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Early History and Authentic Facts Concerning the History and Discovery of the World Famous Carlsbad Caverns of New Mexico. CUSHMAN PUBLICATIONS 2440 East 4th Street Long Beach, California © Copyright 1956 and 1958 by Mrs. Abijah Long, Joe N. Long, Mrs. Lou M. Wood, Mrs. Kaye I. Williams, Ira B. Long, Mac A. Long. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without the written permission of the copyright owners, except by a reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages n

(By the family of Abijah Long) Prior to my husband's death in 1934, several of us had asked him to write, in his own words, the story of his early life, especially after moving to Carlsbad at the turn of the century. He was reluctant to write of his experiences in connection with the Big Cave, as it was called in those days. But after considerable persuasion on our part he did sit down and write what happened in those early years following our move from Texas in 1901. Since many historians today

The distance from Goldthwaite, Texas, to Carlsbad, New Mexico, is slightly less than 400 miles—just a good day's drive in an automobile today. But in 1901 the automobile was something we heard about—something we read about, and friends of mine told of having seen a horseless carriage up in Dallas. People who did much traveling went by train or horse and wagon—or, they walked. So when our family talked of moving West—talked of trying life anew "somewhere else," the question of how to go was consi

The three of us talked over the matter of my descent and several safety precautions were formulated. About this time I decided I would be much happier about the whole thing if I could persuade one of the others to go below with me. At least one should remain on the surface at all times in case anything should go wrong. "Sam," I said, "how about you coming down with me?" He seemed to want to see what would happen to me first, I guess, so I then asked him if I went first would he follow. He said n

"Early this morning," I began, "while waiting for you to return, Brown, I took a walk around and noted a lot of bats going into a large cave,—a really large cave. Let's go have a look at it." Sam didn't need to say a word. I could tell from his expression and his disappointment that he had no desire to go into any more caves, even if the entrance was on the side of a hill where he could safely get out. "Not me," he exclaimed in no uncertain terms. "Damn your cave. I'm going back to Carlsbad, and

News spreads fast. Soon everyone in Carlsbad had heard about the big cave that Lynn, Andy and myself had been describing. Many of the people thought it was just a story we had cooked up and wouldn't believe us. Of course it was known there were caves in the Guadalupe Mountains in that area of the state, but no one thought the cave we described could be as large as we claimed it was. My first job was to take care of my claim and I promptly attended to this important matter. I got the necessary pa

New men were always nervous about going into the cave. A mine is one thing, but a cave! And people back in Carlsbad were continually enlarging their yarns about the adventures we were having in the "big cave" some 28 miles away. As a result, all new men who came to work had illusions about this mysterious cavity in the earth where bats dwelled by the millions. The boys thought new men were fair game—for anything. Take for instance the time a new man came out to work at the cave and the boys deci

After the mining operation had been under way for some time I found I wasn't so busy and had a little free time to myself to sort of rest up and think of something besides getting the guano to the surface and off to the Hawaiian Fertilizer Company of San Francisco. More and more I began to wonder just what this Big Cave was like beyond our immediate area. Many of the men also wondered, and often suggested that some day we form an exploring party and see what it was like. We decided to do just th

After the guano operation had been going on for some time I could see that it wasn't turning out to be as profitable as I had originally thought it would be. With the vast quantity of guano under ground, and with our efficient method of extracting it, I wasn't able to realize what I felt was a sizeable profit from the time and effort involved. Of course there were lots of factors that entered into the operation which do not meet the eye. For instance, when the guano was brought to the surface it

How old are the Caverns? When did they begin to form? Are they growing larger today? What changes, if any, are now going on? These are questions which everyone who becomes interested in the great Carlsbad Caverns wants to have answered sooner or later. To some of these and many similar questions the answers are difficult to obtain, for when the Caverns were being created no man was around to watch the process and to report his observations first hand. As a result, we have only the word of geolog

At the time the limestone beds were beginning to crack, which we noted was some 60,000,000 million years ago, the huge reptiles and other prehistoric animals were playing hide and seek on the surface above the site of the developing Caverns. At that time the cave hadn't yet been formed—the underground seepage of water was just beginning to find the crevices below the gypsum and rock salt and begin its erosion which was to continue slowly for so many centuries. Recent forms of life seem to have a

The discovery of the Carlsbad Caverns was not an earth-shaking event at the time. Its true value as a spectacle was to wait almost 20 years. Had it not been for the huge quantities of guano, my father and his friends might not have been especially interested in the cave, that is, sufficiently so to explore it further, since there were so many similar caves in this particular area of the State, and the discovery of one more didn't unduly excite anyone. But because the guano looked like a worth wh

When the traveler finally decides to include a visit to the Carlsbad Caverns in his itinerary, or perhaps make a trip to the Caverns an end in itself, he procures a map of the Southwestern United States and searches for the little town of Carlsbad. Far down in the southeast corner of the state of New Mexico he will find this colorful little community, resting serenely some 40 miles north of the Texas—New Mexico line, about a hundred and sixty miles east of El Paso, and about a hundred miles nort

Of several ways to enter the Caverns, only two are permitted today by the National Park Service. One is through the natural entrance and the other is by elevator which takes the visitor rapidly down 754 feet to a spot adjacent to the lunch room and the famous Big Room. The true adventurer—the visitor who wants to really see the Big Cave from the beginning, much as my father first saw it, will prefer to enter through the natural opening with the regular tour. Visitors not in the best of health wi

Transcriber Note Some text was moved to avoid paragraphs being split by illustrations. Two images in the original volume were negative images of documents. These have been replaced with positive images with links to the original images. Transcriptions for images of printed documents are provided to assist the reader. As a handwritten and typeset version of Amended Notice of "Big Cave" Mining Claim were presented and labelled the same, "(Handwritten)" was added to the caption of the first image t