The 1881 Account of George W Ramspert

George W. Ramspert wrote his account of Spaulding's Cavern for the Western Echo in 1881. In it he described an earlier visit to the Garden, when he and some companions found a small, smooth hole on the west side of North Gateway Rock. Taking a latern and some tallow candles, they crawled inside:

"After going but a few feet we could stand erect; and then, each with a light in his hand, we penetrated the cavern, which ran into the body of the solid rock. It was twenty feet high and ten feet wide, and so ascending that we were obliged to crawl upon our hands and knees as we proceeded. The floor was covered with dust from the rocks; and in this we could see many tracks, some imitating the wild cat and panther...we crawled on until we came to the end, which was fully twenty yards from the entrance. Here a small stream of water gushed forth from the side of the cavern and, after running a short way, terminated in a small pool worn in the rocky floor, from which it sank unperceived away. We tested the water, and found it cool and pure, and in the lamplight it glittered like crystal."

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