Also, there were other sections which were owned by independent operators. Prior to 1906 the Santa Fe Railroad owned 40 acres over the east portion of the cave.
By around 1912 the bulk of the guano had been removed and activity around the cave ceased. There were little spurts of renewed interest from time to time, but there was actually little news about the cave for several years.
In later years people have often speculated as to whether or not the great Carlsbad Caverns would ever have been discovered had it not been for the attention caused by either my father's discovery quite by chance, or from the dark clouds of bats which emanated from the cave each evening.
We know now that even if those two events had never occurred—even if there were no opening on the surface of the earth, if there were no habitation of bats, the great cave would have indeed been discovered.
And historians now like to think that the cave was actually discovered twice. The first, as we know, was when my father stumbled upon it quite by accident back in 1903. This was the discovery of the guano beds, the beauty and grandeur of the Caverns being secondary at that time.
Then came what historians have since called "the rediscovery!"
And it, like the first discovery almost 20 years before, came about quite by accident!
At the end of, and immediately following, the first World War, around 1919 and 1920, the United States Government Commission of Reclamation was constructing several dams along the Pecos River some 20 miles east of the site of the big Bat Cave. The purpose of the dams was to impound river water for irrigation of the surrounding agricultural lands.
But for some strange reason the dams didn't seem to be doing any good. The water seemed to disappear underground. The Commission felt it was useless to consider the construction of any more dams in the area until the mystery could be cleared up.
They took the matter up with the U. S. Geological Survey, and again the question was unanswered. It seemed strange that the water could not be held and used to irrigate the surrounding farm lands.