IS illustrated wif ~ hoic c coloree lant ern slides

You are sure to be delighted with this unique educationai illustrated lecture Millions have heard it from the plaHo rm and over the radio

A FEW OPINIONS Pe rhaps you read Mr Clay Perrys article in the July 12th 1941 issue of the Saturday Evening Post In which he paid hiGh tribute to Mr Ne villes Cave explorations

An excerp t But Im a novice alongside Russell Trail Neville the Cave Man of Kewanee Illinois Neville has travelled morc J~an a

thousand miles underground and taken more than 5000 photographs of what he calls TH CELLARS OF THE WORLD

Th e late Lorado Taft famous artist said You certainly have a unique and notable lecture Your pictures are wonderfully fine and the adventures thaf lie behind

them ore ery thrilling In spite of all of the beauty that you have brought to light I heartily testify that no reward would vpr get me into those tight places

Mr Arthur C Page Editor pa~ri~ Farmer ~riting to a College President Mr Nevi lle has spoken several~ trT1es over WLS (The Prairie Farmer Radio Station) and I have seen a great man y of his

wonaerful pictures He is one of the most fascinating speakers I have ever lis te ned to

Mr D E Northam Chairman Entertainment Committee The Adventurers Club Chicago Illinois I Vl ant to convey to you the thanks of the entire member~hip of the Adventurers Club for the most interesting educa

tiona l ar~d thri ll ing program you gave us at our last Ladies Night I hope we may have you again

Dr Charl es D Sneller Past President Illinois State Academy of Sciences I have heard the CAVE MAN deliver his lecture many times He thrills children and adults alike He has spo~en beforr

th e Peor ia Rotary Club the Peoria Kiwanis Club and the Peoria Academy of Scipnces and always capti va ted his Judiences His pictures are a marvel and his lecture is unusually interesting

lr e iIle cave photographs have been shown literally all over the world in the rnot important Inte rshynationa l P hotographic Salons winning many special medals and diplomas

In the Cellars of the World delight ~ d edu c ated aud thrilled audiences at

Fiel d ~fuseum of Natural History Chicago Chicago Ca dem of Sciences Rod ro rd Coll e~ e Rockford Illinois VS II Iowa Cit Iowa Cnlvlrsity C lu b Evanston Illinois D eKa lb Teachers Institute Sycamore Illinois BI ~(kbl11l Coll e ge Carlinville Illinois Oll io Stn te Ulli (lsi tl Bowling Green Ohio Carn(~le [ uselllll Pittsburgh Pennsylvania L1ke S hore A t hl etic Club Chicago The middot c lt1demy of Sciences Buffalo New York v~IA0 The Chi cago Daily News Station The fil allk0e Iuselm Milwaukee Wisconsin Allis- Ch a lmers Foremans Club Ylilwaukee Wisconsin IIlin 0is Veslea1 Unhersity Bloomington Illinois Am erican Instit lte of Electrical Enbineers Pittsfield

Iassa c huse tls Tile TIrio ) I11n s Educational Club Toledo Ctah State T chers College St George Utah LaSall e Juni o r Co llege Auburndale lassachusetts Vest ern Illi no is State Teachers College Macomb Illinois La ke Erie Co llege Paines v ille Ohio Go e rnment Ind ian School Poplar Ylontana Vom a n Cit) Club Portsmouth -lew Hampshire orcestcl ( adem Worcester ~fassachuserts Linel HO IIse B()s ton RI C lub IPtt stO Il PennsIania Slal( T ( a(hers C()l l e~e Dickinson orth Dakotu shy s ( 11 h lllHlrlds ()f other Schoo ls Colleges Womans ()IIIJ - 1 1111 (1oll Cluh IIH1 others Ill oyer the United --Oltll( middot

THE CAvE IAI ITH HIS OiDERFLL PICTURES LKES YOU INTO THE REALM OF StBTERRAiEAi OlI)ERS PLACES YOU CAOT POSSIBLY VISIT SAFELY rOIshyFORTASLY AlD EASILY

COMPLETE PROJECTIOl EQClPIET IS PHOVI[)ED

ONE OF THE LlL Y PADS

NATURES UNDERGROUND BEAUTY SPOTS

_

PRESENTING

In the

CELLARS of the

WORLD

RUSSELL TRALL NEVILLE T HE CAVE MAN

Cave Explorer

Scientist

Photographer

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I~XPLUHE THE UNKNOWN

Witl THE CAVE MAN Let him take you adventuring into marvelous underground fairylands Mr Neville shows you wonderfully beautiful pictures especially selected from thousands of his world famous cave photographs There is no other living man who has been in more American caves or travelled so many miles in so many caverns Floyd Collins whose tragic death in Sand Cave aroused the sympathy of the world and Mr Neville two intrepid cave explorers reached places in caves never before seen by humiln eyes

IN THE CELLARS OF THE WORLD is packed full of thrills surprises adventure and beauty and IS illustrated with choce color ~d lantern slides

You are sure to be delighted with this clnlque educationai illustrated lecture Millions have heard it from the platform and over the radio

FEW OPINIONS

PerhiJps you read Mr Cla y Perrys article in the July 12th 1941 issue of the Saturday Evening Post n which he paid high tribute to Mr Nevilles Cave explorations

An excerpt But Im a novice alongside Russell Trail Neville the Cave Man of Kewanee Illinois Neville has travelled more than a

IllOU il nd miles underground and taken more than ~UUU photographs ot whaT he calls I HI CELLARS OF THE WORLD

T IO de L010dc Taft fofTv Jdit 2+ You certainly hive a uniqu~ and notable lecture Your pictures are wonderfully fine and the adventures that lie behind

them are very thrilling In spite of all of the beauty that you have brought to light I heartily testify that ~o reNard would ever get me into those tight places

Mr Arlhur C Paqe Editor Prairie Farmer writing to a College President Mr Neville has spoken several times over WLS (The Prairie Farmer Radio Station) and I have seen a great many of his

wonderful pictures He is one of the most fascinating speakers I have ever listened to

Mr D E Northam Chairman Entertainment Committee The Adventurers Club Chicago Illinois I want to convey to you the thanks of the entire membership of the Adventurers Club for the most interesting educashy

tional and thrilling program you gave us at our last Ladies Night I hope we may have you again

Dr Charles D Sneller Past President Illinois State Academy of Sciences I have heard the CAVE MAN deli ver his lecture many times He thrills children and adults alike He has spoken before

the Peoria Rotary Club the Peoria Kiwanis Club and the Peoria Academy of Sciences and always captiv~ted hi s Judiences His pictures are a marvel and his lecture is unusually interesting

l r C iJl cs cave photoJraphs have heen shown literally allover the world In the most important Intershynational Photog-raphic Salons winninJ many special medals and diplomas

THE CAn- t1AX WITH HIS OXDtRFlL IICTLRtS TAKES YOU IITO THE REALM OF SUBTERRAE X O~)ERS

delighted educated alld thrilled audiences at

In the Cellars 0 the World PLACES YOU CAIIOT POSSIBLY nSIT SAFELY COMshyFORTABLY ID EASILY

Clliclgo Academy of Sciences Horkforrl Colleue Roekforrl Illinois Slmiddotr Tow~ City Iowa lfnin rsity Club Evanston Illinois In his cave work Mr Neville hs had Illany entershyrkl~lh TearIHr Institute SIlm)rr Illillo

Fielcl Iuseum of Natural Histor Chicago

taininl4 alllllsinl and thrillinJ experience IN THERIldlln CollECE Carlinvill~ I11nos Ohio ~LaLE lJniv~rsitv Bowlingt Green Ohio CELLARS OF THE WORLD Carneg-ie Museum Pittsburg-h Pennsylvania Lake Shore Athletic Club Chicag-o lear him tell some of these The cademy of Sciences Buffalo New York WMAQ The Chicago Daily News Station See his wonderful colored pictures The llilwaukee Museum 1ilwaukee Wisconsin AllismiddotChalmers Foremans Club Iilwaukee Wisconsin Illinois Wesleyan University Bloomington Illinois A merican Institute of Electrical Enhince ls Pittsfield AN INTERESTJiIC CR WLW Y

Massachusetts The Toledo Vomans Educational Club Toledo i~ II - ~ Utah Stu te Teac hers College St George Utah K ~

LaSa lie J u nior Colleg-e Auburndale 1assach usetts Vestern Illinois State Teachers College Macomh Illinoi ~

Lake Fri e College Painesille Ohio t lt bullbull bull _~ -11(1shy

Goernment Indian School Poplar vlontana oll1an s Cit Club Portsmouth New Hal11psllill~ ~ii7~ c

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ernment and () gter Hed fnr t he pleasure p the pur-Ilc LInder the directir T) f t he ~ tion ~1 Plr i

Service Lone ()f the worlds I ~tgshyesi and most wonderfu I e lVes

Mr N vdk wns ghen gtltc id permission by the Derarrment of the Interi0r to make mm io n lIld still photographs in this mighty suhterranean wondcrlmd

With the co-()rtr~tion of the Superintendent and his ~ t a ff Mr Neville i ~ ited rlrts ltIt the Cavern I)() t re-n In the llIll ie

Urili ing al l ll th e exrnence gained 11 rho og rlgthingl hunshydred caes he m11ltmiddot nHHio n lnd still pictures of 11 mti frm shyHllms you mny ne(r 1gt 11gt1 to see The lre Jt~) i ( tt l Iith the skill md arri try then Mr Neville Igtrings ((I l1 his rholOshygraphic ork You wi ll have a new a[preci ati o n of rlw ond t rs of NI(ure after y()U hIc seen thSt ullusual [icrllrcs

ml ~ )middotIIJ l I ltxll r W i n ~ lIl1 rIH)togr 1 I hing the Caves of Kltntlldy )[1 1-Ili1I11 fo r slt tT d Yr DlIff th1t timt h h I S trlmiddote1I1 ~ rh l rs a thoulnd mile 1111-ic rgrltgtllnd

He ha ( ~ rr it h C3 mlt r3 up ond I pw n ltwr huge rock s crnwl el thngtugh lItT worn crev ices so smlll ir eemed imshypossihilt to neglHil te rh em even witho ut rhe heavy ca men1 equip menc-a ll the whi le Illaking hi wond eriul seri e )f interestm g cave pictures

Wlgtrking undr Ihorograrh ic difficultie I n1 rhysICa l h~zard s wh ic h eltIlle1 unsurmoun raH lt Mr Neille has succeeded ntvshyenhelts in Igtrin gi ng Igtcfo re the pulgtlic fy means oi morion ricshycures lnd by lantern slides beautiful scenes and views of formations yUU lta nnm possiLly see fo r yourself

Combined with this he rreshysents them in a highly artistic and cntcrtaining manner

ALADDINS GROTTO

~( A Camera Journey through Underground Fairylands ~ with Russell T Neville the Cave Man

m R Neville is a cave lxrlorer 1nd rhor)grapher Bc)innin~ a a hlgtbh this ~ work has Jevelored into a serious utempt t gt 1()nr1Y ancl present rhee little known heauties hidden tar lgteJuw Ih~ surface of he earth

Interesting experienltcs galore have fdlen tll Mr Nilie Igtt in this exploration rk ( llS have heen iiscltlnrJ wdl knwn caves Ioae heen exrlorel (Ll greuer distan(ts and all til rime his (nmeras have been l1llking a lirhful anJ unique recorl f his travels into rh e Realms f Ni)ht

Mr Nevilles exrtlitiol1 lI1t OIJ Salts Ca e (July 192 1 went into places never hefore st~n by white exrlorers The pnrry was in the Cave ltgtn rhis trir for fifty-one hours anJ rhirry-five minutes They liLltereJ and 1T()ughr to light a co nsiderable quantity lIt materini left hy rhe mysrerio us C 1e Men ot long ago This is shown in rhe pictures and commented upo n bv M r Neville who ha s Jen)[cd much rime to

the study ot the prehistoric folk wh o inhahit 1 rhis l11ighty sulgtrerranenn labyrinth many hundreds of y~1rs ago

Q A VE photography is essentially ver hn1rdou~ md tlifficulr C(gtmtgtined With tht risks pi origina l caw eplorarinn- rraversing unc harted pathways ShTtgtlldcl

in eernal darkness whlre unseen unknown dangers lurk in even shaJ(l there are serious photographic tehllical prohlems t(l be solved

Well gr(lund~d in the rtquir ~ l1lellts of a pkasing picrure Mr Neillc has usel 111 his lbility in the rnkillcrion of wonlerful lighting~ and pkwrial Clgtmpsitigtns PrllJucshying his own light 1 mtans of [()erflll fIlr~ elch giving 72 000 cnndle r ower he comhats the unfavrahle condicigtns which are found in aves Jnd interesting effects nre picwred which lend ench1 lltment to rhe cenes

Three ree Is lit standard ie i 35mm ) motion ricrllre film are al ilahle for use A portable morion ricure pwjecto r can be furnished

Many heautifully ha nd co lor~J lantern sliJes may he used if desi reJ This motion picture film is rhe fi rst and on ly attempt ever made ro prcsem o n t he

screen rhe hidJen undergrour J mancls of Narure

Remarks on the Potential of Underground Space for Defense Against Attack Jack Hurley DC Speleograph June 1960

1 Todays threat from the Soviets is political economic and military Thelalter includes chemical and biological warfare radio-logical fall-out and the weapon of the future - the neutron-ray gun not to mention others yet to be developed

2 The good earth which sustains uswill inevitably have its underground spaces explQited and developed to an unprecedented degree in a return to what might be called the era or the Jmodern cave man for nothing can protect us so well and for minimum cost as the underground spaces

3 In recent times we have the example of Nazi Germany in World War II with some) 000 underground storage depots light assembly plants and factories as well as the present day state or the art middot~ exemplified in Sweden In this country government and commercial interests possess bu~ a few underground sites not all of which can be discussed because of their classified nature However those not classified offer good examples of a good beginning - but only a beginning

Some of the underground sites that have been developed and are presently in usc principally for storage of various kinds are located in Kansas (Hutchinson and elsewhere) Neosho Missouri California and Iron Mountain New York as well as the development by my company of the Annandale Mine Butler Pennsylvania into a huge modern underground storage vault for irreplaceable records Some of our cl ients are the Jones and Laughl in Steel Co the U S Steel Co and the First National Bank oCNew York City Other sites are being usedJor cold storage and for hospitals but as yet the uses are extremely limited

Some of the potential uses are for light manufacturing and assembly plants permal1ent housing for some of our fabulously expensive data computers headquarters for command posts fo r national state and local civil defense storage of items essential for human survival in the event of atomic attack as well as items essential to the process of industrial rehabilitation To a limited extent they may also be utilized as shelters for at least some of the population in case of disaster

Why is it that the underground has not been more fully exploited and developed

1 Th~aver~ge individual dislikes the idea 2 The potential of the ul1derground for storage and housing has only been slightly understood 3 Existing sites are not always conveniently located 4 Those who cculd spark such development do not fully understand the nature and perhaps the imminency of the threat 5 I n some cases development has been stifled because of the cost even though this is but a fraction of that iiwolvedin creating a totally man-made facility for similar purposes Also there have been mistaken efforts to use underground space for purposes for which itwas not suited 6 The average human being strongly resists change in his essential concepts The so-called vested interests must first realize a scarcity of suitable top-side space before they will begin acquiringund~rground space

71Journal of Speleall History

Some of the advantages of good mines and caves are

1 They are generally removed from critical target areas 2 Development costs no more than on the surface and is frequently considerable less 3 In the long run maintenance and operating costs are much lower 4 In business and industry the absenteeism of workers due to illness extremes of temperature etc frequently becomes a real problem In my opinion working in the quiet atmosphere underground in a steady temperature and humidity level would have a beneficial and healthful effect This same situation makes it far easier to create a static condition beneficial to tl)e preservation and long life of records and other materials stored underground 5 The standard earth cover for modern missile bases is 25 feet Nearly all mines and caves of any consequence have far more cover than this thus increasing their protection potential

You as cave explorers and members of the National Speleological Society can assist by

1 Providing inventories of the most suitable caves for various purposes 2 Assist in developing guides or standards for caves for specific purposes 3 Talk about how mines and caves can be utilized and thus influence those who are in a ~tjon to initiate action in this direction

The above is the substance oj a talk given by Mr Hurley 10 the members oj the DC ChilP4tl oj the NSS on June 7 1960

Comment of the Designation of Certain Caves as Fallout Shelters William H Peters DC Speleograph April 1963

I believe all of us as members of the National Speleological Society have been aware for the past several years of the interest in utilizing selected caves for the protection of civilian population in the event of a national emergency The interest up until now remote has materialized into an actual requisitioning of caves in Pendleton County West Virginia and other communities in that state anxious to utilize all of their resources for what can certainly be called a noteworthy if not heroic program There has been at first a rejection of the idea among speleologists We are at first repelled by the idea of giving up our almost absolute sovereignty of the underground The realities of the world invading our isolated laboratories is unacceptable to us as scientists~ and of course the whole concept of nuclear war is still psychologically repugnant Our first reaction is expressed in many ways - useless protests exclamations of impossibility and we formulate every reason for the programs failure

But as citizens we have a responsibility to study the problem and the facts are not pleasing Repugnant as it is nuclear warfare lives not too far from the pleasantries of our life This is

72 JOllrllal of Speleall History

proven by the not so far removed Cuban Crisis In November 1962 LS Finkelstein at the Harvard University Center for International Affairs writing of the Soviet position on Arms Inspection is quoted It is hard to escape the conclusion that the Soviet Union for at least much of the time seems to have been interested more in employing the negotiations as a means of weakening the military and political position of the West that as a route to a viable disarmament system He goes on to quote James P Wadsworth to the effect that the Soviet Union has employed arms control negotiation as a part of a grand strategy aimed at the eventual total defeat of the other side 1 Thus for those persons who hope for an easy solution it is hard to find the substance to nourish those hopes

The possibility of reducing the probable use of nuclear weapons is diminished by the cruel fact that reduction in armaments only increases the probability of escalation in armament by lessening the factor required for decisive advantage while additionally making the elements of decisive advantage available to many other countries who may aspire to greater roles than current economic or scientific resources have relegated them This point is well illustrated by HA Kissinger nuclear disarmament has revealed the paradoxical fact that there is a certain safety in numbers And this is true even if both sides religiously observe an agreement to limit nuclear weapons Instability is greater if each side possesses ten missiles that if the equilibrium is stabilized at say 500 For an attack which is 90 successful when the opponent has ten missiles leaves him one or a number hardly able to inflict unacceptable damage An attack of similar effectiveness when the opponent possesses 500 missiles leaves 50 - perhaps sufficient to pose an unacceptable risk 2

We can easily conclude that the probability of removing nuclear weapons from the field of War Science is remote from purely tactical necessity What is also critical to our thinking is that the War Sciences are advancing in their ability to assess more and more elements and their relationship to decisive advantage Von Neumann in formulating the Minimax Game Theory and its reduction to mathematical models applied to computers increases the number of factors to be considered beyond the capability of the human mind International politics are founded upon economic and strategic factors rather than ethical or moral principle It is not impossible that in the cold realistic logic of the Game Theory3 that some remote event passing unseen by the casual observer will relate itself to decisive advantage for the opponent and may demand immediate action by one or the other side We cannot hope that in every instance the situation will escalate as did the Cuban Crisis so that the population can prepare itself

The comparison of Civil Preparedness to Ostrichism is not a fair comparison Civil Preparedness adds another factor for a potential enemy and complicates his game It makes it more difficult to game reliability Kissinger points out four considerations for reducing the possibility of decisive advantage the second of which is Since invulnerability is a relative term the purpose of arms control measures must be to strengthen so far as possible the relative position of the defender either by enhancing the security of his force or by complicating the calculations of the aggressor2 It is thus that civil preparedness serves a two fold purpose of deterring and of providing some measure

of survi val

The remoteness of the areas under consideration enhances the desirability of taking appropriate measures God forbid that it should come to pass but in the event of a nuclear holocaust it is these areas that could become the springboard for the reconstruction of our democracy and for the continuation of our cultural heritage

As members of the National Speleological Society we have the opportunity of not only participating but of making a definite contribution No other organization has more resources in

73Journal of Speeall History

scientific personnel experience or knowledge relating to caves Failure to meet our responsibilities at this time will only widen possible misunderstandings between the National Speleological Society and Civil Defense Organizations We must accept the fact that as the civil defense program expands more cave resources will be requisitioned Our opposition will only serve as a barrier to continued parallel use of these resources

The Society can assist in both the areas of applied practical knowledge and of basic research To list bnt a few are - advising and monitoring storage in areas of historical underground hydrological fluctuations monitoring humidity temperature and air circulation locating suitable areas in caves that will minimize the possibility of vandalism recommending types of closures of gates and assisting in their installation checking periodically the condition of supplies and reporting this to appropriate authority and condemnation of areas due to strata imperfection and probability of breakdown

There are many questions in need of investigation What is the relationship in a multiple stream capture theory and the possible concentration of radioactive or other contaminates in a cave duc to fIltration What is the probability of infection by intake of foods contaminated by histoplasma ir any What is the relationship of bat rabies to human cave habitation What provision must be made for sanitation - control of rats and possible damage to supplies and in the event of human habitation control of rat fleas as possible communicators of typhUS or other epidemic diseases) What is the probability of excessive amounts of radioactive materials being introduced to the cavc environment by animals such as bats that enter and leave the cave frequently These represent only a portion of the questions which should be examined to determine their relevance and what precautionary measures should be taken if relevant

I would like to propose that at a special meeting of the Board of Governors a Civil Defense Advisory Committee composed of competent scientists and speleologists be formed for the purpose of formulating suitable policies initiating scientific investigation and in general assuming the role of representing and coordinating the Societys Civil Defense effort The question as to whether we can afford to undertake such a program with its inherent socialpolitical implications should be answered - Can we afford not to

References

1 Arms Inspection International Conciliation Nov 1962 (It is interesting to note that in my upinion this publication follows closely the United Nations activities It is surprising to observe this pessimistic attitude in that area)

2 Foreign Affairs Volume 39 no 4 July 1960 Inspection and Surprise Attack p 56l

3 A current article on Game Theory appears in the December 1962 issue of Scientific Americall by Anatol Rapoport The Use and Misuse of Game Theory

Journal of Speleall History 74

1922 Trip Reports

Maud Orr Howell

Trip 10 Bear Cave

Gordon Brown led eight of us including Elizabeth Hord George Raudebush Benie Weaver Tom Weaver Johnny Connor Boyte and me to Bear Cave in Savage Gulch

We left the Observatory at 900 am went down Clark Cottage Path and across the valley to the clearing in front of the old Savage home

The girls rested while the boys went up the side of Peak Mountain to a ~pring and brought back some water Then we explored the old house In one of the upstairs rooms that had newspapers on the walls we read in the Society section of a newspaper dated August 17 1908 that Mr and Mrs Sanford Duncan had gone to spend a few days with Mrs Robert Orr in Maury County

We cut across the field to the right of the house and climbed along the side of Peak Mountain then straight down the side of the mountain to Savage Creek After drinking water from a spring running into the creek we followed the creek up a few yards then climbed up the mountain on the left a few yards to the cave This is Coppenger Mountain It was 11 45 so we ate our Iunch and rested until 1 10 when all but Elizabeth and Tom went in the cave We had candles and carbide lights and Gordon led the way It saw 220 when we got out After resting a few minutes and taking some Kodak pictures we all including Elizabeth and Tom went in again and stayed until 300 pm

We gathered our things which included sticks which Gordon had cut for us the Kodak the lunch bag canteen etc and set out straight up the mountain with Gordon pulling us up some of the places until we hit the cliffs We followed the cliffs along until we found a place to climb up When we got on the top we walked along the mountain until we got to the end of it which is just above the Savage house We went down a path which went straight down the mountain to the Savage house rested while the boys got water then came home to Howell cottage the same way we had gone arriving here at 700 pm

Trip to Bats Cave

Saturday September 2 1922

We first planned to walk to Tatesville but not knowing how far it was we gave it up and decided to walk to Bats Cave The night before the trip we gave that up too as it was so far and the weather so hot

As we were eating breakfast Mr George Mitchell came and he had breakfast with us He suggested getting a wagon for our trip so immediately after breakfast Mr George Bettie Martha and Tom Weaver Boyte and I went to the store and got Earnest Rubleys wagon

75Journal of Speleall History

We all met on the Observatory There were 19 of us Five including Mr George Jennings and George Bailey Torn and Charlie Trabue IV left first and went down the Backbone Road intending to meet us at the Collins River bridge The rest of us Elliott and David Adams Lucy and Elizabeth Bailey Lucinda Trabue Irene Langford Elizabeth Mclane Kate Keene Johnson Susan Lewis Bettie and Martha Weaver Boyte and I walked down the mountain from the Observatory and met the wagon a little piece up the valley We missed the other bunch and they did not catch up with us until we had left the wagon and were eating lunch at the spring

We finished lunch and walked up the mountain to the cave We went to the big room where we stopped last year which is just beyond the small ladder We climbed the ladder then all but Irene Tom Elizabeth and I went on further We waited at the top of the ladder until they came back They had gone to another big room and circled around it about three times before finally finding the way out They found an old Nashville newspaper dated 1847 and another paper with some names on it They added their names to this list

When we got out of the cave it was nearly 500 We had been in there three hours

We went back to the wagon and started horne We got to Collins River bridge about dark The moon was almost full and the ride up the valley in the moonlight in a wagon filled with hay and pulled by mules was beautiful We stopped at Mortons store and Mr George telephoned up lo Beersheba and told them where we were and assured them that we would be home soon He brought out oodles of cookies and we had a grand time eating them We sang and yelled and relaxed on the hay We left the wagon at the bottom of Beersheba Mountain Martha led the way up the mountain in the dark with only the moon to help guide us We had Oashlights but it was hard to keep in the path But it was fun We reached the top at the Observatory at 845 pm and no one seemed to be tired

Trip to Peak Mountain

A crowd of us left Aunt Mats Cottage at 930 am on Monday August 28 1922 There were 19 of us including Mr George Mitchell Elizabeth Hord Mr Colville Elliott Adams Jennings Bailey Lucy Bailey Kate Keene Johnson George Eldred Mary Wilson Eldred Irene Langford Elizabeth Mclane Bettie Orr Martha Weaver Tom Weaver Alfred Williams Mary Phillips Street Susan Lewis Boyte Howell Jr and me (Maud Orr Howell)

We went down Clark Cottage Path to the valley The crowd was separated going down but we all got together at the foot of the mountain crossed the valley and climbed Peak Mountain There was no path we just went up the side of the mountain and went thru a pass up the cliffs We got there about 1200 pm rested then ate lunch We put up a nag (Elizabeth Hords petticoat)

Aoout 100 pm we left to find the old stage coach road to Chattanooga We went straight across the top of the mountain and found the road at the spring and a little log cabin We followed the road to the valley We heard Marshall Eldred mooing answered him and he found us Gordon Bro n who was with him led us to Peter Rock Cave on the side of Peak Mountain Marshall did not start out with us because he helped Gordon fix the leaks in Laurel Mill Dam Elliott led us in the cave and we did not go back very far It was pretty but wet and muddy

We c~me home by Dishroon Springs drank some of the water and ate the rest of our lunch [hen came on up the mountain A few of us stopped at the Johnson place and looked across the valley at Elilabeth Hords petticoat which we had left on a tree on Peak Mountain We came on horne arriving here about 500 pm

Journal of Speleall History 76

No Old Gold or Bones A Skeptical Review of Caverna del Oro Legendry Donald G Davis reprinledfrom Rocky Mountain Caving Summer 1992

In the thin air of timberline on Marble Mountain in the Sangre de Cristo range icy wind blows from the entrance to a deep and cryptic cave marked by the damaged remnant of a rust-red cross Known today as Spanish Cave it is the most publicized non-commercial cave in Colorado It has been featured for more than 70 years in media - first newspapers then magazines books and television specials Most of this publicity recounts stories that it is La Caverna del Oro where Indian slaves mined gold for 17th century Spaniards Many people take this as fact Recently a Colorado caver told me he had spoken with a journalist who assured him that the cave was bottomless and contains untold treasures

Spanish Cave was important in the start of my own caving career in 1957 While attending Colorado A amp M College (later CSU) I saw in scrapbooks in the Fort Collins Museum clippings of the Colorado Question Box column from the Rocky Mountain News circa 1955 They told stories of a Maltese-cross-marked entrance lost gold mine and chained skeleton reported in the caverns depths After correcting the first error we found in the accounts (that the cave was on Homs Peak several miles north of Marble Mountain) two of us (Vin Hoeman and myself) in the college Hikers Club located the cave the next year In subsequent years with Frank and Paul Leskinen James W Meachan and others in the Southern Colorado Grotto of the NSS I led the discovery of about two-thirds of its presently known passage

Finding that the Western History Department of the Denver Public Library had a clipping file on the cave I also undertook research on its history which I have continued intermittently since The mure I learned about the real cave the more disillusioned I became with the stories sensationalizing it I learned much about the rules of logic and evidence during the investi galion and was ultimately convinced that there was no satisfactory confirmation that Spanish explorers ever saw or entered the cave much less mined gold from it Following are some of the reasons for that concl usion

The most readily available summary of the legendry is in Lloyd Parris Caves oCoLorado (1973) pp 24-32 Parris precedes his Treasure Caves accounts with a confused and equivocal disclaimer The following tales for the most part have the validity of history behind them and in most cases the caves are known Undoubtedly though some of the legends connected with these caves belong in Chapter IV under hoax and humbug And if these legends seem to disagree or contradict what is previously known it is because they were selected not for entertainment alone but as a presentation of the known facts or legends as the case may be An evaluation of the authenticity has not been attempted This is left for the reader to do

This reader hereby takes up the challenge

The Spanish Mille Legends

A number of accounts (including Parriss) relate that Spanish Monastery Latin documents record gold being brought to pre-Columbian Mexican Indian kingdoms Acolhua Aztec and Tepance

Jourllal of Speleall History 77

from the north Then in 1541 three monks were supposedly left behind by Coronado (the Rocky MOllntain News June 3 1923 says 1598) One Fray Juan de la Cruz reportedly reopened a mine using forced labor by Pecos I ndians (a northern New Mexico Pueblq trib~)and packed treasure toward Mexico City but never arrived there Nuggets and gold bars reported found by one Baca in 1811 were speculated to be part of this treasure and a prospector searching (according to Parris) for Cavema del Oro half a century later found a silver cup engraved with the name Hermione Taken at face value all this gives the impression that stories about Caverna del Oro are of great antiquity though the original Spanish documents are never cited

This suite of tales was first widely distributed in an article by Alberta Pike headlines OLD MANUSCRIPT INDICATES VAST RICHES IN COLORADO CA VE GUARDED BY SKELETON in the Rocky Mountain News of Sept 6 1932 Subsequent Spanish Cave popularizers have recopied them from one article to the next without naming a source for them I recently made an enlightening discovery in the Colorado Historical Society library about where this material came from

Before any known Spanish Cave article was written Louis Bernhardt Sporleder -- early resident and prominent citizen of Walsenburg Colorado -- published a souvenir booklet titled Huajalolla Breasts of the World (1916) An article in The Trail June 1922 reprinted much of this booklet and said Sporleder had a number of unpublished manuscripts giving information historical and legendary about the Spanish Peaks (as the Huajatolla are more commonly known) Sporleders booklet included word for word most of the above Spanish mine material copied by later Cavema del Oro writers

Even his misspelling of the Tepance kingdom (properly Tepanec) has been faithfully reproduced by authors as late as Parris

As to the actual historicity of Sporleders items I know little but his writings (eg The Roses of Huajatolla The Trail Dec 1922) were prone to wild flights of romantic fiction incorporating gross errors about natural history He claimed for instance that the otherwise extinct passenger pigeon still survived on the Spanish Peaks in fact it has never been recorded in Colorado His human history appears similarly colored But even if he was accurate it is crucial to our study that his stories were exclusively about the Spanish Peaks making no connection whatever to Marble Mountain 50 miles to the northwest He specifically stated that the silver cup was found beside a spring in a grotto at the base of East Spanish Peak (the name Hermione moreover is Greek not Spanish) All of this is therefore irrelevant to the cavern on Marble Mountain that we know as Spanish Cave

In Sporleders 1916 version the prospector who found the cup was searching for Huajatollas mines of gold In Pikes 1932 recounting he was seeking the lost mine but she associates it with the cave on Marble Mountain Parris in 1973 transmutes the object of the searchers quest explicitly into the Caverna del Oro Thus by insidious mutations does spurious lore enshroud our cave

Forbes Parkhill asserted that Marble cave Legends connect the Spanish cross and the ancient timber found in the mine [sic] with the gold hunting and exploring expeditions of Juan de Onate in 1597 and the Escalante-Dominguez expedition in 1776 (Explorers to Seek Mysteries of Caves in San Isabel Wilds Discovered Four Centuries Ago Denver Post Oct 9 1921) Even Parris rejects these suggestions because those expeditions did not come close to Marble Mountain

Jourllal of Speleall History 78

Earliest Known Accounts ofthe Cave middot

In 1919 appeared a brochure Out-ol-door Piaygroullds of the Sansabel National Forest USDA middot Circular 5 by Henry S Graves Forester It declared that The Caves of the Winds [not to be confused with Cave of the Winds at Manitou Springs] a system of giant crevices in a mountain or solid white marble is one of the principal natural wonders of the Forest These caves have been penetrated to a depth of over 1200 feet without the end being reached Theymay be reached by wagon road from Westcliffe

On Oct 12 1919 the Denver Post ran an anonymous article San Isabels Caves of Winds Among Wonders of Colorado It stated The Caves of the Winds have been known to exist for many years They are described brieOy in the report of the San Isabel national forest A party of Denver business men is planning to visit the caves this autumn with a view to exploring them to their depths if pOssible If it is found that the natural wonders said to exist in the interior of the caves are equal to reports which have been received these men will ask the government for the I

privilege of developing the caves as a tourist attraction

That Spanish Cave is the object of these writings is indicated by the emphasis on wind great depth (four times the actual depth of the cave as then known) and incomplete exploration the nearby Cave of the White Marble Halls is less strongly windy nearly horizontal and was already well explored (The accompanying entrance photo is not Marble Mountain) A similar item in the Post of June 27 1920 mentions a huge cave on Marble mountain which has never been explored by man beyond a depth of 1800 feet and which may rival the famed Mammoth Cave of Kentucky Neither treasure legends nor stories ofSpanish exploration are me11lioned in any of these earliest printed accounts

Apollina Apodacas Story

The real genesis of treasure stories as applied to Spanish Cave so far as I can find is with Apollina Apodaca (her name is variously spelled in different accounts I use the spelling that seems most probable) In 1919 (not 1920 as said in Caves oColorado) Paul Gilbert later District Ranger in the Forest heard wonderful tales from this old woman As he recalled in The Bulletin of the Rocky Mountain Region of the US Forest Service (Dec 1936)

She stated that the Spaniards used to get gold from it and further stated that if one were to descend to a sufficient depth [in some accounts she is said to have specified 90 or 93 feet] a set of oak doors would be found and if they were forced open one would find a tunnel leading back into the bowels of the mountain -- and the source of the gold would be found She further stated that when she was a child they used to take a blanket wrap it around a heavy stone and throw it down the shaft In the course of a short time the blanket would be blown back minus the rock by the strong winds that come continually from the shaft

The following spring Gilbert located the cave which he misinterpreted as more of a volcanic fissure than it is a cave and visited it with Arthur C Carhart An item mentioning this trip (Mystery Caves in ColoradoRocky Mountain News Sept 21 1921) is the earliest I have found that makes a Spanish or lost-mine connection Old timers in the hills up there declare the place is the shaft of the old Three Step mine famous in Spanish history Carhart himself in the POSl of Jan 1 1922 says it is reported that it is an old Spanish mine entrance marked with a red cross of Malta and has old timber and a log chain inside

Jourllal of Speleall History 79

Gilberts writings are not entirely consistent about his informants statistics in the above report she is Mexican 105 years old in 1919 and died at 110 In his letter to Robert 1 OConnell of Feb 18 1957 (as published in History ojthe Colorado Grotto Nov 1961) she is Spanish and died in 1923 at age 103 A followup letter of Feb 25 adds that she spent most of her life in the vicinity of San Luis [in the San Luis Valley on the opposite side of the Sangre de Cristos] Another source (Dayle Molen Pueblo Star-Jollmal Nov 18 1956) says she lived near Gardner Perry Eberhart in his sensationalistic Treasure Tales of the Rockies (11) calls her an Indian squaw Raymond Thorp in American ForesTs Aug 1935 citing Gilbert says she died eight years ago which would have been 1927 (this is the date used by Parris) These points may be quibbles yet they indicate a lack of precision in recording the facts about her And since the account attributed to Ms Apodaca is pivotal to the entire Caverna del Oro oeuvre let us dissect it critically

Every element is either improbable or impossible Leaving the geologic aspect until later take the oaken doors There are no oaks for many miles and where they do appear they are scrub oak which would have provided door-size timber only in rare cases (though oaks of that size were more common in the Rockies then than now) And why haul heavy oak to timberline when (though strong when new) it does not resist rot as well as say the more easily obtained juniper There is not in any case any opening near the 9O-foot level where such doors could have been used

The blanket story is completely fanciful As we proved in 1961 (NSS News Aug 1962 part I) the cave wind comes from upper Spanish Cave not from the pit Even if it did the pit is about 15 feet wide whereas the entrance constricts to a narrow crawlway A wind strong enough to blow a blanket back up the pit would rise to such tornadic speed in the crawl as to stop a person from fighting through it to the pit Nor does it seem sensible that people would be blithely tossing their blankets down weighted with rocks After all the rock might fail to unwind and the blanket be lost or shredded at the bottom With so incredible a yarn in it why should not the whole narrative be dismissed as fantasy

The Skeletons

At least three human skeletons have been attested as evidence of Spanish involvement with the cave Two were introduced by reporter Kenneth C Lightburn in a front-page article in the Rocky Mountain News of Sept 4 1932 He claimed that the caves original discovery is credited to Capt Elisha P Hom one of the first settlers in the Wet Mountain Valley in 1869 About its entrance he found the remnants of what might have been a fort and also a skeleton in Spanish armor Through the armor was an Indian arrow (Lightburn also began the misconception that the cave was on Homs Peak) I have not been able to trace the origin of this anecdote but it sounds unlikely if only because the purpose of Spanish armor was to prevent things like stoneshypointed arrows from penetrating ones torso and it generally worked Halls History of Colorado (1895) confirms Elisha P Hom as a pioneer Wet Mountain Valley settler in 1869 but does not mention this story

However the skeleton that Lightburn intended to feature was the one in his articles melodramatic headlines SKELETON FOUND CHAINED BY NECK DEEP IN COLORADO MYSTERY CAVECAVERN IS HIGH IN MOUNTAIN WILDS OF STATEDenver Man Discovers Manacled Bones in Sangre de Cristo Range Moldering 500 Feet Below Surface in Awesome CavitySIGNS INDICATE MINE WORKED IN EARLY DAYSFind Recalls Legends of Fabulous Cavern [sic] del Oro of 17th Century Spaniards The headlines are emphasized by a lurid though regrettably nonphotographic picture of the skeleton and an entrance shot with the cross touched up to show better

80 Journal of Speleall History

Journal of Speean History

The article relates that Peter Moser of Denver with companions Victor Barth and his two sons Donald and Jack had just returned from a descent into the cave (Derivative accounts refer to Victor Donald and Jack Barth the former being a fictitious person born of the omission of an original comma between Victor and Donald)

According to Lightburn the Moser party had climbed down until they reached a vertical pit They lowered a lantern Forty feet downward they saw the bottom and in the light or the lantern could clearly make out the skeleton With a metal strap encircling the neck the pile of bones reclined against the rocky wall as if the person who died there centuries ago hall been chained in a sitting position and left to starve An investigatory trip reported in followup articles of Sept 11 12 arid 18 found no skeleton (If an entrance photo with the story of the 18th is any indication they might not even have found the cave -- the picture is obviously not on Marble Mountain -- it may be at Marble Cave near Canon City) It was speculated that Moser may have seen the skeleton at another point in the cave or that it had been done away with by mysterious parties unknown who had blasted the cave entrance between the two trips

In reality it is not surprising that the chained skeleton was never found There is no sound testimony that it was ever there Unlike Fray Juan de la Cruz Elisha Horn or Apollina Apodaca Peter Moser was still available to me to question when I first researched Lightburns article I found in 1959 that Moser still lived at the same address in Denver as in 1932 On New Years Eve 19591 telephoned him and asked about the story His description made it clear that his party had indeed reached the top of the pit that cavers now call the Jug At that point they had lowered a kerosene lantern on a line and he saw what in his own words looked like a pile of bones on a ledge near the bottom This he said is all he reported to the secretary of the Colorado Mountain Club who in tum contacted the newspaper which -- as Moser put it to me -- dressed it up a little (l printed a more complete record of Mosers hour-long interview in the Southern Colorado Grotto newsletter Spelunk Junk Mar 1960)

This embroidery was to be expected in an era when the Denver papers were battling for readers during the Great Depressiun and were notorious for sensationalism But even if Mosers own explanation did not debunk the skeleton he reportedly found it would not be believable The Jug is about 80 feet deep Have you ever tried to see in cavernous darkness where your breath makes mist clouds by a kerosene lantern at that range Then you will agree that a chaincd skeleton even in fine preservation could hardly have been seen well enough from the top to be recognized unequivocally

81

Caves oColorado complicates the matter by citing a letter to me from James W Meacham in vhich a bone found by Meacham at the bottom of the Jug in 1959 was pronounced human by John A Murphy of the Denver Museum of Natural History What Parris does not say is that I had written him in 1969 -- four years before his book was published -- that another expert at the University of Colorado Museum had declared it a deer bone (This water-worn two-inch fragment might well challenge a forensic specialist)

Not content with two skeletons Thorp (American Forests Aug 1935 op cit) adds a third to this spooky company A strange legend that still haunts the native people concerns a skeleton hung with buckskin which guarded Marble Cave just on the other side of Caverna del Oro It was the first quarter of the 19th century and an American free trapper wandered too far west The Spaniards for fear he would reveal their hiding place crucified him For a half century he remained pinioned to a wcxxlcn cross Aside from the improbably sadistic mode of execution this image typical of cartoons or folklore reveals ignorance of the properties of real skeletons which do not long remain articulated when exposed to weather decay and scavengers

Others find ulterior significance in our discovery of bones of bison and pronghorn antelope in upper Spanish Cave in the 1960s calling them plains species that would never ascend to such lofty heights Unless someone had used the cave for storing or curing meat (Bill Kaiser The Treasure of Caverna del Oro Colorful Colorado May-June 1973) I did not know this then but these animals have been known to ascend to the alpine tundra in historic ti mes and might have done so more often when they were abundant and unfenced The cave is much too wet to be good ror storing perishables

The Artifacts

Many reliable observers from Carhart and Gilbert onward report finding in the 1920s and 30s old artifacts of unknown provenance in Spanish Cave These include a winch chains whiskey bottle jug timber ladders shovel single-jack and a hammer They have all disappeared or been reduced to fragments but claims made for some of them purport to establish archeological evidence of Spanish presence

Thorp (1935 op CiL) in describing the 1932 Rocky Mountain News expedition states that on the second ledge they found the remains of a rudely constructed ladder which Dr LeRoy Hafen ( then editor historian and curator of the State Historical Society) after carefully examining asserted was at least 200 years old Below after being lowered 110 feet they found a crude hand-forged hammer which the historian declared was of 17th century vintage Gilbert (The Bulletin Dec 1936 op cit) and an Alamosa Courier article (from June 1937) repeat these avowals

These are very important allegations since the Spanish were the only people who could have left such artifacts in the 17th century To investigate them I wrote in 1960 to LeRoy Hafen inquiring about his trip to the cave and his knowledge of its history and specifically whether he had certified the hammer as of 17th-century manufacture and if so who now had it His reply was less specific than my questions but it is a primary document on one of the major claims about Spanish Cave and I reproduce it below verbatim

If LeRoy Hafen made claims of antiquity for the Spanish Cave artifacts in 1932 he obviously did not stand by them later His wife Ann W Hafen in Detective Historian (Denver WesTerners Monthly Roundup July 1954) had also recounted his 1932 cave trip and commented disproving a baseless story is important it is part of the search for truth She elaborated To the party the venture was disappointing No treasure found No relic of the ancient conquistadores But to the

Jourllal of Speleall History 82

detective Historian it was just another clue pursued another myth exploded another triumph for the scholars code -- to build history on fact not on fossilized fiction

Thorp (1935 op cit) relates that the timbers of their ladder system were about eight inches in diameter squared on four sides with an ax Auger holes were bored into their sides and they were fitted with wooden rungs pegged into the holes No nails were used al though this probably would have been done by early Germans or Americans [the wood is] now decayed and may be broken in many ins tances by the hand This construction however is not strong evidence for Spanish work Before the railroad reached the Wet Mountain Valley in the 1880s commodities such as nails would have been scarce and expensive anyone building such structures before then might well have used no metal It would also be stronger than tacking on rungs with nails when not using sawed lumber Concerning the other cave artifacts there is not enough information to suggest a date

BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY PROVOUTAH

January 13 1960

11r Donald G Davia P O Box 145 T1lnlath Colorado

Dear Hr Davia

I ~ intereat~d to learn f~ your letter of January J 1960 of your study and COllCen WJth the Caverna del Oro Hy visit to the cave and descent into it was with a party directed and financed by the Tourist Bureau or its counterpart of the period The contemporary ewspal6rs gave som~ accowtof the venture

I made the firat descant into the cave kt that time ging down the rope bS

you doubtless have done ince I recall at the edg~ of the pit th~re were s(XlIe rotted logs that may have been the framework of a windlass At tho bott~ of the pit I found a suall sledge ~er encrusted with limestone formation I dont recall what was done with this haa-er I remember no other relics in the pit

Our purposo was to investigate certain rumors a3 to early use of the cave as a SVanish mine I think middot there is little~~ion for that as the limestone fonnation is a poor VlOspect fot middotormation

The legnd hat a skeleton was chained to the wall gave added impetus to the trip Needless to eay nothing of the sort was found That cav and some near were epoken of colloctively os the Karble Campve and sune referred to this one as the Caverna del Or~ cave of gold The Kaltes cross painted on the rock at the entrllJce to tle cave already had a faded appearance I know nothi8 of the rk of Capto1n Hom regarding the di Scove ry of ~ he cave

i~J At the bottOlll of the pit Carl Dlaurohpersucd tho crevice out 5 far dS ~ ~ could go and found nothi8 to reward our efforts If Hr Ulaurot is still living i Denver he could give you sooe sidelights on th cave as ho visited it after our initial exploration

Cordially yours

LO 91+-LeRoy R IlcIen DeparUent of History

Some writers (eg Jesse Ball Canon City Daily Record Sept 14 1933) speculate that the cave was used by the Spanish as a refuge from Indian attacks The cave itself being windy wet and ncar-freezing would not have been ideal for such occupancy A ruined fort was alleged to exist below Marble Mountain as early as 1881 (Golden City Transcript Aug 31 1881 citing Cusler City Prospect ) later articles mention rifle pits I have seen what I presume to be these features below timberline and could not distinguish them from the miners prospect pits common in the Colorado mountains The largest log breastwork structure has also been interpreted as an old corral (Jerry Hassemer oral communication) If defensive works they are cr Jde ones indeed

This leaves to be considered the famous cross beside the entrance It is about one and a half feet square with flared ends meeting at the corners It has been variously described as burnt on

Jou rnal of Speean History 83

deeply chiseled or etched but in reality is prosaically painted with what looks to be a stable iron oxide pigment perhaps using some sort of template Portions of It had a thm patma of calcite crust when I first saw it in 1958 Though almost always called Maltese it is not as can be seen by looking up a crosses illustration in any large dictionary The true Maltese cross has indented ends A G Birch (Denver Post Aug 11 1929) correctly pointed out that the cave marker isin the perfect form of a German Iron Cross But he also says it was old when the first white sehler saw it more than sixty years ago without explaining how he knew this A contradictory testimony (Trail and Timberline April 1957) asserts that there is one old-timer who states that he knCv the fellow who painted it years ago as ajoke I wiIl pass over both of these declarations as uncorroborated

Spanish crosses as I have seen them represented on coins and in art have narrow straight-sided arms often with the basal arm longer and with the ends variously embellished They are typically very different from German ones It is suggestive that the first sedentary settlers below Marble Mountain were Germans of the Colfax colony in 1870 The colony as an entity failed within a year but some thirty families took possession of quarter sections and prospered as can be seen by the many descendants still living in the area (Wet Mountain Tribune Centennial Edition Dec 20 1985) German immigrants also arrived later on and the ranches cl osest below the caves remained in possession of the German-derived Henrich and Neermann families into recent years Crosses in the square form seen at the cave were used in German decorative motifs (I have seen an antique coffee-grinder at an abandoned German homestead in eastern Colorado that was ornamented with them) The cross could have been painted by a Colfax settler exploring his surroundings soon after the colonys establishment The dispersal of most of the colony in 1871 would account for the failure of later inhabitants to know who had created it

Alternatively it might have been a product of prospector 1 H Yeoman He figures in one of the earliest known accounts of a Marble Mountain cave in History of the Arkansas Valley Colorado (1881) A later report on this cave (Denver Republican Feb 20 1888) appears to describe Cave of the White Marble Halls south of Spanish Cave and states that the cave was discovered by Yeoman on Sept 16 1880 Yeoman obligingly left a graffito confirming this in the cave and the Kings and Queens Chambers of the article are likewise identified (Another 1881 account -shyGolden Cty Transcript op cit -- describes a similar cave but claims discovery by Messrs Hendershot amp Dickson of Custer City) A red cross like that at Spanish Cave but smaller and with narrower arms marks the entrance the associated graffito in English 400 Feet to the White Marble Halls precludes a Spanish conquistador origin (A writing inside -- Mrs H G ReedSilver Cliff CololHere 8115197 -- is done in a similar ornate hand) I have also seen Yeomans signature in Moonmilk Cave just across the ravine south of Spanish and scarcely possible to reach without seeing the Spanish entrance He must have known of Spanish Cave and pesumably had entered it

[he Geology

Finally a point that seems so obvious that it should hardly need to be mentioned decades of repeated explorations in Spanish Cave have failed to turn up a trace of mining or of gold and there is excellent reason for this Gold is found either where hydrothermal solutions have mineralized host rock or where deposits originating in that fashion have been eroded and concentrated in placer gravels Neither situation applies at Marble Mountain where the caves occur in an unaltered Pennsylvanian biothermal limestone lens sandwiched almost vertically between shales and conglomeratic sandstones (The name Marble Mountain is a misnomer marble is limestone altered -- metamorphosed -- by heat andor pressure The abundance of well-preserved brachiopod and crinoid fossils shows that Marble Mountain is not metamorphosed) The only mineralization known on the mountain is a little low-grade copper on the south limestone outcrop

Jourllal of Speleall History 84

Paul Gilbert notwithstanding the caves are in no way volcanic but are relatively typical highshygradient alpine limestone solution caves dissolved probably by massive runoff from melting snov and ice during Pleistocene glacial epochs Writers have speculated that Spanish Cave had a lower entrance (possible since the cave water does emerge at a spring lower down) and an entrance on the west side of the mountain (not possible since the limestone does not outcrop there) Ironically the only new entrance cavers have actually found was in a direction not suggested by any known author above Its discovery explained the cave wind as a chimney effect between the entrances -- blowing down to the lower opening when it is warmer outside than inside reversing when it is colder outside

Conclusions

I know of no one else who has analyzed the Caverna del Oro stories as thoroughly but I am not the first to publish critical judgments on them Mrs Hafen has already been quoted Also on record (NSS Bulletin 8 July 1946) is a letter dated 10444 from Fred R Johnson Chief Information and Education US Forest Service

Carl Biaurock a member of the Colorado Mountain Club explored this cave in 1925 again in 1931 and later in more detail in 1932 On the last date the exploration was the result of several articles in the Rocky MOUnTain News in which an old yam was mentioned to the effect that the cave had been investigated in the Spanish explorations in the eighteenth [sic] century also that it is supposed to have yielded a large quantity of gold and other valuable minerals there are no signs of any mineral So far as Mr Blaurocks party could tell there is no evidence in the cave of any visitation of Spanish explorers several hundred years ago

Molen (opcit) wrote that this story [from Apodaca] has been disapproved [sic] The tools and ladder in the cave are of comparatively modern origin Blaurock believes Someone years ago must have explored the cave at least as thoroughly as we did he said He also expressed doubt that the rifle pits and fort are of Spanish origin I did not interview Carl Blaurock during my earlier research I telephoned him this summer but he is 98 years old and is too deaf to understand my questions I have sent him a letter of inquiry thus far unanswered

After organized caving had begun William R Halliday founder of the Colorado Grotto of the National Speleological Society also concluded that The fabulous stories are fables The story of Spanish Cave is told (Halliday however was too pessimistic in inferring that the cave was almost completely explored Most of what is now known was discovered just after he wrote but none of the new passage showed signs of human entry)

Diehard romantics might protest that Spanish Cave could still be La Caverna del Oro Caves can hide much perhaps somewhere in the depths there is a localized zone of thermal mineralization conceivably the Spaniards very cleverly concealed the way to the mine workings Such ideas are not impossible but do strain credulity For every verified feature that has been proposed as evidence for Spanish presence there is an alternative explanation that is more plausible The burden of proof then is on the proponents of the Spanish connection The lurid yarns about the cave reflect folklore creation greatly abetted by media exploitation assisted by atrociously sloppy research

The time sequenceof the several names applied to the cave fits this very neatly In sources from 1919 I find The Caves of the Winds From 1920 until 1932 I see Marble Cave Marble

85jOllrtlal of Speleall History

Caves or The Caves but no Spanish-related appellations It is still called Marble Cave at least as late as 1953 (Irma Zanoni Trail amp Timberline Dec 1953) I do not encounter La Cavema del Oro applied to our cave until Lightburns articles of 1932 after which it is common One of Lightburns headlines refers to the old Spanish Cave but Spanish Cave as a proper ~ame seems to appear only in the first Colorado Grotto News amp Notes of Feb 12 1952 where It IS a synonym for Caverna del Oro From then until now Spanish Cave has been the preferred form in the literature of organized caving and in popular media relying on it This unfortunately has helped to maintain the public assumption that the Spanish legendry is based in fact

The caves history is muddled by a series of misnomers a Caverna del Oro with no gold a Maltese cross that is not Maltese marble that is not marble -- and on analyzing the evidence I think that German Cave would have been a more appropriate if less provocative name than Spanish Cave

I expect my skeptical arguments to be ignored by future writers as long as there is a media markcL for exciting treasure tales Why is it important to be critically analytical

Since fact and fiction are not clearly distinguished in media information about the cave many people still believe nonsense about it Apparently the Spanish gold tales retain enough public acceptance to present problems to the Forest Service today It is reported that there was in recent years a proposal to build a road to the cave to facilitate treasure hunting (Jerry Hassemer oral comm)

Furthermore presentation of false gold stories as if they might be true is likely to tempt naive and poorly prepared readers to get in trouble seeking riches This is apparent in a 1957 letter from Roy Truman former District Ranger and colleague of Paul Gilberts (History of the Colorado Grotto 1961)

There was a time when it was very difficult to keep boys away from this cave and I received many calls from parents in Pueblo and other towns all times of the day and night concerning the safety of their boys that had left home with the ideas of exploring this cave with the high hopes of finding valuable ores or treasures they were equipped with a few pieces of small rope [this was probably arter the Depression-era articles]

This problem is also exemplified by a letter in my own files addressed in 1962 to Richard LeSage of the Southern Colorado Grotto from a Denverite He had twenty-four numbered questions including What type of equipiment [sic] will I need (exactly) I havent done much cave exploring Where can I obtain it What type of mask would I need for foul air He concludes We are intending to explore this cave at all cost so your information will be most vilal to us and most appreciable (We never replied deciding that was the safest thing to do)

The extravagance of peoples beliefs about Spanish Cave has sometimes reached quite ridiculous extremes The Colorado Historical Society library has a typescript of research material used by Perry Eberhart in preparing Treasure Tales of the Rockies One note is as follows

Robert Dunne head of Querida sez think cave comes out near Walsenburg or possibly the northern end of Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico never found end

James Dunne Querida

Not even Eberhart was so shameless as to print this in his book

Jourllal of Speleall History 86

There are still many legitimate mysteries left about Marble Mountain and its history How well explored are the ends of Spanish Cave even now Why was Yeomans cave otherwise so clearly White Marble Halls said to have a 275-foot pit Is this an error or a pit now lost Was the vertical Spanish Cave somehow grafted into the account Who really painted the Maltese cross and who put the artifacts into Spanish Why were detailed articles published on White Marble Halls in the 1880s but nothing seems to be on record about Spanish until 1919 in spite of the extensive early work done in it (If the relics were left by Colfax colonists in the 1870s they could not easily have published their explorations as there were yet no newspapers in the Wet Mountain Valley Later Yeoman or other prospectors might have been reticent about calling atlention to the cave if they built ladders down the shafts in the hope of rinding minerals Study 01 the county mining-claim records could be informative)

Future Opportunities

Most knowledge we now have on Marble Mountain history before organized caving is based on writings of big-city visitors from 1919 on When time allows I intend to search the microfilms of Custer County newspapers in the period 1880-1920 to see if items overlooked by library indexers may shed light on the gaps in our knowledge of the Marble Mountain caves Fascinating revelations are very likely to result Johnsons letter of 1944 (op cit) also stated There was evidence of early visitation [in Marble Cave] including names carved on rocks but these date mostly back about 50 years ago Informative graffiti are numerous in Cave of the White Marble Halls but I do not recall seeing any in Spanish Cave during my own explorations in the 1950s and 60s It should be carefully reexamined to see if we have overlooked signatures that could be keys to the solution of the puzzles

Better documentation of the cave itself would also be desirable The Colorado Grotto surveyed most of lower Spanish in the 1950s to the standards then prevailing I do not know the length of the CG survey but it probably included less than 1000 feet The Southern Colorado Grotto discoveries from 1959 to the early 1960s were not surveyed at the time

From 1975 to 1988 Jerry Hassemer led the mapping of 2642 feet of upper Spanish including the main route between entrances and the Rimstone Passage its longest side gallery (Hassemer personal comm Sept 13 1992) (About 1735 feet of this are along the through-route) His survey showed a vertical difference of 449 feet between lower and upper entrance by both internal mapping and a surface closure loop The old Colorado Grotto map appears to show a depth of just over 270 feet from lower entrance to deepest surveyed point thus total surveyed depth of Spanish Cave is about 720 fect (The entrance elevations of Spanish Cave have never been established by survey to a benchmark but altimeter readings and topographic maps suggest that the upper entrance is around 12000 feet)

Other side passages and superimposed levels in upper Spanish remain unmapped In lower Spanish an important branch the waterfall passage -- which may go deeper than the so-called Gold Diggings at the end of the existing map -- remains unsurveyed The high elevation and extremely cold wet conditions continue to inhibit complete exploration and mapping as they have for as long as the cave has been known

87Journal of Speleall History

_

PRESENTING

In the

CELLARS of the

WORLD

RUSSELL TRALL NEVILLE T HE CAVE MAN

Cave Explorer

Scientist

Photographer

r~ ~ bull y

I~XPLUHE THE UNKNOWN

Witl THE CAVE MAN Let him take you adventuring into marvelous underground fairylands Mr Neville shows you wonderfully beautiful pictures especially selected from thousands of his world famous cave photographs There is no other living man who has been in more American caves or travelled so many miles in so many caverns Floyd Collins whose tragic death in Sand Cave aroused the sympathy of the world and Mr Neville two intrepid cave explorers reached places in caves never before seen by humiln eyes

IN THE CELLARS OF THE WORLD is packed full of thrills surprises adventure and beauty and IS illustrated with choce color ~d lantern slides

You are sure to be delighted with this clnlque educationai illustrated lecture Millions have heard it from the platform and over the radio

FEW OPINIONS

PerhiJps you read Mr Cla y Perrys article in the July 12th 1941 issue of the Saturday Evening Post n which he paid high tribute to Mr Nevilles Cave explorations

An excerpt But Im a novice alongside Russell Trail Neville the Cave Man of Kewanee Illinois Neville has travelled more than a

IllOU il nd miles underground and taken more than ~UUU photographs ot whaT he calls I HI CELLARS OF THE WORLD

T IO de L010dc Taft fofTv Jdit 2+ You certainly hive a uniqu~ and notable lecture Your pictures are wonderfully fine and the adventures that lie behind

them are very thrilling In spite of all of the beauty that you have brought to light I heartily testify that ~o reNard would ever get me into those tight places

Mr Arlhur C Paqe Editor Prairie Farmer writing to a College President Mr Neville has spoken several times over WLS (The Prairie Farmer Radio Station) and I have seen a great many of his

wonderful pictures He is one of the most fascinating speakers I have ever listened to

Mr D E Northam Chairman Entertainment Committee The Adventurers Club Chicago Illinois I want to convey to you the thanks of the entire membership of the Adventurers Club for the most interesting educashy

tional and thrilling program you gave us at our last Ladies Night I hope we may have you again

Dr Charles D Sneller Past President Illinois State Academy of Sciences I have heard the CAVE MAN deli ver his lecture many times He thrills children and adults alike He has spoken before

the Peoria Rotary Club the Peoria Kiwanis Club and the Peoria Academy of Sciences and always captiv~ted hi s Judiences His pictures are a marvel and his lecture is unusually interesting

l r C iJl cs cave photoJraphs have heen shown literally allover the world In the most important Intershynational Photog-raphic Salons winninJ many special medals and diplomas

THE CAn- t1AX WITH HIS OXDtRFlL IICTLRtS TAKES YOU IITO THE REALM OF SUBTERRAE X O~)ERS

delighted educated alld thrilled audiences at

In the Cellars 0 the World PLACES YOU CAIIOT POSSIBLY nSIT SAFELY COMshyFORTABLY ID EASILY

Clliclgo Academy of Sciences Horkforrl Colleue Roekforrl Illinois Slmiddotr Tow~ City Iowa lfnin rsity Club Evanston Illinois In his cave work Mr Neville hs had Illany entershyrkl~lh TearIHr Institute SIlm)rr Illillo

Fielcl Iuseum of Natural Histor Chicago

taininl4 alllllsinl and thrillinJ experience IN THERIldlln CollECE Carlinvill~ I11nos Ohio ~LaLE lJniv~rsitv Bowlingt Green Ohio CELLARS OF THE WORLD Carneg-ie Museum Pittsburg-h Pennsylvania Lake Shore Athletic Club Chicag-o lear him tell some of these The cademy of Sciences Buffalo New York WMAQ The Chicago Daily News Station See his wonderful colored pictures The llilwaukee Museum 1ilwaukee Wisconsin AllismiddotChalmers Foremans Club Iilwaukee Wisconsin Illinois Wesleyan University Bloomington Illinois A merican Institute of Electrical Enhince ls Pittsfield AN INTERESTJiIC CR WLW Y

Massachusetts The Toledo Vomans Educational Club Toledo i~ II - ~ Utah Stu te Teac hers College St George Utah K ~

LaSa lie J u nior Colleg-e Auburndale 1assach usetts Vestern Illinois State Teachers College Macomh Illinoi ~

Lake Fri e College Painesille Ohio t lt bullbull bull _~ -11(1shy

Goernment Indian School Poplar vlontana oll1an s Cit Club Portsmouth New Hal11psllill~ ~ii7~ c

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Service Lone ()f the worlds I ~tgshyesi and most wonderfu I e lVes

Mr N vdk wns ghen gtltc id permission by the Derarrment of the Interi0r to make mm io n lIld still photographs in this mighty suhterranean wondcrlmd

With the co-()rtr~tion of the Superintendent and his ~ t a ff Mr Neville i ~ ited rlrts ltIt the Cavern I)() t re-n In the llIll ie

Urili ing al l ll th e exrnence gained 11 rho og rlgthingl hunshydred caes he m11ltmiddot nHHio n lnd still pictures of 11 mti frm shyHllms you mny ne(r 1gt 11gt1 to see The lre Jt~) i ( tt l Iith the skill md arri try then Mr Neville Igtrings ((I l1 his rholOshygraphic ork You wi ll have a new a[preci ati o n of rlw ond t rs of NI(ure after y()U hIc seen thSt ullusual [icrllrcs

ml ~ )middotIIJ l I ltxll r W i n ~ lIl1 rIH)togr 1 I hing the Caves of Kltntlldy )[1 1-Ili1I11 fo r slt tT d Yr DlIff th1t timt h h I S trlmiddote1I1 ~ rh l rs a thoulnd mile 1111-ic rgrltgtllnd

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Wlgtrking undr Ihorograrh ic difficultie I n1 rhysICa l h~zard s wh ic h eltIlle1 unsurmoun raH lt Mr Neille has succeeded ntvshyenhelts in Igtrin gi ng Igtcfo re the pulgtlic fy means oi morion ricshycures lnd by lantern slides beautiful scenes and views of formations yUU lta nnm possiLly see fo r yourself

Combined with this he rreshysents them in a highly artistic and cntcrtaining manner

ALADDINS GROTTO

~( A Camera Journey through Underground Fairylands ~ with Russell T Neville the Cave Man

m R Neville is a cave lxrlorer 1nd rhor)grapher Bc)innin~ a a hlgtbh this ~ work has Jevelored into a serious utempt t gt 1()nr1Y ancl present rhee little known heauties hidden tar lgteJuw Ih~ surface of he earth

Interesting experienltcs galore have fdlen tll Mr Nilie Igtt in this exploration rk ( llS have heen iiscltlnrJ wdl knwn caves Ioae heen exrlorel (Ll greuer distan(ts and all til rime his (nmeras have been l1llking a lirhful anJ unique recorl f his travels into rh e Realms f Ni)ht

Mr Nevilles exrtlitiol1 lI1t OIJ Salts Ca e (July 192 1 went into places never hefore st~n by white exrlorers The pnrry was in the Cave ltgtn rhis trir for fifty-one hours anJ rhirry-five minutes They liLltereJ and 1T()ughr to light a co nsiderable quantity lIt materini left hy rhe mysrerio us C 1e Men ot long ago This is shown in rhe pictures and commented upo n bv M r Neville who ha s Jen)[cd much rime to

the study ot the prehistoric folk wh o inhahit 1 rhis l11ighty sulgtrerranenn labyrinth many hundreds of y~1rs ago

Q A VE photography is essentially ver hn1rdou~ md tlifficulr C(gtmtgtined With tht risks pi origina l caw eplorarinn- rraversing unc harted pathways ShTtgtlldcl

in eernal darkness whlre unseen unknown dangers lurk in even shaJ(l there are serious photographic tehllical prohlems t(l be solved

Well gr(lund~d in the rtquir ~ l1lellts of a pkasing picrure Mr Neillc has usel 111 his lbility in the rnkillcrion of wonlerful lighting~ and pkwrial Clgtmpsitigtns PrllJucshying his own light 1 mtans of [()erflll fIlr~ elch giving 72 000 cnndle r ower he comhats the unfavrahle condicigtns which are found in aves Jnd interesting effects nre picwred which lend ench1 lltment to rhe cenes

Three ree Is lit standard ie i 35mm ) motion ricrllre film are al ilahle for use A portable morion ricure pwjecto r can be furnished

Many heautifully ha nd co lor~J lantern sliJes may he used if desi reJ This motion picture film is rhe fi rst and on ly attempt ever made ro prcsem o n t he

screen rhe hidJen undergrour J mancls of Narure

Remarks on the Potential of Underground Space for Defense Against Attack Jack Hurley DC Speleograph June 1960

1 Todays threat from the Soviets is political economic and military Thelalter includes chemical and biological warfare radio-logical fall-out and the weapon of the future - the neutron-ray gun not to mention others yet to be developed

2 The good earth which sustains uswill inevitably have its underground spaces explQited and developed to an unprecedented degree in a return to what might be called the era or the Jmodern cave man for nothing can protect us so well and for minimum cost as the underground spaces

3 In recent times we have the example of Nazi Germany in World War II with some) 000 underground storage depots light assembly plants and factories as well as the present day state or the art middot~ exemplified in Sweden In this country government and commercial interests possess bu~ a few underground sites not all of which can be discussed because of their classified nature However those not classified offer good examples of a good beginning - but only a beginning

Some of the underground sites that have been developed and are presently in usc principally for storage of various kinds are located in Kansas (Hutchinson and elsewhere) Neosho Missouri California and Iron Mountain New York as well as the development by my company of the Annandale Mine Butler Pennsylvania into a huge modern underground storage vault for irreplaceable records Some of our cl ients are the Jones and Laughl in Steel Co the U S Steel Co and the First National Bank oCNew York City Other sites are being usedJor cold storage and for hospitals but as yet the uses are extremely limited

Some of the potential uses are for light manufacturing and assembly plants permal1ent housing for some of our fabulously expensive data computers headquarters for command posts fo r national state and local civil defense storage of items essential for human survival in the event of atomic attack as well as items essential to the process of industrial rehabilitation To a limited extent they may also be utilized as shelters for at least some of the population in case of disaster

Why is it that the underground has not been more fully exploited and developed

1 Th~aver~ge individual dislikes the idea 2 The potential of the ul1derground for storage and housing has only been slightly understood 3 Existing sites are not always conveniently located 4 Those who cculd spark such development do not fully understand the nature and perhaps the imminency of the threat 5 I n some cases development has been stifled because of the cost even though this is but a fraction of that iiwolvedin creating a totally man-made facility for similar purposes Also there have been mistaken efforts to use underground space for purposes for which itwas not suited 6 The average human being strongly resists change in his essential concepts The so-called vested interests must first realize a scarcity of suitable top-side space before they will begin acquiringund~rground space

71Journal of Speleall History

Some of the advantages of good mines and caves are

1 They are generally removed from critical target areas 2 Development costs no more than on the surface and is frequently considerable less 3 In the long run maintenance and operating costs are much lower 4 In business and industry the absenteeism of workers due to illness extremes of temperature etc frequently becomes a real problem In my opinion working in the quiet atmosphere underground in a steady temperature and humidity level would have a beneficial and healthful effect This same situation makes it far easier to create a static condition beneficial to tl)e preservation and long life of records and other materials stored underground 5 The standard earth cover for modern missile bases is 25 feet Nearly all mines and caves of any consequence have far more cover than this thus increasing their protection potential

You as cave explorers and members of the National Speleological Society can assist by

1 Providing inventories of the most suitable caves for various purposes 2 Assist in developing guides or standards for caves for specific purposes 3 Talk about how mines and caves can be utilized and thus influence those who are in a ~tjon to initiate action in this direction

The above is the substance oj a talk given by Mr Hurley 10 the members oj the DC ChilP4tl oj the NSS on June 7 1960

Comment of the Designation of Certain Caves as Fallout Shelters William H Peters DC Speleograph April 1963

I believe all of us as members of the National Speleological Society have been aware for the past several years of the interest in utilizing selected caves for the protection of civilian population in the event of a national emergency The interest up until now remote has materialized into an actual requisitioning of caves in Pendleton County West Virginia and other communities in that state anxious to utilize all of their resources for what can certainly be called a noteworthy if not heroic program There has been at first a rejection of the idea among speleologists We are at first repelled by the idea of giving up our almost absolute sovereignty of the underground The realities of the world invading our isolated laboratories is unacceptable to us as scientists~ and of course the whole concept of nuclear war is still psychologically repugnant Our first reaction is expressed in many ways - useless protests exclamations of impossibility and we formulate every reason for the programs failure

But as citizens we have a responsibility to study the problem and the facts are not pleasing Repugnant as it is nuclear warfare lives not too far from the pleasantries of our life This is

72 JOllrllal of Speleall History

proven by the not so far removed Cuban Crisis In November 1962 LS Finkelstein at the Harvard University Center for International Affairs writing of the Soviet position on Arms Inspection is quoted It is hard to escape the conclusion that the Soviet Union for at least much of the time seems to have been interested more in employing the negotiations as a means of weakening the military and political position of the West that as a route to a viable disarmament system He goes on to quote James P Wadsworth to the effect that the Soviet Union has employed arms control negotiation as a part of a grand strategy aimed at the eventual total defeat of the other side 1 Thus for those persons who hope for an easy solution it is hard to find the substance to nourish those hopes

The possibility of reducing the probable use of nuclear weapons is diminished by the cruel fact that reduction in armaments only increases the probability of escalation in armament by lessening the factor required for decisive advantage while additionally making the elements of decisive advantage available to many other countries who may aspire to greater roles than current economic or scientific resources have relegated them This point is well illustrated by HA Kissinger nuclear disarmament has revealed the paradoxical fact that there is a certain safety in numbers And this is true even if both sides religiously observe an agreement to limit nuclear weapons Instability is greater if each side possesses ten missiles that if the equilibrium is stabilized at say 500 For an attack which is 90 successful when the opponent has ten missiles leaves him one or a number hardly able to inflict unacceptable damage An attack of similar effectiveness when the opponent possesses 500 missiles leaves 50 - perhaps sufficient to pose an unacceptable risk 2

We can easily conclude that the probability of removing nuclear weapons from the field of War Science is remote from purely tactical necessity What is also critical to our thinking is that the War Sciences are advancing in their ability to assess more and more elements and their relationship to decisive advantage Von Neumann in formulating the Minimax Game Theory and its reduction to mathematical models applied to computers increases the number of factors to be considered beyond the capability of the human mind International politics are founded upon economic and strategic factors rather than ethical or moral principle It is not impossible that in the cold realistic logic of the Game Theory3 that some remote event passing unseen by the casual observer will relate itself to decisive advantage for the opponent and may demand immediate action by one or the other side We cannot hope that in every instance the situation will escalate as did the Cuban Crisis so that the population can prepare itself

The comparison of Civil Preparedness to Ostrichism is not a fair comparison Civil Preparedness adds another factor for a potential enemy and complicates his game It makes it more difficult to game reliability Kissinger points out four considerations for reducing the possibility of decisive advantage the second of which is Since invulnerability is a relative term the purpose of arms control measures must be to strengthen so far as possible the relative position of the defender either by enhancing the security of his force or by complicating the calculations of the aggressor2 It is thus that civil preparedness serves a two fold purpose of deterring and of providing some measure

of survi val

The remoteness of the areas under consideration enhances the desirability of taking appropriate measures God forbid that it should come to pass but in the event of a nuclear holocaust it is these areas that could become the springboard for the reconstruction of our democracy and for the continuation of our cultural heritage

As members of the National Speleological Society we have the opportunity of not only participating but of making a definite contribution No other organization has more resources in

73Journal of Speeall History

scientific personnel experience or knowledge relating to caves Failure to meet our responsibilities at this time will only widen possible misunderstandings between the National Speleological Society and Civil Defense Organizations We must accept the fact that as the civil defense program expands more cave resources will be requisitioned Our opposition will only serve as a barrier to continued parallel use of these resources

The Society can assist in both the areas of applied practical knowledge and of basic research To list bnt a few are - advising and monitoring storage in areas of historical underground hydrological fluctuations monitoring humidity temperature and air circulation locating suitable areas in caves that will minimize the possibility of vandalism recommending types of closures of gates and assisting in their installation checking periodically the condition of supplies and reporting this to appropriate authority and condemnation of areas due to strata imperfection and probability of breakdown

There are many questions in need of investigation What is the relationship in a multiple stream capture theory and the possible concentration of radioactive or other contaminates in a cave duc to fIltration What is the probability of infection by intake of foods contaminated by histoplasma ir any What is the relationship of bat rabies to human cave habitation What provision must be made for sanitation - control of rats and possible damage to supplies and in the event of human habitation control of rat fleas as possible communicators of typhUS or other epidemic diseases) What is the probability of excessive amounts of radioactive materials being introduced to the cavc environment by animals such as bats that enter and leave the cave frequently These represent only a portion of the questions which should be examined to determine their relevance and what precautionary measures should be taken if relevant

I would like to propose that at a special meeting of the Board of Governors a Civil Defense Advisory Committee composed of competent scientists and speleologists be formed for the purpose of formulating suitable policies initiating scientific investigation and in general assuming the role of representing and coordinating the Societys Civil Defense effort The question as to whether we can afford to undertake such a program with its inherent socialpolitical implications should be answered - Can we afford not to

References

1 Arms Inspection International Conciliation Nov 1962 (It is interesting to note that in my upinion this publication follows closely the United Nations activities It is surprising to observe this pessimistic attitude in that area)

2 Foreign Affairs Volume 39 no 4 July 1960 Inspection and Surprise Attack p 56l

3 A current article on Game Theory appears in the December 1962 issue of Scientific Americall by Anatol Rapoport The Use and Misuse of Game Theory

Journal of Speleall History 74

1922 Trip Reports

Maud Orr Howell

Trip 10 Bear Cave

Gordon Brown led eight of us including Elizabeth Hord George Raudebush Benie Weaver Tom Weaver Johnny Connor Boyte and me to Bear Cave in Savage Gulch

We left the Observatory at 900 am went down Clark Cottage Path and across the valley to the clearing in front of the old Savage home

The girls rested while the boys went up the side of Peak Mountain to a ~pring and brought back some water Then we explored the old house In one of the upstairs rooms that had newspapers on the walls we read in the Society section of a newspaper dated August 17 1908 that Mr and Mrs Sanford Duncan had gone to spend a few days with Mrs Robert Orr in Maury County

We cut across the field to the right of the house and climbed along the side of Peak Mountain then straight down the side of the mountain to Savage Creek After drinking water from a spring running into the creek we followed the creek up a few yards then climbed up the mountain on the left a few yards to the cave This is Coppenger Mountain It was 11 45 so we ate our Iunch and rested until 1 10 when all but Elizabeth and Tom went in the cave We had candles and carbide lights and Gordon led the way It saw 220 when we got out After resting a few minutes and taking some Kodak pictures we all including Elizabeth and Tom went in again and stayed until 300 pm

We gathered our things which included sticks which Gordon had cut for us the Kodak the lunch bag canteen etc and set out straight up the mountain with Gordon pulling us up some of the places until we hit the cliffs We followed the cliffs along until we found a place to climb up When we got on the top we walked along the mountain until we got to the end of it which is just above the Savage house We went down a path which went straight down the mountain to the Savage house rested while the boys got water then came home to Howell cottage the same way we had gone arriving here at 700 pm

Trip to Bats Cave

Saturday September 2 1922

We first planned to walk to Tatesville but not knowing how far it was we gave it up and decided to walk to Bats Cave The night before the trip we gave that up too as it was so far and the weather so hot

As we were eating breakfast Mr George Mitchell came and he had breakfast with us He suggested getting a wagon for our trip so immediately after breakfast Mr George Bettie Martha and Tom Weaver Boyte and I went to the store and got Earnest Rubleys wagon

75Journal of Speleall History

We all met on the Observatory There were 19 of us Five including Mr George Jennings and George Bailey Torn and Charlie Trabue IV left first and went down the Backbone Road intending to meet us at the Collins River bridge The rest of us Elliott and David Adams Lucy and Elizabeth Bailey Lucinda Trabue Irene Langford Elizabeth Mclane Kate Keene Johnson Susan Lewis Bettie and Martha Weaver Boyte and I walked down the mountain from the Observatory and met the wagon a little piece up the valley We missed the other bunch and they did not catch up with us until we had left the wagon and were eating lunch at the spring

We finished lunch and walked up the mountain to the cave We went to the big room where we stopped last year which is just beyond the small ladder We climbed the ladder then all but Irene Tom Elizabeth and I went on further We waited at the top of the ladder until they came back They had gone to another big room and circled around it about three times before finally finding the way out They found an old Nashville newspaper dated 1847 and another paper with some names on it They added their names to this list

When we got out of the cave it was nearly 500 We had been in there three hours

We went back to the wagon and started horne We got to Collins River bridge about dark The moon was almost full and the ride up the valley in the moonlight in a wagon filled with hay and pulled by mules was beautiful We stopped at Mortons store and Mr George telephoned up lo Beersheba and told them where we were and assured them that we would be home soon He brought out oodles of cookies and we had a grand time eating them We sang and yelled and relaxed on the hay We left the wagon at the bottom of Beersheba Mountain Martha led the way up the mountain in the dark with only the moon to help guide us We had Oashlights but it was hard to keep in the path But it was fun We reached the top at the Observatory at 845 pm and no one seemed to be tired

Trip to Peak Mountain

A crowd of us left Aunt Mats Cottage at 930 am on Monday August 28 1922 There were 19 of us including Mr George Mitchell Elizabeth Hord Mr Colville Elliott Adams Jennings Bailey Lucy Bailey Kate Keene Johnson George Eldred Mary Wilson Eldred Irene Langford Elizabeth Mclane Bettie Orr Martha Weaver Tom Weaver Alfred Williams Mary Phillips Street Susan Lewis Boyte Howell Jr and me (Maud Orr Howell)

We went down Clark Cottage Path to the valley The crowd was separated going down but we all got together at the foot of the mountain crossed the valley and climbed Peak Mountain There was no path we just went up the side of the mountain and went thru a pass up the cliffs We got there about 1200 pm rested then ate lunch We put up a nag (Elizabeth Hords petticoat)

Aoout 100 pm we left to find the old stage coach road to Chattanooga We went straight across the top of the mountain and found the road at the spring and a little log cabin We followed the road to the valley We heard Marshall Eldred mooing answered him and he found us Gordon Bro n who was with him led us to Peter Rock Cave on the side of Peak Mountain Marshall did not start out with us because he helped Gordon fix the leaks in Laurel Mill Dam Elliott led us in the cave and we did not go back very far It was pretty but wet and muddy

We c~me home by Dishroon Springs drank some of the water and ate the rest of our lunch [hen came on up the mountain A few of us stopped at the Johnson place and looked across the valley at Elilabeth Hords petticoat which we had left on a tree on Peak Mountain We came on horne arriving here about 500 pm

Journal of Speleall History 76

No Old Gold or Bones A Skeptical Review of Caverna del Oro Legendry Donald G Davis reprinledfrom Rocky Mountain Caving Summer 1992

In the thin air of timberline on Marble Mountain in the Sangre de Cristo range icy wind blows from the entrance to a deep and cryptic cave marked by the damaged remnant of a rust-red cross Known today as Spanish Cave it is the most publicized non-commercial cave in Colorado It has been featured for more than 70 years in media - first newspapers then magazines books and television specials Most of this publicity recounts stories that it is La Caverna del Oro where Indian slaves mined gold for 17th century Spaniards Many people take this as fact Recently a Colorado caver told me he had spoken with a journalist who assured him that the cave was bottomless and contains untold treasures

Spanish Cave was important in the start of my own caving career in 1957 While attending Colorado A amp M College (later CSU) I saw in scrapbooks in the Fort Collins Museum clippings of the Colorado Question Box column from the Rocky Mountain News circa 1955 They told stories of a Maltese-cross-marked entrance lost gold mine and chained skeleton reported in the caverns depths After correcting the first error we found in the accounts (that the cave was on Homs Peak several miles north of Marble Mountain) two of us (Vin Hoeman and myself) in the college Hikers Club located the cave the next year In subsequent years with Frank and Paul Leskinen James W Meachan and others in the Southern Colorado Grotto of the NSS I led the discovery of about two-thirds of its presently known passage

Finding that the Western History Department of the Denver Public Library had a clipping file on the cave I also undertook research on its history which I have continued intermittently since The mure I learned about the real cave the more disillusioned I became with the stories sensationalizing it I learned much about the rules of logic and evidence during the investi galion and was ultimately convinced that there was no satisfactory confirmation that Spanish explorers ever saw or entered the cave much less mined gold from it Following are some of the reasons for that concl usion

The most readily available summary of the legendry is in Lloyd Parris Caves oCoLorado (1973) pp 24-32 Parris precedes his Treasure Caves accounts with a confused and equivocal disclaimer The following tales for the most part have the validity of history behind them and in most cases the caves are known Undoubtedly though some of the legends connected with these caves belong in Chapter IV under hoax and humbug And if these legends seem to disagree or contradict what is previously known it is because they were selected not for entertainment alone but as a presentation of the known facts or legends as the case may be An evaluation of the authenticity has not been attempted This is left for the reader to do

This reader hereby takes up the challenge

The Spanish Mille Legends

A number of accounts (including Parriss) relate that Spanish Monastery Latin documents record gold being brought to pre-Columbian Mexican Indian kingdoms Acolhua Aztec and Tepance

Jourllal of Speleall History 77

from the north Then in 1541 three monks were supposedly left behind by Coronado (the Rocky MOllntain News June 3 1923 says 1598) One Fray Juan de la Cruz reportedly reopened a mine using forced labor by Pecos I ndians (a northern New Mexico Pueblq trib~)and packed treasure toward Mexico City but never arrived there Nuggets and gold bars reported found by one Baca in 1811 were speculated to be part of this treasure and a prospector searching (according to Parris) for Cavema del Oro half a century later found a silver cup engraved with the name Hermione Taken at face value all this gives the impression that stories about Caverna del Oro are of great antiquity though the original Spanish documents are never cited

This suite of tales was first widely distributed in an article by Alberta Pike headlines OLD MANUSCRIPT INDICATES VAST RICHES IN COLORADO CA VE GUARDED BY SKELETON in the Rocky Mountain News of Sept 6 1932 Subsequent Spanish Cave popularizers have recopied them from one article to the next without naming a source for them I recently made an enlightening discovery in the Colorado Historical Society library about where this material came from

Before any known Spanish Cave article was written Louis Bernhardt Sporleder -- early resident and prominent citizen of Walsenburg Colorado -- published a souvenir booklet titled Huajalolla Breasts of the World (1916) An article in The Trail June 1922 reprinted much of this booklet and said Sporleder had a number of unpublished manuscripts giving information historical and legendary about the Spanish Peaks (as the Huajatolla are more commonly known) Sporleders booklet included word for word most of the above Spanish mine material copied by later Cavema del Oro writers

Even his misspelling of the Tepance kingdom (properly Tepanec) has been faithfully reproduced by authors as late as Parris

As to the actual historicity of Sporleders items I know little but his writings (eg The Roses of Huajatolla The Trail Dec 1922) were prone to wild flights of romantic fiction incorporating gross errors about natural history He claimed for instance that the otherwise extinct passenger pigeon still survived on the Spanish Peaks in fact it has never been recorded in Colorado His human history appears similarly colored But even if he was accurate it is crucial to our study that his stories were exclusively about the Spanish Peaks making no connection whatever to Marble Mountain 50 miles to the northwest He specifically stated that the silver cup was found beside a spring in a grotto at the base of East Spanish Peak (the name Hermione moreover is Greek not Spanish) All of this is therefore irrelevant to the cavern on Marble Mountain that we know as Spanish Cave

In Sporleders 1916 version the prospector who found the cup was searching for Huajatollas mines of gold In Pikes 1932 recounting he was seeking the lost mine but she associates it with the cave on Marble Mountain Parris in 1973 transmutes the object of the searchers quest explicitly into the Caverna del Oro Thus by insidious mutations does spurious lore enshroud our cave

Forbes Parkhill asserted that Marble cave Legends connect the Spanish cross and the ancient timber found in the mine [sic] with the gold hunting and exploring expeditions of Juan de Onate in 1597 and the Escalante-Dominguez expedition in 1776 (Explorers to Seek Mysteries of Caves in San Isabel Wilds Discovered Four Centuries Ago Denver Post Oct 9 1921) Even Parris rejects these suggestions because those expeditions did not come close to Marble Mountain

Jourllal of Speleall History 78

Earliest Known Accounts ofthe Cave middot

In 1919 appeared a brochure Out-ol-door Piaygroullds of the Sansabel National Forest USDA middot Circular 5 by Henry S Graves Forester It declared that The Caves of the Winds [not to be confused with Cave of the Winds at Manitou Springs] a system of giant crevices in a mountain or solid white marble is one of the principal natural wonders of the Forest These caves have been penetrated to a depth of over 1200 feet without the end being reached Theymay be reached by wagon road from Westcliffe

