desertmoons
Bronze Member
- Apr 16, 2008
- 1,067
- 168
C A V E R N S, D U N G E O N S A N D L A B Y R I N T H S
The account
which we record below appeared in the Oct. 1947 issue of 'AMAZING
STORIES' science fiction/science fact magazine, pp. 171-172:
"Sirs:
"Norman Finley, a neighbor of a good friend of mine, told me
about an experience he had which was rather unusual. He and a
couple of other fellows were hunting down in the Big Bend
country. I don't know whether you are familiar with the Big Bend
or not, but there is no more wild or desolate area in the
country. Rugged, mountainous, cut by canyons, there are
innumerable parts of it which have never known the foot of man.
"It was in one of the most desirable areas that Finley and
his companions found themselves. They had driven about ninety
miles southwest of Marathon, Texas, a little town of about 700
people, at the foot of the Del Norte Mountains, 4000 feet high,
and had then gone on afoot.
The dirt road just petered out and they couldn't get their car further. They were hunting deer but
had no luck. Just as they were about to call it a day, Finley
spotted a mountain lion. He snapped a shot at it and knocked it
over. But the lion just rolled over on his feet and started to
leave those parts.
"Finley and the other fellows took after him, since it was
obvious that he was wounded and not making very good time. They
managed to keep him in sight for about a mile and were sure they
had him when he ran into a box canyon. The lion, however,
started up a faint trail up one side of the canyon to a small
cave they could see about a hundred feet from the floor of the
canyon. They followed him up this trail, but when they got to
the cave--there was no lion!
"The cave was one of those dished-out affairs that are so
common in the southwest. Eroded out of the face of a cliff and
cup-shaped. The only access to it was by that trail. But this
cave was a bit queer. It had a sand floor and was just about big
enough to park twenty cars in it. On the cliff edge was a low
STONE WALL. This in itself was not too unusual, because such
caves have sheltered Indians for thousands of years.
"The thing that did make it unusual was that in the rear of
it was a perfectly round hole. It was obvious that the lion had
ducked into this.
"They approached it rather cautiously and tossed some stones
in it to see if they could stir him up. But there was no
response. They could hear the stones rolling and bouncing down
an incline and the sound just got fainter and fainter until it
died away altogether
"They then approached the hole and peered down into it. It
was perfectly round--also it was about four or five feet in
diameter. They couldn't see very far down it, but it appeared to
descend rather sharply and at a steady gradient. The fellows
gathered some dry grass from the canyon floor and made some
torches. The incline of the bore was too steep for them to climb
down so they tossed the torches down it. They just slid down
further and further and disappeared into the gloom. They never
did see or hear of the lion again.
"At first they thought they had stumbled onto some old
Spanish mine workings. But there was no sign anywhere of a dump
that always goes with a mine. By all rights there should have
been some sign of the earth and rock that had come out of that
hole--but there wasn't.
"When they inspected the hole itself more closely, they were
amazed at it's symmetry and at the consistency of the section of
the bore as far as they could see down it. The fact that the
bore was perfectly round puzzled them, too. If it was a mine
shaft, it most certainly wouldn't have been round, but instead
would have been flat on the bottom. The fact that the shaft
extended straight and unwavering as a rigid pipe was cause for
further amazement. Since the fellows had no rope with them,
which would have been needed to descend the shaft, as well as
lights, they scratched their heads awhile and then left.
"Finley wanted to go back with equipment and see how far
down the shaft went and what was at the bottom of it. But
ranchers are busy people and he never went back. In the meantime
he got pretty well broken up when a horse threw him and he now
lives in Fort Worth while he has someone else to run the ranch.
We talked rather idly about having a look at his cave someday.
He says he knows exactly where it is and could find that box
canyon with his eyes shut. So far we haven't done anything about
it. But we may either this summer or next when we get time to go
down to Big Bend.
"Finley told me this story about a year before even you
heard of Shaver so you can be sure he wasn't influenced by the
'Shaver Mystery.' In fact, I don't believe he has ever heard of
the 'Shaver Mystery,' even to this day.
"E. Stanton Brown., 4931 Bryce Ave., Fort Worth 7, Texas."
Another letter, dated Jan. 1948, appeared in 'AMAZING
STORIES' magazine also confirming that strange 'para-speleon'
phenomena exists in the western part of Texas. However the
artifacts described in the following letter seem to involve areas
north of Big Bend, not far from the Guadellupe Mts. and the New
Mexico border. Perhaps this account is a partial confirmation of
a subterranean connection between areas BELOW the Big Bend of
Texas and the Guadellupe range of southern New Mexico -
northwestern Texas. Quoting from the letter:
"Sirs:
"Since I have been an interested reader of AMAZING STORIES
since my high school days (1929) when A-S was a bigger magazine,
I feel like one of the family when I read the letters in the
discussion pages. The temptation has arisen many times to write
a letter to you concerning some hotly discussed matter, but
something has always prevented me from getting at it. However,
the October Issue pushed me too far, and here goes.
