Reaching far back in personal history, several classmates at Colorado Springs High School (now Palmer) and I became interested in cave exploring, joining an organization called the National SpeleoÂlogical Society (NSS). This was an early metamorphosis for the direction my eduÂcation focus was going, coupling scientific discovery with wild adventure. Along with technical rock climbing, we utilized weekÂends to launch explorations of lesser-known Colorado caves. These getaway sorties were a needed relief after struggling through Mrs. Zinnâs English class or Dean Moonâs chemÂistry lab experiments and exams during the studies week.
Close by home, we could slip into ManiÂtouâs Williamâs Canyon to party and explore Hucky Cove, a well-known and frequently visited local cave. Although attempts were made to seal it, someone always broke the entrance open again. It was finally permaÂnently sealed in the 1970s as the growing risk of legal liability of this new age was mandated.
There were several other caves of interest in the local geological formation of the MissisÂsippian geological age, Leadville Limestone, and underlying Ordovician age Manitou LimeÂstone. One favorite cave, the name of which I have forgotten, is located in the canyon leadÂing up to William Palmerâs Glen Erie Castle complex, north of Garden of the Gods. It was particularly challenging, requiring a rock climbing approach to gain entrance. I suspect that it, too, has long been sealed.
Another challenging cave closer to Custer County opens in a steep limestone wall near an old wagon route that runs from CaĂąon City to Cripple Creek called the Shelf Road. It was particularly difficult and scary, requiring several hundred feet of crawling and frequent squeezing through very tight places to reach a main grotto chamber. Of current interest is the fact that the area has become a popular rock-climbing destination in recent times.
Now, to the essence of this story, there are the mysteries, legends, and explorations associated with Marble Mountain and its assortment of high-altitude cavities, cavÂerns, mining claims, and abandoned camps.
Marble Mountain is a sort of geologÂical anomaly. The bedrock limestone is a fault block created, a isolated remnant of the Pennsylvanian age Minturn Formation. It is wedged between elements of differÂing geomorphic structures of the Sangre de Cristo Formation extending to the north and south. A cave system can only be created in a water-soluble material like limestone. The thick, extensive mass of Marble Mountain is unique to the range in offering this environÂment. Other than a few thin bands of limeÂstone elsewhere unsuitable for cave creation, the mountain presents the only cave-forming possibility.
My involvement with the mountain and its caves goes back to the previously menÂtioned early caving and climbing years in the late 1950s. A high school classmate, Bob Doane, and I loaded up camping gear into my âhot rodâ 1949 Ford, flat head V-8, NSS stickers on the rear window. We bounced up the dusty, rough dirt road over HardscrabÂble Pass, through Westcliffe, and on south to South Colony Road. Turning off the road, we joined a small NSS group camped at a ranch just before the National Forest near Crystal Falls Creek. As the youngest and least experienced, Bob and I joined in with considerable awe and trepidation.
The following day, we sorted and helped pack what seemed to be an excessive amount of equipment. I remember big coils of World War II vintage, OD green, 7/16 inch braided nylon climbing rope that was in use at the time. There were several canvas bags of rope ladders, a supply of carbide used in flame-illuminating headlamps, and assorted camping supplies. A tough-looking packer, I believe it was Harry Diekmann, from near Alvarado Campground, who showed up with a string of pack horses to carry all this up to a high campsite on Marble Mountain.
By late afternoon, we arrived at a small level meadow just below the timberline. This ended the trail as far up as the pack horses could go. The route to our objective, Marble Cave, climbed steeply up an eroded gully to a small north-side shelf about a thousand feet above camp. We staggered up this with heavy backpacks the next morning. I was happy that I had learned the valuable mountain rest step. Stretching memory a bit (geez, it has only been 67 years), it may have been several trips to hump up the equipÂment needed to explore the reportedly deep, downward-plunging cave system.
Finally, with equipment in place and the team organized, we descended into the cave. Again, from distant memory, the cave opened into a small walk-in tunnel partially blocked by ice. The date must have been sometime in the fall, as ice reportedly closes the passage until then. An unusual item observed outside the entrance was a painted, badly faded, red-colored Maltese cross.
After some distance, around fifty feet, the passage ended overlooking a broad open pit. The temperature was very cold, and a strong upward draft came from below. With belayers securely anchored above for justiÂfiable roped protection, we had a choice of descending with a âcarabiner and over the shoulder repelâ or climb down the wobbling, unstable rope ladder. We young hotshot climbers, of course, chose the repel without protection.
To shorten the story, we worked several hours daily for a couple of days, exploring and mapping the winding passages. Most of these were almost filled with freezing, down-plunging water streams. We had newly-designed neoprene diving suits and gloves, which was the only reason the work was possible.
Marble Cave is also known as Spanish Cave and La Caverna del Oro. Our exploÂration produced the first detailed map and scientific description of Marble Cave. I had a copy of the map diagram and would love to have it for this story. Sadly, it is now lost.
