Kartchner Caverns State Park is a
state park
State parks are parks or other protected areas managed at the sub-national level within those nations which use "state" as a political subdivision. State parks are typically established by a state to preserve a location on account of its natural ...
of
Arizona
Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...
, United States, featuring a
show cave
A show cave—also called tourist cave, public cave, and, in the United States, commercial cave—is a cave which has been made accessible to the public for guided visits.
Definition
A show cave is a cave that has been made accessible to ...
with of passages.
The park is located south of the town of
Benson Benson may refer to:
Animals
*Benson (fish), largest common carp caught in Britain
Places Geography
Canada
*Rural Municipality of Benson No. 35, Saskatchewan; rural municipality
*Benson, Saskatchewan; hamlet
United Kingdom
* Benson, Oxfordshire ...
and west of the north-flowing
San Pedro River. Long hidden from view, the caverns were discovered in 1974 by local cavers, assisted by state biologist Erick Campbell who helped in its preservation.
The park encompasses most of a down-dropped block of
Palaeozoic
The Paleozoic (or Palaeozoic) Era is the earliest of three geologic eras of the Phanerozoic Eon.
The name ''Paleozoic'' ( ;) was coined by the British geologist Adam Sedgwick in 1838
by combining the Greek words ''palaiós'' (, "old") and '' ...
rocks on the east flank of the
Whetstone Mountains
The Whetstone Mountains is a mountain range in Cochise County, southeastern Arizona.
Geography
The range is located south of Interstate 10, between the Santa Rita Mountains to the west, and the Dragoon Mountains to the east. Higher elevations ...
.
The caverns are carved out of
limestone
Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...
and filled with spectacular
speleothem
A speleothem (; ) is a geological formation by mineral deposits that accumulate over time in natural caves. Speleothems most commonly form in calcareous caves due to carbonate dissolution reactions. They can take a variety of forms, depending on ...
s which have been growing for 50,000 years or longer, and are still growing. Careful and technical cave state park development and maintenance are designed to preserve the cave system.
History
The caverns were discovered in 1974, when
cavers
Caving – also known as spelunking in the United States and Canada and potholing in the United Kingdom and Ireland – is the recreational pastime of exploring wild cave systems (as distinguished from show caves). In contrast, speleology is ...
Gary Tenen and Randy Tufts found a narrow crack in the bottom of a
sinkhole
A sinkhole is a depression or hole in the ground caused by some form of collapse of the surface layer. The term is sometimes used to refer to doline, enclosed depressions that are locally also known as ''vrtače'' and shakeholes, and to openi ...
, and followed the source of warm, moist air toward what ended up being more than of pristine cave passages.
Randy Tufts, PhD, who at the time of his death was a geologist and lunar and planetary scientist for
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research.
NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...
, was introduced to caving as a young boy by his maternal uncle, also a geologist. His uncle showed him caves in Arizona that had been vandalized in various ways including graffiti, litter, and the theft of stalactites and stalagmites. At the age of 13, Randy read an English children's adventure book entitled, "Five Boys in a Cave," and inspired, he decided that he wanted to find a cave that had not ever been vandalized and protect it. For years, Randy would take his friends out to the Whetstone limestone mountain range looking for caves, walking a grid, with no success until they asked a local miner if he had ever heard of a local cave. The miner pointed to the foothills below them. There they found — and nearly fell into — a deep sink hole.
At the time, although they had found a sink hole and a small cave chamber, they did not think that the cave "went" anywhere.
It was years later when Randy was on a picnic luncheon date, that he found another sink hole. He went home to get his caving gear and asked Gary Tenen to join him to explore the new sink hole. That new sink hole was also disappointing, but Randy and Gary decided upon a whim to return to the prior sink hole. This time they could smell bat guano, a hint that the cave might be much larger than they had originally thought. It was after crawling about the length of a football field, sometimes on their bellies, with only carbide lamps for light, that they came to a very small bat hole. After chipping away at the hole for hours they entered the "Big Room". While there, they realized that this discovery could place the caverns at risk.
