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Luella Agnes Owen - Cave Regions of the Ozarks and Black Hills

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CAVE REGIONS OF THE OZARKS AND BLACK HILLS

by

LUELLA AGNES OWEN.

Membre titulaire de la Societe de Speleologie, and
Fellow of the American Geographical Society.







[Illustration: Entrance To Marble Cave. Page 25.]





Cincinnati.
The Editor Publishing Co.

1898.




The illustrations for this volume are from photographs by the following
artists:

The Views of Marble Cave, by Stone & De Groff, Warrensburg, Missouri.

The Tower of Babel, The Chimes, The Knife Blade, The Needle, The Bridal
Veil, by Meddaugh, of Leadville, So. Dakota.

Top of Glacier, by L.W. Marble, Wind Cave, So. Dakota.

White Onyx Masses, Fairies' Palace, by J.W. Pike, Hot Springs, So.
Dakota.

The Wilderness Pinery, by D. Benton Miller, Alton, Missouri.

Approaching Deadwood, by H.R. Locke & Co., Deadwood, So. Dakota.

Copyrighted
The Editor Publishing Company.
1898.




TO
MY MOTHER
THIS BOOK IS AFFECTIONATELY
DEDICATED.




CONTENTS.


CHAPTER. PAGE.

I A General View 1

II Marble Cave 25

III Marble Cave Continued 43

IV Fairy Cave and Powell Cave 58

V Other Stone County Caves 73

VI Oregon County Caves 82

VII The Grand Gulf 95

VIII The Black Hills and Bad Lands 103

IX Wind Cave 113

X Wind Cave Continued 127

XI " " " 141

XII " " Concluded 151

XIII The Onyx Caves 162

XIV Crystal Cave 175

XV " " Concluded 183

XVI Conclusion 211




Cave Regions of

THE OZARKS AND BLACK HILLS.




CHAPTER I.

A GENERAL VIEW.

"O'er mountains bright with snow and light,
We crystal hunters speed along,
While grots, and caves, and icy waves,
Each instant echo to our song;
And when we meet with stores of gems
We grudge not kings their diadems."
--_Thomas Moore._


The southern half of the State of Missouri, and the Black Hills of South
Dakota, offer exceptionally delightful regions for the study of caves,
or Speleology as it has been named, and the sister sciences of geology
and geography at the same time. In fact it is impossible to study either
without giving attention to the other two, and therefore, instead of
being separate sciences, they are the three branches of a great
scientific trinity.

The regions here referred to enjoy the advantage, and at the same time
suffer the disadvantage, of being comparatively little known to the ever
restless tide of tourists who naturally hail with pleasure the
announcement that some easily accessible, and thoroughly charming spot,
has escaped their attention altogether, with a marvelous store of
attractions which are both extremely old and wholly new.

Each of these regions has a peculiar geological history not repeated in
any other portions of the earth's surface: each is blessed with its own
peculiar style of beautiful scenery: and each vies with the other and
all the world besides for the supremacy of its truly wonderful caves.
Yet it should be well understood that the claims are not based on an
unworthy spirit of rivalry, nor any desire to deny the greatness and
beauty of already famous members of the Cave family. It is simply an
announcement that the family is much larger than has been generally
supposed, and the more recently presented members worthy of the full
measure of distinguished honors.

The geological authorities of both states have for many years mentioned
the beauty and importance of these regions, and urged their claims to
public attention, but have been prevented, by the pressure of other
duties, from giving to the caves such careful study and full reports as
they deserve, as it would have been a pleasure to give, and as has been
possible in states of less extent where the general work of the
department is more advanced, and the volume of tourist travel created an
early demand for scientific explanation.

Without any great difficulty we can understand the process of cave
excavation by the action of percolating acidulated water on the
limestone, and its subsequent removal as the volume of surface drainage
diverted to the new channel gradually increased. But it is not so easy
to offer a reason for the varied forms with which the caves are
afterwards decorated. Why is it the charmed waters do not leave the
evidence of their slow passage only in plain surfaces of varying widths,
and the stalactites and stalagmites whose formation we can readily
account for? And why do not the deposits take the same forms in all
caves with only such variations as would naturally result from
differences in topography? The law is written, but in unfamiliar
characters that render our reading slow and uncertain. Yet it is
conspicuously noticeable that those caves showing the most delicately
fragile and wonderfully varied forms of decoration are those traversed
by the most sweeping and changeable, or even reversible, currents of
air; which might lead to the conclusion that the moisture is sprayed or
converted into a light, misty vapor, and then deposited in exactly the
same manner as the beautiful frost-work at Niagara: the direction and
force of the current determining the location of the frail deposits.

