Just outside
the old mining town of Manitou Springs one can find many interesting
geographical and geological phenomena. In many cases, amongst
these findings, one can also discover true adventure. This amazing
region is known as the Pikes Peak region which lay beneath a prehistoric
inland sea almost 500 million years ago.
In 1000 A.D. an Apache Indian tribe named
the Jicarilla lived in the Pikes Peak region. They were familiar
with the "hole in the rocks" which would later be known as
the Cave of the Winds, but they never entered the cave because they
were superstitious. They believed that the low, moaning sound
created by the wind swirling around the cave's entrance was the voice
of their great Spirit who inhabited the cave, it would anger the Great
Spirit and he would twist then in mind and body for disturbing his home.
The entrance to the caves.
This canyon is full of caves.
The Ute Indians moved into the area in
the 1600's. It is believed that they used the cave for protection
from storms and attacking settlers, but they never entered any farther
than a few feet from the cave's entrance.
Before the civil war, early prospectors
many have stumbled upon the cave, but if they did, no record was left
behind.
During the late 1800's more and more
people began to settle in the new resort town Manitou Springs at the
foot of Pikes Peak. It was during this time that beautiful Williams
Canyon began to draw the interest of many people.
On our wild journey, we descend
into the ground.
In the 1870's a small cave named Mammoth
Cave was found in the Williams Canyon no far from Manitou Springs city
limits. A local quarryman named Tom Green sat near the entrance
and charged adventures 50cents to see the cave. During the spring
of 1880 the Reverend Rosell T. Cross and a group of boys were hiking
in the canyon on a church exploratory outing. They came up to
Tom Green and were informed of the cave admission fee. Considering
50cents too much, the group set out to find their own cave. Far
up the canyon two of the boys, John and Pickett, found and old overgrown
trail leading to a hole in the side of the mountain. The boys
shouted to the Reverend of their great discovery, and together the group
explored the small tunnels and rooms that make up the lower level of
the now famous Cave of the Winds.
Magnificent stalactites and formations
coat the cave walls.
Down in Manitou Springs, a man named
George Snider heard of Pickett's cave. Snider began poking around
the same small holes and passageways the boys explored, but he went
one step further - he brought a shovel. After several days of
digging, crawling, and exhausting himself searching for something new,
Snider found the unexpected. "Holding my candle high... the sight
was so deeply embedded in my memory it can never be effaced. It
was as though Aladdin with his wonderful lamp had affected the magic
result."
This stalactite is rare and is
in pristine condition.
He had discovered many of the rooms that
are explored today and that now make up the very visited, "Cave
of the Winds."
On our tour, there are many caves
to discover.
*Feature
written by Phillips, Jan 2002. All information regarding cave
dimensions, history and discovery was provided to us by Cave of the
Winds and can be documented with Newspaper clippings from the Colorado
Springs Gazette.
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