"The mysterious cave Mr. E. Stanton Brown spoke of in his
letter is not exactly news to me. In 1938 a party of six of my
friends and myself spent seven months in that area of Texas, and
upper Mexico. We were testing an electronic instrument that we
had developed, and needed lots of space and some mineral deposits
for the various tests. So, we got rather well acquainted with
the Big Bend country, and the Figure 2 Ranch north of there.
We
arrived there in January and camped IN THE SIERRA BLANCAS,
storing a lot of our equipment at the town of Van Horn. By
March we had gotten deep into the rugged country and as I recall,
it was about the middle of March we stumbled onto this cave (or a
twin) that Mr. Brown speaks of in his letter. Everyone was so
dumbfounded by it that we spent the better part of the rest of
the month in making a thorough investigation.
We penetrated the
shaft to a distance of 870 feet and at about 650 feet found some
very finely executed writing on the right wall at eye level, IN
WHAT RESEMBLES CUNEIFORM. At 800 feet one of the party fell over
a cloth lying in the dust, and upon closer examination, it was
found to be part of a blue shirt, of fairly recent manufacture;
indicating that someone else had been this far in recent times.
This and an empty pint whisky bottle dated 1897 was all we
located to indicate recent occupation.
Of course in a country
where desperadoes such as Black Jack, Billy the Kid, etc., hid
out where they could and the more solitary the better, such a
find was not too surprising.
"At about 780 feet the floor dips more sharply downward and
at near 900 feet progress is very hazardous due to moisture and
increased slant downward. We carried rocks from the opening, and
rolled them from the point where we could no longer walk, but
they simply faded out with a rumble after a few seconds.
We
tried rolling flaming yucca stumps to see if, perhaps, we might
determine more about the bore further on, but this proved to be
futile, since the stumps burned poorly at best, probably due to
bad air. It was very stuffy and hot after the first 300 feet
from the opening.
We held a powwow to try and figure out how we
could go further down, but the only thing would have been lots of
lariat ropes, or a long steel cable, and neither was available
nearer than some 50 miles.
"If Mr. Finley had taken the time to go hunting up in the
Figure 2 Ranch territory he might have run across another, and to
me more interesting, cave than the Big Bend one.
About 62 miles
(north - Branton) from the town of Van Horn you go through the
salt-flat country, where the Salt Wars of the old west occurred.
Westward, some 8 or 9 miles from the road is the Apache Canyon
country, and as rugged as anywhere on the face of the globe. In
an offshoot of Apache Canyon to the south, is an almost
impassable gash called Hell Canyon. The walls of this canyon
rise precipitously for at least 1000 feet and top out on Apache
Peak on one side and an old Indian ceremonial ground on the other
side.
More desolate country would be hard to imagine. Coyotes
and mountain lions are plentiful, and panthers no novelty. I
have seen as many as 34 deer in a herd down below on the grassy
ledge sloping down toward the canyon floor. Of course, further
up toward the box end of the canyon it was much too rugged for
deer, but a few mountain sheep are seen, (it was) in the wildest
part of the canyon that the other cave was found, in fact we
almost fell into it. The high grass about the opening hid the
dished out entrance.
"We were at an elevation of approximately 7000 feet and
going was tough, especially with a pack, and we had stopped to
rest when one of the party remarked that it 'sounded hollow' when
any of us talked. Of course, we all yapped away at the same time
trying to figure if this was so, and sure enough it was.
Further
investigation located the hole some six feet to the left of where
we had stopped. It was roughly oval in shape, some 30 by 18
feet; and bridged in the center the short way by a natural rock
arch heavy enough to support an elephant. In the center of the
arch were 3 deep grooves caused we hazarded, by rope passing over
the arch. We spent several hours in investigating the
surrounding terrain to see if there might be any other entrances
to the cave, but found none. It sloped sharply from the opening
down about 200 feet, and then the bore disappeared, curving
upward. We succeeded in getting down to the first level, by
tying all our ropes together, and subsequently investigated a lot
of it.
"Threading through the soil were long stringers of quartz,
but oddly enough at the same time there were chunks of rock as
big as a piano that were solid masses of seashells. Quite a lot
of pottery both broken and whole, was found.