Since the largest and most important caves occur in limestone, a little
special attention to the cause of their occurrence there may serve to
show that although speleology has only recently received its name and
been elevated to the rank of a separate and independent science, it is
one of the earth's ancient institutions.

Our geologists, who have unearthed many secrets not dreamed of even in
Humboldt's "good phylosopy," have settled the question of how the
different kinds of caves were formed, according to the character of
rocks they are in, or their location and depth, and the natural agencies
to whose action they show signs of having been subjected.

Dr. H.C. Hovey, in his "Celebrated American Caverns," says: "In visiting
caves of large extent, one is at first inclined to regard the long
halls, huge rifts, deep pits and lofty domes, as evidences of great
convulsions of nature, whereby the earth has been violently rent
asunder. But, while mechanical forces have had their share in the work,
as has been shown, the main agent in every case has been the
comparatively gentle, invisible gas known as carbonic acid. This is
generated by the decay of animal and vegetable substances, and is to a
considerable degree soluble in water. Under ordinary circumstances one
measure of water will absorb one measure of carbonic acid; and the eye
will detect no difference in its appearance. Under pressure the power of
absorption is rapidly increased, until the water thus surcharged has an
acid taste, and effervesces on flowing from the earth, as in Saratoga
water.

"Rain-water, falling amid leaves and grass, and sinking into the soil,
absorbs large quantities of carbonic acid. On reaching the underlying
limestone, the latter is instantly attacked by the acidulated water in
which it is dissolved and carried away.

"It is agreed among geologists, amazing as the statement may seem, that
the immense caverns of Virginia, Kentucky and Indiana, including Mammoth
Cave itself (the largest of all), were eaten out of the solid mass of
limestone by the slow, patient, but irresistible action of acidulated
water."

Professor N.S. Shaler says: "The existence of deep caverns is a sign
that the region has long been above the sea."

Through the kindness of Professor C.J. Norwood, Chief Inspector and
Curator of the Geological Department of Kentucky, it is possible to
quote the first official report made on the caves of that state and
published in 1856, in Volume I., Kentucky Geological Survey Reports.
Dr. Norwood says: "Referring to the 'Subcarboniferous Limestone' (now
known as the St. Louis group of the Mississippian series), Dr. Owen
says: 'The southern belt of this formation is wonderfully cavernous,
especially in its upper beds, which being more argillaceous, and
impregnated with earths and alkalies, are disposed to produce salts,
which oozing through the pores of the stone effloresce on its surface,
and thus tend to disintegrate and scale off, independent of the solvent
effects of the carbonated water. Beneath overhanging ledges of
limestone, quantities of fine earthy rubbish can be seen, weathered off
from such causes. In these I have detected sulphate of lime, sulphate of
magnesia, nitrate of lime, and occasionally sulphate of soda. The
tendency which some calcareous rocks have to produce nitrate of lime is,
probably, one of the greatest causes of disintegration.'"

"Most extensive subterranean areas thus have been excavated or
undermined in Edmonson, Hart, Grayson, Butler, Logan, Todd, Christian
and Trig. In the vicinity of Green River, in the first of these
counties, the known avenues of the Mammoth Cave amount to two hundred
and twenty-three, the united length of the whole being estimated, by
those best acquainted with the Cave, at one hundred and fifty miles; say
that the average width and height of these passages amount to seven
yards each way, which is perhaps near the truth; this would give upwards
of twelve million cubic yards of cavernous space which has been
excavated through the agency of calcareous waters and atmospheric
vicissitudes."

Page 169: "On the south side of Green River the platform of limestone
forming the descent into Mammoth Cave is two hundred and thirty-two feet
above Green River."