On Oct 12 1919 the Denver Post ran an anonymous article San Isabels Caves of Winds Among Wonders of Colorado It stated The Caves of the Winds have been known to exist for many years They are described brieOy in the report of the San Isabel national forest A party of Denver business men is planning to visit the caves this autumn with a view to exploring them to their depths if pOssible If it is found that the natural wonders said to exist in the interior of the caves are equal to reports which have been received these men will ask the government for the I

privilege of developing the caves as a tourist attraction

That Spanish Cave is the object of these writings is indicated by the emphasis on wind great depth (four times the actual depth of the cave as then known) and incomplete exploration the nearby Cave of the White Marble Halls is less strongly windy nearly horizontal and was already well explored (The accompanying entrance photo is not Marble Mountain) A similar item in the Post of June 27 1920 mentions a huge cave on Marble mountain which has never been explored by man beyond a depth of 1800 feet and which may rival the famed Mammoth Cave of Kentucky Neither treasure legends nor stories ofSpanish exploration are me11lioned in any of these earliest printed accounts

Apollina Apodacas Story

The real genesis of treasure stories as applied to Spanish Cave so far as I can find is with Apollina Apodaca (her name is variously spelled in different accounts I use the spelling that seems most probable) In 1919 (not 1920 as said in Caves oColorado) Paul Gilbert later District Ranger in the Forest heard wonderful tales from this old woman As he recalled in The Bulletin of the Rocky Mountain Region of the US Forest Service (Dec 1936)

She stated that the Spaniards used to get gold from it and further stated that if one were to descend to a sufficient depth [in some accounts she is said to have specified 90 or 93 feet] a set of oak doors would be found and if they were forced open one would find a tunnel leading back into the bowels of the mountain -- and the source of the gold would be found She further stated that when she was a child they used to take a blanket wrap it around a heavy stone and throw it down the shaft In the course of a short time the blanket would be blown back minus the rock by the strong winds that come continually from the shaft

The following spring Gilbert located the cave which he misinterpreted as more of a volcanic fissure than it is a cave and visited it with Arthur C Carhart An item mentioning this trip (Mystery Caves in ColoradoRocky Mountain News Sept 21 1921) is the earliest I have found that makes a Spanish or lost-mine connection Old timers in the hills up there declare the place is the shaft of the old Three Step mine famous in Spanish history Carhart himself in the POSl of Jan 1 1922 says it is reported that it is an old Spanish mine entrance marked with a red cross of Malta and has old timber and a log chain inside

Jourllal of Speleall History 79

Gilberts writings are not entirely consistent about his informants statistics in the above report she is Mexican 105 years old in 1919 and died at 110 In his letter to Robert 1 OConnell of Feb 18 1957 (as published in History ojthe Colorado Grotto Nov 1961) she is Spanish and died in 1923 at age 103 A followup letter of Feb 25 adds that she spent most of her life in the vicinity of San Luis [in the San Luis Valley on the opposite side of the Sangre de Cristos] Another source (Dayle Molen Pueblo Star-Jollmal Nov 18 1956) says she lived near Gardner Perry Eberhart in his sensationalistic Treasure Tales of the Rockies (11) calls her an Indian squaw Raymond Thorp in American ForesTs Aug 1935 citing Gilbert says she died eight years ago which would have been 1927 (this is the date used by Parris) These points may be quibbles yet they indicate a lack of precision in recording the facts about her And since the account attributed to Ms Apodaca is pivotal to the entire Caverna del Oro oeuvre let us dissect it critically

Every element is either improbable or impossible Leaving the geologic aspect until later take the oaken doors There are no oaks for many miles and where they do appear they are scrub oak which would have provided door-size timber only in rare cases (though oaks of that size were more common in the Rockies then than now) And why haul heavy oak to timberline when (though strong when new) it does not resist rot as well as say the more easily obtained juniper There is not in any case any opening near the 9O-foot level where such doors could have been used

The blanket story is completely fanciful As we proved in 1961 (NSS News Aug 1962 part I) the cave wind comes from upper Spanish Cave not from the pit Even if it did the pit is about 15 feet wide whereas the entrance constricts to a narrow crawlway A wind strong enough to blow a blanket back up the pit would rise to such tornadic speed in the crawl as to stop a person from fighting through it to the pit Nor does it seem sensible that people would be blithely tossing their blankets down weighted with rocks After all the rock might fail to unwind and the blanket be lost or shredded at the bottom With so incredible a yarn in it why should not the whole narrative be dismissed as fantasy

The Skeletons

At least three human skeletons have been attested as evidence of Spanish involvement with the cave Two were introduced by reporter Kenneth C Lightburn in a front-page article in the Rocky Mountain News of Sept 4 1932 He claimed that the caves original discovery is credited to Capt Elisha P Hom one of the first settlers in the Wet Mountain Valley in 1869 About its entrance he found the remnants of what might have been a fort and also a skeleton in Spanish armor Through the armor was an Indian arrow (Lightburn also began the misconception that the cave was on Homs Peak) I have not been able to trace the origin of this anecdote but it sounds unlikely if only because the purpose of Spanish armor was to prevent things like stoneshypointed arrows from penetrating ones torso and it generally worked Halls History of Colorado (1895) confirms Elisha P Hom as a pioneer Wet Mountain Valley settler in 1869 but does not mention this story

However the skeleton that Lightburn intended to feature was the one in his articles melodramatic headlines SKELETON FOUND CHAINED BY NECK DEEP IN COLORADO MYSTERY CAVECAVERN IS HIGH IN MOUNTAIN WILDS OF STATEDenver Man Discovers Manacled Bones in Sangre de Cristo Range Moldering 500 Feet Below Surface in Awesome CavitySIGNS INDICATE MINE WORKED IN EARLY DAYSFind Recalls Legends of Fabulous Cavern [sic] del Oro of 17th Century Spaniards The headlines are emphasized by a lurid though regrettably nonphotographic picture of the skeleton and an entrance shot with the cross touched up to show better

80 Journal of Speleall History

Journal of Speean History

The article relates that Peter Moser of Denver with companions Victor Barth and his two sons Donald and Jack had just returned from a descent into the cave (Derivative accounts refer to Victor Donald and Jack Barth the former being a fictitious person born of the omission of an original comma between Victor and Donald)

According to Lightburn the Moser party had climbed down until they reached a vertical pit They lowered a lantern Forty feet downward they saw the bottom and in the light or the lantern could clearly make out the skeleton With a metal strap encircling the neck the pile of bones reclined against the rocky wall as if the person who died there centuries ago hall been chained in a sitting position and left to starve An investigatory trip reported in followup articles of Sept 11 12 arid 18 found no skeleton (If an entrance photo with the story of the 18th is any indication they might not even have found the cave -- the picture is obviously not on Marble Mountain -- it may be at Marble Cave near Canon City) It was speculated that Moser may have seen the skeleton at another point in the cave or that it had been done away with by mysterious parties unknown who had blasted the cave entrance between the two trips

In reality it is not surprising that the chained skeleton was never found There is no sound testimony that it was ever there Unlike Fray Juan de la Cruz Elisha Horn or Apollina Apodaca Peter Moser was still available to me to question when I first researched Lightburns article I found in 1959 that Moser still lived at the same address in Denver as in 1932 On New Years Eve 19591 telephoned him and asked about the story His description made it clear that his party had indeed reached the top of the pit that cavers now call the Jug At that point they had lowered a kerosene lantern on a line and he saw what in his own words looked like a pile of bones on a ledge near the bottom This he said is all he reported to the secretary of the Colorado Mountain Club who in tum contacted the newspaper which -- as Moser put it to me -- dressed it up a little (l printed a more complete record of Mosers hour-long interview in the Southern Colorado Grotto newsletter Spelunk Junk Mar 1960)

This embroidery was to be expected in an era when the Denver papers were battling for readers during the Great Depressiun and were notorious for sensationalism But even if Mosers own explanation did not debunk the skeleton he reportedly found it would not be believable The Jug is about 80 feet deep Have you ever tried to see in cavernous darkness where your breath makes mist clouds by a kerosene lantern at that range Then you will agree that a chaincd skeleton even in fine preservation could hardly have been seen well enough from the top to be recognized unequivocally

81

Caves oColorado complicates the matter by citing a letter to me from James W Meacham in vhich a bone found by Meacham at the bottom of the Jug in 1959 was pronounced human by John A Murphy of the Denver Museum of Natural History What Parris does not say is that I had written him in 1969 -- four years before his book was published -- that another expert at the University of Colorado Museum had declared it a deer bone (This water-worn two-inch fragment might well challenge a forensic specialist)

Not content with two skeletons Thorp (American Forests Aug 1935 op cit) adds a third to this spooky company A strange legend that still haunts the native people concerns a skeleton hung with buckskin which guarded Marble Cave just on the other side of Caverna del Oro It was the first quarter of the 19th century and an American free trapper wandered too far west The Spaniards for fear he would reveal their hiding place crucified him For a half century he remained pinioned to a wcxxlcn cross Aside from the improbably sadistic mode of execution this image typical of cartoons or folklore reveals ignorance of the properties of real skeletons which do not long remain articulated when exposed to weather decay and scavengers

Others find ulterior significance in our discovery of bones of bison and pronghorn antelope in upper Spanish Cave in the 1960s calling them plains species that would never ascend to such lofty heights Unless someone had used the cave for storing or curing meat (Bill Kaiser The Treasure of Caverna del Oro Colorful Colorado May-June 1973) I did not know this then but these animals have been known to ascend to the alpine tundra in historic ti mes and might have done so more often when they were abundant and unfenced The cave is much too wet to be good ror storing perishables

The Artifacts

Many reliable observers from Carhart and Gilbert onward report finding in the 1920s and 30s old artifacts of unknown provenance in Spanish Cave These include a winch chains whiskey bottle jug timber ladders shovel single-jack and a hammer They have all disappeared or been reduced to fragments but claims made for some of them purport to establish archeological evidence of Spanish presence

Thorp (1935 op CiL) in describing the 1932 Rocky Mountain News expedition states that on the second ledge they found the remains of a rudely constructed ladder which Dr LeRoy Hafen ( then editor historian and curator of the State Historical Society) after carefully examining asserted was at least 200 years old Below after being lowered 110 feet they found a crude hand-forged hammer which the historian declared was of 17th century vintage Gilbert (The Bulletin Dec 1936 op cit) and an Alamosa Courier article (from June 1937) repeat these avowals

These are very important allegations since the Spanish were the only people who could have left such artifacts in the 17th century To investigate them I wrote in 1960 to LeRoy Hafen inquiring about his trip to the cave and his knowledge of its history and specifically whether he had certified the hammer as of 17th-century manufacture and if so who now had it His reply was less specific than my questions but it is a primary document on one of the major claims about Spanish Cave and I reproduce it below verbatim

If LeRoy Hafen made claims of antiquity for the Spanish Cave artifacts in 1932 he obviously did not stand by them later His wife Ann W Hafen in Detective Historian (Denver WesTerners Monthly Roundup July 1954) had also recounted his 1932 cave trip and commented disproving a baseless story is important it is part of the search for truth She elaborated To the party the venture was disappointing No treasure found No relic of the ancient conquistadores But to the

Jourllal of Speleall History 82

detective Historian it was just another clue pursued another myth exploded another triumph for the scholars code -- to build history on fact not on fossilized fiction

Thorp (1935 op cit) relates that the timbers of their ladder system were about eight inches in diameter squared on four sides with an ax Auger holes were bored into their sides and they were fitted with wooden rungs pegged into the holes No nails were used al though this probably would have been done by early Germans or Americans [the wood is] now decayed and may be broken in many ins tances by the hand This construction however is not strong evidence for Spanish work Before the railroad reached the Wet Mountain Valley in the 1880s commodities such as nails would have been scarce and expensive anyone building such structures before then might well have used no metal It would also be stronger than tacking on rungs with nails when not using sawed lumber Concerning the other cave artifacts there is not enough information to suggest a date

BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY PROVOUTAH

January 13 1960

11r Donald G Davia P O Box 145 T1lnlath Colorado

Dear Hr Davia

I ~ intereat~d to learn f~ your letter of January J 1960 of your study and COllCen WJth the Caverna del Oro Hy visit to the cave and descent into it was with a party directed and financed by the Tourist Bureau or its counterpart of the period The contemporary ewspal6rs gave som~ accowtof the venture

I made the firat descant into the cave kt that time ging down the rope bS

you doubtless have done ince I recall at the edg~ of the pit th~re were s(XlIe rotted logs that may have been the framework of a windlass At tho bott~ of the pit I found a suall sledge ~er encrusted with limestone formation I dont recall what was done with this haa-er I remember no other relics in the pit

Our purposo was to investigate certain rumors a3 to early use of the cave as a SVanish mine I think middot there is little~~ion for that as the limestone fonnation is a poor VlOspect fot middotormation

The legnd hat a skeleton was chained to the wall gave added impetus to the trip Needless to eay nothing of the sort was found That cav and some near were epoken of colloctively os the Karble Campve and sune referred to this one as the Caverna del Or~ cave of gold The Kaltes cross painted on the rock at the entrllJce to tle cave already had a faded appearance I know nothi8 of the rk of Capto1n Hom regarding the di Scove ry of ~ he cave

i~J At the bottOlll of the pit Carl Dlaurohpersucd tho crevice out 5 far dS ~ ~ could go and found nothi8 to reward our efforts If Hr Ulaurot is still living i Denver he could give you sooe sidelights on th cave as ho visited it after our initial exploration

Cordially yours

LO 91+-LeRoy R IlcIen DeparUent of History

Some writers (eg Jesse Ball Canon City Daily Record Sept 14 1933) speculate that the cave was used by the Spanish as a refuge from Indian attacks The cave itself being windy wet and ncar-freezing would not have been ideal for such occupancy A ruined fort was alleged to exist below Marble Mountain as early as 1881 (Golden City Transcript Aug 31 1881 citing Cusler City Prospect ) later articles mention rifle pits I have seen what I presume to be these features below timberline and could not distinguish them from the miners prospect pits common in the Colorado mountains The largest log breastwork structure has also been interpreted as an old corral (Jerry Hassemer oral communication) If defensive works they are cr Jde ones indeed

This leaves to be considered the famous cross beside the entrance It is about one and a half feet square with flared ends meeting at the corners It has been variously described as burnt on

Jou rnal of Speean History 83

deeply chiseled or etched but in reality is prosaically painted with what looks to be a stable iron oxide pigment perhaps using some sort of template Portions of It had a thm patma of calcite crust when I first saw it in 1958 Though almost always called Maltese it is not as can be seen by looking up a crosses illustration in any large dictionary The true Maltese cross has indented ends A G Birch (Denver Post Aug 11 1929) correctly pointed out that the cave marker isin the perfect form of a German Iron Cross But he also says it was old when the first white sehler saw it more than sixty years ago without explaining how he knew this A contradictory testimony (Trail and Timberline April 1957) asserts that there is one old-timer who states that he knCv the fellow who painted it years ago as ajoke I wiIl pass over both of these declarations as uncorroborated

Spanish crosses as I have seen them represented on coins and in art have narrow straight-sided arms often with the basal arm longer and with the ends variously embellished They are typically very different from German ones It is suggestive that the first sedentary settlers below Marble Mountain were Germans of the Colfax colony in 1870 The colony as an entity failed within a year but some thirty families took possession of quarter sections and prospered as can be seen by the many descendants still living in the area (Wet Mountain Tribune Centennial Edition Dec 20 1985) German immigrants also arrived later on and the ranches cl osest below the caves remained in possession of the German-derived Henrich and Neermann families into recent years Crosses in the square form seen at the cave were used in German decorative motifs (I have seen an antique coffee-grinder at an abandoned German homestead in eastern Colorado that was ornamented with them) The cross could have been painted by a Colfax settler exploring his surroundings soon after the colonys establishment The dispersal of most of the colony in 1871 would account for the failure of later inhabitants to know who had created it

Alternatively it might have been a product of prospector 1 H Yeoman He figures in one of the earliest known accounts of a Marble Mountain cave in History of the Arkansas Valley Colorado (1881) A later report on this cave (Denver Republican Feb 20 1888) appears to describe Cave of the White Marble Halls south of Spanish Cave and states that the cave was discovered by Yeoman on Sept 16 1880 Yeoman obligingly left a graffito confirming this in the cave and the Kings and Queens Chambers of the article are likewise identified (Another 1881 account -shyGolden Cty Transcript op cit -- describes a similar cave but claims discovery by Messrs Hendershot amp Dickson of Custer City) A red cross like that at Spanish Cave but smaller and with narrower arms marks the entrance the associated graffito in English 400 Feet to the White Marble Halls precludes a Spanish conquistador origin (A writing inside -- Mrs H G ReedSilver Cliff CololHere 8115197 -- is done in a similar ornate hand) I have also seen Yeomans signature in Moonmilk Cave just across the ravine south of Spanish and scarcely possible to reach without seeing the Spanish entrance He must have known of Spanish Cave and pesumably had entered it

[he Geology

Finally a point that seems so obvious that it should hardly need to be mentioned decades of repeated explorations in Spanish Cave have failed to turn up a trace of mining or of gold and there is excellent reason for this Gold is found either where hydrothermal solutions have mineralized host rock or where deposits originating in that fashion have been eroded and concentrated in placer gravels Neither situation applies at Marble Mountain where the caves occur in an unaltered Pennsylvanian biothermal limestone lens sandwiched almost vertically between shales and conglomeratic sandstones (The name Marble Mountain is a misnomer marble is limestone altered -- metamorphosed -- by heat andor pressure The abundance of well-preserved brachiopod and crinoid fossils shows that Marble Mountain is not metamorphosed) The only mineralization known on the mountain is a little low-grade copper on the south limestone outcrop

Jourllal of Speleall History 84

Paul Gilbert notwithstanding the caves are in no way volcanic but are relatively typical highshygradient alpine limestone solution caves dissolved probably by massive runoff from melting snov and ice during Pleistocene glacial epochs Writers have speculated that Spanish Cave had a lower entrance (possible since the cave water does emerge at a spring lower down) and an entrance on the west side of the mountain (not possible since the limestone does not outcrop there) Ironically the only new entrance cavers have actually found was in a direction not suggested by any known author above Its discovery explained the cave wind as a chimney effect between the entrances -- blowing down to the lower opening when it is warmer outside than inside reversing when it is colder outside

Conclusions

I know of no one else who has analyzed the Caverna del Oro stories as thoroughly but I am not the first to publish critical judgments on them Mrs Hafen has already been quoted Also on record (NSS Bulletin 8 July 1946) is a letter dated 10444 from Fred R Johnson Chief Information and Education US Forest Service

Carl Biaurock a member of the Colorado Mountain Club explored this cave in 1925 again in 1931 and later in more detail in 1932 On the last date the exploration was the result of several articles in the Rocky MOUnTain News in which an old yam was mentioned to the effect that the cave had been investigated in the Spanish explorations in the eighteenth [sic] century also that it is supposed to have yielded a large quantity of gold and other valuable minerals there are no signs of any mineral So far as Mr Blaurocks party could tell there is no evidence in the cave of any visitation of Spanish explorers several hundred years ago

Molen (opcit) wrote that this story [from Apodaca] has been disapproved [sic] The tools and ladder in the cave are of comparatively modern origin Blaurock believes Someone years ago must have explored the cave at least as thoroughly as we did he said He also expressed doubt that the rifle pits and fort are of Spanish origin I did not interview Carl Blaurock during my earlier research I telephoned him this summer but he is 98 years old and is too deaf to understand my questions I have sent him a letter of inquiry thus far unanswered

After organized caving had begun William R Halliday founder of the Colorado Grotto of the National Speleological Society also concluded that The fabulous stories are fables The story of Spanish Cave is told (Halliday however was too pessimistic in inferring that the cave was almost completely explored Most of what is now known was discovered just after he wrote but none of the new passage showed signs of human entry)

Diehard romantics might protest that Spanish Cave could still be La Caverna del Oro Caves can hide much perhaps somewhere in the depths there is a localized zone of thermal mineralization conceivably the Spaniards very cleverly concealed the way to the mine workings Such ideas are not impossible but do strain credulity For every verified feature that has been proposed as evidence for Spanish presence there is an alternative explanation that is more plausible The burden of proof then is on the proponents of the Spanish connection The lurid yarns about the cave reflect folklore creation greatly abetted by media exploitation assisted by atrociously sloppy research

The time sequenceof the several names applied to the cave fits this very neatly In sources from 1919 I find The Caves of the Winds From 1920 until 1932 I see Marble Cave Marble

85jOllrtlal of Speleall History

Caves or The Caves but no Spanish-related appellations It is still called Marble Cave at least as late as 1953 (Irma Zanoni Trail amp Timberline Dec 1953) I do not encounter La Cavema del Oro applied to our cave until Lightburns articles of 1932 after which it is common One of Lightburns headlines refers to the old Spanish Cave but Spanish Cave as a proper ~ame seems to appear only in the first Colorado Grotto News amp Notes of Feb 12 1952 where It IS a synonym for Caverna del Oro From then until now Spanish Cave has been the preferred form in the literature of organized caving and in popular media relying on it This unfortunately has helped to maintain the public assumption that the Spanish legendry is based in fact

The caves history is muddled by a series of misnomers a Caverna del Oro with no gold a Maltese cross that is not Maltese marble that is not marble -- and on analyzing the evidence I think that German Cave would have been a more appropriate if less provocative name than Spanish Cave

I expect my skeptical arguments to be ignored by future writers as long as there is a media markcL for exciting treasure tales Why is it important to be critically analytical

Since fact and fiction are not clearly distinguished in media information about the cave many people still believe nonsense about it Apparently the Spanish gold tales retain enough public acceptance to present problems to the Forest Service today It is reported that there was in recent years a proposal to build a road to the cave to facilitate treasure hunting (Jerry Hassemer oral comm)

Furthermore presentation of false gold stories as if they might be true is likely to tempt naive and poorly prepared readers to get in trouble seeking riches This is apparent in a 1957 letter from Roy Truman former District Ranger and colleague of Paul Gilberts (History of the Colorado Grotto 1961)

There was a time when it was very difficult to keep boys away from this cave and I received many calls from parents in Pueblo and other towns all times of the day and night concerning the safety of their boys that had left home with the ideas of exploring this cave with the high hopes of finding valuable ores or treasures they were equipped with a few pieces of small rope [this was probably arter the Depression-era articles]

This problem is also exemplified by a letter in my own files addressed in 1962 to Richard LeSage of the Southern Colorado Grotto from a Denverite He had twenty-four numbered questions including What type of equipiment [sic] will I need (exactly) I havent done much cave exploring Where can I obtain it What type of mask would I need for foul air He concludes We are intending to explore this cave at all cost so your information will be most vilal to us and most appreciable (We never replied deciding that was the safest thing to do)

The extravagance of peoples beliefs about Spanish Cave has sometimes reached quite ridiculous extremes The Colorado Historical Society library has a typescript of research material used by Perry Eberhart in preparing Treasure Tales of the Rockies One note is as follows

Robert Dunne head of Querida sez think cave comes out near Walsenburg or possibly the northern end of Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico never found end

James Dunne Querida

Not even Eberhart was so shameless as to print this in his book

Jourllal of Speleall History 86

There are still many legitimate mysteries left about Marble Mountain and its history How well explored are the ends of Spanish Cave even now Why was Yeomans cave otherwise so clearly White Marble Halls said to have a 275-foot pit Is this an error or a pit now lost Was the vertical Spanish Cave somehow grafted into the account Who really painted the Maltese cross and who put the artifacts into Spanish Why were detailed articles published on White Marble Halls in the 1880s but nothing seems to be on record about Spanish until 1919 in spite of the extensive early work done in it (If the relics were left by Colfax colonists in the 1870s they could not easily have published their explorations as there were yet no newspapers in the Wet Mountain Valley Later Yeoman or other prospectors might have been reticent about calling atlention to the cave if they built ladders down the shafts in the hope of rinding minerals Study 01 the county mining-claim records could be informative)

Future Opportunities

Most knowledge we now have on Marble Mountain history before organized caving is based on writings of big-city visitors from 1919 on When time allows I intend to search the microfilms of Custer County newspapers in the period 1880-1920 to see if items overlooked by library indexers may shed light on the gaps in our knowledge of the Marble Mountain caves Fascinating revelations are very likely to result Johnsons letter of 1944 (op cit) also stated There was evidence of early visitation [in Marble Cave] including names carved on rocks but these date mostly back about 50 years ago Informative graffiti are numerous in Cave of the White Marble Halls but I do not recall seeing any in Spanish Cave during my own explorations in the 1950s and 60s It should be carefully reexamined to see if we have overlooked signatures that could be keys to the solution of the puzzles

Better documentation of the cave itself would also be desirable The Colorado Grotto surveyed most of lower Spanish in the 1950s to the standards then prevailing I do not know the length of the CG survey but it probably included less than 1000 feet The Southern Colorado Grotto discoveries from 1959 to the early 1960s were not surveyed at the time

From 1975 to 1988 Jerry Hassemer led the mapping of 2642 feet of upper Spanish including the main route between entrances and the Rimstone Passage its longest side gallery (Hassemer personal comm Sept 13 1992) (About 1735 feet of this are along the through-route) His survey showed a vertical difference of 449 feet between lower and upper entrance by both internal mapping and a surface closure loop The old Colorado Grotto map appears to show a depth of just over 270 feet from lower entrance to deepest surveyed point thus total surveyed depth of Spanish Cave is about 720 fect (The entrance elevations of Spanish Cave have never been established by survey to a benchmark but altimeter readings and topographic maps suggest that the upper entrance is around 12000 feet)

Other side passages and superimposed levels in upper Spanish remain unmapped In lower Spanish an important branch the waterfall passage -- which may go deeper than the so-called Gold Diggings at the end of the existing map -- remains unsurveyed The high elevation and extremely cold wet conditions continue to inhibit complete exploration and mapping as they have for as long as the cave has been known

87Journal of Speleall History

I~XPLUHE THE UNKNOWN

Witl THE CAVE MAN Let him take you adventuring into marvelous underground fairylands Mr Neville shows you wonderfully beautiful pictures especially selected from thousands of his world famous cave photographs There is no other living man who has been in more American caves or travelled so many miles in so many caverns Floyd Collins whose tragic death in Sand Cave aroused the sympathy of the world and Mr Neville two intrepid cave explorers reached places in caves never before seen by humiln eyes

IN THE CELLARS OF THE WORLD is packed full of thrills surprises adventure and beauty and IS illustrated with choce color ~d lantern slides

You are sure to be delighted with this clnlque educationai illustrated lecture Millions have heard it from the platform and over the radio

FEW OPINIONS

PerhiJps you read Mr Cla y Perrys article in the July 12th 1941 issue of the Saturday Evening Post n which he paid high tribute to Mr Nevilles Cave explorations

An excerpt But Im a novice alongside Russell Trail Neville the Cave Man of Kewanee Illinois Neville has travelled more than a

IllOU il nd miles underground and taken more than ~UUU photographs ot whaT he calls I HI CELLARS OF THE WORLD

T IO de L010dc Taft fofTv Jdit 2+ You certainly hive a uniqu~ and notable lecture Your pictures are wonderfully fine and the adventures that lie behind

them are very thrilling In spite of all of the beauty that you have brought to light I heartily testify that ~o reNard would ever get me into those tight places

Mr Arlhur C Paqe Editor Prairie Farmer writing to a College President Mr Neville has spoken several times over WLS (The Prairie Farmer Radio Station) and I have seen a great many of his

wonderful pictures He is one of the most fascinating speakers I have ever listened to

Mr D E Northam Chairman Entertainment Committee The Adventurers Club Chicago Illinois I want to convey to you the thanks of the entire membership of the Adventurers Club for the most interesting educashy

tional and thrilling program you gave us at our last Ladies Night I hope we may have you again

Dr Charles D Sneller Past President Illinois State Academy of Sciences I have heard the CAVE MAN deli ver his lecture many times He thrills children and adults alike He has spoken before

the Peoria Rotary Club the Peoria Kiwanis Club and the Peoria Academy of Sciences and always captiv~ted hi s Judiences His pictures are a marvel and his lecture is unusually interesting

l r C iJl cs cave photoJraphs have heen shown literally allover the world In the most important Intershynational Photog-raphic Salons winninJ many special medals and diplomas

THE CAn- t1AX WITH HIS OXDtRFlL IICTLRtS TAKES YOU IITO THE REALM OF SUBTERRAE X O~)ERS

delighted educated alld thrilled audiences at

In the Cellars 0 the World PLACES YOU CAIIOT POSSIBLY nSIT SAFELY COMshyFORTABLY ID EASILY

Clliclgo Academy of Sciences Horkforrl Colleue Roekforrl Illinois Slmiddotr Tow~ City Iowa lfnin rsity Club Evanston Illinois In his cave work Mr Neville hs had Illany entershyrkl~lh TearIHr Institute SIlm)rr Illillo

Fielcl Iuseum of Natural Histor Chicago

taininl4 alllllsinl and thrillinJ experience IN THERIldlln CollECE Carlinvill~ I11nos Ohio ~LaLE lJniv~rsitv Bowlingt Green Ohio CELLARS OF THE WORLD Carneg-ie Museum Pittsburg-h Pennsylvania Lake Shore Athletic Club Chicag-o lear him tell some of these The cademy of Sciences Buffalo New York WMAQ The Chicago Daily News Station See his wonderful colored pictures The llilwaukee Museum 1ilwaukee Wisconsin AllismiddotChalmers Foremans Club Iilwaukee Wisconsin Illinois Wesleyan University Bloomington Illinois A merican Institute of Electrical Enhince ls Pittsfield AN INTERESTJiIC CR WLW Y

Massachusetts The Toledo Vomans Educational Club Toledo i~ II - ~ Utah Stu te Teac hers College St George Utah K ~

LaSa lie J u nior Colleg-e Auburndale 1assach usetts Vestern Illinois State Teachers College Macomh Illinoi ~

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ernment and () gter Hed fnr t he pleasure p the pur-Ilc LInder the directir T) f t he ~ tion ~1 Plr i

Service Lone ()f the worlds I ~tgshyesi and most wonderfu I e lVes

Mr N vdk wns ghen gtltc id permission by the Derarrment of the Interi0r to make mm io n lIld still photographs in this mighty suhterranean wondcrlmd

With the co-()rtr~tion of the Superintendent and his ~ t a ff Mr Neville i ~ ited rlrts ltIt the Cavern I)() t re-n In the llIll ie

Urili ing al l ll th e exrnence gained 11 rho og rlgthingl hunshydred caes he m11ltmiddot nHHio n lnd still pictures of 11 mti frm shyHllms you mny ne(r 1gt 11gt1 to see The lre Jt~) i ( tt l Iith the skill md arri try then Mr Neville Igtrings ((I l1 his rholOshygraphic ork You wi ll have a new a[preci ati o n of rlw ond t rs of NI(ure after y()U hIc seen thSt ullusual [icrllrcs

ml ~ )middotIIJ l I ltxll r W i n ~ lIl1 rIH)togr 1 I hing the Caves of Kltntlldy )[1 1-Ili1I11 fo r slt tT d Yr DlIff th1t timt h h I S trlmiddote1I1 ~ rh l rs a thoulnd mile 1111-ic rgrltgtllnd

He ha ( ~ rr it h C3 mlt r3 up ond I pw n ltwr huge rock s crnwl el thngtugh lItT worn crev ices so smlll ir eemed imshypossihilt to neglHil te rh em even witho ut rhe heavy ca men1 equip menc-a ll the whi le Illaking hi wond eriul seri e )f interestm g cave pictures

Wlgtrking undr Ihorograrh ic difficultie I n1 rhysICa l h~zard s wh ic h eltIlle1 unsurmoun raH lt Mr Neille has succeeded ntvshyenhelts in Igtrin gi ng Igtcfo re the pulgtlic fy means oi morion ricshycures lnd by lantern slides beautiful scenes and views of formations yUU lta nnm possiLly see fo r yourself

Combined with this he rreshysents them in a highly artistic and cntcrtaining manner

ALADDINS GROTTO

~( A Camera Journey through Underground Fairylands ~ with Russell T Neville the Cave Man

m R Neville is a cave lxrlorer 1nd rhor)grapher Bc)innin~ a a hlgtbh this ~ work has Jevelored into a serious utempt t gt 1()nr1Y ancl present rhee little known heauties hidden tar lgteJuw Ih~ surface of he earth

Interesting experienltcs galore have fdlen tll Mr Nilie Igtt in this exploration rk ( llS have heen iiscltlnrJ wdl knwn caves Ioae heen exrlorel (Ll greuer distan(ts and all til rime his (nmeras have been l1llking a lirhful anJ unique recorl f his travels into rh e Realms f Ni)ht

Mr Nevilles exrtlitiol1 lI1t OIJ Salts Ca e (July 192 1 went into places never hefore st~n by white exrlorers The pnrry was in the Cave ltgtn rhis trir for fifty-one hours anJ rhirry-five minutes They liLltereJ and 1T()ughr to light a co nsiderable quantity lIt materini left hy rhe mysrerio us C 1e Men ot long ago This is shown in rhe pictures and commented upo n bv M r Neville who ha s Jen)[cd much rime to

the study ot the prehistoric folk wh o inhahit 1 rhis l11ighty sulgtrerranenn labyrinth many hundreds of y~1rs ago

Q A VE photography is essentially ver hn1rdou~ md tlifficulr C(gtmtgtined With tht risks pi origina l caw eplorarinn- rraversing unc harted pathways ShTtgtlldcl

in eernal darkness whlre unseen unknown dangers lurk in even shaJ(l there are serious photographic tehllical prohlems t(l be solved

Well gr(lund~d in the rtquir ~ l1lellts of a pkasing picrure Mr Neillc has usel 111 his lbility in the rnkillcrion of wonlerful lighting~ and pkwrial Clgtmpsitigtns PrllJucshying his own light 1 mtans of [()erflll fIlr~ elch giving 72 000 cnndle r ower he comhats the unfavrahle condicigtns which are found in aves Jnd interesting effects nre picwred which lend ench1 lltment to rhe cenes

Three ree Is lit standard ie i 35mm ) motion ricrllre film are al ilahle for use A portable morion ricure pwjecto r can be furnished

Many heautifully ha nd co lor~J lantern sliJes may he used if desi reJ This motion picture film is rhe fi rst and on ly attempt ever made ro prcsem o n t he

screen rhe hidJen undergrour J mancls of Narure

Remarks on the Potential of Underground Space for Defense Against Attack Jack Hurley DC Speleograph June 1960

1 Todays threat from the Soviets is political economic and military Thelalter includes chemical and biological warfare radio-logical fall-out and the weapon of the future - the neutron-ray gun not to mention others yet to be developed

2 The good earth which sustains uswill inevitably have its underground spaces explQited and developed to an unprecedented degree in a return to what might be called the era or the Jmodern cave man for nothing can protect us so well and for minimum cost as the underground spaces

3 In recent times we have the example of Nazi Germany in World War II with some) 000 underground storage depots light assembly plants and factories as well as the present day state or the art middot~ exemplified in Sweden In this country government and commercial interests possess bu~ a few underground sites not all of which can be discussed because of their classified nature However those not classified offer good examples of a good beginning - but only a beginning

Some of the underground sites that have been developed and are presently in usc principally for storage of various kinds are located in Kansas (Hutchinson and elsewhere) Neosho Missouri California and Iron Mountain New York as well as the development by my company of the Annandale Mine Butler Pennsylvania into a huge modern underground storage vault for irreplaceable records Some of our cl ients are the Jones and Laughl in Steel Co the U S Steel Co and the First National Bank oCNew York City Other sites are being usedJor cold storage and for hospitals but as yet the uses are extremely limited

Some of the potential uses are for light manufacturing and assembly plants permal1ent housing for some of our fabulously expensive data computers headquarters for command posts fo r national state and local civil defense storage of items essential for human survival in the event of atomic attack as well as items essential to the process of industrial rehabilitation To a limited extent they may also be utilized as shelters for at least some of the population in case of disaster

Why is it that the underground has not been more fully exploited and developed

1 Th~aver~ge individual dislikes the idea 2 The potential of the ul1derground for storage and housing has only been slightly understood 3 Existing sites are not always conveniently located 4 Those who cculd spark such development do not fully understand the nature and perhaps the imminency of the threat 5 I n some cases development has been stifled because of the cost even though this is but a fraction of that iiwolvedin creating a totally man-made facility for similar purposes Also there have been mistaken efforts to use underground space for purposes for which itwas not suited 6 The average human being strongly resists change in his essential concepts The so-called vested interests must first realize a scarcity of suitable top-side space before they will begin acquiringund~rground space

71Journal of Speleall History

Some of the advantages of good mines and caves are

1 They are generally removed from critical target areas 2 Development costs no more than on the surface and is frequently considerable less 3 In the long run maintenance and operating costs are much lower 4 In business and industry the absenteeism of workers due to illness extremes of temperature etc frequently becomes a real problem In my opinion working in the quiet atmosphere underground in a steady temperature and humidity level would have a beneficial and healthful effect This same situation makes it far easier to create a static condition beneficial to tl)e preservation and long life of records and other materials stored underground 5 The standard earth cover for modern missile bases is 25 feet Nearly all mines and caves of any consequence have far more cover than this thus increasing their protection potential

You as cave explorers and members of the National Speleological Society can assist by

1 Providing inventories of the most suitable caves for various purposes 2 Assist in developing guides or standards for caves for specific purposes 3 Talk about how mines and caves can be utilized and thus influence those who are in a ~tjon to initiate action in this direction

The above is the substance oj a talk given by Mr Hurley 10 the members oj the DC ChilP4tl oj the NSS on June 7 1960

Comment of the Designation of Certain Caves as Fallout Shelters William H Peters DC Speleograph April 1963

I believe all of us as members of the National Speleological Society have been aware for the past several years of the interest in utilizing selected caves for the protection of civilian population in the event of a national emergency The interest up until now remote has materialized into an actual requisitioning of caves in Pendleton County West Virginia and other communities in that state anxious to utilize all of their resources for what can certainly be called a noteworthy if not heroic program There has been at first a rejection of the idea among speleologists We are at first repelled by the idea of giving up our almost absolute sovereignty of the underground The realities of the world invading our isolated laboratories is unacceptable to us as scientists~ and of course the whole concept of nuclear war is still psychologically repugnant Our first reaction is expressed in many ways - useless protests exclamations of impossibility and we formulate every reason for the programs failure

But as citizens we have a responsibility to study the problem and the facts are not pleasing Repugnant as it is nuclear warfare lives not too far from the pleasantries of our life This is

72 JOllrllal of Speleall History

proven by the not so far removed Cuban Crisis In November 1962 LS Finkelstein at the Harvard University Center for International Affairs writing of the Soviet position on Arms Inspection is quoted It is hard to escape the conclusion that the Soviet Union for at least much of the time seems to have been interested more in employing the negotiations as a means of weakening the military and political position of the West that as a route to a viable disarmament system He goes on to quote James P Wadsworth to the effect that the Soviet Union has employed arms control negotiation as a part of a grand strategy aimed at the eventual total defeat of the other side 1 Thus for those persons who hope for an easy solution it is hard to find the substance to nourish those hopes

The possibility of reducing the probable use of nuclear weapons is diminished by the cruel fact that reduction in armaments only increases the probability of escalation in armament by lessening the factor required for decisive advantage while additionally making the elements of decisive advantage available to many other countries who may aspire to greater roles than current economic or scientific resources have relegated them This point is well illustrated by HA Kissinger nuclear disarmament has revealed the paradoxical fact that there is a certain safety in numbers And this is true even if both sides religiously observe an agreement to limit nuclear weapons Instability is greater if each side possesses ten missiles that if the equilibrium is stabilized at say 500 For an attack which is 90 successful when the opponent has ten missiles leaves him one or a number hardly able to inflict unacceptable damage An attack of similar effectiveness when the opponent possesses 500 missiles leaves 50 - perhaps sufficient to pose an unacceptable risk 2

We can easily conclude that the probability of removing nuclear weapons from the field of War Science is remote from purely tactical necessity What is also critical to our thinking is that the War Sciences are advancing in their ability to assess more and more elements and their relationship to decisive advantage Von Neumann in formulating the Minimax Game Theory and its reduction to mathematical models applied to computers increases the number of factors to be considered beyond the capability of the human mind International politics are founded upon economic and strategic factors rather than ethical or moral principle It is not impossible that in the cold realistic logic of the Game Theory3 that some remote event passing unseen by the casual observer will relate itself to decisive advantage for the opponent and may demand immediate action by one or the other side We cannot hope that in every instance the situation will escalate as did the Cuban Crisis so that the population can prepare itself

The comparison of Civil Preparedness to Ostrichism is not a fair comparison Civil Preparedness adds another factor for a potential enemy and complicates his game It makes it more difficult to game reliability Kissinger points out four considerations for reducing the possibility of decisive advantage the second of which is Since invulnerability is a relative term the purpose of arms control measures must be to strengthen so far as possible the relative position of the defender either by enhancing the security of his force or by complicating the calculations of the aggressor2 It is thus that civil preparedness serves a two fold purpose of deterring and of providing some measure

of survi val

The remoteness of the areas under consideration enhances the desirability of taking appropriate measures God forbid that it should come to pass but in the event of a nuclear holocaust it is these areas that could become the springboard for the reconstruction of our democracy and for the continuation of our cultural heritage

As members of the National Speleological Society we have the opportunity of not only participating but of making a definite contribution No other organization has more resources in

73Journal of Speeall History

scientific personnel experience or knowledge relating to caves Failure to meet our responsibilities at this time will only widen possible misunderstandings between the National Speleological Society and Civil Defense Organizations We must accept the fact that as the civil defense program expands more cave resources will be requisitioned Our opposition will only serve as a barrier to continued parallel use of these resources

The Society can assist in both the areas of applied practical knowledge and of basic research To list bnt a few are - advising and monitoring storage in areas of historical underground hydrological fluctuations monitoring humidity temperature and air circulation locating suitable areas in caves that will minimize the possibility of vandalism recommending types of closures of gates and assisting in their installation checking periodically the condition of supplies and reporting this to appropriate authority and condemnation of areas due to strata imperfection and probability of breakdown

There are many questions in need of investigation What is the relationship in a multiple stream capture theory and the possible concentration of radioactive or other contaminates in a cave duc to fIltration What is the probability of infection by intake of foods contaminated by histoplasma ir any What is the relationship of bat rabies to human cave habitation What provision must be made for sanitation - control of rats and possible damage to supplies and in the event of human habitation control of rat fleas as possible communicators of typhUS or other epidemic diseases) What is the probability of excessive amounts of radioactive materials being introduced to the cavc environment by animals such as bats that enter and leave the cave frequently These represent only a portion of the questions which should be examined to determine their relevance and what precautionary measures should be taken if relevant

I would like to propose that at a special meeting of the Board of Governors a Civil Defense Advisory Committee composed of competent scientists and speleologists be formed for the purpose of formulating suitable policies initiating scientific investigation and in general assuming the role of representing and coordinating the Societys Civil Defense effort The question as to whether we can afford to undertake such a program with its inherent socialpolitical implications should be answered - Can we afford not to

References

1 Arms Inspection International Conciliation Nov 1962 (It is interesting to note that in my upinion this publication follows closely the United Nations activities It is surprising to observe this pessimistic attitude in that area)

2 Foreign Affairs Volume 39 no 4 July 1960 Inspection and Surprise Attack p 56l

3 A current article on Game Theory appears in the December 1962 issue of Scientific Americall by Anatol Rapoport The Use and Misuse of Game Theory

Journal of Speleall History 74

1922 Trip Reports

Maud Orr Howell

Trip 10 Bear Cave

Gordon Brown led eight of us including Elizabeth Hord George Raudebush Benie Weaver Tom Weaver Johnny Connor Boyte and me to Bear Cave in Savage Gulch

We left the Observatory at 900 am went down Clark Cottage Path and across the valley to the clearing in front of the old Savage home

The girls rested while the boys went up the side of Peak Mountain to a ~pring and brought back some water Then we explored the old house In one of the upstairs rooms that had newspapers on the walls we read in the Society section of a newspaper dated August 17 1908 that Mr and Mrs Sanford Duncan had gone to spend a few days with Mrs Robert Orr in Maury County

We cut across the field to the right of the house and climbed along the side of Peak Mountain then straight down the side of the mountain to Savage Creek After drinking water from a spring running into the creek we followed the creek up a few yards then climbed up the mountain on the left a few yards to the cave This is Coppenger Mountain It was 11 45 so we ate our Iunch and rested until 1 10 when all but Elizabeth and Tom went in the cave We had candles and carbide lights and Gordon led the way It saw 220 when we got out After resting a few minutes and taking some Kodak pictures we all including Elizabeth and Tom went in again and stayed until 300 pm

We gathered our things which included sticks which Gordon had cut for us the Kodak the lunch bag canteen etc and set out straight up the mountain with Gordon pulling us up some of the places until we hit the cliffs We followed the cliffs along until we found a place to climb up When we got on the top we walked along the mountain until we got to the end of it which is just above the Savage house We went down a path which went straight down the mountain to the Savage house rested while the boys got water then came home to Howell cottage the same way we had gone arriving here at 700 pm

Trip to Bats Cave

Saturday September 2 1922

We first planned to walk to Tatesville but not knowing how far it was we gave it up and decided to walk to Bats Cave The night before the trip we gave that up too as it was so far and the weather so hot

As we were eating breakfast Mr George Mitchell came and he had breakfast with us He suggested getting a wagon for our trip so immediately after breakfast Mr George Bettie Martha and Tom Weaver Boyte and I went to the store and got Earnest Rubleys wagon

75Journal of Speleall History

We all met on the Observatory There were 19 of us Five including Mr George Jennings and George Bailey Torn and Charlie Trabue IV left first and went down the Backbone Road intending to meet us at the Collins River bridge The rest of us Elliott and David Adams Lucy and Elizabeth Bailey Lucinda Trabue Irene Langford Elizabeth Mclane Kate Keene Johnson Susan Lewis Bettie and Martha Weaver Boyte and I walked down the mountain from the Observatory and met the wagon a little piece up the valley We missed the other bunch and they did not catch up with us until we had left the wagon and were eating lunch at the spring

We finished lunch and walked up the mountain to the cave We went to the big room where we stopped last year which is just beyond the small ladder We climbed the ladder then all but Irene Tom Elizabeth and I went on further We waited at the top of the ladder until they came back They had gone to another big room and circled around it about three times before finally finding the way out They found an old Nashville newspaper dated 1847 and another paper with some names on it They added their names to this list

When we got out of the cave it was nearly 500 We had been in there three hours

We went back to the wagon and started horne We got to Collins River bridge about dark The moon was almost full and the ride up the valley in the moonlight in a wagon filled with hay and pulled by mules was beautiful We stopped at Mortons store and Mr George telephoned up lo Beersheba and told them where we were and assured them that we would be home soon He brought out oodles of cookies and we had a grand time eating them We sang and yelled and relaxed on the hay We left the wagon at the bottom of Beersheba Mountain Martha led the way up the mountain in the dark with only the moon to help guide us We had Oashlights but it was hard to keep in the path But it was fun We reached the top at the Observatory at 845 pm and no one seemed to be tired

Trip to Peak Mountain

A crowd of us left Aunt Mats Cottage at 930 am on Monday August 28 1922 There were 19 of us including Mr George Mitchell Elizabeth Hord Mr Colville Elliott Adams Jennings Bailey Lucy Bailey Kate Keene Johnson George Eldred Mary Wilson Eldred Irene Langford Elizabeth Mclane Bettie Orr Martha Weaver Tom Weaver Alfred Williams Mary Phillips Street Susan Lewis Boyte Howell Jr and me (Maud Orr Howell)

We went down Clark Cottage Path to the valley The crowd was separated going down but we all got together at the foot of the mountain crossed the valley and climbed Peak Mountain There was no path we just went up the side of the mountain and went thru a pass up the cliffs We got there about 1200 pm rested then ate lunch We put up a nag (Elizabeth Hords petticoat)

Aoout 100 pm we left to find the old stage coach road to Chattanooga We went straight across the top of the mountain and found the road at the spring and a little log cabin We followed the road to the valley We heard Marshall Eldred mooing answered him and he found us Gordon Bro n who was with him led us to Peter Rock Cave on the side of Peak Mountain Marshall did not start out with us because he helped Gordon fix the leaks in Laurel Mill Dam Elliott led us in the cave and we did not go back very far It was pretty but wet and muddy

We c~me home by Dishroon Springs drank some of the water and ate the rest of our lunch [hen came on up the mountain A few of us stopped at the Johnson place and looked across the valley at Elilabeth Hords petticoat which we had left on a tree on Peak Mountain We came on horne arriving here about 500 pm

Journal of Speleall History 76

No Old Gold or Bones A Skeptical Review of Caverna del Oro Legendry Donald G Davis reprinledfrom Rocky Mountain Caving Summer 1992

In the thin air of timberline on Marble Mountain in the Sangre de Cristo range icy wind blows from the entrance to a deep and cryptic cave marked by the damaged remnant of a rust-red cross Known today as Spanish Cave it is the most publicized non-commercial cave in Colorado It has been featured for more than 70 years in media - first newspapers then magazines books and television specials Most of this publicity recounts stories that it is La Caverna del Oro where Indian slaves mined gold for 17th century Spaniards Many people take this as fact Recently a Colorado caver told me he had spoken with a journalist who assured him that the cave was bottomless and contains untold treasures

Spanish Cave was important in the start of my own caving career in 1957 While attending Colorado A amp M College (later CSU) I saw in scrapbooks in the Fort Collins Museum clippings of the Colorado Question Box column from the Rocky Mountain News circa 1955 They told stories of a Maltese-cross-marked entrance lost gold mine and chained skeleton reported in the caverns depths After correcting the first error we found in the accounts (that the cave was on Homs Peak several miles north of Marble Mountain) two of us (Vin Hoeman and myself) in the college Hikers Club located the cave the next year In subsequent years with Frank and Paul Leskinen James W Meachan and others in the Southern Colorado Grotto of the NSS I led the discovery of about two-thirds of its presently known passage

Finding that the Western History Department of the Denver Public Library had a clipping file on the cave I also undertook research on its history which I have continued intermittently since The mure I learned about the real cave the more disillusioned I became with the stories sensationalizing it I learned much about the rules of logic and evidence during the investi galion and was ultimately convinced that there was no satisfactory confirmation that Spanish explorers ever saw or entered the cave much less mined gold from it Following are some of the reasons for that concl usion

The most readily available summary of the legendry is in Lloyd Parris Caves oCoLorado (1973) pp 24-32 Parris precedes his Treasure Caves accounts with a confused and equivocal disclaimer The following tales for the most part have the validity of history behind them and in most cases the caves are known Undoubtedly though some of the legends connected with these caves belong in Chapter IV under hoax and humbug And if these legends seem to disagree or contradict what is previously known it is because they were selected not for entertainment alone but as a presentation of the known facts or legends as the case may be An evaluation of the authenticity has not been attempted This is left for the reader to do

This reader hereby takes up the challenge

The Spanish Mille Legends

A number of accounts (including Parriss) relate that Spanish Monastery Latin documents record gold being brought to pre-Columbian Mexican Indian kingdoms Acolhua Aztec and Tepance

Jourllal of Speleall History 77

from the north Then in 1541 three monks were supposedly left behind by Coronado (the Rocky MOllntain News June 3 1923 says 1598) One Fray Juan de la Cruz reportedly reopened a mine using forced labor by Pecos I ndians (a northern New Mexico Pueblq trib~)and packed treasure toward Mexico City but never arrived there Nuggets and gold bars reported found by one Baca in 1811 were speculated to be part of this treasure and a prospector searching (according to Parris) for Cavema del Oro half a century later found a silver cup engraved with the name Hermione Taken at face value all this gives the impression that stories about Caverna del Oro are of great antiquity though the original Spanish documents are never cited

This suite of tales was first widely distributed in an article by Alberta Pike headlines OLD MANUSCRIPT INDICATES VAST RICHES IN COLORADO CA VE GUARDED BY SKELETON in the Rocky Mountain News of Sept 6 1932 Subsequent Spanish Cave popularizers have recopied them from one article to the next without naming a source for them I recently made an enlightening discovery in the Colorado Historical Society library about where this material came from

Before any known Spanish Cave article was written Louis Bernhardt Sporleder -- early resident and prominent citizen of Walsenburg Colorado -- published a souvenir booklet titled Huajalolla Breasts of the World (1916) An article in The Trail June 1922 reprinted much of this booklet and said Sporleder had a number of unpublished manuscripts giving information historical and legendary about the Spanish Peaks (as the Huajatolla are more commonly known) Sporleders booklet included word for word most of the above Spanish mine material copied by later Cavema del Oro writers

Even his misspelling of the Tepance kingdom (properly Tepanec) has been faithfully reproduced by authors as late as Parris

As to the actual historicity of Sporleders items I know little but his writings (eg The Roses of Huajatolla The Trail Dec 1922) were prone to wild flights of romantic fiction incorporating gross errors about natural history He claimed for instance that the otherwise extinct passenger pigeon still survived on the Spanish Peaks in fact it has never been recorded in Colorado His human history appears similarly colored But even if he was accurate it is crucial to our study that his stories were exclusively about the Spanish Peaks making no connection whatever to Marble Mountain 50 miles to the northwest He specifically stated that the silver cup was found beside a spring in a grotto at the base of East Spanish Peak (the name Hermione moreover is Greek not Spanish) All of this is therefore irrelevant to the cavern on Marble Mountain that we know as Spanish Cave

In Sporleders 1916 version the prospector who found the cup was searching for Huajatollas mines of gold In Pikes 1932 recounting he was seeking the lost mine but she associates it with the cave on Marble Mountain Parris in 1973 transmutes the object of the searchers quest explicitly into the Caverna del Oro Thus by insidious mutations does spurious lore enshroud our cave

Forbes Parkhill asserted that Marble cave Legends connect the Spanish cross and the ancient timber found in the mine [sic] with the gold hunting and exploring expeditions of Juan de Onate in 1597 and the Escalante-Dominguez expedition in 1776 (Explorers to Seek Mysteries of Caves in San Isabel Wilds Discovered Four Centuries Ago Denver Post Oct 9 1921) Even Parris rejects these suggestions because those expeditions did not come close to Marble Mountain

Jourllal of Speleall History 78

Earliest Known Accounts ofthe Cave middot

In 1919 appeared a brochure Out-ol-door Piaygroullds of the Sansabel National Forest USDA middot Circular 5 by Henry S Graves Forester It declared that The Caves of the Winds [not to be confused with Cave of the Winds at Manitou Springs] a system of giant crevices in a mountain or solid white marble is one of the principal natural wonders of the Forest These caves have been penetrated to a depth of over 1200 feet without the end being reached Theymay be reached by wagon road from Westcliffe

On Oct 12 1919 the Denver Post ran an anonymous article San Isabels Caves of Winds Among Wonders of Colorado It stated The Caves of the Winds have been known to exist for many years They are described brieOy in the report of the San Isabel national forest A party of Denver business men is planning to visit the caves this autumn with a view to exploring them to their depths if pOssible If it is found that the natural wonders said to exist in the interior of the caves are equal to reports which have been received these men will ask the government for the I

privilege of developing the caves as a tourist attraction

That Spanish Cave is the object of these writings is indicated by the emphasis on wind great depth (four times the actual depth of the cave as then known) and incomplete exploration the nearby Cave of the White Marble Halls is less strongly windy nearly horizontal and was already well explored (The accompanying entrance photo is not Marble Mountain) A similar item in the Post of June 27 1920 mentions a huge cave on Marble mountain which has never been explored by man beyond a depth of 1800 feet and which may rival the famed Mammoth Cave of Kentucky Neither treasure legends nor stories ofSpanish exploration are me11lioned in any of these earliest printed accounts

Apollina Apodacas Story

The real genesis of treasure stories as applied to Spanish Cave so far as I can find is with Apollina Apodaca (her name is variously spelled in different accounts I use the spelling that seems most probable) In 1919 (not 1920 as said in Caves oColorado) Paul Gilbert later District Ranger in the Forest heard wonderful tales from this old woman As he recalled in The Bulletin of the Rocky Mountain Region of the US Forest Service (Dec 1936)

She stated that the Spaniards used to get gold from it and further stated that if one were to descend to a sufficient depth [in some accounts she is said to have specified 90 or 93 feet] a set of oak doors would be found and if they were forced open one would find a tunnel leading back into the bowels of the mountain -- and the source of the gold would be found She further stated that when she was a child they used to take a blanket wrap it around a heavy stone and throw it down the shaft In the course of a short time the blanket would be blown back minus the rock by the strong winds that come continually from the shaft

The following spring Gilbert located the cave which he misinterpreted as more of a volcanic fissure than it is a cave and visited it with Arthur C Carhart An item mentioning this trip (Mystery Caves in ColoradoRocky Mountain News Sept 21 1921) is the earliest I have found that makes a Spanish or lost-mine connection Old timers in the hills up there declare the place is the shaft of the old Three Step mine famous in Spanish history Carhart himself in the POSl of Jan 1 1922 says it is reported that it is an old Spanish mine entrance marked with a red cross of Malta and has old timber and a log chain inside

Jourllal of Speleall History 79

Gilberts writings are not entirely consistent about his informants statistics in the above report she is Mexican 105 years old in 1919 and died at 110 In his letter to Robert 1 OConnell of Feb 18 1957 (as published in History ojthe Colorado Grotto Nov 1961) she is Spanish and died in 1923 at age 103 A followup letter of Feb 25 adds that she spent most of her life in the vicinity of San Luis [in the San Luis Valley on the opposite side of the Sangre de Cristos] Another source (Dayle Molen Pueblo Star-Jollmal Nov 18 1956) says she lived near Gardner Perry Eberhart in his sensationalistic Treasure Tales of the Rockies (11) calls her an Indian squaw Raymond Thorp in American ForesTs Aug 1935 citing Gilbert says she died eight years ago which would have been 1927 (this is the date used by Parris) These points may be quibbles yet they indicate a lack of precision in recording the facts about her And since the account attributed to Ms Apodaca is pivotal to the entire Caverna del Oro oeuvre let us dissect it critically

Every element is either improbable or impossible Leaving the geologic aspect until later take the oaken doors There are no oaks for many miles and where they do appear they are scrub oak which would have provided door-size timber only in rare cases (though oaks of that size were more common in the Rockies then than now) And why haul heavy oak to timberline when (though strong when new) it does not resist rot as well as say the more easily obtained juniper There is not in any case any opening near the 9O-foot level where such doors could have been used

The blanket story is completely fanciful As we proved in 1961 (NSS News Aug 1962 part I) the cave wind comes from upper Spanish Cave not from the pit Even if it did the pit is about 15 feet wide whereas the entrance constricts to a narrow crawlway A wind strong enough to blow a blanket back up the pit would rise to such tornadic speed in the crawl as to stop a person from fighting through it to the pit Nor does it seem sensible that people would be blithely tossing their blankets down weighted with rocks After all the rock might fail to unwind and the blanket be lost or shredded at the bottom With so incredible a yarn in it why should not the whole narrative be dismissed as fantasy

The Skeletons

At least three human skeletons have been attested as evidence of Spanish involvement with the cave Two were introduced by reporter Kenneth C Lightburn in a front-page article in the Rocky Mountain News of Sept 4 1932 He claimed that the caves original discovery is credited to Capt Elisha P Hom one of the first settlers in the Wet Mountain Valley in 1869 About its entrance he found the remnants of what might have been a fort and also a skeleton in Spanish armor Through the armor was an Indian arrow (Lightburn also began the misconception that the cave was on Homs Peak) I have not been able to trace the origin of this anecdote but it sounds unlikely if only because the purpose of Spanish armor was to prevent things like stoneshypointed arrows from penetrating ones torso and it generally worked Halls History of Colorado (1895) confirms Elisha P Hom as a pioneer Wet Mountain Valley settler in 1869 but does not mention this story

However the skeleton that Lightburn intended to feature was the one in his articles melodramatic headlines SKELETON FOUND CHAINED BY NECK DEEP IN COLORADO MYSTERY CAVECAVERN IS HIGH IN MOUNTAIN WILDS OF STATEDenver Man Discovers Manacled Bones in Sangre de Cristo Range Moldering 500 Feet Below Surface in Awesome CavitySIGNS INDICATE MINE WORKED IN EARLY DAYSFind Recalls Legends of Fabulous Cavern [sic] del Oro of 17th Century Spaniards The headlines are emphasized by a lurid though regrettably nonphotographic picture of the skeleton and an entrance shot with the cross touched up to show better

80 Journal of Speleall History

Journal of Speean History

The article relates that Peter Moser of Denver with companions Victor Barth and his two sons Donald and Jack had just returned from a descent into the cave (Derivative accounts refer to Victor Donald and Jack Barth the former being a fictitious person born of the omission of an original comma between Victor and Donald)

According to Lightburn the Moser party had climbed down until they reached a vertical pit They lowered a lantern Forty feet downward they saw the bottom and in the light or the lantern could clearly make out the skeleton With a metal strap encircling the neck the pile of bones reclined against the rocky wall as if the person who died there centuries ago hall been chained in a sitting position and left to starve An investigatory trip reported in followup articles of Sept 11 12 arid 18 found no skeleton (If an entrance photo with the story of the 18th is any indication they might not even have found the cave -- the picture is obviously not on Marble Mountain -- it may be at Marble Cave near Canon City) It was speculated that Moser may have seen the skeleton at another point in the cave or that it had been done away with by mysterious parties unknown who had blasted the cave entrance between the two trips

In reality it is not surprising that the chained skeleton was never found There is no sound testimony that it was ever there Unlike Fray Juan de la Cruz Elisha Horn or Apollina Apodaca Peter Moser was still available to me to question when I first researched Lightburns article I found in 1959 that Moser still lived at the same address in Denver as in 1932 On New Years Eve 19591 telephoned him and asked about the story His description made it clear that his party had indeed reached the top of the pit that cavers now call the Jug At that point they had lowered a kerosene lantern on a line and he saw what in his own words looked like a pile of bones on a ledge near the bottom This he said is all he reported to the secretary of the Colorado Mountain Club who in tum contacted the newspaper which -- as Moser put it to me -- dressed it up a little (l printed a more complete record of Mosers hour-long interview in the Southern Colorado Grotto newsletter Spelunk Junk Mar 1960)

This embroidery was to be expected in an era when the Denver papers were battling for readers during the Great Depressiun and were notorious for sensationalism But even if Mosers own explanation did not debunk the skeleton he reportedly found it would not be believable The Jug is about 80 feet deep Have you ever tried to see in cavernous darkness where your breath makes mist clouds by a kerosene lantern at that range Then you will agree that a chaincd skeleton even in fine preservation could hardly have been seen well enough from the top to be recognized unequivocally

81

Caves oColorado complicates the matter by citing a letter to me from James W Meacham in vhich a bone found by Meacham at the bottom of the Jug in 1959 was pronounced human by John A Murphy of the Denver Museum of Natural History What Parris does not say is that I had written him in 1969 -- four years before his book was published -- that another expert at the University of Colorado Museum had declared it a deer bone (This water-worn two-inch fragment might well challenge a forensic specialist)

Not content with two skeletons Thorp (American Forests Aug 1935 op cit) adds a third to this spooky company A strange legend that still haunts the native people concerns a skeleton hung with buckskin which guarded Marble Cave just on the other side of Caverna del Oro It was the first quarter of the 19th century and an American free trapper wandered too far west The Spaniards for fear he would reveal their hiding place crucified him For a half century he remained pinioned to a wcxxlcn cross Aside from the improbably sadistic mode of execution this image typical of cartoons or folklore reveals ignorance of the properties of real skeletons which do not long remain articulated when exposed to weather decay and scavengers

Others find ulterior significance in our discovery of bones of bison and pronghorn antelope in upper Spanish Cave in the 1960s calling them plains species that would never ascend to such lofty heights Unless someone had used the cave for storing or curing meat (Bill Kaiser The Treasure of Caverna del Oro Colorful Colorado May-June 1973) I did not know this then but these animals have been known to ascend to the alpine tundra in historic ti mes and might have done so more often when they were abundant and unfenced The cave is much too wet to be good ror storing perishables

The Artifacts

Many reliable observers from Carhart and Gilbert onward report finding in the 1920s and 30s old artifacts of unknown provenance in Spanish Cave These include a winch chains whiskey bottle jug timber ladders shovel single-jack and a hammer They have all disappeared or been reduced to fragments but claims made for some of them purport to establish archeological evidence of Spanish presence

Thorp (1935 op CiL) in describing the 1932 Rocky Mountain News expedition states that on the second ledge they found the remains of a rudely constructed ladder which Dr LeRoy Hafen ( then editor historian and curator of the State Historical Society) after carefully examining asserted was at least 200 years old Below after being lowered 110 feet they found a crude hand-forged hammer which the historian declared was of 17th century vintage Gilbert (The Bulletin Dec 1936 op cit) and an Alamosa Courier article (from June 1937) repeat these avowals

These are very important allegations since the Spanish were the only people who could have left such artifacts in the 17th century To investigate them I wrote in 1960 to LeRoy Hafen inquiring about his trip to the cave and his knowledge of its history and specifically whether he had certified the hammer as of 17th-century manufacture and if so who now had it His reply was less specific than my questions but it is a primary document on one of the major claims about Spanish Cave and I reproduce it below verbatim

If LeRoy Hafen made claims of antiquity for the Spanish Cave artifacts in 1932 he obviously did not stand by them later His wife Ann W Hafen in Detective Historian (Denver WesTerners Monthly Roundup July 1954) had also recounted his 1932 cave trip and commented disproving a baseless story is important it is part of the search for truth She elaborated To the party the venture was disappointing No treasure found No relic of the ancient conquistadores But to the

Jourllal of Speleall History 82

detective Historian it was just another clue pursued another myth exploded another triumph for the scholars code -- to build history on fact not on fossilized fiction

Thorp (1935 op cit) relates that the timbers of their ladder system were about eight inches in diameter squared on four sides with an ax Auger holes were bored into their sides and they were fitted with wooden rungs pegged into the holes No nails were used al though this probably would have been done by early Germans or Americans [the wood is] now decayed and may be broken in many ins tances by the hand This construction however is not strong evidence for Spanish work Before the railroad reached the Wet Mountain Valley in the 1880s commodities such as nails would have been scarce and expensive anyone building such structures before then might well have used no metal It would also be stronger than tacking on rungs with nails when not using sawed lumber Concerning the other cave artifacts there is not enough information to suggest a date

BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY PROVOUTAH

January 13 1960

11r Donald G Davia P O Box 145 T1lnlath Colorado

Dear Hr Davia

I ~ intereat~d to learn f~ your letter of January J 1960 of your study and COllCen WJth the Caverna del Oro Hy visit to the cave and descent into it was with a party directed and financed by the Tourist Bureau or its counterpart of the period The contemporary ewspal6rs gave som~ accowtof the venture

I made the firat descant into the cave kt that time ging down the rope bS

you doubtless have done ince I recall at the edg~ of the pit th~re were s(XlIe rotted logs that may have been the framework of a windlass At tho bott~ of the pit I found a suall sledge ~er encrusted with limestone formation I dont recall what was done with this haa-er I remember no other relics in the pit

Our purposo was to investigate certain rumors a3 to early use of the cave as a SVanish mine I think middot there is little~~ion for that as the limestone fonnation is a poor VlOspect fot middotormation

The legnd hat a skeleton was chained to the wall gave added impetus to the trip Needless to eay nothing of the sort was found That cav and some near were epoken of colloctively os the Karble Campve and sune referred to this one as the Caverna del Or~ cave of gold The Kaltes cross painted on the rock at the entrllJce to tle cave already had a faded appearance I know nothi8 of the rk of Capto1n Hom regarding the di Scove ry of ~ he cave

i~J At the bottOlll of the pit Carl Dlaurohpersucd tho crevice out 5 far dS ~ ~ could go and found nothi8 to reward our efforts If Hr Ulaurot is still living i Denver he could give you sooe sidelights on th cave as ho visited it after our initial exploration

Cordially yours

LO 91+-LeRoy R IlcIen DeparUent of History

Some writers (eg Jesse Ball Canon City Daily Record Sept 14 1933) speculate that the cave was used by the Spanish as a refuge from Indian attacks The cave itself being windy wet and ncar-freezing would not have been ideal for such occupancy A ruined fort was alleged to exist below Marble Mountain as early as 1881 (Golden City Transcript Aug 31 1881 citing Cusler City Prospect ) later articles mention rifle pits I have seen what I presume to be these features below timberline and could not distinguish them from the miners prospect pits common in the Colorado mountains The largest log breastwork structure has also been interpreted as an old corral (Jerry Hassemer oral communication) If defensive works they are cr Jde ones indeed

This leaves to be considered the famous cross beside the entrance It is about one and a half feet square with flared ends meeting at the corners It has been variously described as burnt on

Jou rnal of Speean History 83

deeply chiseled or etched but in reality is prosaically painted with what looks to be a stable iron oxide pigment perhaps using some sort of template Portions of It had a thm patma of calcite crust when I first saw it in 1958 Though almost always called Maltese it is not as can be seen by looking up a crosses illustration in any large dictionary The true Maltese cross has indented ends A G Birch (Denver Post Aug 11 1929) correctly pointed out that the cave marker isin the perfect form of a German Iron Cross But he also says it was old when the first white sehler saw it more than sixty years ago without explaining how he knew this A contradictory testimony (Trail and Timberline April 1957) asserts that there is one old-timer who states that he knCv the fellow who painted it years ago as ajoke I wiIl pass over both of these declarations as uncorroborated

Spanish crosses as I have seen them represented on coins and in art have narrow straight-sided arms often with the basal arm longer and with the ends variously embellished They are typically very different from German ones It is suggestive that the first sedentary settlers below Marble Mountain were Germans of the Colfax colony in 1870 The colony as an entity failed within a year but some thirty families took possession of quarter sections and prospered as can be seen by the many descendants still living in the area (Wet Mountain Tribune Centennial Edition Dec 20 1985) German immigrants also arrived later on and the ranches cl osest below the caves remained in possession of the German-derived Henrich and Neermann families into recent years Crosses in the square form seen at the cave were used in German decorative motifs (I have seen an antique coffee-grinder at an abandoned German homestead in eastern Colorado that was ornamented with them) The cross could have been painted by a Colfax settler exploring his surroundings soon after the colonys establishment The dispersal of most of the colony in 1871 would account for the failure of later inhabitants to know who had created it

Alternatively it might have been a product of prospector 1 H Yeoman He figures in one of the earliest known accounts of a Marble Mountain cave in History of the Arkansas Valley Colorado (1881) A later report on this cave (Denver Republican Feb 20 1888) appears to describe Cave of the White Marble Halls south of Spanish Cave and states that the cave was discovered by Yeoman on Sept 16 1880 Yeoman obligingly left a graffito confirming this in the cave and the Kings and Queens Chambers of the article are likewise identified (Another 1881 account -shyGolden Cty Transcript op cit -- describes a similar cave but claims discovery by Messrs Hendershot amp Dickson of Custer City) A red cross like that at Spanish Cave but smaller and with narrower arms marks the entrance the associated graffito in English 400 Feet to the White Marble Halls precludes a Spanish conquistador origin (A writing inside -- Mrs H G ReedSilver Cliff CololHere 8115197 -- is done in a similar ornate hand) I have also seen Yeomans signature in Moonmilk Cave just across the ravine south of Spanish and scarcely possible to reach without seeing the Spanish entrance He must have known of Spanish Cave and pesumably had entered it

[he Geology

Finally a point that seems so obvious that it should hardly need to be mentioned decades of repeated explorations in Spanish Cave have failed to turn up a trace of mining or of gold and there is excellent reason for this Gold is found either where hydrothermal solutions have mineralized host rock or where deposits originating in that fashion have been eroded and concentrated in placer gravels Neither situation applies at Marble Mountain where the caves occur in an unaltered Pennsylvanian biothermal limestone lens sandwiched almost vertically between shales and conglomeratic sandstones (The name Marble Mountain is a misnomer marble is limestone altered -- metamorphosed -- by heat andor pressure The abundance of well-preserved brachiopod and crinoid fossils shows that Marble Mountain is not metamorphosed) The only mineralization known on the mountain is a little low-grade copper on the south limestone outcrop

Jourllal of Speleall History 84

Paul Gilbert notwithstanding the caves are in no way volcanic but are relatively typical highshygradient alpine limestone solution caves dissolved probably by massive runoff from melting snov and ice during Pleistocene glacial epochs Writers have speculated that Spanish Cave had a lower entrance (possible since the cave water does emerge at a spring lower down) and an entrance on the west side of the mountain (not possible since the limestone does not outcrop there) Ironically the only new entrance cavers have actually found was in a direction not suggested by any known author above Its discovery explained the cave wind as a chimney effect between the entrances -- blowing down to the lower opening when it is warmer outside than inside reversing when it is colder outside

Conclusions

I know of no one else who has analyzed the Caverna del Oro stories as thoroughly but I am not the first to publish critical judgments on them Mrs Hafen has already been quoted Also on record (NSS Bulletin 8 July 1946) is a letter dated 10444 from Fred R Johnson Chief Information and Education US Forest Service

Carl Biaurock a member of the Colorado Mountain Club explored this cave in 1925 again in 1931 and later in more detail in 1932 On the last date the exploration was the result of several articles in the Rocky MOUnTain News in which an old yam was mentioned to the effect that the cave had been investigated in the Spanish explorations in the eighteenth [sic] century also that it is supposed to have yielded a large quantity of gold and other valuable minerals there are no signs of any mineral So far as Mr Blaurocks party could tell there is no evidence in the cave of any visitation of Spanish explorers several hundred years ago

Molen (opcit) wrote that this story [from Apodaca] has been disapproved [sic] The tools and ladder in the cave are of comparatively modern origin Blaurock believes Someone years ago must have explored the cave at least as thoroughly as we did he said He also expressed doubt that the rifle pits and fort are of Spanish origin I did not interview Carl Blaurock during my earlier research I telephoned him this summer but he is 98 years old and is too deaf to understand my questions I have sent him a letter of inquiry thus far unanswered

After organized caving had begun William R Halliday founder of the Colorado Grotto of the National Speleological Society also concluded that The fabulous stories are fables The story of Spanish Cave is told (Halliday however was too pessimistic in inferring that the cave was almost completely explored Most of what is now known was discovered just after he wrote but none of the new passage showed signs of human entry)

Diehard romantics might protest that Spanish Cave could still be La Caverna del Oro Caves can hide much perhaps somewhere in the depths there is a localized zone of thermal mineralization conceivably the Spaniards very cleverly concealed the way to the mine workings Such ideas are not impossible but do strain credulity For every verified feature that has been proposed as evidence for Spanish presence there is an alternative explanation that is more plausible The burden of proof then is on the proponents of the Spanish connection The lurid yarns about the cave reflect folklore creation greatly abetted by media exploitation assisted by atrociously sloppy research

The time sequenceof the several names applied to the cave fits this very neatly In sources from 1919 I find The Caves of the Winds From 1920 until 1932 I see Marble Cave Marble

85jOllrtlal of Speleall History

Caves or The Caves but no Spanish-related appellations It is still called Marble Cave at least as late as 1953 (Irma Zanoni Trail amp Timberline Dec 1953) I do not encounter La Cavema del Oro applied to our cave until Lightburns articles of 1932 after which it is common One of Lightburns headlines refers to the old Spanish Cave but Spanish Cave as a proper ~ame seems to appear only in the first Colorado Grotto News amp Notes of Feb 12 1952 where It IS a synonym for Caverna del Oro From then until now Spanish Cave has been the preferred form in the literature of organized caving and in popular media relying on it This unfortunately has helped to maintain the public assumption that the Spanish legendry is based in fact

The caves history is muddled by a series of misnomers a Caverna del Oro with no gold a Maltese cross that is not Maltese marble that is not marble -- and on analyzing the evidence I think that German Cave would have been a more appropriate if less provocative name than Spanish Cave

I expect my skeptical arguments to be ignored by future writers as long as there is a media markcL for exciting treasure tales Why is it important to be critically analytical

Since fact and fiction are not clearly distinguished in media information about the cave many people still believe nonsense about it Apparently the Spanish gold tales retain enough public acceptance to present problems to the Forest Service today It is reported that there was in recent years a proposal to build a road to the cave to facilitate treasure hunting (Jerry Hassemer oral comm)

Furthermore presentation of false gold stories as if they might be true is likely to tempt naive and poorly prepared readers to get in trouble seeking riches This is apparent in a 1957 letter from Roy Truman former District Ranger and colleague of Paul Gilberts (History of the Colorado Grotto 1961)

There was a time when it was very difficult to keep boys away from this cave and I received many calls from parents in Pueblo and other towns all times of the day and night concerning the safety of their boys that had left home with the ideas of exploring this cave with the high hopes of finding valuable ores or treasures they were equipped with a few pieces of small rope [this was probably arter the Depression-era articles]

This problem is also exemplified by a letter in my own files addressed in 1962 to Richard LeSage of the Southern Colorado Grotto from a Denverite He had twenty-four numbered questions including What type of equipiment [sic] will I need (exactly) I havent done much cave exploring Where can I obtain it What type of mask would I need for foul air He concludes We are intending to explore this cave at all cost so your information will be most vilal to us and most appreciable (We never replied deciding that was the safest thing to do)

The extravagance of peoples beliefs about Spanish Cave has sometimes reached quite ridiculous extremes The Colorado Historical Society library has a typescript of research material used by Perry Eberhart in preparing Treasure Tales of the Rockies One note is as follows

Robert Dunne head of Querida sez think cave comes out near Walsenburg or possibly the northern end of Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico never found end

James Dunne Querida

Not even Eberhart was so shameless as to print this in his book

Jourllal of Speleall History 86

There are still many legitimate mysteries left about Marble Mountain and its history How well explored are the ends of Spanish Cave even now Why was Yeomans cave otherwise so clearly White Marble Halls said to have a 275-foot pit Is this an error or a pit now lost Was the vertical Spanish Cave somehow grafted into the account Who really painted the Maltese cross and who put the artifacts into Spanish Why were detailed articles published on White Marble Halls in the 1880s but nothing seems to be on record about Spanish until 1919 in spite of the extensive early work done in it (If the relics were left by Colfax colonists in the 1870s they could not easily have published their explorations as there were yet no newspapers in the Wet Mountain Valley Later Yeoman or other prospectors might have been reticent about calling atlention to the cave if they built ladders down the shafts in the hope of rinding minerals Study 01 the county mining-claim records could be informative)

Future Opportunities

Most knowledge we now have on Marble Mountain history before organized caving is based on writings of big-city visitors from 1919 on When time allows I intend to search the microfilms of Custer County newspapers in the period 1880-1920 to see if items overlooked by library indexers may shed light on the gaps in our knowledge of the Marble Mountain caves Fascinating revelations are very likely to result Johnsons letter of 1944 (op cit) also stated There was evidence of early visitation [in Marble Cave] including names carved on rocks but these date mostly back about 50 years ago Informative graffiti are numerous in Cave of the White Marble Halls but I do not recall seeing any in Spanish Cave during my own explorations in the 1950s and 60s It should be carefully reexamined to see if we have overlooked signatures that could be keys to the solution of the puzzles

Better documentation of the cave itself would also be desirable The Colorado Grotto surveyed most of lower Spanish in the 1950s to the standards then prevailing I do not know the length of the CG survey but it probably included less than 1000 feet The Southern Colorado Grotto discoveries from 1959 to the early 1960s were not surveyed at the time

From 1975 to 1988 Jerry Hassemer led the mapping of 2642 feet of upper Spanish including the main route between entrances and the Rimstone Passage its longest side gallery (Hassemer personal comm Sept 13 1992) (About 1735 feet of this are along the through-route) His survey showed a vertical difference of 449 feet between lower and upper entrance by both internal mapping and a surface closure loop The old Colorado Grotto map appears to show a depth of just over 270 feet from lower entrance to deepest surveyed point thus total surveyed depth of Spanish Cave is about 720 fect (The entrance elevations of Spanish Cave have never been established by survey to a benchmark but altimeter readings and topographic maps suggest that the upper entrance is around 12000 feet)

Other side passages and superimposed levels in upper Spanish remain unmapped In lower Spanish an important branch the waterfall passage -- which may go deeper than the so-called Gold Diggings at the end of the existing map -- remains unsurveyed The high elevation and extremely cold wet conditions continue to inhibit complete exploration and mapping as they have for as long as the cave has been known

87Journal of Speleall History

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ernment and () gter Hed fnr t he pleasure p the pur-Ilc LInder the directir T) f t he ~ tion ~1 Plr i

Service Lone ()f the worlds I ~tgshyesi and most wonderfu I e lVes

Mr N vdk wns ghen gtltc id permission by the Derarrment of the Interi0r to make mm io n lIld still photographs in this mighty suhterranean wondcrlmd

With the co-()rtr~tion of the Superintendent and his ~ t a ff Mr Neville i ~ ited rlrts ltIt the Cavern I)() t re-n In the llIll ie

Urili ing al l ll th e exrnence gained 11 rho og rlgthingl hunshydred caes he m11ltmiddot nHHio n lnd still pictures of 11 mti frm shyHllms you mny ne(r 1gt 11gt1 to see The lre Jt~) i ( tt l Iith the skill md arri try then Mr Neville Igtrings ((I l1 his rholOshygraphic ork You wi ll have a new a[preci ati o n of rlw ond t rs of NI(ure after y()U hIc seen thSt ullusual [icrllrcs

ml ~ )middotIIJ l I ltxll r W i n ~ lIl1 rIH)togr 1 I hing the Caves of Kltntlldy )[1 1-Ili1I11 fo r slt tT d Yr DlIff th1t timt h h I S trlmiddote1I1 ~ rh l rs a thoulnd mile 1111-ic rgrltgtllnd

He ha ( ~ rr it h C3 mlt r3 up ond I pw n ltwr huge rock s crnwl el thngtugh lItT worn crev ices so smlll ir eemed imshypossihilt to neglHil te rh em even witho ut rhe heavy ca men1 equip menc-a ll the whi le Illaking hi wond eriul seri e )f interestm g cave pictures

Wlgtrking undr Ihorograrh ic difficultie I n1 rhysICa l h~zard s wh ic h eltIlle1 unsurmoun raH lt Mr Neille has succeeded ntvshyenhelts in Igtrin gi ng Igtcfo re the pulgtlic fy means oi morion ricshycures lnd by lantern slides beautiful scenes and views of formations yUU lta nnm possiLly see fo r yourself

Combined with this he rreshysents them in a highly artistic and cntcrtaining manner

ALADDINS GROTTO

~( A Camera Journey through Underground Fairylands ~ with Russell T Neville the Cave Man

m R Neville is a cave lxrlorer 1nd rhor)grapher Bc)innin~ a a hlgtbh this ~ work has Jevelored into a serious utempt t gt 1()nr1Y ancl present rhee little known heauties hidden tar lgteJuw Ih~ surface of he earth

Interesting experienltcs galore have fdlen tll Mr Nilie Igtt in this exploration rk ( llS have heen iiscltlnrJ wdl knwn caves Ioae heen exrlorel (Ll greuer distan(ts and all til rime his (nmeras have been l1llking a lirhful anJ unique recorl f his travels into rh e Realms f Ni)ht

Mr Nevilles exrtlitiol1 lI1t OIJ Salts Ca e (July 192 1 went into places never hefore st~n by white exrlorers The pnrry was in the Cave ltgtn rhis trir for fifty-one hours anJ rhirry-five minutes They liLltereJ and 1T()ughr to light a co nsiderable quantity lIt materini left hy rhe mysrerio us C 1e Men ot long ago This is shown in rhe pictures and commented upo n bv M r Neville who ha s Jen)[cd much rime to

the study ot the prehistoric folk wh o inhahit 1 rhis l11ighty sulgtrerranenn labyrinth many hundreds of y~1rs ago

Q A VE photography is essentially ver hn1rdou~ md tlifficulr C(gtmtgtined With tht risks pi origina l caw eplorarinn- rraversing unc harted pathways ShTtgtlldcl

in eernal darkness whlre unseen unknown dangers lurk in even shaJ(l there are serious photographic tehllical prohlems t(l be solved

Well gr(lund~d in the rtquir ~ l1lellts of a pkasing picrure Mr Neillc has usel 111 his lbility in the rnkillcrion of wonlerful lighting~ and pkwrial Clgtmpsitigtns PrllJucshying his own light 1 mtans of [()erflll fIlr~ elch giving 72 000 cnndle r ower he comhats the unfavrahle condicigtns which are found in aves Jnd interesting effects nre picwred which lend ench1 lltment to rhe cenes

Three ree Is lit standard ie i 35mm ) motion ricrllre film are al ilahle for use A portable morion ricure pwjecto r can be furnished

Many heautifully ha nd co lor~J lantern sliJes may he used if desi reJ This motion picture film is rhe fi rst and on ly attempt ever made ro prcsem o n t he

screen rhe hidJen undergrour J mancls of Narure

Remarks on the Potential of Underground Space for Defense Against Attack Jack Hurley DC Speleograph June 1960

1 Todays threat from the Soviets is political economic and military Thelalter includes chemical and biological warfare radio-logical fall-out and the weapon of the future - the neutron-ray gun not to mention others yet to be developed

2 The good earth which sustains uswill inevitably have its underground spaces explQited and developed to an unprecedented degree in a return to what might be called the era or the Jmodern cave man for nothing can protect us so well and for minimum cost as the underground spaces

3 In recent times we have the example of Nazi Germany in World War II with some) 000 underground storage depots light assembly plants and factories as well as the present day state or the art middot~ exemplified in Sweden In this country government and commercial interests possess bu~ a few underground sites not all of which can be discussed because of their classified nature However those not classified offer good examples of a good beginning - but only a beginning

Some of the underground sites that have been developed and are presently in usc principally for storage of various kinds are located in Kansas (Hutchinson and elsewhere) Neosho Missouri California and Iron Mountain New York as well as the development by my company of the Annandale Mine Butler Pennsylvania into a huge modern underground storage vault for irreplaceable records Some of our cl ients are the Jones and Laughl in Steel Co the U S Steel Co and the First National Bank oCNew York City Other sites are being usedJor cold storage and for hospitals but as yet the uses are extremely limited

Some of the potential uses are for light manufacturing and assembly plants permal1ent housing for some of our fabulously expensive data computers headquarters for command posts fo r national state and local civil defense storage of items essential for human survival in the event of atomic attack as well as items essential to the process of industrial rehabilitation To a limited extent they may also be utilized as shelters for at least some of the population in case of disaster

Why is it that the underground has not been more fully exploited and developed

1 Th~aver~ge individual dislikes the idea 2 The potential of the ul1derground for storage and housing has only been slightly understood 3 Existing sites are not always conveniently located 4 Those who cculd spark such development do not fully understand the nature and perhaps the imminency of the threat 5 I n some cases development has been stifled because of the cost even though this is but a fraction of that iiwolvedin creating a totally man-made facility for similar purposes Also there have been mistaken efforts to use underground space for purposes for which itwas not suited 6 The average human being strongly resists change in his essential concepts The so-called vested interests must first realize a scarcity of suitable top-side space before they will begin acquiringund~rground space

71Journal of Speleall History

Some of the advantages of good mines and caves are

1 They are generally removed from critical target areas 2 Development costs no more than on the surface and is frequently considerable less 3 In the long run maintenance and operating costs are much lower 4 In business and industry the absenteeism of workers due to illness extremes of temperature etc frequently becomes a real problem In my opinion working in the quiet atmosphere underground in a steady temperature and humidity level would have a beneficial and healthful effect This same situation makes it far easier to create a static condition beneficial to tl)e preservation and long life of records and other materials stored underground 5 The standard earth cover for modern missile bases is 25 feet Nearly all mines and caves of any consequence have far more cover than this thus increasing their protection potential

You as cave explorers and members of the National Speleological Society can assist by

1 Providing inventories of the most suitable caves for various purposes 2 Assist in developing guides or standards for caves for specific purposes 3 Talk about how mines and caves can be utilized and thus influence those who are in a ~tjon to initiate action in this direction