Researching the Internet, I could not find any studies of substance. The Forest Service, in conjunction with the Colorado Mountain Club, sponsored a visit in the 1920s. Neither organization responded to my inquiry for information. I also contacted the NSS asking for anything they might have, including our 1950s NSS project, without results.
However, the story does go on. As it turns out, I later visited the mountain and poked around other caves on many occaÂsions, looking at all with a geological and archaeological focus. With our Bear Basin Ranch guide and outfitting business, we visited the area many times over the years, camping in that same high meadow. It gave me an excellent opportunity to examine the many remnants and remains of past human activity there.
At some point in time, probably during the Silver Cliff mining boom in the late 1870s, a wagon road was built up to a small mine works close to the camp meadow. A collapsed tunnel and small tailing pile indiÂcate that they gave it a good try, but it evenÂtually failed. Samples from the site suggest that the ore was mainly copper, which did not justify the expenses and effort involved. A leveled area nearby probably contained a simple log cabin or canvas tent.
The remains of the road are evident and were the trail up for many years. Other more recent mining claims were staked out nearby but never worked beyond a small prospect hole.
There are a number of small prospect pits on the ridge top east of and near the campsite meadow. These indicate that the area was extensively prospected for likely gold and silver. This was probably motivated by old treasure legends along with general mineral searches prompted by successful mining at nearby Rosita and Silver Cliff.
A few curiously shaped old pines, which I identify as having been culturally modiÂfied (CMT), are scattered around the area. In respect to the regional ethnohistory, these trees, when young, probably were shaped by visiting summer bands of mountain Ute. I have collected a few chips of imported obsidian and jasper and a point or two, indiÂcating that on some past occasion, stone tools had been made there. Anyway, that pretty much describes what I have observed and remembered.
As for gold mining, stashed treasure, Spanish explorers, armor-clad skeletons, forts, mysterious monks, and enslaved Ute, Iâll come back to that later.
I do want to tell the story of my last visit to Marble Mountain in August 2005. My later-to-be wife, Amy Finger, and I were actively involved with Custer County Search and Rescue (CCSAR). I was one of the founders of the unit, along with Dan Riggs and Ken Perschbacher, back in the mid-1970s. Now, in these later times, we had organized a horse packing unit to pack equipment and for any other use that might be needed.
The date was August 13, 2005, and a cell phone call came into the Sheriffâs Office that a caver was injured and in need of evacuaÂtion from what they called Spanish Cave at Marble Mountain. Fortunately, I do have an official report of this incident, so I can accuÂrately describe the events.
Amy and I gathered our SAR-trained horses and needed equipment, then trailÂered up to the parking lot at the end of South Colony Road, where it becomes a rocky, steep 4X4 road. After several hours of upward riding, we met a small group camped just above the old campsite meadow. The injured party had been successfully extracted from the cave and helped down to the camp. A tough, fit gal named Marty had twisted a knee climbing out of the cave and could not walk. The group had helped her down to the camp the day before. When we arrived, she was in pain but in good spirits. She told her story of the accident as the team generously shared their supper with us.
Marty was climbing up the deep shaft near the entrance. Her partner had become chilled and wet going down, deciding to quit the descent. Although comfortable in a wet suit, Marty decided to accompany her friend.
As she swung against a projection, something popped in her left knee, leaving her in great pain and an unusable leg. She was virtually trapped there, halfway up for several hours.
As fortuitous events happen, a father and his son arrived at just that moment with more rope and pulleys; with help from others outside, she was extracted, able to crab-walk and slide down to camp.
After a radio conference with the SAR office, we made the decision that a helicopÂter evac was not necessary. We always tried to avoid these when possible because of the risk created by steep terrain, wind gusts, and altitude. Over the years, we have had several helicopter accidents in the Sangre de Cristos, most notably in 2010 when a twin-roter CH-47 Chinook crashed on Little Bear Peak. The next morning, we saddled up to begin a careful ascent down the old wagon road trail. Amy rode her favorite gray gelding, an extremely trustÂworthy, sure-footed, Paso Fino called SenÂtinelo. I was riding a big 16-hand quarter horse appropriately named Ouray after the famous Ute Chief. I was in charge of the Sheriffâs Mounted Posse at the time, trainÂing and riding the big horse. Ouray had been trained for almost everything: parades, directing traffic in Westcliffe and Pueblo, mountain trail packing, cutting cattle, and most importantly, search and rescue.
With suitable braces and emergency wraps in place, we carefully lifted Marty and her injured leg up onto my secure, douÂbled-rigged, old Heiser Saddle. I walked along in front, leading Ouray by a lead rope.
Several hours later, we arrived safely at the Rainbow Trail, which traverses the base of the east side of the long range. A SAR team was waiting, greeting us with a motorized, liter-mounted ATV.
Marty went on to treatment and full recovery. She remains involved with caving activities and tells her rescue story on special occasions.
