South Dakota can boast of yet another cave in the Black Hills that was formed by volcanic disturbance of the rocks and afterwards decorated in a manner peculiar to itself. This is Crystal Cave. It is nine miles from Piedmont in the eastern edge of the Hills, and easily visited from that point by way of the narrow-gauge road, which winds along the natural curves of the beautiful Elk Creek canon, whose walls are said to expose a depth of almost a mile of geological strata, although the exposure at any one point does not exceed three hundred feet.

The disappointment of not having seen this cave during the summer visit to the Hills grew as the weeks pa.s.sed, and a request that the owner should send a description was answered with an a.s.surance that it was impossible. Therefore, on Friday, November 13th, 1896, with a small nephew, Herbert A. Owen, Jr., for company, the trip was undertaken a second time to complete the unfinished mission.

The first glimpse of the Hills is at Edgemont in the early morning, but the train makes its way to the north through the heart of the uplift, twisting about the curves of the hills and clinging to the sides of a beautiful canon whose high walls give way here and there to fine slopes densely covered with forests of pine and spruce. These look black in the distance and suggested the name of Black Hills to the Indians, who always have a reason for the names they give even to their children.

There are great tracts where fire has killed part or all of the timber but left much of it standing, while in other places nature has defied the power of fire and the hills are re-clothed with young trees. A recent storm had further beautified the region with a few inches of snow, but as the day advanced a chinook began to blow so that when Deadwood was reached, soon after noon, only the northern exposures retained an appearance of winter.

Deadwood is a most peculiar little city and very attractive in its peculiarity, being crowded snugly into a depression between a number of steep pine-wooded hills, which gives an appearance suggestive of a bird's nest securely located among the forks of a branching tree, and as is the case in a nest, business is chiefly transacted at the lowest depth of the enclosure. As the busy center of a great gold-mining region, the metropolis of the Hills, and the outgrowth of an exciting historical past, it claims and receives interesting attention. And while the whole Black Hills region is still distinctly a man's country, it is called woman's paradise, and surely nowhere else are the daughters of Eve received with a more gracious courtesy or surrounded by an equally un.o.btrusive protecting care.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Approaching Deadwood. Page 176.]

The streets leading up to the residences lack very little of standing on end, and the houses appear to have been hung in place by means of hooks and wire cord like pictures on a wall. The smelter has no reception day but admits visitors as if their pleasure were a guarantee of profit.

The finest scenery in the Hills is said to be that of the Spearfish Canon, north of Deadwood, and the finest of that at the Falls, but this may be doubtful as other points are very beautiful, especially where the Burlington & Missouri Road requires a distance of seven miles to climb the canon wall.

Piedmont being the nearest town to Crystal Cave, we took the early evening train on the Elk Horn Road and soon were located, and shocked to learn that the proprietor of the cave had started several days before to drive to Wind Cave for specimens. The cave was closed and no one there.

The trip had been taken for the one purpose of exploring Crystal Cave, and a letter sent in advance to announce our coming, but the train carrying it was an hour late so he drove off without the mail.

There seemed at first nothing to be done but take the next returning train, which, under the circ.u.mstances, was objectionable. A night's rest and a telegram that had to be sent twelve miles by special messenger, improved the situation. The proprietor was unavoidably detained at Wind Cave, but secured a reliable guide, expressed me the cave keys, and has since married the "specimen" he had gone in quest of. May great happiness dwell at the cave many years!

The morning of the third day after our arrival found arrangements all complete, and soon after the train left Piedmont it entered Elk Creek Canon, which is always beautiful, but on that morning was exceptionally so on account of a sudden change in the weather having covered every visible portion of the pa.s.sing landscape with heavy frost. The trees on distant hills that ordinarily are black, were, for once, all softly white, and when the tall pines in the canon were shaken by a breeze, they cast a shower of flakes like snow.

Here the canon walls are in Carboniferous Limestone with a pleasing variety of color in the strata, and the erosion-carving not overdone, the most notable piece being the Knife-blade. This, at first view, appears to be a high, round tower, but the train following the curve, reveals the fact that it is not a tower, but a thin, curved knife-blade. The sun just for one instant shone through a rift in the clouds, and added special charm to the scene.

[Ill.u.s.tration: The Knife-Blade. Page 178.]

A short distance beyond is Crystal Cave station, where the guide was waiting to take us in charge. He is an intelligent young man who has served an enlistment term in the army, is recently married, very obliging, and proud of being trustworthy.

