Wind Cave
Frost Work, Garden of EdenLease Photo
Again, quite confidentially the guide tells us that one guide went over lovers leap the day before and six old maids followed. After the petrified whirlwind, imagine it, we see a map of South America, and then enter Opera Hall. From it we pass to Grant’s tomb on the Hudson and be hanged if there isn’t an Alligator going up to see it.
The Devil’s Lookout is 80 feet high, with his Dinner Gong close by. The Furnace Room, Hen and Chickens, Hanging Bridge and Bridal Veil Falls are very realistic. Sure enough, there sits a water spaniel dog begging for—daylight. Now we see some Swiss scenery, a mountain goat, cheese, bread and beer. Only the beer is not there, it was drunk by the last party through.
We next come to the Methodist Episcopal Church. It is the custom to bow as you enter the low door and also bow going out. We are especially requested not to spit on the altar. Bishop Fowler’s Cathedral is 190 feet across.
We can just see the appetizing popcorn in Popcorn Alley, and then we pass on to the Hanging Rock. We carefully avoid going beneath it. Three hundred feet down and half a mile in we come to Odd Fellow’s Hall. There is the all-seeing eye and the three links—Friendship, Love, and Truth, with the third slightly stretched. There also is the road to Jericho and the Goat.
We pass Samson’s Palace, The Queen’s Drawing Room, Capitol Hall, and Turtle Pass. Here the trail divides, the short route going to the Garden of Eden, the medium route to the Fair Grounds, and the long route to the Pearly Gates. We take the medium.
In order we pass Scalping Grounds, Masonic Temple, Elks Room, with an elk head within and an American Eagle alighting on a rock, then the Grand Canyon with its great clefts hundreds of feet underground.
Monte Cristo Palace is 390 feet down. Old Maid’s Glasses follows and Dog Tooth, made of five points spar crystals. McKinley’s memorial is next, and then Assembly Hall. Here, again is much artistic boxwork formation. Next is A. O. U. W. Hall. In it is a stone book which, our guide tells us, is the only Natural History of Wind Cave. From here we go to the Giant’s Punch Bowl and on to Johnston’s Camp Grounds.
In the Bachelor’s apartments everything is upside down and all dusty. In his cupboard is a loaf of bread with a mouse gnawing at it. This leads us at last to the ticket office to the Fair Grounds. The Fair Grounds is a beautiful large room with a white ceiling, the whole covering about three acres. The first attraction is the South Dakota Teacher’s School Room with its calcite crystal wall. The Elephant’s Foot has fallen through the ceiling farther on. Then come S. D. Federation of Women’s Clubs Room, Ice Gorge, and The Northwestern Hotel Men’s assembly chamber. In the Farm Yard are a guinea hen, a little red rooster, a polar bear, the little red hen drinking, a guinea pig, a rabbit and a hen fighting, and a donkey. Last comes the jaw bone of a monster.
In the Meat Market hangs a ham, a goose, and some beef. Over high steps and under a low ceiling we pass into the Coliseum. The seats are of white rock. In Rambler’s Hall is a knife through the ceiling. Next are the Catacombs. Here we go down a rocky precipitous descent. Last comes the Elk’s Room, and then the return to the entrance. Everything we have seen is made of rock and our imagination.