New West Book Review
Cave Men: “Kartchner Caverns”
By Jenny Shank, 4-25-08
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Kartchner Caverns
By Neil Miller
University of Arizona Press
224 pages, $14.95
In 1974, two young spelunking buddies named Randy Tufts and Gary Tenen discovered an untouched cave in southern Arizona, filled with breathtaking formations like nothing they’d ever seen, so impressive and mysterious that they named it Xanadu. Then they did what any self-respecting cavers would do: they told no one about their discovery. Neil Miller’s engaging new book, Kartchner Caverns: How Two Cavers Discovered and Saved One of the Wonders of the Natural World follows Tufts and Tenen and the cave that would eventually become an Arizona State Park over a twenty year period in which the men try to determine how to safeguard Xanadu from vandals and eventually advocate it becoming a “show cave” in order to preserve and share it with others.
Tufts and Tenen located the cave through a sinkhole they found in the Whetstone mountains, a range not then frequented by area cavers, but possessing “all the geologic elements ideal for the formation of caves: limestone, natural faults, and water.” Tufts had first noticed the sinkhole when he was in high school, seven years earlier, but back then he’d left it unexplored. In 1974, the two descended through a crack in the sinkhole, and found two small rooms, one with an eight-foot stalagmite. Then they saw a “grapefruit-sized hole” in the wall that let in enough air to blow out the flame of their carbide lamp. The men enlarged the hole slightly with a sledgehammer and a chisel until it became an entrance they called “the blowhole.”
There’s a picture of Randy Tufts squeezing “the blowhole” that is almost unbelievable—the hole appears only large enough to accommodate his head and one shoulder, the rock squeezing him like a vise. Miller writes that the smaller Tenen “had been practicing navigating his way through narrow spaces by wiggling through his closet coat hangers.”
Once through the narrow entrance, rooms of wonders awaited Tufts and Tenen. They discovered it was a “wet” cave, still alive with stalactites and stalagmites being formed. They came back whenever they could to explore the cave, letting only a few trusted caving friends in on the secret. They discovered room after room of striking formations, including soda straws (a hollow mineral tube) longer than any in the U.S., striped “cave bacon” hanging from the ceiling, a formation that looks like a fried egg, and a 58-foot column they named the “Kubla Khan formation,” created when from a stalagmite meeting a stalactite.
“I thought we were dreaming,” Miller quotes Tufts. “If we were to blink, it would all go away. You just realize that every gaze you cast on everything it was the first time that thing has ever been seen. It was almost as if you are bringing it into being just by looking at it.”
Tufts and Tenen were especially cautious and secretive because in the past, several of Arizona’s caves had been spoiled and vandalized, their formations stripped and their walls covered with graffiti. Secrecy is the code of many spelunkers, apparently. The two men belonged to a Tucson caving club, but Miller writes that at the group’s meetings, “It seemed as if hardly anyone wanted to talk to anyone about caves, at least not in a precise way that might reveal where a cave was located.”
When Tufts and Tenen realized what a remarkable cave they had discovered, they became passionate advocates for its preservation. After much deliberation, they decided the best way to preserve it was to try to turn it into a “show cave,” like Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico. This would prevent vandalism (as the cave, located close to a major highway, would be difficult to conceal forever) and allow other people to share their discovery. The first step was to speak with the owner of the land, a Mormon rancher with twelve children named James Kartchner. Miller conveys the tension of the situation perfectly—the reader is on the edge of his seat along with Tufts and Tenen as they wait to see how Kartchner will react to their presentation about the cave. Will he ban them from ever entering it again?
Luckily, the Kartchner family decides to form a partnership with Tufts and Tenen, and agree with the plan to try to turn the cave into a public one. But there are plenty more twists and turns in the road before the cave becomes a state park, which Miller conveys with suspense and clarity. At one point, a park official visits the cave, and Tufts and Tenen insist be blindfolded on the way there in order to preserve the secrecy of the location. Eventually dozens of officials and even Arizona’s governor visit. Tufts and Tenen assume aliases as they travel around the country researching other show caves.
Xanadu eventually makes enough allies in government to receive its own funding bill, which retains the secrecy of the location and doesn’t even mention that a cave is involved. Sympathetic congressmen sneak the bill through during the impeachment of Governor Evan Mecham. But there’s still more work ahead: Miller chronicles the painstaking process of making the cave accessible to the public while avoiding damaging, contaminating, or drying it. The construction crew charts new territory, as it was the first show cave built with attention to environmental concerns.
Kartchner Caverns is a fascinating story, full of striking personalities, all the way through to its bittersweet ending. This book will bring the world of caves vividly alive to even the most claustrophobic reader.
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