Cleveland Morning Leader

More Wonderful than Mammoth Cave.

Dr. D. L. Talbot, in commencing a series of articles for the Fort Wayne Times, in regard the Wyandotte Cave, makes the following comparison between Wyandotte and Mammoth Caves: Wyandotte Cave, one of the most extensive and remarkable in the world, is situated in Crawford county, Indiana, about twenty-five miles below New Albany, on Blue River. I have called it a remarkable cave. The Mammoth Cave of Kentucky has hitherto been designated as the greatest known cave in the world. It may startle your scientific readers to hear me assert the fact, that there is one stalagmite alone in Wyandotte Cave more massive than all the stalagmites and stalactites in Mammoth Cave put together. This cave I have surveyed and mapped a distance of twenty miles in length, and there are numerous avenues. I have never penetrated to their end, although I have visited the cave for scientific and other purposes, over a dozen different times, spending one visit four days and nights within its darksome halls. The Mammoth Cave is distinguished more for its vastness than its beauty: the Wyandotte for its great extent, its mammoth hall, its lofty ceilings, reaching frequently to the height of 267 feet, and especially for its numerous and beautiful natural fountains, which almost continually meet the eye in every direction. A portion of this cave has been known and visited for over forty years. This portion is about three miles in length, and termed the Old Cave. In 1850 a new door from within the old cave was discovered, which extended the caves united to about twelve miles in extent. In 1853 a still newer discovery of ingress was accidentally made, which has added eight or ten miles thereto, and discloses a plan of formation more extensive and more beautiful than any heretofore known. This cave contains every kind of formation peculiar to the Mammoth and other caves, besides some very peculiar and unique formations found only in Wyandotte Cave.