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The Caverns of the Other Sonora
by Soll Sussman
SONORA, Texas -- Out where the sheep and goats graze
outside this West Texas town, underneath a run-of-the-mill stretch
of ranch land, you wouldn't expect to be dazzled. |
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But that's what happens, 150 feet down in the Caverns
of Sonora, when I glanced back along the path and saw all
at once the dizzying array of an underground world gone mad.
I'd been looking ahead intently at every individual piece of
cave decoration, but the sudden sight on the path behind me
of so many halactites and intricate crystal creations spiraling
everywhere caught me off guard. It took my breath away. From
that point on, I was officially convinced that this was worth
the trip.
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UNDERGROUND ATTRACTION
I'd seen the billboards for the Caverns of Sonora many times,
on business trips to the area or on Interstate 10, traveling
West or Southwest to border cities like Del Rio or El Paso.
It sounded neat enough, just 8 miles west of the town, but I
somehow never managed to find the time to stop and tour the
underground attraction until recently. Now I can't believe I
waited so long.
"This is the only show cave in the United States that
is so elaborately and fully decorated," co-owner Gerry
Ingham told me, taking a moment from folding T-shirts in the
gift shop and refreshment stand. "What we have are really
delicate, beautiful formations."
While other caverns may be bigger, at least in Texas (and,
Ingham says, in the Southwest), it's hard to find this much
intricacy. At Natural Bridge Caverns in New Braunfels, just
northwest of San Antonio, for example, you see larger individual
rooms that impress with their size -- but not the detail that
you see in Sonora.
The names for the various caverns and tunnels at the Caverns
of Sonora give a good idea of the spectacular nature of the
underground sights the Palace of Angels, the Christmas Tree
Room, the Valley of Ice, the Hall of White Giants. They're not
really exaggerating.
"There are a lot of skeptical people," Bill Sawyer,
an employee at the Caverns for 12 years and a cave enthusiast
for even longer, said as we walked through the two miles of
established paths. "We turn them in the other direction
easy." |
WORK IN PROGRESS
The figures are impressive enough. About 7.5 miles of passages
have been explored, making it one of the largest in Texas in
total length. Horseshoe Lake, a pond with dark water in one
of the caverns that brings to mind an Indiana Jones movie or
the Lord of the Rings, is 100 feet deep. About 95 percent of
the caverns are still active and producing crystal. You can
see the moisture, glistening on the formations or dripping to
the ground, as you walk along almost all of the pathways.
"This cave is the mother lode of halactites," Sawyer
said. "The purity of the crystal here is pretty amazing.
We get complex little crystal patterns."
The scenery is spectacular throughout, but the clincher for
me, the final persuader that nature is a joy and a mystery,
was the Cheese Nip. We paused for a moment in the simple underground
classroom set up for school groups in one of the larger caverns,
where Sawyer pointed out a small blackened lump on a ledge.
It once had been a cheese cracker, left out to attract cave
life, and as we looked closely we could see the movement around
it. Tiny aphid-like, eyeless creatures, colorless to blend into
the rock, were finding the source of nourishment.
Sawyer said at least eight kinds of insects could be found
in the caverns. You also can see the ledge where explorers back
in the 1950s finally found the way across a barrier and determined
that there was something special deeper inside. |
NOTHING OUT OF THE ORDINARY
"The cave was just an ordinary limestone cave,"Mrs.
Ingham said. "Old timers went in it, kids played in it.
But it was nothing out of the ordinary."
She remembers it because her father was running the ranch then,
and after the cavers made the breakthrough discovery, it was
opened for public tours on July 15, 1960. "On opening weekend
they took over 3,000 people through the cave," she said.
They try to keep tours to no more than 12 people, so that the
formations aren't at risk. In earlier days they took in 40 or
50 people at a time, then went to 20, then to 15 now it's
12.
Basic admission in 2003 for a 1-1/2 mile tour taking no more
than 90 minutes is $15 for adults and $12 for children. A slightly
longer tour taking in the entire Crystal Palace section costs
$20 for adults and $16 for children.
More expensive guided packages for photographers or for those
wanting a taste of what cavers experience in the undeveloped
sections are also available, with full information on the attraction's
website
The caverns are 300 miles southwest of the Dallas - Fort Worth
area. |
AUTHOR
Border
Crossings is a series of features prepared by Soll Sussman
who reported on Mexico and Central America as a correspondent
and regional news editor for The
Associated Press. He left for a stint as A.P. bureau chief
in Toronto. Because his heart never really left Mexico City,
he quickly came to his senses and moved closer to the Mexican
border. He now is a freelance writer happily living in Austin,
Texas.
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