Jim White’s Story of Carlsbad Caverns as Told by Jim White (Illustrated) [Paperback] White, Jim

Description

An amazing historical story by Jim White about his early explorations of what became known as Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico. While there are other books about this national treasure, the purpose of this book is a different one. It is the story of one young man’s experience . . . a puzzling event in 1901 when his attention was captured by a sky-blackening cloud of bats, millions of little black mammals drifting along the horizon, seemingly fusing into hazy clouds during a New Mexico sunset, and emerging from what is now the entrance to Carlsbad Caverns. That spectacle led Jim to become interested in the colossal phenomenon of the caves. “I’d never seen bats fly . . . seen plenty of prairie whirlwinds on the range before, but this thing didn’t move . . . seemed to stay in one spot near the ground-but the top kept spinning upward.” At 10 years of age, Jim was about as curious as the next fellow, and started toward the origin of the spectacle. A native of Texas, he grew up ranching and didn’t even have a grammar school education. He’d prefer to spend time busting’ broncos to books and blackboards, even if there had been a schoolhouse near by. When he encountered this mysterious sight, he quickly became mesmerized and wanted to see more of what seemed to be a deep black hole. He built a bonfire from dead cacti, lit a flaming stalking and pushed it into the hole. That’s when hundreds of bats took flight again. Jim walked back to the Ranch where the fence building crew camped, and said not a word about his adventure. He gathered several coils of rope, kerosene lantern, wire and hand axe for an investigation of unexplored caves finding tunnels, chambers and stalagmites. Jim had never seen anything like this, but says, “with the kind of instinct the Creator puts into a man, that there just wasn’t another scene like this one in the world.”