Odd Old News: More Caves of Mystery

Interior of cave in Trinity County. [Photo by Jervie Henry Eastman in 1938, University of California, Davis. General Library. Dept. of Special Collections, 1938. ]

Odd Old News returns to its speleological roots with more stories of fantastic caves, or, as some would have it, fantastic stories of caves. Ranging far outside of our Odd Old News area of quasi-expertise, this week we draw attention to purported caves in Del Norte, Klamath, and Humboldt counties.

In the later 1800’s, Euro-Americans moving west were “discovering” and reporting caves, cave- dwellers, cliff-dwellers, and large cave complexes. It was an era of exciting new cave related “discoveries” that newspapers were eager to share. Besides the better known Marble Mountain cave in Trinity County, the limestone formations in our northern counties hold a number of lesser known caves like the one at Del Loma (old Taylor’s Flat) that we will read about.

Once again, Odd Old News straddles the line between history and bullshistory with a new round of mysterious and curious cave news articles.

First, a fantastic account of an alleged cave in Del Norte county.

A Del Norte Man’s Discovery
Humboldt Times, 10/25/1883

E. B. Caldwell, of Santa Rosa, traveling agent for the sale of H. H. Bancroft’s historical works, gives The Republican an account of a wonderful discovery which he alleges was recently made in Del Norte county. A few weeks ago, Mr. Caldwell met James Nash, moving with his family from Del Norte county to the southern portion of the State. Mr. Nash had lived in Del Norte at a place about twenty miles from the Humboldt county line.

During September, while out in the region near his habitation, he came upon a sloping hill side, on the west side of which stood a massive rock, ninety-five feet high on the lower side and seventy feet high on the upper side. Its walls were nearly perpendicular all around, except upon the north, where the wall sloped. It was of hard limestone. In the north side of the sloping front steps were cut in regular form, of four feet width to the height of sixty-five feet, to a door-like entrance of four feet each way.

This open doorway was the entrance to a hall cut into the solid rock, of thirty paces one way and thirty-one the other way. In the walls of the east and north sides of this large hall niches were cut, like berths, for sleeping uses, three or four feet above the floor, of four feet width and ten feet length. The floor of the hall was cut level and even, and the north and west walls were perpendicular and smooth.

The ceiling of solid wall was ten feet high. In the floor was a well-hole of five feat diameter and ten feet depth, filled with water, and directly over tins was a hole, cut through to the roof, two or three feet above.

In the west wall, several loop-holes, each seven inches in diameter, were cut through to the outer wall of the rock, as if for the use of projectiles from within and also for observation. These loopholes were six feet above the floor.

In the great hall was a perfectly round, smooth, dressed rock of five feet in diameter, which Mr. Nash thought had been intended to block the passage from the outside through the doorway.

In the niches or berths in the east and south walls were found skeletons of human beings, nine feet in length, and fragments of bones, and arrow heads and spear heads of flint.

The exact location of this extraordinary rock was not related to Mr. Caldwell.

We have heard so many of these wonderful Indian stories, almost invariably accompanied by the qualification that the wonderful spot had not been exactly located, that if we were to venture an opinion we should say the Republican had been the victim of a ‘sell.’

Fifty plus years later several reports of a cave near Del Loma in Trinity County appeared:

“A rather unusual geological condition, in the form of a cave in the limestone, was visited by the writer this week. This cave is located in Del Loma and known but to few, and is within a stone’s throw of the highway. While this cave has never been entirely explored, it is possible to spend an hour in the various sizeable rooms and see there both stalactites and stalagmites”(Blue Lake Advocate, 12/26/1936).

The following year:

“District Ranger Barron, accompanied by the physical instructor of the CCC camp at Big Bar and others, visited Del Loma Sunday to inspect the very interesting old cave here. They were surprised and highly commended the possibilities of making a show place of this hidden castle of the hills”(Blue Lake Advocate, 3/13/1937).