The above is the substance oj a talk given by Mr Hurley 10 the members oj the DC ChilP4tl oj the NSS on June 7 1960

Comment of the Designation of Certain Caves as Fallout Shelters William H Peters DC Speleograph April 1963

I believe all of us as members of the National Speleological Society have been aware for the past several years of the interest in utilizing selected caves for the protection of civilian population in the event of a national emergency The interest up until now remote has materialized into an actual requisitioning of caves in Pendleton County West Virginia and other communities in that state anxious to utilize all of their resources for what can certainly be called a noteworthy if not heroic program There has been at first a rejection of the idea among speleologists We are at first repelled by the idea of giving up our almost absolute sovereignty of the underground The realities of the world invading our isolated laboratories is unacceptable to us as scientists~ and of course the whole concept of nuclear war is still psychologically repugnant Our first reaction is expressed in many ways - useless protests exclamations of impossibility and we formulate every reason for the programs failure

But as citizens we have a responsibility to study the problem and the facts are not pleasing Repugnant as it is nuclear warfare lives not too far from the pleasantries of our life This is

72 JOllrllal of Speleall History

proven by the not so far removed Cuban Crisis In November 1962 LS Finkelstein at the Harvard University Center for International Affairs writing of the Soviet position on Arms Inspection is quoted It is hard to escape the conclusion that the Soviet Union for at least much of the time seems to have been interested more in employing the negotiations as a means of weakening the military and political position of the West that as a route to a viable disarmament system He goes on to quote James P Wadsworth to the effect that the Soviet Union has employed arms control negotiation as a part of a grand strategy aimed at the eventual total defeat of the other side 1 Thus for those persons who hope for an easy solution it is hard to find the substance to nourish those hopes

The possibility of reducing the probable use of nuclear weapons is diminished by the cruel fact that reduction in armaments only increases the probability of escalation in armament by lessening the factor required for decisive advantage while additionally making the elements of decisive advantage available to many other countries who may aspire to greater roles than current economic or scientific resources have relegated them This point is well illustrated by HA Kissinger nuclear disarmament has revealed the paradoxical fact that there is a certain safety in numbers And this is true even if both sides religiously observe an agreement to limit nuclear weapons Instability is greater if each side possesses ten missiles that if the equilibrium is stabilized at say 500 For an attack which is 90 successful when the opponent has ten missiles leaves him one or a number hardly able to inflict unacceptable damage An attack of similar effectiveness when the opponent possesses 500 missiles leaves 50 - perhaps sufficient to pose an unacceptable risk 2

We can easily conclude that the probability of removing nuclear weapons from the field of War Science is remote from purely tactical necessity What is also critical to our thinking is that the War Sciences are advancing in their ability to assess more and more elements and their relationship to decisive advantage Von Neumann in formulating the Minimax Game Theory and its reduction to mathematical models applied to computers increases the number of factors to be considered beyond the capability of the human mind International politics are founded upon economic and strategic factors rather than ethical or moral principle It is not impossible that in the cold realistic logic of the Game Theory3 that some remote event passing unseen by the casual observer will relate itself to decisive advantage for the opponent and may demand immediate action by one or the other side We cannot hope that in every instance the situation will escalate as did the Cuban Crisis so that the population can prepare itself

The comparison of Civil Preparedness to Ostrichism is not a fair comparison Civil Preparedness adds another factor for a potential enemy and complicates his game It makes it more difficult to game reliability Kissinger points out four considerations for reducing the possibility of decisive advantage the second of which is Since invulnerability is a relative term the purpose of arms control measures must be to strengthen so far as possible the relative position of the defender either by enhancing the security of his force or by complicating the calculations of the aggressor2 It is thus that civil preparedness serves a two fold purpose of deterring and of providing some measure

of survi val

The remoteness of the areas under consideration enhances the desirability of taking appropriate measures God forbid that it should come to pass but in the event of a nuclear holocaust it is these areas that could become the springboard for the reconstruction of our democracy and for the continuation of our cultural heritage

As members of the National Speleological Society we have the opportunity of not only participating but of making a definite contribution No other organization has more resources in

73Journal of Speeall History

scientific personnel experience or knowledge relating to caves Failure to meet our responsibilities at this time will only widen possible misunderstandings between the National Speleological Society and Civil Defense Organizations We must accept the fact that as the civil defense program expands more cave resources will be requisitioned Our opposition will only serve as a barrier to continued parallel use of these resources

The Society can assist in both the areas of applied practical knowledge and of basic research To list bnt a few are - advising and monitoring storage in areas of historical underground hydrological fluctuations monitoring humidity temperature and air circulation locating suitable areas in caves that will minimize the possibility of vandalism recommending types of closures of gates and assisting in their installation checking periodically the condition of supplies and reporting this to appropriate authority and condemnation of areas due to strata imperfection and probability of breakdown

There are many questions in need of investigation What is the relationship in a multiple stream capture theory and the possible concentration of radioactive or other contaminates in a cave duc to fIltration What is the probability of infection by intake of foods contaminated by histoplasma ir any What is the relationship of bat rabies to human cave habitation What provision must be made for sanitation - control of rats and possible damage to supplies and in the event of human habitation control of rat fleas as possible communicators of typhUS or other epidemic diseases) What is the probability of excessive amounts of radioactive materials being introduced to the cavc environment by animals such as bats that enter and leave the cave frequently These represent only a portion of the questions which should be examined to determine their relevance and what precautionary measures should be taken if relevant

I would like to propose that at a special meeting of the Board of Governors a Civil Defense Advisory Committee composed of competent scientists and speleologists be formed for the purpose of formulating suitable policies initiating scientific investigation and in general assuming the role of representing and coordinating the Societys Civil Defense effort The question as to whether we can afford to undertake such a program with its inherent socialpolitical implications should be answered - Can we afford not to

References

1 Arms Inspection International Conciliation Nov 1962 (It is interesting to note that in my upinion this publication follows closely the United Nations activities It is surprising to observe this pessimistic attitude in that area)

2 Foreign Affairs Volume 39 no 4 July 1960 Inspection and Surprise Attack p 56l

3 A current article on Game Theory appears in the December 1962 issue of Scientific Americall by Anatol Rapoport The Use and Misuse of Game Theory

Journal of Speleall History 74

1922 Trip Reports

Maud Orr Howell

Trip 10 Bear Cave

Gordon Brown led eight of us including Elizabeth Hord George Raudebush Benie Weaver Tom Weaver Johnny Connor Boyte and me to Bear Cave in Savage Gulch

We left the Observatory at 900 am went down Clark Cottage Path and across the valley to the clearing in front of the old Savage home

The girls rested while the boys went up the side of Peak Mountain to a ~pring and brought back some water Then we explored the old house In one of the upstairs rooms that had newspapers on the walls we read in the Society section of a newspaper dated August 17 1908 that Mr and Mrs Sanford Duncan had gone to spend a few days with Mrs Robert Orr in Maury County

We cut across the field to the right of the house and climbed along the side of Peak Mountain then straight down the side of the mountain to Savage Creek After drinking water from a spring running into the creek we followed the creek up a few yards then climbed up the mountain on the left a few yards to the cave This is Coppenger Mountain It was 11 45 so we ate our Iunch and rested until 1 10 when all but Elizabeth and Tom went in the cave We had candles and carbide lights and Gordon led the way It saw 220 when we got out After resting a few minutes and taking some Kodak pictures we all including Elizabeth and Tom went in again and stayed until 300 pm

We gathered our things which included sticks which Gordon had cut for us the Kodak the lunch bag canteen etc and set out straight up the mountain with Gordon pulling us up some of the places until we hit the cliffs We followed the cliffs along until we found a place to climb up When we got on the top we walked along the mountain until we got to the end of it which is just above the Savage house We went down a path which went straight down the mountain to the Savage house rested while the boys got water then came home to Howell cottage the same way we had gone arriving here at 700 pm

Trip to Bats Cave

Saturday September 2 1922

We first planned to walk to Tatesville but not knowing how far it was we gave it up and decided to walk to Bats Cave The night before the trip we gave that up too as it was so far and the weather so hot

As we were eating breakfast Mr George Mitchell came and he had breakfast with us He suggested getting a wagon for our trip so immediately after breakfast Mr George Bettie Martha and Tom Weaver Boyte and I went to the store and got Earnest Rubleys wagon

75Journal of Speleall History

We all met on the Observatory There were 19 of us Five including Mr George Jennings and George Bailey Torn and Charlie Trabue IV left first and went down the Backbone Road intending to meet us at the Collins River bridge The rest of us Elliott and David Adams Lucy and Elizabeth Bailey Lucinda Trabue Irene Langford Elizabeth Mclane Kate Keene Johnson Susan Lewis Bettie and Martha Weaver Boyte and I walked down the mountain from the Observatory and met the wagon a little piece up the valley We missed the other bunch and they did not catch up with us until we had left the wagon and were eating lunch at the spring

We finished lunch and walked up the mountain to the cave We went to the big room where we stopped last year which is just beyond the small ladder We climbed the ladder then all but Irene Tom Elizabeth and I went on further We waited at the top of the ladder until they came back They had gone to another big room and circled around it about three times before finally finding the way out They found an old Nashville newspaper dated 1847 and another paper with some names on it They added their names to this list

When we got out of the cave it was nearly 500 We had been in there three hours

We went back to the wagon and started horne We got to Collins River bridge about dark The moon was almost full and the ride up the valley in the moonlight in a wagon filled with hay and pulled by mules was beautiful We stopped at Mortons store and Mr George telephoned up lo Beersheba and told them where we were and assured them that we would be home soon He brought out oodles of cookies and we had a grand time eating them We sang and yelled and relaxed on the hay We left the wagon at the bottom of Beersheba Mountain Martha led the way up the mountain in the dark with only the moon to help guide us We had Oashlights but it was hard to keep in the path But it was fun We reached the top at the Observatory at 845 pm and no one seemed to be tired

Trip to Peak Mountain

A crowd of us left Aunt Mats Cottage at 930 am on Monday August 28 1922 There were 19 of us including Mr George Mitchell Elizabeth Hord Mr Colville Elliott Adams Jennings Bailey Lucy Bailey Kate Keene Johnson George Eldred Mary Wilson Eldred Irene Langford Elizabeth Mclane Bettie Orr Martha Weaver Tom Weaver Alfred Williams Mary Phillips Street Susan Lewis Boyte Howell Jr and me (Maud Orr Howell)

We went down Clark Cottage Path to the valley The crowd was separated going down but we all got together at the foot of the mountain crossed the valley and climbed Peak Mountain There was no path we just went up the side of the mountain and went thru a pass up the cliffs We got there about 1200 pm rested then ate lunch We put up a nag (Elizabeth Hords petticoat)

Aoout 100 pm we left to find the old stage coach road to Chattanooga We went straight across the top of the mountain and found the road at the spring and a little log cabin We followed the road to the valley We heard Marshall Eldred mooing answered him and he found us Gordon Bro n who was with him led us to Peter Rock Cave on the side of Peak Mountain Marshall did not start out with us because he helped Gordon fix the leaks in Laurel Mill Dam Elliott led us in the cave and we did not go back very far It was pretty but wet and muddy

We c~me home by Dishroon Springs drank some of the water and ate the rest of our lunch [hen came on up the mountain A few of us stopped at the Johnson place and looked across the valley at Elilabeth Hords petticoat which we had left on a tree on Peak Mountain We came on horne arriving here about 500 pm

Journal of Speleall History 76

No Old Gold or Bones A Skeptical Review of Caverna del Oro Legendry Donald G Davis reprinledfrom Rocky Mountain Caving Summer 1992

In the thin air of timberline on Marble Mountain in the Sangre de Cristo range icy wind blows from the entrance to a deep and cryptic cave marked by the damaged remnant of a rust-red cross Known today as Spanish Cave it is the most publicized non-commercial cave in Colorado It has been featured for more than 70 years in media - first newspapers then magazines books and television specials Most of this publicity recounts stories that it is La Caverna del Oro where Indian slaves mined gold for 17th century Spaniards Many people take this as fact Recently a Colorado caver told me he had spoken with a journalist who assured him that the cave was bottomless and contains untold treasures

Spanish Cave was important in the start of my own caving career in 1957 While attending Colorado A amp M College (later CSU) I saw in scrapbooks in the Fort Collins Museum clippings of the Colorado Question Box column from the Rocky Mountain News circa 1955 They told stories of a Maltese-cross-marked entrance lost gold mine and chained skeleton reported in the caverns depths After correcting the first error we found in the accounts (that the cave was on Homs Peak several miles north of Marble Mountain) two of us (Vin Hoeman and myself) in the college Hikers Club located the cave the next year In subsequent years with Frank and Paul Leskinen James W Meachan and others in the Southern Colorado Grotto of the NSS I led the discovery of about two-thirds of its presently known passage

Finding that the Western History Department of the Denver Public Library had a clipping file on the cave I also undertook research on its history which I have continued intermittently since The mure I learned about the real cave the more disillusioned I became with the stories sensationalizing it I learned much about the rules of logic and evidence during the investi galion and was ultimately convinced that there was no satisfactory confirmation that Spanish explorers ever saw or entered the cave much less mined gold from it Following are some of the reasons for that concl usion

The most readily available summary of the legendry is in Lloyd Parris Caves oCoLorado (1973) pp 24-32 Parris precedes his Treasure Caves accounts with a confused and equivocal disclaimer The following tales for the most part have the validity of history behind them and in most cases the caves are known Undoubtedly though some of the legends connected with these caves belong in Chapter IV under hoax and humbug And if these legends seem to disagree or contradict what is previously known it is because they were selected not for entertainment alone but as a presentation of the known facts or legends as the case may be An evaluation of the authenticity has not been attempted This is left for the reader to do

This reader hereby takes up the challenge

The Spanish Mille Legends

A number of accounts (including Parriss) relate that Spanish Monastery Latin documents record gold being brought to pre-Columbian Mexican Indian kingdoms Acolhua Aztec and Tepance

Jourllal of Speleall History 77

from the north Then in 1541 three monks were supposedly left behind by Coronado (the Rocky MOllntain News June 3 1923 says 1598) One Fray Juan de la Cruz reportedly reopened a mine using forced labor by Pecos I ndians (a northern New Mexico Pueblq trib~)and packed treasure toward Mexico City but never arrived there Nuggets and gold bars reported found by one Baca in 1811 were speculated to be part of this treasure and a prospector searching (according to Parris) for Cavema del Oro half a century later found a silver cup engraved with the name Hermione Taken at face value all this gives the impression that stories about Caverna del Oro are of great antiquity though the original Spanish documents are never cited

This suite of tales was first widely distributed in an article by Alberta Pike headlines OLD MANUSCRIPT INDICATES VAST RICHES IN COLORADO CA VE GUARDED BY SKELETON in the Rocky Mountain News of Sept 6 1932 Subsequent Spanish Cave popularizers have recopied them from one article to the next without naming a source for them I recently made an enlightening discovery in the Colorado Historical Society library about where this material came from

Before any known Spanish Cave article was written Louis Bernhardt Sporleder -- early resident and prominent citizen of Walsenburg Colorado -- published a souvenir booklet titled Huajalolla Breasts of the World (1916) An article in The Trail June 1922 reprinted much of this booklet and said Sporleder had a number of unpublished manuscripts giving information historical and legendary about the Spanish Peaks (as the Huajatolla are more commonly known) Sporleders booklet included word for word most of the above Spanish mine material copied by later Cavema del Oro writers

Even his misspelling of the Tepance kingdom (properly Tepanec) has been faithfully reproduced by authors as late as Parris

As to the actual historicity of Sporleders items I know little but his writings (eg The Roses of Huajatolla The Trail Dec 1922) were prone to wild flights of romantic fiction incorporating gross errors about natural history He claimed for instance that the otherwise extinct passenger pigeon still survived on the Spanish Peaks in fact it has never been recorded in Colorado His human history appears similarly colored But even if he was accurate it is crucial to our study that his stories were exclusively about the Spanish Peaks making no connection whatever to Marble Mountain 50 miles to the northwest He specifically stated that the silver cup was found beside a spring in a grotto at the base of East Spanish Peak (the name Hermione moreover is Greek not Spanish) All of this is therefore irrelevant to the cavern on Marble Mountain that we know as Spanish Cave

In Sporleders 1916 version the prospector who found the cup was searching for Huajatollas mines of gold In Pikes 1932 recounting he was seeking the lost mine but she associates it with the cave on Marble Mountain Parris in 1973 transmutes the object of the searchers quest explicitly into the Caverna del Oro Thus by insidious mutations does spurious lore enshroud our cave

Forbes Parkhill asserted that Marble cave Legends connect the Spanish cross and the ancient timber found in the mine [sic] with the gold hunting and exploring expeditions of Juan de Onate in 1597 and the Escalante-Dominguez expedition in 1776 (Explorers to Seek Mysteries of Caves in San Isabel Wilds Discovered Four Centuries Ago Denver Post Oct 9 1921) Even Parris rejects these suggestions because those expeditions did not come close to Marble Mountain

Jourllal of Speleall History 78

Earliest Known Accounts ofthe Cave middot

In 1919 appeared a brochure Out-ol-door Piaygroullds of the Sansabel National Forest USDA middot Circular 5 by Henry S Graves Forester It declared that The Caves of the Winds [not to be confused with Cave of the Winds at Manitou Springs] a system of giant crevices in a mountain or solid white marble is one of the principal natural wonders of the Forest These caves have been penetrated to a depth of over 1200 feet without the end being reached Theymay be reached by wagon road from Westcliffe

On Oct 12 1919 the Denver Post ran an anonymous article San Isabels Caves of Winds Among Wonders of Colorado It stated The Caves of the Winds have been known to exist for many years They are described brieOy in the report of the San Isabel national forest A party of Denver business men is planning to visit the caves this autumn with a view to exploring them to their depths if pOssible If it is found that the natural wonders said to exist in the interior of the caves are equal to reports which have been received these men will ask the government for the I

privilege of developing the caves as a tourist attraction

That Spanish Cave is the object of these writings is indicated by the emphasis on wind great depth (four times the actual depth of the cave as then known) and incomplete exploration the nearby Cave of the White Marble Halls is less strongly windy nearly horizontal and was already well explored (The accompanying entrance photo is not Marble Mountain) A similar item in the Post of June 27 1920 mentions a huge cave on Marble mountain which has never been explored by man beyond a depth of 1800 feet and which may rival the famed Mammoth Cave of Kentucky Neither treasure legends nor stories ofSpanish exploration are me11lioned in any of these earliest printed accounts

Apollina Apodacas Story

The real genesis of treasure stories as applied to Spanish Cave so far as I can find is with Apollina Apodaca (her name is variously spelled in different accounts I use the spelling that seems most probable) In 1919 (not 1920 as said in Caves oColorado) Paul Gilbert later District Ranger in the Forest heard wonderful tales from this old woman As he recalled in The Bulletin of the Rocky Mountain Region of the US Forest Service (Dec 1936)

She stated that the Spaniards used to get gold from it and further stated that if one were to descend to a sufficient depth [in some accounts she is said to have specified 90 or 93 feet] a set of oak doors would be found and if they were forced open one would find a tunnel leading back into the bowels of the mountain -- and the source of the gold would be found She further stated that when she was a child they used to take a blanket wrap it around a heavy stone and throw it down the shaft In the course of a short time the blanket would be blown back minus the rock by the strong winds that come continually from the shaft

The following spring Gilbert located the cave which he misinterpreted as more of a volcanic fissure than it is a cave and visited it with Arthur C Carhart An item mentioning this trip (Mystery Caves in ColoradoRocky Mountain News Sept 21 1921) is the earliest I have found that makes a Spanish or lost-mine connection Old timers in the hills up there declare the place is the shaft of the old Three Step mine famous in Spanish history Carhart himself in the POSl of Jan 1 1922 says it is reported that it is an old Spanish mine entrance marked with a red cross of Malta and has old timber and a log chain inside

Jourllal of Speleall History 79

Gilberts writings are not entirely consistent about his informants statistics in the above report she is Mexican 105 years old in 1919 and died at 110 In his letter to Robert 1 OConnell of Feb 18 1957 (as published in History ojthe Colorado Grotto Nov 1961) she is Spanish and died in 1923 at age 103 A followup letter of Feb 25 adds that she spent most of her life in the vicinity of San Luis [in the San Luis Valley on the opposite side of the Sangre de Cristos] Another source (Dayle Molen Pueblo Star-Jollmal Nov 18 1956) says she lived near Gardner Perry Eberhart in his sensationalistic Treasure Tales of the Rockies (11) calls her an Indian squaw Raymond Thorp in American ForesTs Aug 1935 citing Gilbert says she died eight years ago which would have been 1927 (this is the date used by Parris) These points may be quibbles yet they indicate a lack of precision in recording the facts about her And since the account attributed to Ms Apodaca is pivotal to the entire Caverna del Oro oeuvre let us dissect it critically

Every element is either improbable or impossible Leaving the geologic aspect until later take the oaken doors There are no oaks for many miles and where they do appear they are scrub oak which would have provided door-size timber only in rare cases (though oaks of that size were more common in the Rockies then than now) And why haul heavy oak to timberline when (though strong when new) it does not resist rot as well as say the more easily obtained juniper There is not in any case any opening near the 9O-foot level where such doors could have been used

The blanket story is completely fanciful As we proved in 1961 (NSS News Aug 1962 part I) the cave wind comes from upper Spanish Cave not from the pit Even if it did the pit is about 15 feet wide whereas the entrance constricts to a narrow crawlway A wind strong enough to blow a blanket back up the pit would rise to such tornadic speed in the crawl as to stop a person from fighting through it to the pit Nor does it seem sensible that people would be blithely tossing their blankets down weighted with rocks After all the rock might fail to unwind and the blanket be lost or shredded at the bottom With so incredible a yarn in it why should not the whole narrative be dismissed as fantasy

The Skeletons

At least three human skeletons have been attested as evidence of Spanish involvement with the cave Two were introduced by reporter Kenneth C Lightburn in a front-page article in the Rocky Mountain News of Sept 4 1932 He claimed that the caves original discovery is credited to Capt Elisha P Hom one of the first settlers in the Wet Mountain Valley in 1869 About its entrance he found the remnants of what might have been a fort and also a skeleton in Spanish armor Through the armor was an Indian arrow (Lightburn also began the misconception that the cave was on Homs Peak) I have not been able to trace the origin of this anecdote but it sounds unlikely if only because the purpose of Spanish armor was to prevent things like stoneshypointed arrows from penetrating ones torso and it generally worked Halls History of Colorado (1895) confirms Elisha P Hom as a pioneer Wet Mountain Valley settler in 1869 but does not mention this story

However the skeleton that Lightburn intended to feature was the one in his articles melodramatic headlines SKELETON FOUND CHAINED BY NECK DEEP IN COLORADO MYSTERY CAVECAVERN IS HIGH IN MOUNTAIN WILDS OF STATEDenver Man Discovers Manacled Bones in Sangre de Cristo Range Moldering 500 Feet Below Surface in Awesome CavitySIGNS INDICATE MINE WORKED IN EARLY DAYSFind Recalls Legends of Fabulous Cavern [sic] del Oro of 17th Century Spaniards The headlines are emphasized by a lurid though regrettably nonphotographic picture of the skeleton and an entrance shot with the cross touched up to show better

80 Journal of Speleall History

Journal of Speean History

The article relates that Peter Moser of Denver with companions Victor Barth and his two sons Donald and Jack had just returned from a descent into the cave (Derivative accounts refer to Victor Donald and Jack Barth the former being a fictitious person born of the omission of an original comma between Victor and Donald)

According to Lightburn the Moser party had climbed down until they reached a vertical pit They lowered a lantern Forty feet downward they saw the bottom and in the light or the lantern could clearly make out the skeleton With a metal strap encircling the neck the pile of bones reclined against the rocky wall as if the person who died there centuries ago hall been chained in a sitting position and left to starve An investigatory trip reported in followup articles of Sept 11 12 arid 18 found no skeleton (If an entrance photo with the story of the 18th is any indication they might not even have found the cave -- the picture is obviously not on Marble Mountain -- it may be at Marble Cave near Canon City) It was speculated that Moser may have seen the skeleton at another point in the cave or that it had been done away with by mysterious parties unknown who had blasted the cave entrance between the two trips

In reality it is not surprising that the chained skeleton was never found There is no sound testimony that it was ever there Unlike Fray Juan de la Cruz Elisha Horn or Apollina Apodaca Peter Moser was still available to me to question when I first researched Lightburns article I found in 1959 that Moser still lived at the same address in Denver as in 1932 On New Years Eve 19591 telephoned him and asked about the story His description made it clear that his party had indeed reached the top of the pit that cavers now call the Jug At that point they had lowered a kerosene lantern on a line and he saw what in his own words looked like a pile of bones on a ledge near the bottom This he said is all he reported to the secretary of the Colorado Mountain Club who in tum contacted the newspaper which -- as Moser put it to me -- dressed it up a little (l printed a more complete record of Mosers hour-long interview in the Southern Colorado Grotto newsletter Spelunk Junk Mar 1960)

This embroidery was to be expected in an era when the Denver papers were battling for readers during the Great Depressiun and were notorious for sensationalism But even if Mosers own explanation did not debunk the skeleton he reportedly found it would not be believable The Jug is about 80 feet deep Have you ever tried to see in cavernous darkness where your breath makes mist clouds by a kerosene lantern at that range Then you will agree that a chaincd skeleton even in fine preservation could hardly have been seen well enough from the top to be recognized unequivocally

81

Caves oColorado complicates the matter by citing a letter to me from James W Meacham in vhich a bone found by Meacham at the bottom of the Jug in 1959 was pronounced human by John A Murphy of the Denver Museum of Natural History What Parris does not say is that I had written him in 1969 -- four years before his book was published -- that another expert at the University of Colorado Museum had declared it a deer bone (This water-worn two-inch fragment might well challenge a forensic specialist)

Not content with two skeletons Thorp (American Forests Aug 1935 op cit) adds a third to this spooky company A strange legend that still haunts the native people concerns a skeleton hung with buckskin which guarded Marble Cave just on the other side of Caverna del Oro It was the first quarter of the 19th century and an American free trapper wandered too far west The Spaniards for fear he would reveal their hiding place crucified him For a half century he remained pinioned to a wcxxlcn cross Aside from the improbably sadistic mode of execution this image typical of cartoons or folklore reveals ignorance of the properties of real skeletons which do not long remain articulated when exposed to weather decay and scavengers

Others find ulterior significance in our discovery of bones of bison and pronghorn antelope in upper Spanish Cave in the 1960s calling them plains species that would never ascend to such lofty heights Unless someone had used the cave for storing or curing meat (Bill Kaiser The Treasure of Caverna del Oro Colorful Colorado May-June 1973) I did not know this then but these animals have been known to ascend to the alpine tundra in historic ti mes and might have done so more often when they were abundant and unfenced The cave is much too wet to be good ror storing perishables

The Artifacts

Many reliable observers from Carhart and Gilbert onward report finding in the 1920s and 30s old artifacts of unknown provenance in Spanish Cave These include a winch chains whiskey bottle jug timber ladders shovel single-jack and a hammer They have all disappeared or been reduced to fragments but claims made for some of them purport to establish archeological evidence of Spanish presence

Thorp (1935 op CiL) in describing the 1932 Rocky Mountain News expedition states that on the second ledge they found the remains of a rudely constructed ladder which Dr LeRoy Hafen ( then editor historian and curator of the State Historical Society) after carefully examining asserted was at least 200 years old Below after being lowered 110 feet they found a crude hand-forged hammer which the historian declared was of 17th century vintage Gilbert (The Bulletin Dec 1936 op cit) and an Alamosa Courier article (from June 1937) repeat these avowals

These are very important allegations since the Spanish were the only people who could have left such artifacts in the 17th century To investigate them I wrote in 1960 to LeRoy Hafen inquiring about his trip to the cave and his knowledge of its history and specifically whether he had certified the hammer as of 17th-century manufacture and if so who now had it His reply was less specific than my questions but it is a primary document on one of the major claims about Spanish Cave and I reproduce it below verbatim

If LeRoy Hafen made claims of antiquity for the Spanish Cave artifacts in 1932 he obviously did not stand by them later His wife Ann W Hafen in Detective Historian (Denver WesTerners Monthly Roundup July 1954) had also recounted his 1932 cave trip and commented disproving a baseless story is important it is part of the search for truth She elaborated To the party the venture was disappointing No treasure found No relic of the ancient conquistadores But to the

Jourllal of Speleall History 82

detective Historian it was just another clue pursued another myth exploded another triumph for the scholars code -- to build history on fact not on fossilized fiction

Thorp (1935 op cit) relates that the timbers of their ladder system were about eight inches in diameter squared on four sides with an ax Auger holes were bored into their sides and they were fitted with wooden rungs pegged into the holes No nails were used al though this probably would have been done by early Germans or Americans [the wood is] now decayed and may be broken in many ins tances by the hand This construction however is not strong evidence for Spanish work Before the railroad reached the Wet Mountain Valley in the 1880s commodities such as nails would have been scarce and expensive anyone building such structures before then might well have used no metal It would also be stronger than tacking on rungs with nails when not using sawed lumber Concerning the other cave artifacts there is not enough information to suggest a date

BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY PROVOUTAH

January 13 1960

11r Donald G Davia P O Box 145 T1lnlath Colorado

Dear Hr Davia

I ~ intereat~d to learn f~ your letter of January J 1960 of your study and COllCen WJth the Caverna del Oro Hy visit to the cave and descent into it was with a party directed and financed by the Tourist Bureau or its counterpart of the period The contemporary ewspal6rs gave som~ accowtof the venture

I made the firat descant into the cave kt that time ging down the rope bS

you doubtless have done ince I recall at the edg~ of the pit th~re were s(XlIe rotted logs that may have been the framework of a windlass At tho bott~ of the pit I found a suall sledge ~er encrusted with limestone formation I dont recall what was done with this haa-er I remember no other relics in the pit

Our purposo was to investigate certain rumors a3 to early use of the cave as a SVanish mine I think middot there is little~~ion for that as the limestone fonnation is a poor VlOspect fot middotormation

The legnd hat a skeleton was chained to the wall gave added impetus to the trip Needless to eay nothing of the sort was found That cav and some near were epoken of colloctively os the Karble Campve and sune referred to this one as the Caverna del Or~ cave of gold The Kaltes cross painted on the rock at the entrllJce to tle cave already had a faded appearance I know nothi8 of the rk of Capto1n Hom regarding the di Scove ry of ~ he cave

i~J At the bottOlll of the pit Carl Dlaurohpersucd tho crevice out 5 far dS ~ ~ could go and found nothi8 to reward our efforts If Hr Ulaurot is still living i Denver he could give you sooe sidelights on th cave as ho visited it after our initial exploration

Cordially yours

LO 91+-LeRoy R IlcIen DeparUent of History

Some writers (eg Jesse Ball Canon City Daily Record Sept 14 1933) speculate that the cave was used by the Spanish as a refuge from Indian attacks The cave itself being windy wet and ncar-freezing would not have been ideal for such occupancy A ruined fort was alleged to exist below Marble Mountain as early as 1881 (Golden City Transcript Aug 31 1881 citing Cusler City Prospect ) later articles mention rifle pits I have seen what I presume to be these features below timberline and could not distinguish them from the miners prospect pits common in the Colorado mountains The largest log breastwork structure has also been interpreted as an old corral (Jerry Hassemer oral communication) If defensive works they are cr Jde ones indeed

This leaves to be considered the famous cross beside the entrance It is about one and a half feet square with flared ends meeting at the corners It has been variously described as burnt on

Jou rnal of Speean History 83

deeply chiseled or etched but in reality is prosaically painted with what looks to be a stable iron oxide pigment perhaps using some sort of template Portions of It had a thm patma of calcite crust when I first saw it in 1958 Though almost always called Maltese it is not as can be seen by looking up a crosses illustration in any large dictionary The true Maltese cross has indented ends A G Birch (Denver Post Aug 11 1929) correctly pointed out that the cave marker isin the perfect form of a German Iron Cross But he also says it was old when the first white sehler saw it more than sixty years ago without explaining how he knew this A contradictory testimony (Trail and Timberline April 1957) asserts that there is one old-timer who states that he knCv the fellow who painted it years ago as ajoke I wiIl pass over both of these declarations as uncorroborated

Spanish crosses as I have seen them represented on coins and in art have narrow straight-sided arms often with the basal arm longer and with the ends variously embellished They are typically very different from German ones It is suggestive that the first sedentary settlers below Marble Mountain were Germans of the Colfax colony in 1870 The colony as an entity failed within a year but some thirty families took possession of quarter sections and prospered as can be seen by the many descendants still living in the area (Wet Mountain Tribune Centennial Edition Dec 20 1985) German immigrants also arrived later on and the ranches cl osest below the caves remained in possession of the German-derived Henrich and Neermann families into recent years Crosses in the square form seen at the cave were used in German decorative motifs (I have seen an antique coffee-grinder at an abandoned German homestead in eastern Colorado that was ornamented with them) The cross could have been painted by a Colfax settler exploring his surroundings soon after the colonys establishment The dispersal of most of the colony in 1871 would account for the failure of later inhabitants to know who had created it

Alternatively it might have been a product of prospector 1 H Yeoman He figures in one of the earliest known accounts of a Marble Mountain cave in History of the Arkansas Valley Colorado (1881) A later report on this cave (Denver Republican Feb 20 1888) appears to describe Cave of the White Marble Halls south of Spanish Cave and states that the cave was discovered by Yeoman on Sept 16 1880 Yeoman obligingly left a graffito confirming this in the cave and the Kings and Queens Chambers of the article are likewise identified (Another 1881 account -shyGolden Cty Transcript op cit -- describes a similar cave but claims discovery by Messrs Hendershot amp Dickson of Custer City) A red cross like that at Spanish Cave but smaller and with narrower arms marks the entrance the associated graffito in English 400 Feet to the White Marble Halls precludes a Spanish conquistador origin (A writing inside -- Mrs H G ReedSilver Cliff CololHere 8115197 -- is done in a similar ornate hand) I have also seen Yeomans signature in Moonmilk Cave just across the ravine south of Spanish and scarcely possible to reach without seeing the Spanish entrance He must have known of Spanish Cave and pesumably had entered it

[he Geology

Finally a point that seems so obvious that it should hardly need to be mentioned decades of repeated explorations in Spanish Cave have failed to turn up a trace of mining or of gold and there is excellent reason for this Gold is found either where hydrothermal solutions have mineralized host rock or where deposits originating in that fashion have been eroded and concentrated in placer gravels Neither situation applies at Marble Mountain where the caves occur in an unaltered Pennsylvanian biothermal limestone lens sandwiched almost vertically between shales and conglomeratic sandstones (The name Marble Mountain is a misnomer marble is limestone altered -- metamorphosed -- by heat andor pressure The abundance of well-preserved brachiopod and crinoid fossils shows that Marble Mountain is not metamorphosed) The only mineralization known on the mountain is a little low-grade copper on the south limestone outcrop

Jourllal of Speleall History 84

Paul Gilbert notwithstanding the caves are in no way volcanic but are relatively typical highshygradient alpine limestone solution caves dissolved probably by massive runoff from melting snov and ice during Pleistocene glacial epochs Writers have speculated that Spanish Cave had a lower entrance (possible since the cave water does emerge at a spring lower down) and an entrance on the west side of the mountain (not possible since the limestone does not outcrop there) Ironically the only new entrance cavers have actually found was in a direction not suggested by any known author above Its discovery explained the cave wind as a chimney effect between the entrances -- blowing down to the lower opening when it is warmer outside than inside reversing when it is colder outside

Conclusions

I know of no one else who has analyzed the Caverna del Oro stories as thoroughly but I am not the first to publish critical judgments on them Mrs Hafen has already been quoted Also on record (NSS Bulletin 8 July 1946) is a letter dated 10444 from Fred R Johnson Chief Information and Education US Forest Service

Carl Biaurock a member of the Colorado Mountain Club explored this cave in 1925 again in 1931 and later in more detail in 1932 On the last date the exploration was the result of several articles in the Rocky MOUnTain News in which an old yam was mentioned to the effect that the cave had been investigated in the Spanish explorations in the eighteenth [sic] century also that it is supposed to have yielded a large quantity of gold and other valuable minerals there are no signs of any mineral So far as Mr Blaurocks party could tell there is no evidence in the cave of any visitation of Spanish explorers several hundred years ago

Molen (opcit) wrote that this story [from Apodaca] has been disapproved [sic] The tools and ladder in the cave are of comparatively modern origin Blaurock believes Someone years ago must have explored the cave at least as thoroughly as we did he said He also expressed doubt that the rifle pits and fort are of Spanish origin I did not interview Carl Blaurock during my earlier research I telephoned him this summer but he is 98 years old and is too deaf to understand my questions I have sent him a letter of inquiry thus far unanswered

After organized caving had begun William R Halliday founder of the Colorado Grotto of the National Speleological Society also concluded that The fabulous stories are fables The story of Spanish Cave is told (Halliday however was too pessimistic in inferring that the cave was almost completely explored Most of what is now known was discovered just after he wrote but none of the new passage showed signs of human entry)

Diehard romantics might protest that Spanish Cave could still be La Caverna del Oro Caves can hide much perhaps somewhere in the depths there is a localized zone of thermal mineralization conceivably the Spaniards very cleverly concealed the way to the mine workings Such ideas are not impossible but do strain credulity For every verified feature that has been proposed as evidence for Spanish presence there is an alternative explanation that is more plausible The burden of proof then is on the proponents of the Spanish connection The lurid yarns about the cave reflect folklore creation greatly abetted by media exploitation assisted by atrociously sloppy research

The time sequenceof the several names applied to the cave fits this very neatly In sources from 1919 I find The Caves of the Winds From 1920 until 1932 I see Marble Cave Marble

85jOllrtlal of Speleall History

Caves or The Caves but no Spanish-related appellations It is still called Marble Cave at least as late as 1953 (Irma Zanoni Trail amp Timberline Dec 1953) I do not encounter La Cavema del Oro applied to our cave until Lightburns articles of 1932 after which it is common One of Lightburns headlines refers to the old Spanish Cave but Spanish Cave as a proper ~ame seems to appear only in the first Colorado Grotto News amp Notes of Feb 12 1952 where It IS a synonym for Caverna del Oro From then until now Spanish Cave has been the preferred form in the literature of organized caving and in popular media relying on it This unfortunately has helped to maintain the public assumption that the Spanish legendry is based in fact

The caves history is muddled by a series of misnomers a Caverna del Oro with no gold a Maltese cross that is not Maltese marble that is not marble -- and on analyzing the evidence I think that German Cave would have been a more appropriate if less provocative name than Spanish Cave

I expect my skeptical arguments to be ignored by future writers as long as there is a media markcL for exciting treasure tales Why is it important to be critically analytical

Since fact and fiction are not clearly distinguished in media information about the cave many people still believe nonsense about it Apparently the Spanish gold tales retain enough public acceptance to present problems to the Forest Service today It is reported that there was in recent years a proposal to build a road to the cave to facilitate treasure hunting (Jerry Hassemer oral comm)

Furthermore presentation of false gold stories as if they might be true is likely to tempt naive and poorly prepared readers to get in trouble seeking riches This is apparent in a 1957 letter from Roy Truman former District Ranger and colleague of Paul Gilberts (History of the Colorado Grotto 1961)

There was a time when it was very difficult to keep boys away from this cave and I received many calls from parents in Pueblo and other towns all times of the day and night concerning the safety of their boys that had left home with the ideas of exploring this cave with the high hopes of finding valuable ores or treasures they were equipped with a few pieces of small rope [this was probably arter the Depression-era articles]

This problem is also exemplified by a letter in my own files addressed in 1962 to Richard LeSage of the Southern Colorado Grotto from a Denverite He had twenty-four numbered questions including What type of equipiment [sic] will I need (exactly) I havent done much cave exploring Where can I obtain it What type of mask would I need for foul air He concludes We are intending to explore this cave at all cost so your information will be most vilal to us and most appreciable (We never replied deciding that was the safest thing to do)

The extravagance of peoples beliefs about Spanish Cave has sometimes reached quite ridiculous extremes The Colorado Historical Society library has a typescript of research material used by Perry Eberhart in preparing Treasure Tales of the Rockies One note is as follows

Robert Dunne head of Querida sez think cave comes out near Walsenburg or possibly the northern end of Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico never found end

James Dunne Querida

Not even Eberhart was so shameless as to print this in his book

Jourllal of Speleall History 86

There are still many legitimate mysteries left about Marble Mountain and its history How well explored are the ends of Spanish Cave even now Why was Yeomans cave otherwise so clearly White Marble Halls said to have a 275-foot pit Is this an error or a pit now lost Was the vertical Spanish Cave somehow grafted into the account Who really painted the Maltese cross and who put the artifacts into Spanish Why were detailed articles published on White Marble Halls in the 1880s but nothing seems to be on record about Spanish until 1919 in spite of the extensive early work done in it (If the relics were left by Colfax colonists in the 1870s they could not easily have published their explorations as there were yet no newspapers in the Wet Mountain Valley Later Yeoman or other prospectors might have been reticent about calling atlention to the cave if they built ladders down the shafts in the hope of rinding minerals Study 01 the county mining-claim records could be informative)

Future Opportunities

Most knowledge we now have on Marble Mountain history before organized caving is based on writings of big-city visitors from 1919 on When time allows I intend to search the microfilms of Custer County newspapers in the period 1880-1920 to see if items overlooked by library indexers may shed light on the gaps in our knowledge of the Marble Mountain caves Fascinating revelations are very likely to result Johnsons letter of 1944 (op cit) also stated There was evidence of early visitation [in Marble Cave] including names carved on rocks but these date mostly back about 50 years ago Informative graffiti are numerous in Cave of the White Marble Halls but I do not recall seeing any in Spanish Cave during my own explorations in the 1950s and 60s It should be carefully reexamined to see if we have overlooked signatures that could be keys to the solution of the puzzles

Better documentation of the cave itself would also be desirable The Colorado Grotto surveyed most of lower Spanish in the 1950s to the standards then prevailing I do not know the length of the CG survey but it probably included less than 1000 feet The Southern Colorado Grotto discoveries from 1959 to the early 1960s were not surveyed at the time

From 1975 to 1988 Jerry Hassemer led the mapping of 2642 feet of upper Spanish including the main route between entrances and the Rimstone Passage its longest side gallery (Hassemer personal comm Sept 13 1992) (About 1735 feet of this are along the through-route) His survey showed a vertical difference of 449 feet between lower and upper entrance by both internal mapping and a surface closure loop The old Colorado Grotto map appears to show a depth of just over 270 feet from lower entrance to deepest surveyed point thus total surveyed depth of Spanish Cave is about 720 fect (The entrance elevations of Spanish Cave have never been established by survey to a benchmark but altimeter readings and topographic maps suggest that the upper entrance is around 12000 feet)

Other side passages and superimposed levels in upper Spanish remain unmapped In lower Spanish an important branch the waterfall passage -- which may go deeper than the so-called Gold Diggings at the end of the existing map -- remains unsurveyed The high elevation and extremely cold wet conditions continue to inhibit complete exploration and mapping as they have for as long as the cave has been known

87Journal of Speleall History

j

J I

Q ARl~e-~ ecrn 111lt1 hy the united -t~r Govshy

ernment and () gter Hed fnr t he pleasure p the pur-Ilc LInder the directir T) f t he ~ tion ~1 Plr i

Service Lone ()f the worlds I ~tgshyesi and most wonderfu I e lVes

Mr N vdk wns ghen gtltc id permission by the Derarrment of the Interi0r to make mm io n lIld still photographs in this mighty suhterranean wondcrlmd

With the co-()rtr~tion of the Superintendent and his ~ t a ff Mr Neville i ~ ited rlrts ltIt the Cavern I)() t re-n In the llIll ie

Urili ing al l ll th e exrnence gained 11 rho og rlgthingl hunshydred caes he m11ltmiddot nHHio n lnd still pictures of 11 mti frm shyHllms you mny ne(r 1gt 11gt1 to see The lre Jt~) i ( tt l Iith the skill md arri try then Mr Neville Igtrings ((I l1 his rholOshygraphic ork You wi ll have a new a[preci ati o n of rlw ond t rs of NI(ure after y()U hIc seen thSt ullusual [icrllrcs

ml ~ )middotIIJ l I ltxll r W i n ~ lIl1 rIH)togr 1 I hing the Caves of Kltntlldy )[1 1-Ili1I11 fo r slt tT d Yr DlIff th1t timt h h I S trlmiddote1I1 ~ rh l rs a thoulnd mile 1111-ic rgrltgtllnd

He ha ( ~ rr it h C3 mlt r3 up ond I pw n ltwr huge rock s crnwl el thngtugh lItT worn crev ices so smlll ir eemed imshypossihilt to neglHil te rh em even witho ut rhe heavy ca men1 equip menc-a ll the whi le Illaking hi wond eriul seri e )f interestm g cave pictures

Wlgtrking undr Ihorograrh ic difficultie I n1 rhysICa l h~zard s wh ic h eltIlle1 unsurmoun raH lt Mr Neille has succeeded ntvshyenhelts in Igtrin gi ng Igtcfo re the pulgtlic fy means oi morion ricshycures lnd by lantern slides beautiful scenes and views of formations yUU lta nnm possiLly see fo r yourself

Combined with this he rreshysents them in a highly artistic and cntcrtaining manner

ALADDINS GROTTO

~( A Camera Journey through Underground Fairylands ~ with Russell T Neville the Cave Man

m R Neville is a cave lxrlorer 1nd rhor)grapher Bc)innin~ a a hlgtbh this ~ work has Jevelored into a serious utempt t gt 1()nr1Y ancl present rhee little known heauties hidden tar lgteJuw Ih~ surface of he earth

Interesting experienltcs galore have fdlen tll Mr Nilie Igtt in this exploration rk ( llS have heen iiscltlnrJ wdl knwn caves Ioae heen exrlorel (Ll greuer distan(ts and all til rime his (nmeras have been l1llking a lirhful anJ unique recorl f his travels into rh e Realms f Ni)ht

Mr Nevilles exrtlitiol1 lI1t OIJ Salts Ca e (July 192 1 went into places never hefore st~n by white exrlorers The pnrry was in the Cave ltgtn rhis trir for fifty-one hours anJ rhirry-five minutes They liLltereJ and 1T()ughr to light a co nsiderable quantity lIt materini left hy rhe mysrerio us C 1e Men ot long ago This is shown in rhe pictures and commented upo n bv M r Neville who ha s Jen)[cd much rime to

the study ot the prehistoric folk wh o inhahit 1 rhis l11ighty sulgtrerranenn labyrinth many hundreds of y~1rs ago

Q A VE photography is essentially ver hn1rdou~ md tlifficulr C(gtmtgtined With tht risks pi origina l caw eplorarinn- rraversing unc harted pathways ShTtgtlldcl

in eernal darkness whlre unseen unknown dangers lurk in even shaJ(l there are serious photographic tehllical prohlems t(l be solved

Well gr(lund~d in the rtquir ~ l1lellts of a pkasing picrure Mr Neillc has usel 111 his lbility in the rnkillcrion of wonlerful lighting~ and pkwrial Clgtmpsitigtns PrllJucshying his own light 1 mtans of [()erflll fIlr~ elch giving 72 000 cnndle r ower he comhats the unfavrahle condicigtns which are found in aves Jnd interesting effects nre picwred which lend ench1 lltment to rhe cenes

Three ree Is lit standard ie i 35mm ) motion ricrllre film are al ilahle for use A portable morion ricure pwjecto r can be furnished

Many heautifully ha nd co lor~J lantern sliJes may he used if desi reJ This motion picture film is rhe fi rst and on ly attempt ever made ro prcsem o n t he

screen rhe hidJen undergrour J mancls of Narure

Remarks on the Potential of Underground Space for Defense Against Attack Jack Hurley DC Speleograph June 1960

1 Todays threat from the Soviets is political economic and military Thelalter includes chemical and biological warfare radio-logical fall-out and the weapon of the future - the neutron-ray gun not to mention others yet to be developed

2 The good earth which sustains uswill inevitably have its underground spaces explQited and developed to an unprecedented degree in a return to what might be called the era or the Jmodern cave man for nothing can protect us so well and for minimum cost as the underground spaces

3 In recent times we have the example of Nazi Germany in World War II with some) 000 underground storage depots light assembly plants and factories as well as the present day state or the art middot~ exemplified in Sweden In this country government and commercial interests possess bu~ a few underground sites not all of which can be discussed because of their classified nature However those not classified offer good examples of a good beginning - but only a beginning

Some of the underground sites that have been developed and are presently in usc principally for storage of various kinds are located in Kansas (Hutchinson and elsewhere) Neosho Missouri California and Iron Mountain New York as well as the development by my company of the Annandale Mine Butler Pennsylvania into a huge modern underground storage vault for irreplaceable records Some of our cl ients are the Jones and Laughl in Steel Co the U S Steel Co and the First National Bank oCNew York City Other sites are being usedJor cold storage and for hospitals but as yet the uses are extremely limited

Some of the potential uses are for light manufacturing and assembly plants permal1ent housing for some of our fabulously expensive data computers headquarters for command posts fo r national state and local civil defense storage of items essential for human survival in the event of atomic attack as well as items essential to the process of industrial rehabilitation To a limited extent they may also be utilized as shelters for at least some of the population in case of disaster

Why is it that the underground has not been more fully exploited and developed

1 Th~aver~ge individual dislikes the idea 2 The potential of the ul1derground for storage and housing has only been slightly understood 3 Existing sites are not always conveniently located 4 Those who cculd spark such development do not fully understand the nature and perhaps the imminency of the threat 5 I n some cases development has been stifled because of the cost even though this is but a fraction of that iiwolvedin creating a totally man-made facility for similar purposes Also there have been mistaken efforts to use underground space for purposes for which itwas not suited 6 The average human being strongly resists change in his essential concepts The so-called vested interests must first realize a scarcity of suitable top-side space before they will begin acquiringund~rground space

71Journal of Speleall History

Some of the advantages of good mines and caves are

1 They are generally removed from critical target areas 2 Development costs no more than on the surface and is frequently considerable less 3 In the long run maintenance and operating costs are much lower 4 In business and industry the absenteeism of workers due to illness extremes of temperature etc frequently becomes a real problem In my opinion working in the quiet atmosphere underground in a steady temperature and humidity level would have a beneficial and healthful effect This same situation makes it far easier to create a static condition beneficial to tl)e preservation and long life of records and other materials stored underground 5 The standard earth cover for modern missile bases is 25 feet Nearly all mines and caves of any consequence have far more cover than this thus increasing their protection potential

You as cave explorers and members of the National Speleological Society can assist by

1 Providing inventories of the most suitable caves for various purposes 2 Assist in developing guides or standards for caves for specific purposes 3 Talk about how mines and caves can be utilized and thus influence those who are in a ~tjon to initiate action in this direction

The above is the substance oj a talk given by Mr Hurley 10 the members oj the DC ChilP4tl oj the NSS on June 7 1960

Comment of the Designation of Certain Caves as Fallout Shelters William H Peters DC Speleograph April 1963

I believe all of us as members of the National Speleological Society have been aware for the past several years of the interest in utilizing selected caves for the protection of civilian population in the event of a national emergency The interest up until now remote has materialized into an actual requisitioning of caves in Pendleton County West Virginia and other communities in that state anxious to utilize all of their resources for what can certainly be called a noteworthy if not heroic program There has been at first a rejection of the idea among speleologists We are at first repelled by the idea of giving up our almost absolute sovereignty of the underground The realities of the world invading our isolated laboratories is unacceptable to us as scientists~ and of course the whole concept of nuclear war is still psychologically repugnant Our first reaction is expressed in many ways - useless protests exclamations of impossibility and we formulate every reason for the programs failure

But as citizens we have a responsibility to study the problem and the facts are not pleasing Repugnant as it is nuclear warfare lives not too far from the pleasantries of our life This is

72 JOllrllal of Speleall History

proven by the not so far removed Cuban Crisis In November 1962 LS Finkelstein at the Harvard University Center for International Affairs writing of the Soviet position on Arms Inspection is quoted It is hard to escape the conclusion that the Soviet Union for at least much of the time seems to have been interested more in employing the negotiations as a means of weakening the military and political position of the West that as a route to a viable disarmament system He goes on to quote James P Wadsworth to the effect that the Soviet Union has employed arms control negotiation as a part of a grand strategy aimed at the eventual total defeat of the other side 1 Thus for those persons who hope for an easy solution it is hard to find the substance to nourish those hopes

The possibility of reducing the probable use of nuclear weapons is diminished by the cruel fact that reduction in armaments only increases the probability of escalation in armament by lessening the factor required for decisive advantage while additionally making the elements of decisive advantage available to many other countries who may aspire to greater roles than current economic or scientific resources have relegated them This point is well illustrated by HA Kissinger nuclear disarmament has revealed the paradoxical fact that there is a certain safety in numbers And this is true even if both sides religiously observe an agreement to limit nuclear weapons Instability is greater if each side possesses ten missiles that if the equilibrium is stabilized at say 500 For an attack which is 90 successful when the opponent has ten missiles leaves him one or a number hardly able to inflict unacceptable damage An attack of similar effectiveness when the opponent possesses 500 missiles leaves 50 - perhaps sufficient to pose an unacceptable risk 2

We can easily conclude that the probability of removing nuclear weapons from the field of War Science is remote from purely tactical necessity What is also critical to our thinking is that the War Sciences are advancing in their ability to assess more and more elements and their relationship to decisive advantage Von Neumann in formulating the Minimax Game Theory and its reduction to mathematical models applied to computers increases the number of factors to be considered beyond the capability of the human mind International politics are founded upon economic and strategic factors rather than ethical or moral principle It is not impossible that in the cold realistic logic of the Game Theory3 that some remote event passing unseen by the casual observer will relate itself to decisive advantage for the opponent and may demand immediate action by one or the other side We cannot hope that in every instance the situation will escalate as did the Cuban Crisis so that the population can prepare itself

The comparison of Civil Preparedness to Ostrichism is not a fair comparison Civil Preparedness adds another factor for a potential enemy and complicates his game It makes it more difficult to game reliability Kissinger points out four considerations for reducing the possibility of decisive advantage the second of which is Since invulnerability is a relative term the purpose of arms control measures must be to strengthen so far as possible the relative position of the defender either by enhancing the security of his force or by complicating the calculations of the aggressor2 It is thus that civil preparedness serves a two fold purpose of deterring and of providing some measure

of survi val

The remoteness of the areas under consideration enhances the desirability of taking appropriate measures God forbid that it should come to pass but in the event of a nuclear holocaust it is these areas that could become the springboard for the reconstruction of our democracy and for the continuation of our cultural heritage

As members of the National Speleological Society we have the opportunity of not only participating but of making a definite contribution No other organization has more resources in

73Journal of Speeall History

scientific personnel experience or knowledge relating to caves Failure to meet our responsibilities at this time will only widen possible misunderstandings between the National Speleological Society and Civil Defense Organizations We must accept the fact that as the civil defense program expands more cave resources will be requisitioned Our opposition will only serve as a barrier to continued parallel use of these resources

The Society can assist in both the areas of applied practical knowledge and of basic research To list bnt a few are - advising and monitoring storage in areas of historical underground hydrological fluctuations monitoring humidity temperature and air circulation locating suitable areas in caves that will minimize the possibility of vandalism recommending types of closures of gates and assisting in their installation checking periodically the condition of supplies and reporting this to appropriate authority and condemnation of areas due to strata imperfection and probability of breakdown

There are many questions in need of investigation What is the relationship in a multiple stream capture theory and the possible concentration of radioactive or other contaminates in a cave duc to fIltration What is the probability of infection by intake of foods contaminated by histoplasma ir any What is the relationship of bat rabies to human cave habitation What provision must be made for sanitation - control of rats and possible damage to supplies and in the event of human habitation control of rat fleas as possible communicators of typhUS or other epidemic diseases) What is the probability of excessive amounts of radioactive materials being introduced to the cavc environment by animals such as bats that enter and leave the cave frequently These represent only a portion of the questions which should be examined to determine their relevance and what precautionary measures should be taken if relevant

I would like to propose that at a special meeting of the Board of Governors a Civil Defense Advisory Committee composed of competent scientists and speleologists be formed for the purpose of formulating suitable policies initiating scientific investigation and in general assuming the role of representing and coordinating the Societys Civil Defense effort The question as to whether we can afford to undertake such a program with its inherent socialpolitical implications should be answered - Can we afford not to

References

1 Arms Inspection International Conciliation Nov 1962 (It is interesting to note that in my upinion this publication follows closely the United Nations activities It is surprising to observe this pessimistic attitude in that area)

2 Foreign Affairs Volume 39 no 4 July 1960 Inspection and Surprise Attack p 56l

3 A current article on Game Theory appears in the December 1962 issue of Scientific Americall by Anatol Rapoport The Use and Misuse of Game Theory

Journal of Speleall History 74

1922 Trip Reports

Maud Orr Howell

Trip 10 Bear Cave

Gordon Brown led eight of us including Elizabeth Hord George Raudebush Benie Weaver Tom Weaver Johnny Connor Boyte and me to Bear Cave in Savage Gulch

We left the Observatory at 900 am went down Clark Cottage Path and across the valley to the clearing in front of the old Savage home

The girls rested while the boys went up the side of Peak Mountain to a ~pring and brought back some water Then we explored the old house In one of the upstairs rooms that had newspapers on the walls we read in the Society section of a newspaper dated August 17 1908 that Mr and Mrs Sanford Duncan had gone to spend a few days with Mrs Robert Orr in Maury County

We cut across the field to the right of the house and climbed along the side of Peak Mountain then straight down the side of the mountain to Savage Creek After drinking water from a spring running into the creek we followed the creek up a few yards then climbed up the mountain on the left a few yards to the cave This is Coppenger Mountain It was 11 45 so we ate our Iunch and rested until 1 10 when all but Elizabeth and Tom went in the cave We had candles and carbide lights and Gordon led the way It saw 220 when we got out After resting a few minutes and taking some Kodak pictures we all including Elizabeth and Tom went in again and stayed until 300 pm

We gathered our things which included sticks which Gordon had cut for us the Kodak the lunch bag canteen etc and set out straight up the mountain with Gordon pulling us up some of the places until we hit the cliffs We followed the cliffs along until we found a place to climb up When we got on the top we walked along the mountain until we got to the end of it which is just above the Savage house We went down a path which went straight down the mountain to the Savage house rested while the boys got water then came home to Howell cottage the same way we had gone arriving here at 700 pm

Trip to Bats Cave

Saturday September 2 1922

We first planned to walk to Tatesville but not knowing how far it was we gave it up and decided to walk to Bats Cave The night before the trip we gave that up too as it was so far and the weather so hot

As we were eating breakfast Mr George Mitchell came and he had breakfast with us He suggested getting a wagon for our trip so immediately after breakfast Mr George Bettie Martha and Tom Weaver Boyte and I went to the store and got Earnest Rubleys wagon

75Journal of Speleall History

We all met on the Observatory There were 19 of us Five including Mr George Jennings and George Bailey Torn and Charlie Trabue IV left first and went down the Backbone Road intending to meet us at the Collins River bridge The rest of us Elliott and David Adams Lucy and Elizabeth Bailey Lucinda Trabue Irene Langford Elizabeth Mclane Kate Keene Johnson Susan Lewis Bettie and Martha Weaver Boyte and I walked down the mountain from the Observatory and met the wagon a little piece up the valley We missed the other bunch and they did not catch up with us until we had left the wagon and were eating lunch at the spring

We finished lunch and walked up the mountain to the cave We went to the big room where we stopped last year which is just beyond the small ladder We climbed the ladder then all but Irene Tom Elizabeth and I went on further We waited at the top of the ladder until they came back They had gone to another big room and circled around it about three times before finally finding the way out They found an old Nashville newspaper dated 1847 and another paper with some names on it They added their names to this list

When we got out of the cave it was nearly 500 We had been in there three hours

We went back to the wagon and started horne We got to Collins River bridge about dark The moon was almost full and the ride up the valley in the moonlight in a wagon filled with hay and pulled by mules was beautiful We stopped at Mortons store and Mr George telephoned up lo Beersheba and told them where we were and assured them that we would be home soon He brought out oodles of cookies and we had a grand time eating them We sang and yelled and relaxed on the hay We left the wagon at the bottom of Beersheba Mountain Martha led the way up the mountain in the dark with only the moon to help guide us We had Oashlights but it was hard to keep in the path But it was fun We reached the top at the Observatory at 845 pm and no one seemed to be tired

Trip to Peak Mountain

A crowd of us left Aunt Mats Cottage at 930 am on Monday August 28 1922 There were 19 of us including Mr George Mitchell Elizabeth Hord Mr Colville Elliott Adams Jennings Bailey Lucy Bailey Kate Keene Johnson George Eldred Mary Wilson Eldred Irene Langford Elizabeth Mclane Bettie Orr Martha Weaver Tom Weaver Alfred Williams Mary Phillips Street Susan Lewis Boyte Howell Jr and me (Maud Orr Howell)

We went down Clark Cottage Path to the valley The crowd was separated going down but we all got together at the foot of the mountain crossed the valley and climbed Peak Mountain There was no path we just went up the side of the mountain and went thru a pass up the cliffs We got there about 1200 pm rested then ate lunch We put up a nag (Elizabeth Hords petticoat)

Aoout 100 pm we left to find the old stage coach road to Chattanooga We went straight across the top of the mountain and found the road at the spring and a little log cabin We followed the road to the valley We heard Marshall Eldred mooing answered him and he found us Gordon Bro n who was with him led us to Peter Rock Cave on the side of Peak Mountain Marshall did not start out with us because he helped Gordon fix the leaks in Laurel Mill Dam Elliott led us in the cave and we did not go back very far It was pretty but wet and muddy

We c~me home by Dishroon Springs drank some of the water and ate the rest of our lunch [hen came on up the mountain A few of us stopped at the Johnson place and looked across the valley at Elilabeth Hords petticoat which we had left on a tree on Peak Mountain We came on horne arriving here about 500 pm

Journal of Speleall History 76

No Old Gold or Bones A Skeptical Review of Caverna del Oro Legendry Donald G Davis reprinledfrom Rocky Mountain Caving Summer 1992

In the thin air of timberline on Marble Mountain in the Sangre de Cristo range icy wind blows from the entrance to a deep and cryptic cave marked by the damaged remnant of a rust-red cross Known today as Spanish Cave it is the most publicized non-commercial cave in Colorado It has been featured for more than 70 years in media - first newspapers then magazines books and television specials Most of this publicity recounts stories that it is La Caverna del Oro where Indian slaves mined gold for 17th century Spaniards Many people take this as fact Recently a Colorado caver told me he had spoken with a journalist who assured him that the cave was bottomless and contains untold treasures

Spanish Cave was important in the start of my own caving career in 1957 While attending Colorado A amp M College (later CSU) I saw in scrapbooks in the Fort Collins Museum clippings of the Colorado Question Box column from the Rocky Mountain News circa 1955 They told stories of a Maltese-cross-marked entrance lost gold mine and chained skeleton reported in the caverns depths After correcting the first error we found in the accounts (that the cave was on Homs Peak several miles north of Marble Mountain) two of us (Vin Hoeman and myself) in the college Hikers Club located the cave the next year In subsequent years with Frank and Paul Leskinen James W Meachan and others in the Southern Colorado Grotto of the NSS I led the discovery of about two-thirds of its presently known passage

Finding that the Western History Department of the Denver Public Library had a clipping file on the cave I also undertook research on its history which I have continued intermittently since The mure I learned about the real cave the more disillusioned I became with the stories sensationalizing it I learned much about the rules of logic and evidence during the investi galion and was ultimately convinced that there was no satisfactory confirmation that Spanish explorers ever saw or entered the cave much less mined gold from it Following are some of the reasons for that concl usion

The most readily available summary of the legendry is in Lloyd Parris Caves oCoLorado (1973) pp 24-32 Parris precedes his Treasure Caves accounts with a confused and equivocal disclaimer The following tales for the most part have the validity of history behind them and in most cases the caves are known Undoubtedly though some of the legends connected with these caves belong in Chapter IV under hoax and humbug And if these legends seem to disagree or contradict what is previously known it is because they were selected not for entertainment alone but as a presentation of the known facts or legends as the case may be An evaluation of the authenticity has not been attempted This is left for the reader to do

This reader hereby takes up the challenge

The Spanish Mille Legends

A number of accounts (including Parriss) relate that Spanish Monastery Latin documents record gold being brought to pre-Columbian Mexican Indian kingdoms Acolhua Aztec and Tepance

Jourllal of Speleall History 77

from the north Then in 1541 three monks were supposedly left behind by Coronado (the Rocky MOllntain News June 3 1923 says 1598) One Fray Juan de la Cruz reportedly reopened a mine using forced labor by Pecos I ndians (a northern New Mexico Pueblq trib~)and packed treasure toward Mexico City but never arrived there Nuggets and gold bars reported found by one Baca in 1811 were speculated to be part of this treasure and a prospector searching (according to Parris) for Cavema del Oro half a century later found a silver cup engraved with the name Hermione Taken at face value all this gives the impression that stories about Caverna del Oro are of great antiquity though the original Spanish documents are never cited

This suite of tales was first widely distributed in an article by Alberta Pike headlines OLD MANUSCRIPT INDICATES VAST RICHES IN COLORADO CA VE GUARDED BY SKELETON in the Rocky Mountain News of Sept 6 1932 Subsequent Spanish Cave popularizers have recopied them from one article to the next without naming a source for them I recently made an enlightening discovery in the Colorado Historical Society library about where this material came from

Before any known Spanish Cave article was written Louis Bernhardt Sporleder -- early resident and prominent citizen of Walsenburg Colorado -- published a souvenir booklet titled Huajalolla Breasts of the World (1916) An article in The Trail June 1922 reprinted much of this booklet and said Sporleder had a number of unpublished manuscripts giving information historical and legendary about the Spanish Peaks (as the Huajatolla are more commonly known) Sporleders booklet included word for word most of the above Spanish mine material copied by later Cavema del Oro writers

Even his misspelling of the Tepance kingdom (properly Tepanec) has been faithfully reproduced by authors as late as Parris

As to the actual historicity of Sporleders items I know little but his writings (eg The Roses of Huajatolla The Trail Dec 1922) were prone to wild flights of romantic fiction incorporating gross errors about natural history He claimed for instance that the otherwise extinct passenger pigeon still survived on the Spanish Peaks in fact it has never been recorded in Colorado His human history appears similarly colored But even if he was accurate it is crucial to our study that his stories were exclusively about the Spanish Peaks making no connection whatever to Marble Mountain 50 miles to the northwest He specifically stated that the silver cup was found beside a spring in a grotto at the base of East Spanish Peak (the name Hermione moreover is Greek not Spanish) All of this is therefore irrelevant to the cavern on Marble Mountain that we know as Spanish Cave

In Sporleders 1916 version the prospector who found the cup was searching for Huajatollas mines of gold In Pikes 1932 recounting he was seeking the lost mine but she associates it with the cave on Marble Mountain Parris in 1973 transmutes the object of the searchers quest explicitly into the Caverna del Oro Thus by insidious mutations does spurious lore enshroud our cave

Forbes Parkhill asserted that Marble cave Legends connect the Spanish cross and the ancient timber found in the mine [sic] with the gold hunting and exploring expeditions of Juan de Onate in 1597 and the Escalante-Dominguez expedition in 1776 (Explorers to Seek Mysteries of Caves in San Isabel Wilds Discovered Four Centuries Ago Denver Post Oct 9 1921) Even Parris rejects these suggestions because those expeditions did not come close to Marble Mountain

Jourllal of Speleall History 78

Earliest Known Accounts ofthe Cave middot

In 1919 appeared a brochure Out-ol-door Piaygroullds of the Sansabel National Forest USDA middot Circular 5 by Henry S Graves Forester It declared that The Caves of the Winds [not to be confused with Cave of the Winds at Manitou Springs] a system of giant crevices in a mountain or solid white marble is one of the principal natural wonders of the Forest These caves have been penetrated to a depth of over 1200 feet without the end being reached Theymay be reached by wagon road from Westcliffe

On Oct 12 1919 the Denver Post ran an anonymous article San Isabels Caves of Winds Among Wonders of Colorado It stated The Caves of the Winds have been known to exist for many years They are described brieOy in the report of the San Isabel national forest A party of Denver business men is planning to visit the caves this autumn with a view to exploring them to their depths if pOssible If it is found that the natural wonders said to exist in the interior of the caves are equal to reports which have been received these men will ask the government for the I

privilege of developing the caves as a tourist attraction

That Spanish Cave is the object of these writings is indicated by the emphasis on wind great depth (four times the actual depth of the cave as then known) and incomplete exploration the nearby Cave of the White Marble Halls is less strongly windy nearly horizontal and was already well explored (The accompanying entrance photo is not Marble Mountain) A similar item in the Post of June 27 1920 mentions a huge cave on Marble mountain which has never been explored by man beyond a depth of 1800 feet and which may rival the famed Mammoth Cave of Kentucky Neither treasure legends nor stories ofSpanish exploration are me11lioned in any of these earliest printed accounts

Apollina Apodacas Story

The real genesis of treasure stories as applied to Spanish Cave so far as I can find is with Apollina Apodaca (her name is variously spelled in different accounts I use the spelling that seems most probable) In 1919 (not 1920 as said in Caves oColorado) Paul Gilbert later District Ranger in the Forest heard wonderful tales from this old woman As he recalled in The Bulletin of the Rocky Mountain Region of the US Forest Service (Dec 1936)

She stated that the Spaniards used to get gold from it and further stated that if one were to descend to a sufficient depth [in some accounts she is said to have specified 90 or 93 feet] a set of oak doors would be found and if they were forced open one would find a tunnel leading back into the bowels of the mountain -- and the source of the gold would be found She further stated that when she was a child they used to take a blanket wrap it around a heavy stone and throw it down the shaft In the course of a short time the blanket would be blown back minus the rock by the strong winds that come continually from the shaft

The following spring Gilbert located the cave which he misinterpreted as more of a volcanic fissure than it is a cave and visited it with Arthur C Carhart An item mentioning this trip (Mystery Caves in ColoradoRocky Mountain News Sept 21 1921) is the earliest I have found that makes a Spanish or lost-mine connection Old timers in the hills up there declare the place is the shaft of the old Three Step mine famous in Spanish history Carhart himself in the POSl of Jan 1 1922 says it is reported that it is an old Spanish mine entrance marked with a red cross of Malta and has old timber and a log chain inside

Jourllal of Speleall History 79

Gilberts writings are not entirely consistent about his informants statistics in the above report she is Mexican 105 years old in 1919 and died at 110 In his letter to Robert 1 OConnell of Feb 18 1957 (as published in History ojthe Colorado Grotto Nov 1961) she is Spanish and died in 1923 at age 103 A followup letter of Feb 25 adds that she spent most of her life in the vicinity of San Luis [in the San Luis Valley on the opposite side of the Sangre de Cristos] Another source (Dayle Molen Pueblo Star-Jollmal Nov 18 1956) says she lived near Gardner Perry Eberhart in his sensationalistic Treasure Tales of the Rockies (11) calls her an Indian squaw Raymond Thorp in American ForesTs Aug 1935 citing Gilbert says she died eight years ago which would have been 1927 (this is the date used by Parris) These points may be quibbles yet they indicate a lack of precision in recording the facts about her And since the account attributed to Ms Apodaca is pivotal to the entire Caverna del Oro oeuvre let us dissect it critically

Every element is either improbable or impossible Leaving the geologic aspect until later take the oaken doors There are no oaks for many miles and where they do appear they are scrub oak which would have provided door-size timber only in rare cases (though oaks of that size were more common in the Rockies then than now) And why haul heavy oak to timberline when (though strong when new) it does not resist rot as well as say the more easily obtained juniper There is not in any case any opening near the 9O-foot level where such doors could have been used

The blanket story is completely fanciful As we proved in 1961 (NSS News Aug 1962 part I) the cave wind comes from upper Spanish Cave not from the pit Even if it did the pit is about 15 feet wide whereas the entrance constricts to a narrow crawlway A wind strong enough to blow a blanket back up the pit would rise to such tornadic speed in the crawl as to stop a person from fighting through it to the pit Nor does it seem sensible that people would be blithely tossing their blankets down weighted with rocks After all the rock might fail to unwind and the blanket be lost or shredded at the bottom With so incredible a yarn in it why should not the whole narrative be dismissed as fantasy

The Skeletons

At least three human skeletons have been attested as evidence of Spanish involvement with the cave Two were introduced by reporter Kenneth C Lightburn in a front-page article in the Rocky Mountain News of Sept 4 1932 He claimed that the caves original discovery is credited to Capt Elisha P Hom one of the first settlers in the Wet Mountain Valley in 1869 About its entrance he found the remnants of what might have been a fort and also a skeleton in Spanish armor Through the armor was an Indian arrow (Lightburn also began the misconception that the cave was on Homs Peak) I have not been able to trace the origin of this anecdote but it sounds unlikely if only because the purpose of Spanish armor was to prevent things like stoneshypointed arrows from penetrating ones torso and it generally worked Halls History of Colorado (1895) confirms Elisha P Hom as a pioneer Wet Mountain Valley settler in 1869 but does not mention this story

However the skeleton that Lightburn intended to feature was the one in his articles melodramatic headlines SKELETON FOUND CHAINED BY NECK DEEP IN COLORADO MYSTERY CAVECAVERN IS HIGH IN MOUNTAIN WILDS OF STATEDenver Man Discovers Manacled Bones in Sangre de Cristo Range Moldering 500 Feet Below Surface in Awesome CavitySIGNS INDICATE MINE WORKED IN EARLY DAYSFind Recalls Legends of Fabulous Cavern [sic] del Oro of 17th Century Spaniards The headlines are emphasized by a lurid though regrettably nonphotographic picture of the skeleton and an entrance shot with the cross touched up to show better

80 Journal of Speleall History

Journal of Speean History

The article relates that Peter Moser of Denver with companions Victor Barth and his two sons Donald and Jack had just returned from a descent into the cave (Derivative accounts refer to Victor Donald and Jack Barth the former being a fictitious person born of the omission of an original comma between Victor and Donald)

According to Lightburn the Moser party had climbed down until they reached a vertical pit They lowered a lantern Forty feet downward they saw the bottom and in the light or the lantern could clearly make out the skeleton With a metal strap encircling the neck the pile of bones reclined against the rocky wall as if the person who died there centuries ago hall been chained in a sitting position and left to starve An investigatory trip reported in followup articles of Sept 11 12 arid 18 found no skeleton (If an entrance photo with the story of the 18th is any indication they might not even have found the cave -- the picture is obviously not on Marble Mountain -- it may be at Marble Cave near Canon City) It was speculated that Moser may have seen the skeleton at another point in the cave or that it had been done away with by mysterious parties unknown who had blasted the cave entrance between the two trips

In reality it is not surprising that the chained skeleton was never found There is no sound testimony that it was ever there Unlike Fray Juan de la Cruz Elisha Horn or Apollina Apodaca Peter Moser was still available to me to question when I first researched Lightburns article I found in 1959 that Moser still lived at the same address in Denver as in 1932 On New Years Eve 19591 telephoned him and asked about the story His description made it clear that his party had indeed reached the top of the pit that cavers now call the Jug At that point they had lowered a kerosene lantern on a line and he saw what in his own words looked like a pile of bones on a ledge near the bottom This he said is all he reported to the secretary of the Colorado Mountain Club who in tum contacted the newspaper which -- as Moser put it to me -- dressed it up a little (l printed a more complete record of Mosers hour-long interview in the Southern Colorado Grotto newsletter Spelunk Junk Mar 1960)

This embroidery was to be expected in an era when the Denver papers were battling for readers during the Great Depressiun and were notorious for sensationalism But even if Mosers own explanation did not debunk the skeleton he reportedly found it would not be believable The Jug is about 80 feet deep Have you ever tried to see in cavernous darkness where your breath makes mist clouds by a kerosene lantern at that range Then you will agree that a chaincd skeleton even in fine preservation could hardly have been seen well enough from the top to be recognized unequivocally

81

Caves oColorado complicates the matter by citing a letter to me from James W Meacham in vhich a bone found by Meacham at the bottom of the Jug in 1959 was pronounced human by John A Murphy of the Denver Museum of Natural History What Parris does not say is that I had written him in 1969 -- four years before his book was published -- that another expert at the University of Colorado Museum had declared it a deer bone (This water-worn two-inch fragment might well challenge a forensic specialist)

Not content with two skeletons Thorp (American Forests Aug 1935 op cit) adds a third to this spooky company A strange legend that still haunts the native people concerns a skeleton hung with buckskin which guarded Marble Cave just on the other side of Caverna del Oro It was the first quarter of the 19th century and an American free trapper wandered too far west The Spaniards for fear he would reveal their hiding place crucified him For a half century he remained pinioned to a wcxxlcn cross Aside from the improbably sadistic mode of execution this image typical of cartoons or folklore reveals ignorance of the properties of real skeletons which do not long remain articulated when exposed to weather decay and scavengers

Others find ulterior significance in our discovery of bones of bison and pronghorn antelope in upper Spanish Cave in the 1960s calling them plains species that would never ascend to such lofty heights Unless someone had used the cave for storing or curing meat (Bill Kaiser The Treasure of Caverna del Oro Colorful Colorado May-June 1973) I did not know this then but these animals have been known to ascend to the alpine tundra in historic ti mes and might have done so more often when they were abundant and unfenced The cave is much too wet to be good ror storing perishables

The Artifacts

Many reliable observers from Carhart and Gilbert onward report finding in the 1920s and 30s old artifacts of unknown provenance in Spanish Cave These include a winch chains whiskey bottle jug timber ladders shovel single-jack and a hammer They have all disappeared or been reduced to fragments but claims made for some of them purport to establish archeological evidence of Spanish presence

Thorp (1935 op CiL) in describing the 1932 Rocky Mountain News expedition states that on the second ledge they found the remains of a rudely constructed ladder which Dr LeRoy Hafen ( then editor historian and curator of the State Historical Society) after carefully examining asserted was at least 200 years old Below after being lowered 110 feet they found a crude hand-forged hammer which the historian declared was of 17th century vintage Gilbert (The Bulletin Dec 1936 op cit) and an Alamosa Courier article (from June 1937) repeat these avowals

These are very important allegations since the Spanish were the only people who could have left such artifacts in the 17th century To investigate them I wrote in 1960 to LeRoy Hafen inquiring about his trip to the cave and his knowledge of its history and specifically whether he had certified the hammer as of 17th-century manufacture and if so who now had it His reply was less specific than my questions but it is a primary document on one of the major claims about Spanish Cave and I reproduce it below verbatim

If LeRoy Hafen made claims of antiquity for the Spanish Cave artifacts in 1932 he obviously did not stand by them later His wife Ann W Hafen in Detective Historian (Denver WesTerners Monthly Roundup July 1954) had also recounted his 1932 cave trip and commented disproving a baseless story is important it is part of the search for truth She elaborated To the party the venture was disappointing No treasure found No relic of the ancient conquistadores But to the

Jourllal of Speleall History 82

detective Historian it was just another clue pursued another myth exploded another triumph for the scholars code -- to build history on fact not on fossilized fiction

Thorp (1935 op cit) relates that the timbers of their ladder system were about eight inches in diameter squared on four sides with an ax Auger holes were bored into their sides and they were fitted with wooden rungs pegged into the holes No nails were used al though this probably would have been done by early Germans or Americans [the wood is] now decayed and may be broken in many ins tances by the hand This construction however is not strong evidence for Spanish work Before the railroad reached the Wet Mountain Valley in the 1880s commodities such as nails would have been scarce and expensive anyone building such structures before then might well have used no metal It would also be stronger than tacking on rungs with nails when not using sawed lumber Concerning the other cave artifacts there is not enough information to suggest a date

BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY PROVOUTAH

January 13 1960

11r Donald G Davia P O Box 145 T1lnlath Colorado

Dear Hr Davia

I ~ intereat~d to learn f~ your letter of January J 1960 of your study and COllCen WJth the Caverna del Oro Hy visit to the cave and descent into it was with a party directed and financed by the Tourist Bureau or its counterpart of the period The contemporary ewspal6rs gave som~ accowtof the venture

I made the firat descant into the cave kt that time ging down the rope bS

you doubtless have done ince I recall at the edg~ of the pit th~re were s(XlIe rotted logs that may have been the framework of a windlass At tho bott~ of the pit I found a suall sledge ~er encrusted with limestone formation I dont recall what was done with this haa-er I remember no other relics in the pit

Our purposo was to investigate certain rumors a3 to early use of the cave as a SVanish mine I think middot there is little~~ion for that as the limestone fonnation is a poor VlOspect fot middotormation

The legnd hat a skeleton was chained to the wall gave added impetus to the trip Needless to eay nothing of the sort was found That cav and some near were epoken of colloctively os the Karble Campve and sune referred to this one as the Caverna del Or~ cave of gold The Kaltes cross painted on the rock at the entrllJce to tle cave already had a faded appearance I know nothi8 of the rk of Capto1n Hom regarding the di Scove ry of ~ he cave

i~J At the bottOlll of the pit Carl Dlaurohpersucd tho crevice out 5 far dS ~ ~ could go and found nothi8 to reward our efforts If Hr Ulaurot is still living i Denver he could give you sooe sidelights on th cave as ho visited it after our initial exploration

Cordially yours

LO 91+-LeRoy R IlcIen DeparUent of History

Some writers (eg Jesse Ball Canon City Daily Record Sept 14 1933) speculate that the cave was used by the Spanish as a refuge from Indian attacks The cave itself being windy wet and ncar-freezing would not have been ideal for such occupancy A ruined fort was alleged to exist below Marble Mountain as early as 1881 (Golden City Transcript Aug 31 1881 citing Cusler City Prospect ) later articles mention rifle pits I have seen what I presume to be these features below timberline and could not distinguish them from the miners prospect pits common in the Colorado mountains The largest log breastwork structure has also been interpreted as an old corral (Jerry Hassemer oral communication) If defensive works they are cr Jde ones indeed

This leaves to be considered the famous cross beside the entrance It is about one and a half feet square with flared ends meeting at the corners It has been variously described as burnt on

Jou rnal of Speean History 83

deeply chiseled or etched but in reality is prosaically painted with what looks to be a stable iron oxide pigment perhaps using some sort of template Portions of It had a thm patma of calcite crust when I first saw it in 1958 Though almost always called Maltese it is not as can be seen by looking up a crosses illustration in any large dictionary The true Maltese cross has indented ends A G Birch (Denver Post Aug 11 1929) correctly pointed out that the cave marker isin the perfect form of a German Iron Cross But he also says it was old when the first white sehler saw it more than sixty years ago without explaining how he knew this A contradictory testimony (Trail and Timberline April 1957) asserts that there is one old-timer who states that he knCv the fellow who painted it years ago as ajoke I wiIl pass over both of these declarations as uncorroborated

Spanish crosses as I have seen them represented on coins and in art have narrow straight-sided arms often with the basal arm longer and with the ends variously embellished They are typically very different from German ones It is suggestive that the first sedentary settlers below Marble Mountain were Germans of the Colfax colony in 1870 The colony as an entity failed within a year but some thirty families took possession of quarter sections and prospered as can be seen by the many descendants still living in the area (Wet Mountain Tribune Centennial Edition Dec 20 1985) German immigrants also arrived later on and the ranches cl osest below the caves remained in possession of the German-derived Henrich and Neermann families into recent years Crosses in the square form seen at the cave were used in German decorative motifs (I have seen an antique coffee-grinder at an abandoned German homestead in eastern Colorado that was ornamented with them) The cross could have been painted by a Colfax settler exploring his surroundings soon after the colonys establishment The dispersal of most of the colony in 1871 would account for the failure of later inhabitants to know who had created it

Alternatively it might have been a product of prospector 1 H Yeoman He figures in one of the earliest known accounts of a Marble Mountain cave in History of the Arkansas Valley Colorado (1881) A later report on this cave (Denver Republican Feb 20 1888) appears to describe Cave of the White Marble Halls south of Spanish Cave and states that the cave was discovered by Yeoman on Sept 16 1880 Yeoman obligingly left a graffito confirming this in the cave and the Kings and Queens Chambers of the article are likewise identified (Another 1881 account -shyGolden Cty Transcript op cit -- describes a similar cave but claims discovery by Messrs Hendershot amp Dickson of Custer City) A red cross like that at Spanish Cave but smaller and with narrower arms marks the entrance the associated graffito in English 400 Feet to the White Marble Halls precludes a Spanish conquistador origin (A writing inside -- Mrs H G ReedSilver Cliff CololHere 8115197 -- is done in a similar ornate hand) I have also seen Yeomans signature in Moonmilk Cave just across the ravine south of Spanish and scarcely possible to reach without seeing the Spanish entrance He must have known of Spanish Cave and pesumably had entered it

[he Geology

Finally a point that seems so obvious that it should hardly need to be mentioned decades of repeated explorations in Spanish Cave have failed to turn up a trace of mining or of gold and there is excellent reason for this Gold is found either where hydrothermal solutions have mineralized host rock or where deposits originating in that fashion have been eroded and concentrated in placer gravels Neither situation applies at Marble Mountain where the caves occur in an unaltered Pennsylvanian biothermal limestone lens sandwiched almost vertically between shales and conglomeratic sandstones (The name Marble Mountain is a misnomer marble is limestone altered -- metamorphosed -- by heat andor pressure The abundance of well-preserved brachiopod and crinoid fossils shows that Marble Mountain is not metamorphosed) The only mineralization known on the mountain is a little low-grade copper on the south limestone outcrop

Jourllal of Speleall History 84

Paul Gilbert notwithstanding the caves are in no way volcanic but are relatively typical highshygradient alpine limestone solution caves dissolved probably by massive runoff from melting snov and ice during Pleistocene glacial epochs Writers have speculated that Spanish Cave had a lower entrance (possible since the cave water does emerge at a spring lower down) and an entrance on the west side of the mountain (not possible since the limestone does not outcrop there) Ironically the only new entrance cavers have actually found was in a direction not suggested by any known author above Its discovery explained the cave wind as a chimney effect between the entrances -- blowing down to the lower opening when it is warmer outside than inside reversing when it is colder outside

Conclusions

I know of no one else who has analyzed the Caverna del Oro stories as thoroughly but I am not the first to publish critical judgments on them Mrs Hafen has already been quoted Also on record (NSS Bulletin 8 July 1946) is a letter dated 10444 from Fred R Johnson Chief Information and Education US Forest Service

Carl Biaurock a member of the Colorado Mountain Club explored this cave in 1925 again in 1931 and later in more detail in 1932 On the last date the exploration was the result of several articles in the Rocky MOUnTain News in which an old yam was mentioned to the effect that the cave had been investigated in the Spanish explorations in the eighteenth [sic] century also that it is supposed to have yielded a large quantity of gold and other valuable minerals there are no signs of any mineral So far as Mr Blaurocks party could tell there is no evidence in the cave of any visitation of Spanish explorers several hundred years ago

Molen (opcit) wrote that this story [from Apodaca] has been disapproved [sic] The tools and ladder in the cave are of comparatively modern origin Blaurock believes Someone years ago must have explored the cave at least as thoroughly as we did he said He also expressed doubt that the rifle pits and fort are of Spanish origin I did not interview Carl Blaurock during my earlier research I telephoned him this summer but he is 98 years old and is too deaf to understand my questions I have sent him a letter of inquiry thus far unanswered

After organized caving had begun William R Halliday founder of the Colorado Grotto of the National Speleological Society also concluded that The fabulous stories are fables The story of Spanish Cave is told (Halliday however was too pessimistic in inferring that the cave was almost completely explored Most of what is now known was discovered just after he wrote but none of the new passage showed signs of human entry)

