Spaulding's Cavern

In the fall of 1848 a trapper named Jacob Spaulding discovered a great cavern hidden inside North Gateway Rock in the Garden of the Gods. The entrance was on the west side of the rock. It was nothing but a small, smooth hole - with barely enough room for a man to squeeze through. Once inside, Spaulding was forced to crawl upward for twenty-five feet to the floor of a large room. The room itself was some fifteen feet wide, a hundred feet high, and nearly two hundred feet long. The dirt floor was covered with the tracks of bobcat and mountain lion. A little stream of cold water trickled down from the ceiling. And everywhere inside it was dark. Not a glimmer of light shone through the solid sandstone rock.

The cavern which Spaulding discovered became quite well known as the years went by. In the summer of 1858 the Lawrence Party of gold seekers seem to have used it as shelter from the afternoon thunderstorms. The blackened traces of their campfires on the sandstone walls could be seen by later visitors for many years. One member of the Lawrence Party, a diarist named Augustus Voorhhees, carved his name on one of the cavern walls. In 1859 a young gold seeker from Illinois crawled up the narrow passageway into the great cavern; he wrote that his whispers reverberated off the cavern walls like the sounds of thunder.

For the next fifty years visitors to the Garden continued to explore the cavern's darkened passageways and to carve their names into its sandstone walls. By the turn of the century, however, the narrow entrance had become covered over with weeds and bushes, and the very existence of the cavern was forgotten. Not until 1935 was the entrance re-discovered. Plans were made to once again allow visitors inside, but the dangers of falling rock persuaded park authorities to permanently seal off access. The only way to explore Spaulding's Cavern today is through the written accounts of early visitors.

The 1859 Account

of

Calvin Perry Clark

The earliest written description of Spaulding's Cavern came from the hand of Calvin Perry Clark, a young gold seeker of 1859. Calvin had come to the gold fields with his father and several friends and relatives. After a fruitless search in the environs of Denver City, the party followed the base of the mountains south to Pikes Peak. Enroute Calvin had been fascinated by the many rock formations that lined Monument Creek. When he reached the trail up Ute Pass, Calvin could contain himself no longer, and rushed off to see the giant monoliths in the Garden of the Gods.

After checking out Ketner's Cave on the west side of White Rock, Calvin turned his attention to nearby North Gateway Rock:

"now I was called upon to go and help a man from off the red rock, who had been climing and broke his holt slipt and fell but caut again but had sprained his ancle so that he was unable to get down without help. so I crossed over the smooth grassy spot of about 5 rodd which is along between the rocks, so with carful climing and a little cation about the rotten rock in the little water holes I helpt him to the ground. this rock is some six or seven hundred feet high...I travailed around this rock and visited several caves or caverns but the one I did not explore was the most curios of all. it was about 2 by 3 f at the mouth but grew larger as you entered for 8 or 10 f and when you would give a hoars laugh it would be gon a moment and then come back laughing like thunder, but as the boys had been gon some time and as I was wet and had no light I followed them, passing several crazy rocks and following a kind of a revein we came to the Fountain Caboia in about 1 1/2 miles which was only about knee deep at this time. over took the teem on the ruff road up the pass and near the Sody Springs."

Source: Two Diaries, introduced by Malcolm G. Wyer. Denver Public Library, 1962.

The 1867 Account

of

Fitz Hugh Ludlow

Fitz Hugh Ludlow visited Colorado Territory in 1867. He traveled in a small wagon called an ambulance. During his short stay in the Pikes Peak region he used the El Paso House as a springboard for extended visits to the springs of Manitou and the Garden of the Gods. It was on his first visit to the Garden that he explored Spaulding's Cavern.

"The right hand or northern warder of the gateway is more wedge-shaped than tabular, and contains within it a cavern, which we penetrated with some difficulty by a small aperture opening near the base of the western side. Twelve feet of prostrate squeezing brought us into a vault about fifty feet long, ten feet high, and a dozen wide. We lighted our candles, but there was not much to see. The walls of the hollow were damp; but there was no dripping water, and of course, in a gritty rock like this, there were no stalactites or secondary formations of any kind."

SOURCE: Heart of the Continent, by Fitz Hugh Ludlow. (New York: Hurd and Houghton, 1870).

