July 16 Luray Caverns

It is a hot day. Forecasts flirt with triple digits. There is relief in the natural coolness of a cavern. This area of Virginia sports a number of limestone show caverns. The most notable is Luray.

The visit was impressive. There are so many interesting formations in a short cave walk. Every turn reveals something impressive. One of my first observations was the number of broken stalactites. When the guide asked what we thought caused that, I knew the answer had to be souvenirs. Up until the 1950s, tourists were allowed to use a mallet to break off a stalactite as a souvenir. I recall the same sort of thing going on in Mammoth Cave. Guides received a tip for writing peoples names in the white limestone using a candle.

I'm always interested in the history of places and this place has an interesting one. In 1878, five locals located the cavern when they felt cool air rising from a small hole in the ground. Widening the hole and sending the smallest guy down, led them to realize they had discovered a true treasure. The cavern being on private property belonging to someone else, they decided to keep their secret to themselves. To their surprise, the owner defaulted on property taxes and the property was to be sold at a court ordered auction. Three of these guys bought it but very soon afterward, rumors arose about a spectacular cavern. There was 2 years of wrangling and the Virginia Supreme Court nullified the purchase in 1881. The creditor of the original owner then sold the property to the Shenandoah Railroad Company. In the next decade, it changed hands another 3 times. A sanatorium was built over the cavern which utilized the cool cavern air as a natural air conditioning. Still the cavern was not open to the public. 

Soon interest in the cavern swelled. The Smithsonian took a look and from that publicity, the owners opened it as a show cave.

One of the most touted features of the cavern is the Great Stalacpipe Organ. Very early guides would play a tune on the stalactites by tapping them with a mallet. In the 1950s an enterprising fellow became obsessed with creating an organ to do the same. The keys of the organ, electrically actuate solenoids placed on dozens of stalactites with small rubber hammers. The organ played a minute long tune during the tour, but I felt it fell short of the hype.

The wishing well is a shallow pool in which guests can toss coins. As you can see above, over 1 million dollars has been donated to various charities over the years. Having dealt with donation boxes myself, I know counting coins is really tedious. So, I asked how they did it. Obviously, no one was tossing paper money here, so everything was a coin. The water is drained off and the coins are shoveled out and then counted and rolled mechanically.