Emily Maze
10/1/17
We woke to a chilly windy morning
at the Wind Cave campsite. We got into the mystery machine and headed to Wind
Cave’s Visitor Center to see if there were any cases. We giddily stamped our
National Park Passports and browsed the shop and history billboards while
waiting for our tour of the cave. The time was drawing near, so we waited at
the start of the tour.
BethAnn
arrived and explained the rules of caving such as don’t touch the cave walls
because it turns them green. She said there are no snakes, spiders, bats, or
stalagmites due to no water passing through the sandstone layer. We followed
her to the entrance and were flabbergasted at the hole being about the size of
a full brimmed sunhat. Then to our relief, she was just showing it to us as the
biggest natural entrance. The hole breathes in when the weather is forecasted
to be sunny and out when it’ll storm.
We
were lead to the actual entrance where Ed, a random adult in the group,
volunteered to be the one who stays in the back to ensure no one goes missing.
Then, we were lead through twisting tunnels where the ceiling sometimes got
short and the width narrow. Just as we thought she was leading us to our dooms,
she stopped and told us about the rare rock formations of box work and cave
cotton.
The
next stop we had, she turned out the lights and lit a candle to demonstrate how
Alvin McDonald explored the cave alone with string attached to the entrance to
get back. He gave tours and purposefully made the candle long enough to only
last halfway so he could make them buy another. At the last stop, we learned
about Jumping White Horse giving up his name to be in the Civil Conservation
Corps. The CCC poured cement into tractor tires to build the stairs and
walkways in Wind Cave and hand dug the elevator shaft. Three tires equaled
about one stair.
We
also learned that humans were tricked to leave the cave of safety by a spider
who said the surface was beautiful and warm. The Earth was freezing and not
ready for humans. Their God heard their prayers and turned them into bison. The
other humans could now surface and live off the bison.
This
was the end and Ed didn’t lose anybody so there weren’t any cases here. We
drove off to Lander Wyoming. On the way, Velma, Boz, had a striking discovery
that those large wooden fences that didn’t close couldn’t keep animals in so
they must be snow fences. I guess that’s one mystery solved.
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