CHAPTER III.
THE CAVES OF CHEOPS.
(Nakimu Caves.)
(Condensed from an Official Monograph by A. O. Wheeler, F.R.G.S.)
Discovery and Exploration: The first persons known to have seen the Caves of Glacier Park were two prospectors in the Cougar Valley, D. Woolsey and Walter Scott, who descended to the bottom of the "Gorge" by means of a fallen tree. This was before 1902 and the discovery attracted little attention. In the summer of 1902, while encamped on the summit of Baloo Pass during a topographical survey of the peaks in that region, Mr. A. O. Wheeler passed close to the Caves without waiting then to explore. Nothing more was heard about them until May, 1904, when C. H. Deutschman visited Cougar Valley in the dual capacity of hunter and prospector. Finding a series of caves, he "located" them as a mineral "claim."
The next year in May, a party of twelve visited the place which had meanwhile aroused much interest. Among them were Superintendent Douglas of the Rocky Mountains Park, and Mr. W. S. Ayres, Mining Engineer, who came to report upon the discovery to the Federal Government. In the same year (1905) Mr. wheeler, then in charge of the Government's Topographical Survey, explored and surveyed Cougar Valley and the whole series of the caves, his work being greatly facilitated by Deutschman who had. alone and by the light of a tallow candle, explored caves and pot holes and corridors. Mr. Wheeler pays tribute to his forerunner's pluck and courage: "Added to the thick darkness, there was always the fierce, vibrating roar of subterranean torrents, a sound most nerve-shaking in a position sufficiently uncanny without it. Huge cracks had to be crossed and precipitous descents made in pitch dark ness, where a mis-step meant death or disablement." This is the man retained by the Government as caretaker and exhibitor since tin Caves have been equipped for visitors.
Mr. Wheeler describes his own descent into the Gorge, down a knotted rope, in August, when the stream at high water was pouring into the opening with tremendous velocity. Although by wading waist deep he crossed the icy torrent, it was then impossible to penetrate more than 200 feet of the subterranean way. Later in the month, Deutschman was able to explore the whole series of passageways reached from the Gorge. In October Mr. Wheeler surveyed this series and explored a number of new ones. There was snow two feet deep in the valley and a somewhat arctic temperature, while the dark caverns below were warm. Later in the same month Mr. Ayres also visited the same passage-ways and some additional ones. By this time the snow in the valley above was four feet deep.
Area: The whole system, so far explored, is covered by a surface measuring 2,910 feet extending from the triangulation station near Gopher Bridge entrance to the Wind Crack below Lookout Point; and the total length of the underground passage-ways is 5,550 feet. From the first disappearance of the stream under Gopher Bridge to the lowest point explored below the Bridal Chamber.