The most
interesting thing was, however, that the farther we went the
colder it got. Also there was a sound of either rushing wind or
water, which got louder the lower we went. We came upon two
human skeletons not over 500 feet from the entrance, but they
must have been very old, as the bones crumbled at the touch.
Everything was covered with a deep dust after passing the bend
and no indication of any living thing having passed there was
ever noted. It was very dark and depressing, and the chill was
very penetrating. When you consider that the outside temperature
was near 100 degrees, you can imagine how we were dressed.
We
had three flashlights, one a five cell, and after a while it was
all that was left that would give a decent light.
Down at what
we estimated as 1200 feet from the opening we came smack up
against a smooth stone wall. That was it. The end. None of us
would admit it was natural, it was too smooth and perfect, and
look as we would we could not find a single flaw or crack in it.
It was of a marble-like texture and some eight or nine feet high
in the center and around eleven wide. By placing our ears to the
rock surface THE ROARING ON THE OTHER SIDE BECAME MUCH LOUDER,
AND THE ROCK WAS QUITE COLD TO THE TOUCH. There was natural
marble near there, in Marble Canyon, where marble was once taken
out in large quantities, and so the rock was native rock, I'm
sure.
Since the remaining light was all we had except matches,
we voted to get back to the opening as soon as possible, and
after a hard struggle upgrade we got back to daylight and held a
conference. We decided to bed down and talk it over further the
next day, as it was getting late.
"However, the next day we were inclined to look foolishly at
each other and claim it was all our imagination thinking there
was anything strange on the other side of the barrier, and it was
just another one of those many caves in the country. Carlsbad is
just 65 miles north of there, AND THE WHOLE COUNTRY IS NO DOUBT
HONEYCOMBED UNDERNEATH.
"We finished our experiments and left, late in July but I
have never been able to forget the caves, and THE ODD SOUNDS ON
THE OTHER SIDE OF THAT BARRIER. Or for that matter, the barrier
itself, for it was too perfect to be natural, I believe. Or,
maybe I've just read too many AMAZING STORIES,' and am inclined
to wild ideas. As the Mexicans say, Quien sabe?
"Some day I'm going to write you a ding-how Scientifiction
on something-or-other, and then place it and my rejection notice
among my souvenirs. Maybe then I can go on reading AMAZING
STORIES in peace, without wanting to dash off a dinger.
"K. A. Gookin., Carmel Radio & Sound Service., Box 1865.,
Carmel, California."
The account
which we record below appeared in the Oct. 1947 issue of 'AMAZING
STORIES' science fiction/science fact magazine, pp. 171-172:
"Sirs:
"Norman Finley, a neighbor of a good friend of mine, told me
about an experience he had which was rather unusual. He and a
couple of other fellows were hunting down in the Big Bend
country. I don't know whether you are familiar with the Big Bend
or not, but there is no more wild or desolate area in the
country. Rugged, mountainous, cut by canyons, there are
innumerable parts of it which have never known the foot of man.
"It was in one of the most desirable areas that Finley and
his companions found themselves. They had driven about ninety
miles southwest of Marathon, Texas, a little town of about 700
people, at the foot of the Del Norte Mountains, 4000 feet high,
and had then gone on afoot.
The dirt road just petered out and they couldn't get their car further. They were hunting deer but
had no luck. Just as they were about to call it a day, Finley
spotted a mountain lion. He snapped a shot at it and knocked it
over. But the lion just rolled over on his feet and started to
leave those parts.
"Finley and the other fellows took after him, since it was
obvious that he was wounded and not making very good time. They
managed to keep him in sight for about a mile and were sure they
had him when he ran into a box canyon. The lion, however,
started up a faint trail up one side of the canyon to a small
cave they could see about a hundred feet from the floor of the
canyon. They followed him up this trail, but when they got to
the cave--there was no lion!
"The cave was one of those dished-out affairs that are so
common in the southwest. Eroded out of the face of a cliff and
cup-shaped. The only access to it was by that trail. But this
cave was a bit queer. It had a sand floor and was just about big
enough to park twenty cars in it. On the cliff edge was a low
STONE WALL. This in itself was not too unusual, because such
caves have sheltered Indians for thousands of years.
"The thing that did make it unusual was that in the rear of
it was a perfectly round hole. It was obvious that the lion had
ducked into this.
"They approached it rather cautiously and tossed some stones
in it to see if they could stir him up. But there was no
response. They could hear the stones rolling and bouncing down
an incline and the sound just got fainter and fainter until it
died away altogether
"They then approached the hole and peered down into it. It
was perfectly round--also it was about four or five feet in
diameter. They couldn't see very far down it, but it appeared to
descend rather sharply and at a steady gradient. The fellows
gathered some dry grass from the canyon floor and made some
torches. The incline of the bore was too steep for them to climb
down so they tossed the torches down it. They just slid down
further and further and disappeared into the gloom. They never
did see or hear of the lion again.
