Southern Appalachian Digital Collections

Western Carolina University (21) View all

Glimpses of our National Monuments

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  • wcu_great_smoky_mtns-10662.jpg
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  • OUR NATIONAL MONUMENTS 7 graphic Society's expedition spent some six months at the cavern making detailed explorations. It consists of a series of lofty spacious chambers and connecting corridors, with alcoves extending off to the sides, that are of remarkable beauty, the limestone decorations excelling those in any cave heretofore described. One room, named the Big Room, is more than half a mile long, with a maximum width of 400 feet. The maximum measured height of the ceiling is 348 feet. In this room, as in every other part of the cavern, the natural decorations are magnificent. Here are stalac- Carlsbad Cave—"Totem Poles" in foreground tites in an infinite variety of shape and size, varying from almost needlelike proportions to huge, massive pendants; and the stalagmites rising from the floor are equally varied. One group of stalagmites in which the forms are unusually tall and graceful resembles the totem poles of the Alaskan Indians. While most of the limestone decorations have a chalky white, frostlike surface, many of the stalagmites are dark colored, with blunt, rounded ends and smooth surfaces. In places the formations from floor and ceiling meet to form cathedral like columns. In this room also are fountain basins, some of them 50 feet across, lined with masses of
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Object’s are ‘parent’ level descriptions to ‘children’ items, (e.g. a book with pages).