"The entrance to the cave, being thirty-eight feet lower than this bed
of limestone, is one hundred and ninety-four feet above Green River. In
the above two hundred and thirty-two feet there are several heavy masses
of sandstone, viz.: at one hundred and twenty-five, one hundred and
forty-five, one hundred and fifty, one hundred and sixty and two hundred
and fifteen feet, but it is probable that most of these have tumbled
from higher positions in the hill, as no alterations of sandstone have
been observed at these levels in the cave. From an elevation of from two
hundred and forty to two hundred and fifty feet, the prevalent rock is
sandstone without pebbles, which can be seen extending up to three
hundred and twelve feet to the foundation of the Cave Hotel. The united
thickness of the limestone beds on this part of Green River, is about
two hundred and thirty feet, capped with eighty feet of sandstone.
About midway of the section on this part of Green River, are limestones
of an obscure oolitic structure, but no true oolite was observed. Many
of these limestones are of such composition as to be acted on freely by
the elements of the atmosphere, which, in the form of nitric acid,
combine with the earthy and alkaline bases of calcareous rock, and give
rise to the formation of nitrates with the liberation of carbonic acid;
hence the disintegrated rubbish of the caves yields nitrate of potash
after being treated with the ley of ashes and subsequent evaporation of
the saline lixivium. The wonderfully cavernous character of the
subcarboniferous limestones of the Green River valley, and, indeed, of
these particular members of the subcarboniferous group throughout a
great part of its range in Kentucky and Indiana, is due in a great
measure to this cause, together with the solvent and eroding effects of
water charged with carbonic acid. The 'rock-houses' frequently
encountered both in this formation and in the limestones of Silurian
date, are produced by similar causes; the more easily disintegrated beds
gradually crumbling away, while the more durable remain in overhanging
ledges. By the oxidation of other elements, sulphates of oxide of iron
and alkalies result, which, by double decomposition, with carbonate of
lime, give rise to the formation of gypsums which appears in the form of
rosettes, festoons and various other imitative forms on the walls and
ceilings of the caves. Crystallizations of sulphate of soda and sulphate
of magnesia are not uncommon, both in some of the caves and in sheltered
situations under shelving rocks."

The explanations thus given of the excavation and subsequent refilling
and decoration of the limestone caves of Kentucky and Indiana apply
equally well to those of other states; but it is to be remembered that
at the time of Dr. Owen's report, onyx, the most beautiful and valuable
of dripstones, had not yet been discovered in the United States; while
now especially fine deposits are known in California, Utah, Missouri,
South Dakota and Arkansas; the Missouri supply being exceptionally
valuable on account of the marvelous delicacy and beauty of its
coloring; nor can it soon be exhausted, as deposits have been found in
eight counties and further exploration will no doubt discover more.

Concerning the Subcarboniferous, or Mississippian Series in Part I.,
Vol. IV., Missouri Geological Survey, Dr. C.R. Keyes says: "In the great
interior basin of the Mississippi the basal series is exposed more or
less continuously over broad areas, extending from northern Iowa to
Alabama, and from Ohio to Mexico."

While this broadly extended series of limestone is honey-combed in many
places and all directions by wonderful caverns, those of the Ozark
regions in Missouri, although comparatively little known, are well worth
knowing, and are possibly the most ancient limestone caves in the world.
Of the region in which they occur, Dr. Keyes, in the volume last quoted,
says: "The chief typographical feature of the state has long been known
in the Ozark uplift, a broad plateau with gentle quaquaversal slopes
rising to a height of more than one thousand five hundred feet above
mean tide, and extending almost entirely across the southern part of the
district. On all sides the borders of this highland area are deeply
grooved by numberless streams flowing in narrow gorges. Against its
nucleus of very ancient granites and porphyries the Ozark series of
magnesian limestone was laid down. Then the area occupied by these rocks
was elevated, and around its margins were deposited successively the
other members of the Paleozoic. The Ozark region was thus the first land
to appear within the borders of the present state of Missouri." He
further says: "Although it has long been known that the Magnesian
Limestones are older than the Trenton, and that they lie immediately
upon and against the Archaean crystallines unconformably, their exact
geological age has always remained unsettled. There seems to be but
little doubt, however, that part of the series is equivalent to the
Calciferous of other regions. It is also pretty well determined that
certain of the lower beds, all below the 'Saccharoidal' Sandstone
perhaps, are representatives of the Upper Cambrian or Potsdam. These
conclusions appear well grounded both upon stratigraphical and faunal
evidence. The rocks of the Ozark region have not as yet received the
necessary detailed study to enable the several lines of demarkation to
be drawn with certainty. This investigation is now being carried on as
rapidly as possible, and promises very satisfactory and interesting
results in the near future."