The scenery here is most beautiful as well as grand. The canon makes a sharp turn toward the south, and on the north opens out into another canon of even greater beauty and higher walls, the perpendicular being three hundred feet in places. Crystal Cave is in the hill embraced by the junction curve. The natural entrance is more than two hundred feet above the canon bed and was naturally approached from above. A short walk up the north canon, whose name has unfortunately slipped away, was over ice and snow the chinook had failed to reach, and brought us to a long stairway against the wall, which affords a more direct approach than nature gave and is a fair test of physical perfection.

Finally a resting place is reached where the grandeur of the view can be enjoyed; and then a shorter stairway completes the ascent of the wall, but not of the hill, so there is still a considerable upward walk through the forest of tall pines all carpeted with brilliant mats of kinnikinic with its shining leaves, glowing in shades of green and red, trying to rival the bright scarlet berries. The kinnikinic here resembles the wintergreen of the east, while in the mountains in Colorado it grows in the form of a shrub two to three feet in height, but with no variation in the leaf or berry.

At last perserverance is rewarded with a view of the cave buildings and the summit of the hill rising yet higher beyond, and tall, straight pines swaying in the rising wind over all.

One of the two houses was entered and preparations quickly made for entering the cave, the artificial tunnel entrance being only a little distance further on.

The door was unlocked, candle-sticks taken from a shelf within, candles from the guide's supply lighted, and we went forward at last, into Crystal Cave. At the end of the new tunnel, a second door was pa.s.sed through, which is locked on the inside during the visiting season by the last guide to enter, in order that no chance late arrival may enter alone and be lost.

The first room is a small one at the junction of the natural and artificial entrances, from which we go upstairs to the Resting Room, in the highest level of the cave, and perfectly dry but otherwise of no special interest. After a short rest here we went down stairs at the side opposite that on which we entered, into a pa.s.sage leading to the cave's first beauty, the Red Room. As the name indicates, the walls are vividly colored and represent the uncertain line which separates the Carboniferous strata from the Tria.s.sic rocks. The color is handsomely brought out here in contrast with ma.s.ses of calcite crystal, so as to present by the combination a charmingly beautiful room, from which we retired, feet first, down a "squeeze" to the Bridal Chamber, where we found ourselves perched on an irregular narrow ledge, high up on the wall, and cherishing a private conviction that exploration had met a checkmate; but the guide reached the floor and my nephew, Herbert, scrambled down with as much ease as the chipmunk he had chased to the house top a while before; so a little application settled the difficulty and re-united the party. The room is an artistic study in red, and the only reason for its being called the Bridal Chamber is that the way out is decidedly more rough and difficult than that by which the entrance is effected; this, however, is an observation not based on official information.

Off to one side of this room is Lost Man's Paradise, also in red and crystal, named in honor of the timely rescue of one who had faced the possibility of becoming a lost soul.

Another Fat Man's Misery, on a lower level, leads from the Bridal Chamber to the Big Dome, a large room with a fine dome-shaped ceiling from which heavy ma.s.ses of crystals have fallen to the floor; and down a steep incline from here is Reef Rock, an immense fallen rock with box work on the under side, which at one time served to ornament the ceiling; and now this rock marks the beginning of Poverty Flat, a broad, low pa.s.sage of great extent, that has been robbed of all its wonderful treasure of crystal and ends in a steep, rough declivity named Bunker Hill by the guides who dreaded to mount it when going out loaded with specimens. At the foot of the Hill is a bowlder of enormous size and with a pointed top, known as Pyramid Rock and giving the same name to the large room in which it stands.

Every portion of Crystal Cave has at one time been heavily crusted with calcite crystals, mainly of the dog-tooth variety, and any barren places are so either because the surface has been removed for specimens, or thrown down by the violence of an earthquake. But where the latter has been the cause of removal, the crystals have in most cases been renewed, which is amply evidenced by the fallen ma.s.ses being crystallized on all sides; and these as well as most of the walls, are not covered thinly with one crust, but layer has been added to layer until the thickness is four to ten inches and often more. The ceilings that have been denuded by nature's forces during the same early period when water filled the cave were also renewed.

From the Pyramid Room a narrow fissure forms a pa.s.sage to the Cactus Chamber, where there is a marvelous floor on which the crystals are in bunches like cacti, and the beautiful ceiling is the finest and most irregular unbroken ma.s.s of crystal yet seen.

Pa.s.sing through a round hole known as the Needle's Eye, we enter Statuary Hall, where the latest inrush of water has eroded the sharp points from the crystals, leaving only smooth surfaces, and at the same time done much curious carving, the most conspicuous pieces of this work being a bear and the heads of an Indian and his baby.