Hoping to protect the cave from
vandalism
Vandalism is the action involving deliberate destruction of or damage to public or private property.
The term includes property damage, such as graffiti and defacement directed towards any property without permission of the owner. The term f ...
, they kept the location a secret for 14 years, deciding that the best way to preserve the cavern — which was near a freeway — was to develop it as a tour cave. After gaining the cooperation of the Kartchner family and working with them for ten years, together they approached the Arizona State Parks Board.
In 1985,
The Nature Conservancy
The Nature Conservancy (TNC) is a global environmental organization headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. it works via affiliates or branches in 79 countries and territories, as well as across every state in the US.
Founded in 1951, The Natu ...
acquired an option to purchase the land. The discovery of the cave was finally made public in 1988 when the landowners sold the area to the state for development as a park and show cavern. Prior to its grand opening in 1999, the state spent $28 million on a high-tech system of air-lock doors, misting machines and other equipment designed to preserve the cave.
Tourism information
![Kartchner Caverns State Park 001](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/32/Kartchner_Caverns_State_Park_001.JPG)
The two major features of the caverns accessible to the public are the Throne Room and the Big Room. The Throne Room contains one of the world's longest ()
soda straw
A soda straw (or simply straw) is a speleothem in the form of a hollow mineral cylindrical tube. They are also known as tubular stalactites. Soda straws grow in places where water leaches slowly through cracks in rock, such as on the roofs of ca ...
stalactite
A stalactite (, ; from the Greek 'stalaktos' ('dripping') via
''stalassein'' ('to drip') is a mineral formation that hangs from the ceiling of caves, hot springs, or man-made structures such as bridges and mines. Any material that is soluble an ...
s and a high column called Kubla Khan, after the
poem
Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings in ...
. The Big Room contains the world's most extensive formation of
brushite
Brushite is a phosphate mineral with the chemical formula . Crystals of the pure compound belong to the monoclinic space group C2/c and are colorless.[moonmilk
Moonmilk (sometimes called mondmilch, also known as montmilch or as cave milk) is a white, creamy substance found inside limestone, dolomite, and possibly other types of caves. It is a precipitate from limestone comprising aggregates of fine cry ...]
. Big Room cave tours are closed during the summer for several months (April 15 to October 15) each year because it is a
nursery roost
Nursery may refer to:
Childcare
* Nursery (room), a room within the house designed for the care of a young child or children.
* Nursery school, a daycare facility for preschool-age children
* Prison nursery, for imprisoned mothers with their young ...
for
cave bats, however the Throne Room tours remain open year-round.
Other features publicly accessible within the caverns include Mud Flats, Rotunda Room, Strawberry Room, and Cul-de-sac Passage. Approximately 60% of the cave system is not open to the public.
The park has hiking trails on the ground above the caverns. The longest trail, the Guindani Trail, is 4.2 miles, while the shorter trail, the Foothills Loop Trail, measures 2.5 miles.
Animal life
Although the cave is largely uninhabited, as many as 2000 ''
Myotis velifer
The cave myotis (''Myotis velifer'') is a species of vesper bat (''Vespertilionidae'') in the genus '' Myotis''.
Description
It is larger than most other bats in the ''Myotis'' group, with a forearm of . The bat is brown with short ears, and ca ...
'' bats nest in the cave during late spring.
Cave formations and vegetation
![Crinoids casts at Kartchner Caverns State Park](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f4/Crinoids_casts_at_Kartchner_Caverns_State_Park.JPG)
Many different cave formations can be found within the caves and the surrounding park. These include
cave bacon
Flowstones are sheetlike deposits of calcite or other carbonate minerals, formed where water flows down the walls or along the floors of a cave. They are typically found in "solution caves", in limestone, where they are the most common speleothe ...
