The Lost Sea

The Lost Sea was well worth the drive to see even though some parts really terrorized me, like walking across a small bridge way up in the air over open chambers and getting in a small boat with a baby. Next time we are going when all the children can walk on their own and don't need too much help.

This is called the bear claw and one of the formations we were allowed to touch.

These are anthodites, aka cave flowers, and are very rare. In fact, 50% of the world's known anthodites are in the Lost Sea caverns. This picture and these last two are from my post cards since mine didn't turn out.

Yes, the fish are really that large. They are not natural in the cave. They were brought in for an experience and were tagged to see if any got out to find out where the water would go once outside the cave. None have turned up outside of the cave so they still don't know. They lose most of their eye sight and their color (they are rainbow trout) from the darkness. They are feed by the tour guides and every five years more are brought in because they end up mistaking their eggs for food since the eggs end up floating instead of sticking to the clay bottom.

The cave has a rich history. It was used by Native Americans and later the confederate army. There is a burned "1863" on the wall and they had it analyzed and found out it was authentic. A saloon bought the cave back in the 20s I think he said and ran a cavern down there (hence the moonshine still) but it quickly shut down because people can drink twice the amount under ground then what they would be able to tolerate up top and so when they went to climb the original 187 steep steps out they would often pass out and fall down the steps and get hurt. The first tours started up just before the great depression. For 10 cents a person could go anywhere in the cave unguided. Some of the old trail and steps could be spotted and they were dangerously close to some scary stuff.

It also have a hole (tried to get the picture) that leads to the devil it is rumored. They do not know where it ends up because it is the size of a softball and a bottom cannot be seen. I think they should just drop down a camera on a string.

The Lost Sea part of the cave was not discovered until 1912. During a drought a 11-12 year old boy went into the cave and was exploring. He crawled through a tiny 30 inch diameter hole for like 100 feet or so and discovered the hidden lake. He had a little tiny lantern that didn't give out much light. He tried to tell his father about it but he didn't believe him for a month and then when he finally did and went to look the hole was again covered up because the drought had ended. Fifty years later it was discovered and written about in the paper. The guy came forward and claimed he had found it once before and they believed him and got credit for the find and got to name it. He chose the "Lost Sea." The hole was made bigger and a tunnel created (part of the original hole is still there) and the guy got to be the first to ride a boat across the lake.

Anyway, some after thought. Why is it that tour guides are always full of lame jokes? Do they go to school for that? We might miss some interesting facts thinking they are jokes.

Also when camping find ground that doesn't slope at all when having a toddler. Also check out where the water and bathrooms are located or how many there are. Our campground was okay but they only had small unshaded spots for tent camping and so we chose to camp in the woods that gave us a little more shade but not a lot of places T-man could walk. Also the camp ground only had one bathroom near the entrance and no water spouts excepts those used by the hooked up RVs and the ones in the bathroom.