Diehard romantics might protest that Spanish Cave could still be La Caverna del Oro Caves can hide much perhaps somewhere in the depths there is a localized zone of thermal mineralization conceivably the Spaniards very cleverly concealed the way to the mine workings Such ideas are not impossible but do strain credulity For every verified feature that has been proposed as evidence for Spanish presence there is an alternative explanation that is more plausible The burden of proof then is on the proponents of the Spanish connection The lurid yarns about the cave reflect folklore creation greatly abetted by media exploitation assisted by atrociously sloppy research

The time sequenceof the several names applied to the cave fits this very neatly In sources from 1919 I find The Caves of the Winds From 1920 until 1932 I see Marble Cave Marble

85jOllrtlal of Speleall History

Caves or The Caves but no Spanish-related appellations It is still called Marble Cave at least as late as 1953 (Irma Zanoni Trail amp Timberline Dec 1953) I do not encounter La Cavema del Oro applied to our cave until Lightburns articles of 1932 after which it is common One of Lightburns headlines refers to the old Spanish Cave but Spanish Cave as a proper ~ame seems to appear only in the first Colorado Grotto News amp Notes of Feb 12 1952 where It IS a synonym for Caverna del Oro From then until now Spanish Cave has been the preferred form in the literature of organized caving and in popular media relying on it This unfortunately has helped to maintain the public assumption that the Spanish legendry is based in fact

The caves history is muddled by a series of misnomers a Caverna del Oro with no gold a Maltese cross that is not Maltese marble that is not marble -- and on analyzing the evidence I think that German Cave would have been a more appropriate if less provocative name than Spanish Cave

I expect my skeptical arguments to be ignored by future writers as long as there is a media markcL for exciting treasure tales Why is it important to be critically analytical

Since fact and fiction are not clearly distinguished in media information about the cave many people still believe nonsense about it Apparently the Spanish gold tales retain enough public acceptance to present problems to the Forest Service today It is reported that there was in recent years a proposal to build a road to the cave to facilitate treasure hunting (Jerry Hassemer oral comm)

Furthermore presentation of false gold stories as if they might be true is likely to tempt naive and poorly prepared readers to get in trouble seeking riches This is apparent in a 1957 letter from Roy Truman former District Ranger and colleague of Paul Gilberts (History of the Colorado Grotto 1961)

There was a time when it was very difficult to keep boys away from this cave and I received many calls from parents in Pueblo and other towns all times of the day and night concerning the safety of their boys that had left home with the ideas of exploring this cave with the high hopes of finding valuable ores or treasures they were equipped with a few pieces of small rope [this was probably arter the Depression-era articles]

This problem is also exemplified by a letter in my own files addressed in 1962 to Richard LeSage of the Southern Colorado Grotto from a Denverite He had twenty-four numbered questions including What type of equipiment [sic] will I need (exactly) I havent done much cave exploring Where can I obtain it What type of mask would I need for foul air He concludes We are intending to explore this cave at all cost so your information will be most vilal to us and most appreciable (We never replied deciding that was the safest thing to do)

The extravagance of peoples beliefs about Spanish Cave has sometimes reached quite ridiculous extremes The Colorado Historical Society library has a typescript of research material used by Perry Eberhart in preparing Treasure Tales of the Rockies One note is as follows

Robert Dunne head of Querida sez think cave comes out near Walsenburg or possibly the northern end of Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico never found end

James Dunne Querida

Not even Eberhart was so shameless as to print this in his book

Jourllal of Speleall History 86

There are still many legitimate mysteries left about Marble Mountain and its history How well explored are the ends of Spanish Cave even now Why was Yeomans cave otherwise so clearly White Marble Halls said to have a 275-foot pit Is this an error or a pit now lost Was the vertical Spanish Cave somehow grafted into the account Who really painted the Maltese cross and who put the artifacts into Spanish Why were detailed articles published on White Marble Halls in the 1880s but nothing seems to be on record about Spanish until 1919 in spite of the extensive early work done in it (If the relics were left by Colfax colonists in the 1870s they could not easily have published their explorations as there were yet no newspapers in the Wet Mountain Valley Later Yeoman or other prospectors might have been reticent about calling atlention to the cave if they built ladders down the shafts in the hope of rinding minerals Study 01 the county mining-claim records could be informative)

Future Opportunities

Most knowledge we now have on Marble Mountain history before organized caving is based on writings of big-city visitors from 1919 on When time allows I intend to search the microfilms of Custer County newspapers in the period 1880-1920 to see if items overlooked by library indexers may shed light on the gaps in our knowledge of the Marble Mountain caves Fascinating revelations are very likely to result Johnsons letter of 1944 (op cit) also stated There was evidence of early visitation [in Marble Cave] including names carved on rocks but these date mostly back about 50 years ago Informative graffiti are numerous in Cave of the White Marble Halls but I do not recall seeing any in Spanish Cave during my own explorations in the 1950s and 60s It should be carefully reexamined to see if we have overlooked signatures that could be keys to the solution of the puzzles

Better documentation of the cave itself would also be desirable The Colorado Grotto surveyed most of lower Spanish in the 1950s to the standards then prevailing I do not know the length of the CG survey but it probably included less than 1000 feet The Southern Colorado Grotto discoveries from 1959 to the early 1960s were not surveyed at the time

From 1975 to 1988 Jerry Hassemer led the mapping of 2642 feet of upper Spanish including the main route between entrances and the Rimstone Passage its longest side gallery (Hassemer personal comm Sept 13 1992) (About 1735 feet of this are along the through-route) His survey showed a vertical difference of 449 feet between lower and upper entrance by both internal mapping and a surface closure loop The old Colorado Grotto map appears to show a depth of just over 270 feet from lower entrance to deepest surveyed point thus total surveyed depth of Spanish Cave is about 720 fect (The entrance elevations of Spanish Cave have never been established by survey to a benchmark but altimeter readings and topographic maps suggest that the upper entrance is around 12000 feet)

Other side passages and superimposed levels in upper Spanish remain unmapped In lower Spanish an important branch the waterfall passage -- which may go deeper than the so-called Gold Diggings at the end of the existing map -- remains unsurveyed The high elevation and extremely cold wet conditions continue to inhibit complete exploration and mapping as they have for as long as the cave has been known

87Journal of Speleall History

Remarks on the Potential of Underground Space for Defense Against Attack Jack Hurley DC Speleograph June 1960

1 Todays threat from the Soviets is political economic and military Thelalter includes chemical and biological warfare radio-logical fall-out and the weapon of the future - the neutron-ray gun not to mention others yet to be developed

2 The good earth which sustains uswill inevitably have its underground spaces explQited and developed to an unprecedented degree in a return to what might be called the era or the Jmodern cave man for nothing can protect us so well and for minimum cost as the underground spaces

3 In recent times we have the example of Nazi Germany in World War II with some) 000 underground storage depots light assembly plants and factories as well as the present day state or the art middot~ exemplified in Sweden In this country government and commercial interests possess bu~ a few underground sites not all of which can be discussed because of their classified nature However those not classified offer good examples of a good beginning - but only a beginning

Some of the underground sites that have been developed and are presently in usc principally for storage of various kinds are located in Kansas (Hutchinson and elsewhere) Neosho Missouri California and Iron Mountain New York as well as the development by my company of the Annandale Mine Butler Pennsylvania into a huge modern underground storage vault for irreplaceable records Some of our cl ients are the Jones and Laughl in Steel Co the U S Steel Co and the First National Bank oCNew York City Other sites are being usedJor cold storage and for hospitals but as yet the uses are extremely limited

Some of the potential uses are for light manufacturing and assembly plants permal1ent housing for some of our fabulously expensive data computers headquarters for command posts fo r national state and local civil defense storage of items essential for human survival in the event of atomic attack as well as items essential to the process of industrial rehabilitation To a limited extent they may also be utilized as shelters for at least some of the population in case of disaster

Why is it that the underground has not been more fully exploited and developed

1 Th~aver~ge individual dislikes the idea 2 The potential of the ul1derground for storage and housing has only been slightly understood 3 Existing sites are not always conveniently located 4 Those who cculd spark such development do not fully understand the nature and perhaps the imminency of the threat 5 I n some cases development has been stifled because of the cost even though this is but a fraction of that iiwolvedin creating a totally man-made facility for similar purposes Also there have been mistaken efforts to use underground space for purposes for which itwas not suited 6 The average human being strongly resists change in his essential concepts The so-called vested interests must first realize a scarcity of suitable top-side space before they will begin acquiringund~rground space

71Journal of Speleall History

Some of the advantages of good mines and caves are

1 They are generally removed from critical target areas 2 Development costs no more than on the surface and is frequently considerable less 3 In the long run maintenance and operating costs are much lower 4 In business and industry the absenteeism of workers due to illness extremes of temperature etc frequently becomes a real problem In my opinion working in the quiet atmosphere underground in a steady temperature and humidity level would have a beneficial and healthful effect This same situation makes it far easier to create a static condition beneficial to tl)e preservation and long life of records and other materials stored underground 5 The standard earth cover for modern missile bases is 25 feet Nearly all mines and caves of any consequence have far more cover than this thus increasing their protection potential

You as cave explorers and members of the National Speleological Society can assist by

1 Providing inventories of the most suitable caves for various purposes 2 Assist in developing guides or standards for caves for specific purposes 3 Talk about how mines and caves can be utilized and thus influence those who are in a ~tjon to initiate action in this direction

The above is the substance oj a talk given by Mr Hurley 10 the members oj the DC ChilP4tl oj the NSS on June 7 1960

Comment of the Designation of Certain Caves as Fallout Shelters William H Peters DC Speleograph April 1963

I believe all of us as members of the National Speleological Society have been aware for the past several years of the interest in utilizing selected caves for the protection of civilian population in the event of a national emergency The interest up until now remote has materialized into an actual requisitioning of caves in Pendleton County West Virginia and other communities in that state anxious to utilize all of their resources for what can certainly be called a noteworthy if not heroic program There has been at first a rejection of the idea among speleologists We are at first repelled by the idea of giving up our almost absolute sovereignty of the underground The realities of the world invading our isolated laboratories is unacceptable to us as scientists~ and of course the whole concept of nuclear war is still psychologically repugnant Our first reaction is expressed in many ways - useless protests exclamations of impossibility and we formulate every reason for the programs failure

But as citizens we have a responsibility to study the problem and the facts are not pleasing Repugnant as it is nuclear warfare lives not too far from the pleasantries of our life This is

72 JOllrllal of Speleall History

proven by the not so far removed Cuban Crisis In November 1962 LS Finkelstein at the Harvard University Center for International Affairs writing of the Soviet position on Arms Inspection is quoted It is hard to escape the conclusion that the Soviet Union for at least much of the time seems to have been interested more in employing the negotiations as a means of weakening the military and political position of the West that as a route to a viable disarmament system He goes on to quote James P Wadsworth to the effect that the Soviet Union has employed arms control negotiation as a part of a grand strategy aimed at the eventual total defeat of the other side 1 Thus for those persons who hope for an easy solution it is hard to find the substance to nourish those hopes

The possibility of reducing the probable use of nuclear weapons is diminished by the cruel fact that reduction in armaments only increases the probability of escalation in armament by lessening the factor required for decisive advantage while additionally making the elements of decisive advantage available to many other countries who may aspire to greater roles than current economic or scientific resources have relegated them This point is well illustrated by HA Kissinger nuclear disarmament has revealed the paradoxical fact that there is a certain safety in numbers And this is true even if both sides religiously observe an agreement to limit nuclear weapons Instability is greater if each side possesses ten missiles that if the equilibrium is stabilized at say 500 For an attack which is 90 successful when the opponent has ten missiles leaves him one or a number hardly able to inflict unacceptable damage An attack of similar effectiveness when the opponent possesses 500 missiles leaves 50 - perhaps sufficient to pose an unacceptable risk 2

We can easily conclude that the probability of removing nuclear weapons from the field of War Science is remote from purely tactical necessity What is also critical to our thinking is that the War Sciences are advancing in their ability to assess more and more elements and their relationship to decisive advantage Von Neumann in formulating the Minimax Game Theory and its reduction to mathematical models applied to computers increases the number of factors to be considered beyond the capability of the human mind International politics are founded upon economic and strategic factors rather than ethical or moral principle It is not impossible that in the cold realistic logic of the Game Theory3 that some remote event passing unseen by the casual observer will relate itself to decisive advantage for the opponent and may demand immediate action by one or the other side We cannot hope that in every instance the situation will escalate as did the Cuban Crisis so that the population can prepare itself

The comparison of Civil Preparedness to Ostrichism is not a fair comparison Civil Preparedness adds another factor for a potential enemy and complicates his game It makes it more difficult to game reliability Kissinger points out four considerations for reducing the possibility of decisive advantage the second of which is Since invulnerability is a relative term the purpose of arms control measures must be to strengthen so far as possible the relative position of the defender either by enhancing the security of his force or by complicating the calculations of the aggressor2 It is thus that civil preparedness serves a two fold purpose of deterring and of providing some measure

of survi val

The remoteness of the areas under consideration enhances the desirability of taking appropriate measures God forbid that it should come to pass but in the event of a nuclear holocaust it is these areas that could become the springboard for the reconstruction of our democracy and for the continuation of our cultural heritage

As members of the National Speleological Society we have the opportunity of not only participating but of making a definite contribution No other organization has more resources in

73Journal of Speeall History

scientific personnel experience or knowledge relating to caves Failure to meet our responsibilities at this time will only widen possible misunderstandings between the National Speleological Society and Civil Defense Organizations We must accept the fact that as the civil defense program expands more cave resources will be requisitioned Our opposition will only serve as a barrier to continued parallel use of these resources

The Society can assist in both the areas of applied practical knowledge and of basic research To list bnt a few are - advising and monitoring storage in areas of historical underground hydrological fluctuations monitoring humidity temperature and air circulation locating suitable areas in caves that will minimize the possibility of vandalism recommending types of closures of gates and assisting in their installation checking periodically the condition of supplies and reporting this to appropriate authority and condemnation of areas due to strata imperfection and probability of breakdown

There are many questions in need of investigation What is the relationship in a multiple stream capture theory and the possible concentration of radioactive or other contaminates in a cave duc to fIltration What is the probability of infection by intake of foods contaminated by histoplasma ir any What is the relationship of bat rabies to human cave habitation What provision must be made for sanitation - control of rats and possible damage to supplies and in the event of human habitation control of rat fleas as possible communicators of typhUS or other epidemic diseases) What is the probability of excessive amounts of radioactive materials being introduced to the cavc environment by animals such as bats that enter and leave the cave frequently These represent only a portion of the questions which should be examined to determine their relevance and what precautionary measures should be taken if relevant

I would like to propose that at a special meeting of the Board of Governors a Civil Defense Advisory Committee composed of competent scientists and speleologists be formed for the purpose of formulating suitable policies initiating scientific investigation and in general assuming the role of representing and coordinating the Societys Civil Defense effort The question as to whether we can afford to undertake such a program with its inherent socialpolitical implications should be answered - Can we afford not to

References

1 Arms Inspection International Conciliation Nov 1962 (It is interesting to note that in my upinion this publication follows closely the United Nations activities It is surprising to observe this pessimistic attitude in that area)

2 Foreign Affairs Volume 39 no 4 July 1960 Inspection and Surprise Attack p 56l

3 A current article on Game Theory appears in the December 1962 issue of Scientific Americall by Anatol Rapoport The Use and Misuse of Game Theory

Journal of Speleall History 74

1922 Trip Reports

Maud Orr Howell

Trip 10 Bear Cave

Gordon Brown led eight of us including Elizabeth Hord George Raudebush Benie Weaver Tom Weaver Johnny Connor Boyte and me to Bear Cave in Savage Gulch

We left the Observatory at 900 am went down Clark Cottage Path and across the valley to the clearing in front of the old Savage home

The girls rested while the boys went up the side of Peak Mountain to a ~pring and brought back some water Then we explored the old house In one of the upstairs rooms that had newspapers on the walls we read in the Society section of a newspaper dated August 17 1908 that Mr and Mrs Sanford Duncan had gone to spend a few days with Mrs Robert Orr in Maury County

We cut across the field to the right of the house and climbed along the side of Peak Mountain then straight down the side of the mountain to Savage Creek After drinking water from a spring running into the creek we followed the creek up a few yards then climbed up the mountain on the left a few yards to the cave This is Coppenger Mountain It was 11 45 so we ate our Iunch and rested until 1 10 when all but Elizabeth and Tom went in the cave We had candles and carbide lights and Gordon led the way It saw 220 when we got out After resting a few minutes and taking some Kodak pictures we all including Elizabeth and Tom went in again and stayed until 300 pm

We gathered our things which included sticks which Gordon had cut for us the Kodak the lunch bag canteen etc and set out straight up the mountain with Gordon pulling us up some of the places until we hit the cliffs We followed the cliffs along until we found a place to climb up When we got on the top we walked along the mountain until we got to the end of it which is just above the Savage house We went down a path which went straight down the mountain to the Savage house rested while the boys got water then came home to Howell cottage the same way we had gone arriving here at 700 pm

Trip to Bats Cave

Saturday September 2 1922

We first planned to walk to Tatesville but not knowing how far it was we gave it up and decided to walk to Bats Cave The night before the trip we gave that up too as it was so far and the weather so hot

As we were eating breakfast Mr George Mitchell came and he had breakfast with us He suggested getting a wagon for our trip so immediately after breakfast Mr George Bettie Martha and Tom Weaver Boyte and I went to the store and got Earnest Rubleys wagon

75Journal of Speleall History

We all met on the Observatory There were 19 of us Five including Mr George Jennings and George Bailey Torn and Charlie Trabue IV left first and went down the Backbone Road intending to meet us at the Collins River bridge The rest of us Elliott and David Adams Lucy and Elizabeth Bailey Lucinda Trabue Irene Langford Elizabeth Mclane Kate Keene Johnson Susan Lewis Bettie and Martha Weaver Boyte and I walked down the mountain from the Observatory and met the wagon a little piece up the valley We missed the other bunch and they did not catch up with us until we had left the wagon and were eating lunch at the spring

We finished lunch and walked up the mountain to the cave We went to the big room where we stopped last year which is just beyond the small ladder We climbed the ladder then all but Irene Tom Elizabeth and I went on further We waited at the top of the ladder until they came back They had gone to another big room and circled around it about three times before finally finding the way out They found an old Nashville newspaper dated 1847 and another paper with some names on it They added their names to this list

When we got out of the cave it was nearly 500 We had been in there three hours

We went back to the wagon and started horne We got to Collins River bridge about dark The moon was almost full and the ride up the valley in the moonlight in a wagon filled with hay and pulled by mules was beautiful We stopped at Mortons store and Mr George telephoned up lo Beersheba and told them where we were and assured them that we would be home soon He brought out oodles of cookies and we had a grand time eating them We sang and yelled and relaxed on the hay We left the wagon at the bottom of Beersheba Mountain Martha led the way up the mountain in the dark with only the moon to help guide us We had Oashlights but it was hard to keep in the path But it was fun We reached the top at the Observatory at 845 pm and no one seemed to be tired

Trip to Peak Mountain

A crowd of us left Aunt Mats Cottage at 930 am on Monday August 28 1922 There were 19 of us including Mr George Mitchell Elizabeth Hord Mr Colville Elliott Adams Jennings Bailey Lucy Bailey Kate Keene Johnson George Eldred Mary Wilson Eldred Irene Langford Elizabeth Mclane Bettie Orr Martha Weaver Tom Weaver Alfred Williams Mary Phillips Street Susan Lewis Boyte Howell Jr and me (Maud Orr Howell)

We went down Clark Cottage Path to the valley The crowd was separated going down but we all got together at the foot of the mountain crossed the valley and climbed Peak Mountain There was no path we just went up the side of the mountain and went thru a pass up the cliffs We got there about 1200 pm rested then ate lunch We put up a nag (Elizabeth Hords petticoat)

Aoout 100 pm we left to find the old stage coach road to Chattanooga We went straight across the top of the mountain and found the road at the spring and a little log cabin We followed the road to the valley We heard Marshall Eldred mooing answered him and he found us Gordon Bro n who was with him led us to Peter Rock Cave on the side of Peak Mountain Marshall did not start out with us because he helped Gordon fix the leaks in Laurel Mill Dam Elliott led us in the cave and we did not go back very far It was pretty but wet and muddy

We c~me home by Dishroon Springs drank some of the water and ate the rest of our lunch [hen came on up the mountain A few of us stopped at the Johnson place and looked across the valley at Elilabeth Hords petticoat which we had left on a tree on Peak Mountain We came on horne arriving here about 500 pm

Journal of Speleall History 76

No Old Gold or Bones A Skeptical Review of Caverna del Oro Legendry Donald G Davis reprinledfrom Rocky Mountain Caving Summer 1992

In the thin air of timberline on Marble Mountain in the Sangre de Cristo range icy wind blows from the entrance to a deep and cryptic cave marked by the damaged remnant of a rust-red cross Known today as Spanish Cave it is the most publicized non-commercial cave in Colorado It has been featured for more than 70 years in media - first newspapers then magazines books and television specials Most of this publicity recounts stories that it is La Caverna del Oro where Indian slaves mined gold for 17th century Spaniards Many people take this as fact Recently a Colorado caver told me he had spoken with a journalist who assured him that the cave was bottomless and contains untold treasures

Spanish Cave was important in the start of my own caving career in 1957 While attending Colorado A amp M College (later CSU) I saw in scrapbooks in the Fort Collins Museum clippings of the Colorado Question Box column from the Rocky Mountain News circa 1955 They told stories of a Maltese-cross-marked entrance lost gold mine and chained skeleton reported in the caverns depths After correcting the first error we found in the accounts (that the cave was on Homs Peak several miles north of Marble Mountain) two of us (Vin Hoeman and myself) in the college Hikers Club located the cave the next year In subsequent years with Frank and Paul Leskinen James W Meachan and others in the Southern Colorado Grotto of the NSS I led the discovery of about two-thirds of its presently known passage

Finding that the Western History Department of the Denver Public Library had a clipping file on the cave I also undertook research on its history which I have continued intermittently since The mure I learned about the real cave the more disillusioned I became with the stories sensationalizing it I learned much about the rules of logic and evidence during the investi galion and was ultimately convinced that there was no satisfactory confirmation that Spanish explorers ever saw or entered the cave much less mined gold from it Following are some of the reasons for that concl usion

The most readily available summary of the legendry is in Lloyd Parris Caves oCoLorado (1973) pp 24-32 Parris precedes his Treasure Caves accounts with a confused and equivocal disclaimer The following tales for the most part have the validity of history behind them and in most cases the caves are known Undoubtedly though some of the legends connected with these caves belong in Chapter IV under hoax and humbug And if these legends seem to disagree or contradict what is previously known it is because they were selected not for entertainment alone but as a presentation of the known facts or legends as the case may be An evaluation of the authenticity has not been attempted This is left for the reader to do

This reader hereby takes up the challenge

The Spanish Mille Legends

A number of accounts (including Parriss) relate that Spanish Monastery Latin documents record gold being brought to pre-Columbian Mexican Indian kingdoms Acolhua Aztec and Tepance

Jourllal of Speleall History 77

from the north Then in 1541 three monks were supposedly left behind by Coronado (the Rocky MOllntain News June 3 1923 says 1598) One Fray Juan de la Cruz reportedly reopened a mine using forced labor by Pecos I ndians (a northern New Mexico Pueblq trib~)and packed treasure toward Mexico City but never arrived there Nuggets and gold bars reported found by one Baca in 1811 were speculated to be part of this treasure and a prospector searching (according to Parris) for Cavema del Oro half a century later found a silver cup engraved with the name Hermione Taken at face value all this gives the impression that stories about Caverna del Oro are of great antiquity though the original Spanish documents are never cited

This suite of tales was first widely distributed in an article by Alberta Pike headlines OLD MANUSCRIPT INDICATES VAST RICHES IN COLORADO CA VE GUARDED BY SKELETON in the Rocky Mountain News of Sept 6 1932 Subsequent Spanish Cave popularizers have recopied them from one article to the next without naming a source for them I recently made an enlightening discovery in the Colorado Historical Society library about where this material came from

Before any known Spanish Cave article was written Louis Bernhardt Sporleder -- early resident and prominent citizen of Walsenburg Colorado -- published a souvenir booklet titled Huajalolla Breasts of the World (1916) An article in The Trail June 1922 reprinted much of this booklet and said Sporleder had a number of unpublished manuscripts giving information historical and legendary about the Spanish Peaks (as the Huajatolla are more commonly known) Sporleders booklet included word for word most of the above Spanish mine material copied by later Cavema del Oro writers

Even his misspelling of the Tepance kingdom (properly Tepanec) has been faithfully reproduced by authors as late as Parris

As to the actual historicity of Sporleders items I know little but his writings (eg The Roses of Huajatolla The Trail Dec 1922) were prone to wild flights of romantic fiction incorporating gross errors about natural history He claimed for instance that the otherwise extinct passenger pigeon still survived on the Spanish Peaks in fact it has never been recorded in Colorado His human history appears similarly colored But even if he was accurate it is crucial to our study that his stories were exclusively about the Spanish Peaks making no connection whatever to Marble Mountain 50 miles to the northwest He specifically stated that the silver cup was found beside a spring in a grotto at the base of East Spanish Peak (the name Hermione moreover is Greek not Spanish) All of this is therefore irrelevant to the cavern on Marble Mountain that we know as Spanish Cave

In Sporleders 1916 version the prospector who found the cup was searching for Huajatollas mines of gold In Pikes 1932 recounting he was seeking the lost mine but she associates it with the cave on Marble Mountain Parris in 1973 transmutes the object of the searchers quest explicitly into the Caverna del Oro Thus by insidious mutations does spurious lore enshroud our cave

Forbes Parkhill asserted that Marble cave Legends connect the Spanish cross and the ancient timber found in the mine [sic] with the gold hunting and exploring expeditions of Juan de Onate in 1597 and the Escalante-Dominguez expedition in 1776 (Explorers to Seek Mysteries of Caves in San Isabel Wilds Discovered Four Centuries Ago Denver Post Oct 9 1921) Even Parris rejects these suggestions because those expeditions did not come close to Marble Mountain

Jourllal of Speleall History 78

Earliest Known Accounts ofthe Cave middot

In 1919 appeared a brochure Out-ol-door Piaygroullds of the Sansabel National Forest USDA middot Circular 5 by Henry S Graves Forester It declared that The Caves of the Winds [not to be confused with Cave of the Winds at Manitou Springs] a system of giant crevices in a mountain or solid white marble is one of the principal natural wonders of the Forest These caves have been penetrated to a depth of over 1200 feet without the end being reached Theymay be reached by wagon road from Westcliffe

On Oct 12 1919 the Denver Post ran an anonymous article San Isabels Caves of Winds Among Wonders of Colorado It stated The Caves of the Winds have been known to exist for many years They are described brieOy in the report of the San Isabel national forest A party of Denver business men is planning to visit the caves this autumn with a view to exploring them to their depths if pOssible If it is found that the natural wonders said to exist in the interior of the caves are equal to reports which have been received these men will ask the government for the I

privilege of developing the caves as a tourist attraction

That Spanish Cave is the object of these writings is indicated by the emphasis on wind great depth (four times the actual depth of the cave as then known) and incomplete exploration the nearby Cave of the White Marble Halls is less strongly windy nearly horizontal and was already well explored (The accompanying entrance photo is not Marble Mountain) A similar item in the Post of June 27 1920 mentions a huge cave on Marble mountain which has never been explored by man beyond a depth of 1800 feet and which may rival the famed Mammoth Cave of Kentucky Neither treasure legends nor stories ofSpanish exploration are me11lioned in any of these earliest printed accounts

Apollina Apodacas Story

The real genesis of treasure stories as applied to Spanish Cave so far as I can find is with Apollina Apodaca (her name is variously spelled in different accounts I use the spelling that seems most probable) In 1919 (not 1920 as said in Caves oColorado) Paul Gilbert later District Ranger in the Forest heard wonderful tales from this old woman As he recalled in The Bulletin of the Rocky Mountain Region of the US Forest Service (Dec 1936)

She stated that the Spaniards used to get gold from it and further stated that if one were to descend to a sufficient depth [in some accounts she is said to have specified 90 or 93 feet] a set of oak doors would be found and if they were forced open one would find a tunnel leading back into the bowels of the mountain -- and the source of the gold would be found She further stated that when she was a child they used to take a blanket wrap it around a heavy stone and throw it down the shaft In the course of a short time the blanket would be blown back minus the rock by the strong winds that come continually from the shaft

The following spring Gilbert located the cave which he misinterpreted as more of a volcanic fissure than it is a cave and visited it with Arthur C Carhart An item mentioning this trip (Mystery Caves in ColoradoRocky Mountain News Sept 21 1921) is the earliest I have found that makes a Spanish or lost-mine connection Old timers in the hills up there declare the place is the shaft of the old Three Step mine famous in Spanish history Carhart himself in the POSl of Jan 1 1922 says it is reported that it is an old Spanish mine entrance marked with a red cross of Malta and has old timber and a log chain inside

Jourllal of Speleall History 79

Gilberts writings are not entirely consistent about his informants statistics in the above report she is Mexican 105 years old in 1919 and died at 110 In his letter to Robert 1 OConnell of Feb 18 1957 (as published in History ojthe Colorado Grotto Nov 1961) she is Spanish and died in 1923 at age 103 A followup letter of Feb 25 adds that she spent most of her life in the vicinity of San Luis [in the San Luis Valley on the opposite side of the Sangre de Cristos] Another source (Dayle Molen Pueblo Star-Jollmal Nov 18 1956) says she lived near Gardner Perry Eberhart in his sensationalistic Treasure Tales of the Rockies (11) calls her an Indian squaw Raymond Thorp in American ForesTs Aug 1935 citing Gilbert says she died eight years ago which would have been 1927 (this is the date used by Parris) These points may be quibbles yet they indicate a lack of precision in recording the facts about her And since the account attributed to Ms Apodaca is pivotal to the entire Caverna del Oro oeuvre let us dissect it critically

Every element is either improbable or impossible Leaving the geologic aspect until later take the oaken doors There are no oaks for many miles and where they do appear they are scrub oak which would have provided door-size timber only in rare cases (though oaks of that size were more common in the Rockies then than now) And why haul heavy oak to timberline when (though strong when new) it does not resist rot as well as say the more easily obtained juniper There is not in any case any opening near the 9O-foot level where such doors could have been used

The blanket story is completely fanciful As we proved in 1961 (NSS News Aug 1962 part I) the cave wind comes from upper Spanish Cave not from the pit Even if it did the pit is about 15 feet wide whereas the entrance constricts to a narrow crawlway A wind strong enough to blow a blanket back up the pit would rise to such tornadic speed in the crawl as to stop a person from fighting through it to the pit Nor does it seem sensible that people would be blithely tossing their blankets down weighted with rocks After all the rock might fail to unwind and the blanket be lost or shredded at the bottom With so incredible a yarn in it why should not the whole narrative be dismissed as fantasy

The Skeletons

At least three human skeletons have been attested as evidence of Spanish involvement with the cave Two were introduced by reporter Kenneth C Lightburn in a front-page article in the Rocky Mountain News of Sept 4 1932 He claimed that the caves original discovery is credited to Capt Elisha P Hom one of the first settlers in the Wet Mountain Valley in 1869 About its entrance he found the remnants of what might have been a fort and also a skeleton in Spanish armor Through the armor was an Indian arrow (Lightburn also began the misconception that the cave was on Homs Peak) I have not been able to trace the origin of this anecdote but it sounds unlikely if only because the purpose of Spanish armor was to prevent things like stoneshypointed arrows from penetrating ones torso and it generally worked Halls History of Colorado (1895) confirms Elisha P Hom as a pioneer Wet Mountain Valley settler in 1869 but does not mention this story

However the skeleton that Lightburn intended to feature was the one in his articles melodramatic headlines SKELETON FOUND CHAINED BY NECK DEEP IN COLORADO MYSTERY CAVECAVERN IS HIGH IN MOUNTAIN WILDS OF STATEDenver Man Discovers Manacled Bones in Sangre de Cristo Range Moldering 500 Feet Below Surface in Awesome CavitySIGNS INDICATE MINE WORKED IN EARLY DAYSFind Recalls Legends of Fabulous Cavern [sic] del Oro of 17th Century Spaniards The headlines are emphasized by a lurid though regrettably nonphotographic picture of the skeleton and an entrance shot with the cross touched up to show better

80 Journal of Speleall History

Journal of Speean History

The article relates that Peter Moser of Denver with companions Victor Barth and his two sons Donald and Jack had just returned from a descent into the cave (Derivative accounts refer to Victor Donald and Jack Barth the former being a fictitious person born of the omission of an original comma between Victor and Donald)

According to Lightburn the Moser party had climbed down until they reached a vertical pit They lowered a lantern Forty feet downward they saw the bottom and in the light or the lantern could clearly make out the skeleton With a metal strap encircling the neck the pile of bones reclined against the rocky wall as if the person who died there centuries ago hall been chained in a sitting position and left to starve An investigatory trip reported in followup articles of Sept 11 12 arid 18 found no skeleton (If an entrance photo with the story of the 18th is any indication they might not even have found the cave -- the picture is obviously not on Marble Mountain -- it may be at Marble Cave near Canon City) It was speculated that Moser may have seen the skeleton at another point in the cave or that it had been done away with by mysterious parties unknown who had blasted the cave entrance between the two trips

In reality it is not surprising that the chained skeleton was never found There is no sound testimony that it was ever there Unlike Fray Juan de la Cruz Elisha Horn or Apollina Apodaca Peter Moser was still available to me to question when I first researched Lightburns article I found in 1959 that Moser still lived at the same address in Denver as in 1932 On New Years Eve 19591 telephoned him and asked about the story His description made it clear that his party had indeed reached the top of the pit that cavers now call the Jug At that point they had lowered a kerosene lantern on a line and he saw what in his own words looked like a pile of bones on a ledge near the bottom This he said is all he reported to the secretary of the Colorado Mountain Club who in tum contacted the newspaper which -- as Moser put it to me -- dressed it up a little (l printed a more complete record of Mosers hour-long interview in the Southern Colorado Grotto newsletter Spelunk Junk Mar 1960)

This embroidery was to be expected in an era when the Denver papers were battling for readers during the Great Depressiun and were notorious for sensationalism But even if Mosers own explanation did not debunk the skeleton he reportedly found it would not be believable The Jug is about 80 feet deep Have you ever tried to see in cavernous darkness where your breath makes mist clouds by a kerosene lantern at that range Then you will agree that a chaincd skeleton even in fine preservation could hardly have been seen well enough from the top to be recognized unequivocally

81

Caves oColorado complicates the matter by citing a letter to me from James W Meacham in vhich a bone found by Meacham at the bottom of the Jug in 1959 was pronounced human by John A Murphy of the Denver Museum of Natural History What Parris does not say is that I had written him in 1969 -- four years before his book was published -- that another expert at the University of Colorado Museum had declared it a deer bone (This water-worn two-inch fragment might well challenge a forensic specialist)

Not content with two skeletons Thorp (American Forests Aug 1935 op cit) adds a third to this spooky company A strange legend that still haunts the native people concerns a skeleton hung with buckskin which guarded Marble Cave just on the other side of Caverna del Oro It was the first quarter of the 19th century and an American free trapper wandered too far west The Spaniards for fear he would reveal their hiding place crucified him For a half century he remained pinioned to a wcxxlcn cross Aside from the improbably sadistic mode of execution this image typical of cartoons or folklore reveals ignorance of the properties of real skeletons which do not long remain articulated when exposed to weather decay and scavengers

Others find ulterior significance in our discovery of bones of bison and pronghorn antelope in upper Spanish Cave in the 1960s calling them plains species that would never ascend to such lofty heights Unless someone had used the cave for storing or curing meat (Bill Kaiser The Treasure of Caverna del Oro Colorful Colorado May-June 1973) I did not know this then but these animals have been known to ascend to the alpine tundra in historic ti mes and might have done so more often when they were abundant and unfenced The cave is much too wet to be good ror storing perishables

The Artifacts

Many reliable observers from Carhart and Gilbert onward report finding in the 1920s and 30s old artifacts of unknown provenance in Spanish Cave These include a winch chains whiskey bottle jug timber ladders shovel single-jack and a hammer They have all disappeared or been reduced to fragments but claims made for some of them purport to establish archeological evidence of Spanish presence

Thorp (1935 op CiL) in describing the 1932 Rocky Mountain News expedition states that on the second ledge they found the remains of a rudely constructed ladder which Dr LeRoy Hafen ( then editor historian and curator of the State Historical Society) after carefully examining asserted was at least 200 years old Below after being lowered 110 feet they found a crude hand-forged hammer which the historian declared was of 17th century vintage Gilbert (The Bulletin Dec 1936 op cit) and an Alamosa Courier article (from June 1937) repeat these avowals

These are very important allegations since the Spanish were the only people who could have left such artifacts in the 17th century To investigate them I wrote in 1960 to LeRoy Hafen inquiring about his trip to the cave and his knowledge of its history and specifically whether he had certified the hammer as of 17th-century manufacture and if so who now had it His reply was less specific than my questions but it is a primary document on one of the major claims about Spanish Cave and I reproduce it below verbatim

If LeRoy Hafen made claims of antiquity for the Spanish Cave artifacts in 1932 he obviously did not stand by them later His wife Ann W Hafen in Detective Historian (Denver WesTerners Monthly Roundup July 1954) had also recounted his 1932 cave trip and commented disproving a baseless story is important it is part of the search for truth She elaborated To the party the venture was disappointing No treasure found No relic of the ancient conquistadores But to the

Jourllal of Speleall History 82

detective Historian it was just another clue pursued another myth exploded another triumph for the scholars code -- to build history on fact not on fossilized fiction

Thorp (1935 op cit) relates that the timbers of their ladder system were about eight inches in diameter squared on four sides with an ax Auger holes were bored into their sides and they were fitted with wooden rungs pegged into the holes No nails were used al though this probably would have been done by early Germans or Americans [the wood is] now decayed and may be broken in many ins tances by the hand This construction however is not strong evidence for Spanish work Before the railroad reached the Wet Mountain Valley in the 1880s commodities such as nails would have been scarce and expensive anyone building such structures before then might well have used no metal It would also be stronger than tacking on rungs with nails when not using sawed lumber Concerning the other cave artifacts there is not enough information to suggest a date

BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY PROVOUTAH

January 13 1960

11r Donald G Davia P O Box 145 T1lnlath Colorado

Dear Hr Davia

I ~ intereat~d to learn f~ your letter of January J 1960 of your study and COllCen WJth the Caverna del Oro Hy visit to the cave and descent into it was with a party directed and financed by the Tourist Bureau or its counterpart of the period The contemporary ewspal6rs gave som~ accowtof the venture

I made the firat descant into the cave kt that time ging down the rope bS

you doubtless have done ince I recall at the edg~ of the pit th~re were s(XlIe rotted logs that may have been the framework of a windlass At tho bott~ of the pit I found a suall sledge ~er encrusted with limestone formation I dont recall what was done with this haa-er I remember no other relics in the pit

Our purposo was to investigate certain rumors a3 to early use of the cave as a SVanish mine I think middot there is little~~ion for that as the limestone fonnation is a poor VlOspect fot middotormation

The legnd hat a skeleton was chained to the wall gave added impetus to the trip Needless to eay nothing of the sort was found That cav and some near were epoken of colloctively os the Karble Campve and sune referred to this one as the Caverna del Or~ cave of gold The Kaltes cross painted on the rock at the entrllJce to tle cave already had a faded appearance I know nothi8 of the rk of Capto1n Hom regarding the di Scove ry of ~ he cave

i~J At the bottOlll of the pit Carl Dlaurohpersucd tho crevice out 5 far dS ~ ~ could go and found nothi8 to reward our efforts If Hr Ulaurot is still living i Denver he could give you sooe sidelights on th cave as ho visited it after our initial exploration

Cordially yours

LO 91+-LeRoy R IlcIen DeparUent of History

Some writers (eg Jesse Ball Canon City Daily Record Sept 14 1933) speculate that the cave was used by the Spanish as a refuge from Indian attacks The cave itself being windy wet and ncar-freezing would not have been ideal for such occupancy A ruined fort was alleged to exist below Marble Mountain as early as 1881 (Golden City Transcript Aug 31 1881 citing Cusler City Prospect ) later articles mention rifle pits I have seen what I presume to be these features below timberline and could not distinguish them from the miners prospect pits common in the Colorado mountains The largest log breastwork structure has also been interpreted as an old corral (Jerry Hassemer oral communication) If defensive works they are cr Jde ones indeed

This leaves to be considered the famous cross beside the entrance It is about one and a half feet square with flared ends meeting at the corners It has been variously described as burnt on

Jou rnal of Speean History 83

deeply chiseled or etched but in reality is prosaically painted with what looks to be a stable iron oxide pigment perhaps using some sort of template Portions of It had a thm patma of calcite crust when I first saw it in 1958 Though almost always called Maltese it is not as can be seen by looking up a crosses illustration in any large dictionary The true Maltese cross has indented ends A G Birch (Denver Post Aug 11 1929) correctly pointed out that the cave marker isin the perfect form of a German Iron Cross But he also says it was old when the first white sehler saw it more than sixty years ago without explaining how he knew this A contradictory testimony (Trail and Timberline April 1957) asserts that there is one old-timer who states that he knCv the fellow who painted it years ago as ajoke I wiIl pass over both of these declarations as uncorroborated

Spanish crosses as I have seen them represented on coins and in art have narrow straight-sided arms often with the basal arm longer and with the ends variously embellished They are typically very different from German ones It is suggestive that the first sedentary settlers below Marble Mountain were Germans of the Colfax colony in 1870 The colony as an entity failed within a year but some thirty families took possession of quarter sections and prospered as can be seen by the many descendants still living in the area (Wet Mountain Tribune Centennial Edition Dec 20 1985) German immigrants also arrived later on and the ranches cl osest below the caves remained in possession of the German-derived Henrich and Neermann families into recent years Crosses in the square form seen at the cave were used in German decorative motifs (I have seen an antique coffee-grinder at an abandoned German homestead in eastern Colorado that was ornamented with them) The cross could have been painted by a Colfax settler exploring his surroundings soon after the colonys establishment The dispersal of most of the colony in 1871 would account for the failure of later inhabitants to know who had created it

Alternatively it might have been a product of prospector 1 H Yeoman He figures in one of the earliest known accounts of a Marble Mountain cave in History of the Arkansas Valley Colorado (1881) A later report on this cave (Denver Republican Feb 20 1888) appears to describe Cave of the White Marble Halls south of Spanish Cave and states that the cave was discovered by Yeoman on Sept 16 1880 Yeoman obligingly left a graffito confirming this in the cave and the Kings and Queens Chambers of the article are likewise identified (Another 1881 account -shyGolden Cty Transcript op cit -- describes a similar cave but claims discovery by Messrs Hendershot amp Dickson of Custer City) A red cross like that at Spanish Cave but smaller and with narrower arms marks the entrance the associated graffito in English 400 Feet to the White Marble Halls precludes a Spanish conquistador origin (A writing inside -- Mrs H G ReedSilver Cliff CololHere 8115197 -- is done in a similar ornate hand) I have also seen Yeomans signature in Moonmilk Cave just across the ravine south of Spanish and scarcely possible to reach without seeing the Spanish entrance He must have known of Spanish Cave and pesumably had entered it

[he Geology

Finally a point that seems so obvious that it should hardly need to be mentioned decades of repeated explorations in Spanish Cave have failed to turn up a trace of mining or of gold and there is excellent reason for this Gold is found either where hydrothermal solutions have mineralized host rock or where deposits originating in that fashion have been eroded and concentrated in placer gravels Neither situation applies at Marble Mountain where the caves occur in an unaltered Pennsylvanian biothermal limestone lens sandwiched almost vertically between shales and conglomeratic sandstones (The name Marble Mountain is a misnomer marble is limestone altered -- metamorphosed -- by heat andor pressure The abundance of well-preserved brachiopod and crinoid fossils shows that Marble Mountain is not metamorphosed) The only mineralization known on the mountain is a little low-grade copper on the south limestone outcrop

Jourllal of Speleall History 84

Paul Gilbert notwithstanding the caves are in no way volcanic but are relatively typical highshygradient alpine limestone solution caves dissolved probably by massive runoff from melting snov and ice during Pleistocene glacial epochs Writers have speculated that Spanish Cave had a lower entrance (possible since the cave water does emerge at a spring lower down) and an entrance on the west side of the mountain (not possible since the limestone does not outcrop there) Ironically the only new entrance cavers have actually found was in a direction not suggested by any known author above Its discovery explained the cave wind as a chimney effect between the entrances -- blowing down to the lower opening when it is warmer outside than inside reversing when it is colder outside

Conclusions

I know of no one else who has analyzed the Caverna del Oro stories as thoroughly but I am not the first to publish critical judgments on them Mrs Hafen has already been quoted Also on record (NSS Bulletin 8 July 1946) is a letter dated 10444 from Fred R Johnson Chief Information and Education US Forest Service

Carl Biaurock a member of the Colorado Mountain Club explored this cave in 1925 again in 1931 and later in more detail in 1932 On the last date the exploration was the result of several articles in the Rocky MOUnTain News in which an old yam was mentioned to the effect that the cave had been investigated in the Spanish explorations in the eighteenth [sic] century also that it is supposed to have yielded a large quantity of gold and other valuable minerals there are no signs of any mineral So far as Mr Blaurocks party could tell there is no evidence in the cave of any visitation of Spanish explorers several hundred years ago

Molen (opcit) wrote that this story [from Apodaca] has been disapproved [sic] The tools and ladder in the cave are of comparatively modern origin Blaurock believes Someone years ago must have explored the cave at least as thoroughly as we did he said He also expressed doubt that the rifle pits and fort are of Spanish origin I did not interview Carl Blaurock during my earlier research I telephoned him this summer but he is 98 years old and is too deaf to understand my questions I have sent him a letter of inquiry thus far unanswered

After organized caving had begun William R Halliday founder of the Colorado Grotto of the National Speleological Society also concluded that The fabulous stories are fables The story of Spanish Cave is told (Halliday however was too pessimistic in inferring that the cave was almost completely explored Most of what is now known was discovered just after he wrote but none of the new passage showed signs of human entry)

Diehard romantics might protest that Spanish Cave could still be La Caverna del Oro Caves can hide much perhaps somewhere in the depths there is a localized zone of thermal mineralization conceivably the Spaniards very cleverly concealed the way to the mine workings Such ideas are not impossible but do strain credulity For every verified feature that has been proposed as evidence for Spanish presence there is an alternative explanation that is more plausible The burden of proof then is on the proponents of the Spanish connection The lurid yarns about the cave reflect folklore creation greatly abetted by media exploitation assisted by atrociously sloppy research

The time sequenceof the several names applied to the cave fits this very neatly In sources from 1919 I find The Caves of the Winds From 1920 until 1932 I see Marble Cave Marble

85jOllrtlal of Speleall History

Caves or The Caves but no Spanish-related appellations It is still called Marble Cave at least as late as 1953 (Irma Zanoni Trail amp Timberline Dec 1953) I do not encounter La Cavema del Oro applied to our cave until Lightburns articles of 1932 after which it is common One of Lightburns headlines refers to the old Spanish Cave but Spanish Cave as a proper ~ame seems to appear only in the first Colorado Grotto News amp Notes of Feb 12 1952 where It IS a synonym for Caverna del Oro From then until now Spanish Cave has been the preferred form in the literature of organized caving and in popular media relying on it This unfortunately has helped to maintain the public assumption that the Spanish legendry is based in fact

The caves history is muddled by a series of misnomers a Caverna del Oro with no gold a Maltese cross that is not Maltese marble that is not marble -- and on analyzing the evidence I think that German Cave would have been a more appropriate if less provocative name than Spanish Cave

I expect my skeptical arguments to be ignored by future writers as long as there is a media markcL for exciting treasure tales Why is it important to be critically analytical

Since fact and fiction are not clearly distinguished in media information about the cave many people still believe nonsense about it Apparently the Spanish gold tales retain enough public acceptance to present problems to the Forest Service today It is reported that there was in recent years a proposal to build a road to the cave to facilitate treasure hunting (Jerry Hassemer oral comm)

Furthermore presentation of false gold stories as if they might be true is likely to tempt naive and poorly prepared readers to get in trouble seeking riches This is apparent in a 1957 letter from Roy Truman former District Ranger and colleague of Paul Gilberts (History of the Colorado Grotto 1961)

There was a time when it was very difficult to keep boys away from this cave and I received many calls from parents in Pueblo and other towns all times of the day and night concerning the safety of their boys that had left home with the ideas of exploring this cave with the high hopes of finding valuable ores or treasures they were equipped with a few pieces of small rope [this was probably arter the Depression-era articles]

This problem is also exemplified by a letter in my own files addressed in 1962 to Richard LeSage of the Southern Colorado Grotto from a Denverite He had twenty-four numbered questions including What type of equipiment [sic] will I need (exactly) I havent done much cave exploring Where can I obtain it What type of mask would I need for foul air He concludes We are intending to explore this cave at all cost so your information will be most vilal to us and most appreciable (We never replied deciding that was the safest thing to do)

The extravagance of peoples beliefs about Spanish Cave has sometimes reached quite ridiculous extremes The Colorado Historical Society library has a typescript of research material used by Perry Eberhart in preparing Treasure Tales of the Rockies One note is as follows

Robert Dunne head of Querida sez think cave comes out near Walsenburg or possibly the northern end of Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico never found end

James Dunne Querida

Not even Eberhart was so shameless as to print this in his book

Jourllal of Speleall History 86

There are still many legitimate mysteries left about Marble Mountain and its history How well explored are the ends of Spanish Cave even now Why was Yeomans cave otherwise so clearly White Marble Halls said to have a 275-foot pit Is this an error or a pit now lost Was the vertical Spanish Cave somehow grafted into the account Who really painted the Maltese cross and who put the artifacts into Spanish Why were detailed articles published on White Marble Halls in the 1880s but nothing seems to be on record about Spanish until 1919 in spite of the extensive early work done in it (If the relics were left by Colfax colonists in the 1870s they could not easily have published their explorations as there were yet no newspapers in the Wet Mountain Valley Later Yeoman or other prospectors might have been reticent about calling atlention to the cave if they built ladders down the shafts in the hope of rinding minerals Study 01 the county mining-claim records could be informative)

Future Opportunities

Most knowledge we now have on Marble Mountain history before organized caving is based on writings of big-city visitors from 1919 on When time allows I intend to search the microfilms of Custer County newspapers in the period 1880-1920 to see if items overlooked by library indexers may shed light on the gaps in our knowledge of the Marble Mountain caves Fascinating revelations are very likely to result Johnsons letter of 1944 (op cit) also stated There was evidence of early visitation [in Marble Cave] including names carved on rocks but these date mostly back about 50 years ago Informative graffiti are numerous in Cave of the White Marble Halls but I do not recall seeing any in Spanish Cave during my own explorations in the 1950s and 60s It should be carefully reexamined to see if we have overlooked signatures that could be keys to the solution of the puzzles

Better documentation of the cave itself would also be desirable The Colorado Grotto surveyed most of lower Spanish in the 1950s to the standards then prevailing I do not know the length of the CG survey but it probably included less than 1000 feet The Southern Colorado Grotto discoveries from 1959 to the early 1960s were not surveyed at the time

From 1975 to 1988 Jerry Hassemer led the mapping of 2642 feet of upper Spanish including the main route between entrances and the Rimstone Passage its longest side gallery (Hassemer personal comm Sept 13 1992) (About 1735 feet of this are along the through-route) His survey showed a vertical difference of 449 feet between lower and upper entrance by both internal mapping and a surface closure loop The old Colorado Grotto map appears to show a depth of just over 270 feet from lower entrance to deepest surveyed point thus total surveyed depth of Spanish Cave is about 720 fect (The entrance elevations of Spanish Cave have never been established by survey to a benchmark but altimeter readings and topographic maps suggest that the upper entrance is around 12000 feet)

Other side passages and superimposed levels in upper Spanish remain unmapped In lower Spanish an important branch the waterfall passage -- which may go deeper than the so-called Gold Diggings at the end of the existing map -- remains unsurveyed The high elevation and extremely cold wet conditions continue to inhibit complete exploration and mapping as they have for as long as the cave has been known

87Journal of Speleall History

Some of the advantages of good mines and caves are

1 They are generally removed from critical target areas 2 Development costs no more than on the surface and is frequently considerable less 3 In the long run maintenance and operating costs are much lower 4 In business and industry the absenteeism of workers due to illness extremes of temperature etc frequently becomes a real problem In my opinion working in the quiet atmosphere underground in a steady temperature and humidity level would have a beneficial and healthful effect This same situation makes it far easier to create a static condition beneficial to tl)e preservation and long life of records and other materials stored underground 5 The standard earth cover for modern missile bases is 25 feet Nearly all mines and caves of any consequence have far more cover than this thus increasing their protection potential

You as cave explorers and members of the National Speleological Society can assist by

1 Providing inventories of the most suitable caves for various purposes 2 Assist in developing guides or standards for caves for specific purposes 3 Talk about how mines and caves can be utilized and thus influence those who are in a ~tjon to initiate action in this direction

The above is the substance oj a talk given by Mr Hurley 10 the members oj the DC ChilP4tl oj the NSS on June 7 1960

Comment of the Designation of Certain Caves as Fallout Shelters William H Peters DC Speleograph April 1963

I believe all of us as members of the National Speleological Society have been aware for the past several years of the interest in utilizing selected caves for the protection of civilian population in the event of a national emergency The interest up until now remote has materialized into an actual requisitioning of caves in Pendleton County West Virginia and other communities in that state anxious to utilize all of their resources for what can certainly be called a noteworthy if not heroic program There has been at first a rejection of the idea among speleologists We are at first repelled by the idea of giving up our almost absolute sovereignty of the underground The realities of the world invading our isolated laboratories is unacceptable to us as scientists~ and of course the whole concept of nuclear war is still psychologically repugnant Our first reaction is expressed in many ways - useless protests exclamations of impossibility and we formulate every reason for the programs failure

But as citizens we have a responsibility to study the problem and the facts are not pleasing Repugnant as it is nuclear warfare lives not too far from the pleasantries of our life This is

72 JOllrllal of Speleall History

proven by the not so far removed Cuban Crisis In November 1962 LS Finkelstein at the Harvard University Center for International Affairs writing of the Soviet position on Arms Inspection is quoted It is hard to escape the conclusion that the Soviet Union for at least much of the time seems to have been interested more in employing the negotiations as a means of weakening the military and political position of the West that as a route to a viable disarmament system He goes on to quote James P Wadsworth to the effect that the Soviet Union has employed arms control negotiation as a part of a grand strategy aimed at the eventual total defeat of the other side 1 Thus for those persons who hope for an easy solution it is hard to find the substance to nourish those hopes

The possibility of reducing the probable use of nuclear weapons is diminished by the cruel fact that reduction in armaments only increases the probability of escalation in armament by lessening the factor required for decisive advantage while additionally making the elements of decisive advantage available to many other countries who may aspire to greater roles than current economic or scientific resources have relegated them This point is well illustrated by HA Kissinger nuclear disarmament has revealed the paradoxical fact that there is a certain safety in numbers And this is true even if both sides religiously observe an agreement to limit nuclear weapons Instability is greater if each side possesses ten missiles that if the equilibrium is stabilized at say 500 For an attack which is 90 successful when the opponent has ten missiles leaves him one or a number hardly able to inflict unacceptable damage An attack of similar effectiveness when the opponent possesses 500 missiles leaves 50 - perhaps sufficient to pose an unacceptable risk 2

We can easily conclude that the probability of removing nuclear weapons from the field of War Science is remote from purely tactical necessity What is also critical to our thinking is that the War Sciences are advancing in their ability to assess more and more elements and their relationship to decisive advantage Von Neumann in formulating the Minimax Game Theory and its reduction to mathematical models applied to computers increases the number of factors to be considered beyond the capability of the human mind International politics are founded upon economic and strategic factors rather than ethical or moral principle It is not impossible that in the cold realistic logic of the Game Theory3 that some remote event passing unseen by the casual observer will relate itself to decisive advantage for the opponent and may demand immediate action by one or the other side We cannot hope that in every instance the situation will escalate as did the Cuban Crisis so that the population can prepare itself

The comparison of Civil Preparedness to Ostrichism is not a fair comparison Civil Preparedness adds another factor for a potential enemy and complicates his game It makes it more difficult to game reliability Kissinger points out four considerations for reducing the possibility of decisive advantage the second of which is Since invulnerability is a relative term the purpose of arms control measures must be to strengthen so far as possible the relative position of the defender either by enhancing the security of his force or by complicating the calculations of the aggressor2 It is thus that civil preparedness serves a two fold purpose of deterring and of providing some measure

of survi val

The remoteness of the areas under consideration enhances the desirability of taking appropriate measures God forbid that it should come to pass but in the event of a nuclear holocaust it is these areas that could become the springboard for the reconstruction of our democracy and for the continuation of our cultural heritage

As members of the National Speleological Society we have the opportunity of not only participating but of making a definite contribution No other organization has more resources in

73Journal of Speeall History

scientific personnel experience or knowledge relating to caves Failure to meet our responsibilities at this time will only widen possible misunderstandings between the National Speleological Society and Civil Defense Organizations We must accept the fact that as the civil defense program expands more cave resources will be requisitioned Our opposition will only serve as a barrier to continued parallel use of these resources

The Society can assist in both the areas of applied practical knowledge and of basic research To list bnt a few are - advising and monitoring storage in areas of historical underground hydrological fluctuations monitoring humidity temperature and air circulation locating suitable areas in caves that will minimize the possibility of vandalism recommending types of closures of gates and assisting in their installation checking periodically the condition of supplies and reporting this to appropriate authority and condemnation of areas due to strata imperfection and probability of breakdown

There are many questions in need of investigation What is the relationship in a multiple stream capture theory and the possible concentration of radioactive or other contaminates in a cave duc to fIltration What is the probability of infection by intake of foods contaminated by histoplasma ir any What is the relationship of bat rabies to human cave habitation What provision must be made for sanitation - control of rats and possible damage to supplies and in the event of human habitation control of rat fleas as possible communicators of typhUS or other epidemic diseases) What is the probability of excessive amounts of radioactive materials being introduced to the cavc environment by animals such as bats that enter and leave the cave frequently These represent only a portion of the questions which should be examined to determine their relevance and what precautionary measures should be taken if relevant

I would like to propose that at a special meeting of the Board of Governors a Civil Defense Advisory Committee composed of competent scientists and speleologists be formed for the purpose of formulating suitable policies initiating scientific investigation and in general assuming the role of representing and coordinating the Societys Civil Defense effort The question as to whether we can afford to undertake such a program with its inherent socialpolitical implications should be answered - Can we afford not to

References

1 Arms Inspection International Conciliation Nov 1962 (It is interesting to note that in my upinion this publication follows closely the United Nations activities It is surprising to observe this pessimistic attitude in that area)

2 Foreign Affairs Volume 39 no 4 July 1960 Inspection and Surprise Attack p 56l

3 A current article on Game Theory appears in the December 1962 issue of Scientific Americall by Anatol Rapoport The Use and Misuse of Game Theory

Journal of Speleall History 74

1922 Trip Reports

Maud Orr Howell

Trip 10 Bear Cave

Gordon Brown led eight of us including Elizabeth Hord George Raudebush Benie Weaver Tom Weaver Johnny Connor Boyte and me to Bear Cave in Savage Gulch

We left the Observatory at 900 am went down Clark Cottage Path and across the valley to the clearing in front of the old Savage home

The girls rested while the boys went up the side of Peak Mountain to a ~pring and brought back some water Then we explored the old house In one of the upstairs rooms that had newspapers on the walls we read in the Society section of a newspaper dated August 17 1908 that Mr and Mrs Sanford Duncan had gone to spend a few days with Mrs Robert Orr in Maury County

We cut across the field to the right of the house and climbed along the side of Peak Mountain then straight down the side of the mountain to Savage Creek After drinking water from a spring running into the creek we followed the creek up a few yards then climbed up the mountain on the left a few yards to the cave This is Coppenger Mountain It was 11 45 so we ate our Iunch and rested until 1 10 when all but Elizabeth and Tom went in the cave We had candles and carbide lights and Gordon led the way It saw 220 when we got out After resting a few minutes and taking some Kodak pictures we all including Elizabeth and Tom went in again and stayed until 300 pm

We gathered our things which included sticks which Gordon had cut for us the Kodak the lunch bag canteen etc and set out straight up the mountain with Gordon pulling us up some of the places until we hit the cliffs We followed the cliffs along until we found a place to climb up When we got on the top we walked along the mountain until we got to the end of it which is just above the Savage house We went down a path which went straight down the mountain to the Savage house rested while the boys got water then came home to Howell cottage the same way we had gone arriving here at 700 pm

Trip to Bats Cave

Saturday September 2 1922

We first planned to walk to Tatesville but not knowing how far it was we gave it up and decided to walk to Bats Cave The night before the trip we gave that up too as it was so far and the weather so hot

As we were eating breakfast Mr George Mitchell came and he had breakfast with us He suggested getting a wagon for our trip so immediately after breakfast Mr George Bettie Martha and Tom Weaver Boyte and I went to the store and got Earnest Rubleys wagon

75Journal of Speleall History

We all met on the Observatory There were 19 of us Five including Mr George Jennings and George Bailey Torn and Charlie Trabue IV left first and went down the Backbone Road intending to meet us at the Collins River bridge The rest of us Elliott and David Adams Lucy and Elizabeth Bailey Lucinda Trabue Irene Langford Elizabeth Mclane Kate Keene Johnson Susan Lewis Bettie and Martha Weaver Boyte and I walked down the mountain from the Observatory and met the wagon a little piece up the valley We missed the other bunch and they did not catch up with us until we had left the wagon and were eating lunch at the spring

We finished lunch and walked up the mountain to the cave We went to the big room where we stopped last year which is just beyond the small ladder We climbed the ladder then all but Irene Tom Elizabeth and I went on further We waited at the top of the ladder until they came back They had gone to another big room and circled around it about three times before finally finding the way out They found an old Nashville newspaper dated 1847 and another paper with some names on it They added their names to this list

When we got out of the cave it was nearly 500 We had been in there three hours

We went back to the wagon and started horne We got to Collins River bridge about dark The moon was almost full and the ride up the valley in the moonlight in a wagon filled with hay and pulled by mules was beautiful We stopped at Mortons store and Mr George telephoned up lo Beersheba and told them where we were and assured them that we would be home soon He brought out oodles of cookies and we had a grand time eating them We sang and yelled and relaxed on the hay We left the wagon at the bottom of Beersheba Mountain Martha led the way up the mountain in the dark with only the moon to help guide us We had Oashlights but it was hard to keep in the path But it was fun We reached the top at the Observatory at 845 pm and no one seemed to be tired

Trip to Peak Mountain

A crowd of us left Aunt Mats Cottage at 930 am on Monday August 28 1922 There were 19 of us including Mr George Mitchell Elizabeth Hord Mr Colville Elliott Adams Jennings Bailey Lucy Bailey Kate Keene Johnson George Eldred Mary Wilson Eldred Irene Langford Elizabeth Mclane Bettie Orr Martha Weaver Tom Weaver Alfred Williams Mary Phillips Street Susan Lewis Boyte Howell Jr and me (Maud Orr Howell)

We went down Clark Cottage Path to the valley The crowd was separated going down but we all got together at the foot of the mountain crossed the valley and climbed Peak Mountain There was no path we just went up the side of the mountain and went thru a pass up the cliffs We got there about 1200 pm rested then ate lunch We put up a nag (Elizabeth Hords petticoat)

Aoout 100 pm we left to find the old stage coach road to Chattanooga We went straight across the top of the mountain and found the road at the spring and a little log cabin We followed the road to the valley We heard Marshall Eldred mooing answered him and he found us Gordon Bro n who was with him led us to Peter Rock Cave on the side of Peak Mountain Marshall did not start out with us because he helped Gordon fix the leaks in Laurel Mill Dam Elliott led us in the cave and we did not go back very far It was pretty but wet and muddy

We c~me home by Dishroon Springs drank some of the water and ate the rest of our lunch [hen came on up the mountain A few of us stopped at the Johnson place and looked across the valley at Elilabeth Hords petticoat which we had left on a tree on Peak Mountain We came on horne arriving here about 500 pm

Journal of Speleall History 76

No Old Gold or Bones A Skeptical Review of Caverna del Oro Legendry Donald G Davis reprinledfrom Rocky Mountain Caving Summer 1992

In the thin air of timberline on Marble Mountain in the Sangre de Cristo range icy wind blows from the entrance to a deep and cryptic cave marked by the damaged remnant of a rust-red cross Known today as Spanish Cave it is the most publicized non-commercial cave in Colorado It has been featured for more than 70 years in media - first newspapers then magazines books and television specials Most of this publicity recounts stories that it is La Caverna del Oro where Indian slaves mined gold for 17th century Spaniards Many people take this as fact Recently a Colorado caver told me he had spoken with a journalist who assured him that the cave was bottomless and contains untold treasures

Spanish Cave was important in the start of my own caving career in 1957 While attending Colorado A amp M College (later CSU) I saw in scrapbooks in the Fort Collins Museum clippings of the Colorado Question Box column from the Rocky Mountain News circa 1955 They told stories of a Maltese-cross-marked entrance lost gold mine and chained skeleton reported in the caverns depths After correcting the first error we found in the accounts (that the cave was on Homs Peak several miles north of Marble Mountain) two of us (Vin Hoeman and myself) in the college Hikers Club located the cave the next year In subsequent years with Frank and Paul Leskinen James W Meachan and others in the Southern Colorado Grotto of the NSS I led the discovery of about two-thirds of its presently known passage

Finding that the Western History Department of the Denver Public Library had a clipping file on the cave I also undertook research on its history which I have continued intermittently since The mure I learned about the real cave the more disillusioned I became with the stories sensationalizing it I learned much about the rules of logic and evidence during the investi galion and was ultimately convinced that there was no satisfactory confirmation that Spanish explorers ever saw or entered the cave much less mined gold from it Following are some of the reasons for that concl usion

The most readily available summary of the legendry is in Lloyd Parris Caves oCoLorado (1973) pp 24-32 Parris precedes his Treasure Caves accounts with a confused and equivocal disclaimer The following tales for the most part have the validity of history behind them and in most cases the caves are known Undoubtedly though some of the legends connected with these caves belong in Chapter IV under hoax and humbug And if these legends seem to disagree or contradict what is previously known it is because they were selected not for entertainment alone but as a presentation of the known facts or legends as the case may be An evaluation of the authenticity has not been attempted This is left for the reader to do

This reader hereby takes up the challenge

The Spanish Mille Legends

A number of accounts (including Parriss) relate that Spanish Monastery Latin documents record gold being brought to pre-Columbian Mexican Indian kingdoms Acolhua Aztec and Tepance

Jourllal of Speleall History 77

from the north Then in 1541 three monks were supposedly left behind by Coronado (the Rocky MOllntain News June 3 1923 says 1598) One Fray Juan de la Cruz reportedly reopened a mine using forced labor by Pecos I ndians (a northern New Mexico Pueblq trib~)and packed treasure toward Mexico City but never arrived there Nuggets and gold bars reported found by one Baca in 1811 were speculated to be part of this treasure and a prospector searching (according to Parris) for Cavema del Oro half a century later found a silver cup engraved with the name Hermione Taken at face value all this gives the impression that stories about Caverna del Oro are of great antiquity though the original Spanish documents are never cited

This suite of tales was first widely distributed in an article by Alberta Pike headlines OLD MANUSCRIPT INDICATES VAST RICHES IN COLORADO CA VE GUARDED BY SKELETON in the Rocky Mountain News of Sept 6 1932 Subsequent Spanish Cave popularizers have recopied them from one article to the next without naming a source for them I recently made an enlightening discovery in the Colorado Historical Society library about where this material came from

Before any known Spanish Cave article was written Louis Bernhardt Sporleder -- early resident and prominent citizen of Walsenburg Colorado -- published a souvenir booklet titled Huajalolla Breasts of the World (1916) An article in The Trail June 1922 reprinted much of this booklet and said Sporleder had a number of unpublished manuscripts giving information historical and legendary about the Spanish Peaks (as the Huajatolla are more commonly known) Sporleders booklet included word for word most of the above Spanish mine material copied by later Cavema del Oro writers

Even his misspelling of the Tepance kingdom (properly Tepanec) has been faithfully reproduced by authors as late as Parris

As to the actual historicity of Sporleders items I know little but his writings (eg The Roses of Huajatolla The Trail Dec 1922) were prone to wild flights of romantic fiction incorporating gross errors about natural history He claimed for instance that the otherwise extinct passenger pigeon still survived on the Spanish Peaks in fact it has never been recorded in Colorado His human history appears similarly colored But even if he was accurate it is crucial to our study that his stories were exclusively about the Spanish Peaks making no connection whatever to Marble Mountain 50 miles to the northwest He specifically stated that the silver cup was found beside a spring in a grotto at the base of East Spanish Peak (the name Hermione moreover is Greek not Spanish) All of this is therefore irrelevant to the cavern on Marble Mountain that we know as Spanish Cave

In Sporleders 1916 version the prospector who found the cup was searching for Huajatollas mines of gold In Pikes 1932 recounting he was seeking the lost mine but she associates it with the cave on Marble Mountain Parris in 1973 transmutes the object of the searchers quest explicitly into the Caverna del Oro Thus by insidious mutations does spurious lore enshroud our cave

Forbes Parkhill asserted that Marble cave Legends connect the Spanish cross and the ancient timber found in the mine [sic] with the gold hunting and exploring expeditions of Juan de Onate in 1597 and the Escalante-Dominguez expedition in 1776 (Explorers to Seek Mysteries of Caves in San Isabel Wilds Discovered Four Centuries Ago Denver Post Oct 9 1921) Even Parris rejects these suggestions because those expeditions did not come close to Marble Mountain

Jourllal of Speleall History 78

Earliest Known Accounts ofthe Cave middot

In 1919 appeared a brochure Out-ol-door Piaygroullds of the Sansabel National Forest USDA middot Circular 5 by Henry S Graves Forester It declared that The Caves of the Winds [not to be confused with Cave of the Winds at Manitou Springs] a system of giant crevices in a mountain or solid white marble is one of the principal natural wonders of the Forest These caves have been penetrated to a depth of over 1200 feet without the end being reached Theymay be reached by wagon road from Westcliffe

On Oct 12 1919 the Denver Post ran an anonymous article San Isabels Caves of Winds Among Wonders of Colorado It stated The Caves of the Winds have been known to exist for many years They are described brieOy in the report of the San Isabel national forest A party of Denver business men is planning to visit the caves this autumn with a view to exploring them to their depths if pOssible If it is found that the natural wonders said to exist in the interior of the caves are equal to reports which have been received these men will ask the government for the I

privilege of developing the caves as a tourist attraction

That Spanish Cave is the object of these writings is indicated by the emphasis on wind great depth (four times the actual depth of the cave as then known) and incomplete exploration the nearby Cave of the White Marble Halls is less strongly windy nearly horizontal and was already well explored (The accompanying entrance photo is not Marble Mountain) A similar item in the Post of June 27 1920 mentions a huge cave on Marble mountain which has never been explored by man beyond a depth of 1800 feet and which may rival the famed Mammoth Cave of Kentucky Neither treasure legends nor stories ofSpanish exploration are me11lioned in any of these earliest printed accounts

Apollina Apodacas Story

The real genesis of treasure stories as applied to Spanish Cave so far as I can find is with Apollina Apodaca (her name is variously spelled in different accounts I use the spelling that seems most probable) In 1919 (not 1920 as said in Caves oColorado) Paul Gilbert later District Ranger in the Forest heard wonderful tales from this old woman As he recalled in The Bulletin of the Rocky Mountain Region of the US Forest Service (Dec 1936)

She stated that the Spaniards used to get gold from it and further stated that if one were to descend to a sufficient depth [in some accounts she is said to have specified 90 or 93 feet] a set of oak doors would be found and if they were forced open one would find a tunnel leading back into the bowels of the mountain -- and the source of the gold would be found She further stated that when she was a child they used to take a blanket wrap it around a heavy stone and throw it down the shaft In the course of a short time the blanket would be blown back minus the rock by the strong winds that come continually from the shaft

The following spring Gilbert located the cave which he misinterpreted as more of a volcanic fissure than it is a cave and visited it with Arthur C Carhart An item mentioning this trip (Mystery Caves in ColoradoRocky Mountain News Sept 21 1921) is the earliest I have found that makes a Spanish or lost-mine connection Old timers in the hills up there declare the place is the shaft of the old Three Step mine famous in Spanish history Carhart himself in the POSl of Jan 1 1922 says it is reported that it is an old Spanish mine entrance marked with a red cross of Malta and has old timber and a log chain inside

Jourllal of Speleall History 79

Gilberts writings are not entirely consistent about his informants statistics in the above report she is Mexican 105 years old in 1919 and died at 110 In his letter to Robert 1 OConnell of Feb 18 1957 (as published in History ojthe Colorado Grotto Nov 1961) she is Spanish and died in 1923 at age 103 A followup letter of Feb 25 adds that she spent most of her life in the vicinity of San Luis [in the San Luis Valley on the opposite side of the Sangre de Cristos] Another source (Dayle Molen Pueblo Star-Jollmal Nov 18 1956) says she lived near Gardner Perry Eberhart in his sensationalistic Treasure Tales of the Rockies (11) calls her an Indian squaw Raymond Thorp in American ForesTs Aug 1935 citing Gilbert says she died eight years ago which would have been 1927 (this is the date used by Parris) These points may be quibbles yet they indicate a lack of precision in recording the facts about her And since the account attributed to Ms Apodaca is pivotal to the entire Caverna del Oro oeuvre let us dissect it critically

Every element is either improbable or impossible Leaving the geologic aspect until later take the oaken doors There are no oaks for many miles and where they do appear they are scrub oak which would have provided door-size timber only in rare cases (though oaks of that size were more common in the Rockies then than now) And why haul heavy oak to timberline when (though strong when new) it does not resist rot as well as say the more easily obtained juniper There is not in any case any opening near the 9O-foot level where such doors could have been used

The blanket story is completely fanciful As we proved in 1961 (NSS News Aug 1962 part I) the cave wind comes from upper Spanish Cave not from the pit Even if it did the pit is about 15 feet wide whereas the entrance constricts to a narrow crawlway A wind strong enough to blow a blanket back up the pit would rise to such tornadic speed in the crawl as to stop a person from fighting through it to the pit Nor does it seem sensible that people would be blithely tossing their blankets down weighted with rocks After all the rock might fail to unwind and the blanket be lost or shredded at the bottom With so incredible a yarn in it why should not the whole narrative be dismissed as fantasy

The Skeletons

At least three human skeletons have been attested as evidence of Spanish involvement with the cave Two were introduced by reporter Kenneth C Lightburn in a front-page article in the Rocky Mountain News of Sept 4 1932 He claimed that the caves original discovery is credited to Capt Elisha P Hom one of the first settlers in the Wet Mountain Valley in 1869 About its entrance he found the remnants of what might have been a fort and also a skeleton in Spanish armor Through the armor was an Indian arrow (Lightburn also began the misconception that the cave was on Homs Peak) I have not been able to trace the origin of this anecdote but it sounds unlikely if only because the purpose of Spanish armor was to prevent things like stoneshypointed arrows from penetrating ones torso and it generally worked Halls History of Colorado (1895) confirms Elisha P Hom as a pioneer Wet Mountain Valley settler in 1869 but does not mention this story

However the skeleton that Lightburn intended to feature was the one in his articles melodramatic headlines SKELETON FOUND CHAINED BY NECK DEEP IN COLORADO MYSTERY CAVECAVERN IS HIGH IN MOUNTAIN WILDS OF STATEDenver Man Discovers Manacled Bones in Sangre de Cristo Range Moldering 500 Feet Below Surface in Awesome CavitySIGNS INDICATE MINE WORKED IN EARLY DAYSFind Recalls Legends of Fabulous Cavern [sic] del Oro of 17th Century Spaniards The headlines are emphasized by a lurid though regrettably nonphotographic picture of the skeleton and an entrance shot with the cross touched up to show better

80 Journal of Speleall History

Journal of Speean History

The article relates that Peter Moser of Denver with companions Victor Barth and his two sons Donald and Jack had just returned from a descent into the cave (Derivative accounts refer to Victor Donald and Jack Barth the former being a fictitious person born of the omission of an original comma between Victor and Donald)

According to Lightburn the Moser party had climbed down until they reached a vertical pit They lowered a lantern Forty feet downward they saw the bottom and in the light or the lantern could clearly make out the skeleton With a metal strap encircling the neck the pile of bones reclined against the rocky wall as if the person who died there centuries ago hall been chained in a sitting position and left to starve An investigatory trip reported in followup articles of Sept 11 12 arid 18 found no skeleton (If an entrance photo with the story of the 18th is any indication they might not even have found the cave -- the picture is obviously not on Marble Mountain -- it may be at Marble Cave near Canon City) It was speculated that Moser may have seen the skeleton at another point in the cave or that it had been done away with by mysterious parties unknown who had blasted the cave entrance between the two trips

In reality it is not surprising that the chained skeleton was never found There is no sound testimony that it was ever there Unlike Fray Juan de la Cruz Elisha Horn or Apollina Apodaca Peter Moser was still available to me to question when I first researched Lightburns article I found in 1959 that Moser still lived at the same address in Denver as in 1932 On New Years Eve 19591 telephoned him and asked about the story His description made it clear that his party had indeed reached the top of the pit that cavers now call the Jug At that point they had lowered a kerosene lantern on a line and he saw what in his own words looked like a pile of bones on a ledge near the bottom This he said is all he reported to the secretary of the Colorado Mountain Club who in tum contacted the newspaper which -- as Moser put it to me -- dressed it up a little (l printed a more complete record of Mosers hour-long interview in the Southern Colorado Grotto newsletter Spelunk Junk Mar 1960)

This embroidery was to be expected in an era when the Denver papers were battling for readers during the Great Depressiun and were notorious for sensationalism But even if Mosers own explanation did not debunk the skeleton he reportedly found it would not be believable The Jug is about 80 feet deep Have you ever tried to see in cavernous darkness where your breath makes mist clouds by a kerosene lantern at that range Then you will agree that a chaincd skeleton even in fine preservation could hardly have been seen well enough from the top to be recognized unequivocally

81

Caves oColorado complicates the matter by citing a letter to me from James W Meacham in vhich a bone found by Meacham at the bottom of the Jug in 1959 was pronounced human by John A Murphy of the Denver Museum of Natural History What Parris does not say is that I had written him in 1969 -- four years before his book was published -- that another expert at the University of Colorado Museum had declared it a deer bone (This water-worn two-inch fragment might well challenge a forensic specialist)

Not content with two skeletons Thorp (American Forests Aug 1935 op cit) adds a third to this spooky company A strange legend that still haunts the native people concerns a skeleton hung with buckskin which guarded Marble Cave just on the other side of Caverna del Oro It was the first quarter of the 19th century and an American free trapper wandered too far west The Spaniards for fear he would reveal their hiding place crucified him For a half century he remained pinioned to a wcxxlcn cross Aside from the improbably sadistic mode of execution this image typical of cartoons or folklore reveals ignorance of the properties of real skeletons which do not long remain articulated when exposed to weather decay and scavengers

Others find ulterior significance in our discovery of bones of bison and pronghorn antelope in upper Spanish Cave in the 1960s calling them plains species that would never ascend to such lofty heights Unless someone had used the cave for storing or curing meat (Bill Kaiser The Treasure of Caverna del Oro Colorful Colorado May-June 1973) I did not know this then but these animals have been known to ascend to the alpine tundra in historic ti mes and might have done so more often when they were abundant and unfenced The cave is much too wet to be good ror storing perishables

The Artifacts

Many reliable observers from Carhart and Gilbert onward report finding in the 1920s and 30s old artifacts of unknown provenance in Spanish Cave These include a winch chains whiskey bottle jug timber ladders shovel single-jack and a hammer They have all disappeared or been reduced to fragments but claims made for some of them purport to establish archeological evidence of Spanish presence

Thorp (1935 op CiL) in describing the 1932 Rocky Mountain News expedition states that on the second ledge they found the remains of a rudely constructed ladder which Dr LeRoy Hafen ( then editor historian and curator of the State Historical Society) after carefully examining asserted was at least 200 years old Below after being lowered 110 feet they found a crude hand-forged hammer which the historian declared was of 17th century vintage Gilbert (The Bulletin Dec 1936 op cit) and an Alamosa Courier article (from June 1937) repeat these avowals

These are very important allegations since the Spanish were the only people who could have left such artifacts in the 17th century To investigate them I wrote in 1960 to LeRoy Hafen inquiring about his trip to the cave and his knowledge of its history and specifically whether he had certified the hammer as of 17th-century manufacture and if so who now had it His reply was less specific than my questions but it is a primary document on one of the major claims about Spanish Cave and I reproduce it below verbatim

If LeRoy Hafen made claims of antiquity for the Spanish Cave artifacts in 1932 he obviously did not stand by them later His wife Ann W Hafen in Detective Historian (Denver WesTerners Monthly Roundup July 1954) had also recounted his 1932 cave trip and commented disproving a baseless story is important it is part of the search for truth She elaborated To the party the venture was disappointing No treasure found No relic of the ancient conquistadores But to the

Jourllal of Speleall History 82

detective Historian it was just another clue pursued another myth exploded another triumph for the scholars code -- to build history on fact not on fossilized fiction

Thorp (1935 op cit) relates that the timbers of their ladder system were about eight inches in diameter squared on four sides with an ax Auger holes were bored into their sides and they were fitted with wooden rungs pegged into the holes No nails were used al though this probably would have been done by early Germans or Americans [the wood is] now decayed and may be broken in many ins tances by the hand This construction however is not strong evidence for Spanish work Before the railroad reached the Wet Mountain Valley in the 1880s commodities such as nails would have been scarce and expensive anyone building such structures before then might well have used no metal It would also be stronger than tacking on rungs with nails when not using sawed lumber Concerning the other cave artifacts there is not enough information to suggest a date

BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY PROVOUTAH

January 13 1960

11r Donald G Davia P O Box 145 T1lnlath Colorado

Dear Hr Davia

I ~ intereat~d to learn f~ your letter of January J 1960 of your study and COllCen WJth the Caverna del Oro Hy visit to the cave and descent into it was with a party directed and financed by the Tourist Bureau or its counterpart of the period The contemporary ewspal6rs gave som~ accowtof the venture

I made the firat descant into the cave kt that time ging down the rope bS

you doubtless have done ince I recall at the edg~ of the pit th~re were s(XlIe rotted logs that may have been the framework of a windlass At tho bott~ of the pit I found a suall sledge ~er encrusted with limestone formation I dont recall what was done with this haa-er I remember no other relics in the pit

Our purposo was to investigate certain rumors a3 to early use of the cave as a SVanish mine I think middot there is little~~ion for that as the limestone fonnation is a poor VlOspect fot middotormation

The legnd hat a skeleton was chained to the wall gave added impetus to the trip Needless to eay nothing of the sort was found That cav and some near were epoken of colloctively os the Karble Campve and sune referred to this one as the Caverna del Or~ cave of gold The Kaltes cross painted on the rock at the entrllJce to tle cave already had a faded appearance I know nothi8 of the rk of Capto1n Hom regarding the di Scove ry of ~ he cave

i~J At the bottOlll of the pit Carl Dlaurohpersucd tho crevice out 5 far dS ~ ~ could go and found nothi8 to reward our efforts If Hr Ulaurot is still living i Denver he could give you sooe sidelights on th cave as ho visited it after our initial exploration

Cordially yours

LO 91+-LeRoy R IlcIen DeparUent of History

Some writers (eg Jesse Ball Canon City Daily Record Sept 14 1933) speculate that the cave was used by the Spanish as a refuge from Indian attacks The cave itself being windy wet and ncar-freezing would not have been ideal for such occupancy A ruined fort was alleged to exist below Marble Mountain as early as 1881 (Golden City Transcript Aug 31 1881 citing Cusler City Prospect ) later articles mention rifle pits I have seen what I presume to be these features below timberline and could not distinguish them from the miners prospect pits common in the Colorado mountains The largest log breastwork structure has also been interpreted as an old corral (Jerry Hassemer oral communication) If defensive works they are cr Jde ones indeed

This leaves to be considered the famous cross beside the entrance It is about one and a half feet square with flared ends meeting at the corners It has been variously described as burnt on

Jou rnal of Speean History 83

deeply chiseled or etched but in reality is prosaically painted with what looks to be a stable iron oxide pigment perhaps using some sort of template Portions of It had a thm patma of calcite crust when I first saw it in 1958 Though almost always called Maltese it is not as can be seen by looking up a crosses illustration in any large dictionary The true Maltese cross has indented ends A G Birch (Denver Post Aug 11 1929) correctly pointed out that the cave marker isin the perfect form of a German Iron Cross But he also says it was old when the first white sehler saw it more than sixty years ago without explaining how he knew this A contradictory testimony (Trail and Timberline April 1957) asserts that there is one old-timer who states that he knCv the fellow who painted it years ago as ajoke I wiIl pass over both of these declarations as uncorroborated

Spanish crosses as I have seen them represented on coins and in art have narrow straight-sided arms often with the basal arm longer and with the ends variously embellished They are typically very different from German ones It is suggestive that the first sedentary settlers below Marble Mountain were Germans of the Colfax colony in 1870 The colony as an entity failed within a year but some thirty families took possession of quarter sections and prospered as can be seen by the many descendants still living in the area (Wet Mountain Tribune Centennial Edition Dec 20 1985) German immigrants also arrived later on and the ranches cl osest below the caves remained in possession of the German-derived Henrich and Neermann families into recent years Crosses in the square form seen at the cave were used in German decorative motifs (I have seen an antique coffee-grinder at an abandoned German homestead in eastern Colorado that was ornamented with them) The cross could have been painted by a Colfax settler exploring his surroundings soon after the colonys establishment The dispersal of most of the colony in 1871 would account for the failure of later inhabitants to know who had created it

Alternatively it might have been a product of prospector 1 H Yeoman He figures in one of the earliest known accounts of a Marble Mountain cave in History of the Arkansas Valley Colorado (1881) A later report on this cave (Denver Republican Feb 20 1888) appears to describe Cave of the White Marble Halls south of Spanish Cave and states that the cave was discovered by Yeoman on Sept 16 1880 Yeoman obligingly left a graffito confirming this in the cave and the Kings and Queens Chambers of the article are likewise identified (Another 1881 account -shyGolden Cty Transcript op cit -- describes a similar cave but claims discovery by Messrs Hendershot amp Dickson of Custer City) A red cross like that at Spanish Cave but smaller and with narrower arms marks the entrance the associated graffito in English 400 Feet to the White Marble Halls precludes a Spanish conquistador origin (A writing inside -- Mrs H G ReedSilver Cliff CololHere 8115197 -- is done in a similar ornate hand) I have also seen Yeomans signature in Moonmilk Cave just across the ravine south of Spanish and scarcely possible to reach without seeing the Spanish entrance He must have known of Spanish Cave and pesumably had entered it

[he Geology

Finally a point that seems so obvious that it should hardly need to be mentioned decades of repeated explorations in Spanish Cave have failed to turn up a trace of mining or of gold and there is excellent reason for this Gold is found either where hydrothermal solutions have mineralized host rock or where deposits originating in that fashion have been eroded and concentrated in placer gravels Neither situation applies at Marble Mountain where the caves occur in an unaltered Pennsylvanian biothermal limestone lens sandwiched almost vertically between shales and conglomeratic sandstones (The name Marble Mountain is a misnomer marble is limestone altered -- metamorphosed -- by heat andor pressure The abundance of well-preserved brachiopod and crinoid fossils shows that Marble Mountain is not metamorphosed) The only mineralization known on the mountain is a little low-grade copper on the south limestone outcrop

