Cave of the Winds: Historical Colorado Cave & Giveaway! Part 2

Cave of the Winds: Historical Colorado Cave & Giveaway! Part 2

If you missed part one of the Cave of the Winds trip, be sure to check it out HERE.


As mentioned in the last post, Cave of the Winds became a tourist attraction in 1881. You would be surprised at how many of these early cave explorers were women. In skirts, mind you. ;)

There were two such women visiting the cave, who were old maids of 20 & 21 years old. At a certain point in the cave, the two ladies removed their decorative hair pins and left them on the wall of the cave. Two years later, these two women returned to Cave of the Winds, but this time they were married off to healthy, and wealthy men. Since then, visitors have left hair bands, pennies, any shiny or hair-related object in hopes that they will have the same good fortune. (Pictured at left) Legend has it that if the object lands on top of the pile and stays, you'll be happily married, BUT if it falls, you're in for a divorce.

For all those wondering, no, I didn't leave anything in the old maid wishing pile. I don't believe in such superstitions. ;)

Moving on...

In the early days of cave exploration, visitors had to crawl through the cave for hours to reach the big cavern, with only one or two places where they could stretch out and have a bit of a breather before army-crawling along again. I believe they said it was an 8 hour tour back then. It took us about 45 minutes.

The man who was the main donor to make the cave more accessible had only one request. He wanted a quote from his favorite poem put on the wall, and his name mentioned during the tours. This is the quote, but I can't remember the fella's name.
Apparently, there are also some ghost stories associated with the cave, however our guide assured us that none of them are true. BUT, you can go on a Lantern Tour where they share these types of stories and give you a tour through the cave by lantern light only. Kinda sounds like fun.
Here's a historical film on the tourism at Cave of the Winds in 1925.

 

I'll have one more post on the different cave formations in Cave of the Winds on Monday. Have you entered to win the souvenir yet?

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Comments

  1. Natalie MonkJanuary 30, 2015 at 10:12 AM

    Wow! A spinster at 20? I must be grandma material, then, lol. Fun and informative post. Love the pictures! Thank you for sharing!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Amber LemusJanuary 30, 2015 at 10:39 AM

      Haha, me too, Natalie. I really enjoyed that portion of the tour. It was funny and interesting. :)

      Delete

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