"The early geological reports represent the Magnesian Limestone series
as made up of seven members. Following Swallow, these may be briefly
described in the present connection. Beginning at the top, they are:

First Magnesian Limestone.
First, or Saccharoidal Sandstone.
Second Magnesian Limestone.
Second Sandstone.
Third Magnesian Limestone.
Third Sandstone.
Fourth Limestone."

"The Fourth" Magnesian Limestone, or lowest number of the Ozark series
recognized, has its typical exposures along the Niangua and Osage rivers
in Morgan and Camden counties.

Professor Swallow, in his Missouri Geological Survey Reports I. and II.,
1853 and 1854, says: "Caves, natural bridges and subterranean streams
occur in the valley of the Osage and its tributaries." The same
authority of forty years ago also mentions that "Some of the grandest
scenery in the State is produced by the high castellated and mural
bluffs of this (Third Magnesian Limestone) Formation, on the Niangua and
the Osage." Another reference to the scenery on these rivers describes
it as "Wild and grand, beautiful and unique;" with "gaudy-colored
bluffs." In the section on building materials he remarks: "One of the
most desirable of the Missouri marbles is in the Third Magnesian
Limestone on the Niangua. It is fine-grained, crystalline,
silico-magnesian limestone of a light drab, slightly tinged with
peach-blossom, and beautifully clouded with the same hue or flesh color.
It is twenty feet thick and crops out in the bluffs. This marble is
rarely surpassed in the qualities which fit it for ornamental
architecture."

The Ozarks in the extreme southern portion of the state are even less
known to the world, but the scenery is grand, the climate delightful,
and the caves worthy of a visit for themselves alone. The State of
Missouri being one third larger than England, and of equal size to
Switzerland, Holland, Belgium and Denmark combined, it is not surprising
that interesting discoveries are still to be expected.

The climate is so varied on account of the range in latitude and
altitude, and the natural resources are so great, the claim has been
made that if the State were surrounded by an impassable wall, its
citizens need not be deprived of any article necessary to a refined and
luxurious mode of living: and according to Mr. Henry Gannett in "The
Building of a Nation," the population in 1890 was 73.42 per cent. native
whites of native parents, the colored a little less than 6 per cent.,
and nearly two-thirds of the balance, native born of parents, one or
both of whom were foreign.

Although the Ozark region has not yet received sufficient attention to
dull its charm for the explorer, the fact has been established that its
earliest sedimentary rocks are of the Cambrian Age and still occupy
mainly the position in which they were originally deposited. Therefore
we need not be surprised to discover that some, at least, of the
excavations are proportionately ancient; and that the Natural Bridges
are the last remaining positive evidence of their former existence and
final collapse. That the Natural Bridges of Missouri mark the
destruction of more ancient caves than the one preserved to geological
history by Virginia's grand attraction, seems quite evident. The greater
age of the rocks indicates the possibility of earlier excavation while
their undisturbed position suggests that destruction resulted, not from
violent earth movement, but from the slow action of agencies requiring
long periods of time.

Before proceeding to a discussion of the caves visited personally for
the gratification of private interest, it is desirable to know what
attention has been given to the subject, incidentally, in the course of
regular official duty on the Missouri Geological Survey.


CAVES DESCRIBED IN THE STATE REPORTS.

Although many unknown caves must yet be discovered in the imperfectly
explored portions of the vast Ozark forests, these finds are already so
numerous as to seldom attract attention according to their just
desserts.

One of the comparatively recent of these discoveries is Crystal Cave, at
Joplin, described on page 566, Vol. VII., Missouri Geological Survey
Report 1894.[1] It was opened in the lower workings of a shaft of the
Empire Zinc Company, and "The entire surface of the cave, top, sides and
bottom, is lined with calcite crystals, so closely packed together as
to form a continuous sheet and most of them of great size, and well
formed faces. Scalenohedra as much as two feet long are sometimes seen,
and others a foot or more in length are common. Planes or crystal
ghosts, sometimes with pyrite crystals, marking stages of growth in the
calcite crystals, are often distinguishable. The entire absence of
anything like stalactites is noticeable, and together with the presence
of the crystals, show that the cave was completely filled with water
during their growth." In the same volume, all those counties in the
extreme southwest corner of the state, whose geological age has not
heretofore been considered positively determined, are mapped as Lower
Carboniferous, and Lower Silurian, with the Coal Measures covering
portions of Barton and Jasper and appearing in a few small, scattered
spots in Dade, Polk, Green and Christian counties, and some scanty lines
of Devonian fringing the edges of the Silurian in Barton and McDonald.