Jourllal of Speleall History 84

Paul Gilbert notwithstanding the caves are in no way volcanic but are relatively typical highshygradient alpine limestone solution caves dissolved probably by massive runoff from melting snov and ice during Pleistocene glacial epochs Writers have speculated that Spanish Cave had a lower entrance (possible since the cave water does emerge at a spring lower down) and an entrance on the west side of the mountain (not possible since the limestone does not outcrop there) Ironically the only new entrance cavers have actually found was in a direction not suggested by any known author above Its discovery explained the cave wind as a chimney effect between the entrances -- blowing down to the lower opening when it is warmer outside than inside reversing when it is colder outside

Conclusions

I know of no one else who has analyzed the Caverna del Oro stories as thoroughly but I am not the first to publish critical judgments on them Mrs Hafen has already been quoted Also on record (NSS Bulletin 8 July 1946) is a letter dated 10444 from Fred R Johnson Chief Information and Education US Forest Service

Carl Biaurock a member of the Colorado Mountain Club explored this cave in 1925 again in 1931 and later in more detail in 1932 On the last date the exploration was the result of several articles in the Rocky MOUnTain News in which an old yam was mentioned to the effect that the cave had been investigated in the Spanish explorations in the eighteenth [sic] century also that it is supposed to have yielded a large quantity of gold and other valuable minerals there are no signs of any mineral So far as Mr Blaurocks party could tell there is no evidence in the cave of any visitation of Spanish explorers several hundred years ago

Molen (opcit) wrote that this story [from Apodaca] has been disapproved [sic] The tools and ladder in the cave are of comparatively modern origin Blaurock believes Someone years ago must have explored the cave at least as thoroughly as we did he said He also expressed doubt that the rifle pits and fort are of Spanish origin I did not interview Carl Blaurock during my earlier research I telephoned him this summer but he is 98 years old and is too deaf to understand my questions I have sent him a letter of inquiry thus far unanswered

After organized caving had begun William R Halliday founder of the Colorado Grotto of the National Speleological Society also concluded that The fabulous stories are fables The story of Spanish Cave is told (Halliday however was too pessimistic in inferring that the cave was almost completely explored Most of what is now known was discovered just after he wrote but none of the new passage showed signs of human entry)

Diehard romantics might protest that Spanish Cave could still be La Caverna del Oro Caves can hide much perhaps somewhere in the depths there is a localized zone of thermal mineralization conceivably the Spaniards very cleverly concealed the way to the mine workings Such ideas are not impossible but do strain credulity For every verified feature that has been proposed as evidence for Spanish presence there is an alternative explanation that is more plausible The burden of proof then is on the proponents of the Spanish connection The lurid yarns about the cave reflect folklore creation greatly abetted by media exploitation assisted by atrociously sloppy research

The time sequenceof the several names applied to the cave fits this very neatly In sources from 1919 I find The Caves of the Winds From 1920 until 1932 I see Marble Cave Marble

85jOllrtlal of Speleall History

Caves or The Caves but no Spanish-related appellations It is still called Marble Cave at least as late as 1953 (Irma Zanoni Trail amp Timberline Dec 1953) I do not encounter La Cavema del Oro applied to our cave until Lightburns articles of 1932 after which it is common One of Lightburns headlines refers to the old Spanish Cave but Spanish Cave as a proper ~ame seems to appear only in the first Colorado Grotto News amp Notes of Feb 12 1952 where It IS a synonym for Caverna del Oro From then until now Spanish Cave has been the preferred form in the literature of organized caving and in popular media relying on it This unfortunately has helped to maintain the public assumption that the Spanish legendry is based in fact

The caves history is muddled by a series of misnomers a Caverna del Oro with no gold a Maltese cross that is not Maltese marble that is not marble -- and on analyzing the evidence I think that German Cave would have been a more appropriate if less provocative name than Spanish Cave

I expect my skeptical arguments to be ignored by future writers as long as there is a media markcL for exciting treasure tales Why is it important to be critically analytical

Since fact and fiction are not clearly distinguished in media information about the cave many people still believe nonsense about it Apparently the Spanish gold tales retain enough public acceptance to present problems to the Forest Service today It is reported that there was in recent years a proposal to build a road to the cave to facilitate treasure hunting (Jerry Hassemer oral comm)

Furthermore presentation of false gold stories as if they might be true is likely to tempt naive and poorly prepared readers to get in trouble seeking riches This is apparent in a 1957 letter from Roy Truman former District Ranger and colleague of Paul Gilberts (History of the Colorado Grotto 1961)

There was a time when it was very difficult to keep boys away from this cave and I received many calls from parents in Pueblo and other towns all times of the day and night concerning the safety of their boys that had left home with the ideas of exploring this cave with the high hopes of finding valuable ores or treasures they were equipped with a few pieces of small rope [this was probably arter the Depression-era articles]

This problem is also exemplified by a letter in my own files addressed in 1962 to Richard LeSage of the Southern Colorado Grotto from a Denverite He had twenty-four numbered questions including What type of equipiment [sic] will I need (exactly) I havent done much cave exploring Where can I obtain it What type of mask would I need for foul air He concludes We are intending to explore this cave at all cost so your information will be most vilal to us and most appreciable (We never replied deciding that was the safest thing to do)

The extravagance of peoples beliefs about Spanish Cave has sometimes reached quite ridiculous extremes The Colorado Historical Society library has a typescript of research material used by Perry Eberhart in preparing Treasure Tales of the Rockies One note is as follows

Robert Dunne head of Querida sez think cave comes out near Walsenburg or possibly the northern end of Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico never found end

James Dunne Querida

Not even Eberhart was so shameless as to print this in his book

Jourllal of Speleall History 86

There are still many legitimate mysteries left about Marble Mountain and its history How well explored are the ends of Spanish Cave even now Why was Yeomans cave otherwise so clearly White Marble Halls said to have a 275-foot pit Is this an error or a pit now lost Was the vertical Spanish Cave somehow grafted into the account Who really painted the Maltese cross and who put the artifacts into Spanish Why were detailed articles published on White Marble Halls in the 1880s but nothing seems to be on record about Spanish until 1919 in spite of the extensive early work done in it (If the relics were left by Colfax colonists in the 1870s they could not easily have published their explorations as there were yet no newspapers in the Wet Mountain Valley Later Yeoman or other prospectors might have been reticent about calling atlention to the cave if they built ladders down the shafts in the hope of rinding minerals Study 01 the county mining-claim records could be informative)

Future Opportunities

Most knowledge we now have on Marble Mountain history before organized caving is based on writings of big-city visitors from 1919 on When time allows I intend to search the microfilms of Custer County newspapers in the period 1880-1920 to see if items overlooked by library indexers may shed light on the gaps in our knowledge of the Marble Mountain caves Fascinating revelations are very likely to result Johnsons letter of 1944 (op cit) also stated There was evidence of early visitation [in Marble Cave] including names carved on rocks but these date mostly back about 50 years ago Informative graffiti are numerous in Cave of the White Marble Halls but I do not recall seeing any in Spanish Cave during my own explorations in the 1950s and 60s It should be carefully reexamined to see if we have overlooked signatures that could be keys to the solution of the puzzles

Better documentation of the cave itself would also be desirable The Colorado Grotto surveyed most of lower Spanish in the 1950s to the standards then prevailing I do not know the length of the CG survey but it probably included less than 1000 feet The Southern Colorado Grotto discoveries from 1959 to the early 1960s were not surveyed at the time

From 1975 to 1988 Jerry Hassemer led the mapping of 2642 feet of upper Spanish including the main route between entrances and the Rimstone Passage its longest side gallery (Hassemer personal comm Sept 13 1992) (About 1735 feet of this are along the through-route) His survey showed a vertical difference of 449 feet between lower and upper entrance by both internal mapping and a surface closure loop The old Colorado Grotto map appears to show a depth of just over 270 feet from lower entrance to deepest surveyed point thus total surveyed depth of Spanish Cave is about 720 fect (The entrance elevations of Spanish Cave have never been established by survey to a benchmark but altimeter readings and topographic maps suggest that the upper entrance is around 12000 feet)

Other side passages and superimposed levels in upper Spanish remain unmapped In lower Spanish an important branch the waterfall passage -- which may go deeper than the so-called Gold Diggings at the end of the existing map -- remains unsurveyed The high elevation and extremely cold wet conditions continue to inhibit complete exploration and mapping as they have for as long as the cave has been known

87Journal of Speleall History

proven by the not so far removed Cuban Crisis In November 1962 LS Finkelstein at the Harvard University Center for International Affairs writing of the Soviet position on Arms Inspection is quoted It is hard to escape the conclusion that the Soviet Union for at least much of the time seems to have been interested more in employing the negotiations as a means of weakening the military and political position of the West that as a route to a viable disarmament system He goes on to quote James P Wadsworth to the effect that the Soviet Union has employed arms control negotiation as a part of a grand strategy aimed at the eventual total defeat of the other side 1 Thus for those persons who hope for an easy solution it is hard to find the substance to nourish those hopes

The possibility of reducing the probable use of nuclear weapons is diminished by the cruel fact that reduction in armaments only increases the probability of escalation in armament by lessening the factor required for decisive advantage while additionally making the elements of decisive advantage available to many other countries who may aspire to greater roles than current economic or scientific resources have relegated them This point is well illustrated by HA Kissinger nuclear disarmament has revealed the paradoxical fact that there is a certain safety in numbers And this is true even if both sides religiously observe an agreement to limit nuclear weapons Instability is greater if each side possesses ten missiles that if the equilibrium is stabilized at say 500 For an attack which is 90 successful when the opponent has ten missiles leaves him one or a number hardly able to inflict unacceptable damage An attack of similar effectiveness when the opponent possesses 500 missiles leaves 50 - perhaps sufficient to pose an unacceptable risk 2

We can easily conclude that the probability of removing nuclear weapons from the field of War Science is remote from purely tactical necessity What is also critical to our thinking is that the War Sciences are advancing in their ability to assess more and more elements and their relationship to decisive advantage Von Neumann in formulating the Minimax Game Theory and its reduction to mathematical models applied to computers increases the number of factors to be considered beyond the capability of the human mind International politics are founded upon economic and strategic factors rather than ethical or moral principle It is not impossible that in the cold realistic logic of the Game Theory3 that some remote event passing unseen by the casual observer will relate itself to decisive advantage for the opponent and may demand immediate action by one or the other side We cannot hope that in every instance the situation will escalate as did the Cuban Crisis so that the population can prepare itself

The comparison of Civil Preparedness to Ostrichism is not a fair comparison Civil Preparedness adds another factor for a potential enemy and complicates his game It makes it more difficult to game reliability Kissinger points out four considerations for reducing the possibility of decisive advantage the second of which is Since invulnerability is a relative term the purpose of arms control measures must be to strengthen so far as possible the relative position of the defender either by enhancing the security of his force or by complicating the calculations of the aggressor2 It is thus that civil preparedness serves a two fold purpose of deterring and of providing some measure

of survi val

The remoteness of the areas under consideration enhances the desirability of taking appropriate measures God forbid that it should come to pass but in the event of a nuclear holocaust it is these areas that could become the springboard for the reconstruction of our democracy and for the continuation of our cultural heritage

As members of the National Speleological Society we have the opportunity of not only participating but of making a definite contribution No other organization has more resources in

73Journal of Speeall History

scientific personnel experience or knowledge relating to caves Failure to meet our responsibilities at this time will only widen possible misunderstandings between the National Speleological Society and Civil Defense Organizations We must accept the fact that as the civil defense program expands more cave resources will be requisitioned Our opposition will only serve as a barrier to continued parallel use of these resources

The Society can assist in both the areas of applied practical knowledge and of basic research To list bnt a few are - advising and monitoring storage in areas of historical underground hydrological fluctuations monitoring humidity temperature and air circulation locating suitable areas in caves that will minimize the possibility of vandalism recommending types of closures of gates and assisting in their installation checking periodically the condition of supplies and reporting this to appropriate authority and condemnation of areas due to strata imperfection and probability of breakdown

There are many questions in need of investigation What is the relationship in a multiple stream capture theory and the possible concentration of radioactive or other contaminates in a cave duc to fIltration What is the probability of infection by intake of foods contaminated by histoplasma ir any What is the relationship of bat rabies to human cave habitation What provision must be made for sanitation - control of rats and possible damage to supplies and in the event of human habitation control of rat fleas as possible communicators of typhUS or other epidemic diseases) What is the probability of excessive amounts of radioactive materials being introduced to the cavc environment by animals such as bats that enter and leave the cave frequently These represent only a portion of the questions which should be examined to determine their relevance and what precautionary measures should be taken if relevant

I would like to propose that at a special meeting of the Board of Governors a Civil Defense Advisory Committee composed of competent scientists and speleologists be formed for the purpose of formulating suitable policies initiating scientific investigation and in general assuming the role of representing and coordinating the Societys Civil Defense effort The question as to whether we can afford to undertake such a program with its inherent socialpolitical implications should be answered - Can we afford not to

References

1 Arms Inspection International Conciliation Nov 1962 (It is interesting to note that in my upinion this publication follows closely the United Nations activities It is surprising to observe this pessimistic attitude in that area)

2 Foreign Affairs Volume 39 no 4 July 1960 Inspection and Surprise Attack p 56l

3 A current article on Game Theory appears in the December 1962 issue of Scientific Americall by Anatol Rapoport The Use and Misuse of Game Theory

Journal of Speleall History 74

1922 Trip Reports

Maud Orr Howell

Trip 10 Bear Cave

Gordon Brown led eight of us including Elizabeth Hord George Raudebush Benie Weaver Tom Weaver Johnny Connor Boyte and me to Bear Cave in Savage Gulch

We left the Observatory at 900 am went down Clark Cottage Path and across the valley to the clearing in front of the old Savage home

The girls rested while the boys went up the side of Peak Mountain to a ~pring and brought back some water Then we explored the old house In one of the upstairs rooms that had newspapers on the walls we read in the Society section of a newspaper dated August 17 1908 that Mr and Mrs Sanford Duncan had gone to spend a few days with Mrs Robert Orr in Maury County

We cut across the field to the right of the house and climbed along the side of Peak Mountain then straight down the side of the mountain to Savage Creek After drinking water from a spring running into the creek we followed the creek up a few yards then climbed up the mountain on the left a few yards to the cave This is Coppenger Mountain It was 11 45 so we ate our Iunch and rested until 1 10 when all but Elizabeth and Tom went in the cave We had candles and carbide lights and Gordon led the way It saw 220 when we got out After resting a few minutes and taking some Kodak pictures we all including Elizabeth and Tom went in again and stayed until 300 pm

We gathered our things which included sticks which Gordon had cut for us the Kodak the lunch bag canteen etc and set out straight up the mountain with Gordon pulling us up some of the places until we hit the cliffs We followed the cliffs along until we found a place to climb up When we got on the top we walked along the mountain until we got to the end of it which is just above the Savage house We went down a path which went straight down the mountain to the Savage house rested while the boys got water then came home to Howell cottage the same way we had gone arriving here at 700 pm

Trip to Bats Cave

Saturday September 2 1922

We first planned to walk to Tatesville but not knowing how far it was we gave it up and decided to walk to Bats Cave The night before the trip we gave that up too as it was so far and the weather so hot

As we were eating breakfast Mr George Mitchell came and he had breakfast with us He suggested getting a wagon for our trip so immediately after breakfast Mr George Bettie Martha and Tom Weaver Boyte and I went to the store and got Earnest Rubleys wagon

75Journal of Speleall History

We all met on the Observatory There were 19 of us Five including Mr George Jennings and George Bailey Torn and Charlie Trabue IV left first and went down the Backbone Road intending to meet us at the Collins River bridge The rest of us Elliott and David Adams Lucy and Elizabeth Bailey Lucinda Trabue Irene Langford Elizabeth Mclane Kate Keene Johnson Susan Lewis Bettie and Martha Weaver Boyte and I walked down the mountain from the Observatory and met the wagon a little piece up the valley We missed the other bunch and they did not catch up with us until we had left the wagon and were eating lunch at the spring

We finished lunch and walked up the mountain to the cave We went to the big room where we stopped last year which is just beyond the small ladder We climbed the ladder then all but Irene Tom Elizabeth and I went on further We waited at the top of the ladder until they came back They had gone to another big room and circled around it about three times before finally finding the way out They found an old Nashville newspaper dated 1847 and another paper with some names on it They added their names to this list

When we got out of the cave it was nearly 500 We had been in there three hours

We went back to the wagon and started horne We got to Collins River bridge about dark The moon was almost full and the ride up the valley in the moonlight in a wagon filled with hay and pulled by mules was beautiful We stopped at Mortons store and Mr George telephoned up lo Beersheba and told them where we were and assured them that we would be home soon He brought out oodles of cookies and we had a grand time eating them We sang and yelled and relaxed on the hay We left the wagon at the bottom of Beersheba Mountain Martha led the way up the mountain in the dark with only the moon to help guide us We had Oashlights but it was hard to keep in the path But it was fun We reached the top at the Observatory at 845 pm and no one seemed to be tired

Trip to Peak Mountain

A crowd of us left Aunt Mats Cottage at 930 am on Monday August 28 1922 There were 19 of us including Mr George Mitchell Elizabeth Hord Mr Colville Elliott Adams Jennings Bailey Lucy Bailey Kate Keene Johnson George Eldred Mary Wilson Eldred Irene Langford Elizabeth Mclane Bettie Orr Martha Weaver Tom Weaver Alfred Williams Mary Phillips Street Susan Lewis Boyte Howell Jr and me (Maud Orr Howell)

We went down Clark Cottage Path to the valley The crowd was separated going down but we all got together at the foot of the mountain crossed the valley and climbed Peak Mountain There was no path we just went up the side of the mountain and went thru a pass up the cliffs We got there about 1200 pm rested then ate lunch We put up a nag (Elizabeth Hords petticoat)

Aoout 100 pm we left to find the old stage coach road to Chattanooga We went straight across the top of the mountain and found the road at the spring and a little log cabin We followed the road to the valley We heard Marshall Eldred mooing answered him and he found us Gordon Bro n who was with him led us to Peter Rock Cave on the side of Peak Mountain Marshall did not start out with us because he helped Gordon fix the leaks in Laurel Mill Dam Elliott led us in the cave and we did not go back very far It was pretty but wet and muddy

We c~me home by Dishroon Springs drank some of the water and ate the rest of our lunch [hen came on up the mountain A few of us stopped at the Johnson place and looked across the valley at Elilabeth Hords petticoat which we had left on a tree on Peak Mountain We came on horne arriving here about 500 pm

Journal of Speleall History 76

No Old Gold or Bones A Skeptical Review of Caverna del Oro Legendry Donald G Davis reprinledfrom Rocky Mountain Caving Summer 1992

In the thin air of timberline on Marble Mountain in the Sangre de Cristo range icy wind blows from the entrance to a deep and cryptic cave marked by the damaged remnant of a rust-red cross Known today as Spanish Cave it is the most publicized non-commercial cave in Colorado It has been featured for more than 70 years in media - first newspapers then magazines books and television specials Most of this publicity recounts stories that it is La Caverna del Oro where Indian slaves mined gold for 17th century Spaniards Many people take this as fact Recently a Colorado caver told me he had spoken with a journalist who assured him that the cave was bottomless and contains untold treasures

Spanish Cave was important in the start of my own caving career in 1957 While attending Colorado A amp M College (later CSU) I saw in scrapbooks in the Fort Collins Museum clippings of the Colorado Question Box column from the Rocky Mountain News circa 1955 They told stories of a Maltese-cross-marked entrance lost gold mine and chained skeleton reported in the caverns depths After correcting the first error we found in the accounts (that the cave was on Homs Peak several miles north of Marble Mountain) two of us (Vin Hoeman and myself) in the college Hikers Club located the cave the next year In subsequent years with Frank and Paul Leskinen James W Meachan and others in the Southern Colorado Grotto of the NSS I led the discovery of about two-thirds of its presently known passage

Finding that the Western History Department of the Denver Public Library had a clipping file on the cave I also undertook research on its history which I have continued intermittently since The mure I learned about the real cave the more disillusioned I became with the stories sensationalizing it I learned much about the rules of logic and evidence during the investi galion and was ultimately convinced that there was no satisfactory confirmation that Spanish explorers ever saw or entered the cave much less mined gold from it Following are some of the reasons for that concl usion

The most readily available summary of the legendry is in Lloyd Parris Caves oCoLorado (1973) pp 24-32 Parris precedes his Treasure Caves accounts with a confused and equivocal disclaimer The following tales for the most part have the validity of history behind them and in most cases the caves are known Undoubtedly though some of the legends connected with these caves belong in Chapter IV under hoax and humbug And if these legends seem to disagree or contradict what is previously known it is because they were selected not for entertainment alone but as a presentation of the known facts or legends as the case may be An evaluation of the authenticity has not been attempted This is left for the reader to do

This reader hereby takes up the challenge

The Spanish Mille Legends

A number of accounts (including Parriss) relate that Spanish Monastery Latin documents record gold being brought to pre-Columbian Mexican Indian kingdoms Acolhua Aztec and Tepance

Jourllal of Speleall History 77

from the north Then in 1541 three monks were supposedly left behind by Coronado (the Rocky MOllntain News June 3 1923 says 1598) One Fray Juan de la Cruz reportedly reopened a mine using forced labor by Pecos I ndians (a northern New Mexico Pueblq trib~)and packed treasure toward Mexico City but never arrived there Nuggets and gold bars reported found by one Baca in 1811 were speculated to be part of this treasure and a prospector searching (according to Parris) for Cavema del Oro half a century later found a silver cup engraved with the name Hermione Taken at face value all this gives the impression that stories about Caverna del Oro are of great antiquity though the original Spanish documents are never cited

This suite of tales was first widely distributed in an article by Alberta Pike headlines OLD MANUSCRIPT INDICATES VAST RICHES IN COLORADO CA VE GUARDED BY SKELETON in the Rocky Mountain News of Sept 6 1932 Subsequent Spanish Cave popularizers have recopied them from one article to the next without naming a source for them I recently made an enlightening discovery in the Colorado Historical Society library about where this material came from

Before any known Spanish Cave article was written Louis Bernhardt Sporleder -- early resident and prominent citizen of Walsenburg Colorado -- published a souvenir booklet titled Huajalolla Breasts of the World (1916) An article in The Trail June 1922 reprinted much of this booklet and said Sporleder had a number of unpublished manuscripts giving information historical and legendary about the Spanish Peaks (as the Huajatolla are more commonly known) Sporleders booklet included word for word most of the above Spanish mine material copied by later Cavema del Oro writers

Even his misspelling of the Tepance kingdom (properly Tepanec) has been faithfully reproduced by authors as late as Parris

As to the actual historicity of Sporleders items I know little but his writings (eg The Roses of Huajatolla The Trail Dec 1922) were prone to wild flights of romantic fiction incorporating gross errors about natural history He claimed for instance that the otherwise extinct passenger pigeon still survived on the Spanish Peaks in fact it has never been recorded in Colorado His human history appears similarly colored But even if he was accurate it is crucial to our study that his stories were exclusively about the Spanish Peaks making no connection whatever to Marble Mountain 50 miles to the northwest He specifically stated that the silver cup was found beside a spring in a grotto at the base of East Spanish Peak (the name Hermione moreover is Greek not Spanish) All of this is therefore irrelevant to the cavern on Marble Mountain that we know as Spanish Cave

In Sporleders 1916 version the prospector who found the cup was searching for Huajatollas mines of gold In Pikes 1932 recounting he was seeking the lost mine but she associates it with the cave on Marble Mountain Parris in 1973 transmutes the object of the searchers quest explicitly into the Caverna del Oro Thus by insidious mutations does spurious lore enshroud our cave

Forbes Parkhill asserted that Marble cave Legends connect the Spanish cross and the ancient timber found in the mine [sic] with the gold hunting and exploring expeditions of Juan de Onate in 1597 and the Escalante-Dominguez expedition in 1776 (Explorers to Seek Mysteries of Caves in San Isabel Wilds Discovered Four Centuries Ago Denver Post Oct 9 1921) Even Parris rejects these suggestions because those expeditions did not come close to Marble Mountain

Jourllal of Speleall History 78

Earliest Known Accounts ofthe Cave middot

In 1919 appeared a brochure Out-ol-door Piaygroullds of the Sansabel National Forest USDA middot Circular 5 by Henry S Graves Forester It declared that The Caves of the Winds [not to be confused with Cave of the Winds at Manitou Springs] a system of giant crevices in a mountain or solid white marble is one of the principal natural wonders of the Forest These caves have been penetrated to a depth of over 1200 feet without the end being reached Theymay be reached by wagon road from Westcliffe

On Oct 12 1919 the Denver Post ran an anonymous article San Isabels Caves of Winds Among Wonders of Colorado It stated The Caves of the Winds have been known to exist for many years They are described brieOy in the report of the San Isabel national forest A party of Denver business men is planning to visit the caves this autumn with a view to exploring them to their depths if pOssible If it is found that the natural wonders said to exist in the interior of the caves are equal to reports which have been received these men will ask the government for the I

privilege of developing the caves as a tourist attraction

That Spanish Cave is the object of these writings is indicated by the emphasis on wind great depth (four times the actual depth of the cave as then known) and incomplete exploration the nearby Cave of the White Marble Halls is less strongly windy nearly horizontal and was already well explored (The accompanying entrance photo is not Marble Mountain) A similar item in the Post of June 27 1920 mentions a huge cave on Marble mountain which has never been explored by man beyond a depth of 1800 feet and which may rival the famed Mammoth Cave of Kentucky Neither treasure legends nor stories ofSpanish exploration are me11lioned in any of these earliest printed accounts

Apollina Apodacas Story

The real genesis of treasure stories as applied to Spanish Cave so far as I can find is with Apollina Apodaca (her name is variously spelled in different accounts I use the spelling that seems most probable) In 1919 (not 1920 as said in Caves oColorado) Paul Gilbert later District Ranger in the Forest heard wonderful tales from this old woman As he recalled in The Bulletin of the Rocky Mountain Region of the US Forest Service (Dec 1936)

She stated that the Spaniards used to get gold from it and further stated that if one were to descend to a sufficient depth [in some accounts she is said to have specified 90 or 93 feet] a set of oak doors would be found and if they were forced open one would find a tunnel leading back into the bowels of the mountain -- and the source of the gold would be found She further stated that when she was a child they used to take a blanket wrap it around a heavy stone and throw it down the shaft In the course of a short time the blanket would be blown back minus the rock by the strong winds that come continually from the shaft

The following spring Gilbert located the cave which he misinterpreted as more of a volcanic fissure than it is a cave and visited it with Arthur C Carhart An item mentioning this trip (Mystery Caves in ColoradoRocky Mountain News Sept 21 1921) is the earliest I have found that makes a Spanish or lost-mine connection Old timers in the hills up there declare the place is the shaft of the old Three Step mine famous in Spanish history Carhart himself in the POSl of Jan 1 1922 says it is reported that it is an old Spanish mine entrance marked with a red cross of Malta and has old timber and a log chain inside

Jourllal of Speleall History 79

Gilberts writings are not entirely consistent about his informants statistics in the above report she is Mexican 105 years old in 1919 and died at 110 In his letter to Robert 1 OConnell of Feb 18 1957 (as published in History ojthe Colorado Grotto Nov 1961) she is Spanish and died in 1923 at age 103 A followup letter of Feb 25 adds that she spent most of her life in the vicinity of San Luis [in the San Luis Valley on the opposite side of the Sangre de Cristos] Another source (Dayle Molen Pueblo Star-Jollmal Nov 18 1956) says she lived near Gardner Perry Eberhart in his sensationalistic Treasure Tales of the Rockies (11) calls her an Indian squaw Raymond Thorp in American ForesTs Aug 1935 citing Gilbert says she died eight years ago which would have been 1927 (this is the date used by Parris) These points may be quibbles yet they indicate a lack of precision in recording the facts about her And since the account attributed to Ms Apodaca is pivotal to the entire Caverna del Oro oeuvre let us dissect it critically

Every element is either improbable or impossible Leaving the geologic aspect until later take the oaken doors There are no oaks for many miles and where they do appear they are scrub oak which would have provided door-size timber only in rare cases (though oaks of that size were more common in the Rockies then than now) And why haul heavy oak to timberline when (though strong when new) it does not resist rot as well as say the more easily obtained juniper There is not in any case any opening near the 9O-foot level where such doors could have been used

The blanket story is completely fanciful As we proved in 1961 (NSS News Aug 1962 part I) the cave wind comes from upper Spanish Cave not from the pit Even if it did the pit is about 15 feet wide whereas the entrance constricts to a narrow crawlway A wind strong enough to blow a blanket back up the pit would rise to such tornadic speed in the crawl as to stop a person from fighting through it to the pit Nor does it seem sensible that people would be blithely tossing their blankets down weighted with rocks After all the rock might fail to unwind and the blanket be lost or shredded at the bottom With so incredible a yarn in it why should not the whole narrative be dismissed as fantasy

The Skeletons

At least three human skeletons have been attested as evidence of Spanish involvement with the cave Two were introduced by reporter Kenneth C Lightburn in a front-page article in the Rocky Mountain News of Sept 4 1932 He claimed that the caves original discovery is credited to Capt Elisha P Hom one of the first settlers in the Wet Mountain Valley in 1869 About its entrance he found the remnants of what might have been a fort and also a skeleton in Spanish armor Through the armor was an Indian arrow (Lightburn also began the misconception that the cave was on Homs Peak) I have not been able to trace the origin of this anecdote but it sounds unlikely if only because the purpose of Spanish armor was to prevent things like stoneshypointed arrows from penetrating ones torso and it generally worked Halls History of Colorado (1895) confirms Elisha P Hom as a pioneer Wet Mountain Valley settler in 1869 but does not mention this story

However the skeleton that Lightburn intended to feature was the one in his articles melodramatic headlines SKELETON FOUND CHAINED BY NECK DEEP IN COLORADO MYSTERY CAVECAVERN IS HIGH IN MOUNTAIN WILDS OF STATEDenver Man Discovers Manacled Bones in Sangre de Cristo Range Moldering 500 Feet Below Surface in Awesome CavitySIGNS INDICATE MINE WORKED IN EARLY DAYSFind Recalls Legends of Fabulous Cavern [sic] del Oro of 17th Century Spaniards The headlines are emphasized by a lurid though regrettably nonphotographic picture of the skeleton and an entrance shot with the cross touched up to show better

80 Journal of Speleall History

Journal of Speean History

The article relates that Peter Moser of Denver with companions Victor Barth and his two sons Donald and Jack had just returned from a descent into the cave (Derivative accounts refer to Victor Donald and Jack Barth the former being a fictitious person born of the omission of an original comma between Victor and Donald)

According to Lightburn the Moser party had climbed down until they reached a vertical pit They lowered a lantern Forty feet downward they saw the bottom and in the light or the lantern could clearly make out the skeleton With a metal strap encircling the neck the pile of bones reclined against the rocky wall as if the person who died there centuries ago hall been chained in a sitting position and left to starve An investigatory trip reported in followup articles of Sept 11 12 arid 18 found no skeleton (If an entrance photo with the story of the 18th is any indication they might not even have found the cave -- the picture is obviously not on Marble Mountain -- it may be at Marble Cave near Canon City) It was speculated that Moser may have seen the skeleton at another point in the cave or that it had been done away with by mysterious parties unknown who had blasted the cave entrance between the two trips

In reality it is not surprising that the chained skeleton was never found There is no sound testimony that it was ever there Unlike Fray Juan de la Cruz Elisha Horn or Apollina Apodaca Peter Moser was still available to me to question when I first researched Lightburns article I found in 1959 that Moser still lived at the same address in Denver as in 1932 On New Years Eve 19591 telephoned him and asked about the story His description made it clear that his party had indeed reached the top of the pit that cavers now call the Jug At that point they had lowered a kerosene lantern on a line and he saw what in his own words looked like a pile of bones on a ledge near the bottom This he said is all he reported to the secretary of the Colorado Mountain Club who in tum contacted the newspaper which -- as Moser put it to me -- dressed it up a little (l printed a more complete record of Mosers hour-long interview in the Southern Colorado Grotto newsletter Spelunk Junk Mar 1960)

This embroidery was to be expected in an era when the Denver papers were battling for readers during the Great Depressiun and were notorious for sensationalism But even if Mosers own explanation did not debunk the skeleton he reportedly found it would not be believable The Jug is about 80 feet deep Have you ever tried to see in cavernous darkness where your breath makes mist clouds by a kerosene lantern at that range Then you will agree that a chaincd skeleton even in fine preservation could hardly have been seen well enough from the top to be recognized unequivocally

81

Caves oColorado complicates the matter by citing a letter to me from James W Meacham in vhich a bone found by Meacham at the bottom of the Jug in 1959 was pronounced human by John A Murphy of the Denver Museum of Natural History What Parris does not say is that I had written him in 1969 -- four years before his book was published -- that another expert at the University of Colorado Museum had declared it a deer bone (This water-worn two-inch fragment might well challenge a forensic specialist)

Not content with two skeletons Thorp (American Forests Aug 1935 op cit) adds a third to this spooky company A strange legend that still haunts the native people concerns a skeleton hung with buckskin which guarded Marble Cave just on the other side of Caverna del Oro It was the first quarter of the 19th century and an American free trapper wandered too far west The Spaniards for fear he would reveal their hiding place crucified him For a half century he remained pinioned to a wcxxlcn cross Aside from the improbably sadistic mode of execution this image typical of cartoons or folklore reveals ignorance of the properties of real skeletons which do not long remain articulated when exposed to weather decay and scavengers

Others find ulterior significance in our discovery of bones of bison and pronghorn antelope in upper Spanish Cave in the 1960s calling them plains species that would never ascend to such lofty heights Unless someone had used the cave for storing or curing meat (Bill Kaiser The Treasure of Caverna del Oro Colorful Colorado May-June 1973) I did not know this then but these animals have been known to ascend to the alpine tundra in historic ti mes and might have done so more often when they were abundant and unfenced The cave is much too wet to be good ror storing perishables

The Artifacts

Many reliable observers from Carhart and Gilbert onward report finding in the 1920s and 30s old artifacts of unknown provenance in Spanish Cave These include a winch chains whiskey bottle jug timber ladders shovel single-jack and a hammer They have all disappeared or been reduced to fragments but claims made for some of them purport to establish archeological evidence of Spanish presence

Thorp (1935 op CiL) in describing the 1932 Rocky Mountain News expedition states that on the second ledge they found the remains of a rudely constructed ladder which Dr LeRoy Hafen ( then editor historian and curator of the State Historical Society) after carefully examining asserted was at least 200 years old Below after being lowered 110 feet they found a crude hand-forged hammer which the historian declared was of 17th century vintage Gilbert (The Bulletin Dec 1936 op cit) and an Alamosa Courier article (from June 1937) repeat these avowals

These are very important allegations since the Spanish were the only people who could have left such artifacts in the 17th century To investigate them I wrote in 1960 to LeRoy Hafen inquiring about his trip to the cave and his knowledge of its history and specifically whether he had certified the hammer as of 17th-century manufacture and if so who now had it His reply was less specific than my questions but it is a primary document on one of the major claims about Spanish Cave and I reproduce it below verbatim

If LeRoy Hafen made claims of antiquity for the Spanish Cave artifacts in 1932 he obviously did not stand by them later His wife Ann W Hafen in Detective Historian (Denver WesTerners Monthly Roundup July 1954) had also recounted his 1932 cave trip and commented disproving a baseless story is important it is part of the search for truth She elaborated To the party the venture was disappointing No treasure found No relic of the ancient conquistadores But to the

Jourllal of Speleall History 82

detective Historian it was just another clue pursued another myth exploded another triumph for the scholars code -- to build history on fact not on fossilized fiction

Thorp (1935 op cit) relates that the timbers of their ladder system were about eight inches in diameter squared on four sides with an ax Auger holes were bored into their sides and they were fitted with wooden rungs pegged into the holes No nails were used al though this probably would have been done by early Germans or Americans [the wood is] now decayed and may be broken in many ins tances by the hand This construction however is not strong evidence for Spanish work Before the railroad reached the Wet Mountain Valley in the 1880s commodities such as nails would have been scarce and expensive anyone building such structures before then might well have used no metal It would also be stronger than tacking on rungs with nails when not using sawed lumber Concerning the other cave artifacts there is not enough information to suggest a date

BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY PROVOUTAH

January 13 1960

11r Donald G Davia P O Box 145 T1lnlath Colorado

Dear Hr Davia

I ~ intereat~d to learn f~ your letter of January J 1960 of your study and COllCen WJth the Caverna del Oro Hy visit to the cave and descent into it was with a party directed and financed by the Tourist Bureau or its counterpart of the period The contemporary ewspal6rs gave som~ accowtof the venture

I made the firat descant into the cave kt that time ging down the rope bS

you doubtless have done ince I recall at the edg~ of the pit th~re were s(XlIe rotted logs that may have been the framework of a windlass At tho bott~ of the pit I found a suall sledge ~er encrusted with limestone formation I dont recall what was done with this haa-er I remember no other relics in the pit

Our purposo was to investigate certain rumors a3 to early use of the cave as a SVanish mine I think middot there is little~~ion for that as the limestone fonnation is a poor VlOspect fot middotormation

The legnd hat a skeleton was chained to the wall gave added impetus to the trip Needless to eay nothing of the sort was found That cav and some near were epoken of colloctively os the Karble Campve and sune referred to this one as the Caverna del Or~ cave of gold The Kaltes cross painted on the rock at the entrllJce to tle cave already had a faded appearance I know nothi8 of the rk of Capto1n Hom regarding the di Scove ry of ~ he cave

i~J At the bottOlll of the pit Carl Dlaurohpersucd tho crevice out 5 far dS ~ ~ could go and found nothi8 to reward our efforts If Hr Ulaurot is still living i Denver he could give you sooe sidelights on th cave as ho visited it after our initial exploration

Cordially yours

LO 91+-LeRoy R IlcIen DeparUent of History

Some writers (eg Jesse Ball Canon City Daily Record Sept 14 1933) speculate that the cave was used by the Spanish as a refuge from Indian attacks The cave itself being windy wet and ncar-freezing would not have been ideal for such occupancy A ruined fort was alleged to exist below Marble Mountain as early as 1881 (Golden City Transcript Aug 31 1881 citing Cusler City Prospect ) later articles mention rifle pits I have seen what I presume to be these features below timberline and could not distinguish them from the miners prospect pits common in the Colorado mountains The largest log breastwork structure has also been interpreted as an old corral (Jerry Hassemer oral communication) If defensive works they are cr Jde ones indeed

This leaves to be considered the famous cross beside the entrance It is about one and a half feet square with flared ends meeting at the corners It has been variously described as burnt on

Jou rnal of Speean History 83

deeply chiseled or etched but in reality is prosaically painted with what looks to be a stable iron oxide pigment perhaps using some sort of template Portions of It had a thm patma of calcite crust when I first saw it in 1958 Though almost always called Maltese it is not as can be seen by looking up a crosses illustration in any large dictionary The true Maltese cross has indented ends A G Birch (Denver Post Aug 11 1929) correctly pointed out that the cave marker isin the perfect form of a German Iron Cross But he also says it was old when the first white sehler saw it more than sixty years ago without explaining how he knew this A contradictory testimony (Trail and Timberline April 1957) asserts that there is one old-timer who states that he knCv the fellow who painted it years ago as ajoke I wiIl pass over both of these declarations as uncorroborated

Spanish crosses as I have seen them represented on coins and in art have narrow straight-sided arms often with the basal arm longer and with the ends variously embellished They are typically very different from German ones It is suggestive that the first sedentary settlers below Marble Mountain were Germans of the Colfax colony in 1870 The colony as an entity failed within a year but some thirty families took possession of quarter sections and prospered as can be seen by the many descendants still living in the area (Wet Mountain Tribune Centennial Edition Dec 20 1985) German immigrants also arrived later on and the ranches cl osest below the caves remained in possession of the German-derived Henrich and Neermann families into recent years Crosses in the square form seen at the cave were used in German decorative motifs (I have seen an antique coffee-grinder at an abandoned German homestead in eastern Colorado that was ornamented with them) The cross could have been painted by a Colfax settler exploring his surroundings soon after the colonys establishment The dispersal of most of the colony in 1871 would account for the failure of later inhabitants to know who had created it

Alternatively it might have been a product of prospector 1 H Yeoman He figures in one of the earliest known accounts of a Marble Mountain cave in History of the Arkansas Valley Colorado (1881) A later report on this cave (Denver Republican Feb 20 1888) appears to describe Cave of the White Marble Halls south of Spanish Cave and states that the cave was discovered by Yeoman on Sept 16 1880 Yeoman obligingly left a graffito confirming this in the cave and the Kings and Queens Chambers of the article are likewise identified (Another 1881 account -shyGolden Cty Transcript op cit -- describes a similar cave but claims discovery by Messrs Hendershot amp Dickson of Custer City) A red cross like that at Spanish Cave but smaller and with narrower arms marks the entrance the associated graffito in English 400 Feet to the White Marble Halls precludes a Spanish conquistador origin (A writing inside -- Mrs H G ReedSilver Cliff CololHere 8115197 -- is done in a similar ornate hand) I have also seen Yeomans signature in Moonmilk Cave just across the ravine south of Spanish and scarcely possible to reach without seeing the Spanish entrance He must have known of Spanish Cave and pesumably had entered it

[he Geology

Finally a point that seems so obvious that it should hardly need to be mentioned decades of repeated explorations in Spanish Cave have failed to turn up a trace of mining or of gold and there is excellent reason for this Gold is found either where hydrothermal solutions have mineralized host rock or where deposits originating in that fashion have been eroded and concentrated in placer gravels Neither situation applies at Marble Mountain where the caves occur in an unaltered Pennsylvanian biothermal limestone lens sandwiched almost vertically between shales and conglomeratic sandstones (The name Marble Mountain is a misnomer marble is limestone altered -- metamorphosed -- by heat andor pressure The abundance of well-preserved brachiopod and crinoid fossils shows that Marble Mountain is not metamorphosed) The only mineralization known on the mountain is a little low-grade copper on the south limestone outcrop

Jourllal of Speleall History 84

Paul Gilbert notwithstanding the caves are in no way volcanic but are relatively typical highshygradient alpine limestone solution caves dissolved probably by massive runoff from melting snov and ice during Pleistocene glacial epochs Writers have speculated that Spanish Cave had a lower entrance (possible since the cave water does emerge at a spring lower down) and an entrance on the west side of the mountain (not possible since the limestone does not outcrop there) Ironically the only new entrance cavers have actually found was in a direction not suggested by any known author above Its discovery explained the cave wind as a chimney effect between the entrances -- blowing down to the lower opening when it is warmer outside than inside reversing when it is colder outside

Conclusions

I know of no one else who has analyzed the Caverna del Oro stories as thoroughly but I am not the first to publish critical judgments on them Mrs Hafen has already been quoted Also on record (NSS Bulletin 8 July 1946) is a letter dated 10444 from Fred R Johnson Chief Information and Education US Forest Service

Carl Biaurock a member of the Colorado Mountain Club explored this cave in 1925 again in 1931 and later in more detail in 1932 On the last date the exploration was the result of several articles in the Rocky MOUnTain News in which an old yam was mentioned to the effect that the cave had been investigated in the Spanish explorations in the eighteenth [sic] century also that it is supposed to have yielded a large quantity of gold and other valuable minerals there are no signs of any mineral So far as Mr Blaurocks party could tell there is no evidence in the cave of any visitation of Spanish explorers several hundred years ago

Molen (opcit) wrote that this story [from Apodaca] has been disapproved [sic] The tools and ladder in the cave are of comparatively modern origin Blaurock believes Someone years ago must have explored the cave at least as thoroughly as we did he said He also expressed doubt that the rifle pits and fort are of Spanish origin I did not interview Carl Blaurock during my earlier research I telephoned him this summer but he is 98 years old and is too deaf to understand my questions I have sent him a letter of inquiry thus far unanswered

After organized caving had begun William R Halliday founder of the Colorado Grotto of the National Speleological Society also concluded that The fabulous stories are fables The story of Spanish Cave is told (Halliday however was too pessimistic in inferring that the cave was almost completely explored Most of what is now known was discovered just after he wrote but none of the new passage showed signs of human entry)

Diehard romantics might protest that Spanish Cave could still be La Caverna del Oro Caves can hide much perhaps somewhere in the depths there is a localized zone of thermal mineralization conceivably the Spaniards very cleverly concealed the way to the mine workings Such ideas are not impossible but do strain credulity For every verified feature that has been proposed as evidence for Spanish presence there is an alternative explanation that is more plausible The burden of proof then is on the proponents of the Spanish connection The lurid yarns about the cave reflect folklore creation greatly abetted by media exploitation assisted by atrociously sloppy research

The time sequenceof the several names applied to the cave fits this very neatly In sources from 1919 I find The Caves of the Winds From 1920 until 1932 I see Marble Cave Marble

85jOllrtlal of Speleall History

Caves or The Caves but no Spanish-related appellations It is still called Marble Cave at least as late as 1953 (Irma Zanoni Trail amp Timberline Dec 1953) I do not encounter La Cavema del Oro applied to our cave until Lightburns articles of 1932 after which it is common One of Lightburns headlines refers to the old Spanish Cave but Spanish Cave as a proper ~ame seems to appear only in the first Colorado Grotto News amp Notes of Feb 12 1952 where It IS a synonym for Caverna del Oro From then until now Spanish Cave has been the preferred form in the literature of organized caving and in popular media relying on it This unfortunately has helped to maintain the public assumption that the Spanish legendry is based in fact

The caves history is muddled by a series of misnomers a Caverna del Oro with no gold a Maltese cross that is not Maltese marble that is not marble -- and on analyzing the evidence I think that German Cave would have been a more appropriate if less provocative name than Spanish Cave

I expect my skeptical arguments to be ignored by future writers as long as there is a media markcL for exciting treasure tales Why is it important to be critically analytical

Since fact and fiction are not clearly distinguished in media information about the cave many people still believe nonsense about it Apparently the Spanish gold tales retain enough public acceptance to present problems to the Forest Service today It is reported that there was in recent years a proposal to build a road to the cave to facilitate treasure hunting (Jerry Hassemer oral comm)

Furthermore presentation of false gold stories as if they might be true is likely to tempt naive and poorly prepared readers to get in trouble seeking riches This is apparent in a 1957 letter from Roy Truman former District Ranger and colleague of Paul Gilberts (History of the Colorado Grotto 1961)

There was a time when it was very difficult to keep boys away from this cave and I received many calls from parents in Pueblo and other towns all times of the day and night concerning the safety of their boys that had left home with the ideas of exploring this cave with the high hopes of finding valuable ores or treasures they were equipped with a few pieces of small rope [this was probably arter the Depression-era articles]

This problem is also exemplified by a letter in my own files addressed in 1962 to Richard LeSage of the Southern Colorado Grotto from a Denverite He had twenty-four numbered questions including What type of equipiment [sic] will I need (exactly) I havent done much cave exploring Where can I obtain it What type of mask would I need for foul air He concludes We are intending to explore this cave at all cost so your information will be most vilal to us and most appreciable (We never replied deciding that was the safest thing to do)

The extravagance of peoples beliefs about Spanish Cave has sometimes reached quite ridiculous extremes The Colorado Historical Society library has a typescript of research material used by Perry Eberhart in preparing Treasure Tales of the Rockies One note is as follows

Robert Dunne head of Querida sez think cave comes out near Walsenburg or possibly the northern end of Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico never found end

James Dunne Querida

Not even Eberhart was so shameless as to print this in his book

Jourllal of Speleall History 86

There are still many legitimate mysteries left about Marble Mountain and its history How well explored are the ends of Spanish Cave even now Why was Yeomans cave otherwise so clearly White Marble Halls said to have a 275-foot pit Is this an error or a pit now lost Was the vertical Spanish Cave somehow grafted into the account Who really painted the Maltese cross and who put the artifacts into Spanish Why were detailed articles published on White Marble Halls in the 1880s but nothing seems to be on record about Spanish until 1919 in spite of the extensive early work done in it (If the relics were left by Colfax colonists in the 1870s they could not easily have published their explorations as there were yet no newspapers in the Wet Mountain Valley Later Yeoman or other prospectors might have been reticent about calling atlention to the cave if they built ladders down the shafts in the hope of rinding minerals Study 01 the county mining-claim records could be informative)

Future Opportunities

Most knowledge we now have on Marble Mountain history before organized caving is based on writings of big-city visitors from 1919 on When time allows I intend to search the microfilms of Custer County newspapers in the period 1880-1920 to see if items overlooked by library indexers may shed light on the gaps in our knowledge of the Marble Mountain caves Fascinating revelations are very likely to result Johnsons letter of 1944 (op cit) also stated There was evidence of early visitation [in Marble Cave] including names carved on rocks but these date mostly back about 50 years ago Informative graffiti are numerous in Cave of the White Marble Halls but I do not recall seeing any in Spanish Cave during my own explorations in the 1950s and 60s It should be carefully reexamined to see if we have overlooked signatures that could be keys to the solution of the puzzles

Better documentation of the cave itself would also be desirable The Colorado Grotto surveyed most of lower Spanish in the 1950s to the standards then prevailing I do not know the length of the CG survey but it probably included less than 1000 feet The Southern Colorado Grotto discoveries from 1959 to the early 1960s were not surveyed at the time

From 1975 to 1988 Jerry Hassemer led the mapping of 2642 feet of upper Spanish including the main route between entrances and the Rimstone Passage its longest side gallery (Hassemer personal comm Sept 13 1992) (About 1735 feet of this are along the through-route) His survey showed a vertical difference of 449 feet between lower and upper entrance by both internal mapping and a surface closure loop The old Colorado Grotto map appears to show a depth of just over 270 feet from lower entrance to deepest surveyed point thus total surveyed depth of Spanish Cave is about 720 fect (The entrance elevations of Spanish Cave have never been established by survey to a benchmark but altimeter readings and topographic maps suggest that the upper entrance is around 12000 feet)

Other side passages and superimposed levels in upper Spanish remain unmapped In lower Spanish an important branch the waterfall passage -- which may go deeper than the so-called Gold Diggings at the end of the existing map -- remains unsurveyed The high elevation and extremely cold wet conditions continue to inhibit complete exploration and mapping as they have for as long as the cave has been known

87Journal of Speleall History

scientific personnel experience or knowledge relating to caves Failure to meet our responsibilities at this time will only widen possible misunderstandings between the National Speleological Society and Civil Defense Organizations We must accept the fact that as the civil defense program expands more cave resources will be requisitioned Our opposition will only serve as a barrier to continued parallel use of these resources

The Society can assist in both the areas of applied practical knowledge and of basic research To list bnt a few are - advising and monitoring storage in areas of historical underground hydrological fluctuations monitoring humidity temperature and air circulation locating suitable areas in caves that will minimize the possibility of vandalism recommending types of closures of gates and assisting in their installation checking periodically the condition of supplies and reporting this to appropriate authority and condemnation of areas due to strata imperfection and probability of breakdown

There are many questions in need of investigation What is the relationship in a multiple stream capture theory and the possible concentration of radioactive or other contaminates in a cave duc to fIltration What is the probability of infection by intake of foods contaminated by histoplasma ir any What is the relationship of bat rabies to human cave habitation What provision must be made for sanitation - control of rats and possible damage to supplies and in the event of human habitation control of rat fleas as possible communicators of typhUS or other epidemic diseases) What is the probability of excessive amounts of radioactive materials being introduced to the cavc environment by animals such as bats that enter and leave the cave frequently These represent only a portion of the questions which should be examined to determine their relevance and what precautionary measures should be taken if relevant

I would like to propose that at a special meeting of the Board of Governors a Civil Defense Advisory Committee composed of competent scientists and speleologists be formed for the purpose of formulating suitable policies initiating scientific investigation and in general assuming the role of representing and coordinating the Societys Civil Defense effort The question as to whether we can afford to undertake such a program with its inherent socialpolitical implications should be answered - Can we afford not to

References

1 Arms Inspection International Conciliation Nov 1962 (It is interesting to note that in my upinion this publication follows closely the United Nations activities It is surprising to observe this pessimistic attitude in that area)

2 Foreign Affairs Volume 39 no 4 July 1960 Inspection and Surprise Attack p 56l

3 A current article on Game Theory appears in the December 1962 issue of Scientific Americall by Anatol Rapoport The Use and Misuse of Game Theory

Journal of Speleall History 74

1922 Trip Reports

Maud Orr Howell

Trip 10 Bear Cave

Gordon Brown led eight of us including Elizabeth Hord George Raudebush Benie Weaver Tom Weaver Johnny Connor Boyte and me to Bear Cave in Savage Gulch

We left the Observatory at 900 am went down Clark Cottage Path and across the valley to the clearing in front of the old Savage home

The girls rested while the boys went up the side of Peak Mountain to a ~pring and brought back some water Then we explored the old house In one of the upstairs rooms that had newspapers on the walls we read in the Society section of a newspaper dated August 17 1908 that Mr and Mrs Sanford Duncan had gone to spend a few days with Mrs Robert Orr in Maury County

We cut across the field to the right of the house and climbed along the side of Peak Mountain then straight down the side of the mountain to Savage Creek After drinking water from a spring running into the creek we followed the creek up a few yards then climbed up the mountain on the left a few yards to the cave This is Coppenger Mountain It was 11 45 so we ate our Iunch and rested until 1 10 when all but Elizabeth and Tom went in the cave We had candles and carbide lights and Gordon led the way It saw 220 when we got out After resting a few minutes and taking some Kodak pictures we all including Elizabeth and Tom went in again and stayed until 300 pm

We gathered our things which included sticks which Gordon had cut for us the Kodak the lunch bag canteen etc and set out straight up the mountain with Gordon pulling us up some of the places until we hit the cliffs We followed the cliffs along until we found a place to climb up When we got on the top we walked along the mountain until we got to the end of it which is just above the Savage house We went down a path which went straight down the mountain to the Savage house rested while the boys got water then came home to Howell cottage the same way we had gone arriving here at 700 pm

Trip to Bats Cave

Saturday September 2 1922

We first planned to walk to Tatesville but not knowing how far it was we gave it up and decided to walk to Bats Cave The night before the trip we gave that up too as it was so far and the weather so hot

As we were eating breakfast Mr George Mitchell came and he had breakfast with us He suggested getting a wagon for our trip so immediately after breakfast Mr George Bettie Martha and Tom Weaver Boyte and I went to the store and got Earnest Rubleys wagon

75Journal of Speleall History

We all met on the Observatory There were 19 of us Five including Mr George Jennings and George Bailey Torn and Charlie Trabue IV left first and went down the Backbone Road intending to meet us at the Collins River bridge The rest of us Elliott and David Adams Lucy and Elizabeth Bailey Lucinda Trabue Irene Langford Elizabeth Mclane Kate Keene Johnson Susan Lewis Bettie and Martha Weaver Boyte and I walked down the mountain from the Observatory and met the wagon a little piece up the valley We missed the other bunch and they did not catch up with us until we had left the wagon and were eating lunch at the spring

We finished lunch and walked up the mountain to the cave We went to the big room where we stopped last year which is just beyond the small ladder We climbed the ladder then all but Irene Tom Elizabeth and I went on further We waited at the top of the ladder until they came back They had gone to another big room and circled around it about three times before finally finding the way out They found an old Nashville newspaper dated 1847 and another paper with some names on it They added their names to this list

When we got out of the cave it was nearly 500 We had been in there three hours

We went back to the wagon and started horne We got to Collins River bridge about dark The moon was almost full and the ride up the valley in the moonlight in a wagon filled with hay and pulled by mules was beautiful We stopped at Mortons store and Mr George telephoned up lo Beersheba and told them where we were and assured them that we would be home soon He brought out oodles of cookies and we had a grand time eating them We sang and yelled and relaxed on the hay We left the wagon at the bottom of Beersheba Mountain Martha led the way up the mountain in the dark with only the moon to help guide us We had Oashlights but it was hard to keep in the path But it was fun We reached the top at the Observatory at 845 pm and no one seemed to be tired

Trip to Peak Mountain

A crowd of us left Aunt Mats Cottage at 930 am on Monday August 28 1922 There were 19 of us including Mr George Mitchell Elizabeth Hord Mr Colville Elliott Adams Jennings Bailey Lucy Bailey Kate Keene Johnson George Eldred Mary Wilson Eldred Irene Langford Elizabeth Mclane Bettie Orr Martha Weaver Tom Weaver Alfred Williams Mary Phillips Street Susan Lewis Boyte Howell Jr and me (Maud Orr Howell)

We went down Clark Cottage Path to the valley The crowd was separated going down but we all got together at the foot of the mountain crossed the valley and climbed Peak Mountain There was no path we just went up the side of the mountain and went thru a pass up the cliffs We got there about 1200 pm rested then ate lunch We put up a nag (Elizabeth Hords petticoat)

Aoout 100 pm we left to find the old stage coach road to Chattanooga We went straight across the top of the mountain and found the road at the spring and a little log cabin We followed the road to the valley We heard Marshall Eldred mooing answered him and he found us Gordon Bro n who was with him led us to Peter Rock Cave on the side of Peak Mountain Marshall did not start out with us because he helped Gordon fix the leaks in Laurel Mill Dam Elliott led us in the cave and we did not go back very far It was pretty but wet and muddy

We c~me home by Dishroon Springs drank some of the water and ate the rest of our lunch [hen came on up the mountain A few of us stopped at the Johnson place and looked across the valley at Elilabeth Hords petticoat which we had left on a tree on Peak Mountain We came on horne arriving here about 500 pm

Journal of Speleall History 76

No Old Gold or Bones A Skeptical Review of Caverna del Oro Legendry Donald G Davis reprinledfrom Rocky Mountain Caving Summer 1992

In the thin air of timberline on Marble Mountain in the Sangre de Cristo range icy wind blows from the entrance to a deep and cryptic cave marked by the damaged remnant of a rust-red cross Known today as Spanish Cave it is the most publicized non-commercial cave in Colorado It has been featured for more than 70 years in media - first newspapers then magazines books and television specials Most of this publicity recounts stories that it is La Caverna del Oro where Indian slaves mined gold for 17th century Spaniards Many people take this as fact Recently a Colorado caver told me he had spoken with a journalist who assured him that the cave was bottomless and contains untold treasures

Spanish Cave was important in the start of my own caving career in 1957 While attending Colorado A amp M College (later CSU) I saw in scrapbooks in the Fort Collins Museum clippings of the Colorado Question Box column from the Rocky Mountain News circa 1955 They told stories of a Maltese-cross-marked entrance lost gold mine and chained skeleton reported in the caverns depths After correcting the first error we found in the accounts (that the cave was on Homs Peak several miles north of Marble Mountain) two of us (Vin Hoeman and myself) in the college Hikers Club located the cave the next year In subsequent years with Frank and Paul Leskinen James W Meachan and others in the Southern Colorado Grotto of the NSS I led the discovery of about two-thirds of its presently known passage

Finding that the Western History Department of the Denver Public Library had a clipping file on the cave I also undertook research on its history which I have continued intermittently since The mure I learned about the real cave the more disillusioned I became with the stories sensationalizing it I learned much about the rules of logic and evidence during the investi galion and was ultimately convinced that there was no satisfactory confirmation that Spanish explorers ever saw or entered the cave much less mined gold from it Following are some of the reasons for that concl usion

The most readily available summary of the legendry is in Lloyd Parris Caves oCoLorado (1973) pp 24-32 Parris precedes his Treasure Caves accounts with a confused and equivocal disclaimer The following tales for the most part have the validity of history behind them and in most cases the caves are known Undoubtedly though some of the legends connected with these caves belong in Chapter IV under hoax and humbug And if these legends seem to disagree or contradict what is previously known it is because they were selected not for entertainment alone but as a presentation of the known facts or legends as the case may be An evaluation of the authenticity has not been attempted This is left for the reader to do

This reader hereby takes up the challenge

The Spanish Mille Legends

A number of accounts (including Parriss) relate that Spanish Monastery Latin documents record gold being brought to pre-Columbian Mexican Indian kingdoms Acolhua Aztec and Tepance

Jourllal of Speleall History 77

from the north Then in 1541 three monks were supposedly left behind by Coronado (the Rocky MOllntain News June 3 1923 says 1598) One Fray Juan de la Cruz reportedly reopened a mine using forced labor by Pecos I ndians (a northern New Mexico Pueblq trib~)and packed treasure toward Mexico City but never arrived there Nuggets and gold bars reported found by one Baca in 1811 were speculated to be part of this treasure and a prospector searching (according to Parris) for Cavema del Oro half a century later found a silver cup engraved with the name Hermione Taken at face value all this gives the impression that stories about Caverna del Oro are of great antiquity though the original Spanish documents are never cited

This suite of tales was first widely distributed in an article by Alberta Pike headlines OLD MANUSCRIPT INDICATES VAST RICHES IN COLORADO CA VE GUARDED BY SKELETON in the Rocky Mountain News of Sept 6 1932 Subsequent Spanish Cave popularizers have recopied them from one article to the next without naming a source for them I recently made an enlightening discovery in the Colorado Historical Society library about where this material came from

Before any known Spanish Cave article was written Louis Bernhardt Sporleder -- early resident and prominent citizen of Walsenburg Colorado -- published a souvenir booklet titled Huajalolla Breasts of the World (1916) An article in The Trail June 1922 reprinted much of this booklet and said Sporleder had a number of unpublished manuscripts giving information historical and legendary about the Spanish Peaks (as the Huajatolla are more commonly known) Sporleders booklet included word for word most of the above Spanish mine material copied by later Cavema del Oro writers

Even his misspelling of the Tepance kingdom (properly Tepanec) has been faithfully reproduced by authors as late as Parris

As to the actual historicity of Sporleders items I know little but his writings (eg The Roses of Huajatolla The Trail Dec 1922) were prone to wild flights of romantic fiction incorporating gross errors about natural history He claimed for instance that the otherwise extinct passenger pigeon still survived on the Spanish Peaks in fact it has never been recorded in Colorado His human history appears similarly colored But even if he was accurate it is crucial to our study that his stories were exclusively about the Spanish Peaks making no connection whatever to Marble Mountain 50 miles to the northwest He specifically stated that the silver cup was found beside a spring in a grotto at the base of East Spanish Peak (the name Hermione moreover is Greek not Spanish) All of this is therefore irrelevant to the cavern on Marble Mountain that we know as Spanish Cave

In Sporleders 1916 version the prospector who found the cup was searching for Huajatollas mines of gold In Pikes 1932 recounting he was seeking the lost mine but she associates it with the cave on Marble Mountain Parris in 1973 transmutes the object of the searchers quest explicitly into the Caverna del Oro Thus by insidious mutations does spurious lore enshroud our cave

Forbes Parkhill asserted that Marble cave Legends connect the Spanish cross and the ancient timber found in the mine [sic] with the gold hunting and exploring expeditions of Juan de Onate in 1597 and the Escalante-Dominguez expedition in 1776 (Explorers to Seek Mysteries of Caves in San Isabel Wilds Discovered Four Centuries Ago Denver Post Oct 9 1921) Even Parris rejects these suggestions because those expeditions did not come close to Marble Mountain

Jourllal of Speleall History 78

Earliest Known Accounts ofthe Cave middot

In 1919 appeared a brochure Out-ol-door Piaygroullds of the Sansabel National Forest USDA middot Circular 5 by Henry S Graves Forester It declared that The Caves of the Winds [not to be confused with Cave of the Winds at Manitou Springs] a system of giant crevices in a mountain or solid white marble is one of the principal natural wonders of the Forest These caves have been penetrated to a depth of over 1200 feet without the end being reached Theymay be reached by wagon road from Westcliffe

On Oct 12 1919 the Denver Post ran an anonymous article San Isabels Caves of Winds Among Wonders of Colorado It stated The Caves of the Winds have been known to exist for many years They are described brieOy in the report of the San Isabel national forest A party of Denver business men is planning to visit the caves this autumn with a view to exploring them to their depths if pOssible If it is found that the natural wonders said to exist in the interior of the caves are equal to reports which have been received these men will ask the government for the I

privilege of developing the caves as a tourist attraction

That Spanish Cave is the object of these writings is indicated by the emphasis on wind great depth (four times the actual depth of the cave as then known) and incomplete exploration the nearby Cave of the White Marble Halls is less strongly windy nearly horizontal and was already well explored (The accompanying entrance photo is not Marble Mountain) A similar item in the Post of June 27 1920 mentions a huge cave on Marble mountain which has never been explored by man beyond a depth of 1800 feet and which may rival the famed Mammoth Cave of Kentucky Neither treasure legends nor stories ofSpanish exploration are me11lioned in any of these earliest printed accounts

Apollina Apodacas Story

The real genesis of treasure stories as applied to Spanish Cave so far as I can find is with Apollina Apodaca (her name is variously spelled in different accounts I use the spelling that seems most probable) In 1919 (not 1920 as said in Caves oColorado) Paul Gilbert later District Ranger in the Forest heard wonderful tales from this old woman As he recalled in The Bulletin of the Rocky Mountain Region of the US Forest Service (Dec 1936)

She stated that the Spaniards used to get gold from it and further stated that if one were to descend to a sufficient depth [in some accounts she is said to have specified 90 or 93 feet] a set of oak doors would be found and if they were forced open one would find a tunnel leading back into the bowels of the mountain -- and the source of the gold would be found She further stated that when she was a child they used to take a blanket wrap it around a heavy stone and throw it down the shaft In the course of a short time the blanket would be blown back minus the rock by the strong winds that come continually from the shaft

The following spring Gilbert located the cave which he misinterpreted as more of a volcanic fissure than it is a cave and visited it with Arthur C Carhart An item mentioning this trip (Mystery Caves in ColoradoRocky Mountain News Sept 21 1921) is the earliest I have found that makes a Spanish or lost-mine connection Old timers in the hills up there declare the place is the shaft of the old Three Step mine famous in Spanish history Carhart himself in the POSl of Jan 1 1922 says it is reported that it is an old Spanish mine entrance marked with a red cross of Malta and has old timber and a log chain inside

Jourllal of Speleall History 79

Gilberts writings are not entirely consistent about his informants statistics in the above report she is Mexican 105 years old in 1919 and died at 110 In his letter to Robert 1 OConnell of Feb 18 1957 (as published in History ojthe Colorado Grotto Nov 1961) she is Spanish and died in 1923 at age 103 A followup letter of Feb 25 adds that she spent most of her life in the vicinity of San Luis [in the San Luis Valley on the opposite side of the Sangre de Cristos] Another source (Dayle Molen Pueblo Star-Jollmal Nov 18 1956) says she lived near Gardner Perry Eberhart in his sensationalistic Treasure Tales of the Rockies (11) calls her an Indian squaw Raymond Thorp in American ForesTs Aug 1935 citing Gilbert says she died eight years ago which would have been 1927 (this is the date used by Parris) These points may be quibbles yet they indicate a lack of precision in recording the facts about her And since the account attributed to Ms Apodaca is pivotal to the entire Caverna del Oro oeuvre let us dissect it critically

Every element is either improbable or impossible Leaving the geologic aspect until later take the oaken doors There are no oaks for many miles and where they do appear they are scrub oak which would have provided door-size timber only in rare cases (though oaks of that size were more common in the Rockies then than now) And why haul heavy oak to timberline when (though strong when new) it does not resist rot as well as say the more easily obtained juniper There is not in any case any opening near the 9O-foot level where such doors could have been used

The blanket story is completely fanciful As we proved in 1961 (NSS News Aug 1962 part I) the cave wind comes from upper Spanish Cave not from the pit Even if it did the pit is about 15 feet wide whereas the entrance constricts to a narrow crawlway A wind strong enough to blow a blanket back up the pit would rise to such tornadic speed in the crawl as to stop a person from fighting through it to the pit Nor does it seem sensible that people would be blithely tossing their blankets down weighted with rocks After all the rock might fail to unwind and the blanket be lost or shredded at the bottom With so incredible a yarn in it why should not the whole narrative be dismissed as fantasy

The Skeletons

At least three human skeletons have been attested as evidence of Spanish involvement with the cave Two were introduced by reporter Kenneth C Lightburn in a front-page article in the Rocky Mountain News of Sept 4 1932 He claimed that the caves original discovery is credited to Capt Elisha P Hom one of the first settlers in the Wet Mountain Valley in 1869 About its entrance he found the remnants of what might have been a fort and also a skeleton in Spanish armor Through the armor was an Indian arrow (Lightburn also began the misconception that the cave was on Homs Peak) I have not been able to trace the origin of this anecdote but it sounds unlikely if only because the purpose of Spanish armor was to prevent things like stoneshypointed arrows from penetrating ones torso and it generally worked Halls History of Colorado (1895) confirms Elisha P Hom as a pioneer Wet Mountain Valley settler in 1869 but does not mention this story

However the skeleton that Lightburn intended to feature was the one in his articles melodramatic headlines SKELETON FOUND CHAINED BY NECK DEEP IN COLORADO MYSTERY CAVECAVERN IS HIGH IN MOUNTAIN WILDS OF STATEDenver Man Discovers Manacled Bones in Sangre de Cristo Range Moldering 500 Feet Below Surface in Awesome CavitySIGNS INDICATE MINE WORKED IN EARLY DAYSFind Recalls Legends of Fabulous Cavern [sic] del Oro of 17th Century Spaniards The headlines are emphasized by a lurid though regrettably nonphotographic picture of the skeleton and an entrance shot with the cross touched up to show better

80 Journal of Speleall History

Journal of Speean History

The article relates that Peter Moser of Denver with companions Victor Barth and his two sons Donald and Jack had just returned from a descent into the cave (Derivative accounts refer to Victor Donald and Jack Barth the former being a fictitious person born of the omission of an original comma between Victor and Donald)

According to Lightburn the Moser party had climbed down until they reached a vertical pit They lowered a lantern Forty feet downward they saw the bottom and in the light or the lantern could clearly make out the skeleton With a metal strap encircling the neck the pile of bones reclined against the rocky wall as if the person who died there centuries ago hall been chained in a sitting position and left to starve An investigatory trip reported in followup articles of Sept 11 12 arid 18 found no skeleton (If an entrance photo with the story of the 18th is any indication they might not even have found the cave -- the picture is obviously not on Marble Mountain -- it may be at Marble Cave near Canon City) It was speculated that Moser may have seen the skeleton at another point in the cave or that it had been done away with by mysterious parties unknown who had blasted the cave entrance between the two trips

In reality it is not surprising that the chained skeleton was never found There is no sound testimony that it was ever there Unlike Fray Juan de la Cruz Elisha Horn or Apollina Apodaca Peter Moser was still available to me to question when I first researched Lightburns article I found in 1959 that Moser still lived at the same address in Denver as in 1932 On New Years Eve 19591 telephoned him and asked about the story His description made it clear that his party had indeed reached the top of the pit that cavers now call the Jug At that point they had lowered a kerosene lantern on a line and he saw what in his own words looked like a pile of bones on a ledge near the bottom This he said is all he reported to the secretary of the Colorado Mountain Club who in tum contacted the newspaper which -- as Moser put it to me -- dressed it up a little (l printed a more complete record of Mosers hour-long interview in the Southern Colorado Grotto newsletter Spelunk Junk Mar 1960)

This embroidery was to be expected in an era when the Denver papers were battling for readers during the Great Depressiun and were notorious for sensationalism But even if Mosers own explanation did not debunk the skeleton he reportedly found it would not be believable The Jug is about 80 feet deep Have you ever tried to see in cavernous darkness where your breath makes mist clouds by a kerosene lantern at that range Then you will agree that a chaincd skeleton even in fine preservation could hardly have been seen well enough from the top to be recognized unequivocally

81

Caves oColorado complicates the matter by citing a letter to me from James W Meacham in vhich a bone found by Meacham at the bottom of the Jug in 1959 was pronounced human by John A Murphy of the Denver Museum of Natural History What Parris does not say is that I had written him in 1969 -- four years before his book was published -- that another expert at the University of Colorado Museum had declared it a deer bone (This water-worn two-inch fragment might well challenge a forensic specialist)

Not content with two skeletons Thorp (American Forests Aug 1935 op cit) adds a third to this spooky company A strange legend that still haunts the native people concerns a skeleton hung with buckskin which guarded Marble Cave just on the other side of Caverna del Oro It was the first quarter of the 19th century and an American free trapper wandered too far west The Spaniards for fear he would reveal their hiding place crucified him For a half century he remained pinioned to a wcxxlcn cross Aside from the improbably sadistic mode of execution this image typical of cartoons or folklore reveals ignorance of the properties of real skeletons which do not long remain articulated when exposed to weather decay and scavengers

Others find ulterior significance in our discovery of bones of bison and pronghorn antelope in upper Spanish Cave in the 1960s calling them plains species that would never ascend to such lofty heights Unless someone had used the cave for storing or curing meat (Bill Kaiser The Treasure of Caverna del Oro Colorful Colorado May-June 1973) I did not know this then but these animals have been known to ascend to the alpine tundra in historic ti mes and might have done so more often when they were abundant and unfenced The cave is much too wet to be good ror storing perishables

The Artifacts

Many reliable observers from Carhart and Gilbert onward report finding in the 1920s and 30s old artifacts of unknown provenance in Spanish Cave These include a winch chains whiskey bottle jug timber ladders shovel single-jack and a hammer They have all disappeared or been reduced to fragments but claims made for some of them purport to establish archeological evidence of Spanish presence

Thorp (1935 op CiL) in describing the 1932 Rocky Mountain News expedition states that on the second ledge they found the remains of a rudely constructed ladder which Dr LeRoy Hafen ( then editor historian and curator of the State Historical Society) after carefully examining asserted was at least 200 years old Below after being lowered 110 feet they found a crude hand-forged hammer which the historian declared was of 17th century vintage Gilbert (The Bulletin Dec 1936 op cit) and an Alamosa Courier article (from June 1937) repeat these avowals

These are very important allegations since the Spanish were the only people who could have left such artifacts in the 17th century To investigate them I wrote in 1960 to LeRoy Hafen inquiring about his trip to the cave and his knowledge of its history and specifically whether he had certified the hammer as of 17th-century manufacture and if so who now had it His reply was less specific than my questions but it is a primary document on one of the major claims about Spanish Cave and I reproduce it below verbatim

If LeRoy Hafen made claims of antiquity for the Spanish Cave artifacts in 1932 he obviously did not stand by them later His wife Ann W Hafen in Detective Historian (Denver WesTerners Monthly Roundup July 1954) had also recounted his 1932 cave trip and commented disproving a baseless story is important it is part of the search for truth She elaborated To the party the venture was disappointing No treasure found No relic of the ancient conquistadores But to the

Jourllal of Speleall History 82

detective Historian it was just another clue pursued another myth exploded another triumph for the scholars code -- to build history on fact not on fossilized fiction

Thorp (1935 op cit) relates that the timbers of their ladder system were about eight inches in diameter squared on four sides with an ax Auger holes were bored into their sides and they were fitted with wooden rungs pegged into the holes No nails were used al though this probably would have been done by early Germans or Americans [the wood is] now decayed and may be broken in many ins tances by the hand This construction however is not strong evidence for Spanish work Before the railroad reached the Wet Mountain Valley in the 1880s commodities such as nails would have been scarce and expensive anyone building such structures before then might well have used no metal It would also be stronger than tacking on rungs with nails when not using sawed lumber Concerning the other cave artifacts there is not enough information to suggest a date

BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY PROVOUTAH

January 13 1960

11r Donald G Davia P O Box 145 T1lnlath Colorado

Dear Hr Davia

I ~ intereat~d to learn f~ your letter of January J 1960 of your study and COllCen WJth the Caverna del Oro Hy visit to the cave and descent into it was with a party directed and financed by the Tourist Bureau or its counterpart of the period The contemporary ewspal6rs gave som~ accowtof the venture

I made the firat descant into the cave kt that time ging down the rope bS

you doubtless have done ince I recall at the edg~ of the pit th~re were s(XlIe rotted logs that may have been the framework of a windlass At tho bott~ of the pit I found a suall sledge ~er encrusted with limestone formation I dont recall what was done with this haa-er I remember no other relics in the pit

Our purposo was to investigate certain rumors a3 to early use of the cave as a SVanish mine I think middot there is little~~ion for that as the limestone fonnation is a poor VlOspect fot middotormation

The legnd hat a skeleton was chained to the wall gave added impetus to the trip Needless to eay nothing of the sort was found That cav and some near were epoken of colloctively os the Karble Campve and sune referred to this one as the Caverna del Or~ cave of gold The Kaltes cross painted on the rock at the entrllJce to tle cave already had a faded appearance I know nothi8 of the rk of Capto1n Hom regarding the di Scove ry of ~ he cave

i~J At the bottOlll of the pit Carl Dlaurohpersucd tho crevice out 5 far dS ~ ~ could go and found nothi8 to reward our efforts If Hr Ulaurot is still living i Denver he could give you sooe sidelights on th cave as ho visited it after our initial exploration

Cordially yours

LO 91+-LeRoy R IlcIen DeparUent of History

Some writers (eg Jesse Ball Canon City Daily Record Sept 14 1933) speculate that the cave was used by the Spanish as a refuge from Indian attacks The cave itself being windy wet and ncar-freezing would not have been ideal for such occupancy A ruined fort was alleged to exist below Marble Mountain as early as 1881 (Golden City Transcript Aug 31 1881 citing Cusler City Prospect ) later articles mention rifle pits I have seen what I presume to be these features below timberline and could not distinguish them from the miners prospect pits common in the Colorado mountains The largest log breastwork structure has also been interpreted as an old corral (Jerry Hassemer oral communication) If defensive works they are cr Jde ones indeed

This leaves to be considered the famous cross beside the entrance It is about one and a half feet square with flared ends meeting at the corners It has been variously described as burnt on

Jou rnal of Speean History 83

deeply chiseled or etched but in reality is prosaically painted with what looks to be a stable iron oxide pigment perhaps using some sort of template Portions of It had a thm patma of calcite crust when I first saw it in 1958 Though almost always called Maltese it is not as can be seen by looking up a crosses illustration in any large dictionary The true Maltese cross has indented ends A G Birch (Denver Post Aug 11 1929) correctly pointed out that the cave marker isin the perfect form of a German Iron Cross But he also says it was old when the first white sehler saw it more than sixty years ago without explaining how he knew this A contradictory testimony (Trail and Timberline April 1957) asserts that there is one old-timer who states that he knCv the fellow who painted it years ago as ajoke I wiIl pass over both of these declarations as uncorroborated

Spanish crosses as I have seen them represented on coins and in art have narrow straight-sided arms often with the basal arm longer and with the ends variously embellished They are typically very different from German ones It is suggestive that the first sedentary settlers below Marble Mountain were Germans of the Colfax colony in 1870 The colony as an entity failed within a year but some thirty families took possession of quarter sections and prospered as can be seen by the many descendants still living in the area (Wet Mountain Tribune Centennial Edition Dec 20 1985) German immigrants also arrived later on and the ranches cl osest below the caves remained in possession of the German-derived Henrich and Neermann families into recent years Crosses in the square form seen at the cave were used in German decorative motifs (I have seen an antique coffee-grinder at an abandoned German homestead in eastern Colorado that was ornamented with them) The cross could have been painted by a Colfax settler exploring his surroundings soon after the colonys establishment The dispersal of most of the colony in 1871 would account for the failure of later inhabitants to know who had created it

Alternatively it might have been a product of prospector 1 H Yeoman He figures in one of the earliest known accounts of a Marble Mountain cave in History of the Arkansas Valley Colorado (1881) A later report on this cave (Denver Republican Feb 20 1888) appears to describe Cave of the White Marble Halls south of Spanish Cave and states that the cave was discovered by Yeoman on Sept 16 1880 Yeoman obligingly left a graffito confirming this in the cave and the Kings and Queens Chambers of the article are likewise identified (Another 1881 account -shyGolden Cty Transcript op cit -- describes a similar cave but claims discovery by Messrs Hendershot amp Dickson of Custer City) A red cross like that at Spanish Cave but smaller and with narrower arms marks the entrance the associated graffito in English 400 Feet to the White Marble Halls precludes a Spanish conquistador origin (A writing inside -- Mrs H G ReedSilver Cliff CololHere 8115197 -- is done in a similar ornate hand) I have also seen Yeomans signature in Moonmilk Cave just across the ravine south of Spanish and scarcely possible to reach without seeing the Spanish entrance He must have known of Spanish Cave and pesumably had entered it

[he Geology

Finally a point that seems so obvious that it should hardly need to be mentioned decades of repeated explorations in Spanish Cave have failed to turn up a trace of mining or of gold and there is excellent reason for this Gold is found either where hydrothermal solutions have mineralized host rock or where deposits originating in that fashion have been eroded and concentrated in placer gravels Neither situation applies at Marble Mountain where the caves occur in an unaltered Pennsylvanian biothermal limestone lens sandwiched almost vertically between shales and conglomeratic sandstones (The name Marble Mountain is a misnomer marble is limestone altered -- metamorphosed -- by heat andor pressure The abundance of well-preserved brachiopod and crinoid fossils shows that Marble Mountain is not metamorphosed) The only mineralization known on the mountain is a little low-grade copper on the south limestone outcrop

Jourllal of Speleall History 84

Paul Gilbert notwithstanding the caves are in no way volcanic but are relatively typical highshygradient alpine limestone solution caves dissolved probably by massive runoff from melting snov and ice during Pleistocene glacial epochs Writers have speculated that Spanish Cave had a lower entrance (possible since the cave water does emerge at a spring lower down) and an entrance on the west side of the mountain (not possible since the limestone does not outcrop there) Ironically the only new entrance cavers have actually found was in a direction not suggested by any known author above Its discovery explained the cave wind as a chimney effect between the entrances -- blowing down to the lower opening when it is warmer outside than inside reversing when it is colder outside

Conclusions

I know of no one else who has analyzed the Caverna del Oro stories as thoroughly but I am not the first to publish critical judgments on them Mrs Hafen has already been quoted Also on record (NSS Bulletin 8 July 1946) is a letter dated 10444 from Fred R Johnson Chief Information and Education US Forest Service

Carl Biaurock a member of the Colorado Mountain Club explored this cave in 1925 again in 1931 and later in more detail in 1932 On the last date the exploration was the result of several articles in the Rocky MOUnTain News in which an old yam was mentioned to the effect that the cave had been investigated in the Spanish explorations in the eighteenth [sic] century also that it is supposed to have yielded a large quantity of gold and other valuable minerals there are no signs of any mineral So far as Mr Blaurocks party could tell there is no evidence in the cave of any visitation of Spanish explorers several hundred years ago

Molen (opcit) wrote that this story [from Apodaca] has been disapproved [sic] The tools and ladder in the cave are of comparatively modern origin Blaurock believes Someone years ago must have explored the cave at least as thoroughly as we did he said He also expressed doubt that the rifle pits and fort are of Spanish origin I did not interview Carl Blaurock during my earlier research I telephoned him this summer but he is 98 years old and is too deaf to understand my questions I have sent him a letter of inquiry thus far unanswered

After organized caving had begun William R Halliday founder of the Colorado Grotto of the National Speleological Society also concluded that The fabulous stories are fables The story of Spanish Cave is told (Halliday however was too pessimistic in inferring that the cave was almost completely explored Most of what is now known was discovered just after he wrote but none of the new passage showed signs of human entry)

Diehard romantics might protest that Spanish Cave could still be La Caverna del Oro Caves can hide much perhaps somewhere in the depths there is a localized zone of thermal mineralization conceivably the Spaniards very cleverly concealed the way to the mine workings Such ideas are not impossible but do strain credulity For every verified feature that has been proposed as evidence for Spanish presence there is an alternative explanation that is more plausible The burden of proof then is on the proponents of the Spanish connection The lurid yarns about the cave reflect folklore creation greatly abetted by media exploitation assisted by atrociously sloppy research

The time sequenceof the several names applied to the cave fits this very neatly In sources from 1919 I find The Caves of the Winds From 1920 until 1932 I see Marble Cave Marble

85jOllrtlal of Speleall History

Caves or The Caves but no Spanish-related appellations It is still called Marble Cave at least as late as 1953 (Irma Zanoni Trail amp Timberline Dec 1953) I do not encounter La Cavema del Oro applied to our cave until Lightburns articles of 1932 after which it is common One of Lightburns headlines refers to the old Spanish Cave but Spanish Cave as a proper ~ame seems to appear only in the first Colorado Grotto News amp Notes of Feb 12 1952 where It IS a synonym for Caverna del Oro From then until now Spanish Cave has been the preferred form in the literature of organized caving and in popular media relying on it This unfortunately has helped to maintain the public assumption that the Spanish legendry is based in fact

The caves history is muddled by a series of misnomers a Caverna del Oro with no gold a Maltese cross that is not Maltese marble that is not marble -- and on analyzing the evidence I think that German Cave would have been a more appropriate if less provocative name than Spanish Cave

I expect my skeptical arguments to be ignored by future writers as long as there is a media markcL for exciting treasure tales Why is it important to be critically analytical

Since fact and fiction are not clearly distinguished in media information about the cave many people still believe nonsense about it Apparently the Spanish gold tales retain enough public acceptance to present problems to the Forest Service today It is reported that there was in recent years a proposal to build a road to the cave to facilitate treasure hunting (Jerry Hassemer oral comm)

Furthermore presentation of false gold stories as if they might be true is likely to tempt naive and poorly prepared readers to get in trouble seeking riches This is apparent in a 1957 letter from Roy Truman former District Ranger and colleague of Paul Gilberts (History of the Colorado Grotto 1961)

There was a time when it was very difficult to keep boys away from this cave and I received many calls from parents in Pueblo and other towns all times of the day and night concerning the safety of their boys that had left home with the ideas of exploring this cave with the high hopes of finding valuable ores or treasures they were equipped with a few pieces of small rope [this was probably arter the Depression-era articles]

This problem is also exemplified by a letter in my own files addressed in 1962 to Richard LeSage of the Southern Colorado Grotto from a Denverite He had twenty-four numbered questions including What type of equipiment [sic] will I need (exactly) I havent done much cave exploring Where can I obtain it What type of mask would I need for foul air He concludes We are intending to explore this cave at all cost so your information will be most vilal to us and most appreciable (We never replied deciding that was the safest thing to do)

The extravagance of peoples beliefs about Spanish Cave has sometimes reached quite ridiculous extremes The Colorado Historical Society library has a typescript of research material used by Perry Eberhart in preparing Treasure Tales of the Rockies One note is as follows

Robert Dunne head of Querida sez think cave comes out near Walsenburg or possibly the northern end of Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico never found end

James Dunne Querida

Not even Eberhart was so shameless as to print this in his book

Jourllal of Speleall History 86

There are still many legitimate mysteries left about Marble Mountain and its history How well explored are the ends of Spanish Cave even now Why was Yeomans cave otherwise so clearly White Marble Halls said to have a 275-foot pit Is this an error or a pit now lost Was the vertical Spanish Cave somehow grafted into the account Who really painted the Maltese cross and who put the artifacts into Spanish Why were detailed articles published on White Marble Halls in the 1880s but nothing seems to be on record about Spanish until 1919 in spite of the extensive early work done in it (If the relics were left by Colfax colonists in the 1870s they could not easily have published their explorations as there were yet no newspapers in the Wet Mountain Valley Later Yeoman or other prospectors might have been reticent about calling atlention to the cave if they built ladders down the shafts in the hope of rinding minerals Study 01 the county mining-claim records could be informative)

Future Opportunities

Most knowledge we now have on Marble Mountain history before organized caving is based on writings of big-city visitors from 1919 on When time allows I intend to search the microfilms of Custer County newspapers in the period 1880-1920 to see if items overlooked by library indexers may shed light on the gaps in our knowledge of the Marble Mountain caves Fascinating revelations are very likely to result Johnsons letter of 1944 (op cit) also stated There was evidence of early visitation [in Marble Cave] including names carved on rocks but these date mostly back about 50 years ago Informative graffiti are numerous in Cave of the White Marble Halls but I do not recall seeing any in Spanish Cave during my own explorations in the 1950s and 60s It should be carefully reexamined to see if we have overlooked signatures that could be keys to the solution of the puzzles

Better documentation of the cave itself would also be desirable The Colorado Grotto surveyed most of lower Spanish in the 1950s to the standards then prevailing I do not know the length of the CG survey but it probably included less than 1000 feet The Southern Colorado Grotto discoveries from 1959 to the early 1960s were not surveyed at the time