Out from the Hall are two important routes, one down the steep incline of Beaver's Slide to The Catacombs, and another, which we followed first, is through Rocky Run, a rough and rocky pa.s.s, to a large and handsomely crystallized chamber called the I.X.L. Room, on account of those three letters, over twelve inches in height, being distinctly and conspicuously worked in crystal on a magnificent piece of box work that would weigh nearly half a ton, for which an offer of five hundred dollars is said to have been refused.

The next chamber beyond is Tilotson Hall, very large and extremely rough, and named in honor of a teacher from the Normal School, who delivered an address here that gave much pleasure to both visitors and guides.

The way to farther advance is now more difficult and through a jagged crevice of threatening appearance, but the trip is made in safety and with comparative ease, and brings us into Notre Dame, one of the largest chambers in the cave and perhaps the finest, although where so much is fine that may be uncertain. The display of box work and crystal is sufficiently gorgeous to do honor to the famous old cathedral of France, the ceiling especially being a masterpiece of the builder's and decorator's arts; but the grandest portion, which a visitor recently returned from foreign travel called The Russian Castle, on account of the magnificence of the large box work and pearly crystal ma.s.ses, should rather be known as the great cathedral's crowning glory, The Altar.

Another large room, the handsome Council Chamber, is entered just as that Altar of pearl is lost to view; and from there an up-hill trip is taken through a narrow crevice to Whale Flat, which is the natural history room, with a large whale as the show specimen.

Going out from here we enter another crevice which serves as a steep stairway descending to a lower level, and measures from top to bottom one hundred and eighteen feet. This is called Rip Van Winkle's Stairway, and although merely a high and crooked crack in the rock, is very beautiful because heavily coated with crystal, the effect being especially striking at the top where the crystal is partly worn away and leaves exposed patches of red rock.

At the foot of the Stairway is the first room containing water, and is called the Gypsy Camp. It is the most charming chamber yet visited, with not the smallest spot of plain or common rock visible. The ceiling, walls, floor, and groups of fallen rocks, are all unbroken ma.s.ses of pearly calcite in crystals of varied sizes, with here and there a patch coated over with pure white carbonate of lime, or supporting a bunch of fragile egg-sh.e.l.l, which is a thin, hollow crust of lime carbonate, almost invariably having the pointed form of the dog-tooth spar. And there are also beautiful mats and banks of dainty white carbonate flowers. While waiting here for the guide to go in quest of the lunch we had carelessly left behind, the time was utilized in measuring the room, which is a small one. The size of the cave and our limited time for seeing it, prevented much-desired measurements from being taken in all parts of the cave.

This room was found to be forty-eight feet long, the irregular width varied from fourteen to thirty feet and the height from four and one-half to ten feet. The crystal water basin is especially beautiful and the water so clear that we stood looking into it with disappointment, being thirsty and thinking it dry, until the guide laughingly dipped and offered a cupful. The basin is the segment of a circle rounding beneath a ma.s.sive, overhanging crystal ledge of wonderful beauty, and is nine feet long by two in width. This room and the Stairway into it are alone worthy of a visit, but there is much that is finer still.

Out of Gypsy Camp by way of Gunny Sack Crawl, so named by the workmen who spread gunny sacks to relieve the torture of crawling over the beautiful floor of sharp crystals, we enter the first chamber, where active operation is still maintained and certain branches of the great decorative industry of the cave may be carefully studied. This operative chamber, which is unnamed, would no doubt be called a factory in the east, but in its own locality would more likely be referred to as The Works.

The next chamber entered is Crystal Flat, whose floor is completely covered with immense crystal blocks, and the wonderful crystal ceiling is exceedingly fine. But time being limited we must pa.s.s on into the Lake Room, where is Crystal Lake, the largest body of water in the cave.

It is about thirty feet long by fifteen wide and its greatest depth is said to be ten feet. The water is cold and clear, and the gold fish introduced as an experiment three years ago are said to have grown rapidly but not yet turned white, and are not known to have become blind.

[Ill.u.s.tration: The Bridal Veil. Page 187.]

At some little distance from Crystal Lake, and not within the same range of vision, although in the same room, is Dry Lake, which to the surprise of the guide we found to be not dry, but full of limpid water through which we could distinctly see the delicate cl.u.s.ters of crystals it is depositing. They are of a pale honey yellow and are called Gum-drops on account of the resemblance to that variety of confection.