Hayden Survey Party

The geologists of the Hayden Survey paid little attention to the mysteries of Spaulding's Cavern or to the beauty of the Garden of the Gods. Their report was more informative than poetic. They were interested in scientific fact, and their description of Spaulding's Cavern was accordingly very brief:

"There is a somewhat extensive cave in the north portion of the sandstone ridge that forms the entrance to the 'Garden of the Gods.' It is caused by the washing away of a soft layer, about three feet thick, by a little stream of water that trickles down from the summit of the ridge."

Source: First, Second & Third Annual Reports of the United States Geological Survey of the Territories for the Years 1867, 1868, 1869. Published in 1873.

The 1871 Account

of

George C. Anderson

George C. Anderson and his travel companions paid a man with a spring wagon $8 to take them on a tour of the Pikes Peak region, including the Garden of the Gods. They brought along some lemon sugar, a flask of brandy, and a substantial lunch. On reaching the Gateway Rocks, the men climbed out of the wagon and entered Spaulding's Cavern:

"Within this rock is a cave, large enough to accommodate a very large congregation of people. Its ceiling is sixty to seventy feet high. The only entrance is through a small opening on its western side, barely large enough to admit a good sized man. On entering we strike a light and by it's dim flickering, we wind our way upward twenty five or thirty feet, until we reach the floor of the cave, which extends further than our dim light could penetrate. Fearing to disturb the slumbers of a grizzly bear or rattlesnake we went no farther in the dark but contented ourselves by singing, hallooing, and shooting our revolvers the report of which was deafening. On coming out of the cave, we slide through without difficulty.

Source: "Touring Kansas and Colorado in 1871: The Journal of George C Anderson," Kansas Historical Quarterly, Vol. XXII, No.4, Winter, 1956.

The 1881 Account

of

George W Ramspert

George W. Ramspert wrote his account of Spaulding's Cavern for the Western Echo in 1881. In it he described an earlier visit to the Garden, when he and some companions found a small, smooth hole on the west side of North Gateway Rock. Taking a lantern and some tallow candles, they crawled inside:

"After going but a few feet we could stand erect; and then, each with a light in his hand, we penetrated the cavern, which ran into the body of the solid rock. It was twenty feet high and ten feet wide, and so ascending that we were obliged to crawl upon our hands and knees as we proceeded. The floor was covered with dust from the rocks; and in this we could see many tracks, some imitating the wild cat and panther...we crawled on until we came to the end, which was fully twenty yards from the entrance. Here a small stream of water gushed forth from the side of the cavern and, after running a short way, terminated in a small pool worn in the rocky floor, from which it sank unperceived away. We tested the water, and found it cool and pure, and in the lamplight it glittered like crystal.”

The Re-discovery

of

Spaulding's Cavern

Sometime early in the twentieth century visitors to the Garden of the Gods stopped exploring Spaulding's Cavern. The entrance became covered over with weeds and bushes. Eventually the very existence of the cavern was inexplicably forgotten. Not until the mid-1930's was the cavern re-discovered. The story of its re-discovery was told in the 13 October 1935 issue of the Colorado Springs Sunday Gazette and Telegraph:

"The lost cave in the Garden of the Gods has been found!

"With all the romance that a cave can have, John A. McDougal, superintendent of the Palmer park CCC camp, and enrollees at work in the Garden of the Gods have discovered, and opened, an ancient cavern where many of the earliest of the pioneers carved their names, with dates, upon the walls.

"It is the largest of the gateway rocks, underneath the Kissing Camels, a curious rock formation. The cave is a long corridor that makes this massive rock partly hollow. It is hundreds of feet from end to end of it and it is more than 10 feet wide in places and has a ceiling 100 feet high.

"The city park board has ordered the entrance closed and barricaded, and no one is allowed to enter it. This is because a piece or rock fell from the top and just missed one of the explorers. The public will not be admitted until it shall have been determined that the cave is safe.

"The discovery was as storylike as the cave itself. A short time ago an old man called at the Hidden Inn in the Garden of the Gods, saying that he had brought his great-grandchildren to show them the cave underneath the Kissing Camels, which he remembered as a boy.

"Why there is no cave underneath the Kissing Camels," he was told.

"Yes, there is," he persisted. "There is a large one in that west gateway rock. Many a time have I seen it."

"The aged visitor and his great-grandchildren went away disappointed. But MacDougal and the CCC men started to investigate. They found a small hole. Not a dog could have made his way into it. But it looked promising and they started to dig. It opened up wider and wider, and soon sure enough, they found themselves within a large cave.