From 1975 to 1988 Jerry Hassemer led the mapping of 2642 feet of upper Spanish including the main route between entrances and the Rimstone Passage its longest side gallery (Hassemer personal comm Sept 13 1992) (About 1735 feet of this are along the through-route) His survey showed a vertical difference of 449 feet between lower and upper entrance by both internal mapping and a surface closure loop The old Colorado Grotto map appears to show a depth of just over 270 feet from lower entrance to deepest surveyed point thus total surveyed depth of Spanish Cave is about 720 fect (The entrance elevations of Spanish Cave have never been established by survey to a benchmark but altimeter readings and topographic maps suggest that the upper entrance is around 12000 feet)

Other side passages and superimposed levels in upper Spanish remain unmapped In lower Spanish an important branch the waterfall passage -- which may go deeper than the so-called Gold Diggings at the end of the existing map -- remains unsurveyed The high elevation and extremely cold wet conditions continue to inhibit complete exploration and mapping as they have for as long as the cave has been known

87Journal of Speleall History

1922 Trip Reports

Maud Orr Howell

Trip 10 Bear Cave

Gordon Brown led eight of us including Elizabeth Hord George Raudebush Benie Weaver Tom Weaver Johnny Connor Boyte and me to Bear Cave in Savage Gulch

We left the Observatory at 900 am went down Clark Cottage Path and across the valley to the clearing in front of the old Savage home

The girls rested while the boys went up the side of Peak Mountain to a ~pring and brought back some water Then we explored the old house In one of the upstairs rooms that had newspapers on the walls we read in the Society section of a newspaper dated August 17 1908 that Mr and Mrs Sanford Duncan had gone to spend a few days with Mrs Robert Orr in Maury County

We cut across the field to the right of the house and climbed along the side of Peak Mountain then straight down the side of the mountain to Savage Creek After drinking water from a spring running into the creek we followed the creek up a few yards then climbed up the mountain on the left a few yards to the cave This is Coppenger Mountain It was 11 45 so we ate our Iunch and rested until 1 10 when all but Elizabeth and Tom went in the cave We had candles and carbide lights and Gordon led the way It saw 220 when we got out After resting a few minutes and taking some Kodak pictures we all including Elizabeth and Tom went in again and stayed until 300 pm

We gathered our things which included sticks which Gordon had cut for us the Kodak the lunch bag canteen etc and set out straight up the mountain with Gordon pulling us up some of the places until we hit the cliffs We followed the cliffs along until we found a place to climb up When we got on the top we walked along the mountain until we got to the end of it which is just above the Savage house We went down a path which went straight down the mountain to the Savage house rested while the boys got water then came home to Howell cottage the same way we had gone arriving here at 700 pm

Trip to Bats Cave

Saturday September 2 1922

We first planned to walk to Tatesville but not knowing how far it was we gave it up and decided to walk to Bats Cave The night before the trip we gave that up too as it was so far and the weather so hot

As we were eating breakfast Mr George Mitchell came and he had breakfast with us He suggested getting a wagon for our trip so immediately after breakfast Mr George Bettie Martha and Tom Weaver Boyte and I went to the store and got Earnest Rubleys wagon

75Journal of Speleall History

We all met on the Observatory There were 19 of us Five including Mr George Jennings and George Bailey Torn and Charlie Trabue IV left first and went down the Backbone Road intending to meet us at the Collins River bridge The rest of us Elliott and David Adams Lucy and Elizabeth Bailey Lucinda Trabue Irene Langford Elizabeth Mclane Kate Keene Johnson Susan Lewis Bettie and Martha Weaver Boyte and I walked down the mountain from the Observatory and met the wagon a little piece up the valley We missed the other bunch and they did not catch up with us until we had left the wagon and were eating lunch at the spring

We finished lunch and walked up the mountain to the cave We went to the big room where we stopped last year which is just beyond the small ladder We climbed the ladder then all but Irene Tom Elizabeth and I went on further We waited at the top of the ladder until they came back They had gone to another big room and circled around it about three times before finally finding the way out They found an old Nashville newspaper dated 1847 and another paper with some names on it They added their names to this list

When we got out of the cave it was nearly 500 We had been in there three hours

We went back to the wagon and started horne We got to Collins River bridge about dark The moon was almost full and the ride up the valley in the moonlight in a wagon filled with hay and pulled by mules was beautiful We stopped at Mortons store and Mr George telephoned up lo Beersheba and told them where we were and assured them that we would be home soon He brought out oodles of cookies and we had a grand time eating them We sang and yelled and relaxed on the hay We left the wagon at the bottom of Beersheba Mountain Martha led the way up the mountain in the dark with only the moon to help guide us We had Oashlights but it was hard to keep in the path But it was fun We reached the top at the Observatory at 845 pm and no one seemed to be tired

Trip to Peak Mountain

A crowd of us left Aunt Mats Cottage at 930 am on Monday August 28 1922 There were 19 of us including Mr George Mitchell Elizabeth Hord Mr Colville Elliott Adams Jennings Bailey Lucy Bailey Kate Keene Johnson George Eldred Mary Wilson Eldred Irene Langford Elizabeth Mclane Bettie Orr Martha Weaver Tom Weaver Alfred Williams Mary Phillips Street Susan Lewis Boyte Howell Jr and me (Maud Orr Howell)

We went down Clark Cottage Path to the valley The crowd was separated going down but we all got together at the foot of the mountain crossed the valley and climbed Peak Mountain There was no path we just went up the side of the mountain and went thru a pass up the cliffs We got there about 1200 pm rested then ate lunch We put up a nag (Elizabeth Hords petticoat)

Aoout 100 pm we left to find the old stage coach road to Chattanooga We went straight across the top of the mountain and found the road at the spring and a little log cabin We followed the road to the valley We heard Marshall Eldred mooing answered him and he found us Gordon Bro n who was with him led us to Peter Rock Cave on the side of Peak Mountain Marshall did not start out with us because he helped Gordon fix the leaks in Laurel Mill Dam Elliott led us in the cave and we did not go back very far It was pretty but wet and muddy

We c~me home by Dishroon Springs drank some of the water and ate the rest of our lunch [hen came on up the mountain A few of us stopped at the Johnson place and looked across the valley at Elilabeth Hords petticoat which we had left on a tree on Peak Mountain We came on horne arriving here about 500 pm

Journal of Speleall History 76

No Old Gold or Bones A Skeptical Review of Caverna del Oro Legendry Donald G Davis reprinledfrom Rocky Mountain Caving Summer 1992

In the thin air of timberline on Marble Mountain in the Sangre de Cristo range icy wind blows from the entrance to a deep and cryptic cave marked by the damaged remnant of a rust-red cross Known today as Spanish Cave it is the most publicized non-commercial cave in Colorado It has been featured for more than 70 years in media - first newspapers then magazines books and television specials Most of this publicity recounts stories that it is La Caverna del Oro where Indian slaves mined gold for 17th century Spaniards Many people take this as fact Recently a Colorado caver told me he had spoken with a journalist who assured him that the cave was bottomless and contains untold treasures

Spanish Cave was important in the start of my own caving career in 1957 While attending Colorado A amp M College (later CSU) I saw in scrapbooks in the Fort Collins Museum clippings of the Colorado Question Box column from the Rocky Mountain News circa 1955 They told stories of a Maltese-cross-marked entrance lost gold mine and chained skeleton reported in the caverns depths After correcting the first error we found in the accounts (that the cave was on Homs Peak several miles north of Marble Mountain) two of us (Vin Hoeman and myself) in the college Hikers Club located the cave the next year In subsequent years with Frank and Paul Leskinen James W Meachan and others in the Southern Colorado Grotto of the NSS I led the discovery of about two-thirds of its presently known passage

Finding that the Western History Department of the Denver Public Library had a clipping file on the cave I also undertook research on its history which I have continued intermittently since The mure I learned about the real cave the more disillusioned I became with the stories sensationalizing it I learned much about the rules of logic and evidence during the investi galion and was ultimately convinced that there was no satisfactory confirmation that Spanish explorers ever saw or entered the cave much less mined gold from it Following are some of the reasons for that concl usion

The most readily available summary of the legendry is in Lloyd Parris Caves oCoLorado (1973) pp 24-32 Parris precedes his Treasure Caves accounts with a confused and equivocal disclaimer The following tales for the most part have the validity of history behind them and in most cases the caves are known Undoubtedly though some of the legends connected with these caves belong in Chapter IV under hoax and humbug And if these legends seem to disagree or contradict what is previously known it is because they were selected not for entertainment alone but as a presentation of the known facts or legends as the case may be An evaluation of the authenticity has not been attempted This is left for the reader to do

This reader hereby takes up the challenge

The Spanish Mille Legends

A number of accounts (including Parriss) relate that Spanish Monastery Latin documents record gold being brought to pre-Columbian Mexican Indian kingdoms Acolhua Aztec and Tepance

Jourllal of Speleall History 77

from the north Then in 1541 three monks were supposedly left behind by Coronado (the Rocky MOllntain News June 3 1923 says 1598) One Fray Juan de la Cruz reportedly reopened a mine using forced labor by Pecos I ndians (a northern New Mexico Pueblq trib~)and packed treasure toward Mexico City but never arrived there Nuggets and gold bars reported found by one Baca in 1811 were speculated to be part of this treasure and a prospector searching (according to Parris) for Cavema del Oro half a century later found a silver cup engraved with the name Hermione Taken at face value all this gives the impression that stories about Caverna del Oro are of great antiquity though the original Spanish documents are never cited

This suite of tales was first widely distributed in an article by Alberta Pike headlines OLD MANUSCRIPT INDICATES VAST RICHES IN COLORADO CA VE GUARDED BY SKELETON in the Rocky Mountain News of Sept 6 1932 Subsequent Spanish Cave popularizers have recopied them from one article to the next without naming a source for them I recently made an enlightening discovery in the Colorado Historical Society library about where this material came from

Before any known Spanish Cave article was written Louis Bernhardt Sporleder -- early resident and prominent citizen of Walsenburg Colorado -- published a souvenir booklet titled Huajalolla Breasts of the World (1916) An article in The Trail June 1922 reprinted much of this booklet and said Sporleder had a number of unpublished manuscripts giving information historical and legendary about the Spanish Peaks (as the Huajatolla are more commonly known) Sporleders booklet included word for word most of the above Spanish mine material copied by later Cavema del Oro writers

Even his misspelling of the Tepance kingdom (properly Tepanec) has been faithfully reproduced by authors as late as Parris

As to the actual historicity of Sporleders items I know little but his writings (eg The Roses of Huajatolla The Trail Dec 1922) were prone to wild flights of romantic fiction incorporating gross errors about natural history He claimed for instance that the otherwise extinct passenger pigeon still survived on the Spanish Peaks in fact it has never been recorded in Colorado His human history appears similarly colored But even if he was accurate it is crucial to our study that his stories were exclusively about the Spanish Peaks making no connection whatever to Marble Mountain 50 miles to the northwest He specifically stated that the silver cup was found beside a spring in a grotto at the base of East Spanish Peak (the name Hermione moreover is Greek not Spanish) All of this is therefore irrelevant to the cavern on Marble Mountain that we know as Spanish Cave

In Sporleders 1916 version the prospector who found the cup was searching for Huajatollas mines of gold In Pikes 1932 recounting he was seeking the lost mine but she associates it with the cave on Marble Mountain Parris in 1973 transmutes the object of the searchers quest explicitly into the Caverna del Oro Thus by insidious mutations does spurious lore enshroud our cave

Forbes Parkhill asserted that Marble cave Legends connect the Spanish cross and the ancient timber found in the mine [sic] with the gold hunting and exploring expeditions of Juan de Onate in 1597 and the Escalante-Dominguez expedition in 1776 (Explorers to Seek Mysteries of Caves in San Isabel Wilds Discovered Four Centuries Ago Denver Post Oct 9 1921) Even Parris rejects these suggestions because those expeditions did not come close to Marble Mountain

Jourllal of Speleall History 78

Earliest Known Accounts ofthe Cave middot

In 1919 appeared a brochure Out-ol-door Piaygroullds of the Sansabel National Forest USDA middot Circular 5 by Henry S Graves Forester It declared that The Caves of the Winds [not to be confused with Cave of the Winds at Manitou Springs] a system of giant crevices in a mountain or solid white marble is one of the principal natural wonders of the Forest These caves have been penetrated to a depth of over 1200 feet without the end being reached Theymay be reached by wagon road from Westcliffe

On Oct 12 1919 the Denver Post ran an anonymous article San Isabels Caves of Winds Among Wonders of Colorado It stated The Caves of the Winds have been known to exist for many years They are described brieOy in the report of the San Isabel national forest A party of Denver business men is planning to visit the caves this autumn with a view to exploring them to their depths if pOssible If it is found that the natural wonders said to exist in the interior of the caves are equal to reports which have been received these men will ask the government for the I

privilege of developing the caves as a tourist attraction

That Spanish Cave is the object of these writings is indicated by the emphasis on wind great depth (four times the actual depth of the cave as then known) and incomplete exploration the nearby Cave of the White Marble Halls is less strongly windy nearly horizontal and was already well explored (The accompanying entrance photo is not Marble Mountain) A similar item in the Post of June 27 1920 mentions a huge cave on Marble mountain which has never been explored by man beyond a depth of 1800 feet and which may rival the famed Mammoth Cave of Kentucky Neither treasure legends nor stories ofSpanish exploration are me11lioned in any of these earliest printed accounts

Apollina Apodacas Story

The real genesis of treasure stories as applied to Spanish Cave so far as I can find is with Apollina Apodaca (her name is variously spelled in different accounts I use the spelling that seems most probable) In 1919 (not 1920 as said in Caves oColorado) Paul Gilbert later District Ranger in the Forest heard wonderful tales from this old woman As he recalled in The Bulletin of the Rocky Mountain Region of the US Forest Service (Dec 1936)

She stated that the Spaniards used to get gold from it and further stated that if one were to descend to a sufficient depth [in some accounts she is said to have specified 90 or 93 feet] a set of oak doors would be found and if they were forced open one would find a tunnel leading back into the bowels of the mountain -- and the source of the gold would be found She further stated that when she was a child they used to take a blanket wrap it around a heavy stone and throw it down the shaft In the course of a short time the blanket would be blown back minus the rock by the strong winds that come continually from the shaft

The following spring Gilbert located the cave which he misinterpreted as more of a volcanic fissure than it is a cave and visited it with Arthur C Carhart An item mentioning this trip (Mystery Caves in ColoradoRocky Mountain News Sept 21 1921) is the earliest I have found that makes a Spanish or lost-mine connection Old timers in the hills up there declare the place is the shaft of the old Three Step mine famous in Spanish history Carhart himself in the POSl of Jan 1 1922 says it is reported that it is an old Spanish mine entrance marked with a red cross of Malta and has old timber and a log chain inside

Jourllal of Speleall History 79

Gilberts writings are not entirely consistent about his informants statistics in the above report she is Mexican 105 years old in 1919 and died at 110 In his letter to Robert 1 OConnell of Feb 18 1957 (as published in History ojthe Colorado Grotto Nov 1961) she is Spanish and died in 1923 at age 103 A followup letter of Feb 25 adds that she spent most of her life in the vicinity of San Luis [in the San Luis Valley on the opposite side of the Sangre de Cristos] Another source (Dayle Molen Pueblo Star-Jollmal Nov 18 1956) says she lived near Gardner Perry Eberhart in his sensationalistic Treasure Tales of the Rockies (11) calls her an Indian squaw Raymond Thorp in American ForesTs Aug 1935 citing Gilbert says she died eight years ago which would have been 1927 (this is the date used by Parris) These points may be quibbles yet they indicate a lack of precision in recording the facts about her And since the account attributed to Ms Apodaca is pivotal to the entire Caverna del Oro oeuvre let us dissect it critically

Every element is either improbable or impossible Leaving the geologic aspect until later take the oaken doors There are no oaks for many miles and where they do appear they are scrub oak which would have provided door-size timber only in rare cases (though oaks of that size were more common in the Rockies then than now) And why haul heavy oak to timberline when (though strong when new) it does not resist rot as well as say the more easily obtained juniper There is not in any case any opening near the 9O-foot level where such doors could have been used

The blanket story is completely fanciful As we proved in 1961 (NSS News Aug 1962 part I) the cave wind comes from upper Spanish Cave not from the pit Even if it did the pit is about 15 feet wide whereas the entrance constricts to a narrow crawlway A wind strong enough to blow a blanket back up the pit would rise to such tornadic speed in the crawl as to stop a person from fighting through it to the pit Nor does it seem sensible that people would be blithely tossing their blankets down weighted with rocks After all the rock might fail to unwind and the blanket be lost or shredded at the bottom With so incredible a yarn in it why should not the whole narrative be dismissed as fantasy

The Skeletons

At least three human skeletons have been attested as evidence of Spanish involvement with the cave Two were introduced by reporter Kenneth C Lightburn in a front-page article in the Rocky Mountain News of Sept 4 1932 He claimed that the caves original discovery is credited to Capt Elisha P Hom one of the first settlers in the Wet Mountain Valley in 1869 About its entrance he found the remnants of what might have been a fort and also a skeleton in Spanish armor Through the armor was an Indian arrow (Lightburn also began the misconception that the cave was on Homs Peak) I have not been able to trace the origin of this anecdote but it sounds unlikely if only because the purpose of Spanish armor was to prevent things like stoneshypointed arrows from penetrating ones torso and it generally worked Halls History of Colorado (1895) confirms Elisha P Hom as a pioneer Wet Mountain Valley settler in 1869 but does not mention this story

However the skeleton that Lightburn intended to feature was the one in his articles melodramatic headlines SKELETON FOUND CHAINED BY NECK DEEP IN COLORADO MYSTERY CAVECAVERN IS HIGH IN MOUNTAIN WILDS OF STATEDenver Man Discovers Manacled Bones in Sangre de Cristo Range Moldering 500 Feet Below Surface in Awesome CavitySIGNS INDICATE MINE WORKED IN EARLY DAYSFind Recalls Legends of Fabulous Cavern [sic] del Oro of 17th Century Spaniards The headlines are emphasized by a lurid though regrettably nonphotographic picture of the skeleton and an entrance shot with the cross touched up to show better

80 Journal of Speleall History

Journal of Speean History

The article relates that Peter Moser of Denver with companions Victor Barth and his two sons Donald and Jack had just returned from a descent into the cave (Derivative accounts refer to Victor Donald and Jack Barth the former being a fictitious person born of the omission of an original comma between Victor and Donald)

According to Lightburn the Moser party had climbed down until they reached a vertical pit They lowered a lantern Forty feet downward they saw the bottom and in the light or the lantern could clearly make out the skeleton With a metal strap encircling the neck the pile of bones reclined against the rocky wall as if the person who died there centuries ago hall been chained in a sitting position and left to starve An investigatory trip reported in followup articles of Sept 11 12 arid 18 found no skeleton (If an entrance photo with the story of the 18th is any indication they might not even have found the cave -- the picture is obviously not on Marble Mountain -- it may be at Marble Cave near Canon City) It was speculated that Moser may have seen the skeleton at another point in the cave or that it had been done away with by mysterious parties unknown who had blasted the cave entrance between the two trips

In reality it is not surprising that the chained skeleton was never found There is no sound testimony that it was ever there Unlike Fray Juan de la Cruz Elisha Horn or Apollina Apodaca Peter Moser was still available to me to question when I first researched Lightburns article I found in 1959 that Moser still lived at the same address in Denver as in 1932 On New Years Eve 19591 telephoned him and asked about the story His description made it clear that his party had indeed reached the top of the pit that cavers now call the Jug At that point they had lowered a kerosene lantern on a line and he saw what in his own words looked like a pile of bones on a ledge near the bottom This he said is all he reported to the secretary of the Colorado Mountain Club who in tum contacted the newspaper which -- as Moser put it to me -- dressed it up a little (l printed a more complete record of Mosers hour-long interview in the Southern Colorado Grotto newsletter Spelunk Junk Mar 1960)

This embroidery was to be expected in an era when the Denver papers were battling for readers during the Great Depressiun and were notorious for sensationalism But even if Mosers own explanation did not debunk the skeleton he reportedly found it would not be believable The Jug is about 80 feet deep Have you ever tried to see in cavernous darkness where your breath makes mist clouds by a kerosene lantern at that range Then you will agree that a chaincd skeleton even in fine preservation could hardly have been seen well enough from the top to be recognized unequivocally

81

Caves oColorado complicates the matter by citing a letter to me from James W Meacham in vhich a bone found by Meacham at the bottom of the Jug in 1959 was pronounced human by John A Murphy of the Denver Museum of Natural History What Parris does not say is that I had written him in 1969 -- four years before his book was published -- that another expert at the University of Colorado Museum had declared it a deer bone (This water-worn two-inch fragment might well challenge a forensic specialist)

Not content with two skeletons Thorp (American Forests Aug 1935 op cit) adds a third to this spooky company A strange legend that still haunts the native people concerns a skeleton hung with buckskin which guarded Marble Cave just on the other side of Caverna del Oro It was the first quarter of the 19th century and an American free trapper wandered too far west The Spaniards for fear he would reveal their hiding place crucified him For a half century he remained pinioned to a wcxxlcn cross Aside from the improbably sadistic mode of execution this image typical of cartoons or folklore reveals ignorance of the properties of real skeletons which do not long remain articulated when exposed to weather decay and scavengers

Others find ulterior significance in our discovery of bones of bison and pronghorn antelope in upper Spanish Cave in the 1960s calling them plains species that would never ascend to such lofty heights Unless someone had used the cave for storing or curing meat (Bill Kaiser The Treasure of Caverna del Oro Colorful Colorado May-June 1973) I did not know this then but these animals have been known to ascend to the alpine tundra in historic ti mes and might have done so more often when they were abundant and unfenced The cave is much too wet to be good ror storing perishables

The Artifacts

Many reliable observers from Carhart and Gilbert onward report finding in the 1920s and 30s old artifacts of unknown provenance in Spanish Cave These include a winch chains whiskey bottle jug timber ladders shovel single-jack and a hammer They have all disappeared or been reduced to fragments but claims made for some of them purport to establish archeological evidence of Spanish presence

Thorp (1935 op CiL) in describing the 1932 Rocky Mountain News expedition states that on the second ledge they found the remains of a rudely constructed ladder which Dr LeRoy Hafen ( then editor historian and curator of the State Historical Society) after carefully examining asserted was at least 200 years old Below after being lowered 110 feet they found a crude hand-forged hammer which the historian declared was of 17th century vintage Gilbert (The Bulletin Dec 1936 op cit) and an Alamosa Courier article (from June 1937) repeat these avowals

These are very important allegations since the Spanish were the only people who could have left such artifacts in the 17th century To investigate them I wrote in 1960 to LeRoy Hafen inquiring about his trip to the cave and his knowledge of its history and specifically whether he had certified the hammer as of 17th-century manufacture and if so who now had it His reply was less specific than my questions but it is a primary document on one of the major claims about Spanish Cave and I reproduce it below verbatim

If LeRoy Hafen made claims of antiquity for the Spanish Cave artifacts in 1932 he obviously did not stand by them later His wife Ann W Hafen in Detective Historian (Denver WesTerners Monthly Roundup July 1954) had also recounted his 1932 cave trip and commented disproving a baseless story is important it is part of the search for truth She elaborated To the party the venture was disappointing No treasure found No relic of the ancient conquistadores But to the

Jourllal of Speleall History 82

detective Historian it was just another clue pursued another myth exploded another triumph for the scholars code -- to build history on fact not on fossilized fiction

Thorp (1935 op cit) relates that the timbers of their ladder system were about eight inches in diameter squared on four sides with an ax Auger holes were bored into their sides and they were fitted with wooden rungs pegged into the holes No nails were used al though this probably would have been done by early Germans or Americans [the wood is] now decayed and may be broken in many ins tances by the hand This construction however is not strong evidence for Spanish work Before the railroad reached the Wet Mountain Valley in the 1880s commodities such as nails would have been scarce and expensive anyone building such structures before then might well have used no metal It would also be stronger than tacking on rungs with nails when not using sawed lumber Concerning the other cave artifacts there is not enough information to suggest a date

BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY PROVOUTAH

January 13 1960

11r Donald G Davia P O Box 145 T1lnlath Colorado

Dear Hr Davia

I ~ intereat~d to learn f~ your letter of January J 1960 of your study and COllCen WJth the Caverna del Oro Hy visit to the cave and descent into it was with a party directed and financed by the Tourist Bureau or its counterpart of the period The contemporary ewspal6rs gave som~ accowtof the venture

I made the firat descant into the cave kt that time ging down the rope bS

you doubtless have done ince I recall at the edg~ of the pit th~re were s(XlIe rotted logs that may have been the framework of a windlass At tho bott~ of the pit I found a suall sledge ~er encrusted with limestone formation I dont recall what was done with this haa-er I remember no other relics in the pit

Our purposo was to investigate certain rumors a3 to early use of the cave as a SVanish mine I think middot there is little~~ion for that as the limestone fonnation is a poor VlOspect fot middotormation

The legnd hat a skeleton was chained to the wall gave added impetus to the trip Needless to eay nothing of the sort was found That cav and some near were epoken of colloctively os the Karble Campve and sune referred to this one as the Caverna del Or~ cave of gold The Kaltes cross painted on the rock at the entrllJce to tle cave already had a faded appearance I know nothi8 of the rk of Capto1n Hom regarding the di Scove ry of ~ he cave

i~J At the bottOlll of the pit Carl Dlaurohpersucd tho crevice out 5 far dS ~ ~ could go and found nothi8 to reward our efforts If Hr Ulaurot is still living i Denver he could give you sooe sidelights on th cave as ho visited it after our initial exploration

Cordially yours

LO 91+-LeRoy R IlcIen DeparUent of History

Some writers (eg Jesse Ball Canon City Daily Record Sept 14 1933) speculate that the cave was used by the Spanish as a refuge from Indian attacks The cave itself being windy wet and ncar-freezing would not have been ideal for such occupancy A ruined fort was alleged to exist below Marble Mountain as early as 1881 (Golden City Transcript Aug 31 1881 citing Cusler City Prospect ) later articles mention rifle pits I have seen what I presume to be these features below timberline and could not distinguish them from the miners prospect pits common in the Colorado mountains The largest log breastwork structure has also been interpreted as an old corral (Jerry Hassemer oral communication) If defensive works they are cr Jde ones indeed

This leaves to be considered the famous cross beside the entrance It is about one and a half feet square with flared ends meeting at the corners It has been variously described as burnt on

Jou rnal of Speean History 83

deeply chiseled or etched but in reality is prosaically painted with what looks to be a stable iron oxide pigment perhaps using some sort of template Portions of It had a thm patma of calcite crust when I first saw it in 1958 Though almost always called Maltese it is not as can be seen by looking up a crosses illustration in any large dictionary The true Maltese cross has indented ends A G Birch (Denver Post Aug 11 1929) correctly pointed out that the cave marker isin the perfect form of a German Iron Cross But he also says it was old when the first white sehler saw it more than sixty years ago without explaining how he knew this A contradictory testimony (Trail and Timberline April 1957) asserts that there is one old-timer who states that he knCv the fellow who painted it years ago as ajoke I wiIl pass over both of these declarations as uncorroborated

Spanish crosses as I have seen them represented on coins and in art have narrow straight-sided arms often with the basal arm longer and with the ends variously embellished They are typically very different from German ones It is suggestive that the first sedentary settlers below Marble Mountain were Germans of the Colfax colony in 1870 The colony as an entity failed within a year but some thirty families took possession of quarter sections and prospered as can be seen by the many descendants still living in the area (Wet Mountain Tribune Centennial Edition Dec 20 1985) German immigrants also arrived later on and the ranches cl osest below the caves remained in possession of the German-derived Henrich and Neermann families into recent years Crosses in the square form seen at the cave were used in German decorative motifs (I have seen an antique coffee-grinder at an abandoned German homestead in eastern Colorado that was ornamented with them) The cross could have been painted by a Colfax settler exploring his surroundings soon after the colonys establishment The dispersal of most of the colony in 1871 would account for the failure of later inhabitants to know who had created it

Alternatively it might have been a product of prospector 1 H Yeoman He figures in one of the earliest known accounts of a Marble Mountain cave in History of the Arkansas Valley Colorado (1881) A later report on this cave (Denver Republican Feb 20 1888) appears to describe Cave of the White Marble Halls south of Spanish Cave and states that the cave was discovered by Yeoman on Sept 16 1880 Yeoman obligingly left a graffito confirming this in the cave and the Kings and Queens Chambers of the article are likewise identified (Another 1881 account -shyGolden Cty Transcript op cit -- describes a similar cave but claims discovery by Messrs Hendershot amp Dickson of Custer City) A red cross like that at Spanish Cave but smaller and with narrower arms marks the entrance the associated graffito in English 400 Feet to the White Marble Halls precludes a Spanish conquistador origin (A writing inside -- Mrs H G ReedSilver Cliff CololHere 8115197 -- is done in a similar ornate hand) I have also seen Yeomans signature in Moonmilk Cave just across the ravine south of Spanish and scarcely possible to reach without seeing the Spanish entrance He must have known of Spanish Cave and pesumably had entered it

[he Geology

Finally a point that seems so obvious that it should hardly need to be mentioned decades of repeated explorations in Spanish Cave have failed to turn up a trace of mining or of gold and there is excellent reason for this Gold is found either where hydrothermal solutions have mineralized host rock or where deposits originating in that fashion have been eroded and concentrated in placer gravels Neither situation applies at Marble Mountain where the caves occur in an unaltered Pennsylvanian biothermal limestone lens sandwiched almost vertically between shales and conglomeratic sandstones (The name Marble Mountain is a misnomer marble is limestone altered -- metamorphosed -- by heat andor pressure The abundance of well-preserved brachiopod and crinoid fossils shows that Marble Mountain is not metamorphosed) The only mineralization known on the mountain is a little low-grade copper on the south limestone outcrop

Jourllal of Speleall History 84

Paul Gilbert notwithstanding the caves are in no way volcanic but are relatively typical highshygradient alpine limestone solution caves dissolved probably by massive runoff from melting snov and ice during Pleistocene glacial epochs Writers have speculated that Spanish Cave had a lower entrance (possible since the cave water does emerge at a spring lower down) and an entrance on the west side of the mountain (not possible since the limestone does not outcrop there) Ironically the only new entrance cavers have actually found was in a direction not suggested by any known author above Its discovery explained the cave wind as a chimney effect between the entrances -- blowing down to the lower opening when it is warmer outside than inside reversing when it is colder outside

Conclusions

I know of no one else who has analyzed the Caverna del Oro stories as thoroughly but I am not the first to publish critical judgments on them Mrs Hafen has already been quoted Also on record (NSS Bulletin 8 July 1946) is a letter dated 10444 from Fred R Johnson Chief Information and Education US Forest Service

Carl Biaurock a member of the Colorado Mountain Club explored this cave in 1925 again in 1931 and later in more detail in 1932 On the last date the exploration was the result of several articles in the Rocky MOUnTain News in which an old yam was mentioned to the effect that the cave had been investigated in the Spanish explorations in the eighteenth [sic] century also that it is supposed to have yielded a large quantity of gold and other valuable minerals there are no signs of any mineral So far as Mr Blaurocks party could tell there is no evidence in the cave of any visitation of Spanish explorers several hundred years ago

Molen (opcit) wrote that this story [from Apodaca] has been disapproved [sic] The tools and ladder in the cave are of comparatively modern origin Blaurock believes Someone years ago must have explored the cave at least as thoroughly as we did he said He also expressed doubt that the rifle pits and fort are of Spanish origin I did not interview Carl Blaurock during my earlier research I telephoned him this summer but he is 98 years old and is too deaf to understand my questions I have sent him a letter of inquiry thus far unanswered

After organized caving had begun William R Halliday founder of the Colorado Grotto of the National Speleological Society also concluded that The fabulous stories are fables The story of Spanish Cave is told (Halliday however was too pessimistic in inferring that the cave was almost completely explored Most of what is now known was discovered just after he wrote but none of the new passage showed signs of human entry)

Diehard romantics might protest that Spanish Cave could still be La Caverna del Oro Caves can hide much perhaps somewhere in the depths there is a localized zone of thermal mineralization conceivably the Spaniards very cleverly concealed the way to the mine workings Such ideas are not impossible but do strain credulity For every verified feature that has been proposed as evidence for Spanish presence there is an alternative explanation that is more plausible The burden of proof then is on the proponents of the Spanish connection The lurid yarns about the cave reflect folklore creation greatly abetted by media exploitation assisted by atrociously sloppy research

The time sequenceof the several names applied to the cave fits this very neatly In sources from 1919 I find The Caves of the Winds From 1920 until 1932 I see Marble Cave Marble

85jOllrtlal of Speleall History

Caves or The Caves but no Spanish-related appellations It is still called Marble Cave at least as late as 1953 (Irma Zanoni Trail amp Timberline Dec 1953) I do not encounter La Cavema del Oro applied to our cave until Lightburns articles of 1932 after which it is common One of Lightburns headlines refers to the old Spanish Cave but Spanish Cave as a proper ~ame seems to appear only in the first Colorado Grotto News amp Notes of Feb 12 1952 where It IS a synonym for Caverna del Oro From then until now Spanish Cave has been the preferred form in the literature of organized caving and in popular media relying on it This unfortunately has helped to maintain the public assumption that the Spanish legendry is based in fact

The caves history is muddled by a series of misnomers a Caverna del Oro with no gold a Maltese cross that is not Maltese marble that is not marble -- and on analyzing the evidence I think that German Cave would have been a more appropriate if less provocative name than Spanish Cave

I expect my skeptical arguments to be ignored by future writers as long as there is a media markcL for exciting treasure tales Why is it important to be critically analytical

Since fact and fiction are not clearly distinguished in media information about the cave many people still believe nonsense about it Apparently the Spanish gold tales retain enough public acceptance to present problems to the Forest Service today It is reported that there was in recent years a proposal to build a road to the cave to facilitate treasure hunting (Jerry Hassemer oral comm)

Furthermore presentation of false gold stories as if they might be true is likely to tempt naive and poorly prepared readers to get in trouble seeking riches This is apparent in a 1957 letter from Roy Truman former District Ranger and colleague of Paul Gilberts (History of the Colorado Grotto 1961)

There was a time when it was very difficult to keep boys away from this cave and I received many calls from parents in Pueblo and other towns all times of the day and night concerning the safety of their boys that had left home with the ideas of exploring this cave with the high hopes of finding valuable ores or treasures they were equipped with a few pieces of small rope [this was probably arter the Depression-era articles]

This problem is also exemplified by a letter in my own files addressed in 1962 to Richard LeSage of the Southern Colorado Grotto from a Denverite He had twenty-four numbered questions including What type of equipiment [sic] will I need (exactly) I havent done much cave exploring Where can I obtain it What type of mask would I need for foul air He concludes We are intending to explore this cave at all cost so your information will be most vilal to us and most appreciable (We never replied deciding that was the safest thing to do)

The extravagance of peoples beliefs about Spanish Cave has sometimes reached quite ridiculous extremes The Colorado Historical Society library has a typescript of research material used by Perry Eberhart in preparing Treasure Tales of the Rockies One note is as follows

Robert Dunne head of Querida sez think cave comes out near Walsenburg or possibly the northern end of Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico never found end

James Dunne Querida

Not even Eberhart was so shameless as to print this in his book

Jourllal of Speleall History 86

There are still many legitimate mysteries left about Marble Mountain and its history How well explored are the ends of Spanish Cave even now Why was Yeomans cave otherwise so clearly White Marble Halls said to have a 275-foot pit Is this an error or a pit now lost Was the vertical Spanish Cave somehow grafted into the account Who really painted the Maltese cross and who put the artifacts into Spanish Why were detailed articles published on White Marble Halls in the 1880s but nothing seems to be on record about Spanish until 1919 in spite of the extensive early work done in it (If the relics were left by Colfax colonists in the 1870s they could not easily have published their explorations as there were yet no newspapers in the Wet Mountain Valley Later Yeoman or other prospectors might have been reticent about calling atlention to the cave if they built ladders down the shafts in the hope of rinding minerals Study 01 the county mining-claim records could be informative)

Future Opportunities

Most knowledge we now have on Marble Mountain history before organized caving is based on writings of big-city visitors from 1919 on When time allows I intend to search the microfilms of Custer County newspapers in the period 1880-1920 to see if items overlooked by library indexers may shed light on the gaps in our knowledge of the Marble Mountain caves Fascinating revelations are very likely to result Johnsons letter of 1944 (op cit) also stated There was evidence of early visitation [in Marble Cave] including names carved on rocks but these date mostly back about 50 years ago Informative graffiti are numerous in Cave of the White Marble Halls but I do not recall seeing any in Spanish Cave during my own explorations in the 1950s and 60s It should be carefully reexamined to see if we have overlooked signatures that could be keys to the solution of the puzzles

Better documentation of the cave itself would also be desirable The Colorado Grotto surveyed most of lower Spanish in the 1950s to the standards then prevailing I do not know the length of the CG survey but it probably included less than 1000 feet The Southern Colorado Grotto discoveries from 1959 to the early 1960s were not surveyed at the time

From 1975 to 1988 Jerry Hassemer led the mapping of 2642 feet of upper Spanish including the main route between entrances and the Rimstone Passage its longest side gallery (Hassemer personal comm Sept 13 1992) (About 1735 feet of this are along the through-route) His survey showed a vertical difference of 449 feet between lower and upper entrance by both internal mapping and a surface closure loop The old Colorado Grotto map appears to show a depth of just over 270 feet from lower entrance to deepest surveyed point thus total surveyed depth of Spanish Cave is about 720 fect (The entrance elevations of Spanish Cave have never been established by survey to a benchmark but altimeter readings and topographic maps suggest that the upper entrance is around 12000 feet)

Other side passages and superimposed levels in upper Spanish remain unmapped In lower Spanish an important branch the waterfall passage -- which may go deeper than the so-called Gold Diggings at the end of the existing map -- remains unsurveyed The high elevation and extremely cold wet conditions continue to inhibit complete exploration and mapping as they have for as long as the cave has been known

87Journal of Speleall History

We all met on the Observatory There were 19 of us Five including Mr George Jennings and George Bailey Torn and Charlie Trabue IV left first and went down the Backbone Road intending to meet us at the Collins River bridge The rest of us Elliott and David Adams Lucy and Elizabeth Bailey Lucinda Trabue Irene Langford Elizabeth Mclane Kate Keene Johnson Susan Lewis Bettie and Martha Weaver Boyte and I walked down the mountain from the Observatory and met the wagon a little piece up the valley We missed the other bunch and they did not catch up with us until we had left the wagon and were eating lunch at the spring

We finished lunch and walked up the mountain to the cave We went to the big room where we stopped last year which is just beyond the small ladder We climbed the ladder then all but Irene Tom Elizabeth and I went on further We waited at the top of the ladder until they came back They had gone to another big room and circled around it about three times before finally finding the way out They found an old Nashville newspaper dated 1847 and another paper with some names on it They added their names to this list

When we got out of the cave it was nearly 500 We had been in there three hours

We went back to the wagon and started horne We got to Collins River bridge about dark The moon was almost full and the ride up the valley in the moonlight in a wagon filled with hay and pulled by mules was beautiful We stopped at Mortons store and Mr George telephoned up lo Beersheba and told them where we were and assured them that we would be home soon He brought out oodles of cookies and we had a grand time eating them We sang and yelled and relaxed on the hay We left the wagon at the bottom of Beersheba Mountain Martha led the way up the mountain in the dark with only the moon to help guide us We had Oashlights but it was hard to keep in the path But it was fun We reached the top at the Observatory at 845 pm and no one seemed to be tired

Trip to Peak Mountain

A crowd of us left Aunt Mats Cottage at 930 am on Monday August 28 1922 There were 19 of us including Mr George Mitchell Elizabeth Hord Mr Colville Elliott Adams Jennings Bailey Lucy Bailey Kate Keene Johnson George Eldred Mary Wilson Eldred Irene Langford Elizabeth Mclane Bettie Orr Martha Weaver Tom Weaver Alfred Williams Mary Phillips Street Susan Lewis Boyte Howell Jr and me (Maud Orr Howell)

We went down Clark Cottage Path to the valley The crowd was separated going down but we all got together at the foot of the mountain crossed the valley and climbed Peak Mountain There was no path we just went up the side of the mountain and went thru a pass up the cliffs We got there about 1200 pm rested then ate lunch We put up a nag (Elizabeth Hords petticoat)

Aoout 100 pm we left to find the old stage coach road to Chattanooga We went straight across the top of the mountain and found the road at the spring and a little log cabin We followed the road to the valley We heard Marshall Eldred mooing answered him and he found us Gordon Bro n who was with him led us to Peter Rock Cave on the side of Peak Mountain Marshall did not start out with us because he helped Gordon fix the leaks in Laurel Mill Dam Elliott led us in the cave and we did not go back very far It was pretty but wet and muddy

We c~me home by Dishroon Springs drank some of the water and ate the rest of our lunch [hen came on up the mountain A few of us stopped at the Johnson place and looked across the valley at Elilabeth Hords petticoat which we had left on a tree on Peak Mountain We came on horne arriving here about 500 pm

Journal of Speleall History 76

No Old Gold or Bones A Skeptical Review of Caverna del Oro Legendry Donald G Davis reprinledfrom Rocky Mountain Caving Summer 1992

In the thin air of timberline on Marble Mountain in the Sangre de Cristo range icy wind blows from the entrance to a deep and cryptic cave marked by the damaged remnant of a rust-red cross Known today as Spanish Cave it is the most publicized non-commercial cave in Colorado It has been featured for more than 70 years in media - first newspapers then magazines books and television specials Most of this publicity recounts stories that it is La Caverna del Oro where Indian slaves mined gold for 17th century Spaniards Many people take this as fact Recently a Colorado caver told me he had spoken with a journalist who assured him that the cave was bottomless and contains untold treasures

Spanish Cave was important in the start of my own caving career in 1957 While attending Colorado A amp M College (later CSU) I saw in scrapbooks in the Fort Collins Museum clippings of the Colorado Question Box column from the Rocky Mountain News circa 1955 They told stories of a Maltese-cross-marked entrance lost gold mine and chained skeleton reported in the caverns depths After correcting the first error we found in the accounts (that the cave was on Homs Peak several miles north of Marble Mountain) two of us (Vin Hoeman and myself) in the college Hikers Club located the cave the next year In subsequent years with Frank and Paul Leskinen James W Meachan and others in the Southern Colorado Grotto of the NSS I led the discovery of about two-thirds of its presently known passage

Finding that the Western History Department of the Denver Public Library had a clipping file on the cave I also undertook research on its history which I have continued intermittently since The mure I learned about the real cave the more disillusioned I became with the stories sensationalizing it I learned much about the rules of logic and evidence during the investi galion and was ultimately convinced that there was no satisfactory confirmation that Spanish explorers ever saw or entered the cave much less mined gold from it Following are some of the reasons for that concl usion

The most readily available summary of the legendry is in Lloyd Parris Caves oCoLorado (1973) pp 24-32 Parris precedes his Treasure Caves accounts with a confused and equivocal disclaimer The following tales for the most part have the validity of history behind them and in most cases the caves are known Undoubtedly though some of the legends connected with these caves belong in Chapter IV under hoax and humbug And if these legends seem to disagree or contradict what is previously known it is because they were selected not for entertainment alone but as a presentation of the known facts or legends as the case may be An evaluation of the authenticity has not been attempted This is left for the reader to do

This reader hereby takes up the challenge

The Spanish Mille Legends

A number of accounts (including Parriss) relate that Spanish Monastery Latin documents record gold being brought to pre-Columbian Mexican Indian kingdoms Acolhua Aztec and Tepance

Jourllal of Speleall History 77

from the north Then in 1541 three monks were supposedly left behind by Coronado (the Rocky MOllntain News June 3 1923 says 1598) One Fray Juan de la Cruz reportedly reopened a mine using forced labor by Pecos I ndians (a northern New Mexico Pueblq trib~)and packed treasure toward Mexico City but never arrived there Nuggets and gold bars reported found by one Baca in 1811 were speculated to be part of this treasure and a prospector searching (according to Parris) for Cavema del Oro half a century later found a silver cup engraved with the name Hermione Taken at face value all this gives the impression that stories about Caverna del Oro are of great antiquity though the original Spanish documents are never cited

This suite of tales was first widely distributed in an article by Alberta Pike headlines OLD MANUSCRIPT INDICATES VAST RICHES IN COLORADO CA VE GUARDED BY SKELETON in the Rocky Mountain News of Sept 6 1932 Subsequent Spanish Cave popularizers have recopied them from one article to the next without naming a source for them I recently made an enlightening discovery in the Colorado Historical Society library about where this material came from

Before any known Spanish Cave article was written Louis Bernhardt Sporleder -- early resident and prominent citizen of Walsenburg Colorado -- published a souvenir booklet titled Huajalolla Breasts of the World (1916) An article in The Trail June 1922 reprinted much of this booklet and said Sporleder had a number of unpublished manuscripts giving information historical and legendary about the Spanish Peaks (as the Huajatolla are more commonly known) Sporleders booklet included word for word most of the above Spanish mine material copied by later Cavema del Oro writers

Even his misspelling of the Tepance kingdom (properly Tepanec) has been faithfully reproduced by authors as late as Parris

As to the actual historicity of Sporleders items I know little but his writings (eg The Roses of Huajatolla The Trail Dec 1922) were prone to wild flights of romantic fiction incorporating gross errors about natural history He claimed for instance that the otherwise extinct passenger pigeon still survived on the Spanish Peaks in fact it has never been recorded in Colorado His human history appears similarly colored But even if he was accurate it is crucial to our study that his stories were exclusively about the Spanish Peaks making no connection whatever to Marble Mountain 50 miles to the northwest He specifically stated that the silver cup was found beside a spring in a grotto at the base of East Spanish Peak (the name Hermione moreover is Greek not Spanish) All of this is therefore irrelevant to the cavern on Marble Mountain that we know as Spanish Cave

In Sporleders 1916 version the prospector who found the cup was searching for Huajatollas mines of gold In Pikes 1932 recounting he was seeking the lost mine but she associates it with the cave on Marble Mountain Parris in 1973 transmutes the object of the searchers quest explicitly into the Caverna del Oro Thus by insidious mutations does spurious lore enshroud our cave

Forbes Parkhill asserted that Marble cave Legends connect the Spanish cross and the ancient timber found in the mine [sic] with the gold hunting and exploring expeditions of Juan de Onate in 1597 and the Escalante-Dominguez expedition in 1776 (Explorers to Seek Mysteries of Caves in San Isabel Wilds Discovered Four Centuries Ago Denver Post Oct 9 1921) Even Parris rejects these suggestions because those expeditions did not come close to Marble Mountain

Jourllal of Speleall History 78

Earliest Known Accounts ofthe Cave middot

In 1919 appeared a brochure Out-ol-door Piaygroullds of the Sansabel National Forest USDA middot Circular 5 by Henry S Graves Forester It declared that The Caves of the Winds [not to be confused with Cave of the Winds at Manitou Springs] a system of giant crevices in a mountain or solid white marble is one of the principal natural wonders of the Forest These caves have been penetrated to a depth of over 1200 feet without the end being reached Theymay be reached by wagon road from Westcliffe

On Oct 12 1919 the Denver Post ran an anonymous article San Isabels Caves of Winds Among Wonders of Colorado It stated The Caves of the Winds have been known to exist for many years They are described brieOy in the report of the San Isabel national forest A party of Denver business men is planning to visit the caves this autumn with a view to exploring them to their depths if pOssible If it is found that the natural wonders said to exist in the interior of the caves are equal to reports which have been received these men will ask the government for the I

privilege of developing the caves as a tourist attraction

That Spanish Cave is the object of these writings is indicated by the emphasis on wind great depth (four times the actual depth of the cave as then known) and incomplete exploration the nearby Cave of the White Marble Halls is less strongly windy nearly horizontal and was already well explored (The accompanying entrance photo is not Marble Mountain) A similar item in the Post of June 27 1920 mentions a huge cave on Marble mountain which has never been explored by man beyond a depth of 1800 feet and which may rival the famed Mammoth Cave of Kentucky Neither treasure legends nor stories ofSpanish exploration are me11lioned in any of these earliest printed accounts

Apollina Apodacas Story

The real genesis of treasure stories as applied to Spanish Cave so far as I can find is with Apollina Apodaca (her name is variously spelled in different accounts I use the spelling that seems most probable) In 1919 (not 1920 as said in Caves oColorado) Paul Gilbert later District Ranger in the Forest heard wonderful tales from this old woman As he recalled in The Bulletin of the Rocky Mountain Region of the US Forest Service (Dec 1936)

She stated that the Spaniards used to get gold from it and further stated that if one were to descend to a sufficient depth [in some accounts she is said to have specified 90 or 93 feet] a set of oak doors would be found and if they were forced open one would find a tunnel leading back into the bowels of the mountain -- and the source of the gold would be found She further stated that when she was a child they used to take a blanket wrap it around a heavy stone and throw it down the shaft In the course of a short time the blanket would be blown back minus the rock by the strong winds that come continually from the shaft

The following spring Gilbert located the cave which he misinterpreted as more of a volcanic fissure than it is a cave and visited it with Arthur C Carhart An item mentioning this trip (Mystery Caves in ColoradoRocky Mountain News Sept 21 1921) is the earliest I have found that makes a Spanish or lost-mine connection Old timers in the hills up there declare the place is the shaft of the old Three Step mine famous in Spanish history Carhart himself in the POSl of Jan 1 1922 says it is reported that it is an old Spanish mine entrance marked with a red cross of Malta and has old timber and a log chain inside

Jourllal of Speleall History 79

Gilberts writings are not entirely consistent about his informants statistics in the above report she is Mexican 105 years old in 1919 and died at 110 In his letter to Robert 1 OConnell of Feb 18 1957 (as published in History ojthe Colorado Grotto Nov 1961) she is Spanish and died in 1923 at age 103 A followup letter of Feb 25 adds that she spent most of her life in the vicinity of San Luis [in the San Luis Valley on the opposite side of the Sangre de Cristos] Another source (Dayle Molen Pueblo Star-Jollmal Nov 18 1956) says she lived near Gardner Perry Eberhart in his sensationalistic Treasure Tales of the Rockies (11) calls her an Indian squaw Raymond Thorp in American ForesTs Aug 1935 citing Gilbert says she died eight years ago which would have been 1927 (this is the date used by Parris) These points may be quibbles yet they indicate a lack of precision in recording the facts about her And since the account attributed to Ms Apodaca is pivotal to the entire Caverna del Oro oeuvre let us dissect it critically

Every element is either improbable or impossible Leaving the geologic aspect until later take the oaken doors There are no oaks for many miles and where they do appear they are scrub oak which would have provided door-size timber only in rare cases (though oaks of that size were more common in the Rockies then than now) And why haul heavy oak to timberline when (though strong when new) it does not resist rot as well as say the more easily obtained juniper There is not in any case any opening near the 9O-foot level where such doors could have been used

The blanket story is completely fanciful As we proved in 1961 (NSS News Aug 1962 part I) the cave wind comes from upper Spanish Cave not from the pit Even if it did the pit is about 15 feet wide whereas the entrance constricts to a narrow crawlway A wind strong enough to blow a blanket back up the pit would rise to such tornadic speed in the crawl as to stop a person from fighting through it to the pit Nor does it seem sensible that people would be blithely tossing their blankets down weighted with rocks After all the rock might fail to unwind and the blanket be lost or shredded at the bottom With so incredible a yarn in it why should not the whole narrative be dismissed as fantasy

The Skeletons

At least three human skeletons have been attested as evidence of Spanish involvement with the cave Two were introduced by reporter Kenneth C Lightburn in a front-page article in the Rocky Mountain News of Sept 4 1932 He claimed that the caves original discovery is credited to Capt Elisha P Hom one of the first settlers in the Wet Mountain Valley in 1869 About its entrance he found the remnants of what might have been a fort and also a skeleton in Spanish armor Through the armor was an Indian arrow (Lightburn also began the misconception that the cave was on Homs Peak) I have not been able to trace the origin of this anecdote but it sounds unlikely if only because the purpose of Spanish armor was to prevent things like stoneshypointed arrows from penetrating ones torso and it generally worked Halls History of Colorado (1895) confirms Elisha P Hom as a pioneer Wet Mountain Valley settler in 1869 but does not mention this story

However the skeleton that Lightburn intended to feature was the one in his articles melodramatic headlines SKELETON FOUND CHAINED BY NECK DEEP IN COLORADO MYSTERY CAVECAVERN IS HIGH IN MOUNTAIN WILDS OF STATEDenver Man Discovers Manacled Bones in Sangre de Cristo Range Moldering 500 Feet Below Surface in Awesome CavitySIGNS INDICATE MINE WORKED IN EARLY DAYSFind Recalls Legends of Fabulous Cavern [sic] del Oro of 17th Century Spaniards The headlines are emphasized by a lurid though regrettably nonphotographic picture of the skeleton and an entrance shot with the cross touched up to show better

80 Journal of Speleall History

Journal of Speean History

The article relates that Peter Moser of Denver with companions Victor Barth and his two sons Donald and Jack had just returned from a descent into the cave (Derivative accounts refer to Victor Donald and Jack Barth the former being a fictitious person born of the omission of an original comma between Victor and Donald)

According to Lightburn the Moser party had climbed down until they reached a vertical pit They lowered a lantern Forty feet downward they saw the bottom and in the light or the lantern could clearly make out the skeleton With a metal strap encircling the neck the pile of bones reclined against the rocky wall as if the person who died there centuries ago hall been chained in a sitting position and left to starve An investigatory trip reported in followup articles of Sept 11 12 arid 18 found no skeleton (If an entrance photo with the story of the 18th is any indication they might not even have found the cave -- the picture is obviously not on Marble Mountain -- it may be at Marble Cave near Canon City) It was speculated that Moser may have seen the skeleton at another point in the cave or that it had been done away with by mysterious parties unknown who had blasted the cave entrance between the two trips

In reality it is not surprising that the chained skeleton was never found There is no sound testimony that it was ever there Unlike Fray Juan de la Cruz Elisha Horn or Apollina Apodaca Peter Moser was still available to me to question when I first researched Lightburns article I found in 1959 that Moser still lived at the same address in Denver as in 1932 On New Years Eve 19591 telephoned him and asked about the story His description made it clear that his party had indeed reached the top of the pit that cavers now call the Jug At that point they had lowered a kerosene lantern on a line and he saw what in his own words looked like a pile of bones on a ledge near the bottom This he said is all he reported to the secretary of the Colorado Mountain Club who in tum contacted the newspaper which -- as Moser put it to me -- dressed it up a little (l printed a more complete record of Mosers hour-long interview in the Southern Colorado Grotto newsletter Spelunk Junk Mar 1960)

This embroidery was to be expected in an era when the Denver papers were battling for readers during the Great Depressiun and were notorious for sensationalism But even if Mosers own explanation did not debunk the skeleton he reportedly found it would not be believable The Jug is about 80 feet deep Have you ever tried to see in cavernous darkness where your breath makes mist clouds by a kerosene lantern at that range Then you will agree that a chaincd skeleton even in fine preservation could hardly have been seen well enough from the top to be recognized unequivocally

81

Caves oColorado complicates the matter by citing a letter to me from James W Meacham in vhich a bone found by Meacham at the bottom of the Jug in 1959 was pronounced human by John A Murphy of the Denver Museum of Natural History What Parris does not say is that I had written him in 1969 -- four years before his book was published -- that another expert at the University of Colorado Museum had declared it a deer bone (This water-worn two-inch fragment might well challenge a forensic specialist)

Not content with two skeletons Thorp (American Forests Aug 1935 op cit) adds a third to this spooky company A strange legend that still haunts the native people concerns a skeleton hung with buckskin which guarded Marble Cave just on the other side of Caverna del Oro It was the first quarter of the 19th century and an American free trapper wandered too far west The Spaniards for fear he would reveal their hiding place crucified him For a half century he remained pinioned to a wcxxlcn cross Aside from the improbably sadistic mode of execution this image typical of cartoons or folklore reveals ignorance of the properties of real skeletons which do not long remain articulated when exposed to weather decay and scavengers

Others find ulterior significance in our discovery of bones of bison and pronghorn antelope in upper Spanish Cave in the 1960s calling them plains species that would never ascend to such lofty heights Unless someone had used the cave for storing or curing meat (Bill Kaiser The Treasure of Caverna del Oro Colorful Colorado May-June 1973) I did not know this then but these animals have been known to ascend to the alpine tundra in historic ti mes and might have done so more often when they were abundant and unfenced The cave is much too wet to be good ror storing perishables

The Artifacts

Many reliable observers from Carhart and Gilbert onward report finding in the 1920s and 30s old artifacts of unknown provenance in Spanish Cave These include a winch chains whiskey bottle jug timber ladders shovel single-jack and a hammer They have all disappeared or been reduced to fragments but claims made for some of them purport to establish archeological evidence of Spanish presence

Thorp (1935 op CiL) in describing the 1932 Rocky Mountain News expedition states that on the second ledge they found the remains of a rudely constructed ladder which Dr LeRoy Hafen ( then editor historian and curator of the State Historical Society) after carefully examining asserted was at least 200 years old Below after being lowered 110 feet they found a crude hand-forged hammer which the historian declared was of 17th century vintage Gilbert (The Bulletin Dec 1936 op cit) and an Alamosa Courier article (from June 1937) repeat these avowals

These are very important allegations since the Spanish were the only people who could have left such artifacts in the 17th century To investigate them I wrote in 1960 to LeRoy Hafen inquiring about his trip to the cave and his knowledge of its history and specifically whether he had certified the hammer as of 17th-century manufacture and if so who now had it His reply was less specific than my questions but it is a primary document on one of the major claims about Spanish Cave and I reproduce it below verbatim

If LeRoy Hafen made claims of antiquity for the Spanish Cave artifacts in 1932 he obviously did not stand by them later His wife Ann W Hafen in Detective Historian (Denver WesTerners Monthly Roundup July 1954) had also recounted his 1932 cave trip and commented disproving a baseless story is important it is part of the search for truth She elaborated To the party the venture was disappointing No treasure found No relic of the ancient conquistadores But to the

Jourllal of Speleall History 82

detective Historian it was just another clue pursued another myth exploded another triumph for the scholars code -- to build history on fact not on fossilized fiction

Thorp (1935 op cit) relates that the timbers of their ladder system were about eight inches in diameter squared on four sides with an ax Auger holes were bored into their sides and they were fitted with wooden rungs pegged into the holes No nails were used al though this probably would have been done by early Germans or Americans [the wood is] now decayed and may be broken in many ins tances by the hand This construction however is not strong evidence for Spanish work Before the railroad reached the Wet Mountain Valley in the 1880s commodities such as nails would have been scarce and expensive anyone building such structures before then might well have used no metal It would also be stronger than tacking on rungs with nails when not using sawed lumber Concerning the other cave artifacts there is not enough information to suggest a date

BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY PROVOUTAH

January 13 1960

11r Donald G Davia P O Box 145 T1lnlath Colorado

Dear Hr Davia

I ~ intereat~d to learn f~ your letter of January J 1960 of your study and COllCen WJth the Caverna del Oro Hy visit to the cave and descent into it was with a party directed and financed by the Tourist Bureau or its counterpart of the period The contemporary ewspal6rs gave som~ accowtof the venture

I made the firat descant into the cave kt that time ging down the rope bS

you doubtless have done ince I recall at the edg~ of the pit th~re were s(XlIe rotted logs that may have been the framework of a windlass At tho bott~ of the pit I found a suall sledge ~er encrusted with limestone formation I dont recall what was done with this haa-er I remember no other relics in the pit

Our purposo was to investigate certain rumors a3 to early use of the cave as a SVanish mine I think middot there is little~~ion for that as the limestone fonnation is a poor VlOspect fot middotormation

The legnd hat a skeleton was chained to the wall gave added impetus to the trip Needless to eay nothing of the sort was found That cav and some near were epoken of colloctively os the Karble Campve and sune referred to this one as the Caverna del Or~ cave of gold The Kaltes cross painted on the rock at the entrllJce to tle cave already had a faded appearance I know nothi8 of the rk of Capto1n Hom regarding the di Scove ry of ~ he cave

i~J At the bottOlll of the pit Carl Dlaurohpersucd tho crevice out 5 far dS ~ ~ could go and found nothi8 to reward our efforts If Hr Ulaurot is still living i Denver he could give you sooe sidelights on th cave as ho visited it after our initial exploration

Cordially yours

LO 91+-LeRoy R IlcIen DeparUent of History

Some writers (eg Jesse Ball Canon City Daily Record Sept 14 1933) speculate that the cave was used by the Spanish as a refuge from Indian attacks The cave itself being windy wet and ncar-freezing would not have been ideal for such occupancy A ruined fort was alleged to exist below Marble Mountain as early as 1881 (Golden City Transcript Aug 31 1881 citing Cusler City Prospect ) later articles mention rifle pits I have seen what I presume to be these features below timberline and could not distinguish them from the miners prospect pits common in the Colorado mountains The largest log breastwork structure has also been interpreted as an old corral (Jerry Hassemer oral communication) If defensive works they are cr Jde ones indeed

This leaves to be considered the famous cross beside the entrance It is about one and a half feet square with flared ends meeting at the corners It has been variously described as burnt on

Jou rnal of Speean History 83

deeply chiseled or etched but in reality is prosaically painted with what looks to be a stable iron oxide pigment perhaps using some sort of template Portions of It had a thm patma of calcite crust when I first saw it in 1958 Though almost always called Maltese it is not as can be seen by looking up a crosses illustration in any large dictionary The true Maltese cross has indented ends A G Birch (Denver Post Aug 11 1929) correctly pointed out that the cave marker isin the perfect form of a German Iron Cross But he also says it was old when the first white sehler saw it more than sixty years ago without explaining how he knew this A contradictory testimony (Trail and Timberline April 1957) asserts that there is one old-timer who states that he knCv the fellow who painted it years ago as ajoke I wiIl pass over both of these declarations as uncorroborated

Spanish crosses as I have seen them represented on coins and in art have narrow straight-sided arms often with the basal arm longer and with the ends variously embellished They are typically very different from German ones It is suggestive that the first sedentary settlers below Marble Mountain were Germans of the Colfax colony in 1870 The colony as an entity failed within a year but some thirty families took possession of quarter sections and prospered as can be seen by the many descendants still living in the area (Wet Mountain Tribune Centennial Edition Dec 20 1985) German immigrants also arrived later on and the ranches cl osest below the caves remained in possession of the German-derived Henrich and Neermann families into recent years Crosses in the square form seen at the cave were used in German decorative motifs (I have seen an antique coffee-grinder at an abandoned German homestead in eastern Colorado that was ornamented with them) The cross could have been painted by a Colfax settler exploring his surroundings soon after the colonys establishment The dispersal of most of the colony in 1871 would account for the failure of later inhabitants to know who had created it

Alternatively it might have been a product of prospector 1 H Yeoman He figures in one of the earliest known accounts of a Marble Mountain cave in History of the Arkansas Valley Colorado (1881) A later report on this cave (Denver Republican Feb 20 1888) appears to describe Cave of the White Marble Halls south of Spanish Cave and states that the cave was discovered by Yeoman on Sept 16 1880 Yeoman obligingly left a graffito confirming this in the cave and the Kings and Queens Chambers of the article are likewise identified (Another 1881 account -shyGolden Cty Transcript op cit -- describes a similar cave but claims discovery by Messrs Hendershot amp Dickson of Custer City) A red cross like that at Spanish Cave but smaller and with narrower arms marks the entrance the associated graffito in English 400 Feet to the White Marble Halls precludes a Spanish conquistador origin (A writing inside -- Mrs H G ReedSilver Cliff CololHere 8115197 -- is done in a similar ornate hand) I have also seen Yeomans signature in Moonmilk Cave just across the ravine south of Spanish and scarcely possible to reach without seeing the Spanish entrance He must have known of Spanish Cave and pesumably had entered it

[he Geology

Finally a point that seems so obvious that it should hardly need to be mentioned decades of repeated explorations in Spanish Cave have failed to turn up a trace of mining or of gold and there is excellent reason for this Gold is found either where hydrothermal solutions have mineralized host rock or where deposits originating in that fashion have been eroded and concentrated in placer gravels Neither situation applies at Marble Mountain where the caves occur in an unaltered Pennsylvanian biothermal limestone lens sandwiched almost vertically between shales and conglomeratic sandstones (The name Marble Mountain is a misnomer marble is limestone altered -- metamorphosed -- by heat andor pressure The abundance of well-preserved brachiopod and crinoid fossils shows that Marble Mountain is not metamorphosed) The only mineralization known on the mountain is a little low-grade copper on the south limestone outcrop

Jourllal of Speleall History 84

Paul Gilbert notwithstanding the caves are in no way volcanic but are relatively typical highshygradient alpine limestone solution caves dissolved probably by massive runoff from melting snov and ice during Pleistocene glacial epochs Writers have speculated that Spanish Cave had a lower entrance (possible since the cave water does emerge at a spring lower down) and an entrance on the west side of the mountain (not possible since the limestone does not outcrop there) Ironically the only new entrance cavers have actually found was in a direction not suggested by any known author above Its discovery explained the cave wind as a chimney effect between the entrances -- blowing down to the lower opening when it is warmer outside than inside reversing when it is colder outside

Conclusions

I know of no one else who has analyzed the Caverna del Oro stories as thoroughly but I am not the first to publish critical judgments on them Mrs Hafen has already been quoted Also on record (NSS Bulletin 8 July 1946) is a letter dated 10444 from Fred R Johnson Chief Information and Education US Forest Service

Carl Biaurock a member of the Colorado Mountain Club explored this cave in 1925 again in 1931 and later in more detail in 1932 On the last date the exploration was the result of several articles in the Rocky MOUnTain News in which an old yam was mentioned to the effect that the cave had been investigated in the Spanish explorations in the eighteenth [sic] century also that it is supposed to have yielded a large quantity of gold and other valuable minerals there are no signs of any mineral So far as Mr Blaurocks party could tell there is no evidence in the cave of any visitation of Spanish explorers several hundred years ago

Molen (opcit) wrote that this story [from Apodaca] has been disapproved [sic] The tools and ladder in the cave are of comparatively modern origin Blaurock believes Someone years ago must have explored the cave at least as thoroughly as we did he said He also expressed doubt that the rifle pits and fort are of Spanish origin I did not interview Carl Blaurock during my earlier research I telephoned him this summer but he is 98 years old and is too deaf to understand my questions I have sent him a letter of inquiry thus far unanswered

After organized caving had begun William R Halliday founder of the Colorado Grotto of the National Speleological Society also concluded that The fabulous stories are fables The story of Spanish Cave is told (Halliday however was too pessimistic in inferring that the cave was almost completely explored Most of what is now known was discovered just after he wrote but none of the new passage showed signs of human entry)

Diehard romantics might protest that Spanish Cave could still be La Caverna del Oro Caves can hide much perhaps somewhere in the depths there is a localized zone of thermal mineralization conceivably the Spaniards very cleverly concealed the way to the mine workings Such ideas are not impossible but do strain credulity For every verified feature that has been proposed as evidence for Spanish presence there is an alternative explanation that is more plausible The burden of proof then is on the proponents of the Spanish connection The lurid yarns about the cave reflect folklore creation greatly abetted by media exploitation assisted by atrociously sloppy research

The time sequenceof the several names applied to the cave fits this very neatly In sources from 1919 I find The Caves of the Winds From 1920 until 1932 I see Marble Cave Marble

85jOllrtlal of Speleall History

Caves or The Caves but no Spanish-related appellations It is still called Marble Cave at least as late as 1953 (Irma Zanoni Trail amp Timberline Dec 1953) I do not encounter La Cavema del Oro applied to our cave until Lightburns articles of 1932 after which it is common One of Lightburns headlines refers to the old Spanish Cave but Spanish Cave as a proper ~ame seems to appear only in the first Colorado Grotto News amp Notes of Feb 12 1952 where It IS a synonym for Caverna del Oro From then until now Spanish Cave has been the preferred form in the literature of organized caving and in popular media relying on it This unfortunately has helped to maintain the public assumption that the Spanish legendry is based in fact

The caves history is muddled by a series of misnomers a Caverna del Oro with no gold a Maltese cross that is not Maltese marble that is not marble -- and on analyzing the evidence I think that German Cave would have been a more appropriate if less provocative name than Spanish Cave

I expect my skeptical arguments to be ignored by future writers as long as there is a media markcL for exciting treasure tales Why is it important to be critically analytical

Since fact and fiction are not clearly distinguished in media information about the cave many people still believe nonsense about it Apparently the Spanish gold tales retain enough public acceptance to present problems to the Forest Service today It is reported that there was in recent years a proposal to build a road to the cave to facilitate treasure hunting (Jerry Hassemer oral comm)

Furthermore presentation of false gold stories as if they might be true is likely to tempt naive and poorly prepared readers to get in trouble seeking riches This is apparent in a 1957 letter from Roy Truman former District Ranger and colleague of Paul Gilberts (History of the Colorado Grotto 1961)

There was a time when it was very difficult to keep boys away from this cave and I received many calls from parents in Pueblo and other towns all times of the day and night concerning the safety of their boys that had left home with the ideas of exploring this cave with the high hopes of finding valuable ores or treasures they were equipped with a few pieces of small rope [this was probably arter the Depression-era articles]

This problem is also exemplified by a letter in my own files addressed in 1962 to Richard LeSage of the Southern Colorado Grotto from a Denverite He had twenty-four numbered questions including What type of equipiment [sic] will I need (exactly) I havent done much cave exploring Where can I obtain it What type of mask would I need for foul air He concludes We are intending to explore this cave at all cost so your information will be most vilal to us and most appreciable (We never replied deciding that was the safest thing to do)

The extravagance of peoples beliefs about Spanish Cave has sometimes reached quite ridiculous extremes The Colorado Historical Society library has a typescript of research material used by Perry Eberhart in preparing Treasure Tales of the Rockies One note is as follows

Robert Dunne head of Querida sez think cave comes out near Walsenburg or possibly the northern end of Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico never found end

James Dunne Querida

Not even Eberhart was so shameless as to print this in his book

Jourllal of Speleall History 86

There are still many legitimate mysteries left about Marble Mountain and its history How well explored are the ends of Spanish Cave even now Why was Yeomans cave otherwise so clearly White Marble Halls said to have a 275-foot pit Is this an error or a pit now lost Was the vertical Spanish Cave somehow grafted into the account Who really painted the Maltese cross and who put the artifacts into Spanish Why were detailed articles published on White Marble Halls in the 1880s but nothing seems to be on record about Spanish until 1919 in spite of the extensive early work done in it (If the relics were left by Colfax colonists in the 1870s they could not easily have published their explorations as there were yet no newspapers in the Wet Mountain Valley Later Yeoman or other prospectors might have been reticent about calling atlention to the cave if they built ladders down the shafts in the hope of rinding minerals Study 01 the county mining-claim records could be informative)

Future Opportunities

Most knowledge we now have on Marble Mountain history before organized caving is based on writings of big-city visitors from 1919 on When time allows I intend to search the microfilms of Custer County newspapers in the period 1880-1920 to see if items overlooked by library indexers may shed light on the gaps in our knowledge of the Marble Mountain caves Fascinating revelations are very likely to result Johnsons letter of 1944 (op cit) also stated There was evidence of early visitation [in Marble Cave] including names carved on rocks but these date mostly back about 50 years ago Informative graffiti are numerous in Cave of the White Marble Halls but I do not recall seeing any in Spanish Cave during my own explorations in the 1950s and 60s It should be carefully reexamined to see if we have overlooked signatures that could be keys to the solution of the puzzles

Better documentation of the cave itself would also be desirable The Colorado Grotto surveyed most of lower Spanish in the 1950s to the standards then prevailing I do not know the length of the CG survey but it probably included less than 1000 feet The Southern Colorado Grotto discoveries from 1959 to the early 1960s were not surveyed at the time

From 1975 to 1988 Jerry Hassemer led the mapping of 2642 feet of upper Spanish including the main route between entrances and the Rimstone Passage its longest side gallery (Hassemer personal comm Sept 13 1992) (About 1735 feet of this are along the through-route) His survey showed a vertical difference of 449 feet between lower and upper entrance by both internal mapping and a surface closure loop The old Colorado Grotto map appears to show a depth of just over 270 feet from lower entrance to deepest surveyed point thus total surveyed depth of Spanish Cave is about 720 fect (The entrance elevations of Spanish Cave have never been established by survey to a benchmark but altimeter readings and topographic maps suggest that the upper entrance is around 12000 feet)

Other side passages and superimposed levels in upper Spanish remain unmapped In lower Spanish an important branch the waterfall passage -- which may go deeper than the so-called Gold Diggings at the end of the existing map -- remains unsurveyed The high elevation and extremely cold wet conditions continue to inhibit complete exploration and mapping as they have for as long as the cave has been known

87Journal of Speleall History

No Old Gold or Bones A Skeptical Review of Caverna del Oro Legendry Donald G Davis reprinledfrom Rocky Mountain Caving Summer 1992

In the thin air of timberline on Marble Mountain in the Sangre de Cristo range icy wind blows from the entrance to a deep and cryptic cave marked by the damaged remnant of a rust-red cross Known today as Spanish Cave it is the most publicized non-commercial cave in Colorado It has been featured for more than 70 years in media - first newspapers then magazines books and television specials Most of this publicity recounts stories that it is La Caverna del Oro where Indian slaves mined gold for 17th century Spaniards Many people take this as fact Recently a Colorado caver told me he had spoken with a journalist who assured him that the cave was bottomless and contains untold treasures

Spanish Cave was important in the start of my own caving career in 1957 While attending Colorado A amp M College (later CSU) I saw in scrapbooks in the Fort Collins Museum clippings of the Colorado Question Box column from the Rocky Mountain News circa 1955 They told stories of a Maltese-cross-marked entrance lost gold mine and chained skeleton reported in the caverns depths After correcting the first error we found in the accounts (that the cave was on Homs Peak several miles north of Marble Mountain) two of us (Vin Hoeman and myself) in the college Hikers Club located the cave the next year In subsequent years with Frank and Paul Leskinen James W Meachan and others in the Southern Colorado Grotto of the NSS I led the discovery of about two-thirds of its presently known passage

Finding that the Western History Department of the Denver Public Library had a clipping file on the cave I also undertook research on its history which I have continued intermittently since The mure I learned about the real cave the more disillusioned I became with the stories sensationalizing it I learned much about the rules of logic and evidence during the investi galion and was ultimately convinced that there was no satisfactory confirmation that Spanish explorers ever saw or entered the cave much less mined gold from it Following are some of the reasons for that concl usion

The most readily available summary of the legendry is in Lloyd Parris Caves oCoLorado (1973) pp 24-32 Parris precedes his Treasure Caves accounts with a confused and equivocal disclaimer The following tales for the most part have the validity of history behind them and in most cases the caves are known Undoubtedly though some of the legends connected with these caves belong in Chapter IV under hoax and humbug And if these legends seem to disagree or contradict what is previously known it is because they were selected not for entertainment alone but as a presentation of the known facts or legends as the case may be An evaluation of the authenticity has not been attempted This is left for the reader to do

This reader hereby takes up the challenge

The Spanish Mille Legends

A number of accounts (including Parriss) relate that Spanish Monastery Latin documents record gold being brought to pre-Columbian Mexican Indian kingdoms Acolhua Aztec and Tepance

Jourllal of Speleall History 77

from the north Then in 1541 three monks were supposedly left behind by Coronado (the Rocky MOllntain News June 3 1923 says 1598) One Fray Juan de la Cruz reportedly reopened a mine using forced labor by Pecos I ndians (a northern New Mexico Pueblq trib~)and packed treasure toward Mexico City but never arrived there Nuggets and gold bars reported found by one Baca in 1811 were speculated to be part of this treasure and a prospector searching (according to Parris) for Cavema del Oro half a century later found a silver cup engraved with the name Hermione Taken at face value all this gives the impression that stories about Caverna del Oro are of great antiquity though the original Spanish documents are never cited

This suite of tales was first widely distributed in an article by Alberta Pike headlines OLD MANUSCRIPT INDICATES VAST RICHES IN COLORADO CA VE GUARDED BY SKELETON in the Rocky Mountain News of Sept 6 1932 Subsequent Spanish Cave popularizers have recopied them from one article to the next without naming a source for them I recently made an enlightening discovery in the Colorado Historical Society library about where this material came from

Before any known Spanish Cave article was written Louis Bernhardt Sporleder -- early resident and prominent citizen of Walsenburg Colorado -- published a souvenir booklet titled Huajalolla Breasts of the World (1916) An article in The Trail June 1922 reprinted much of this booklet and said Sporleder had a number of unpublished manuscripts giving information historical and legendary about the Spanish Peaks (as the Huajatolla are more commonly known) Sporleders booklet included word for word most of the above Spanish mine material copied by later Cavema del Oro writers

Even his misspelling of the Tepance kingdom (properly Tepanec) has been faithfully reproduced by authors as late as Parris

As to the actual historicity of Sporleders items I know little but his writings (eg The Roses of Huajatolla The Trail Dec 1922) were prone to wild flights of romantic fiction incorporating gross errors about natural history He claimed for instance that the otherwise extinct passenger pigeon still survived on the Spanish Peaks in fact it has never been recorded in Colorado His human history appears similarly colored But even if he was accurate it is crucial to our study that his stories were exclusively about the Spanish Peaks making no connection whatever to Marble Mountain 50 miles to the northwest He specifically stated that the silver cup was found beside a spring in a grotto at the base of East Spanish Peak (the name Hermione moreover is Greek not Spanish) All of this is therefore irrelevant to the cavern on Marble Mountain that we know as Spanish Cave

In Sporleders 1916 version the prospector who found the cup was searching for Huajatollas mines of gold In Pikes 1932 recounting he was seeking the lost mine but she associates it with the cave on Marble Mountain Parris in 1973 transmutes the object of the searchers quest explicitly into the Caverna del Oro Thus by insidious mutations does spurious lore enshroud our cave

Forbes Parkhill asserted that Marble cave Legends connect the Spanish cross and the ancient timber found in the mine [sic] with the gold hunting and exploring expeditions of Juan de Onate in 1597 and the Escalante-Dominguez expedition in 1776 (Explorers to Seek Mysteries of Caves in San Isabel Wilds Discovered Four Centuries Ago Denver Post Oct 9 1921) Even Parris rejects these suggestions because those expeditions did not come close to Marble Mountain

Jourllal of Speleall History 78

Earliest Known Accounts ofthe Cave middot

In 1919 appeared a brochure Out-ol-door Piaygroullds of the Sansabel National Forest USDA middot Circular 5 by Henry S Graves Forester It declared that The Caves of the Winds [not to be confused with Cave of the Winds at Manitou Springs] a system of giant crevices in a mountain or solid white marble is one of the principal natural wonders of the Forest These caves have been penetrated to a depth of over 1200 feet without the end being reached Theymay be reached by wagon road from Westcliffe

On Oct 12 1919 the Denver Post ran an anonymous article San Isabels Caves of Winds Among Wonders of Colorado It stated The Caves of the Winds have been known to exist for many years They are described brieOy in the report of the San Isabel national forest A party of Denver business men is planning to visit the caves this autumn with a view to exploring them to their depths if pOssible If it is found that the natural wonders said to exist in the interior of the caves are equal to reports which have been received these men will ask the government for the I

privilege of developing the caves as a tourist attraction

That Spanish Cave is the object of these writings is indicated by the emphasis on wind great depth (four times the actual depth of the cave as then known) and incomplete exploration the nearby Cave of the White Marble Halls is less strongly windy nearly horizontal and was already well explored (The accompanying entrance photo is not Marble Mountain) A similar item in the Post of June 27 1920 mentions a huge cave on Marble mountain which has never been explored by man beyond a depth of 1800 feet and which may rival the famed Mammoth Cave of Kentucky Neither treasure legends nor stories ofSpanish exploration are me11lioned in any of these earliest printed accounts

Apollina Apodacas Story

The real genesis of treasure stories as applied to Spanish Cave so far as I can find is with Apollina Apodaca (her name is variously spelled in different accounts I use the spelling that seems most probable) In 1919 (not 1920 as said in Caves oColorado) Paul Gilbert later District Ranger in the Forest heard wonderful tales from this old woman As he recalled in The Bulletin of the Rocky Mountain Region of the US Forest Service (Dec 1936)

She stated that the Spaniards used to get gold from it and further stated that if one were to descend to a sufficient depth [in some accounts she is said to have specified 90 or 93 feet] a set of oak doors would be found and if they were forced open one would find a tunnel leading back into the bowels of the mountain -- and the source of the gold would be found She further stated that when she was a child they used to take a blanket wrap it around a heavy stone and throw it down the shaft In the course of a short time the blanket would be blown back minus the rock by the strong winds that come continually from the shaft

The following spring Gilbert located the cave which he misinterpreted as more of a volcanic fissure than it is a cave and visited it with Arthur C Carhart An item mentioning this trip (Mystery Caves in ColoradoRocky Mountain News Sept 21 1921) is the earliest I have found that makes a Spanish or lost-mine connection Old timers in the hills up there declare the place is the shaft of the old Three Step mine famous in Spanish history Carhart himself in the POSl of Jan 1 1922 says it is reported that it is an old Spanish mine entrance marked with a red cross of Malta and has old timber and a log chain inside

Jourllal of Speleall History 79

Gilberts writings are not entirely consistent about his informants statistics in the above report she is Mexican 105 years old in 1919 and died at 110 In his letter to Robert 1 OConnell of Feb 18 1957 (as published in History ojthe Colorado Grotto Nov 1961) she is Spanish and died in 1923 at age 103 A followup letter of Feb 25 adds that she spent most of her life in the vicinity of San Luis [in the San Luis Valley on the opposite side of the Sangre de Cristos] Another source (Dayle Molen Pueblo Star-Jollmal Nov 18 1956) says she lived near Gardner Perry Eberhart in his sensationalistic Treasure Tales of the Rockies (11) calls her an Indian squaw Raymond Thorp in American ForesTs Aug 1935 citing Gilbert says she died eight years ago which would have been 1927 (this is the date used by Parris) These points may be quibbles yet they indicate a lack of precision in recording the facts about her And since the account attributed to Ms Apodaca is pivotal to the entire Caverna del Oro oeuvre let us dissect it critically

Every element is either improbable or impossible Leaving the geologic aspect until later take the oaken doors There are no oaks for many miles and where they do appear they are scrub oak which would have provided door-size timber only in rare cases (though oaks of that size were more common in the Rockies then than now) And why haul heavy oak to timberline when (though strong when new) it does not resist rot as well as say the more easily obtained juniper There is not in any case any opening near the 9O-foot level where such doors could have been used

The blanket story is completely fanciful As we proved in 1961 (NSS News Aug 1962 part I) the cave wind comes from upper Spanish Cave not from the pit Even if it did the pit is about 15 feet wide whereas the entrance constricts to a narrow crawlway A wind strong enough to blow a blanket back up the pit would rise to such tornadic speed in the crawl as to stop a person from fighting through it to the pit Nor does it seem sensible that people would be blithely tossing their blankets down weighted with rocks After all the rock might fail to unwind and the blanket be lost or shredded at the bottom With so incredible a yarn in it why should not the whole narrative be dismissed as fantasy

The Skeletons

At least three human skeletons have been attested as evidence of Spanish involvement with the cave Two were introduced by reporter Kenneth C Lightburn in a front-page article in the Rocky Mountain News of Sept 4 1932 He claimed that the caves original discovery is credited to Capt Elisha P Hom one of the first settlers in the Wet Mountain Valley in 1869 About its entrance he found the remnants of what might have been a fort and also a skeleton in Spanish armor Through the armor was an Indian arrow (Lightburn also began the misconception that the cave was on Homs Peak) I have not been able to trace the origin of this anecdote but it sounds unlikely if only because the purpose of Spanish armor was to prevent things like stoneshypointed arrows from penetrating ones torso and it generally worked Halls History of Colorado (1895) confirms Elisha P Hom as a pioneer Wet Mountain Valley settler in 1869 but does not mention this story

However the skeleton that Lightburn intended to feature was the one in his articles melodramatic headlines SKELETON FOUND CHAINED BY NECK DEEP IN COLORADO MYSTERY CAVECAVERN IS HIGH IN MOUNTAIN WILDS OF STATEDenver Man Discovers Manacled Bones in Sangre de Cristo Range Moldering 500 Feet Below Surface in Awesome CavitySIGNS INDICATE MINE WORKED IN EARLY DAYSFind Recalls Legends of Fabulous Cavern [sic] del Oro of 17th Century Spaniards The headlines are emphasized by a lurid though regrettably nonphotographic picture of the skeleton and an entrance shot with the cross touched up to show better

80 Journal of Speleall History

Journal of Speean History

The article relates that Peter Moser of Denver with companions Victor Barth and his two sons Donald and Jack had just returned from a descent into the cave (Derivative accounts refer to Victor Donald and Jack Barth the former being a fictitious person born of the omission of an original comma between Victor and Donald)

According to Lightburn the Moser party had climbed down until they reached a vertical pit They lowered a lantern Forty feet downward they saw the bottom and in the light or the lantern could clearly make out the skeleton With a metal strap encircling the neck the pile of bones reclined against the rocky wall as if the person who died there centuries ago hall been chained in a sitting position and left to starve An investigatory trip reported in followup articles of Sept 11 12 arid 18 found no skeleton (If an entrance photo with the story of the 18th is any indication they might not even have found the cave -- the picture is obviously not on Marble Mountain -- it may be at Marble Cave near Canon City) It was speculated that Moser may have seen the skeleton at another point in the cave or that it had been done away with by mysterious parties unknown who had blasted the cave entrance between the two trips

In reality it is not surprising that the chained skeleton was never found There is no sound testimony that it was ever there Unlike Fray Juan de la Cruz Elisha Horn or Apollina Apodaca Peter Moser was still available to me to question when I first researched Lightburns article I found in 1959 that Moser still lived at the same address in Denver as in 1932 On New Years Eve 19591 telephoned him and asked about the story His description made it clear that his party had indeed reached the top of the pit that cavers now call the Jug At that point they had lowered a kerosene lantern on a line and he saw what in his own words looked like a pile of bones on a ledge near the bottom This he said is all he reported to the secretary of the Colorado Mountain Club who in tum contacted the newspaper which -- as Moser put it to me -- dressed it up a little (l printed a more complete record of Mosers hour-long interview in the Southern Colorado Grotto newsletter Spelunk Junk Mar 1960)

This embroidery was to be expected in an era when the Denver papers were battling for readers during the Great Depressiun and were notorious for sensationalism But even if Mosers own explanation did not debunk the skeleton he reportedly found it would not be believable The Jug is about 80 feet deep Have you ever tried to see in cavernous darkness where your breath makes mist clouds by a kerosene lantern at that range Then you will agree that a chaincd skeleton even in fine preservation could hardly have been seen well enough from the top to be recognized unequivocally

81

Caves oColorado complicates the matter by citing a letter to me from James W Meacham in vhich a bone found by Meacham at the bottom of the Jug in 1959 was pronounced human by John A Murphy of the Denver Museum of Natural History What Parris does not say is that I had written him in 1969 -- four years before his book was published -- that another expert at the University of Colorado Museum had declared it a deer bone (This water-worn two-inch fragment might well challenge a forensic specialist)

Not content with two skeletons Thorp (American Forests Aug 1935 op cit) adds a third to this spooky company A strange legend that still haunts the native people concerns a skeleton hung with buckskin which guarded Marble Cave just on the other side of Caverna del Oro It was the first quarter of the 19th century and an American free trapper wandered too far west The Spaniards for fear he would reveal their hiding place crucified him For a half century he remained pinioned to a wcxxlcn cross Aside from the improbably sadistic mode of execution this image typical of cartoons or folklore reveals ignorance of the properties of real skeletons which do not long remain articulated when exposed to weather decay and scavengers

