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Caverns Of Sonora Charles H. Anderson, Jr. Dr. Mark Richard Vming LOCATION The Cavern of Sonora is located 5 miles south of Interstate 10, about 12 miles west of Sonora, Texas. A network of national and state highways makes the cave easily accessible from most directions. CAVE TOURS AND FACILITIES The cavern is open daily from 8 AM to 6 PM. Guided tours through the cave begin every 30 minutes. Special arrangements can be made in advance for private groups. The cavern headquarters building houses the ticket office, snack bar and gift shop. There are also picnic grounds, overnight camping, and trailer facilities in the park. For detailed information write or call: Cavern of Sonora P. 0. Box 213 Sonora, Texas 76950 Telephone: (915) 387-3105 DEVELOPMENT OF THE CAVERN The owners of the Cavern of Sonora, Stanley Mayfield and Jim Papadakis (a geologist from Wisconsin), began development of the cave. Jack Burch, who engineered the cave's public walkways, said it was necessary to destroy more delicate formations during path building than were known in all the world’s other caves! In 1960, after months of chiseling openings, building bridges, and construction of walkways, a 1,800-foot trail was opened to the public. More than 20,000 visitors toured the cavern during its first four months of operation. So gratifying was the response that an additional 1,700 feet of trails were added in 1961. In 1978, Jack Burch and his colleagues extended the trail system once again, passing "Halo Lake" and "The Hall of the White Giants." It is now possible to tour through a myriad of rooms and passages, which have been described as "unbelievable" by cave authorities. HISTORY OF EXPLORATION The Cavern of Sonora is no new discovery. About a decade after Sutton County was formed in 1887, a Mexican sheepherder routinely tending his sheep noticed the cave entrance. Explorers chipped away at the small opening until it was large enough to admit them, but the void into which they plunged was a formidable one. Down, down it went along a boulder- strewn passage ending at a seemingly bottomless pit. No one dared venture any farther for years to come. This cave was named "Mayfield Cave" after the owner of the Mayfield Ranch. Much later the name was changed to the Cavern of Sonora. TO protect the cave and prevent unauthorized exploration, the entrance was sealed with a gate and lock. In 1955, the Dallas Grotto of the National Speleological Society secured permission to explore the cave further. Bob and Bart Crisman and Jack Prince were a different breed of cave explorer. From the pit they could see another passage 50 feet away on the far wall. Descent into the pit was bad enough; the far wall looked impossible. Any passage beyond was surely virgin cave. The explorers were making a routine scouting trip in the cave. The over-hanging 60foot wall would not go easily. Perhaps a narrow ledge high on the right hand wall would allow them through, but they were not prepared to try. On Labor Day weekend in 1955, a team of equipped explorers went to the ledge halfway along the wall, high up near the ceiling. Jack Prince took the challenge. Jack started across the ledge, narrow and slanted, seeing a passage just ahead. Advancing one foot at a time, he inched within reach of a stalagmites Jack tested it and swung into the opening. Beyond that dark and forbidding pit lay a fantasyland more beautiful than any they had ever hoped to find. The explorers were seeing for the first time spectacular sights everywhere they turned. ORIGIN OF THE CAVERN For countless years nature has worked incredible magic. The caverns were not formed by an underground stream, but were ever so slowly dissolved away below the water table by seepage from the surface. Passages were carved through limestone, which was once the floor of an ancient sea. The cave contains stalagmites, stalactites and flowstone in translucent shades of pink, green, blue, and brown. Fragile minerals "soda straws" which have grown to several feet in length hang serenely from the ceiling. Some, which have received an excess of mineral solution, are responsible for wavy "fishtail" formations. When viewed in a certain way, the results are the translucent "Butterfly" and "Crystal Pistol" of breathtaking beauty. Most spectacular are the helecites and coral, which adorn the cave halls profusely in the lower parts. Helecites are individual crystalline shapes always beginning to grow perpendicular to their base, wherever that base may be, on the wall, ceiling, or floor. They bend and curve, forming all manner of shapes, and fill the cavern of Sonora in numbers unequaled by any cave known. Cave coral similarly comes in a wide variety of forms, most of which resemble undersea life (hence the name).
Photo By Charles H. Anderson Jr. CAVERN TEMPERATURE The temperature in the cavern is a warm 70 degrees all year long. The humidity is constantly near 100 percent, which means that there is practically no evaporation and the growth of the formations is incredibly slow. You may also notice that glasses and camera lenses become fogged very easily, and that warm clothing is uncomfortable in the cave. PHOTOGRAPHERS Photographers are welcome in the caverns as long as they heed the admonition of the sign placed there by the National Speleological Society long before the caves were opened. Take nothing but pictures and live nothing but footprints.
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