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Show rl'EI1' S OF UTAH'S PAST FROM THE Utah State Historical Society 300 Rio Grailde Salt Lake City LTT 84101 ( 801) 533- 3300 FAX ( 801) 333- 3303 Timpanogos Cave Became a National Monument in 1922 UNTITLH E ESTABLISHMENT OF THE - TIMPANOGOS CAVE- NATIONMAOLN UMENINT 1922 several groups competed to claim the beautiN caves in American Fork Canyon as their own. The first recorded discovery of one of the three caves was by Martin Hansen in the fall of 1887. An American Fork resident, Hansen was cutting timber on the south wall of the canyon when it began to snow. He decided to go home and left his axe in a nearby tree to mark the place where he had been. When he returned to the spot the next morning, he noticed mountain lion tracks in the snow. Following the tracks, he reached a small opening in the cliff face. He climbed inside and discovered a magnificent cave. The discovery of the cave gave Hansen an informal claim to the place for several years. The cave quickly became known as Hansen's Cave and was used by him to promote a small tourist industry. In'the winter of 1888 Hansen and three friends- Richard Steele, Charles Burgess, and Joseph Burgess- blazed a trail from the canyon floor to the cave entrance. When completed, the path went nearly straight up for 1,200 feet. Hansen conducted tours through the cave for healthy enthusiasts willing to climb the rough terrain to get there. The business was more discouraging than profitable. Some visitors would remove pieces of the cave, such as the priceless dripstone formations, to take home as souvenirs. When Hansen left in the evening, vandals would destroy the door to the cave opening and steal more cave decorations. After nearly four years of conduct-ing tours at the cave, Hansen quit the business. The departure of Martin Hansen opened the way for a new group to take over the cave. During 1892- 93 miners from the Duke- Onyx Company of Chicago mined Hansen's Cave for onyx. At least two freight cars of onyx from the cave were shipped during the year. According to an American Fork resident whose father participated in the endeavor, some of the onyx was sent to Salt Lake City to be used in the ornamentation of the third floor of the LDS Temple. The effect of the. mining is noticeable even today. Hansen's Cave has few decorative formations on : its walls in stark contrast to Martin Hansen's raving descriptions of its original beauty. The middle cave- later called Timpanogos Cave- was formally discovered by two fourteen year old boys during a group outing in 1914 or 1915. While others went inside Hansen's Cave, James Gough and Frank Johnson stayed outside to explore the area. James found the entrance to another cave by accidently falling into it. He later piled rocks over the opening to conceal the cave and went with his father to the Utah County Courthouse in Provo to file a mining claim on the area. When the family moved to Idaho they could not keep up work on the claim. ( more) The cave was not rediscovered until 1921 when Vearl J. Manwill, a member of an outdoor club from Payson, found the sealed entrance during an outing to Hansen's Cave on August 14. That night, club members sat around the campfire and discussed the significance of the discovery. Impressed by the beauty of what they had seen, the group decided to dedicate their time to preserving and protecting the cave. Two weeks later they returned to the site with a ranger from the Wasatch National Forest. He immediately declared the area a " Public Service Site" and arranged for the trail to the cave to be protected by a fire guard beginning the next day. Encouraged by government support, the Alpine Hiking Club prepared to make the cave accessible to tourists the following year. After a large fundraising drive, the club had enough money to enlarge the path, install electric lights in the cave, and provide an adequate door to the entrance. In October 1921 the club met to determine the name of the cave. Among the many suggestions- including " The Cave of Crystal Cliffs," " The Wonder Cave," and " The Cave of Elves"- the club agreed on the name of " Timpanogos Cave." The club, renamed the " Timpanogos Outdoor Committee," received a special use permit from the Forest Service in April 1922 to collect entrance fees for tours and maintenance. By the spring of 1922 the committee was ready to open the cave to the public. On Decoration Day, 330 people went through the cave. Tours began every ten minutes. Since there was only one opening to the cave, the entrance became a bottle-neck. Only months after the cave opened for tours, the Timpanogos Outdoor Committee faced a legal confrontation with a mining company that had made claims to the area the year before. In July 1922 miners E. T. Gilman, S. F. Snyder, and Don Workman stated that they had legal claim to the area and wanted to drive tunnels below the cave level in search of rich mineral deposits. As a last resort, the local forest ranger wrote a letter to his superiors in Washington, D. C., asking that Timpanogos Cave be established as a National Monument. On October 14, 1922, President Warren G. Harding officially established Timpanogos Cave National Monument. The mining claims were immediately invalidated, and the cave became the property of the federal government. After a long history of uncertainty, the battle over ownership of the Timpanogos Cave finally came to an end. Sources: George V. Martin, The llmpanogos Cave Stoty ( Salt Lake City, 1973); lIhe History of the Empanogos Cave National Monument ( Prove[?]: National Park Service, [ 1970?], George F. Shelley, Early History of American Fork ( American Fork, 1945); Amen'can Fork Citizen. THEH ISTORYB LAZER is produced by the Utah State Historical Society and funded in part by a grant from the Utah Statehood Centennial Commission. For more information about the Historical Society tel@. hone 533- 3500. |