"The walls were carved with names and initials, which extended down to the very floor, leading them to believe that much dirt had fallen on the bottom of the cave. This they started to remove, ever finding more rock carvings on the walls as they dug deeper. The park board was notified and the work of removing dirt went on until 75 truckloads had been taken out. This dirt must have accumulated very gradually, for when all of it had been removed names and initials were found carved so high on the walls that it would require a long ladder to get up to them.

"It is impossible to identify the names with the dates in many instances, so many are the carvings and so irregularly are they placed upon the walls of this historic cave. In one place there is an '1858.' This was before Colorado City, now the west side of Colorado Springs was founded. The Pikes Peak region was a wilderness then. Nearby it is the name 'C.C. Graf,' altho there is no telling whether it is connected with this date. Part of the carvings in that spot are illegible. There is the name 'Mrs. Lou Frost, 1870.' It is believed to have been carved by Mrs. Louise I. Frost, 214 North Chestnut street, now 90 years of age and the oldest member of the El Paso County Pioneer society. Mrs. Frost was always known as Mrs. Lou Frost in early days.

"The name 'W. Liert' appears with the date '70' after it. There is the inscription 'D. Mills, 1866.' Another is 'W. Nelson, 1866.' Another '1873' with 'B.R.' near it. The names 'A. Dunlop, 'A.S. Voorhees' and D.P. Drake' appear plainly on the walls of the cave.

"The date '1879' appears in one place, and not far from it the name 'C.L. Moss.' but the date probably belonged to another carving. There is an '1886,' with name unreadable. There is a 'Haswell, 1871.' Or so the date appears to be. Another inscription is 'M.A.V., 1865' There is a G.A. Copley plainly cut in the soft sandstone, but with no date. Othr inscriptions are 'B.F. Wadsworth,' 'R.O.F.,' 'Liselle,' and 'E.A.J.'

"Truly this makes the western gateway rock of the Garden of the Gods the autograph album of the pioneers. The outside of the rock at the place of entrance is thickly carved with names and initials, with dates. The story of this has been told before. It is the cover of the book. The walls inside the cave are the papers."

Entrance to Spaulding's Cavern Erodes Open Again

Early in 1963 the sealed entrance to Spaulding's Cavern was found to have been opened again. The story was told in the 13 January 1963 issue of the Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph:

"The strange and mysterious cave in the North Gateway Rocks of the Garden of the Gods was opened o the light of day recently by erosion - but the entrance was almost immediately ordered (closed by the) director of the City Park and Recreation Department.

"Closure was decreed after an inspection of the cavern in the sandstone by Taylor, Del Doty and Paul Cimino, two other department employees, and Malcolm Anderson, city director of public information and research.

"Taylor said it would be too dangerous to leave the cave entrance open because of rocks falling from the sides and roof of the cavern....

"The entrance to the cave is only about two feet in diameter so that it is necessary to crawl inside.

"Only a short distance inside, however, the cave opens into a long and narrow cleft.

"The cave runs about 100 feet north and 100 feet south of the entrance. It is about 100 feet high in places and from 5 to 15 feet wide. Since the entrance is filled with eroded sandstone, the cave is black as the inside of any mountain.

"Taylor said it could be called the 'Echo Cave' of the Garden of the Gods because the tiniest whisper seems to bounce around from wall to wall like a rubber ball.

"He said a person would hesitate to yell in there for fear the sound reverberations would start an avalanche of cascading rocks and crumbling sandstone.

"The echoes seem to linger on and on 'as tho the inside of the cave was starved to hear a human voice, and once heard, to leave it die.'

"The north end of the cave gives the impression that water runs down its face at certain times of the year....

"Taylor says there is no running water in the cave now, but theorized there might be a stream there in the spring or during heavy rains.

"The Gateway Rocks are pock-marked with cavities from centuries of erosion. Some of these cavities undoubtedly fill with water, which then seeps down into the heart of Gateway Rocks.

"The south end of the cave has a somewhat similar appearance, but perhaps a little less susceptible to seeping water.

"But in this south end of the cave are cut stairs, which give the cavern a cliff-dwelling look....

"Because of the danger of falling rocks, Taylor asked Cimino to seal the entrance to the cleft in the massive rocks which have stood for ages in the Garden of the Gods.

"'So the case - or should I say cave - is closed for another 30 or 40 years,' Taylor said."