Other State reports make mention of many caves and fine springs, and
also several natural bridges worthy of special notice. In Mr. G.C.
Broadhead's report for 1873-1874, he gives a short but interesting
chapter on caves and water supplies, in which he says that "Caves occur
in the Third Magnesian Limestone, Saccharoidal Sandstone, Trenton,
Lithographic, Encrinital and St. Louis Limestone."

"In Eastern and Northeast Missouri there have not been found many large
caves in the Encrinital Limestone, but the lower beds of this formation
in Southwest Missouri often enclose very large caverns; among the latter
may be included the caves of Green County with some in Christian and
McDonald. Those in McDonald I have not seen, but they are reported to be
very extensive and probably are situated in the Encrinital Limestone."

Under the head of "Special Descriptions" he says: "On Sac River, in the
north part of Green County, we find a cave with two entrances, one at
the foot of a hill, opening toward Sac River, forty-five feet high and
eighty feet wide. The other entrance is from the hill-top, one hundred
and fifty feet back from the face of the bluff. These two passages
unite. The exact dimensions of the cave are not known, but there are
several beautiful and large rooms lined with stalactites and stalagmites
which often assume both beautiful and grotesque life-like forms. The
cave has been explored for several hundred yards, showing the formations
to be thick silicious beds of the Lower Carboniferous formations."

"Knox cave, in Green County, is said to be of large dimensions. I have
not seen it, but some of its stalactites are quite handsome."

"Wilson's Creek sinks beneath the Limestone and appears again below."

"There are several caves near Ozark, Christian County, which issue from
the same formation as those in Green County. On a branch of Finly Creek
a stream disappears in a sink, appearing again three-quarters of a mile
southeast through an opening sixty feet high by ninety-eight feet wide.
Up stream the cave continues this size for a hundred yards and then
decreases in size, and for the next quarter of a mile further it is
generally ten by fourteen feet wide. A very clear, cool stream passes
out, in which by careful search crawfish without eyes can be found."

"There is another cave a few miles south of Ozark, and another ten miles
southeast occurs in the Magnesian Limestone."

"In Boone County there are several caves in the Encrinital Limestone.
Conner's, the largest, is said to have been explored for a distance of
eight miles."

"In Pike and Lincoln there are several small caves occurring in the
upper beds of Trenton Limestone, which are often very cavernous. On
Sulphur Fork of Cuivre, there is a cave and Natural Bridge, to which
parties for pleasure often resort. The bridge is tubular with twenty
feet between the walls, and is one hundred feet long."

"At J.P. Fisher's on Spencer Creek, Ralls County, there is a cave having
an entrance of ninety feet wide by twenty feet high. The Lower Trenton
beds occupy the floor, with the upper cavernous beds above. On the
bluff, at a distance of one hundred and fifty yards back, there is a
sink-hole which communicates with the cave. Within the cave is a cool,
clear spring of water, and Mr. F. said he could keep meat fresh there
for six weeks during midsummer."

"The Third Magnesian Limestone which occupies such a large portion of
Southwest Missouri, often contains very large caves. One of them, known
as Friede's cave, is six or eight miles Northwest of Rolla, on Cave
Spring Creek."

"It is said to have been explored for several miles, but I only passed
in a few hundred yards. The stalactites here are very beautiful,
assuming the structure of satin spar. A very clear stream of water
issues out. West of the Gasconade, on Clifty Creek, is a remarkable
Natural Bridge which I have elsewhere described in Geological Survey of
Missouri, 1855-71, page 16."

"Mr. Meek speaks of a large and interesting cave on Tavern Creek, in
Miller County. Dr. Shumard estimates a cave on Bryant's Fork, in Ozark
County, to be a mile and a half long."

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