Others find ulterior significance in our discovery of bones of bison and pronghorn antelope in upper Spanish Cave in the 1960s calling them plains species that would never ascend to such lofty heights Unless someone had used the cave for storing or curing meat (Bill Kaiser The Treasure of Caverna del Oro Colorful Colorado May-June 1973) I did not know this then but these animals have been known to ascend to the alpine tundra in historic ti mes and might have done so more often when they were abundant and unfenced The cave is much too wet to be good ror storing perishables

The Artifacts

Many reliable observers from Carhart and Gilbert onward report finding in the 1920s and 30s old artifacts of unknown provenance in Spanish Cave These include a winch chains whiskey bottle jug timber ladders shovel single-jack and a hammer They have all disappeared or been reduced to fragments but claims made for some of them purport to establish archeological evidence of Spanish presence

Thorp (1935 op CiL) in describing the 1932 Rocky Mountain News expedition states that on the second ledge they found the remains of a rudely constructed ladder which Dr LeRoy Hafen ( then editor historian and curator of the State Historical Society) after carefully examining asserted was at least 200 years old Below after being lowered 110 feet they found a crude hand-forged hammer which the historian declared was of 17th century vintage Gilbert (The Bulletin Dec 1936 op cit) and an Alamosa Courier article (from June 1937) repeat these avowals

These are very important allegations since the Spanish were the only people who could have left such artifacts in the 17th century To investigate them I wrote in 1960 to LeRoy Hafen inquiring about his trip to the cave and his knowledge of its history and specifically whether he had certified the hammer as of 17th-century manufacture and if so who now had it His reply was less specific than my questions but it is a primary document on one of the major claims about Spanish Cave and I reproduce it below verbatim

If LeRoy Hafen made claims of antiquity for the Spanish Cave artifacts in 1932 he obviously did not stand by them later His wife Ann W Hafen in Detective Historian (Denver WesTerners Monthly Roundup July 1954) had also recounted his 1932 cave trip and commented disproving a baseless story is important it is part of the search for truth She elaborated To the party the venture was disappointing No treasure found No relic of the ancient conquistadores But to the

Jourllal of Speleall History 82

detective Historian it was just another clue pursued another myth exploded another triumph for the scholars code -- to build history on fact not on fossilized fiction

Thorp (1935 op cit) relates that the timbers of their ladder system were about eight inches in diameter squared on four sides with an ax Auger holes were bored into their sides and they were fitted with wooden rungs pegged into the holes No nails were used al though this probably would have been done by early Germans or Americans [the wood is] now decayed and may be broken in many ins tances by the hand This construction however is not strong evidence for Spanish work Before the railroad reached the Wet Mountain Valley in the 1880s commodities such as nails would have been scarce and expensive anyone building such structures before then might well have used no metal It would also be stronger than tacking on rungs with nails when not using sawed lumber Concerning the other cave artifacts there is not enough information to suggest a date

BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY PROVOUTAH

January 13 1960

11r Donald G Davia P O Box 145 T1lnlath Colorado

Dear Hr Davia

I ~ intereat~d to learn f~ your letter of January J 1960 of your study and COllCen WJth the Caverna del Oro Hy visit to the cave and descent into it was with a party directed and financed by the Tourist Bureau or its counterpart of the period The contemporary ewspal6rs gave som~ accowtof the venture

I made the firat descant into the cave kt that time ging down the rope bS

you doubtless have done ince I recall at the edg~ of the pit th~re were s(XlIe rotted logs that may have been the framework of a windlass At tho bott~ of the pit I found a suall sledge ~er encrusted with limestone formation I dont recall what was done with this haa-er I remember no other relics in the pit

Our purposo was to investigate certain rumors a3 to early use of the cave as a SVanish mine I think middot there is little~~ion for that as the limestone fonnation is a poor VlOspect fot middotormation

The legnd hat a skeleton was chained to the wall gave added impetus to the trip Needless to eay nothing of the sort was found That cav and some near were epoken of colloctively os the Karble Campve and sune referred to this one as the Caverna del Or~ cave of gold The Kaltes cross painted on the rock at the entrllJce to tle cave already had a faded appearance I know nothi8 of the rk of Capto1n Hom regarding the di Scove ry of ~ he cave

i~J At the bottOlll of the pit Carl Dlaurohpersucd tho crevice out 5 far dS ~ ~ could go and found nothi8 to reward our efforts If Hr Ulaurot is still living i Denver he could give you sooe sidelights on th cave as ho visited it after our initial exploration

Cordially yours

LO 91+-LeRoy R IlcIen DeparUent of History

Some writers (eg Jesse Ball Canon City Daily Record Sept 14 1933) speculate that the cave was used by the Spanish as a refuge from Indian attacks The cave itself being windy wet and ncar-freezing would not have been ideal for such occupancy A ruined fort was alleged to exist below Marble Mountain as early as 1881 (Golden City Transcript Aug 31 1881 citing Cusler City Prospect ) later articles mention rifle pits I have seen what I presume to be these features below timberline and could not distinguish them from the miners prospect pits common in the Colorado mountains The largest log breastwork structure has also been interpreted as an old corral (Jerry Hassemer oral communication) If defensive works they are cr Jde ones indeed

This leaves to be considered the famous cross beside the entrance It is about one and a half feet square with flared ends meeting at the corners It has been variously described as burnt on

Jou rnal of Speean History 83

deeply chiseled or etched but in reality is prosaically painted with what looks to be a stable iron oxide pigment perhaps using some sort of template Portions of It had a thm patma of calcite crust when I first saw it in 1958 Though almost always called Maltese it is not as can be seen by looking up a crosses illustration in any large dictionary The true Maltese cross has indented ends A G Birch (Denver Post Aug 11 1929) correctly pointed out that the cave marker isin the perfect form of a German Iron Cross But he also says it was old when the first white sehler saw it more than sixty years ago without explaining how he knew this A contradictory testimony (Trail and Timberline April 1957) asserts that there is one old-timer who states that he knCv the fellow who painted it years ago as ajoke I wiIl pass over both of these declarations as uncorroborated

Spanish crosses as I have seen them represented on coins and in art have narrow straight-sided arms often with the basal arm longer and with the ends variously embellished They are typically very different from German ones It is suggestive that the first sedentary settlers below Marble Mountain were Germans of the Colfax colony in 1870 The colony as an entity failed within a year but some thirty families took possession of quarter sections and prospered as can be seen by the many descendants still living in the area (Wet Mountain Tribune Centennial Edition Dec 20 1985) German immigrants also arrived later on and the ranches cl osest below the caves remained in possession of the German-derived Henrich and Neermann families into recent years Crosses in the square form seen at the cave were used in German decorative motifs (I have seen an antique coffee-grinder at an abandoned German homestead in eastern Colorado that was ornamented with them) The cross could have been painted by a Colfax settler exploring his surroundings soon after the colonys establishment The dispersal of most of the colony in 1871 would account for the failure of later inhabitants to know who had created it

Alternatively it might have been a product of prospector 1 H Yeoman He figures in one of the earliest known accounts of a Marble Mountain cave in History of the Arkansas Valley Colorado (1881) A later report on this cave (Denver Republican Feb 20 1888) appears to describe Cave of the White Marble Halls south of Spanish Cave and states that the cave was discovered by Yeoman on Sept 16 1880 Yeoman obligingly left a graffito confirming this in the cave and the Kings and Queens Chambers of the article are likewise identified (Another 1881 account -shyGolden Cty Transcript op cit -- describes a similar cave but claims discovery by Messrs Hendershot amp Dickson of Custer City) A red cross like that at Spanish Cave but smaller and with narrower arms marks the entrance the associated graffito in English 400 Feet to the White Marble Halls precludes a Spanish conquistador origin (A writing inside -- Mrs H G ReedSilver Cliff CololHere 8115197 -- is done in a similar ornate hand) I have also seen Yeomans signature in Moonmilk Cave just across the ravine south of Spanish and scarcely possible to reach without seeing the Spanish entrance He must have known of Spanish Cave and pesumably had entered it

[he Geology

Finally a point that seems so obvious that it should hardly need to be mentioned decades of repeated explorations in Spanish Cave have failed to turn up a trace of mining or of gold and there is excellent reason for this Gold is found either where hydrothermal solutions have mineralized host rock or where deposits originating in that fashion have been eroded and concentrated in placer gravels Neither situation applies at Marble Mountain where the caves occur in an unaltered Pennsylvanian biothermal limestone lens sandwiched almost vertically between shales and conglomeratic sandstones (The name Marble Mountain is a misnomer marble is limestone altered -- metamorphosed -- by heat andor pressure The abundance of well-preserved brachiopod and crinoid fossils shows that Marble Mountain is not metamorphosed) The only mineralization known on the mountain is a little low-grade copper on the south limestone outcrop

Jourllal of Speleall History 84

Paul Gilbert notwithstanding the caves are in no way volcanic but are relatively typical highshygradient alpine limestone solution caves dissolved probably by massive runoff from melting snov and ice during Pleistocene glacial epochs Writers have speculated that Spanish Cave had a lower entrance (possible since the cave water does emerge at a spring lower down) and an entrance on the west side of the mountain (not possible since the limestone does not outcrop there) Ironically the only new entrance cavers have actually found was in a direction not suggested by any known author above Its discovery explained the cave wind as a chimney effect between the entrances -- blowing down to the lower opening when it is warmer outside than inside reversing when it is colder outside

Conclusions

I know of no one else who has analyzed the Caverna del Oro stories as thoroughly but I am not the first to publish critical judgments on them Mrs Hafen has already been quoted Also on record (NSS Bulletin 8 July 1946) is a letter dated 10444 from Fred R Johnson Chief Information and Education US Forest Service

Carl Biaurock a member of the Colorado Mountain Club explored this cave in 1925 again in 1931 and later in more detail in 1932 On the last date the exploration was the result of several articles in the Rocky MOUnTain News in which an old yam was mentioned to the effect that the cave had been investigated in the Spanish explorations in the eighteenth [sic] century also that it is supposed to have yielded a large quantity of gold and other valuable minerals there are no signs of any mineral So far as Mr Blaurocks party could tell there is no evidence in the cave of any visitation of Spanish explorers several hundred years ago

Molen (opcit) wrote that this story [from Apodaca] has been disapproved [sic] The tools and ladder in the cave are of comparatively modern origin Blaurock believes Someone years ago must have explored the cave at least as thoroughly as we did he said He also expressed doubt that the rifle pits and fort are of Spanish origin I did not interview Carl Blaurock during my earlier research I telephoned him this summer but he is 98 years old and is too deaf to understand my questions I have sent him a letter of inquiry thus far unanswered

After organized caving had begun William R Halliday founder of the Colorado Grotto of the National Speleological Society also concluded that The fabulous stories are fables The story of Spanish Cave is told (Halliday however was too pessimistic in inferring that the cave was almost completely explored Most of what is now known was discovered just after he wrote but none of the new passage showed signs of human entry)

Diehard romantics might protest that Spanish Cave could still be La Caverna del Oro Caves can hide much perhaps somewhere in the depths there is a localized zone of thermal mineralization conceivably the Spaniards very cleverly concealed the way to the mine workings Such ideas are not impossible but do strain credulity For every verified feature that has been proposed as evidence for Spanish presence there is an alternative explanation that is more plausible The burden of proof then is on the proponents of the Spanish connection The lurid yarns about the cave reflect folklore creation greatly abetted by media exploitation assisted by atrociously sloppy research

The time sequenceof the several names applied to the cave fits this very neatly In sources from 1919 I find The Caves of the Winds From 1920 until 1932 I see Marble Cave Marble

85jOllrtlal of Speleall History

Caves or The Caves but no Spanish-related appellations It is still called Marble Cave at least as late as 1953 (Irma Zanoni Trail amp Timberline Dec 1953) I do not encounter La Cavema del Oro applied to our cave until Lightburns articles of 1932 after which it is common One of Lightburns headlines refers to the old Spanish Cave but Spanish Cave as a proper ~ame seems to appear only in the first Colorado Grotto News amp Notes of Feb 12 1952 where It IS a synonym for Caverna del Oro From then until now Spanish Cave has been the preferred form in the literature of organized caving and in popular media relying on it This unfortunately has helped to maintain the public assumption that the Spanish legendry is based in fact

The caves history is muddled by a series of misnomers a Caverna del Oro with no gold a Maltese cross that is not Maltese marble that is not marble -- and on analyzing the evidence I think that German Cave would have been a more appropriate if less provocative name than Spanish Cave

I expect my skeptical arguments to be ignored by future writers as long as there is a media markcL for exciting treasure tales Why is it important to be critically analytical

Since fact and fiction are not clearly distinguished in media information about the cave many people still believe nonsense about it Apparently the Spanish gold tales retain enough public acceptance to present problems to the Forest Service today It is reported that there was in recent years a proposal to build a road to the cave to facilitate treasure hunting (Jerry Hassemer oral comm)

Furthermore presentation of false gold stories as if they might be true is likely to tempt naive and poorly prepared readers to get in trouble seeking riches This is apparent in a 1957 letter from Roy Truman former District Ranger and colleague of Paul Gilberts (History of the Colorado Grotto 1961)

There was a time when it was very difficult to keep boys away from this cave and I received many calls from parents in Pueblo and other towns all times of the day and night concerning the safety of their boys that had left home with the ideas of exploring this cave with the high hopes of finding valuable ores or treasures they were equipped with a few pieces of small rope [this was probably arter the Depression-era articles]

This problem is also exemplified by a letter in my own files addressed in 1962 to Richard LeSage of the Southern Colorado Grotto from a Denverite He had twenty-four numbered questions including What type of equipiment [sic] will I need (exactly) I havent done much cave exploring Where can I obtain it What type of mask would I need for foul air He concludes We are intending to explore this cave at all cost so your information will be most vilal to us and most appreciable (We never replied deciding that was the safest thing to do)

The extravagance of peoples beliefs about Spanish Cave has sometimes reached quite ridiculous extremes The Colorado Historical Society library has a typescript of research material used by Perry Eberhart in preparing Treasure Tales of the Rockies One note is as follows

Robert Dunne head of Querida sez think cave comes out near Walsenburg or possibly the northern end of Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico never found end

James Dunne Querida

Not even Eberhart was so shameless as to print this in his book

Jourllal of Speleall History 86

There are still many legitimate mysteries left about Marble Mountain and its history How well explored are the ends of Spanish Cave even now Why was Yeomans cave otherwise so clearly White Marble Halls said to have a 275-foot pit Is this an error or a pit now lost Was the vertical Spanish Cave somehow grafted into the account Who really painted the Maltese cross and who put the artifacts into Spanish Why were detailed articles published on White Marble Halls in the 1880s but nothing seems to be on record about Spanish until 1919 in spite of the extensive early work done in it (If the relics were left by Colfax colonists in the 1870s they could not easily have published their explorations as there were yet no newspapers in the Wet Mountain Valley Later Yeoman or other prospectors might have been reticent about calling atlention to the cave if they built ladders down the shafts in the hope of rinding minerals Study 01 the county mining-claim records could be informative)

Future Opportunities

Most knowledge we now have on Marble Mountain history before organized caving is based on writings of big-city visitors from 1919 on When time allows I intend to search the microfilms of Custer County newspapers in the period 1880-1920 to see if items overlooked by library indexers may shed light on the gaps in our knowledge of the Marble Mountain caves Fascinating revelations are very likely to result Johnsons letter of 1944 (op cit) also stated There was evidence of early visitation [in Marble Cave] including names carved on rocks but these date mostly back about 50 years ago Informative graffiti are numerous in Cave of the White Marble Halls but I do not recall seeing any in Spanish Cave during my own explorations in the 1950s and 60s It should be carefully reexamined to see if we have overlooked signatures that could be keys to the solution of the puzzles

Better documentation of the cave itself would also be desirable The Colorado Grotto surveyed most of lower Spanish in the 1950s to the standards then prevailing I do not know the length of the CG survey but it probably included less than 1000 feet The Southern Colorado Grotto discoveries from 1959 to the early 1960s were not surveyed at the time

From 1975 to 1988 Jerry Hassemer led the mapping of 2642 feet of upper Spanish including the main route between entrances and the Rimstone Passage its longest side gallery (Hassemer personal comm Sept 13 1992) (About 1735 feet of this are along the through-route) His survey showed a vertical difference of 449 feet between lower and upper entrance by both internal mapping and a surface closure loop The old Colorado Grotto map appears to show a depth of just over 270 feet from lower entrance to deepest surveyed point thus total surveyed depth of Spanish Cave is about 720 fect (The entrance elevations of Spanish Cave have never been established by survey to a benchmark but altimeter readings and topographic maps suggest that the upper entrance is around 12000 feet)

Other side passages and superimposed levels in upper Spanish remain unmapped In lower Spanish an important branch the waterfall passage -- which may go deeper than the so-called Gold Diggings at the end of the existing map -- remains unsurveyed The high elevation and extremely cold wet conditions continue to inhibit complete exploration and mapping as they have for as long as the cave has been known

87Journal of Speleall History

from the north Then in 1541 three monks were supposedly left behind by Coronado (the Rocky MOllntain News June 3 1923 says 1598) One Fray Juan de la Cruz reportedly reopened a mine using forced labor by Pecos I ndians (a northern New Mexico Pueblq trib~)and packed treasure toward Mexico City but never arrived there Nuggets and gold bars reported found by one Baca in 1811 were speculated to be part of this treasure and a prospector searching (according to Parris) for Cavema del Oro half a century later found a silver cup engraved with the name Hermione Taken at face value all this gives the impression that stories about Caverna del Oro are of great antiquity though the original Spanish documents are never cited

This suite of tales was first widely distributed in an article by Alberta Pike headlines OLD MANUSCRIPT INDICATES VAST RICHES IN COLORADO CA VE GUARDED BY SKELETON in the Rocky Mountain News of Sept 6 1932 Subsequent Spanish Cave popularizers have recopied them from one article to the next without naming a source for them I recently made an enlightening discovery in the Colorado Historical Society library about where this material came from

Before any known Spanish Cave article was written Louis Bernhardt Sporleder -- early resident and prominent citizen of Walsenburg Colorado -- published a souvenir booklet titled Huajalolla Breasts of the World (1916) An article in The Trail June 1922 reprinted much of this booklet and said Sporleder had a number of unpublished manuscripts giving information historical and legendary about the Spanish Peaks (as the Huajatolla are more commonly known) Sporleders booklet included word for word most of the above Spanish mine material copied by later Cavema del Oro writers

Even his misspelling of the Tepance kingdom (properly Tepanec) has been faithfully reproduced by authors as late as Parris

As to the actual historicity of Sporleders items I know little but his writings (eg The Roses of Huajatolla The Trail Dec 1922) were prone to wild flights of romantic fiction incorporating gross errors about natural history He claimed for instance that the otherwise extinct passenger pigeon still survived on the Spanish Peaks in fact it has never been recorded in Colorado His human history appears similarly colored But even if he was accurate it is crucial to our study that his stories were exclusively about the Spanish Peaks making no connection whatever to Marble Mountain 50 miles to the northwest He specifically stated that the silver cup was found beside a spring in a grotto at the base of East Spanish Peak (the name Hermione moreover is Greek not Spanish) All of this is therefore irrelevant to the cavern on Marble Mountain that we know as Spanish Cave

In Sporleders 1916 version the prospector who found the cup was searching for Huajatollas mines of gold In Pikes 1932 recounting he was seeking the lost mine but she associates it with the cave on Marble Mountain Parris in 1973 transmutes the object of the searchers quest explicitly into the Caverna del Oro Thus by insidious mutations does spurious lore enshroud our cave

Forbes Parkhill asserted that Marble cave Legends connect the Spanish cross and the ancient timber found in the mine [sic] with the gold hunting and exploring expeditions of Juan de Onate in 1597 and the Escalante-Dominguez expedition in 1776 (Explorers to Seek Mysteries of Caves in San Isabel Wilds Discovered Four Centuries Ago Denver Post Oct 9 1921) Even Parris rejects these suggestions because those expeditions did not come close to Marble Mountain

Jourllal of Speleall History 78

Earliest Known Accounts ofthe Cave middot

In 1919 appeared a brochure Out-ol-door Piaygroullds of the Sansabel National Forest USDA middot Circular 5 by Henry S Graves Forester It declared that The Caves of the Winds [not to be confused with Cave of the Winds at Manitou Springs] a system of giant crevices in a mountain or solid white marble is one of the principal natural wonders of the Forest These caves have been penetrated to a depth of over 1200 feet without the end being reached Theymay be reached by wagon road from Westcliffe

On Oct 12 1919 the Denver Post ran an anonymous article San Isabels Caves of Winds Among Wonders of Colorado It stated The Caves of the Winds have been known to exist for many years They are described brieOy in the report of the San Isabel national forest A party of Denver business men is planning to visit the caves this autumn with a view to exploring them to their depths if pOssible If it is found that the natural wonders said to exist in the interior of the caves are equal to reports which have been received these men will ask the government for the I

privilege of developing the caves as a tourist attraction

That Spanish Cave is the object of these writings is indicated by the emphasis on wind great depth (four times the actual depth of the cave as then known) and incomplete exploration the nearby Cave of the White Marble Halls is less strongly windy nearly horizontal and was already well explored (The accompanying entrance photo is not Marble Mountain) A similar item in the Post of June 27 1920 mentions a huge cave on Marble mountain which has never been explored by man beyond a depth of 1800 feet and which may rival the famed Mammoth Cave of Kentucky Neither treasure legends nor stories ofSpanish exploration are me11lioned in any of these earliest printed accounts

Apollina Apodacas Story

The real genesis of treasure stories as applied to Spanish Cave so far as I can find is with Apollina Apodaca (her name is variously spelled in different accounts I use the spelling that seems most probable) In 1919 (not 1920 as said in Caves oColorado) Paul Gilbert later District Ranger in the Forest heard wonderful tales from this old woman As he recalled in The Bulletin of the Rocky Mountain Region of the US Forest Service (Dec 1936)

She stated that the Spaniards used to get gold from it and further stated that if one were to descend to a sufficient depth [in some accounts she is said to have specified 90 or 93 feet] a set of oak doors would be found and if they were forced open one would find a tunnel leading back into the bowels of the mountain -- and the source of the gold would be found She further stated that when she was a child they used to take a blanket wrap it around a heavy stone and throw it down the shaft In the course of a short time the blanket would be blown back minus the rock by the strong winds that come continually from the shaft

The following spring Gilbert located the cave which he misinterpreted as more of a volcanic fissure than it is a cave and visited it with Arthur C Carhart An item mentioning this trip (Mystery Caves in ColoradoRocky Mountain News Sept 21 1921) is the earliest I have found that makes a Spanish or lost-mine connection Old timers in the hills up there declare the place is the shaft of the old Three Step mine famous in Spanish history Carhart himself in the POSl of Jan 1 1922 says it is reported that it is an old Spanish mine entrance marked with a red cross of Malta and has old timber and a log chain inside

Jourllal of Speleall History 79

Gilberts writings are not entirely consistent about his informants statistics in the above report she is Mexican 105 years old in 1919 and died at 110 In his letter to Robert 1 OConnell of Feb 18 1957 (as published in History ojthe Colorado Grotto Nov 1961) she is Spanish and died in 1923 at age 103 A followup letter of Feb 25 adds that she spent most of her life in the vicinity of San Luis [in the San Luis Valley on the opposite side of the Sangre de Cristos] Another source (Dayle Molen Pueblo Star-Jollmal Nov 18 1956) says she lived near Gardner Perry Eberhart in his sensationalistic Treasure Tales of the Rockies (11) calls her an Indian squaw Raymond Thorp in American ForesTs Aug 1935 citing Gilbert says she died eight years ago which would have been 1927 (this is the date used by Parris) These points may be quibbles yet they indicate a lack of precision in recording the facts about her And since the account attributed to Ms Apodaca is pivotal to the entire Caverna del Oro oeuvre let us dissect it critically

Every element is either improbable or impossible Leaving the geologic aspect until later take the oaken doors There are no oaks for many miles and where they do appear they are scrub oak which would have provided door-size timber only in rare cases (though oaks of that size were more common in the Rockies then than now) And why haul heavy oak to timberline when (though strong when new) it does not resist rot as well as say the more easily obtained juniper There is not in any case any opening near the 9O-foot level where such doors could have been used

The blanket story is completely fanciful As we proved in 1961 (NSS News Aug 1962 part I) the cave wind comes from upper Spanish Cave not from the pit Even if it did the pit is about 15 feet wide whereas the entrance constricts to a narrow crawlway A wind strong enough to blow a blanket back up the pit would rise to such tornadic speed in the crawl as to stop a person from fighting through it to the pit Nor does it seem sensible that people would be blithely tossing their blankets down weighted with rocks After all the rock might fail to unwind and the blanket be lost or shredded at the bottom With so incredible a yarn in it why should not the whole narrative be dismissed as fantasy

The Skeletons

At least three human skeletons have been attested as evidence of Spanish involvement with the cave Two were introduced by reporter Kenneth C Lightburn in a front-page article in the Rocky Mountain News of Sept 4 1932 He claimed that the caves original discovery is credited to Capt Elisha P Hom one of the first settlers in the Wet Mountain Valley in 1869 About its entrance he found the remnants of what might have been a fort and also a skeleton in Spanish armor Through the armor was an Indian arrow (Lightburn also began the misconception that the cave was on Homs Peak) I have not been able to trace the origin of this anecdote but it sounds unlikely if only because the purpose of Spanish armor was to prevent things like stoneshypointed arrows from penetrating ones torso and it generally worked Halls History of Colorado (1895) confirms Elisha P Hom as a pioneer Wet Mountain Valley settler in 1869 but does not mention this story

However the skeleton that Lightburn intended to feature was the one in his articles melodramatic headlines SKELETON FOUND CHAINED BY NECK DEEP IN COLORADO MYSTERY CAVECAVERN IS HIGH IN MOUNTAIN WILDS OF STATEDenver Man Discovers Manacled Bones in Sangre de Cristo Range Moldering 500 Feet Below Surface in Awesome CavitySIGNS INDICATE MINE WORKED IN EARLY DAYSFind Recalls Legends of Fabulous Cavern [sic] del Oro of 17th Century Spaniards The headlines are emphasized by a lurid though regrettably nonphotographic picture of the skeleton and an entrance shot with the cross touched up to show better

80 Journal of Speleall History

Journal of Speean History

The article relates that Peter Moser of Denver with companions Victor Barth and his two sons Donald and Jack had just returned from a descent into the cave (Derivative accounts refer to Victor Donald and Jack Barth the former being a fictitious person born of the omission of an original comma between Victor and Donald)

According to Lightburn the Moser party had climbed down until they reached a vertical pit They lowered a lantern Forty feet downward they saw the bottom and in the light or the lantern could clearly make out the skeleton With a metal strap encircling the neck the pile of bones reclined against the rocky wall as if the person who died there centuries ago hall been chained in a sitting position and left to starve An investigatory trip reported in followup articles of Sept 11 12 arid 18 found no skeleton (If an entrance photo with the story of the 18th is any indication they might not even have found the cave -- the picture is obviously not on Marble Mountain -- it may be at Marble Cave near Canon City) It was speculated that Moser may have seen the skeleton at another point in the cave or that it had been done away with by mysterious parties unknown who had blasted the cave entrance between the two trips

In reality it is not surprising that the chained skeleton was never found There is no sound testimony that it was ever there Unlike Fray Juan de la Cruz Elisha Horn or Apollina Apodaca Peter Moser was still available to me to question when I first researched Lightburns article I found in 1959 that Moser still lived at the same address in Denver as in 1932 On New Years Eve 19591 telephoned him and asked about the story His description made it clear that his party had indeed reached the top of the pit that cavers now call the Jug At that point they had lowered a kerosene lantern on a line and he saw what in his own words looked like a pile of bones on a ledge near the bottom This he said is all he reported to the secretary of the Colorado Mountain Club who in tum contacted the newspaper which -- as Moser put it to me -- dressed it up a little (l printed a more complete record of Mosers hour-long interview in the Southern Colorado Grotto newsletter Spelunk Junk Mar 1960)

This embroidery was to be expected in an era when the Denver papers were battling for readers during the Great Depressiun and were notorious for sensationalism But even if Mosers own explanation did not debunk the skeleton he reportedly found it would not be believable The Jug is about 80 feet deep Have you ever tried to see in cavernous darkness where your breath makes mist clouds by a kerosene lantern at that range Then you will agree that a chaincd skeleton even in fine preservation could hardly have been seen well enough from the top to be recognized unequivocally

81

Caves oColorado complicates the matter by citing a letter to me from James W Meacham in vhich a bone found by Meacham at the bottom of the Jug in 1959 was pronounced human by John A Murphy of the Denver Museum of Natural History What Parris does not say is that I had written him in 1969 -- four years before his book was published -- that another expert at the University of Colorado Museum had declared it a deer bone (This water-worn two-inch fragment might well challenge a forensic specialist)

Not content with two skeletons Thorp (American Forests Aug 1935 op cit) adds a third to this spooky company A strange legend that still haunts the native people concerns a skeleton hung with buckskin which guarded Marble Cave just on the other side of Caverna del Oro It was the first quarter of the 19th century and an American free trapper wandered too far west The Spaniards for fear he would reveal their hiding place crucified him For a half century he remained pinioned to a wcxxlcn cross Aside from the improbably sadistic mode of execution this image typical of cartoons or folklore reveals ignorance of the properties of real skeletons which do not long remain articulated when exposed to weather decay and scavengers

Others find ulterior significance in our discovery of bones of bison and pronghorn antelope in upper Spanish Cave in the 1960s calling them plains species that would never ascend to such lofty heights Unless someone had used the cave for storing or curing meat (Bill Kaiser The Treasure of Caverna del Oro Colorful Colorado May-June 1973) I did not know this then but these animals have been known to ascend to the alpine tundra in historic ti mes and might have done so more often when they were abundant and unfenced The cave is much too wet to be good ror storing perishables

The Artifacts

Many reliable observers from Carhart and Gilbert onward report finding in the 1920s and 30s old artifacts of unknown provenance in Spanish Cave These include a winch chains whiskey bottle jug timber ladders shovel single-jack and a hammer They have all disappeared or been reduced to fragments but claims made for some of them purport to establish archeological evidence of Spanish presence

Thorp (1935 op CiL) in describing the 1932 Rocky Mountain News expedition states that on the second ledge they found the remains of a rudely constructed ladder which Dr LeRoy Hafen ( then editor historian and curator of the State Historical Society) after carefully examining asserted was at least 200 years old Below after being lowered 110 feet they found a crude hand-forged hammer which the historian declared was of 17th century vintage Gilbert (The Bulletin Dec 1936 op cit) and an Alamosa Courier article (from June 1937) repeat these avowals

These are very important allegations since the Spanish were the only people who could have left such artifacts in the 17th century To investigate them I wrote in 1960 to LeRoy Hafen inquiring about his trip to the cave and his knowledge of its history and specifically whether he had certified the hammer as of 17th-century manufacture and if so who now had it His reply was less specific than my questions but it is a primary document on one of the major claims about Spanish Cave and I reproduce it below verbatim

If LeRoy Hafen made claims of antiquity for the Spanish Cave artifacts in 1932 he obviously did not stand by them later His wife Ann W Hafen in Detective Historian (Denver WesTerners Monthly Roundup July 1954) had also recounted his 1932 cave trip and commented disproving a baseless story is important it is part of the search for truth She elaborated To the party the venture was disappointing No treasure found No relic of the ancient conquistadores But to the

Jourllal of Speleall History 82

detective Historian it was just another clue pursued another myth exploded another triumph for the scholars code -- to build history on fact not on fossilized fiction

Thorp (1935 op cit) relates that the timbers of their ladder system were about eight inches in diameter squared on four sides with an ax Auger holes were bored into their sides and they were fitted with wooden rungs pegged into the holes No nails were used al though this probably would have been done by early Germans or Americans [the wood is] now decayed and may be broken in many ins tances by the hand This construction however is not strong evidence for Spanish work Before the railroad reached the Wet Mountain Valley in the 1880s commodities such as nails would have been scarce and expensive anyone building such structures before then might well have used no metal It would also be stronger than tacking on rungs with nails when not using sawed lumber Concerning the other cave artifacts there is not enough information to suggest a date

BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY PROVOUTAH

January 13 1960

11r Donald G Davia P O Box 145 T1lnlath Colorado

Dear Hr Davia

I ~ intereat~d to learn f~ your letter of January J 1960 of your study and COllCen WJth the Caverna del Oro Hy visit to the cave and descent into it was with a party directed and financed by the Tourist Bureau or its counterpart of the period The contemporary ewspal6rs gave som~ accowtof the venture

I made the firat descant into the cave kt that time ging down the rope bS

you doubtless have done ince I recall at the edg~ of the pit th~re were s(XlIe rotted logs that may have been the framework of a windlass At tho bott~ of the pit I found a suall sledge ~er encrusted with limestone formation I dont recall what was done with this haa-er I remember no other relics in the pit

Our purposo was to investigate certain rumors a3 to early use of the cave as a SVanish mine I think middot there is little~~ion for that as the limestone fonnation is a poor VlOspect fot middotormation

The legnd hat a skeleton was chained to the wall gave added impetus to the trip Needless to eay nothing of the sort was found That cav and some near were epoken of colloctively os the Karble Campve and sune referred to this one as the Caverna del Or~ cave of gold The Kaltes cross painted on the rock at the entrllJce to tle cave already had a faded appearance I know nothi8 of the rk of Capto1n Hom regarding the di Scove ry of ~ he cave

i~J At the bottOlll of the pit Carl Dlaurohpersucd tho crevice out 5 far dS ~ ~ could go and found nothi8 to reward our efforts If Hr Ulaurot is still living i Denver he could give you sooe sidelights on th cave as ho visited it after our initial exploration

Cordially yours

LO 91+-LeRoy R IlcIen DeparUent of History

Some writers (eg Jesse Ball Canon City Daily Record Sept 14 1933) speculate that the cave was used by the Spanish as a refuge from Indian attacks The cave itself being windy wet and ncar-freezing would not have been ideal for such occupancy A ruined fort was alleged to exist below Marble Mountain as early as 1881 (Golden City Transcript Aug 31 1881 citing Cusler City Prospect ) later articles mention rifle pits I have seen what I presume to be these features below timberline and could not distinguish them from the miners prospect pits common in the Colorado mountains The largest log breastwork structure has also been interpreted as an old corral (Jerry Hassemer oral communication) If defensive works they are cr Jde ones indeed

This leaves to be considered the famous cross beside the entrance It is about one and a half feet square with flared ends meeting at the corners It has been variously described as burnt on

Jou rnal of Speean History 83

deeply chiseled or etched but in reality is prosaically painted with what looks to be a stable iron oxide pigment perhaps using some sort of template Portions of It had a thm patma of calcite crust when I first saw it in 1958 Though almost always called Maltese it is not as can be seen by looking up a crosses illustration in any large dictionary The true Maltese cross has indented ends A G Birch (Denver Post Aug 11 1929) correctly pointed out that the cave marker isin the perfect form of a German Iron Cross But he also says it was old when the first white sehler saw it more than sixty years ago without explaining how he knew this A contradictory testimony (Trail and Timberline April 1957) asserts that there is one old-timer who states that he knCv the fellow who painted it years ago as ajoke I wiIl pass over both of these declarations as uncorroborated

Spanish crosses as I have seen them represented on coins and in art have narrow straight-sided arms often with the basal arm longer and with the ends variously embellished They are typically very different from German ones It is suggestive that the first sedentary settlers below Marble Mountain were Germans of the Colfax colony in 1870 The colony as an entity failed within a year but some thirty families took possession of quarter sections and prospered as can be seen by the many descendants still living in the area (Wet Mountain Tribune Centennial Edition Dec 20 1985) German immigrants also arrived later on and the ranches cl osest below the caves remained in possession of the German-derived Henrich and Neermann families into recent years Crosses in the square form seen at the cave were used in German decorative motifs (I have seen an antique coffee-grinder at an abandoned German homestead in eastern Colorado that was ornamented with them) The cross could have been painted by a Colfax settler exploring his surroundings soon after the colonys establishment The dispersal of most of the colony in 1871 would account for the failure of later inhabitants to know who had created it

Alternatively it might have been a product of prospector 1 H Yeoman He figures in one of the earliest known accounts of a Marble Mountain cave in History of the Arkansas Valley Colorado (1881) A later report on this cave (Denver Republican Feb 20 1888) appears to describe Cave of the White Marble Halls south of Spanish Cave and states that the cave was discovered by Yeoman on Sept 16 1880 Yeoman obligingly left a graffito confirming this in the cave and the Kings and Queens Chambers of the article are likewise identified (Another 1881 account -shyGolden Cty Transcript op cit -- describes a similar cave but claims discovery by Messrs Hendershot amp Dickson of Custer City) A red cross like that at Spanish Cave but smaller and with narrower arms marks the entrance the associated graffito in English 400 Feet to the White Marble Halls precludes a Spanish conquistador origin (A writing inside -- Mrs H G ReedSilver Cliff CololHere 8115197 -- is done in a similar ornate hand) I have also seen Yeomans signature in Moonmilk Cave just across the ravine south of Spanish and scarcely possible to reach without seeing the Spanish entrance He must have known of Spanish Cave and pesumably had entered it

[he Geology

Finally a point that seems so obvious that it should hardly need to be mentioned decades of repeated explorations in Spanish Cave have failed to turn up a trace of mining or of gold and there is excellent reason for this Gold is found either where hydrothermal solutions have mineralized host rock or where deposits originating in that fashion have been eroded and concentrated in placer gravels Neither situation applies at Marble Mountain where the caves occur in an unaltered Pennsylvanian biothermal limestone lens sandwiched almost vertically between shales and conglomeratic sandstones (The name Marble Mountain is a misnomer marble is limestone altered -- metamorphosed -- by heat andor pressure The abundance of well-preserved brachiopod and crinoid fossils shows that Marble Mountain is not metamorphosed) The only mineralization known on the mountain is a little low-grade copper on the south limestone outcrop

Jourllal of Speleall History 84

Paul Gilbert notwithstanding the caves are in no way volcanic but are relatively typical highshygradient alpine limestone solution caves dissolved probably by massive runoff from melting snov and ice during Pleistocene glacial epochs Writers have speculated that Spanish Cave had a lower entrance (possible since the cave water does emerge at a spring lower down) and an entrance on the west side of the mountain (not possible since the limestone does not outcrop there) Ironically the only new entrance cavers have actually found was in a direction not suggested by any known author above Its discovery explained the cave wind as a chimney effect between the entrances -- blowing down to the lower opening when it is warmer outside than inside reversing when it is colder outside

Conclusions

I know of no one else who has analyzed the Caverna del Oro stories as thoroughly but I am not the first to publish critical judgments on them Mrs Hafen has already been quoted Also on record (NSS Bulletin 8 July 1946) is a letter dated 10444 from Fred R Johnson Chief Information and Education US Forest Service

Carl Biaurock a member of the Colorado Mountain Club explored this cave in 1925 again in 1931 and later in more detail in 1932 On the last date the exploration was the result of several articles in the Rocky MOUnTain News in which an old yam was mentioned to the effect that the cave had been investigated in the Spanish explorations in the eighteenth [sic] century also that it is supposed to have yielded a large quantity of gold and other valuable minerals there are no signs of any mineral So far as Mr Blaurocks party could tell there is no evidence in the cave of any visitation of Spanish explorers several hundred years ago

Molen (opcit) wrote that this story [from Apodaca] has been disapproved [sic] The tools and ladder in the cave are of comparatively modern origin Blaurock believes Someone years ago must have explored the cave at least as thoroughly as we did he said He also expressed doubt that the rifle pits and fort are of Spanish origin I did not interview Carl Blaurock during my earlier research I telephoned him this summer but he is 98 years old and is too deaf to understand my questions I have sent him a letter of inquiry thus far unanswered

After organized caving had begun William R Halliday founder of the Colorado Grotto of the National Speleological Society also concluded that The fabulous stories are fables The story of Spanish Cave is told (Halliday however was too pessimistic in inferring that the cave was almost completely explored Most of what is now known was discovered just after he wrote but none of the new passage showed signs of human entry)

Diehard romantics might protest that Spanish Cave could still be La Caverna del Oro Caves can hide much perhaps somewhere in the depths there is a localized zone of thermal mineralization conceivably the Spaniards very cleverly concealed the way to the mine workings Such ideas are not impossible but do strain credulity For every verified feature that has been proposed as evidence for Spanish presence there is an alternative explanation that is more plausible The burden of proof then is on the proponents of the Spanish connection The lurid yarns about the cave reflect folklore creation greatly abetted by media exploitation assisted by atrociously sloppy research

The time sequenceof the several names applied to the cave fits this very neatly In sources from 1919 I find The Caves of the Winds From 1920 until 1932 I see Marble Cave Marble

85jOllrtlal of Speleall History

Caves or The Caves but no Spanish-related appellations It is still called Marble Cave at least as late as 1953 (Irma Zanoni Trail amp Timberline Dec 1953) I do not encounter La Cavema del Oro applied to our cave until Lightburns articles of 1932 after which it is common One of Lightburns headlines refers to the old Spanish Cave but Spanish Cave as a proper ~ame seems to appear only in the first Colorado Grotto News amp Notes of Feb 12 1952 where It IS a synonym for Caverna del Oro From then until now Spanish Cave has been the preferred form in the literature of organized caving and in popular media relying on it This unfortunately has helped to maintain the public assumption that the Spanish legendry is based in fact

The caves history is muddled by a series of misnomers a Caverna del Oro with no gold a Maltese cross that is not Maltese marble that is not marble -- and on analyzing the evidence I think that German Cave would have been a more appropriate if less provocative name than Spanish Cave

I expect my skeptical arguments to be ignored by future writers as long as there is a media markcL for exciting treasure tales Why is it important to be critically analytical

Since fact and fiction are not clearly distinguished in media information about the cave many people still believe nonsense about it Apparently the Spanish gold tales retain enough public acceptance to present problems to the Forest Service today It is reported that there was in recent years a proposal to build a road to the cave to facilitate treasure hunting (Jerry Hassemer oral comm)

Furthermore presentation of false gold stories as if they might be true is likely to tempt naive and poorly prepared readers to get in trouble seeking riches This is apparent in a 1957 letter from Roy Truman former District Ranger and colleague of Paul Gilberts (History of the Colorado Grotto 1961)

There was a time when it was very difficult to keep boys away from this cave and I received many calls from parents in Pueblo and other towns all times of the day and night concerning the safety of their boys that had left home with the ideas of exploring this cave with the high hopes of finding valuable ores or treasures they were equipped with a few pieces of small rope [this was probably arter the Depression-era articles]

This problem is also exemplified by a letter in my own files addressed in 1962 to Richard LeSage of the Southern Colorado Grotto from a Denverite He had twenty-four numbered questions including What type of equipiment [sic] will I need (exactly) I havent done much cave exploring Where can I obtain it What type of mask would I need for foul air He concludes We are intending to explore this cave at all cost so your information will be most vilal to us and most appreciable (We never replied deciding that was the safest thing to do)

The extravagance of peoples beliefs about Spanish Cave has sometimes reached quite ridiculous extremes The Colorado Historical Society library has a typescript of research material used by Perry Eberhart in preparing Treasure Tales of the Rockies One note is as follows

Robert Dunne head of Querida sez think cave comes out near Walsenburg or possibly the northern end of Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico never found end

James Dunne Querida

Not even Eberhart was so shameless as to print this in his book

Jourllal of Speleall History 86

There are still many legitimate mysteries left about Marble Mountain and its history How well explored are the ends of Spanish Cave even now Why was Yeomans cave otherwise so clearly White Marble Halls said to have a 275-foot pit Is this an error or a pit now lost Was the vertical Spanish Cave somehow grafted into the account Who really painted the Maltese cross and who put the artifacts into Spanish Why were detailed articles published on White Marble Halls in the 1880s but nothing seems to be on record about Spanish until 1919 in spite of the extensive early work done in it (If the relics were left by Colfax colonists in the 1870s they could not easily have published their explorations as there were yet no newspapers in the Wet Mountain Valley Later Yeoman or other prospectors might have been reticent about calling atlention to the cave if they built ladders down the shafts in the hope of rinding minerals Study 01 the county mining-claim records could be informative)

Future Opportunities

Most knowledge we now have on Marble Mountain history before organized caving is based on writings of big-city visitors from 1919 on When time allows I intend to search the microfilms of Custer County newspapers in the period 1880-1920 to see if items overlooked by library indexers may shed light on the gaps in our knowledge of the Marble Mountain caves Fascinating revelations are very likely to result Johnsons letter of 1944 (op cit) also stated There was evidence of early visitation [in Marble Cave] including names carved on rocks but these date mostly back about 50 years ago Informative graffiti are numerous in Cave of the White Marble Halls but I do not recall seeing any in Spanish Cave during my own explorations in the 1950s and 60s It should be carefully reexamined to see if we have overlooked signatures that could be keys to the solution of the puzzles

Better documentation of the cave itself would also be desirable The Colorado Grotto surveyed most of lower Spanish in the 1950s to the standards then prevailing I do not know the length of the CG survey but it probably included less than 1000 feet The Southern Colorado Grotto discoveries from 1959 to the early 1960s were not surveyed at the time

From 1975 to 1988 Jerry Hassemer led the mapping of 2642 feet of upper Spanish including the main route between entrances and the Rimstone Passage its longest side gallery (Hassemer personal comm Sept 13 1992) (About 1735 feet of this are along the through-route) His survey showed a vertical difference of 449 feet between lower and upper entrance by both internal mapping and a surface closure loop The old Colorado Grotto map appears to show a depth of just over 270 feet from lower entrance to deepest surveyed point thus total surveyed depth of Spanish Cave is about 720 fect (The entrance elevations of Spanish Cave have never been established by survey to a benchmark but altimeter readings and topographic maps suggest that the upper entrance is around 12000 feet)

Other side passages and superimposed levels in upper Spanish remain unmapped In lower Spanish an important branch the waterfall passage -- which may go deeper than the so-called Gold Diggings at the end of the existing map -- remains unsurveyed The high elevation and extremely cold wet conditions continue to inhibit complete exploration and mapping as they have for as long as the cave has been known

87Journal of Speleall History

Earliest Known Accounts ofthe Cave middot

In 1919 appeared a brochure Out-ol-door Piaygroullds of the Sansabel National Forest USDA middot Circular 5 by Henry S Graves Forester It declared that The Caves of the Winds [not to be confused with Cave of the Winds at Manitou Springs] a system of giant crevices in a mountain or solid white marble is one of the principal natural wonders of the Forest These caves have been penetrated to a depth of over 1200 feet without the end being reached Theymay be reached by wagon road from Westcliffe

On Oct 12 1919 the Denver Post ran an anonymous article San Isabels Caves of Winds Among Wonders of Colorado It stated The Caves of the Winds have been known to exist for many years They are described brieOy in the report of the San Isabel national forest A party of Denver business men is planning to visit the caves this autumn with a view to exploring them to their depths if pOssible If it is found that the natural wonders said to exist in the interior of the caves are equal to reports which have been received these men will ask the government for the I

privilege of developing the caves as a tourist attraction

That Spanish Cave is the object of these writings is indicated by the emphasis on wind great depth (four times the actual depth of the cave as then known) and incomplete exploration the nearby Cave of the White Marble Halls is less strongly windy nearly horizontal and was already well explored (The accompanying entrance photo is not Marble Mountain) A similar item in the Post of June 27 1920 mentions a huge cave on Marble mountain which has never been explored by man beyond a depth of 1800 feet and which may rival the famed Mammoth Cave of Kentucky Neither treasure legends nor stories ofSpanish exploration are me11lioned in any of these earliest printed accounts

Apollina Apodacas Story

The real genesis of treasure stories as applied to Spanish Cave so far as I can find is with Apollina Apodaca (her name is variously spelled in different accounts I use the spelling that seems most probable) In 1919 (not 1920 as said in Caves oColorado) Paul Gilbert later District Ranger in the Forest heard wonderful tales from this old woman As he recalled in The Bulletin of the Rocky Mountain Region of the US Forest Service (Dec 1936)

She stated that the Spaniards used to get gold from it and further stated that if one were to descend to a sufficient depth [in some accounts she is said to have specified 90 or 93 feet] a set of oak doors would be found and if they were forced open one would find a tunnel leading back into the bowels of the mountain -- and the source of the gold would be found She further stated that when she was a child they used to take a blanket wrap it around a heavy stone and throw it down the shaft In the course of a short time the blanket would be blown back minus the rock by the strong winds that come continually from the shaft

The following spring Gilbert located the cave which he misinterpreted as more of a volcanic fissure than it is a cave and visited it with Arthur C Carhart An item mentioning this trip (Mystery Caves in ColoradoRocky Mountain News Sept 21 1921) is the earliest I have found that makes a Spanish or lost-mine connection Old timers in the hills up there declare the place is the shaft of the old Three Step mine famous in Spanish history Carhart himself in the POSl of Jan 1 1922 says it is reported that it is an old Spanish mine entrance marked with a red cross of Malta and has old timber and a log chain inside

Jourllal of Speleall History 79

Gilberts writings are not entirely consistent about his informants statistics in the above report she is Mexican 105 years old in 1919 and died at 110 In his letter to Robert 1 OConnell of Feb 18 1957 (as published in History ojthe Colorado Grotto Nov 1961) she is Spanish and died in 1923 at age 103 A followup letter of Feb 25 adds that she spent most of her life in the vicinity of San Luis [in the San Luis Valley on the opposite side of the Sangre de Cristos] Another source (Dayle Molen Pueblo Star-Jollmal Nov 18 1956) says she lived near Gardner Perry Eberhart in his sensationalistic Treasure Tales of the Rockies (11) calls her an Indian squaw Raymond Thorp in American ForesTs Aug 1935 citing Gilbert says she died eight years ago which would have been 1927 (this is the date used by Parris) These points may be quibbles yet they indicate a lack of precision in recording the facts about her And since the account attributed to Ms Apodaca is pivotal to the entire Caverna del Oro oeuvre let us dissect it critically

Every element is either improbable or impossible Leaving the geologic aspect until later take the oaken doors There are no oaks for many miles and where they do appear they are scrub oak which would have provided door-size timber only in rare cases (though oaks of that size were more common in the Rockies then than now) And why haul heavy oak to timberline when (though strong when new) it does not resist rot as well as say the more easily obtained juniper There is not in any case any opening near the 9O-foot level where such doors could have been used

The blanket story is completely fanciful As we proved in 1961 (NSS News Aug 1962 part I) the cave wind comes from upper Spanish Cave not from the pit Even if it did the pit is about 15 feet wide whereas the entrance constricts to a narrow crawlway A wind strong enough to blow a blanket back up the pit would rise to such tornadic speed in the crawl as to stop a person from fighting through it to the pit Nor does it seem sensible that people would be blithely tossing their blankets down weighted with rocks After all the rock might fail to unwind and the blanket be lost or shredded at the bottom With so incredible a yarn in it why should not the whole narrative be dismissed as fantasy

The Skeletons

At least three human skeletons have been attested as evidence of Spanish involvement with the cave Two were introduced by reporter Kenneth C Lightburn in a front-page article in the Rocky Mountain News of Sept 4 1932 He claimed that the caves original discovery is credited to Capt Elisha P Hom one of the first settlers in the Wet Mountain Valley in 1869 About its entrance he found the remnants of what might have been a fort and also a skeleton in Spanish armor Through the armor was an Indian arrow (Lightburn also began the misconception that the cave was on Homs Peak) I have not been able to trace the origin of this anecdote but it sounds unlikely if only because the purpose of Spanish armor was to prevent things like stoneshypointed arrows from penetrating ones torso and it generally worked Halls History of Colorado (1895) confirms Elisha P Hom as a pioneer Wet Mountain Valley settler in 1869 but does not mention this story

However the skeleton that Lightburn intended to feature was the one in his articles melodramatic headlines SKELETON FOUND CHAINED BY NECK DEEP IN COLORADO MYSTERY CAVECAVERN IS HIGH IN MOUNTAIN WILDS OF STATEDenver Man Discovers Manacled Bones in Sangre de Cristo Range Moldering 500 Feet Below Surface in Awesome CavitySIGNS INDICATE MINE WORKED IN EARLY DAYSFind Recalls Legends of Fabulous Cavern [sic] del Oro of 17th Century Spaniards The headlines are emphasized by a lurid though regrettably nonphotographic picture of the skeleton and an entrance shot with the cross touched up to show better

80 Journal of Speleall History

Journal of Speean History

The article relates that Peter Moser of Denver with companions Victor Barth and his two sons Donald and Jack had just returned from a descent into the cave (Derivative accounts refer to Victor Donald and Jack Barth the former being a fictitious person born of the omission of an original comma between Victor and Donald)

According to Lightburn the Moser party had climbed down until they reached a vertical pit They lowered a lantern Forty feet downward they saw the bottom and in the light or the lantern could clearly make out the skeleton With a metal strap encircling the neck the pile of bones reclined against the rocky wall as if the person who died there centuries ago hall been chained in a sitting position and left to starve An investigatory trip reported in followup articles of Sept 11 12 arid 18 found no skeleton (If an entrance photo with the story of the 18th is any indication they might not even have found the cave -- the picture is obviously not on Marble Mountain -- it may be at Marble Cave near Canon City) It was speculated that Moser may have seen the skeleton at another point in the cave or that it had been done away with by mysterious parties unknown who had blasted the cave entrance between the two trips

In reality it is not surprising that the chained skeleton was never found There is no sound testimony that it was ever there Unlike Fray Juan de la Cruz Elisha Horn or Apollina Apodaca Peter Moser was still available to me to question when I first researched Lightburns article I found in 1959 that Moser still lived at the same address in Denver as in 1932 On New Years Eve 19591 telephoned him and asked about the story His description made it clear that his party had indeed reached the top of the pit that cavers now call the Jug At that point they had lowered a kerosene lantern on a line and he saw what in his own words looked like a pile of bones on a ledge near the bottom This he said is all he reported to the secretary of the Colorado Mountain Club who in tum contacted the newspaper which -- as Moser put it to me -- dressed it up a little (l printed a more complete record of Mosers hour-long interview in the Southern Colorado Grotto newsletter Spelunk Junk Mar 1960)

This embroidery was to be expected in an era when the Denver papers were battling for readers during the Great Depressiun and were notorious for sensationalism But even if Mosers own explanation did not debunk the skeleton he reportedly found it would not be believable The Jug is about 80 feet deep Have you ever tried to see in cavernous darkness where your breath makes mist clouds by a kerosene lantern at that range Then you will agree that a chaincd skeleton even in fine preservation could hardly have been seen well enough from the top to be recognized unequivocally

81

Caves oColorado complicates the matter by citing a letter to me from James W Meacham in vhich a bone found by Meacham at the bottom of the Jug in 1959 was pronounced human by John A Murphy of the Denver Museum of Natural History What Parris does not say is that I had written him in 1969 -- four years before his book was published -- that another expert at the University of Colorado Museum had declared it a deer bone (This water-worn two-inch fragment might well challenge a forensic specialist)

Not content with two skeletons Thorp (American Forests Aug 1935 op cit) adds a third to this spooky company A strange legend that still haunts the native people concerns a skeleton hung with buckskin which guarded Marble Cave just on the other side of Caverna del Oro It was the first quarter of the 19th century and an American free trapper wandered too far west The Spaniards for fear he would reveal their hiding place crucified him For a half century he remained pinioned to a wcxxlcn cross Aside from the improbably sadistic mode of execution this image typical of cartoons or folklore reveals ignorance of the properties of real skeletons which do not long remain articulated when exposed to weather decay and scavengers

Others find ulterior significance in our discovery of bones of bison and pronghorn antelope in upper Spanish Cave in the 1960s calling them plains species that would never ascend to such lofty heights Unless someone had used the cave for storing or curing meat (Bill Kaiser The Treasure of Caverna del Oro Colorful Colorado May-June 1973) I did not know this then but these animals have been known to ascend to the alpine tundra in historic ti mes and might have done so more often when they were abundant and unfenced The cave is much too wet to be good ror storing perishables

The Artifacts

Many reliable observers from Carhart and Gilbert onward report finding in the 1920s and 30s old artifacts of unknown provenance in Spanish Cave These include a winch chains whiskey bottle jug timber ladders shovel single-jack and a hammer They have all disappeared or been reduced to fragments but claims made for some of them purport to establish archeological evidence of Spanish presence

Thorp (1935 op CiL) in describing the 1932 Rocky Mountain News expedition states that on the second ledge they found the remains of a rudely constructed ladder which Dr LeRoy Hafen ( then editor historian and curator of the State Historical Society) after carefully examining asserted was at least 200 years old Below after being lowered 110 feet they found a crude hand-forged hammer which the historian declared was of 17th century vintage Gilbert (The Bulletin Dec 1936 op cit) and an Alamosa Courier article (from June 1937) repeat these avowals

These are very important allegations since the Spanish were the only people who could have left such artifacts in the 17th century To investigate them I wrote in 1960 to LeRoy Hafen inquiring about his trip to the cave and his knowledge of its history and specifically whether he had certified the hammer as of 17th-century manufacture and if so who now had it His reply was less specific than my questions but it is a primary document on one of the major claims about Spanish Cave and I reproduce it below verbatim

If LeRoy Hafen made claims of antiquity for the Spanish Cave artifacts in 1932 he obviously did not stand by them later His wife Ann W Hafen in Detective Historian (Denver WesTerners Monthly Roundup July 1954) had also recounted his 1932 cave trip and commented disproving a baseless story is important it is part of the search for truth She elaborated To the party the venture was disappointing No treasure found No relic of the ancient conquistadores But to the

Jourllal of Speleall History 82

detective Historian it was just another clue pursued another myth exploded another triumph for the scholars code -- to build history on fact not on fossilized fiction

Thorp (1935 op cit) relates that the timbers of their ladder system were about eight inches in diameter squared on four sides with an ax Auger holes were bored into their sides and they were fitted with wooden rungs pegged into the holes No nails were used al though this probably would have been done by early Germans or Americans [the wood is] now decayed and may be broken in many ins tances by the hand This construction however is not strong evidence for Spanish work Before the railroad reached the Wet Mountain Valley in the 1880s commodities such as nails would have been scarce and expensive anyone building such structures before then might well have used no metal It would also be stronger than tacking on rungs with nails when not using sawed lumber Concerning the other cave artifacts there is not enough information to suggest a date

BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY PROVOUTAH

January 13 1960

11r Donald G Davia P O Box 145 T1lnlath Colorado

Dear Hr Davia

I ~ intereat~d to learn f~ your letter of January J 1960 of your study and COllCen WJth the Caverna del Oro Hy visit to the cave and descent into it was with a party directed and financed by the Tourist Bureau or its counterpart of the period The contemporary ewspal6rs gave som~ accowtof the venture

I made the firat descant into the cave kt that time ging down the rope bS

you doubtless have done ince I recall at the edg~ of the pit th~re were s(XlIe rotted logs that may have been the framework of a windlass At tho bott~ of the pit I found a suall sledge ~er encrusted with limestone formation I dont recall what was done with this haa-er I remember no other relics in the pit

Our purposo was to investigate certain rumors a3 to early use of the cave as a SVanish mine I think middot there is little~~ion for that as the limestone fonnation is a poor VlOspect fot middotormation

The legnd hat a skeleton was chained to the wall gave added impetus to the trip Needless to eay nothing of the sort was found That cav and some near were epoken of colloctively os the Karble Campve and sune referred to this one as the Caverna del Or~ cave of gold The Kaltes cross painted on the rock at the entrllJce to tle cave already had a faded appearance I know nothi8 of the rk of Capto1n Hom regarding the di Scove ry of ~ he cave

i~J At the bottOlll of the pit Carl Dlaurohpersucd tho crevice out 5 far dS ~ ~ could go and found nothi8 to reward our efforts If Hr Ulaurot is still living i Denver he could give you sooe sidelights on th cave as ho visited it after our initial exploration

Cordially yours

LO 91+-LeRoy R IlcIen DeparUent of History

Some writers (eg Jesse Ball Canon City Daily Record Sept 14 1933) speculate that the cave was used by the Spanish as a refuge from Indian attacks The cave itself being windy wet and ncar-freezing would not have been ideal for such occupancy A ruined fort was alleged to exist below Marble Mountain as early as 1881 (Golden City Transcript Aug 31 1881 citing Cusler City Prospect ) later articles mention rifle pits I have seen what I presume to be these features below timberline and could not distinguish them from the miners prospect pits common in the Colorado mountains The largest log breastwork structure has also been interpreted as an old corral (Jerry Hassemer oral communication) If defensive works they are cr Jde ones indeed

This leaves to be considered the famous cross beside the entrance It is about one and a half feet square with flared ends meeting at the corners It has been variously described as burnt on

Jou rnal of Speean History 83

deeply chiseled or etched but in reality is prosaically painted with what looks to be a stable iron oxide pigment perhaps using some sort of template Portions of It had a thm patma of calcite crust when I first saw it in 1958 Though almost always called Maltese it is not as can be seen by looking up a crosses illustration in any large dictionary The true Maltese cross has indented ends A G Birch (Denver Post Aug 11 1929) correctly pointed out that the cave marker isin the perfect form of a German Iron Cross But he also says it was old when the first white sehler saw it more than sixty years ago without explaining how he knew this A contradictory testimony (Trail and Timberline April 1957) asserts that there is one old-timer who states that he knCv the fellow who painted it years ago as ajoke I wiIl pass over both of these declarations as uncorroborated

Spanish crosses as I have seen them represented on coins and in art have narrow straight-sided arms often with the basal arm longer and with the ends variously embellished They are typically very different from German ones It is suggestive that the first sedentary settlers below Marble Mountain were Germans of the Colfax colony in 1870 The colony as an entity failed within a year but some thirty families took possession of quarter sections and prospered as can be seen by the many descendants still living in the area (Wet Mountain Tribune Centennial Edition Dec 20 1985) German immigrants also arrived later on and the ranches cl osest below the caves remained in possession of the German-derived Henrich and Neermann families into recent years Crosses in the square form seen at the cave were used in German decorative motifs (I have seen an antique coffee-grinder at an abandoned German homestead in eastern Colorado that was ornamented with them) The cross could have been painted by a Colfax settler exploring his surroundings soon after the colonys establishment The dispersal of most of the colony in 1871 would account for the failure of later inhabitants to know who had created it

Alternatively it might have been a product of prospector 1 H Yeoman He figures in one of the earliest known accounts of a Marble Mountain cave in History of the Arkansas Valley Colorado (1881) A later report on this cave (Denver Republican Feb 20 1888) appears to describe Cave of the White Marble Halls south of Spanish Cave and states that the cave was discovered by Yeoman on Sept 16 1880 Yeoman obligingly left a graffito confirming this in the cave and the Kings and Queens Chambers of the article are likewise identified (Another 1881 account -shyGolden Cty Transcript op cit -- describes a similar cave but claims discovery by Messrs Hendershot amp Dickson of Custer City) A red cross like that at Spanish Cave but smaller and with narrower arms marks the entrance the associated graffito in English 400 Feet to the White Marble Halls precludes a Spanish conquistador origin (A writing inside -- Mrs H G ReedSilver Cliff CololHere 8115197 -- is done in a similar ornate hand) I have also seen Yeomans signature in Moonmilk Cave just across the ravine south of Spanish and scarcely possible to reach without seeing the Spanish entrance He must have known of Spanish Cave and pesumably had entered it

[he Geology

Finally a point that seems so obvious that it should hardly need to be mentioned decades of repeated explorations in Spanish Cave have failed to turn up a trace of mining or of gold and there is excellent reason for this Gold is found either where hydrothermal solutions have mineralized host rock or where deposits originating in that fashion have been eroded and concentrated in placer gravels Neither situation applies at Marble Mountain where the caves occur in an unaltered Pennsylvanian biothermal limestone lens sandwiched almost vertically between shales and conglomeratic sandstones (The name Marble Mountain is a misnomer marble is limestone altered -- metamorphosed -- by heat andor pressure The abundance of well-preserved brachiopod and crinoid fossils shows that Marble Mountain is not metamorphosed) The only mineralization known on the mountain is a little low-grade copper on the south limestone outcrop

Jourllal of Speleall History 84

Paul Gilbert notwithstanding the caves are in no way volcanic but are relatively typical highshygradient alpine limestone solution caves dissolved probably by massive runoff from melting snov and ice during Pleistocene glacial epochs Writers have speculated that Spanish Cave had a lower entrance (possible since the cave water does emerge at a spring lower down) and an entrance on the west side of the mountain (not possible since the limestone does not outcrop there) Ironically the only new entrance cavers have actually found was in a direction not suggested by any known author above Its discovery explained the cave wind as a chimney effect between the entrances -- blowing down to the lower opening when it is warmer outside than inside reversing when it is colder outside

Conclusions

I know of no one else who has analyzed the Caverna del Oro stories as thoroughly but I am not the first to publish critical judgments on them Mrs Hafen has already been quoted Also on record (NSS Bulletin 8 July 1946) is a letter dated 10444 from Fred R Johnson Chief Information and Education US Forest Service

Carl Biaurock a member of the Colorado Mountain Club explored this cave in 1925 again in 1931 and later in more detail in 1932 On the last date the exploration was the result of several articles in the Rocky MOUnTain News in which an old yam was mentioned to the effect that the cave had been investigated in the Spanish explorations in the eighteenth [sic] century also that it is supposed to have yielded a large quantity of gold and other valuable minerals there are no signs of any mineral So far as Mr Blaurocks party could tell there is no evidence in the cave of any visitation of Spanish explorers several hundred years ago

Molen (opcit) wrote that this story [from Apodaca] has been disapproved [sic] The tools and ladder in the cave are of comparatively modern origin Blaurock believes Someone years ago must have explored the cave at least as thoroughly as we did he said He also expressed doubt that the rifle pits and fort are of Spanish origin I did not interview Carl Blaurock during my earlier research I telephoned him this summer but he is 98 years old and is too deaf to understand my questions I have sent him a letter of inquiry thus far unanswered

After organized caving had begun William R Halliday founder of the Colorado Grotto of the National Speleological Society also concluded that The fabulous stories are fables The story of Spanish Cave is told (Halliday however was too pessimistic in inferring that the cave was almost completely explored Most of what is now known was discovered just after he wrote but none of the new passage showed signs of human entry)

Diehard romantics might protest that Spanish Cave could still be La Caverna del Oro Caves can hide much perhaps somewhere in the depths there is a localized zone of thermal mineralization conceivably the Spaniards very cleverly concealed the way to the mine workings Such ideas are not impossible but do strain credulity For every verified feature that has been proposed as evidence for Spanish presence there is an alternative explanation that is more plausible The burden of proof then is on the proponents of the Spanish connection The lurid yarns about the cave reflect folklore creation greatly abetted by media exploitation assisted by atrociously sloppy research

The time sequenceof the several names applied to the cave fits this very neatly In sources from 1919 I find The Caves of the Winds From 1920 until 1932 I see Marble Cave Marble

85jOllrtlal of Speleall History

Caves or The Caves but no Spanish-related appellations It is still called Marble Cave at least as late as 1953 (Irma Zanoni Trail amp Timberline Dec 1953) I do not encounter La Cavema del Oro applied to our cave until Lightburns articles of 1932 after which it is common One of Lightburns headlines refers to the old Spanish Cave but Spanish Cave as a proper ~ame seems to appear only in the first Colorado Grotto News amp Notes of Feb 12 1952 where It IS a synonym for Caverna del Oro From then until now Spanish Cave has been the preferred form in the literature of organized caving and in popular media relying on it This unfortunately has helped to maintain the public assumption that the Spanish legendry is based in fact

The caves history is muddled by a series of misnomers a Caverna del Oro with no gold a Maltese cross that is not Maltese marble that is not marble -- and on analyzing the evidence I think that German Cave would have been a more appropriate if less provocative name than Spanish Cave

I expect my skeptical arguments to be ignored by future writers as long as there is a media markcL for exciting treasure tales Why is it important to be critically analytical

Since fact and fiction are not clearly distinguished in media information about the cave many people still believe nonsense about it Apparently the Spanish gold tales retain enough public acceptance to present problems to the Forest Service today It is reported that there was in recent years a proposal to build a road to the cave to facilitate treasure hunting (Jerry Hassemer oral comm)

Furthermore presentation of false gold stories as if they might be true is likely to tempt naive and poorly prepared readers to get in trouble seeking riches This is apparent in a 1957 letter from Roy Truman former District Ranger and colleague of Paul Gilberts (History of the Colorado Grotto 1961)

There was a time when it was very difficult to keep boys away from this cave and I received many calls from parents in Pueblo and other towns all times of the day and night concerning the safety of their boys that had left home with the ideas of exploring this cave with the high hopes of finding valuable ores or treasures they were equipped with a few pieces of small rope [this was probably arter the Depression-era articles]

This problem is also exemplified by a letter in my own files addressed in 1962 to Richard LeSage of the Southern Colorado Grotto from a Denverite He had twenty-four numbered questions including What type of equipiment [sic] will I need (exactly) I havent done much cave exploring Where can I obtain it What type of mask would I need for foul air He concludes We are intending to explore this cave at all cost so your information will be most vilal to us and most appreciable (We never replied deciding that was the safest thing to do)

The extravagance of peoples beliefs about Spanish Cave has sometimes reached quite ridiculous extremes The Colorado Historical Society library has a typescript of research material used by Perry Eberhart in preparing Treasure Tales of the Rockies One note is as follows

Robert Dunne head of Querida sez think cave comes out near Walsenburg or possibly the northern end of Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico never found end

James Dunne Querida

Not even Eberhart was so shameless as to print this in his book

Jourllal of Speleall History 86

There are still many legitimate mysteries left about Marble Mountain and its history How well explored are the ends of Spanish Cave even now Why was Yeomans cave otherwise so clearly White Marble Halls said to have a 275-foot pit Is this an error or a pit now lost Was the vertical Spanish Cave somehow grafted into the account Who really painted the Maltese cross and who put the artifacts into Spanish Why were detailed articles published on White Marble Halls in the 1880s but nothing seems to be on record about Spanish until 1919 in spite of the extensive early work done in it (If the relics were left by Colfax colonists in the 1870s they could not easily have published their explorations as there were yet no newspapers in the Wet Mountain Valley Later Yeoman or other prospectors might have been reticent about calling atlention to the cave if they built ladders down the shafts in the hope of rinding minerals Study 01 the county mining-claim records could be informative)

Future Opportunities

Most knowledge we now have on Marble Mountain history before organized caving is based on writings of big-city visitors from 1919 on When time allows I intend to search the microfilms of Custer County newspapers in the period 1880-1920 to see if items overlooked by library indexers may shed light on the gaps in our knowledge of the Marble Mountain caves Fascinating revelations are very likely to result Johnsons letter of 1944 (op cit) also stated There was evidence of early visitation [in Marble Cave] including names carved on rocks but these date mostly back about 50 years ago Informative graffiti are numerous in Cave of the White Marble Halls but I do not recall seeing any in Spanish Cave during my own explorations in the 1950s and 60s It should be carefully reexamined to see if we have overlooked signatures that could be keys to the solution of the puzzles

Better documentation of the cave itself would also be desirable The Colorado Grotto surveyed most of lower Spanish in the 1950s to the standards then prevailing I do not know the length of the CG survey but it probably included less than 1000 feet The Southern Colorado Grotto discoveries from 1959 to the early 1960s were not surveyed at the time

From 1975 to 1988 Jerry Hassemer led the mapping of 2642 feet of upper Spanish including the main route between entrances and the Rimstone Passage its longest side gallery (Hassemer personal comm Sept 13 1992) (About 1735 feet of this are along the through-route) His survey showed a vertical difference of 449 feet between lower and upper entrance by both internal mapping and a surface closure loop The old Colorado Grotto map appears to show a depth of just over 270 feet from lower entrance to deepest surveyed point thus total surveyed depth of Spanish Cave is about 720 fect (The entrance elevations of Spanish Cave have never been established by survey to a benchmark but altimeter readings and topographic maps suggest that the upper entrance is around 12000 feet)

Other side passages and superimposed levels in upper Spanish remain unmapped In lower Spanish an important branch the waterfall passage -- which may go deeper than the so-called Gold Diggings at the end of the existing map -- remains unsurveyed The high elevation and extremely cold wet conditions continue to inhibit complete exploration and mapping as they have for as long as the cave has been known

87Journal of Speleall History

Gilberts writings are not entirely consistent about his informants statistics in the above report she is Mexican 105 years old in 1919 and died at 110 In his letter to Robert 1 OConnell of Feb 18 1957 (as published in History ojthe Colorado Grotto Nov 1961) she is Spanish and died in 1923 at age 103 A followup letter of Feb 25 adds that she spent most of her life in the vicinity of San Luis [in the San Luis Valley on the opposite side of the Sangre de Cristos] Another source (Dayle Molen Pueblo Star-Jollmal Nov 18 1956) says she lived near Gardner Perry Eberhart in his sensationalistic Treasure Tales of the Rockies (11) calls her an Indian squaw Raymond Thorp in American ForesTs Aug 1935 citing Gilbert says she died eight years ago which would have been 1927 (this is the date used by Parris) These points may be quibbles yet they indicate a lack of precision in recording the facts about her And since the account attributed to Ms Apodaca is pivotal to the entire Caverna del Oro oeuvre let us dissect it critically

Every element is either improbable or impossible Leaving the geologic aspect until later take the oaken doors There are no oaks for many miles and where they do appear they are scrub oak which would have provided door-size timber only in rare cases (though oaks of that size were more common in the Rockies then than now) And why haul heavy oak to timberline when (though strong when new) it does not resist rot as well as say the more easily obtained juniper There is not in any case any opening near the 9O-foot level where such doors could have been used

The blanket story is completely fanciful As we proved in 1961 (NSS News Aug 1962 part I) the cave wind comes from upper Spanish Cave not from the pit Even if it did the pit is about 15 feet wide whereas the entrance constricts to a narrow crawlway A wind strong enough to blow a blanket back up the pit would rise to such tornadic speed in the crawl as to stop a person from fighting through it to the pit Nor does it seem sensible that people would be blithely tossing their blankets down weighted with rocks After all the rock might fail to unwind and the blanket be lost or shredded at the bottom With so incredible a yarn in it why should not the whole narrative be dismissed as fantasy

The Skeletons

At least three human skeletons have been attested as evidence of Spanish involvement with the cave Two were introduced by reporter Kenneth C Lightburn in a front-page article in the Rocky Mountain News of Sept 4 1932 He claimed that the caves original discovery is credited to Capt Elisha P Hom one of the first settlers in the Wet Mountain Valley in 1869 About its entrance he found the remnants of what might have been a fort and also a skeleton in Spanish armor Through the armor was an Indian arrow (Lightburn also began the misconception that the cave was on Homs Peak) I have not been able to trace the origin of this anecdote but it sounds unlikely if only because the purpose of Spanish armor was to prevent things like stoneshypointed arrows from penetrating ones torso and it generally worked Halls History of Colorado (1895) confirms Elisha P Hom as a pioneer Wet Mountain Valley settler in 1869 but does not mention this story

However the skeleton that Lightburn intended to feature was the one in his articles melodramatic headlines SKELETON FOUND CHAINED BY NECK DEEP IN COLORADO MYSTERY CAVECAVERN IS HIGH IN MOUNTAIN WILDS OF STATEDenver Man Discovers Manacled Bones in Sangre de Cristo Range Moldering 500 Feet Below Surface in Awesome CavitySIGNS INDICATE MINE WORKED IN EARLY DAYSFind Recalls Legends of Fabulous Cavern [sic] del Oro of 17th Century Spaniards The headlines are emphasized by a lurid though regrettably nonphotographic picture of the skeleton and an entrance shot with the cross touched up to show better

80 Journal of Speleall History

Journal of Speean History

The article relates that Peter Moser of Denver with companions Victor Barth and his two sons Donald and Jack had just returned from a descent into the cave (Derivative accounts refer to Victor Donald and Jack Barth the former being a fictitious person born of the omission of an original comma between Victor and Donald)

According to Lightburn the Moser party had climbed down until they reached a vertical pit They lowered a lantern Forty feet downward they saw the bottom and in the light or the lantern could clearly make out the skeleton With a metal strap encircling the neck the pile of bones reclined against the rocky wall as if the person who died there centuries ago hall been chained in a sitting position and left to starve An investigatory trip reported in followup articles of Sept 11 12 arid 18 found no skeleton (If an entrance photo with the story of the 18th is any indication they might not even have found the cave -- the picture is obviously not on Marble Mountain -- it may be at Marble Cave near Canon City) It was speculated that Moser may have seen the skeleton at another point in the cave or that it had been done away with by mysterious parties unknown who had blasted the cave entrance between the two trips

In reality it is not surprising that the chained skeleton was never found There is no sound testimony that it was ever there Unlike Fray Juan de la Cruz Elisha Horn or Apollina Apodaca Peter Moser was still available to me to question when I first researched Lightburns article I found in 1959 that Moser still lived at the same address in Denver as in 1932 On New Years Eve 19591 telephoned him and asked about the story His description made it clear that his party had indeed reached the top of the pit that cavers now call the Jug At that point they had lowered a kerosene lantern on a line and he saw what in his own words looked like a pile of bones on a ledge near the bottom This he said is all he reported to the secretary of the Colorado Mountain Club who in tum contacted the newspaper which -- as Moser put it to me -- dressed it up a little (l printed a more complete record of Mosers hour-long interview in the Southern Colorado Grotto newsletter Spelunk Junk Mar 1960)

This embroidery was to be expected in an era when the Denver papers were battling for readers during the Great Depressiun and were notorious for sensationalism But even if Mosers own explanation did not debunk the skeleton he reportedly found it would not be believable The Jug is about 80 feet deep Have you ever tried to see in cavernous darkness where your breath makes mist clouds by a kerosene lantern at that range Then you will agree that a chaincd skeleton even in fine preservation could hardly have been seen well enough from the top to be recognized unequivocally

81

Caves oColorado complicates the matter by citing a letter to me from James W Meacham in vhich a bone found by Meacham at the bottom of the Jug in 1959 was pronounced human by John A Murphy of the Denver Museum of Natural History What Parris does not say is that I had written him in 1969 -- four years before his book was published -- that another expert at the University of Colorado Museum had declared it a deer bone (This water-worn two-inch fragment might well challenge a forensic specialist)

Not content with two skeletons Thorp (American Forests Aug 1935 op cit) adds a third to this spooky company A strange legend that still haunts the native people concerns a skeleton hung with buckskin which guarded Marble Cave just on the other side of Caverna del Oro It was the first quarter of the 19th century and an American free trapper wandered too far west The Spaniards for fear he would reveal their hiding place crucified him For a half century he remained pinioned to a wcxxlcn cross Aside from the improbably sadistic mode of execution this image typical of cartoons or folklore reveals ignorance of the properties of real skeletons which do not long remain articulated when exposed to weather decay and scavengers

Others find ulterior significance in our discovery of bones of bison and pronghorn antelope in upper Spanish Cave in the 1960s calling them plains species that would never ascend to such lofty heights Unless someone had used the cave for storing or curing meat (Bill Kaiser The Treasure of Caverna del Oro Colorful Colorado May-June 1973) I did not know this then but these animals have been known to ascend to the alpine tundra in historic ti mes and might have done so more often when they were abundant and unfenced The cave is much too wet to be good ror storing perishables

The Artifacts

Many reliable observers from Carhart and Gilbert onward report finding in the 1920s and 30s old artifacts of unknown provenance in Spanish Cave These include a winch chains whiskey bottle jug timber ladders shovel single-jack and a hammer They have all disappeared or been reduced to fragments but claims made for some of them purport to establish archeological evidence of Spanish presence

Thorp (1935 op CiL) in describing the 1932 Rocky Mountain News expedition states that on the second ledge they found the remains of a rudely constructed ladder which Dr LeRoy Hafen ( then editor historian and curator of the State Historical Society) after carefully examining asserted was at least 200 years old Below after being lowered 110 feet they found a crude hand-forged hammer which the historian declared was of 17th century vintage Gilbert (The Bulletin Dec 1936 op cit) and an Alamosa Courier article (from June 1937) repeat these avowals

These are very important allegations since the Spanish were the only people who could have left such artifacts in the 17th century To investigate them I wrote in 1960 to LeRoy Hafen inquiring about his trip to the cave and his knowledge of its history and specifically whether he had certified the hammer as of 17th-century manufacture and if so who now had it His reply was less specific than my questions but it is a primary document on one of the major claims about Spanish Cave and I reproduce it below verbatim

If LeRoy Hafen made claims of antiquity for the Spanish Cave artifacts in 1932 he obviously did not stand by them later His wife Ann W Hafen in Detective Historian (Denver WesTerners Monthly Roundup July 1954) had also recounted his 1932 cave trip and commented disproving a baseless story is important it is part of the search for truth She elaborated To the party the venture was disappointing No treasure found No relic of the ancient conquistadores But to the

Jourllal of Speleall History 82

detective Historian it was just another clue pursued another myth exploded another triumph for the scholars code -- to build history on fact not on fossilized fiction

Thorp (1935 op cit) relates that the timbers of their ladder system were about eight inches in diameter squared on four sides with an ax Auger holes were bored into their sides and they were fitted with wooden rungs pegged into the holes No nails were used al though this probably would have been done by early Germans or Americans [the wood is] now decayed and may be broken in many ins tances by the hand This construction however is not strong evidence for Spanish work Before the railroad reached the Wet Mountain Valley in the 1880s commodities such as nails would have been scarce and expensive anyone building such structures before then might well have used no metal It would also be stronger than tacking on rungs with nails when not using sawed lumber Concerning the other cave artifacts there is not enough information to suggest a date

BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY PROVOUTAH

January 13 1960

11r Donald G Davia P O Box 145 T1lnlath Colorado

Dear Hr Davia

I ~ intereat~d to learn f~ your letter of January J 1960 of your study and COllCen WJth the Caverna del Oro Hy visit to the cave and descent into it was with a party directed and financed by the Tourist Bureau or its counterpart of the period The contemporary ewspal6rs gave som~ accowtof the venture

I made the firat descant into the cave kt that time ging down the rope bS

you doubtless have done ince I recall at the edg~ of the pit th~re were s(XlIe rotted logs that may have been the framework of a windlass At tho bott~ of the pit I found a suall sledge ~er encrusted with limestone formation I dont recall what was done with this haa-er I remember no other relics in the pit

Our purposo was to investigate certain rumors a3 to early use of the cave as a SVanish mine I think middot there is little~~ion for that as the limestone fonnation is a poor VlOspect fot middotormation

The legnd hat a skeleton was chained to the wall gave added impetus to the trip Needless to eay nothing of the sort was found That cav and some near were epoken of colloctively os the Karble Campve and sune referred to this one as the Caverna del Or~ cave of gold The Kaltes cross painted on the rock at the entrllJce to tle cave already had a faded appearance I know nothi8 of the rk of Capto1n Hom regarding the di Scove ry of ~ he cave

i~J At the bottOlll of the pit Carl Dlaurohpersucd tho crevice out 5 far dS ~ ~ could go and found nothi8 to reward our efforts If Hr Ulaurot is still living i Denver he could give you sooe sidelights on th cave as ho visited it after our initial exploration

Cordially yours

LO 91+-LeRoy R IlcIen DeparUent of History

Some writers (eg Jesse Ball Canon City Daily Record Sept 14 1933) speculate that the cave was used by the Spanish as a refuge from Indian attacks The cave itself being windy wet and ncar-freezing would not have been ideal for such occupancy A ruined fort was alleged to exist below Marble Mountain as early as 1881 (Golden City Transcript Aug 31 1881 citing Cusler City Prospect ) later articles mention rifle pits I have seen what I presume to be these features below timberline and could not distinguish them from the miners prospect pits common in the Colorado mountains The largest log breastwork structure has also been interpreted as an old corral (Jerry Hassemer oral communication) If defensive works they are cr Jde ones indeed

This leaves to be considered the famous cross beside the entrance It is about one and a half feet square with flared ends meeting at the corners It has been variously described as burnt on

Jou rnal of Speean History 83

deeply chiseled or etched but in reality is prosaically painted with what looks to be a stable iron oxide pigment perhaps using some sort of template Portions of It had a thm patma of calcite crust when I first saw it in 1958 Though almost always called Maltese it is not as can be seen by looking up a crosses illustration in any large dictionary The true Maltese cross has indented ends A G Birch (Denver Post Aug 11 1929) correctly pointed out that the cave marker isin the perfect form of a German Iron Cross But he also says it was old when the first white sehler saw it more than sixty years ago without explaining how he knew this A contradictory testimony (Trail and Timberline April 1957) asserts that there is one old-timer who states that he knCv the fellow who painted it years ago as ajoke I wiIl pass over both of these declarations as uncorroborated

Spanish crosses as I have seen them represented on coins and in art have narrow straight-sided arms often with the basal arm longer and with the ends variously embellished They are typically very different from German ones It is suggestive that the first sedentary settlers below Marble Mountain were Germans of the Colfax colony in 1870 The colony as an entity failed within a year but some thirty families took possession of quarter sections and prospered as can be seen by the many descendants still living in the area (Wet Mountain Tribune Centennial Edition Dec 20 1985) German immigrants also arrived later on and the ranches cl osest below the caves remained in possession of the German-derived Henrich and Neermann families into recent years Crosses in the square form seen at the cave were used in German decorative motifs (I have seen an antique coffee-grinder at an abandoned German homestead in eastern Colorado that was ornamented with them) The cross could have been painted by a Colfax settler exploring his surroundings soon after the colonys establishment The dispersal of most of the colony in 1871 would account for the failure of later inhabitants to know who had created it

Alternatively it might have been a product of prospector 1 H Yeoman He figures in one of the earliest known accounts of a Marble Mountain cave in History of the Arkansas Valley Colorado (1881) A later report on this cave (Denver Republican Feb 20 1888) appears to describe Cave of the White Marble Halls south of Spanish Cave and states that the cave was discovered by Yeoman on Sept 16 1880 Yeoman obligingly left a graffito confirming this in the cave and the Kings and Queens Chambers of the article are likewise identified (Another 1881 account -shyGolden Cty Transcript op cit -- describes a similar cave but claims discovery by Messrs Hendershot amp Dickson of Custer City) A red cross like that at Spanish Cave but smaller and with narrower arms marks the entrance the associated graffito in English 400 Feet to the White Marble Halls precludes a Spanish conquistador origin (A writing inside -- Mrs H G ReedSilver Cliff CololHere 8115197 -- is done in a similar ornate hand) I have also seen Yeomans signature in Moonmilk Cave just across the ravine south of Spanish and scarcely possible to reach without seeing the Spanish entrance He must have known of Spanish Cave and pesumably had entered it

[he Geology

Finally a point that seems so obvious that it should hardly need to be mentioned decades of repeated explorations in Spanish Cave have failed to turn up a trace of mining or of gold and there is excellent reason for this Gold is found either where hydrothermal solutions have mineralized host rock or where deposits originating in that fashion have been eroded and concentrated in placer gravels Neither situation applies at Marble Mountain where the caves occur in an unaltered Pennsylvanian biothermal limestone lens sandwiched almost vertically between shales and conglomeratic sandstones (The name Marble Mountain is a misnomer marble is limestone altered -- metamorphosed -- by heat andor pressure The abundance of well-preserved brachiopod and crinoid fossils shows that Marble Mountain is not metamorphosed) The only mineralization known on the mountain is a little low-grade copper on the south limestone outcrop

Jourllal of Speleall History 84

Paul Gilbert notwithstanding the caves are in no way volcanic but are relatively typical highshygradient alpine limestone solution caves dissolved probably by massive runoff from melting snov and ice during Pleistocene glacial epochs Writers have speculated that Spanish Cave had a lower entrance (possible since the cave water does emerge at a spring lower down) and an entrance on the west side of the mountain (not possible since the limestone does not outcrop there) Ironically the only new entrance cavers have actually found was in a direction not suggested by any known author above Its discovery explained the cave wind as a chimney effect between the entrances -- blowing down to the lower opening when it is warmer outside than inside reversing when it is colder outside

