Jewel Cave National Monument

Tuesday August 25th 2009 - Archived Entry:

We woke up to see two Mule deer grazing on the threshold of the forest before the pair gracefully disappeared into the woods. Early morning is quiet and peaceful in Custer State Park. As I got out of the car I breathed in the fresh mountain air. The time on my cell phone read 8:30. After getting freshened up I headed over to our picnic table and ate a breakfast of Rice Chex and drank our last Diet Coke.

After several hours of relaxing and organizing our campsite my mom and I drove into the town of Custer around eleven to find out what's going on with our car, which has been making an unusual humming noise when the engine is turned off. A local mechanic was able to quickly diagnose it as a leveler problem and nothing too major to worry about. Thank God! With a car this old and with so many miles it's hard to know how much life is left in it. It is a great car and I hope we have it many more miles on our journey.

Once we got the car checked out we decided to eat at Cattleman's, a Custer establishment before heading to nearby Jewel Cave National Monument. Cattleman's is one of the best restaurants in The Black Hills and one of the best meals I've eaten for the money period. t has a great menu comprised of Ribs, BBQ Chicken, Steaks and Salads. The prices are mostly under $10 and the food is high quality. For under $20 we feasted on two delicious meals. I opted for the BBQ Chicken, hand cut fries and side salad, and my mom ordered ribs. The atmosphere is family style dining with a very friendly staff. They also have a nice gift shop with South Dakota themed merchandise.

A Little History...

After lunch we headed to Jewel Cave National Monument, which lies 16 miles west of Custer off Highway 16. With 149 miles of mapped passageways, Jewel Cave is the second longest cave in the world, after Mammoth Cave in KY. It was discovered in 1900 by Frank and Albert Michaud, two local homesteaders who lived in the area. While exploring Hell's Canyon, a valley adjacent to the cave, the brothers noticed a small hole in the canyon wall, too small for human entry, with a blast of cold air coming out.  The brothers subsequently enlarged the hole with dynamite and entered the cave with Charles Bush, a friend of the family.  Together they discovered crawl ways and low-ceiling rooms coated with beautiful calcite crystals, which they described as sparkling like "jewels" in lantern light. 

The jewel like formations in the cave, calcite crystals, have little commercial value, but the brothers filed a mining claim in Custer in Oct. 1900 with the intent to open up the natural wonder as a tourist attraction.  During the following decade, they constructed a trail within the cave and built a lodge on the rim of Hell Canyon to attract visitors.  Unfortunately a lack of local population and the isolated location didn't bring in the expected tourists.  

However, a lack of people in this region and the difficulty of travel at that time made the tourist venture anything but a financial success. Frank Michaud bought out Charles Bush's share of the cave in 1905 for $300. For a while, Frank continued to work at the cave, exploring and keeping up the annual assessment work.  

A local campaign to preserve Jewel Cave and prevent future destruction of this monument culminated in President Theodore listing the cave as a National Monument in 1908.  The Michaud brothers sold their claim to the government for $750. 

Although Jewel Cave was designated as a National Monument as early as 1908, the National Park Service did not begin offering tours of the cave until 1939. Tourists to Jewel Cave today can still visit the  log cabin became home to the monument's first permanent ranger in 1941. 

As recently as 1959, it was believed that Jewel Cave only had two miles of of cave to be explored.  And although the known cave was beautifully decorated with calcite spar crystals, the shortness of the tour made someone wonder if this small cave was truly a monument worthy of national significance.  That all changed when geologist Dwight Deal enlisted the aid of two rock-climbing enthusiasts, Herb and Jan Conn to help explore the cave.  The Conn's were dedicated to exploring and mapping new passages.  By the late 1970s the Conn's had mapped over 64 miles of cave trail before retiring.  Spelunkers continue to explore the cave and to date 149 miles of KNOWN passages have been mapped out.  Many of the passages are very treacherous and only a few cave tours are open to the public, each offering a unique view of this exquisite cave.

