The 1867 Account of Fitz Hugh Ludlow

Fitz Hugh Ludlow visited Colorado Territory in 1867. He traveled in a small wagon called an ambulance. During his short stay in the Pikes Peak region he used the El Paso House as a springboard for extended visits to the springs of Manitou and the Garden of the Gods. It was on his first visit to the Garden that he explored Spaulding's Cavern.

"The right hand or northern warder of the gateway is more wedge-shaped than tabular, and contains within it a cavern, which we penetrated with some difficlty by a small aperture opening near the base of the western side. Twelve feet of prostrate squeezing brought us into a vault about fifty feet long, ten feet high, and a dozen wide. We lighted our candles, but there was not much to see. The walls of the hollow were damp; but there was no dripping water, and of course, in a gritty rock like this, there were no stalacites or secondary formaions of any kind."