"At first they thought they had stumbled onto some old
Spanish mine workings. But there was no sign anywhere of a dump
that always goes with a mine. By all rights there should have
been some sign of the earth and rock that had come out of that
hole--but there wasn't.
"When they inspected the hole itself more closely, they were
amazed at it's symmetry and at the consistency of the section of
the bore as far as they could see down it. The fact that the
bore was perfectly round puzzled them, too. If it was a mine
shaft, it most certainly wouldn't have been round, but instead
would have been flat on the bottom. The fact that the shaft
extended straight and unwavering as a rigid pipe was cause for
further amazement. Since the fellows had no rope with them,
which would have been needed to descend the shaft, as well as
lights, they scratched their heads awhile and then left.
"Finley wanted to go back with equipment and see how far
down the shaft went and what was at the bottom of it. But
ranchers are busy people and he never went back. In the meantime
he got pretty well broken up when a horse threw him and he now
lives in Fort Worth while he has someone else to run the ranch.
We talked rather idly about having a look at his cave someday.
He says he knows exactly where it is and could find that box
canyon with his eyes shut. So far we haven't done anything about
it. But we may either this summer or next when we get time to go
down to Big Bend.
"Finley told me this story about a year before even you
heard of Shaver so you can be sure he wasn't influenced by the
'Shaver Mystery.' In fact, I don't believe he has ever heard of
the 'Shaver Mystery,' even to this day.
"E. Stanton Brown., 4931 Bryce Ave., Fort Worth 7, Texas."
Another letter, dated Jan. 1948, appeared in 'AMAZING
STORIES' magazine also confirming that strange 'para-speleon'
phenomena exists in the western part of Texas. However the
artifacts described in the following letter seem to involve areas
north of Big Bend, not far from the Guadellupe Mts. and the New
Mexico border. Perhaps this account is a partial confirmation of
a subterranean connection between areas BELOW the Big Bend of
Texas and the Guadellupe range of southern New Mexico -
northwestern Texas. Quoting from the letter:
"Sirs:
"Since I have been an interested reader of AMAZING STORIES
since my high school days (1929) when A-S was a bigger magazine,
I feel like one of the family when I read the letters in the
discussion pages. The temptation has arisen many times to write
a letter to you concerning some hotly discussed matter, but
something has always prevented me from getting at it. However,
the October Issue pushed me too far, and here goes.
"The mysterious cave Mr. E. Stanton Brown spoke of in his
letter is not exactly news to me. In 1938 a party of six of my
friends and myself spent seven months in that area of Texas, and
upper Mexico. We were testing an electronic instrument that we
had developed, and needed lots of space and some mineral deposits
for the various tests. So, we got rather well acquainted with
the Big Bend country, and the Figure 2 Ranch north of there.
We
arrived there in January and camped IN THE SIERRA BLANCAS,
storing a lot of our equipment at the town of Van Horn. By
March we had gotten deep into the rugged country and as I recall,
it was about the middle of March we stumbled onto this cave (or a
twin) that Mr. Brown speaks of in his letter. Everyone was so
dumbfounded by it that we spent the better part of the rest of
the month in making a thorough investigation.
We penetrated the
shaft to a distance of 870 feet and at about 650 feet found some
very finely executed writing on the right wall at eye level, IN
WHAT RESEMBLES CUNEIFORM. At 800 feet one of the party fell over
a cloth lying in the dust, and upon closer examination, it was
found to be part of a blue shirt, of fairly recent manufacture;
indicating that someone else had been this far in recent times.
This and an empty pint whisky bottle dated 1897 was all we
located to indicate recent occupation.
Of course in a country
where desperadoes such as Black Jack, Billy the Kid, etc., hid
out where they could and the more solitary the better, such a
find was not too surprising.
"At about 780 feet the floor dips more sharply downward and
at near 900 feet progress is very hazardous due to moisture and
increased slant downward. We carried rocks from the opening, and
rolled them from the point where we could no longer walk, but
they simply faded out with a rumble after a few seconds.
We
tried rolling flaming yucca stumps to see if, perhaps, we might
determine more about the bore further on, but this proved to be
futile, since the stumps burned poorly at best, probably due to
bad air. It was very stuffy and hot after the first 300 feet
from the opening.
We held a powwow to try and figure out how we
could go further down, but the only thing would have been lots of
lariat ropes, or a long steel cable, and neither was available
nearer than some 50 miles.