According to one treasure story website the Del Loma cave has a long reach and history:

“Del Loma Cave is located near the base of a rocky ledge overlooking Hwy. 299, 30 miles W of Weaverville and extends underground for almost 28 miles from here on to New River, but it was dynamited shut by soldiers in the 1850’s. In the 1850’s, hostile Indians plagued the California miners stealing their gold and, in some instances, killing the gold seekers in an effort to force them to leave their lands. Soldiers were finally brought in and traced these hostile Indians to Del Loma Cave where it is believed all the stolen gold and other valuables were hidden.”

On a less dramatic note, an inland source of salt was found in Klamath county, one that likely had a long history of Native American use.

SALT CAVE DISCOVERED ON THE KLAMATH RIVER.
Humboldt Times, 5/12/1877

Last week Ike Gayheart and Sam Williams discovered a great natural curiosity, in the shape of a salt cave in the bank of the Klamath river, about a mile north of the Klamath line. They were out hunting and following the tracks of animals which led to the banks of the river, where close to the water’s edge and at the foot of a high and steep precipice they saw an arched opening.

Their curiosity prompted them to investigate and see what was on the other side of this hole in the wall, they passed under the archway and found themselves in a large cave, apparently round and with arched roof. The sides of the caves were covered with a substance of sparkling whiteness, while in the center of the cave boiled up a spring of water.

Upon examining and tasting the substance encrusted on the side of the cave, they found it to be salt, or very strongly impregnated with the article, and the waters coming from the spring were also found to be strongly impregnated with salt. They broke a quantity of the white substance off the walls and brought it away with them.

Mr. Corpe, the mail currier, brought some of it to town, and left a quantity of it at Dewitt’s drug store. Drs. Robertson and Dewitt, who have tested it, declared it to be nearly pure salt, of very fine quality and with little, if any, impurities in it. It is Dewitt’s opinion that the water of the spring must be very strong in saline matter and that it is very valuable, as salt can be made from it without hardly any expense. The cave is situated on the south bank of the Klamath river, and Messrs. Gayheart and Williams describe the inside as a scene of grandeur and magnificence, and well worth going miles to see.

Last, but not least, the Salmon Creek area in southern Humboldt may have more than one giant cave. A correspondent to the Humboldt Times named MOUNTAINEER described the 1880 4th of July picnic at Southfork*, and some of the revelers’ activities that followed:

“What there was left of ‘em” of the South Forkers, mounted their fiery, untamed steeds and rode away to the falls in Salmon Creek, took tea with the Burnell boys, and visited a cave, which, “they say,” compares favorably as to size and snakes with the one in Bear Buttes, seen by Gus Schumacher” (Humboldt Times, 7/17/1880).

*Before Southfork became associated with the Dyerville area, South Fork was one of the early names for Garberville that apparently lingered even after the 1874 Post Office town naming.

Earlier Odd and Old News:

There are many, but here are the most recent:

• Odd, Old News: A Curious Cave in the Eel River Valley
• Odd Old News: Afloat and Afoot, Travels Through Mendocino County Into Humboldt, Pt. 2
• Odd Old News: Afloat and Afoot, Travels Through Mendocino County Into Humboldt, Pt. 3
• Odd Old News: Afloat and Afoot, Travels Through Mendocino County Into Humboldt, Pt. 4
• Odd Old News: Afloat and Afoot, Travels Through Mendocino County Into Humboldt, Pt.5
• Odd Old News: Afloat and Afoot, Travels Through Mendocino County Into Humboldt, Pt. 6—The Conclusion
• Odd Old News: The Advent of ‘Gasoline Boats’ for Fishing and a Stream Report From 1907
• Odd Old News: The 1906 Chinese Expulsion
• Odd Old News: Bicycling—The Exciting New Mode Of Travel and the Evolution of the Bicycle Saddle
• The Bicycle Bandit of Humboldt County
• The Hansell Ranch Orchard at Camp Grant
• Mountain Children