NEWLY DISCOVERED CAVERN IN THE COPPER QUEEN MINE 



Bjl I'jinniiiil Otis /fori// 



Till'] yi-c;i1 ( '(>i)|)('r (^uccii mine ;it I'islicc, Ari/.oii.'i, is most famous 

 for llic millions of Ions (.f liiiiii-uradc copper oi-e wliieli lia\'e lieeii 

 taken from it . luit it is likewise well know n for t lie lieautifiil, l li(;ni;li 

 small caves that liuxe heen encountered in il fiom lime to time in the course 

 of the regular mining operations. These caves have for the most part 

 been found in the limestone of Queen Hill, the eminence that forms the 

 southwest wall of Tombstone Canon at Hisbee. One of the caverns 

 broken into (lin'ing the aeti\e life of the old (^ueen Incline, almost in the 

 heart of the city, twenty or twenty-five years ago furnished the wonderful 

 green and white cur\-e(l and ordinary stalactites and the stalagmites that 

 adorn the Gem and Mineral Halls of the Museum. 



There is therefore small cause for wonder that I was nuuh intci-ested 

 in the report of the finding of this new ca\-e. The word readied my ears 

 immediately on my arrival at Bisbee, where 1 had gone with three men to 

 collect the data needed in the construction of the great Copper Queen model 

 which is being made for the Museum through the generosity of a friend 

 of the institution. The cave had been discovered some months before, 

 but innncdiate steps having been taken to control access to it, its rooms 

 and their formations were still in their pristine perfection and beauty. 



Having donned regulation mine costumes early one morning, we started 

 for the underground cavern. After descenrling the Czar shaft two hundred 

 feet to the "second level" we walked southwestward toward a point almost 

 directly beneath the summit of Qticen Hill. A quarter of a mile or more — 

 it seemed at least a mile — from the big shaft we came to the foot of a 

 "raise," up which we were drawn four hundred feet by an electric hoist. 

 The journey from the shaft along the level through solid limestone had 

 been cool and comfortable, but as we went up the raise both the moisture 

 and temperature of the air increased, because we had entered the " leached 

 ground" where the oxidation of the original ores produced heat, just as 

 does burning coal. A few yards from the raise we reached the top of a 

 "manhole" cut through the heating ore. Xow it was necessary to climb 

 forty feet down A'crtical ladders to the liea\'y i)lank door tliat guarded 

 the cave. 



Squeezing through a small hole beyond the doorway, we found ourselves 

 at the bottom of the cave in a small room whose ceiling scarcely permitted 

 one to stand erect. The bright light of our acetylene mine lamps showed 

 that the room was lined with alabaster, tinted a delicate green with carbon- 

 ate of copper. Walls and ceiling were comparatively smooth but incrusted 



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