Kartchner Caverns State Park

Kartchner Caverns State Park (coord|31|50|164|N|110|20|929|W) is an Arizona state park, located nine miles (14 km) south of the town of Benson (near Tucson) and is considered by many to be the "crown jewel" of Arizona's state park system.

The park encompasses most of a down-dropped block of Palaeozoic rocks on the east flank of the Whetstone Mountains in the Coronado National Forest. It is carved out of limestone and filled with spectacular speleothems which have been growing for 50,000 years and longer, and are still growing due to careful development and maintenance.

History

The caverns were apparently unknown to man until 1974, when Randy Tufts and Gary Tenen, two amateur spelunkers found a narrow crack in the bottom of a sinkhole, and followed the source of warm, moist air toward what ended up being more than 2½ miles of pristine cave passages. Hoping to protect the cave from vandalism, they kept the location a secret for fourteen years, deciding that the best way to preserve the cavern -- which was near a freeway -- was to develop it as a tour cave. After gaining the cooperation of the Kartchner Family and working with them for 10 years, together they decided that the best way to achieve the goal of protection through development as a tour cave was to approach Arizona State Parks. Tufts and Tenen even blindfolded state parks officials before bringing them to the site. In 1985, then-Gov. Bruce Babbitt secretly left the state capitol with two bodyguards and spent three hours crawling through the cave's tight passages to reach the cave's showcase rooms, including the Big Room, Echo Passage and Cul-de-sac Passage.cite news
first = Roy-
last = Rivenburg
title = Arizona's Deep Dark Secret
work = Los Angeles Times
pages = L1
date = 1999-11-14] The discovery of the cave was finally made public in 1988 when the landowners sold the area to the state for development as a park and show cavern. "From personal accounts" and cite news
first = Barbara
last = Yost
title = Underground fantasy
work = Arizona Republic
pages = T1, T8-9
date = 2006-07-30 ]

The state spent $28 million on a high-tech system of air-lock doors, misting machines and other gadgetry designed to preserve the cave. Kartchner Caverns opened to the public in 1999.

Popularity

The cave has proven to be popular; over 750,000 people have visited the system in its first three years of the park's existence, a number over double what was projected in the 1992 master plan for the park.

Features open to public viewing

The two major features of the caverns currently available to the public are the "Throne Room" and the "Big Room". The Throne Room contains one of the world's longest (21' 2") soda straw stalactites and a convert|58|ft|m|sing=on high column called "Kubla Khan". The Big Room contains the world's most extensive formation of brushite moonmilk; it is closed during the summer for several months (April 15th to October 15th) each year because it is a nursery roost for over 1000 cave bats.

Other features publicly accessible within the caverns include "Mud Flats, Rotunda Room, Strawberry Room, and Cul-de-sac Passage".

Undeveloped sections

Several sections identified by the discoverers have not been prepared for visitors:
*Thunder Room
*Grand Canyon
*Subway Tunnel
*Mushroom Passage
*Pirate's Den
*Granite Dells
*Echo Passage

References

External links

* [http://azstateparks.com/Parks/KACA/index.html Arizona State Parks: Kartchner Caverns State Park]
* [http://www.friendsofkartchner.org/ Friends of Kartchner Caverns State Park]
* [http://www.caves.org/pub/journal/PDF/V61/v61n2-Tuffs.htm Discovery and History]
* [http://www.caves.org/pub/journal/Journal_of_Cave_and_Karst_Studies_volume_61.htm Journal of Cave and Karst Studies] (ISSN 0146-9517 ), Volume 61(2), August 1999