The name Dry Lake was given because in blasting out a pa.s.sage a misdirected shot went through the bottom of the Lake, which in consequence was soon drained; but the heavily charged water has sealed up the unfortunate break, and resumed its interrupted work. The ceiling drops to a height of little more than three feet directly above the Lake margin, and is a beautiful crystal ma.s.s, which at a little distance down the sloping floor appears as the background for a fine piece of cave statuary called The Bridal Veil, and formed of cream-tinted dripstone.

Not a great deal of imagination is required to see a slender girlish figure completely enveloped in the flowing folds of a wedding veil that falls lightly about her feet. The figure itself is three feet ten inches in height and stands on an almost flat circular base of the same material, that measures nine inches in depth and two feet eight inches in diameter. At times the water rises sufficiently to cover the base, in proof of which it left a fringe-like border of small sharp crystals, such as could be formed only beneath the water's surface. Most of this border has, unfortunately, been chiseled off for specimens, but will be renewed in time if left undisturbed; and that condition can easily be secured with a few feet of wire netting.

To one side of this room is a most daintily beautiful alcove so profusely decorated with fragile forms of dripstone that a pa.s.sage through it without causing damage is extremely difficult. This alcove is about twenty-five feet in either direction, with a sloping floor almost covered with stalagmitic growths above the earlier deposit of sharp crystals, and many of these rise in slender columns to the gla.s.s-like ceiling, which varies in height from three to six feet and is thickly studded with small stalact.i.tes of both varieties--the pointed, solid form, and those of uniform size, which are always hollow like a pipe stem. The central ornament is the Chimes, a musical group of stalact.i.tes which is scarcely more beautiful than Cleopatra's Needle, at a distance of a few feet to one side, a transparent column four feet in height and having an average circ.u.mference of seventeen inches.

[Ill.u.s.tration: The Chimes. Page 188.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: The Needle. Page 188.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Tower of Babel. Page 189.]

The Abode of the Fairies is a similar, though smaller room, with The Tower of Babel for a handsome show-piece. While this portion of the cave is extremely attractive, the measurements given show that in comparison with caves of other states the drip deposit here is too small to be reckoned an important feature in itself, but in conjunction with the miles of calc-spar that give the cave a character distinctly its own, it well repays all attention.

Leaving Lake Room we enter a newly opened, long, dry pa.s.sage to Slab Room, where a comparatively recent earthquake has shaken down the ornamental ceiling and spread it in great slabs over the floor; and having since remained perfectly dry it has the appearance of being the work of yesterday. This room is remembered as the one in which a party of workers were lost, and one of their number gave a severe nervous shock to the junior proprietor by suggesting that as he was acting as guide and unable to lead them out, it was only right that he should be the first victim to satisfy their hunger. A rescuing party with extinguished candles was listening behind a rock to the blood-curdling speech, and came forward to restore cheerfulness.

A long, irregular, frosty looking crevice called Jack Frost Streak, conducts us from Slab Room and ends at Mold Ladder, on which we pause to admire a wonderful growth of snow-white cave vegetation, before ascending into Santa Claus' Pa.s.s, the longest pa.s.sage in the cave. It is a rough crevice named from the fact of being discovered on Christmas Eve, and ends at the Government Room on the main tourist route where a U.S. pack saddle and apparently portable bath tub are conspicuous.

Next beyond is a very large room named New Zealand, on account or its icy appearance and the undisputed possession of a seal. This room in turn opens into Mold Chamber, where an old board platform, formerly used for the display of specimens, has fostered the most marvelously beautiful growth of mold: it hangs in ropes five and six feet long, with ta.s.seled ends, and in broad, looped draperies; but is most beautiful where it has taken possession of the rocks and spreads out on the flat surface like large open fans, with deep, soft feather borders.

Having been in the cave eight hours, we now followed the outward pa.s.sage from Mold Chamber and soon reached an open trap door where the guide suggested to Herbert that he would be afraid to go down alone and allow him to close the door; but the child surprised him by quietly stepping down and then asking why he wished it, only to be told "because we are coming too." Which we did and found ourselves in the main entrance pa.s.sage, and in due time returned to the outer world where a terrific wind was roaring through the tall pines and the early winter evening had already closed in dark.

The guide locked the cave, walked with us to the house where he lighted a lamp and left us to prepare for the return to town; but the lamp, belonging to a bachelor, was empty, so we made our preparations in imitation of the blind. On the guide's return he lighted a candle, but suggested that twenty minutes were generally allowed for reaching the station.

The house was accordingly closed and as we walked down the long, curving slope to the stairway, he told of a new and unknown bob-tailed wolf that has recently made its first appearance among the hills in considerable numbers and to the terror of stock. It attacks and bites horses or cattle, and after waiting for the fatal poison inflicted to take effect, falls to and eats the victim.