قراءة كتاب Carlsbad Caverns National Park, New Mexico The Story of its Early Explorations, as told by Jim White

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Carlsbad Caverns National Park, New Mexico
The Story of its Early Explorations, as told by Jim White

Carlsbad Caverns National Park, New Mexico The Story of its Early Explorations, as told by Jim White

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دار النشر: Project Gutenberg
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element of bright lights—certainty—and sure-footed guides along well-established paths. Their three-day exploration was an unbroken chain of hazards and thrills, findings and fears, adventures which sound exaggerated even when evidence lends them support!


Towering Stalagmites from Floor of the Big Room, the Tallest one aptly called the Totem Pole

If you could ask Jim White about his biggest thrill during that unbelievable three-day experience, he would say: “During the last day, I was over in one corner of what we later called ‘The Big Room’, crawling along a ledge of rock. I sat down to rest and just looked around as I sat there. Over on the other side of the ledge, what do you suppose I saw? Staring right back at me was the skull of a man! Fast as I could I brought my torch about, and there was the whole skeleton intact. If I thought some giant could have been living in this cave along with the giant formations, right there seemed to be my proof! Those thigh-bones looked to me like the biggest kind of beef-shanks! I tried to pick up one of the leg-bones and it crumbled in my fingers. Just about that time a drop of water fell on my hand. Only the Good Lord knows how long that skeleton had been lying under that drip, but it must have been long enough for the mineral water to soften the bones. It took just a touch to crumble the thigh, but the skull was not under the drip, so it was perfect. When I picked it up, the Kid backed away. I suggested that we’d take it back to camp with us, or the boys would never believe we found a skeleton in the cave.”

Jim White’s proposal brought a hesitant question from the Kid.

“How we take it?”

“Oh, we’ll put it in the bag with the grub”, Jim replied.

The groceries had been the Kid’s responsibility, till then. Firmly, immediately he told Jim White: “Then you carry it!” Jim did. Sometime later a doctor in Carlsbad borrowed the skull to examine it. Someone borrowed it from him, and that one in turn loaned it to someone else, until eventually all trace of it was lost ... a most unfortunate eventuality, since the skull would have been among the most treasured of the cave-souvenirs in Jim White’s collection.

Jim finally deduced that the skeleton was all that remained of some Indian who wandered into the cave out of curiosity, even as Jim himself had done. Failing to find the way out, the Indian must have starved there on the ledge. Cowboy White was often heard to muse that this Indian must have been an unusually brave Red Man, for it is known that Indians feared darkness and the unknown above all else. That might be the logical explanation for the fact that there was never found any trace of Indian habitation within the cavern, even though small groups lived in the vicinity. An Indian cooking-pit can still be seen near the cavern entrance, beside the present flagpole.

Other skeletons were found by Jim White, though none had the spectacular thrill for him engendered by that first sight of a frame-work of a man.

With all their excitement to feed their interest, Jim and his youthful companion might have stayed longer than three days, but for an untoward event which Jim would describe:

“I had the oil for our torches. It was in a gallon can ... the can in a gunny-sack slung over my shoulder. The can started leaking and my clothes were soaking up kerosene.... Before long my back was sore and burning, so I was planning to stop as soon as we got off the ledge we were crawling on at the time. Wanted to fix my back, the best I could in there. But the Kid, crawling along behind me, brought his torch too near my back. The next instant, I was hanging on a narrow shelf of rock, my clothes blazing, and a gallon can of oil on my back!”

If he hung there on the ledge, he would burn to death. If he let go, he’d be dashed to pieces on the rocks below. If he threw the can away, they’d be left without oil for the torches on the trip from the cavern—if he lived long enough to start that journey!

There was only one thing to do—and Jim White did it. He scooted across that ledge like a cat after a bird. At the first level spot, he threw the oil-can down and slapped his big cowboy sombrero over it. The Kid followed from the ledge, and while Jim smothered the flames from the oil-can with his hat and made fervent prayers that the can would not explode, the Kid skinned out of his own coat, pressing it around Jim’s shoulders! Quick thinking bolstered intuition, and the fire was out very quickly, but not before the heat had gone through Jim’s leather vest, blistering very badly. The hair was burned from the back of his head. Arms and hands were painfully burned.

Urgent need for treatment and bandages stopped the two-man exploration of the cavern, leaving much to be learned—much to be imagined—much to be told after three wonderfilled days of wandering.


The Hall of Giants Section of the Big Room—Approximately 2,000 feet long and about 1,100 feet wide

But Jim White might as well have saved his breath. Convincing the gang at the ranch and camp was a hopeless task, and the Kid’s command of English was so inadequate that he could contribute little except “Si, si!” and nods of enthusiasm. That wasn’t enough. The story fell on unresponsive ears.

On the streets of Carlsbad, then called “Eddy”, just a few days after his fiery experience, Jim White met a friend who had once visited Mammoth Cave in Kentucky. The friend countered Jim’s story with the belief that there just couldn’t be a bigger cave than Mammoth! ... so before long, two heads bent over encyclopedias and reference books with pictures and information about caves. The more Jim White learned—the more pictures he saw—the more positive he became that the cave he had explored was larger and more beautiful than any cavern then on record! At the turn of the century, Jim White had talked “bats” and “cave” until word went ’round that both the bats and the cave were in Jim’s head!


Scenes in and near Carlsbad Caverns National Park

Stalagmite
Shuttle bus
Cave touring party
Cave entrance
Stalagmite



PICTURES PROVE JIM’S STORY

Jim White’s first descent into the cave was in 1901. During the next few years he was unable to convince anyone of the attractions of the cave sufficiently to have them pay much attention to its beauty. But as early as 1903 interest developed in the guano known to be there. In that year Abijah Long filed a placer mining claim to guano and other mineral rights for twenty

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