,
helictite
A helictite is a speleothem (cave-formed mineral) found in a limestone cave that changes its axis from the vertical at one or more stages during its growth. Helictites have a curving or angular form that looks as if they were grown in zero grav ...
s,
soda straw
A soda straw (or simply straw) is a speleothem in the form of a hollow mineral cylindrical tube. They are also known as tubular stalactites. Soda straws grow in places where water leaches slowly through cracks in rock, such as on the roofs of ca ...
s,
stalactite
A stalactite (, ; from the Greek 'stalaktos' ('dripping') via
''stalassein'' ('to drip') is a mineral formation that hangs from the ceiling of caves, hot springs, or man-made structures such as bridges and mines. Any material that is soluble an ...
s,
stalagmite
A stalagmite (, ; from the Greek , from , "dropping, trickling")
is a type of rock formation that rises from the floor of a cave due to the accumulation of material deposited on the floor from ceiling drippings. Stalagmites are typically ...
s and others. Cave formations like the stalactites and stalagmites grow approximately a 16th of an inch every 100 years.
Along the Foothills Loop Trail hike, desert plants may be observed:
ocotillo
''Fouquieria splendens'' (commonly known as ocotillo (), but also referred to as buggywhip, coachwhip, candlewood, slimwood, desert coral, Jacob's staff, Jacob cactus, and vine cactus) is a plant indigenous to the Sonoran Desert and Chihuahuan ...
,
creosote bush
''Larrea tridentata'', called creosote bush and greasewood as a plant, chaparral as a medicinal herb, and ''gobernadora'' (Spanish language, Spanish for "governess") in Mexico, due to its ability to secure more water by inhibiting the growth of n ...
,
mesquite
Mesquite is a common name for several plants in the genus ''Prosopis'', which contains over 40 species of small leguminous trees. They are native to dry areas in the Americas.
They have extremely long roots to seek water from very far under grou ...
,
desert broom
''Baccharis sarothroides'' is a North American species of flowering shrub known by the common names broom baccharis, desertbroom, greasewood, rosin-bush and groundsel in English and "escoba amarga" or "romerillo" in Spanish. This is a spreading, ...
,
acacia
''Acacia'', commonly known as the wattles or acacias, is a large genus of shrubs and trees in the subfamily Mimosoideae of the pea family Fabaceae. Initially, it comprised a group of plant species native to Africa and Australasia. The genus na ...
,
wait-a-minute bush, scrub oak,
barrel cactus
Barrel cacti are various members of the two genera ''Echinocactus'' and ''Ferocactus'', endemic to the deserts of Southwestern North America southward to north central Mexico. Some of the largest specimens are found in the Sonoran Desert in So ...
,
prickly pear,
buckhorn cholla
''Cylindropuntia acanthocarpa'', commonly referred to as buckhorn cholla, is a cholla native to the Mojave, Sonoran, and Colorado Deserts of North America. Along with ''Cylindropuntia bigelovii'' (the "teddy bear" cholla), it is the most commo ...
, and hackberry.
Sister caves
*
Frasassi Caves
The Frasassi Caves (Italian: ''Grotte di Frasassi'') are a karst cave system in the municipality of Genga, Italy, in the province of Ancona, Marche. They are among the most famous show caves in Italy.
History
The caves, discovered by a group ...
(
Genga, Italy
Genga is a town and ''comune'' of province of Ancona in the Italian region of the Marche, on the Sentino river about downstream and east of Sassoferrato and north of Fabriano.
The town is best known as the ancestral home of the noble family of ...
)
References
Further reading
* Miller, Neil. ''Kartchner Caverns: How Two Cavers Discovered and Saved One of the Wonders of the Natural World'', 2008, University of Arizona Press.
*
Larkin, Bruce. ''Kartchner Caverns'', 2009,
Wilbooks. .
External links
Kartchner Caverns State Park website
{{authority control
1988 establishments in Arizona
Caves of Arizona
Parks in Cochise County, Arizona
Protected areas established in 1988
San Pedro Valley (Arizona)
Show caves in the United States
Sonoran Desert
State parks of Arizona
Landforms of Cochise County, Arizona