The Canyon Trail

It was one o'clock when we officially arrived at Jewel Cave N.M.  The entrance of Jewel Cave sits atop of a steep ridge top and offers amazing views of the nearby mountains and prairie.  After parking our car we headed up to the ticket booth to pick out a Cave tour and order our tickets.  It turned out that all of the cave tours were booked until 4:25 p.m.  In the summer Jewel Cave is a popular attraction and it helps to call for cave tour reservations.  Since we decided on the spur of the moment to tour the cave, waiting a few hours to get in was fine.

To pass the time we opted to hike the Canyon Trail, which starts off at the Visitor's Center and winds down into Lithograph Canyon and then into Hell Canyon before looping back by the original cave entrance and back to the visitor's center.  The hike is 3.5 miles and takes two hours.  Bring plenty of water as this hike goes through Hell Canyon, a dry valley floor where the sun is fierce.

The scenery on this trail shows a variety of topography.  As we climbed down the mountainside we were immersed in a sea of greenery and Ponderosa Pine.  At the bottom of the hill, Lithograph Canyon becomes visible.  The small limestone canyon is named due to lithograph's on the rock.  It quickly turns into the larger Hell Canyon, an open prairie, filled with direct sunlight and few trees on the valley floor.  A creek appears and disappears from time to time alongside the path.  The path is filled with tall grasses, and cradled by a gorgeous collection of colorful wildflowers.  While hiking we saw tons of Mule Deer and lots of butterflies!

Because of the heat, hovering close to 95 with the sun beating down, we stopped every ten minutes for water or when we caught sight of the rare shaded Ponderosa pine.  After hiking a good hour on the valley floor the trail twisted upward over a set of steep inclines, by going directly up the canyon wall.  As the trail leveled off, high atop the surrounding area we passed the original entrance to Jewel Cave discovered in 1900.  One of the cave tours explores this entrance by lantern light. 

A few minutes later we entered a forested area where the original Park Ranger log cabin is stationed.  A Ranger was on duty and told us a little more on the history of the cave and discussed the hike we were treading.  From the log cabin it was still another 9/10th of a mile back to the Visitor Center.  All in all this was an enjoyable hike with stunning views of wildlife, prairie, and the exterior of the limestone cliffs, which make the interior cave possible.

Cave Tour

After picking up  few postcards in the gift shop and loading up on water from the nearby foundation we started our Cave Tour.  Out of the many tour options the only one open was The Discovery Tour, a short but informative look at Jewel Cave.  We had an amazing guide, a female in her mid-twenties who offered an interesting and entertaining tour particularly for the families present.  We took the elevator down to a large, airy room with a temperature around fifty to sixty degrees.  The twenty minute talk introduced us to Jewel Cave's natural and cultural history and we were able to view one large room of the cave filled two types of calcite crystal,  the jewels, which give the cave its namesake. 

The geology of the cave revolves around water.   Jewel Cave was formed by the gradual dissolution of limestone by stagnant, acid-rich water. The water caused  a network of cracks that had formed during the uplift of the Black Hills approximately 60 million years ago. The layer of calcite crystals that covers much of the cave walls was created by the re-deposition of calcite from water saturated with the mineral.

After the water that formed the cave drained, speleothems (cave formations) began to form. Jewel Cave contains all the common types of calcite formations, such as stalactites, stalagmites, flowstone, and frostwork, although not in the same abundance as other well-known caves. The dry parts of the cave contain some formations created by the deposition of gypsum, such as gypsum needles, beards, flowers, and spiders. Finally, Jewel Cave contains a very rare formation called a hydromagnesite balloon. Those are created when gas of an unknown source inflates a pasty substance formed by the precipitation of magnesium.

When the tour concluded I thanked our tour guide for such a fantastic introduction to Jewel Cave.  I hope to revisit the Cave and take another tour focusing on a different area of the cave in the future!  

After leaving Jewel Cave, my mom and I made a brief stop in Custer to get gas before heading back into the park.  On the way back to Center Lake we stopped for ice and milk at the Legion Lake store.  We also each got a cup of Land O'Lakes ice cream (Moose Tracks and Praline Pecan).  I can honestly say it's the creamiest and most delicious ice-cream around :)  

For more info on Jewel Cave check out the NPS site!