"If Mr. Finley had taken the time to go hunting up in the
Figure 2 Ranch territory he might have run across another, and to
me more interesting, cave than the Big Bend one.
About 62 miles
(north - Branton) from the town of Van Horn you go through the
salt-flat country, where the Salt Wars of the old west occurred.
Westward, some 8 or 9 miles from the road is the Apache Canyon
country, and as rugged as anywhere on the face of the globe. In
an offshoot of Apache Canyon to the south, is an almost
impassable gash called Hell Canyon. The walls of this canyon
rise precipitously for at least 1000 feet and top out on Apache
Peak on one side and an old Indian ceremonial ground on the other
side.
More desolate country would be hard to imagine. Coyotes
and mountain lions are plentiful, and panthers no novelty. I
have seen as many as 34 deer in a herd down below on the grassy
ledge sloping down toward the canyon floor. Of course, further
up toward the box end of the canyon it was much too rugged for
deer, but a few mountain sheep are seen, (it was) in the wildest
part of the canyon that the other cave was found, in fact we
almost fell into it. The high grass about the opening hid the
dished out entrance.
"We were at an elevation of approximately 7000 feet and
going was tough, especially with a pack, and we had stopped to
rest when one of the party remarked that it 'sounded hollow' when
any of us talked. Of course, we all yapped away at the same time
trying to figure if this was so, and sure enough it was.
Further
investigation located the hole some six feet to the left of where
we had stopped. It was roughly oval in shape, some 30 by 18
feet; and bridged in the center the short way by a natural rock
arch heavy enough to support an elephant. In the center of the
arch were 3 deep grooves caused we hazarded, by rope passing over
the arch. We spent several hours in investigating the
surrounding terrain to see if there might be any other entrances
to the cave, but found none. It sloped sharply from the opening
down about 200 feet, and then the bore disappeared, curving
upward. We succeeded in getting down to the first level, by
tying all our ropes together, and subsequently investigated a lot
of it.
"Threading through the soil were long stringers of quartz,
but oddly enough at the same time there were chunks of rock as
big as a piano that were solid masses of seashells. Quite a lot
of pottery both broken and whole, was found.
The most
interesting thing was, however, that the farther we went the
colder it got. Also there was a sound of either rushing wind or
water, which got louder the lower we went. We came upon two
human skeletons not over 500 feet from the entrance, but they
must have been very old, as the bones crumbled at the touch.
Everything was covered with a deep dust after passing the bend
and no indication of any living thing having passed there was
ever noted. It was very dark and depressing, and the chill was
very penetrating. When you consider that the outside temperature
was near 100 degrees, you can imagine how we were dressed.
We
had three flashlights, one a five cell, and after a while it was
all that was left that would give a decent light.
Down at what
we estimated as 1200 feet from the opening we came smack up
against a smooth stone wall. That was it. The end. None of us
would admit it was natural, it was too smooth and perfect, and
look as we would we could not find a single flaw or crack in it.
It was of a marble-like texture and some eight or nine feet high
in the center and around eleven wide. By placing our ears to the
rock surface THE ROARING ON THE OTHER SIDE BECAME MUCH LOUDER,
AND THE ROCK WAS QUITE COLD TO THE TOUCH. There was natural
marble near there, in Marble Canyon, where marble was once taken
out in large quantities, and so the rock was native rock, I'm
sure.
Since the remaining light was all we had except matches,
we voted to get back to the opening as soon as possible, and
after a hard struggle upgrade we got back to daylight and held a
conference. We decided to bed down and talk it over further the
next day, as it was getting late.
"However, the next day we were inclined to look foolishly at
each other and claim it was all our imagination thinking there
was anything strange on the other side of the barrier, and it was
just another one of those many caves in the country. Carlsbad is
just 65 miles north of there, AND THE WHOLE COUNTRY IS NO DOUBT
HONEYCOMBED UNDERNEATH.
"We finished our experiments and left, late in July but I
have never been able to forget the caves, and THE ODD SOUNDS ON
THE OTHER SIDE OF THAT BARRIER. Or for that matter, the barrier
itself, for it was too perfect to be natural, I believe. Or,
maybe I've just read too many AMAZING STORIES,' and am inclined
to wild ideas. As the Mexicans say, Quien sabe?
"Some day I'm going to write you a ding-how Scientifiction
on something-or-other, and then place it and my rejection notice
among my souvenirs. Maybe then I can go on reading AMAZING
STORIES in peace, without wanting to dash off a dinger.
"K. A. Gookin., Carmel Radio & Sound Service., Box 1865.,
Carmel, California."