Conclusions

I know of no one else who has analyzed the Caverna del Oro stories as thoroughly but I am not the first to publish critical judgments on them Mrs Hafen has already been quoted Also on record (NSS Bulletin 8 July 1946) is a letter dated 10444 from Fred R Johnson Chief Information and Education US Forest Service

Carl Biaurock a member of the Colorado Mountain Club explored this cave in 1925 again in 1931 and later in more detail in 1932 On the last date the exploration was the result of several articles in the Rocky MOUnTain News in which an old yam was mentioned to the effect that the cave had been investigated in the Spanish explorations in the eighteenth [sic] century also that it is supposed to have yielded a large quantity of gold and other valuable minerals there are no signs of any mineral So far as Mr Blaurocks party could tell there is no evidence in the cave of any visitation of Spanish explorers several hundred years ago

Molen (opcit) wrote that this story [from Apodaca] has been disapproved [sic] The tools and ladder in the cave are of comparatively modern origin Blaurock believes Someone years ago must have explored the cave at least as thoroughly as we did he said He also expressed doubt that the rifle pits and fort are of Spanish origin I did not interview Carl Blaurock during my earlier research I telephoned him this summer but he is 98 years old and is too deaf to understand my questions I have sent him a letter of inquiry thus far unanswered

After organized caving had begun William R Halliday founder of the Colorado Grotto of the National Speleological Society also concluded that The fabulous stories are fables The story of Spanish Cave is told (Halliday however was too pessimistic in inferring that the cave was almost completely explored Most of what is now known was discovered just after he wrote but none of the new passage showed signs of human entry)

Diehard romantics might protest that Spanish Cave could still be La Caverna del Oro Caves can hide much perhaps somewhere in the depths there is a localized zone of thermal mineralization conceivably the Spaniards very cleverly concealed the way to the mine workings Such ideas are not impossible but do strain credulity For every verified feature that has been proposed as evidence for Spanish presence there is an alternative explanation that is more plausible The burden of proof then is on the proponents of the Spanish connection The lurid yarns about the cave reflect folklore creation greatly abetted by media exploitation assisted by atrociously sloppy research

The time sequenceof the several names applied to the cave fits this very neatly In sources from 1919 I find The Caves of the Winds From 1920 until 1932 I see Marble Cave Marble

85jOllrtlal of Speleall History

Caves or The Caves but no Spanish-related appellations It is still called Marble Cave at least as late as 1953 (Irma Zanoni Trail amp Timberline Dec 1953) I do not encounter La Cavema del Oro applied to our cave until Lightburns articles of 1932 after which it is common One of Lightburns headlines refers to the old Spanish Cave but Spanish Cave as a proper ~ame seems to appear only in the first Colorado Grotto News amp Notes of Feb 12 1952 where It IS a synonym for Caverna del Oro From then until now Spanish Cave has been the preferred form in the literature of organized caving and in popular media relying on it This unfortunately has helped to maintain the public assumption that the Spanish legendry is based in fact

The caves history is muddled by a series of misnomers a Caverna del Oro with no gold a Maltese cross that is not Maltese marble that is not marble -- and on analyzing the evidence I think that German Cave would have been a more appropriate if less provocative name than Spanish Cave

I expect my skeptical arguments to be ignored by future writers as long as there is a media markcL for exciting treasure tales Why is it important to be critically analytical

Since fact and fiction are not clearly distinguished in media information about the cave many people still believe nonsense about it Apparently the Spanish gold tales retain enough public acceptance to present problems to the Forest Service today It is reported that there was in recent years a proposal to build a road to the cave to facilitate treasure hunting (Jerry Hassemer oral comm)

Furthermore presentation of false gold stories as if they might be true is likely to tempt naive and poorly prepared readers to get in trouble seeking riches This is apparent in a 1957 letter from Roy Truman former District Ranger and colleague of Paul Gilberts (History of the Colorado Grotto 1961)

There was a time when it was very difficult to keep boys away from this cave and I received many calls from parents in Pueblo and other towns all times of the day and night concerning the safety of their boys that had left home with the ideas of exploring this cave with the high hopes of finding valuable ores or treasures they were equipped with a few pieces of small rope [this was probably arter the Depression-era articles]

This problem is also exemplified by a letter in my own files addressed in 1962 to Richard LeSage of the Southern Colorado Grotto from a Denverite He had twenty-four numbered questions including What type of equipiment [sic] will I need (exactly) I havent done much cave exploring Where can I obtain it What type of mask would I need for foul air He concludes We are intending to explore this cave at all cost so your information will be most vilal to us and most appreciable (We never replied deciding that was the safest thing to do)

The extravagance of peoples beliefs about Spanish Cave has sometimes reached quite ridiculous extremes The Colorado Historical Society library has a typescript of research material used by Perry Eberhart in preparing Treasure Tales of the Rockies One note is as follows

Robert Dunne head of Querida sez think cave comes out near Walsenburg or possibly the northern end of Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico never found end

James Dunne Querida

Not even Eberhart was so shameless as to print this in his book

Jourllal of Speleall History 86

There are still many legitimate mysteries left about Marble Mountain and its history How well explored are the ends of Spanish Cave even now Why was Yeomans cave otherwise so clearly White Marble Halls said to have a 275-foot pit Is this an error or a pit now lost Was the vertical Spanish Cave somehow grafted into the account Who really painted the Maltese cross and who put the artifacts into Spanish Why were detailed articles published on White Marble Halls in the 1880s but nothing seems to be on record about Spanish until 1919 in spite of the extensive early work done in it (If the relics were left by Colfax colonists in the 1870s they could not easily have published their explorations as there were yet no newspapers in the Wet Mountain Valley Later Yeoman or other prospectors might have been reticent about calling atlention to the cave if they built ladders down the shafts in the hope of rinding minerals Study 01 the county mining-claim records could be informative)

Future Opportunities

Most knowledge we now have on Marble Mountain history before organized caving is based on writings of big-city visitors from 1919 on When time allows I intend to search the microfilms of Custer County newspapers in the period 1880-1920 to see if items overlooked by library indexers may shed light on the gaps in our knowledge of the Marble Mountain caves Fascinating revelations are very likely to result Johnsons letter of 1944 (op cit) also stated There was evidence of early visitation [in Marble Cave] including names carved on rocks but these date mostly back about 50 years ago Informative graffiti are numerous in Cave of the White Marble Halls but I do not recall seeing any in Spanish Cave during my own explorations in the 1950s and 60s It should be carefully reexamined to see if we have overlooked signatures that could be keys to the solution of the puzzles

Better documentation of the cave itself would also be desirable The Colorado Grotto surveyed most of lower Spanish in the 1950s to the standards then prevailing I do not know the length of the CG survey but it probably included less than 1000 feet The Southern Colorado Grotto discoveries from 1959 to the early 1960s were not surveyed at the time

From 1975 to 1988 Jerry Hassemer led the mapping of 2642 feet of upper Spanish including the main route between entrances and the Rimstone Passage its longest side gallery (Hassemer personal comm Sept 13 1992) (About 1735 feet of this are along the through-route) His survey showed a vertical difference of 449 feet between lower and upper entrance by both internal mapping and a surface closure loop The old Colorado Grotto map appears to show a depth of just over 270 feet from lower entrance to deepest surveyed point thus total surveyed depth of Spanish Cave is about 720 fect (The entrance elevations of Spanish Cave have never been established by survey to a benchmark but altimeter readings and topographic maps suggest that the upper entrance is around 12000 feet)

Other side passages and superimposed levels in upper Spanish remain unmapped In lower Spanish an important branch the waterfall passage -- which may go deeper than the so-called Gold Diggings at the end of the existing map -- remains unsurveyed The high elevation and extremely cold wet conditions continue to inhibit complete exploration and mapping as they have for as long as the cave has been known

87Journal of Speleall History

Journal of Speean History

The article relates that Peter Moser of Denver with companions Victor Barth and his two sons Donald and Jack had just returned from a descent into the cave (Derivative accounts refer to Victor Donald and Jack Barth the former being a fictitious person born of the omission of an original comma between Victor and Donald)

According to Lightburn the Moser party had climbed down until they reached a vertical pit They lowered a lantern Forty feet downward they saw the bottom and in the light or the lantern could clearly make out the skeleton With a metal strap encircling the neck the pile of bones reclined against the rocky wall as if the person who died there centuries ago hall been chained in a sitting position and left to starve An investigatory trip reported in followup articles of Sept 11 12 arid 18 found no skeleton (If an entrance photo with the story of the 18th is any indication they might not even have found the cave -- the picture is obviously not on Marble Mountain -- it may be at Marble Cave near Canon City) It was speculated that Moser may have seen the skeleton at another point in the cave or that it had been done away with by mysterious parties unknown who had blasted the cave entrance between the two trips

In reality it is not surprising that the chained skeleton was never found There is no sound testimony that it was ever there Unlike Fray Juan de la Cruz Elisha Horn or Apollina Apodaca Peter Moser was still available to me to question when I first researched Lightburns article I found in 1959 that Moser still lived at the same address in Denver as in 1932 On New Years Eve 19591 telephoned him and asked about the story His description made it clear that his party had indeed reached the top of the pit that cavers now call the Jug At that point they had lowered a kerosene lantern on a line and he saw what in his own words looked like a pile of bones on a ledge near the bottom This he said is all he reported to the secretary of the Colorado Mountain Club who in tum contacted the newspaper which -- as Moser put it to me -- dressed it up a little (l printed a more complete record of Mosers hour-long interview in the Southern Colorado Grotto newsletter Spelunk Junk Mar 1960)

This embroidery was to be expected in an era when the Denver papers were battling for readers during the Great Depressiun and were notorious for sensationalism But even if Mosers own explanation did not debunk the skeleton he reportedly found it would not be believable The Jug is about 80 feet deep Have you ever tried to see in cavernous darkness where your breath makes mist clouds by a kerosene lantern at that range Then you will agree that a chaincd skeleton even in fine preservation could hardly have been seen well enough from the top to be recognized unequivocally

81

Caves oColorado complicates the matter by citing a letter to me from James W Meacham in vhich a bone found by Meacham at the bottom of the Jug in 1959 was pronounced human by John A Murphy of the Denver Museum of Natural History What Parris does not say is that I had written him in 1969 -- four years before his book was published -- that another expert at the University of Colorado Museum had declared it a deer bone (This water-worn two-inch fragment might well challenge a forensic specialist)

Not content with two skeletons Thorp (American Forests Aug 1935 op cit) adds a third to this spooky company A strange legend that still haunts the native people concerns a skeleton hung with buckskin which guarded Marble Cave just on the other side of Caverna del Oro It was the first quarter of the 19th century and an American free trapper wandered too far west The Spaniards for fear he would reveal their hiding place crucified him For a half century he remained pinioned to a wcxxlcn cross Aside from the improbably sadistic mode of execution this image typical of cartoons or folklore reveals ignorance of the properties of real skeletons which do not long remain articulated when exposed to weather decay and scavengers

Others find ulterior significance in our discovery of bones of bison and pronghorn antelope in upper Spanish Cave in the 1960s calling them plains species that would never ascend to such lofty heights Unless someone had used the cave for storing or curing meat (Bill Kaiser The Treasure of Caverna del Oro Colorful Colorado May-June 1973) I did not know this then but these animals have been known to ascend to the alpine tundra in historic ti mes and might have done so more often when they were abundant and unfenced The cave is much too wet to be good ror storing perishables

The Artifacts

Many reliable observers from Carhart and Gilbert onward report finding in the 1920s and 30s old artifacts of unknown provenance in Spanish Cave These include a winch chains whiskey bottle jug timber ladders shovel single-jack and a hammer They have all disappeared or been reduced to fragments but claims made for some of them purport to establish archeological evidence of Spanish presence

Thorp (1935 op CiL) in describing the 1932 Rocky Mountain News expedition states that on the second ledge they found the remains of a rudely constructed ladder which Dr LeRoy Hafen ( then editor historian and curator of the State Historical Society) after carefully examining asserted was at least 200 years old Below after being lowered 110 feet they found a crude hand-forged hammer which the historian declared was of 17th century vintage Gilbert (The Bulletin Dec 1936 op cit) and an Alamosa Courier article (from June 1937) repeat these avowals

These are very important allegations since the Spanish were the only people who could have left such artifacts in the 17th century To investigate them I wrote in 1960 to LeRoy Hafen inquiring about his trip to the cave and his knowledge of its history and specifically whether he had certified the hammer as of 17th-century manufacture and if so who now had it His reply was less specific than my questions but it is a primary document on one of the major claims about Spanish Cave and I reproduce it below verbatim

If LeRoy Hafen made claims of antiquity for the Spanish Cave artifacts in 1932 he obviously did not stand by them later His wife Ann W Hafen in Detective Historian (Denver WesTerners Monthly Roundup July 1954) had also recounted his 1932 cave trip and commented disproving a baseless story is important it is part of the search for truth She elaborated To the party the venture was disappointing No treasure found No relic of the ancient conquistadores But to the

Jourllal of Speleall History 82

detective Historian it was just another clue pursued another myth exploded another triumph for the scholars code -- to build history on fact not on fossilized fiction

Thorp (1935 op cit) relates that the timbers of their ladder system were about eight inches in diameter squared on four sides with an ax Auger holes were bored into their sides and they were fitted with wooden rungs pegged into the holes No nails were used al though this probably would have been done by early Germans or Americans [the wood is] now decayed and may be broken in many ins tances by the hand This construction however is not strong evidence for Spanish work Before the railroad reached the Wet Mountain Valley in the 1880s commodities such as nails would have been scarce and expensive anyone building such structures before then might well have used no metal It would also be stronger than tacking on rungs with nails when not using sawed lumber Concerning the other cave artifacts there is not enough information to suggest a date

BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY PROVOUTAH

January 13 1960

11r Donald G Davia P O Box 145 T1lnlath Colorado

Dear Hr Davia

I ~ intereat~d to learn f~ your letter of January J 1960 of your study and COllCen WJth the Caverna del Oro Hy visit to the cave and descent into it was with a party directed and financed by the Tourist Bureau or its counterpart of the period The contemporary ewspal6rs gave som~ accowtof the venture

I made the firat descant into the cave kt that time ging down the rope bS

you doubtless have done ince I recall at the edg~ of the pit th~re were s(XlIe rotted logs that may have been the framework of a windlass At tho bott~ of the pit I found a suall sledge ~er encrusted with limestone formation I dont recall what was done with this haa-er I remember no other relics in the pit

Our purposo was to investigate certain rumors a3 to early use of the cave as a SVanish mine I think middot there is little~~ion for that as the limestone fonnation is a poor VlOspect fot middotormation

The legnd hat a skeleton was chained to the wall gave added impetus to the trip Needless to eay nothing of the sort was found That cav and some near were epoken of colloctively os the Karble Campve and sune referred to this one as the Caverna del Or~ cave of gold The Kaltes cross painted on the rock at the entrllJce to tle cave already had a faded appearance I know nothi8 of the rk of Capto1n Hom regarding the di Scove ry of ~ he cave

i~J At the bottOlll of the pit Carl Dlaurohpersucd tho crevice out 5 far dS ~ ~ could go and found nothi8 to reward our efforts If Hr Ulaurot is still living i Denver he could give you sooe sidelights on th cave as ho visited it after our initial exploration

Cordially yours

LO 91+-LeRoy R IlcIen DeparUent of History

Some writers (eg Jesse Ball Canon City Daily Record Sept 14 1933) speculate that the cave was used by the Spanish as a refuge from Indian attacks The cave itself being windy wet and ncar-freezing would not have been ideal for such occupancy A ruined fort was alleged to exist below Marble Mountain as early as 1881 (Golden City Transcript Aug 31 1881 citing Cusler City Prospect ) later articles mention rifle pits I have seen what I presume to be these features below timberline and could not distinguish them from the miners prospect pits common in the Colorado mountains The largest log breastwork structure has also been interpreted as an old corral (Jerry Hassemer oral communication) If defensive works they are cr Jde ones indeed

This leaves to be considered the famous cross beside the entrance It is about one and a half feet square with flared ends meeting at the corners It has been variously described as burnt on

Jou rnal of Speean History 83

deeply chiseled or etched but in reality is prosaically painted with what looks to be a stable iron oxide pigment perhaps using some sort of template Portions of It had a thm patma of calcite crust when I first saw it in 1958 Though almost always called Maltese it is not as can be seen by looking up a crosses illustration in any large dictionary The true Maltese cross has indented ends A G Birch (Denver Post Aug 11 1929) correctly pointed out that the cave marker isin the perfect form of a German Iron Cross But he also says it was old when the first white sehler saw it more than sixty years ago without explaining how he knew this A contradictory testimony (Trail and Timberline April 1957) asserts that there is one old-timer who states that he knCv the fellow who painted it years ago as ajoke I wiIl pass over both of these declarations as uncorroborated

Spanish crosses as I have seen them represented on coins and in art have narrow straight-sided arms often with the basal arm longer and with the ends variously embellished They are typically very different from German ones It is suggestive that the first sedentary settlers below Marble Mountain were Germans of the Colfax colony in 1870 The colony as an entity failed within a year but some thirty families took possession of quarter sections and prospered as can be seen by the many descendants still living in the area (Wet Mountain Tribune Centennial Edition Dec 20 1985) German immigrants also arrived later on and the ranches cl osest below the caves remained in possession of the German-derived Henrich and Neermann families into recent years Crosses in the square form seen at the cave were used in German decorative motifs (I have seen an antique coffee-grinder at an abandoned German homestead in eastern Colorado that was ornamented with them) The cross could have been painted by a Colfax settler exploring his surroundings soon after the colonys establishment The dispersal of most of the colony in 1871 would account for the failure of later inhabitants to know who had created it

Alternatively it might have been a product of prospector 1 H Yeoman He figures in one of the earliest known accounts of a Marble Mountain cave in History of the Arkansas Valley Colorado (1881) A later report on this cave (Denver Republican Feb 20 1888) appears to describe Cave of the White Marble Halls south of Spanish Cave and states that the cave was discovered by Yeoman on Sept 16 1880 Yeoman obligingly left a graffito confirming this in the cave and the Kings and Queens Chambers of the article are likewise identified (Another 1881 account -shyGolden Cty Transcript op cit -- describes a similar cave but claims discovery by Messrs Hendershot amp Dickson of Custer City) A red cross like that at Spanish Cave but smaller and with narrower arms marks the entrance the associated graffito in English 400 Feet to the White Marble Halls precludes a Spanish conquistador origin (A writing inside -- Mrs H G ReedSilver Cliff CololHere 8115197 -- is done in a similar ornate hand) I have also seen Yeomans signature in Moonmilk Cave just across the ravine south of Spanish and scarcely possible to reach without seeing the Spanish entrance He must have known of Spanish Cave and pesumably had entered it

[he Geology

Finally a point that seems so obvious that it should hardly need to be mentioned decades of repeated explorations in Spanish Cave have failed to turn up a trace of mining or of gold and there is excellent reason for this Gold is found either where hydrothermal solutions have mineralized host rock or where deposits originating in that fashion have been eroded and concentrated in placer gravels Neither situation applies at Marble Mountain where the caves occur in an unaltered Pennsylvanian biothermal limestone lens sandwiched almost vertically between shales and conglomeratic sandstones (The name Marble Mountain is a misnomer marble is limestone altered -- metamorphosed -- by heat andor pressure The abundance of well-preserved brachiopod and crinoid fossils shows that Marble Mountain is not metamorphosed) The only mineralization known on the mountain is a little low-grade copper on the south limestone outcrop

Jourllal of Speleall History 84

Paul Gilbert notwithstanding the caves are in no way volcanic but are relatively typical highshygradient alpine limestone solution caves dissolved probably by massive runoff from melting snov and ice during Pleistocene glacial epochs Writers have speculated that Spanish Cave had a lower entrance (possible since the cave water does emerge at a spring lower down) and an entrance on the west side of the mountain (not possible since the limestone does not outcrop there) Ironically the only new entrance cavers have actually found was in a direction not suggested by any known author above Its discovery explained the cave wind as a chimney effect between the entrances -- blowing down to the lower opening when it is warmer outside than inside reversing when it is colder outside

Conclusions

I know of no one else who has analyzed the Caverna del Oro stories as thoroughly but I am not the first to publish critical judgments on them Mrs Hafen has already been quoted Also on record (NSS Bulletin 8 July 1946) is a letter dated 10444 from Fred R Johnson Chief Information and Education US Forest Service

Carl Biaurock a member of the Colorado Mountain Club explored this cave in 1925 again in 1931 and later in more detail in 1932 On the last date the exploration was the result of several articles in the Rocky MOUnTain News in which an old yam was mentioned to the effect that the cave had been investigated in the Spanish explorations in the eighteenth [sic] century also that it is supposed to have yielded a large quantity of gold and other valuable minerals there are no signs of any mineral So far as Mr Blaurocks party could tell there is no evidence in the cave of any visitation of Spanish explorers several hundred years ago

Molen (opcit) wrote that this story [from Apodaca] has been disapproved [sic] The tools and ladder in the cave are of comparatively modern origin Blaurock believes Someone years ago must have explored the cave at least as thoroughly as we did he said He also expressed doubt that the rifle pits and fort are of Spanish origin I did not interview Carl Blaurock during my earlier research I telephoned him this summer but he is 98 years old and is too deaf to understand my questions I have sent him a letter of inquiry thus far unanswered

After organized caving had begun William R Halliday founder of the Colorado Grotto of the National Speleological Society also concluded that The fabulous stories are fables The story of Spanish Cave is told (Halliday however was too pessimistic in inferring that the cave was almost completely explored Most of what is now known was discovered just after he wrote but none of the new passage showed signs of human entry)

Diehard romantics might protest that Spanish Cave could still be La Caverna del Oro Caves can hide much perhaps somewhere in the depths there is a localized zone of thermal mineralization conceivably the Spaniards very cleverly concealed the way to the mine workings Such ideas are not impossible but do strain credulity For every verified feature that has been proposed as evidence for Spanish presence there is an alternative explanation that is more plausible The burden of proof then is on the proponents of the Spanish connection The lurid yarns about the cave reflect folklore creation greatly abetted by media exploitation assisted by atrociously sloppy research

The time sequenceof the several names applied to the cave fits this very neatly In sources from 1919 I find The Caves of the Winds From 1920 until 1932 I see Marble Cave Marble

85jOllrtlal of Speleall History

Caves or The Caves but no Spanish-related appellations It is still called Marble Cave at least as late as 1953 (Irma Zanoni Trail amp Timberline Dec 1953) I do not encounter La Cavema del Oro applied to our cave until Lightburns articles of 1932 after which it is common One of Lightburns headlines refers to the old Spanish Cave but Spanish Cave as a proper ~ame seems to appear only in the first Colorado Grotto News amp Notes of Feb 12 1952 where It IS a synonym for Caverna del Oro From then until now Spanish Cave has been the preferred form in the literature of organized caving and in popular media relying on it This unfortunately has helped to maintain the public assumption that the Spanish legendry is based in fact

The caves history is muddled by a series of misnomers a Caverna del Oro with no gold a Maltese cross that is not Maltese marble that is not marble -- and on analyzing the evidence I think that German Cave would have been a more appropriate if less provocative name than Spanish Cave

I expect my skeptical arguments to be ignored by future writers as long as there is a media markcL for exciting treasure tales Why is it important to be critically analytical

Since fact and fiction are not clearly distinguished in media information about the cave many people still believe nonsense about it Apparently the Spanish gold tales retain enough public acceptance to present problems to the Forest Service today It is reported that there was in recent years a proposal to build a road to the cave to facilitate treasure hunting (Jerry Hassemer oral comm)

Furthermore presentation of false gold stories as if they might be true is likely to tempt naive and poorly prepared readers to get in trouble seeking riches This is apparent in a 1957 letter from Roy Truman former District Ranger and colleague of Paul Gilberts (History of the Colorado Grotto 1961)

There was a time when it was very difficult to keep boys away from this cave and I received many calls from parents in Pueblo and other towns all times of the day and night concerning the safety of their boys that had left home with the ideas of exploring this cave with the high hopes of finding valuable ores or treasures they were equipped with a few pieces of small rope [this was probably arter the Depression-era articles]

This problem is also exemplified by a letter in my own files addressed in 1962 to Richard LeSage of the Southern Colorado Grotto from a Denverite He had twenty-four numbered questions including What type of equipiment [sic] will I need (exactly) I havent done much cave exploring Where can I obtain it What type of mask would I need for foul air He concludes We are intending to explore this cave at all cost so your information will be most vilal to us and most appreciable (We never replied deciding that was the safest thing to do)

The extravagance of peoples beliefs about Spanish Cave has sometimes reached quite ridiculous extremes The Colorado Historical Society library has a typescript of research material used by Perry Eberhart in preparing Treasure Tales of the Rockies One note is as follows

Robert Dunne head of Querida sez think cave comes out near Walsenburg or possibly the northern end of Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico never found end

James Dunne Querida

Not even Eberhart was so shameless as to print this in his book

Jourllal of Speleall History 86

There are still many legitimate mysteries left about Marble Mountain and its history How well explored are the ends of Spanish Cave even now Why was Yeomans cave otherwise so clearly White Marble Halls said to have a 275-foot pit Is this an error or a pit now lost Was the vertical Spanish Cave somehow grafted into the account Who really painted the Maltese cross and who put the artifacts into Spanish Why were detailed articles published on White Marble Halls in the 1880s but nothing seems to be on record about Spanish until 1919 in spite of the extensive early work done in it (If the relics were left by Colfax colonists in the 1870s they could not easily have published their explorations as there were yet no newspapers in the Wet Mountain Valley Later Yeoman or other prospectors might have been reticent about calling atlention to the cave if they built ladders down the shafts in the hope of rinding minerals Study 01 the county mining-claim records could be informative)

Future Opportunities

Most knowledge we now have on Marble Mountain history before organized caving is based on writings of big-city visitors from 1919 on When time allows I intend to search the microfilms of Custer County newspapers in the period 1880-1920 to see if items overlooked by library indexers may shed light on the gaps in our knowledge of the Marble Mountain caves Fascinating revelations are very likely to result Johnsons letter of 1944 (op cit) also stated There was evidence of early visitation [in Marble Cave] including names carved on rocks but these date mostly back about 50 years ago Informative graffiti are numerous in Cave of the White Marble Halls but I do not recall seeing any in Spanish Cave during my own explorations in the 1950s and 60s It should be carefully reexamined to see if we have overlooked signatures that could be keys to the solution of the puzzles

Better documentation of the cave itself would also be desirable The Colorado Grotto surveyed most of lower Spanish in the 1950s to the standards then prevailing I do not know the length of the CG survey but it probably included less than 1000 feet The Southern Colorado Grotto discoveries from 1959 to the early 1960s were not surveyed at the time

From 1975 to 1988 Jerry Hassemer led the mapping of 2642 feet of upper Spanish including the main route between entrances and the Rimstone Passage its longest side gallery (Hassemer personal comm Sept 13 1992) (About 1735 feet of this are along the through-route) His survey showed a vertical difference of 449 feet between lower and upper entrance by both internal mapping and a surface closure loop The old Colorado Grotto map appears to show a depth of just over 270 feet from lower entrance to deepest surveyed point thus total surveyed depth of Spanish Cave is about 720 fect (The entrance elevations of Spanish Cave have never been established by survey to a benchmark but altimeter readings and topographic maps suggest that the upper entrance is around 12000 feet)

Other side passages and superimposed levels in upper Spanish remain unmapped In lower Spanish an important branch the waterfall passage -- which may go deeper than the so-called Gold Diggings at the end of the existing map -- remains unsurveyed The high elevation and extremely cold wet conditions continue to inhibit complete exploration and mapping as they have for as long as the cave has been known

87Journal of Speleall History

Caves oColorado complicates the matter by citing a letter to me from James W Meacham in vhich a bone found by Meacham at the bottom of the Jug in 1959 was pronounced human by John A Murphy of the Denver Museum of Natural History What Parris does not say is that I had written him in 1969 -- four years before his book was published -- that another expert at the University of Colorado Museum had declared it a deer bone (This water-worn two-inch fragment might well challenge a forensic specialist)

Not content with two skeletons Thorp (American Forests Aug 1935 op cit) adds a third to this spooky company A strange legend that still haunts the native people concerns a skeleton hung with buckskin which guarded Marble Cave just on the other side of Caverna del Oro It was the first quarter of the 19th century and an American free trapper wandered too far west The Spaniards for fear he would reveal their hiding place crucified him For a half century he remained pinioned to a wcxxlcn cross Aside from the improbably sadistic mode of execution this image typical of cartoons or folklore reveals ignorance of the properties of real skeletons which do not long remain articulated when exposed to weather decay and scavengers

Others find ulterior significance in our discovery of bones of bison and pronghorn antelope in upper Spanish Cave in the 1960s calling them plains species that would never ascend to such lofty heights Unless someone had used the cave for storing or curing meat (Bill Kaiser The Treasure of Caverna del Oro Colorful Colorado May-June 1973) I did not know this then but these animals have been known to ascend to the alpine tundra in historic ti mes and might have done so more often when they were abundant and unfenced The cave is much too wet to be good ror storing perishables

The Artifacts

Many reliable observers from Carhart and Gilbert onward report finding in the 1920s and 30s old artifacts of unknown provenance in Spanish Cave These include a winch chains whiskey bottle jug timber ladders shovel single-jack and a hammer They have all disappeared or been reduced to fragments but claims made for some of them purport to establish archeological evidence of Spanish presence

Thorp (1935 op CiL) in describing the 1932 Rocky Mountain News expedition states that on the second ledge they found the remains of a rudely constructed ladder which Dr LeRoy Hafen ( then editor historian and curator of the State Historical Society) after carefully examining asserted was at least 200 years old Below after being lowered 110 feet they found a crude hand-forged hammer which the historian declared was of 17th century vintage Gilbert (The Bulletin Dec 1936 op cit) and an Alamosa Courier article (from June 1937) repeat these avowals

These are very important allegations since the Spanish were the only people who could have left such artifacts in the 17th century To investigate them I wrote in 1960 to LeRoy Hafen inquiring about his trip to the cave and his knowledge of its history and specifically whether he had certified the hammer as of 17th-century manufacture and if so who now had it His reply was less specific than my questions but it is a primary document on one of the major claims about Spanish Cave and I reproduce it below verbatim

If LeRoy Hafen made claims of antiquity for the Spanish Cave artifacts in 1932 he obviously did not stand by them later His wife Ann W Hafen in Detective Historian (Denver WesTerners Monthly Roundup July 1954) had also recounted his 1932 cave trip and commented disproving a baseless story is important it is part of the search for truth She elaborated To the party the venture was disappointing No treasure found No relic of the ancient conquistadores But to the

Jourllal of Speleall History 82

detective Historian it was just another clue pursued another myth exploded another triumph for the scholars code -- to build history on fact not on fossilized fiction

Thorp (1935 op cit) relates that the timbers of their ladder system were about eight inches in diameter squared on four sides with an ax Auger holes were bored into their sides and they were fitted with wooden rungs pegged into the holes No nails were used al though this probably would have been done by early Germans or Americans [the wood is] now decayed and may be broken in many ins tances by the hand This construction however is not strong evidence for Spanish work Before the railroad reached the Wet Mountain Valley in the 1880s commodities such as nails would have been scarce and expensive anyone building such structures before then might well have used no metal It would also be stronger than tacking on rungs with nails when not using sawed lumber Concerning the other cave artifacts there is not enough information to suggest a date

BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY PROVOUTAH

January 13 1960

11r Donald G Davia P O Box 145 T1lnlath Colorado

Dear Hr Davia

I ~ intereat~d to learn f~ your letter of January J 1960 of your study and COllCen WJth the Caverna del Oro Hy visit to the cave and descent into it was with a party directed and financed by the Tourist Bureau or its counterpart of the period The contemporary ewspal6rs gave som~ accowtof the venture

I made the firat descant into the cave kt that time ging down the rope bS

you doubtless have done ince I recall at the edg~ of the pit th~re were s(XlIe rotted logs that may have been the framework of a windlass At tho bott~ of the pit I found a suall sledge ~er encrusted with limestone formation I dont recall what was done with this haa-er I remember no other relics in the pit

Our purposo was to investigate certain rumors a3 to early use of the cave as a SVanish mine I think middot there is little~~ion for that as the limestone fonnation is a poor VlOspect fot middotormation

The legnd hat a skeleton was chained to the wall gave added impetus to the trip Needless to eay nothing of the sort was found That cav and some near were epoken of colloctively os the Karble Campve and sune referred to this one as the Caverna del Or~ cave of gold The Kaltes cross painted on the rock at the entrllJce to tle cave already had a faded appearance I know nothi8 of the rk of Capto1n Hom regarding the di Scove ry of ~ he cave

i~J At the bottOlll of the pit Carl Dlaurohpersucd tho crevice out 5 far dS ~ ~ could go and found nothi8 to reward our efforts If Hr Ulaurot is still living i Denver he could give you sooe sidelights on th cave as ho visited it after our initial exploration

Cordially yours

LO 91+-LeRoy R IlcIen DeparUent of History

Some writers (eg Jesse Ball Canon City Daily Record Sept 14 1933) speculate that the cave was used by the Spanish as a refuge from Indian attacks The cave itself being windy wet and ncar-freezing would not have been ideal for such occupancy A ruined fort was alleged to exist below Marble Mountain as early as 1881 (Golden City Transcript Aug 31 1881 citing Cusler City Prospect ) later articles mention rifle pits I have seen what I presume to be these features below timberline and could not distinguish them from the miners prospect pits common in the Colorado mountains The largest log breastwork structure has also been interpreted as an old corral (Jerry Hassemer oral communication) If defensive works they are cr Jde ones indeed

This leaves to be considered the famous cross beside the entrance It is about one and a half feet square with flared ends meeting at the corners It has been variously described as burnt on

Jou rnal of Speean History 83

deeply chiseled or etched but in reality is prosaically painted with what looks to be a stable iron oxide pigment perhaps using some sort of template Portions of It had a thm patma of calcite crust when I first saw it in 1958 Though almost always called Maltese it is not as can be seen by looking up a crosses illustration in any large dictionary The true Maltese cross has indented ends A G Birch (Denver Post Aug 11 1929) correctly pointed out that the cave marker isin the perfect form of a German Iron Cross But he also says it was old when the first white sehler saw it more than sixty years ago without explaining how he knew this A contradictory testimony (Trail and Timberline April 1957) asserts that there is one old-timer who states that he knCv the fellow who painted it years ago as ajoke I wiIl pass over both of these declarations as uncorroborated

Spanish crosses as I have seen them represented on coins and in art have narrow straight-sided arms often with the basal arm longer and with the ends variously embellished They are typically very different from German ones It is suggestive that the first sedentary settlers below Marble Mountain were Germans of the Colfax colony in 1870 The colony as an entity failed within a year but some thirty families took possession of quarter sections and prospered as can be seen by the many descendants still living in the area (Wet Mountain Tribune Centennial Edition Dec 20 1985) German immigrants also arrived later on and the ranches cl osest below the caves remained in possession of the German-derived Henrich and Neermann families into recent years Crosses in the square form seen at the cave were used in German decorative motifs (I have seen an antique coffee-grinder at an abandoned German homestead in eastern Colorado that was ornamented with them) The cross could have been painted by a Colfax settler exploring his surroundings soon after the colonys establishment The dispersal of most of the colony in 1871 would account for the failure of later inhabitants to know who had created it

Alternatively it might have been a product of prospector 1 H Yeoman He figures in one of the earliest known accounts of a Marble Mountain cave in History of the Arkansas Valley Colorado (1881) A later report on this cave (Denver Republican Feb 20 1888) appears to describe Cave of the White Marble Halls south of Spanish Cave and states that the cave was discovered by Yeoman on Sept 16 1880 Yeoman obligingly left a graffito confirming this in the cave and the Kings and Queens Chambers of the article are likewise identified (Another 1881 account -shyGolden Cty Transcript op cit -- describes a similar cave but claims discovery by Messrs Hendershot amp Dickson of Custer City) A red cross like that at Spanish Cave but smaller and with narrower arms marks the entrance the associated graffito in English 400 Feet to the White Marble Halls precludes a Spanish conquistador origin (A writing inside -- Mrs H G ReedSilver Cliff CololHere 8115197 -- is done in a similar ornate hand) I have also seen Yeomans signature in Moonmilk Cave just across the ravine south of Spanish and scarcely possible to reach without seeing the Spanish entrance He must have known of Spanish Cave and pesumably had entered it

[he Geology

Finally a point that seems so obvious that it should hardly need to be mentioned decades of repeated explorations in Spanish Cave have failed to turn up a trace of mining or of gold and there is excellent reason for this Gold is found either where hydrothermal solutions have mineralized host rock or where deposits originating in that fashion have been eroded and concentrated in placer gravels Neither situation applies at Marble Mountain where the caves occur in an unaltered Pennsylvanian biothermal limestone lens sandwiched almost vertically between shales and conglomeratic sandstones (The name Marble Mountain is a misnomer marble is limestone altered -- metamorphosed -- by heat andor pressure The abundance of well-preserved brachiopod and crinoid fossils shows that Marble Mountain is not metamorphosed) The only mineralization known on the mountain is a little low-grade copper on the south limestone outcrop

Jourllal of Speleall History 84

Paul Gilbert notwithstanding the caves are in no way volcanic but are relatively typical highshygradient alpine limestone solution caves dissolved probably by massive runoff from melting snov and ice during Pleistocene glacial epochs Writers have speculated that Spanish Cave had a lower entrance (possible since the cave water does emerge at a spring lower down) and an entrance on the west side of the mountain (not possible since the limestone does not outcrop there) Ironically the only new entrance cavers have actually found was in a direction not suggested by any known author above Its discovery explained the cave wind as a chimney effect between the entrances -- blowing down to the lower opening when it is warmer outside than inside reversing when it is colder outside

Conclusions

I know of no one else who has analyzed the Caverna del Oro stories as thoroughly but I am not the first to publish critical judgments on them Mrs Hafen has already been quoted Also on record (NSS Bulletin 8 July 1946) is a letter dated 10444 from Fred R Johnson Chief Information and Education US Forest Service

Carl Biaurock a member of the Colorado Mountain Club explored this cave in 1925 again in 1931 and later in more detail in 1932 On the last date the exploration was the result of several articles in the Rocky MOUnTain News in which an old yam was mentioned to the effect that the cave had been investigated in the Spanish explorations in the eighteenth [sic] century also that it is supposed to have yielded a large quantity of gold and other valuable minerals there are no signs of any mineral So far as Mr Blaurocks party could tell there is no evidence in the cave of any visitation of Spanish explorers several hundred years ago

Molen (opcit) wrote that this story [from Apodaca] has been disapproved [sic] The tools and ladder in the cave are of comparatively modern origin Blaurock believes Someone years ago must have explored the cave at least as thoroughly as we did he said He also expressed doubt that the rifle pits and fort are of Spanish origin I did not interview Carl Blaurock during my earlier research I telephoned him this summer but he is 98 years old and is too deaf to understand my questions I have sent him a letter of inquiry thus far unanswered

After organized caving had begun William R Halliday founder of the Colorado Grotto of the National Speleological Society also concluded that The fabulous stories are fables The story of Spanish Cave is told (Halliday however was too pessimistic in inferring that the cave was almost completely explored Most of what is now known was discovered just after he wrote but none of the new passage showed signs of human entry)

Diehard romantics might protest that Spanish Cave could still be La Caverna del Oro Caves can hide much perhaps somewhere in the depths there is a localized zone of thermal mineralization conceivably the Spaniards very cleverly concealed the way to the mine workings Such ideas are not impossible but do strain credulity For every verified feature that has been proposed as evidence for Spanish presence there is an alternative explanation that is more plausible The burden of proof then is on the proponents of the Spanish connection The lurid yarns about the cave reflect folklore creation greatly abetted by media exploitation assisted by atrociously sloppy research

The time sequenceof the several names applied to the cave fits this very neatly In sources from 1919 I find The Caves of the Winds From 1920 until 1932 I see Marble Cave Marble

85jOllrtlal of Speleall History

Caves or The Caves but no Spanish-related appellations It is still called Marble Cave at least as late as 1953 (Irma Zanoni Trail amp Timberline Dec 1953) I do not encounter La Cavema del Oro applied to our cave until Lightburns articles of 1932 after which it is common One of Lightburns headlines refers to the old Spanish Cave but Spanish Cave as a proper ~ame seems to appear only in the first Colorado Grotto News amp Notes of Feb 12 1952 where It IS a synonym for Caverna del Oro From then until now Spanish Cave has been the preferred form in the literature of organized caving and in popular media relying on it This unfortunately has helped to maintain the public assumption that the Spanish legendry is based in fact

The caves history is muddled by a series of misnomers a Caverna del Oro with no gold a Maltese cross that is not Maltese marble that is not marble -- and on analyzing the evidence I think that German Cave would have been a more appropriate if less provocative name than Spanish Cave

I expect my skeptical arguments to be ignored by future writers as long as there is a media markcL for exciting treasure tales Why is it important to be critically analytical

Since fact and fiction are not clearly distinguished in media information about the cave many people still believe nonsense about it Apparently the Spanish gold tales retain enough public acceptance to present problems to the Forest Service today It is reported that there was in recent years a proposal to build a road to the cave to facilitate treasure hunting (Jerry Hassemer oral comm)

Furthermore presentation of false gold stories as if they might be true is likely to tempt naive and poorly prepared readers to get in trouble seeking riches This is apparent in a 1957 letter from Roy Truman former District Ranger and colleague of Paul Gilberts (History of the Colorado Grotto 1961)

There was a time when it was very difficult to keep boys away from this cave and I received many calls from parents in Pueblo and other towns all times of the day and night concerning the safety of their boys that had left home with the ideas of exploring this cave with the high hopes of finding valuable ores or treasures they were equipped with a few pieces of small rope [this was probably arter the Depression-era articles]

This problem is also exemplified by a letter in my own files addressed in 1962 to Richard LeSage of the Southern Colorado Grotto from a Denverite He had twenty-four numbered questions including What type of equipiment [sic] will I need (exactly) I havent done much cave exploring Where can I obtain it What type of mask would I need for foul air He concludes We are intending to explore this cave at all cost so your information will be most vilal to us and most appreciable (We never replied deciding that was the safest thing to do)

The extravagance of peoples beliefs about Spanish Cave has sometimes reached quite ridiculous extremes The Colorado Historical Society library has a typescript of research material used by Perry Eberhart in preparing Treasure Tales of the Rockies One note is as follows

Robert Dunne head of Querida sez think cave comes out near Walsenburg or possibly the northern end of Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico never found end

James Dunne Querida

Not even Eberhart was so shameless as to print this in his book

Jourllal of Speleall History 86

There are still many legitimate mysteries left about Marble Mountain and its history How well explored are the ends of Spanish Cave even now Why was Yeomans cave otherwise so clearly White Marble Halls said to have a 275-foot pit Is this an error or a pit now lost Was the vertical Spanish Cave somehow grafted into the account Who really painted the Maltese cross and who put the artifacts into Spanish Why were detailed articles published on White Marble Halls in the 1880s but nothing seems to be on record about Spanish until 1919 in spite of the extensive early work done in it (If the relics were left by Colfax colonists in the 1870s they could not easily have published their explorations as there were yet no newspapers in the Wet Mountain Valley Later Yeoman or other prospectors might have been reticent about calling atlention to the cave if they built ladders down the shafts in the hope of rinding minerals Study 01 the county mining-claim records could be informative)

Future Opportunities

Most knowledge we now have on Marble Mountain history before organized caving is based on writings of big-city visitors from 1919 on When time allows I intend to search the microfilms of Custer County newspapers in the period 1880-1920 to see if items overlooked by library indexers may shed light on the gaps in our knowledge of the Marble Mountain caves Fascinating revelations are very likely to result Johnsons letter of 1944 (op cit) also stated There was evidence of early visitation [in Marble Cave] including names carved on rocks but these date mostly back about 50 years ago Informative graffiti are numerous in Cave of the White Marble Halls but I do not recall seeing any in Spanish Cave during my own explorations in the 1950s and 60s It should be carefully reexamined to see if we have overlooked signatures that could be keys to the solution of the puzzles

Better documentation of the cave itself would also be desirable The Colorado Grotto surveyed most of lower Spanish in the 1950s to the standards then prevailing I do not know the length of the CG survey but it probably included less than 1000 feet The Southern Colorado Grotto discoveries from 1959 to the early 1960s were not surveyed at the time

From 1975 to 1988 Jerry Hassemer led the mapping of 2642 feet of upper Spanish including the main route between entrances and the Rimstone Passage its longest side gallery (Hassemer personal comm Sept 13 1992) (About 1735 feet of this are along the through-route) His survey showed a vertical difference of 449 feet between lower and upper entrance by both internal mapping and a surface closure loop The old Colorado Grotto map appears to show a depth of just over 270 feet from lower entrance to deepest surveyed point thus total surveyed depth of Spanish Cave is about 720 fect (The entrance elevations of Spanish Cave have never been established by survey to a benchmark but altimeter readings and topographic maps suggest that the upper entrance is around 12000 feet)

Other side passages and superimposed levels in upper Spanish remain unmapped In lower Spanish an important branch the waterfall passage -- which may go deeper than the so-called Gold Diggings at the end of the existing map -- remains unsurveyed The high elevation and extremely cold wet conditions continue to inhibit complete exploration and mapping as they have for as long as the cave has been known

87Journal of Speleall History

detective Historian it was just another clue pursued another myth exploded another triumph for the scholars code -- to build history on fact not on fossilized fiction

Thorp (1935 op cit) relates that the timbers of their ladder system were about eight inches in diameter squared on four sides with an ax Auger holes were bored into their sides and they were fitted with wooden rungs pegged into the holes No nails were used al though this probably would have been done by early Germans or Americans [the wood is] now decayed and may be broken in many ins tances by the hand This construction however is not strong evidence for Spanish work Before the railroad reached the Wet Mountain Valley in the 1880s commodities such as nails would have been scarce and expensive anyone building such structures before then might well have used no metal It would also be stronger than tacking on rungs with nails when not using sawed lumber Concerning the other cave artifacts there is not enough information to suggest a date

BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY PROVOUTAH

January 13 1960

11r Donald G Davia P O Box 145 T1lnlath Colorado

Dear Hr Davia

I ~ intereat~d to learn f~ your letter of January J 1960 of your study and COllCen WJth the Caverna del Oro Hy visit to the cave and descent into it was with a party directed and financed by the Tourist Bureau or its counterpart of the period The contemporary ewspal6rs gave som~ accowtof the venture

I made the firat descant into the cave kt that time ging down the rope bS

you doubtless have done ince I recall at the edg~ of the pit th~re were s(XlIe rotted logs that may have been the framework of a windlass At tho bott~ of the pit I found a suall sledge ~er encrusted with limestone formation I dont recall what was done with this haa-er I remember no other relics in the pit

Our purposo was to investigate certain rumors a3 to early use of the cave as a SVanish mine I think middot there is little~~ion for that as the limestone fonnation is a poor VlOspect fot middotormation

The legnd hat a skeleton was chained to the wall gave added impetus to the trip Needless to eay nothing of the sort was found That cav and some near were epoken of colloctively os the Karble Campve and sune referred to this one as the Caverna del Or~ cave of gold The Kaltes cross painted on the rock at the entrllJce to tle cave already had a faded appearance I know nothi8 of the rk of Capto1n Hom regarding the di Scove ry of ~ he cave

i~J At the bottOlll of the pit Carl Dlaurohpersucd tho crevice out 5 far dS ~ ~ could go and found nothi8 to reward our efforts If Hr Ulaurot is still living i Denver he could give you sooe sidelights on th cave as ho visited it after our initial exploration

Cordially yours

LO 91+-LeRoy R IlcIen DeparUent of History

Some writers (eg Jesse Ball Canon City Daily Record Sept 14 1933) speculate that the cave was used by the Spanish as a refuge from Indian attacks The cave itself being windy wet and ncar-freezing would not have been ideal for such occupancy A ruined fort was alleged to exist below Marble Mountain as early as 1881 (Golden City Transcript Aug 31 1881 citing Cusler City Prospect ) later articles mention rifle pits I have seen what I presume to be these features below timberline and could not distinguish them from the miners prospect pits common in the Colorado mountains The largest log breastwork structure has also been interpreted as an old corral (Jerry Hassemer oral communication) If defensive works they are cr Jde ones indeed

This leaves to be considered the famous cross beside the entrance It is about one and a half feet square with flared ends meeting at the corners It has been variously described as burnt on

Jou rnal of Speean History 83

deeply chiseled or etched but in reality is prosaically painted with what looks to be a stable iron oxide pigment perhaps using some sort of template Portions of It had a thm patma of calcite crust when I first saw it in 1958 Though almost always called Maltese it is not as can be seen by looking up a crosses illustration in any large dictionary The true Maltese cross has indented ends A G Birch (Denver Post Aug 11 1929) correctly pointed out that the cave marker isin the perfect form of a German Iron Cross But he also says it was old when the first white sehler saw it more than sixty years ago without explaining how he knew this A contradictory testimony (Trail and Timberline April 1957) asserts that there is one old-timer who states that he knCv the fellow who painted it years ago as ajoke I wiIl pass over both of these declarations as uncorroborated

Spanish crosses as I have seen them represented on coins and in art have narrow straight-sided arms often with the basal arm longer and with the ends variously embellished They are typically very different from German ones It is suggestive that the first sedentary settlers below Marble Mountain were Germans of the Colfax colony in 1870 The colony as an entity failed within a year but some thirty families took possession of quarter sections and prospered as can be seen by the many descendants still living in the area (Wet Mountain Tribune Centennial Edition Dec 20 1985) German immigrants also arrived later on and the ranches cl osest below the caves remained in possession of the German-derived Henrich and Neermann families into recent years Crosses in the square form seen at the cave were used in German decorative motifs (I have seen an antique coffee-grinder at an abandoned German homestead in eastern Colorado that was ornamented with them) The cross could have been painted by a Colfax settler exploring his surroundings soon after the colonys establishment The dispersal of most of the colony in 1871 would account for the failure of later inhabitants to know who had created it

Alternatively it might have been a product of prospector 1 H Yeoman He figures in one of the earliest known accounts of a Marble Mountain cave in History of the Arkansas Valley Colorado (1881) A later report on this cave (Denver Republican Feb 20 1888) appears to describe Cave of the White Marble Halls south of Spanish Cave and states that the cave was discovered by Yeoman on Sept 16 1880 Yeoman obligingly left a graffito confirming this in the cave and the Kings and Queens Chambers of the article are likewise identified (Another 1881 account -shyGolden Cty Transcript op cit -- describes a similar cave but claims discovery by Messrs Hendershot amp Dickson of Custer City) A red cross like that at Spanish Cave but smaller and with narrower arms marks the entrance the associated graffito in English 400 Feet to the White Marble Halls precludes a Spanish conquistador origin (A writing inside -- Mrs H G ReedSilver Cliff CololHere 8115197 -- is done in a similar ornate hand) I have also seen Yeomans signature in Moonmilk Cave just across the ravine south of Spanish and scarcely possible to reach without seeing the Spanish entrance He must have known of Spanish Cave and pesumably had entered it

[he Geology

Finally a point that seems so obvious that it should hardly need to be mentioned decades of repeated explorations in Spanish Cave have failed to turn up a trace of mining or of gold and there is excellent reason for this Gold is found either where hydrothermal solutions have mineralized host rock or where deposits originating in that fashion have been eroded and concentrated in placer gravels Neither situation applies at Marble Mountain where the caves occur in an unaltered Pennsylvanian biothermal limestone lens sandwiched almost vertically between shales and conglomeratic sandstones (The name Marble Mountain is a misnomer marble is limestone altered -- metamorphosed -- by heat andor pressure The abundance of well-preserved brachiopod and crinoid fossils shows that Marble Mountain is not metamorphosed) The only mineralization known on the mountain is a little low-grade copper on the south limestone outcrop

Jourllal of Speleall History 84

Paul Gilbert notwithstanding the caves are in no way volcanic but are relatively typical highshygradient alpine limestone solution caves dissolved probably by massive runoff from melting snov and ice during Pleistocene glacial epochs Writers have speculated that Spanish Cave had a lower entrance (possible since the cave water does emerge at a spring lower down) and an entrance on the west side of the mountain (not possible since the limestone does not outcrop there) Ironically the only new entrance cavers have actually found was in a direction not suggested by any known author above Its discovery explained the cave wind as a chimney effect between the entrances -- blowing down to the lower opening when it is warmer outside than inside reversing when it is colder outside

Conclusions

I know of no one else who has analyzed the Caverna del Oro stories as thoroughly but I am not the first to publish critical judgments on them Mrs Hafen has already been quoted Also on record (NSS Bulletin 8 July 1946) is a letter dated 10444 from Fred R Johnson Chief Information and Education US Forest Service

Carl Biaurock a member of the Colorado Mountain Club explored this cave in 1925 again in 1931 and later in more detail in 1932 On the last date the exploration was the result of several articles in the Rocky MOUnTain News in which an old yam was mentioned to the effect that the cave had been investigated in the Spanish explorations in the eighteenth [sic] century also that it is supposed to have yielded a large quantity of gold and other valuable minerals there are no signs of any mineral So far as Mr Blaurocks party could tell there is no evidence in the cave of any visitation of Spanish explorers several hundred years ago

Molen (opcit) wrote that this story [from Apodaca] has been disapproved [sic] The tools and ladder in the cave are of comparatively modern origin Blaurock believes Someone years ago must have explored the cave at least as thoroughly as we did he said He also expressed doubt that the rifle pits and fort are of Spanish origin I did not interview Carl Blaurock during my earlier research I telephoned him this summer but he is 98 years old and is too deaf to understand my questions I have sent him a letter of inquiry thus far unanswered

After organized caving had begun William R Halliday founder of the Colorado Grotto of the National Speleological Society also concluded that The fabulous stories are fables The story of Spanish Cave is told (Halliday however was too pessimistic in inferring that the cave was almost completely explored Most of what is now known was discovered just after he wrote but none of the new passage showed signs of human entry)

Diehard romantics might protest that Spanish Cave could still be La Caverna del Oro Caves can hide much perhaps somewhere in the depths there is a localized zone of thermal mineralization conceivably the Spaniards very cleverly concealed the way to the mine workings Such ideas are not impossible but do strain credulity For every verified feature that has been proposed as evidence for Spanish presence there is an alternative explanation that is more plausible The burden of proof then is on the proponents of the Spanish connection The lurid yarns about the cave reflect folklore creation greatly abetted by media exploitation assisted by atrociously sloppy research

The time sequenceof the several names applied to the cave fits this very neatly In sources from 1919 I find The Caves of the Winds From 1920 until 1932 I see Marble Cave Marble

85jOllrtlal of Speleall History

Caves or The Caves but no Spanish-related appellations It is still called Marble Cave at least as late as 1953 (Irma Zanoni Trail amp Timberline Dec 1953) I do not encounter La Cavema del Oro applied to our cave until Lightburns articles of 1932 after which it is common One of Lightburns headlines refers to the old Spanish Cave but Spanish Cave as a proper ~ame seems to appear only in the first Colorado Grotto News amp Notes of Feb 12 1952 where It IS a synonym for Caverna del Oro From then until now Spanish Cave has been the preferred form in the literature of organized caving and in popular media relying on it This unfortunately has helped to maintain the public assumption that the Spanish legendry is based in fact

The caves history is muddled by a series of misnomers a Caverna del Oro with no gold a Maltese cross that is not Maltese marble that is not marble -- and on analyzing the evidence I think that German Cave would have been a more appropriate if less provocative name than Spanish Cave

I expect my skeptical arguments to be ignored by future writers as long as there is a media markcL for exciting treasure tales Why is it important to be critically analytical

Since fact and fiction are not clearly distinguished in media information about the cave many people still believe nonsense about it Apparently the Spanish gold tales retain enough public acceptance to present problems to the Forest Service today It is reported that there was in recent years a proposal to build a road to the cave to facilitate treasure hunting (Jerry Hassemer oral comm)

Furthermore presentation of false gold stories as if they might be true is likely to tempt naive and poorly prepared readers to get in trouble seeking riches This is apparent in a 1957 letter from Roy Truman former District Ranger and colleague of Paul Gilberts (History of the Colorado Grotto 1961)

There was a time when it was very difficult to keep boys away from this cave and I received many calls from parents in Pueblo and other towns all times of the day and night concerning the safety of their boys that had left home with the ideas of exploring this cave with the high hopes of finding valuable ores or treasures they were equipped with a few pieces of small rope [this was probably arter the Depression-era articles]

This problem is also exemplified by a letter in my own files addressed in 1962 to Richard LeSage of the Southern Colorado Grotto from a Denverite He had twenty-four numbered questions including What type of equipiment [sic] will I need (exactly) I havent done much cave exploring Where can I obtain it What type of mask would I need for foul air He concludes We are intending to explore this cave at all cost so your information will be most vilal to us and most appreciable (We never replied deciding that was the safest thing to do)

The extravagance of peoples beliefs about Spanish Cave has sometimes reached quite ridiculous extremes The Colorado Historical Society library has a typescript of research material used by Perry Eberhart in preparing Treasure Tales of the Rockies One note is as follows

Robert Dunne head of Querida sez think cave comes out near Walsenburg or possibly the northern end of Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico never found end

James Dunne Querida

Not even Eberhart was so shameless as to print this in his book

Jourllal of Speleall History 86

There are still many legitimate mysteries left about Marble Mountain and its history How well explored are the ends of Spanish Cave even now Why was Yeomans cave otherwise so clearly White Marble Halls said to have a 275-foot pit Is this an error or a pit now lost Was the vertical Spanish Cave somehow grafted into the account Who really painted the Maltese cross and who put the artifacts into Spanish Why were detailed articles published on White Marble Halls in the 1880s but nothing seems to be on record about Spanish until 1919 in spite of the extensive early work done in it (If the relics were left by Colfax colonists in the 1870s they could not easily have published their explorations as there were yet no newspapers in the Wet Mountain Valley Later Yeoman or other prospectors might have been reticent about calling atlention to the cave if they built ladders down the shafts in the hope of rinding minerals Study 01 the county mining-claim records could be informative)

Future Opportunities

Most knowledge we now have on Marble Mountain history before organized caving is based on writings of big-city visitors from 1919 on When time allows I intend to search the microfilms of Custer County newspapers in the period 1880-1920 to see if items overlooked by library indexers may shed light on the gaps in our knowledge of the Marble Mountain caves Fascinating revelations are very likely to result Johnsons letter of 1944 (op cit) also stated There was evidence of early visitation [in Marble Cave] including names carved on rocks but these date mostly back about 50 years ago Informative graffiti are numerous in Cave of the White Marble Halls but I do not recall seeing any in Spanish Cave during my own explorations in the 1950s and 60s It should be carefully reexamined to see if we have overlooked signatures that could be keys to the solution of the puzzles

Better documentation of the cave itself would also be desirable The Colorado Grotto surveyed most of lower Spanish in the 1950s to the standards then prevailing I do not know the length of the CG survey but it probably included less than 1000 feet The Southern Colorado Grotto discoveries from 1959 to the early 1960s were not surveyed at the time

From 1975 to 1988 Jerry Hassemer led the mapping of 2642 feet of upper Spanish including the main route between entrances and the Rimstone Passage its longest side gallery (Hassemer personal comm Sept 13 1992) (About 1735 feet of this are along the through-route) His survey showed a vertical difference of 449 feet between lower and upper entrance by both internal mapping and a surface closure loop The old Colorado Grotto map appears to show a depth of just over 270 feet from lower entrance to deepest surveyed point thus total surveyed depth of Spanish Cave is about 720 fect (The entrance elevations of Spanish Cave have never been established by survey to a benchmark but altimeter readings and topographic maps suggest that the upper entrance is around 12000 feet)

Other side passages and superimposed levels in upper Spanish remain unmapped In lower Spanish an important branch the waterfall passage -- which may go deeper than the so-called Gold Diggings at the end of the existing map -- remains unsurveyed The high elevation and extremely cold wet conditions continue to inhibit complete exploration and mapping as they have for as long as the cave has been known

87Journal of Speleall History

deeply chiseled or etched but in reality is prosaically painted with what looks to be a stable iron oxide pigment perhaps using some sort of template Portions of It had a thm patma of calcite crust when I first saw it in 1958 Though almost always called Maltese it is not as can be seen by looking up a crosses illustration in any large dictionary The true Maltese cross has indented ends A G Birch (Denver Post Aug 11 1929) correctly pointed out that the cave marker isin the perfect form of a German Iron Cross But he also says it was old when the first white sehler saw it more than sixty years ago without explaining how he knew this A contradictory testimony (Trail and Timberline April 1957) asserts that there is one old-timer who states that he knCv the fellow who painted it years ago as ajoke I wiIl pass over both of these declarations as uncorroborated

Spanish crosses as I have seen them represented on coins and in art have narrow straight-sided arms often with the basal arm longer and with the ends variously embellished They are typically very different from German ones It is suggestive that the first sedentary settlers below Marble Mountain were Germans of the Colfax colony in 1870 The colony as an entity failed within a year but some thirty families took possession of quarter sections and prospered as can be seen by the many descendants still living in the area (Wet Mountain Tribune Centennial Edition Dec 20 1985) German immigrants also arrived later on and the ranches cl osest below the caves remained in possession of the German-derived Henrich and Neermann families into recent years Crosses in the square form seen at the cave were used in German decorative motifs (I have seen an antique coffee-grinder at an abandoned German homestead in eastern Colorado that was ornamented with them) The cross could have been painted by a Colfax settler exploring his surroundings soon after the colonys establishment The dispersal of most of the colony in 1871 would account for the failure of later inhabitants to know who had created it

Alternatively it might have been a product of prospector 1 H Yeoman He figures in one of the earliest known accounts of a Marble Mountain cave in History of the Arkansas Valley Colorado (1881) A later report on this cave (Denver Republican Feb 20 1888) appears to describe Cave of the White Marble Halls south of Spanish Cave and states that the cave was discovered by Yeoman on Sept 16 1880 Yeoman obligingly left a graffito confirming this in the cave and the Kings and Queens Chambers of the article are likewise identified (Another 1881 account -shyGolden Cty Transcript op cit -- describes a similar cave but claims discovery by Messrs Hendershot amp Dickson of Custer City) A red cross like that at Spanish Cave but smaller and with narrower arms marks the entrance the associated graffito in English 400 Feet to the White Marble Halls precludes a Spanish conquistador origin (A writing inside -- Mrs H G ReedSilver Cliff CololHere 8115197 -- is done in a similar ornate hand) I have also seen Yeomans signature in Moonmilk Cave just across the ravine south of Spanish and scarcely possible to reach without seeing the Spanish entrance He must have known of Spanish Cave and pesumably had entered it

[he Geology

Finally a point that seems so obvious that it should hardly need to be mentioned decades of repeated explorations in Spanish Cave have failed to turn up a trace of mining or of gold and there is excellent reason for this Gold is found either where hydrothermal solutions have mineralized host rock or where deposits originating in that fashion have been eroded and concentrated in placer gravels Neither situation applies at Marble Mountain where the caves occur in an unaltered Pennsylvanian biothermal limestone lens sandwiched almost vertically between shales and conglomeratic sandstones (The name Marble Mountain is a misnomer marble is limestone altered -- metamorphosed -- by heat andor pressure The abundance of well-preserved brachiopod and crinoid fossils shows that Marble Mountain is not metamorphosed) The only mineralization known on the mountain is a little low-grade copper on the south limestone outcrop

Jourllal of Speleall History 84

Paul Gilbert notwithstanding the caves are in no way volcanic but are relatively typical highshygradient alpine limestone solution caves dissolved probably by massive runoff from melting snov and ice during Pleistocene glacial epochs Writers have speculated that Spanish Cave had a lower entrance (possible since the cave water does emerge at a spring lower down) and an entrance on the west side of the mountain (not possible since the limestone does not outcrop there) Ironically the only new entrance cavers have actually found was in a direction not suggested by any known author above Its discovery explained the cave wind as a chimney effect between the entrances -- blowing down to the lower opening when it is warmer outside than inside reversing when it is colder outside

Conclusions

I know of no one else who has analyzed the Caverna del Oro stories as thoroughly but I am not the first to publish critical judgments on them Mrs Hafen has already been quoted Also on record (NSS Bulletin 8 July 1946) is a letter dated 10444 from Fred R Johnson Chief Information and Education US Forest Service

Carl Biaurock a member of the Colorado Mountain Club explored this cave in 1925 again in 1931 and later in more detail in 1932 On the last date the exploration was the result of several articles in the Rocky MOUnTain News in which an old yam was mentioned to the effect that the cave had been investigated in the Spanish explorations in the eighteenth [sic] century also that it is supposed to have yielded a large quantity of gold and other valuable minerals there are no signs of any mineral So far as Mr Blaurocks party could tell there is no evidence in the cave of any visitation of Spanish explorers several hundred years ago

Molen (opcit) wrote that this story [from Apodaca] has been disapproved [sic] The tools and ladder in the cave are of comparatively modern origin Blaurock believes Someone years ago must have explored the cave at least as thoroughly as we did he said He also expressed doubt that the rifle pits and fort are of Spanish origin I did not interview Carl Blaurock during my earlier research I telephoned him this summer but he is 98 years old and is too deaf to understand my questions I have sent him a letter of inquiry thus far unanswered

After organized caving had begun William R Halliday founder of the Colorado Grotto of the National Speleological Society also concluded that The fabulous stories are fables The story of Spanish Cave is told (Halliday however was too pessimistic in inferring that the cave was almost completely explored Most of what is now known was discovered just after he wrote but none of the new passage showed signs of human entry)

Diehard romantics might protest that Spanish Cave could still be La Caverna del Oro Caves can hide much perhaps somewhere in the depths there is a localized zone of thermal mineralization conceivably the Spaniards very cleverly concealed the way to the mine workings Such ideas are not impossible but do strain credulity For every verified feature that has been proposed as evidence for Spanish presence there is an alternative explanation that is more plausible The burden of proof then is on the proponents of the Spanish connection The lurid yarns about the cave reflect folklore creation greatly abetted by media exploitation assisted by atrociously sloppy research

The time sequenceof the several names applied to the cave fits this very neatly In sources from 1919 I find The Caves of the Winds From 1920 until 1932 I see Marble Cave Marble

85jOllrtlal of Speleall History

Caves or The Caves but no Spanish-related appellations It is still called Marble Cave at least as late as 1953 (Irma Zanoni Trail amp Timberline Dec 1953) I do not encounter La Cavema del Oro applied to our cave until Lightburns articles of 1932 after which it is common One of Lightburns headlines refers to the old Spanish Cave but Spanish Cave as a proper ~ame seems to appear only in the first Colorado Grotto News amp Notes of Feb 12 1952 where It IS a synonym for Caverna del Oro From then until now Spanish Cave has been the preferred form in the literature of organized caving and in popular media relying on it This unfortunately has helped to maintain the public assumption that the Spanish legendry is based in fact

The caves history is muddled by a series of misnomers a Caverna del Oro with no gold a Maltese cross that is not Maltese marble that is not marble -- and on analyzing the evidence I think that German Cave would have been a more appropriate if less provocative name than Spanish Cave

I expect my skeptical arguments to be ignored by future writers as long as there is a media markcL for exciting treasure tales Why is it important to be critically analytical

Since fact and fiction are not clearly distinguished in media information about the cave many people still believe nonsense about it Apparently the Spanish gold tales retain enough public acceptance to present problems to the Forest Service today It is reported that there was in recent years a proposal to build a road to the cave to facilitate treasure hunting (Jerry Hassemer oral comm)

Furthermore presentation of false gold stories as if they might be true is likely to tempt naive and poorly prepared readers to get in trouble seeking riches This is apparent in a 1957 letter from Roy Truman former District Ranger and colleague of Paul Gilberts (History of the Colorado Grotto 1961)

There was a time when it was very difficult to keep boys away from this cave and I received many calls from parents in Pueblo and other towns all times of the day and night concerning the safety of their boys that had left home with the ideas of exploring this cave with the high hopes of finding valuable ores or treasures they were equipped with a few pieces of small rope [this was probably arter the Depression-era articles]

This problem is also exemplified by a letter in my own files addressed in 1962 to Richard LeSage of the Southern Colorado Grotto from a Denverite He had twenty-four numbered questions including What type of equipiment [sic] will I need (exactly) I havent done much cave exploring Where can I obtain it What type of mask would I need for foul air He concludes We are intending to explore this cave at all cost so your information will be most vilal to us and most appreciable (We never replied deciding that was the safest thing to do)

The extravagance of peoples beliefs about Spanish Cave has sometimes reached quite ridiculous extremes The Colorado Historical Society library has a typescript of research material used by Perry Eberhart in preparing Treasure Tales of the Rockies One note is as follows

Robert Dunne head of Querida sez think cave comes out near Walsenburg or possibly the northern end of Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico never found end

James Dunne Querida

Not even Eberhart was so shameless as to print this in his book

Jourllal of Speleall History 86

There are still many legitimate mysteries left about Marble Mountain and its history How well explored are the ends of Spanish Cave even now Why was Yeomans cave otherwise so clearly White Marble Halls said to have a 275-foot pit Is this an error or a pit now lost Was the vertical Spanish Cave somehow grafted into the account Who really painted the Maltese cross and who put the artifacts into Spanish Why were detailed articles published on White Marble Halls in the 1880s but nothing seems to be on record about Spanish until 1919 in spite of the extensive early work done in it (If the relics were left by Colfax colonists in the 1870s they could not easily have published their explorations as there were yet no newspapers in the Wet Mountain Valley Later Yeoman or other prospectors might have been reticent about calling atlention to the cave if they built ladders down the shafts in the hope of rinding minerals Study 01 the county mining-claim records could be informative)

Future Opportunities

Most knowledge we now have on Marble Mountain history before organized caving is based on writings of big-city visitors from 1919 on When time allows I intend to search the microfilms of Custer County newspapers in the period 1880-1920 to see if items overlooked by library indexers may shed light on the gaps in our knowledge of the Marble Mountain caves Fascinating revelations are very likely to result Johnsons letter of 1944 (op cit) also stated There was evidence of early visitation [in Marble Cave] including names carved on rocks but these date mostly back about 50 years ago Informative graffiti are numerous in Cave of the White Marble Halls but I do not recall seeing any in Spanish Cave during my own explorations in the 1950s and 60s It should be carefully reexamined to see if we have overlooked signatures that could be keys to the solution of the puzzles

Better documentation of the cave itself would also be desirable The Colorado Grotto surveyed most of lower Spanish in the 1950s to the standards then prevailing I do not know the length of the CG survey but it probably included less than 1000 feet The Southern Colorado Grotto discoveries from 1959 to the early 1960s were not surveyed at the time

From 1975 to 1988 Jerry Hassemer led the mapping of 2642 feet of upper Spanish including the main route between entrances and the Rimstone Passage its longest side gallery (Hassemer personal comm Sept 13 1992) (About 1735 feet of this are along the through-route) His survey showed a vertical difference of 449 feet between lower and upper entrance by both internal mapping and a surface closure loop The old Colorado Grotto map appears to show a depth of just over 270 feet from lower entrance to deepest surveyed point thus total surveyed depth of Spanish Cave is about 720 fect (The entrance elevations of Spanish Cave have never been established by survey to a benchmark but altimeter readings and topographic maps suggest that the upper entrance is around 12000 feet)

Other side passages and superimposed levels in upper Spanish remain unmapped In lower Spanish an important branch the waterfall passage -- which may go deeper than the so-called Gold Diggings at the end of the existing map -- remains unsurveyed The high elevation and extremely cold wet conditions continue to inhibit complete exploration and mapping as they have for as long as the cave has been known

87Journal of Speleall History

Paul Gilbert notwithstanding the caves are in no way volcanic but are relatively typical highshygradient alpine limestone solution caves dissolved probably by massive runoff from melting snov and ice during Pleistocene glacial epochs Writers have speculated that Spanish Cave had a lower entrance (possible since the cave water does emerge at a spring lower down) and an entrance on the west side of the mountain (not possible since the limestone does not outcrop there) Ironically the only new entrance cavers have actually found was in a direction not suggested by any known author above Its discovery explained the cave wind as a chimney effect between the entrances -- blowing down to the lower opening when it is warmer outside than inside reversing when it is colder outside

Conclusions

I know of no one else who has analyzed the Caverna del Oro stories as thoroughly but I am not the first to publish critical judgments on them Mrs Hafen has already been quoted Also on record (NSS Bulletin 8 July 1946) is a letter dated 10444 from Fred R Johnson Chief Information and Education US Forest Service

Carl Biaurock a member of the Colorado Mountain Club explored this cave in 1925 again in 1931 and later in more detail in 1932 On the last date the exploration was the result of several articles in the Rocky MOUnTain News in which an old yam was mentioned to the effect that the cave had been investigated in the Spanish explorations in the eighteenth [sic] century also that it is supposed to have yielded a large quantity of gold and other valuable minerals there are no signs of any mineral So far as Mr Blaurocks party could tell there is no evidence in the cave of any visitation of Spanish explorers several hundred years ago

Molen (opcit) wrote that this story [from Apodaca] has been disapproved [sic] The tools and ladder in the cave are of comparatively modern origin Blaurock believes Someone years ago must have explored the cave at least as thoroughly as we did he said He also expressed doubt that the rifle pits and fort are of Spanish origin I did not interview Carl Blaurock during my earlier research I telephoned him this summer but he is 98 years old and is too deaf to understand my questions I have sent him a letter of inquiry thus far unanswered

After organized caving had begun William R Halliday founder of the Colorado Grotto of the National Speleological Society also concluded that The fabulous stories are fables The story of Spanish Cave is told (Halliday however was too pessimistic in inferring that the cave was almost completely explored Most of what is now known was discovered just after he wrote but none of the new passage showed signs of human entry)

Diehard romantics might protest that Spanish Cave could still be La Caverna del Oro Caves can hide much perhaps somewhere in the depths there is a localized zone of thermal mineralization conceivably the Spaniards very cleverly concealed the way to the mine workings Such ideas are not impossible but do strain credulity For every verified feature that has been proposed as evidence for Spanish presence there is an alternative explanation that is more plausible The burden of proof then is on the proponents of the Spanish connection The lurid yarns about the cave reflect folklore creation greatly abetted by media exploitation assisted by atrociously sloppy research

The time sequenceof the several names applied to the cave fits this very neatly In sources from 1919 I find The Caves of the Winds From 1920 until 1932 I see Marble Cave Marble

85jOllrtlal of Speleall History

Caves or The Caves but no Spanish-related appellations It is still called Marble Cave at least as late as 1953 (Irma Zanoni Trail amp Timberline Dec 1953) I do not encounter La Cavema del Oro applied to our cave until Lightburns articles of 1932 after which it is common One of Lightburns headlines refers to the old Spanish Cave but Spanish Cave as a proper ~ame seems to appear only in the first Colorado Grotto News amp Notes of Feb 12 1952 where It IS a synonym for Caverna del Oro From then until now Spanish Cave has been the preferred form in the literature of organized caving and in popular media relying on it This unfortunately has helped to maintain the public assumption that the Spanish legendry is based in fact

The caves history is muddled by a series of misnomers a Caverna del Oro with no gold a Maltese cross that is not Maltese marble that is not marble -- and on analyzing the evidence I think that German Cave would have been a more appropriate if less provocative name than Spanish Cave

I expect my skeptical arguments to be ignored by future writers as long as there is a media markcL for exciting treasure tales Why is it important to be critically analytical

Since fact and fiction are not clearly distinguished in media information about the cave many people still believe nonsense about it Apparently the Spanish gold tales retain enough public acceptance to present problems to the Forest Service today It is reported that there was in recent years a proposal to build a road to the cave to facilitate treasure hunting (Jerry Hassemer oral comm)

Furthermore presentation of false gold stories as if they might be true is likely to tempt naive and poorly prepared readers to get in trouble seeking riches This is apparent in a 1957 letter from Roy Truman former District Ranger and colleague of Paul Gilberts (History of the Colorado Grotto 1961)

There was a time when it was very difficult to keep boys away from this cave and I received many calls from parents in Pueblo and other towns all times of the day and night concerning the safety of their boys that had left home with the ideas of exploring this cave with the high hopes of finding valuable ores or treasures they were equipped with a few pieces of small rope [this was probably arter the Depression-era articles]

This problem is also exemplified by a letter in my own files addressed in 1962 to Richard LeSage of the Southern Colorado Grotto from a Denverite He had twenty-four numbered questions including What type of equipiment [sic] will I need (exactly) I havent done much cave exploring Where can I obtain it What type of mask would I need for foul air He concludes We are intending to explore this cave at all cost so your information will be most vilal to us and most appreciable (We never replied deciding that was the safest thing to do)

The extravagance of peoples beliefs about Spanish Cave has sometimes reached quite ridiculous extremes The Colorado Historical Society library has a typescript of research material used by Perry Eberhart in preparing Treasure Tales of the Rockies One note is as follows

Robert Dunne head of Querida sez think cave comes out near Walsenburg or possibly the northern end of Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico never found end

James Dunne Querida

Not even Eberhart was so shameless as to print this in his book

Jourllal of Speleall History 86

There are still many legitimate mysteries left about Marble Mountain and its history How well explored are the ends of Spanish Cave even now Why was Yeomans cave otherwise so clearly White Marble Halls said to have a 275-foot pit Is this an error or a pit now lost Was the vertical Spanish Cave somehow grafted into the account Who really painted the Maltese cross and who put the artifacts into Spanish Why were detailed articles published on White Marble Halls in the 1880s but nothing seems to be on record about Spanish until 1919 in spite of the extensive early work done in it (If the relics were left by Colfax colonists in the 1870s they could not easily have published their explorations as there were yet no newspapers in the Wet Mountain Valley Later Yeoman or other prospectors might have been reticent about calling atlention to the cave if they built ladders down the shafts in the hope of rinding minerals Study 01 the county mining-claim records could be informative)

Future Opportunities

Most knowledge we now have on Marble Mountain history before organized caving is based on writings of big-city visitors from 1919 on When time allows I intend to search the microfilms of Custer County newspapers in the period 1880-1920 to see if items overlooked by library indexers may shed light on the gaps in our knowledge of the Marble Mountain caves Fascinating revelations are very likely to result Johnsons letter of 1944 (op cit) also stated There was evidence of early visitation [in Marble Cave] including names carved on rocks but these date mostly back about 50 years ago Informative graffiti are numerous in Cave of the White Marble Halls but I do not recall seeing any in Spanish Cave during my own explorations in the 1950s and 60s It should be carefully reexamined to see if we have overlooked signatures that could be keys to the solution of the puzzles

Better documentation of the cave itself would also be desirable The Colorado Grotto surveyed most of lower Spanish in the 1950s to the standards then prevailing I do not know the length of the CG survey but it probably included less than 1000 feet The Southern Colorado Grotto discoveries from 1959 to the early 1960s were not surveyed at the time

From 1975 to 1988 Jerry Hassemer led the mapping of 2642 feet of upper Spanish including the main route between entrances and the Rimstone Passage its longest side gallery (Hassemer personal comm Sept 13 1992) (About 1735 feet of this are along the through-route) His survey showed a vertical difference of 449 feet between lower and upper entrance by both internal mapping and a surface closure loop The old Colorado Grotto map appears to show a depth of just over 270 feet from lower entrance to deepest surveyed point thus total surveyed depth of Spanish Cave is about 720 fect (The entrance elevations of Spanish Cave have never been established by survey to a benchmark but altimeter readings and topographic maps suggest that the upper entrance is around 12000 feet)

Other side passages and superimposed levels in upper Spanish remain unmapped In lower Spanish an important branch the waterfall passage -- which may go deeper than the so-called Gold Diggings at the end of the existing map -- remains unsurveyed The high elevation and extremely cold wet conditions continue to inhibit complete exploration and mapping as they have for as long as the cave has been known

87Journal of Speleall History

Caves or The Caves but no Spanish-related appellations It is still called Marble Cave at least as late as 1953 (Irma Zanoni Trail amp Timberline Dec 1953) I do not encounter La Cavema del Oro applied to our cave until Lightburns articles of 1932 after which it is common One of Lightburns headlines refers to the old Spanish Cave but Spanish Cave as a proper ~ame seems to appear only in the first Colorado Grotto News amp Notes of Feb 12 1952 where It IS a synonym for Caverna del Oro From then until now Spanish Cave has been the preferred form in the literature of organized caving and in popular media relying on it This unfortunately has helped to maintain the public assumption that the Spanish legendry is based in fact

The caves history is muddled by a series of misnomers a Caverna del Oro with no gold a Maltese cross that is not Maltese marble that is not marble -- and on analyzing the evidence I think that German Cave would have been a more appropriate if less provocative name than Spanish Cave

I expect my skeptical arguments to be ignored by future writers as long as there is a media markcL for exciting treasure tales Why is it important to be critically analytical

Since fact and fiction are not clearly distinguished in media information about the cave many people still believe nonsense about it Apparently the Spanish gold tales retain enough public acceptance to present problems to the Forest Service today It is reported that there was in recent years a proposal to build a road to the cave to facilitate treasure hunting (Jerry Hassemer oral comm)

Furthermore presentation of false gold stories as if they might be true is likely to tempt naive and poorly prepared readers to get in trouble seeking riches This is apparent in a 1957 letter from Roy Truman former District Ranger and colleague of Paul Gilberts (History of the Colorado Grotto 1961)

There was a time when it was very difficult to keep boys away from this cave and I received many calls from parents in Pueblo and other towns all times of the day and night concerning the safety of their boys that had left home with the ideas of exploring this cave with the high hopes of finding valuable ores or treasures they were equipped with a few pieces of small rope [this was probably arter the Depression-era articles]

This problem is also exemplified by a letter in my own files addressed in 1962 to Richard LeSage of the Southern Colorado Grotto from a Denverite He had twenty-four numbered questions including What type of equipiment [sic] will I need (exactly) I havent done much cave exploring Where can I obtain it What type of mask would I need for foul air He concludes We are intending to explore this cave at all cost so your information will be most vilal to us and most appreciable (We never replied deciding that was the safest thing to do)

The extravagance of peoples beliefs about Spanish Cave has sometimes reached quite ridiculous extremes The Colorado Historical Society library has a typescript of research material used by Perry Eberhart in preparing Treasure Tales of the Rockies One note is as follows

Robert Dunne head of Querida sez think cave comes out near Walsenburg or possibly the northern end of Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico never found end

James Dunne Querida

Not even Eberhart was so shameless as to print this in his book

Jourllal of Speleall History 86

There are still many legitimate mysteries left about Marble Mountain and its history How well explored are the ends of Spanish Cave even now Why was Yeomans cave otherwise so clearly White Marble Halls said to have a 275-foot pit Is this an error or a pit now lost Was the vertical Spanish Cave somehow grafted into the account Who really painted the Maltese cross and who put the artifacts into Spanish Why were detailed articles published on White Marble Halls in the 1880s but nothing seems to be on record about Spanish until 1919 in spite of the extensive early work done in it (If the relics were left by Colfax colonists in the 1870s they could not easily have published their explorations as there were yet no newspapers in the Wet Mountain Valley Later Yeoman or other prospectors might have been reticent about calling atlention to the cave if they built ladders down the shafts in the hope of rinding minerals Study 01 the county mining-claim records could be informative)

Future Opportunities

Most knowledge we now have on Marble Mountain history before organized caving is based on writings of big-city visitors from 1919 on When time allows I intend to search the microfilms of Custer County newspapers in the period 1880-1920 to see if items overlooked by library indexers may shed light on the gaps in our knowledge of the Marble Mountain caves Fascinating revelations are very likely to result Johnsons letter of 1944 (op cit) also stated There was evidence of early visitation [in Marble Cave] including names carved on rocks but these date mostly back about 50 years ago Informative graffiti are numerous in Cave of the White Marble Halls but I do not recall seeing any in Spanish Cave during my own explorations in the 1950s and 60s It should be carefully reexamined to see if we have overlooked signatures that could be keys to the solution of the puzzles

Better documentation of the cave itself would also be desirable The Colorado Grotto surveyed most of lower Spanish in the 1950s to the standards then prevailing I do not know the length of the CG survey but it probably included less than 1000 feet The Southern Colorado Grotto discoveries from 1959 to the early 1960s were not surveyed at the time

From 1975 to 1988 Jerry Hassemer led the mapping of 2642 feet of upper Spanish including the main route between entrances and the Rimstone Passage its longest side gallery (Hassemer personal comm Sept 13 1992) (About 1735 feet of this are along the through-route) His survey showed a vertical difference of 449 feet between lower and upper entrance by both internal mapping and a surface closure loop The old Colorado Grotto map appears to show a depth of just over 270 feet from lower entrance to deepest surveyed point thus total surveyed depth of Spanish Cave is about 720 fect (The entrance elevations of Spanish Cave have never been established by survey to a benchmark but altimeter readings and topographic maps suggest that the upper entrance is around 12000 feet)

Other side passages and superimposed levels in upper Spanish remain unmapped In lower Spanish an important branch the waterfall passage -- which may go deeper than the so-called Gold Diggings at the end of the existing map -- remains unsurveyed The high elevation and extremely cold wet conditions continue to inhibit complete exploration and mapping as they have for as long as the cave has been known

87Journal of Speleall History

There are still many legitimate mysteries left about Marble Mountain and its history How well explored are the ends of Spanish Cave even now Why was Yeomans cave otherwise so clearly White Marble Halls said to have a 275-foot pit Is this an error or a pit now lost Was the vertical Spanish Cave somehow grafted into the account Who really painted the Maltese cross and who put the artifacts into Spanish Why were detailed articles published on White Marble Halls in the 1880s but nothing seems to be on record about Spanish until 1919 in spite of the extensive early work done in it (If the relics were left by Colfax colonists in the 1870s they could not easily have published their explorations as there were yet no newspapers in the Wet Mountain Valley Later Yeoman or other prospectors might have been reticent about calling atlention to the cave if they built ladders down the shafts in the hope of rinding minerals Study 01 the county mining-claim records could be informative)

Future Opportunities

Most knowledge we now have on Marble Mountain history before organized caving is based on writings of big-city visitors from 1919 on When time allows I intend to search the microfilms of Custer County newspapers in the period 1880-1920 to see if items overlooked by library indexers may shed light on the gaps in our knowledge of the Marble Mountain caves Fascinating revelations are very likely to result Johnsons letter of 1944 (op cit) also stated There was evidence of early visitation [in Marble Cave] including names carved on rocks but these date mostly back about 50 years ago Informative graffiti are numerous in Cave of the White Marble Halls but I do not recall seeing any in Spanish Cave during my own explorations in the 1950s and 60s It should be carefully reexamined to see if we have overlooked signatures that could be keys to the solution of the puzzles

Better documentation of the cave itself would also be desirable The Colorado Grotto surveyed most of lower Spanish in the 1950s to the standards then prevailing I do not know the length of the CG survey but it probably included less than 1000 feet The Southern Colorado Grotto discoveries from 1959 to the early 1960s were not surveyed at the time

From 1975 to 1988 Jerry Hassemer led the mapping of 2642 feet of upper Spanish including the main route between entrances and the Rimstone Passage its longest side gallery (Hassemer personal comm Sept 13 1992) (About 1735 feet of this are along the through-route) His survey showed a vertical difference of 449 feet between lower and upper entrance by both internal mapping and a surface closure loop The old Colorado Grotto map appears to show a depth of just over 270 feet from lower entrance to deepest surveyed point thus total surveyed depth of Spanish Cave is about 720 fect (The entrance elevations of Spanish Cave have never been established by survey to a benchmark but altimeter readings and topographic maps suggest that the upper entrance is around 12000 feet)

Other side passages and superimposed levels in upper Spanish remain unmapped In lower Spanish an important branch the waterfall passage -- which may go deeper than the so-called Gold Diggings at the end of the existing map -- remains unsurveyed The high elevation and extremely cold wet conditions continue to inhibit complete exploration and mapping as they have for as long as the cave has been known

87Journal of Speleall History