Myths and Fantasies of the Marble Mountain Caves
Following are some of the many myths and fantasies I have heard about the Marble Cave system.
⢠The legend of La Caverna del Oro, the Cave of Gold, was passed down from generation to generation by the IndiansâŚmonks translated the legend, and the explorers eagerly sought the gold.
⢠In 1541, three Spanish monks from the Coronado expedition forced the Indians into slave labor to extract gold from the cave.
⢠Vast amounts of gold were brought forth from the underground passages by enslaved natives.
⢠Monk De la Cruz from the Coronado Expedition and a group of Spaniards killed the Indians, loaded up their treasure on pack mules, fleeing south back to Mexico.
⢠The cave was discovered by Elisha Horn around 1870. He found an armor-clad skeleton with an arrow in the back near the entrance of the cave and next to a painted Maltese cross.
⢠The 1920s Colorado Mountain Club – Forest Service exploration found a 200-year-old ladder and a hammer made in the 1600s. Lower down, hidden in aspen trees, the group found the ruins of an old fort with arrowheads scattered about.
⢠Many people have explored the cave, uncovering old items, a windlass rope, a bucket, a clay jug, and a shovel left by earlier explorers or miners.
⢠One group found a human skeleton chained by the neck to a wall deep down in the cave.
I have not included a bibliography, which a professional paper requires, and I have not read related books. Sadly, the articles I found seem to be a re-hash of the same rumors and unsubstantiated myths that were previously published, which I have listed above. Several more thoughtful writings are out there: Michael OâHanlonâs 1999 âThe Colorado Sangre de Cristo: A Complete Trail Guideâ is a reasonable but limited source. His focus for a guidebook is on how to get there and what the area offers, but he does reasonably discount most of the mystical stories for lack of credibility. There may be other useful studies, but I have not been able to find them.
A claim that three monks led a group branching off from the Coronado expedition to the Sangre de Cristo mountains is highly improbable. The Coronado expedition is well documented. The goal was to find gold, not to mine it. These second-generation Conquistadores, then twenty years after the conquest of Mexico, were looking for their own conquest, searching for the reportedly gold-rich Seven Cities of Cibola. The expedition separated into several groups to visit different regions. One group reached Western Colorado, and another discovered the Grand Canyon.
Spanish adventurers did find and work mines in Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and southwestern Colorado but that happened at a much later date. It is likely that the Marble Mountain caves were visited and explored during these later times.
The Ute, Arapaho, and others visited, camped, and hunted the Marble Mountain slopes, which were revealed by the modified trees and cultural artifacts found there. The Sangre de Cristos were a sacred earth feature for the mountain Ute. It would have taken a considerably strong force to maintain a presence there. The Ute were well known for repelling outsiders. Establishing a mining operation would have been very unlikely.
Geologically, gold is rarely found in a limestone environment.âVast amounts of gold were brought forth from the underground passagesâ is pure fantasy. If a pegmatite or other source containing significant amounts of gold existed, it would have been extensively worked during the later mining boom days of the late 1800s. The NSS project I was working on saw no evidence of mining.
If reported data from the 1920s exploration can be trusted, the remains of a ladder, hammer, and other items found in Marble Cave suggest that the cave was explored by recent prospectors. These items would not have survived in the wet interior over several hundred years. Someone claims to have dated the ladder as being over 200 years old and a hammer as being from the 1600s. I have strong doubts about this. The 1920s group reported the ruins of a fort somewhere in an aspen grove below. This is likely the remains of an old cabin site at the camp meadow. A number of small prospecting pits are nearby. Some imaginative visitors have mistakenly described these as defensive fortifications.
Several articles repeat a claim that a skeleton was found chained to a wall in the cave. This story must have originated during some gala minersâ party at a Silver Cliff saloon. Neither a skeleton nor chain would long survive intact in a wet cave. Skeletal remains quickly fall apart except when contained in a burial or similar situation.
This brings me to the reported visit by Pioneer Valley settler Elisha Horn. He well may have visited the mountain but no reliable documentation exists. The first reporting of the Maltese cross is attributed to him. Iâll return to that.
Perhaps the most absurd claim is that he found a skeleton, enclosed in armor with an arrow stuck in the back. WhewâŚas in the cave, human remains do not last long exposed to the elements; animals and birds attack the flesh, and bones are quickly detached and scattered. Several hundred-year-old armor would have long rusted away. A wood-shafted arrow would have long decayed. As my Peruvian archaeologist friends would say, âes puro caca del toro.â
Coming back to the entrance side, painted cross. It may well have been there, but it had to be painted reasonably recently. Paint on an exposed outside wall does not last long. It is now faded to the point that it is barely visible. Spanish adventurers left similar features throughout the Southwest, but they were carved and not painted. If any were painted outdoors, none have survived.
All that being said, the mountain and its unique high-altitude cave system is a rare, interesting, natural phenomenon enhancing our unique mountain community. Myth, mysteries, and legends are an enriching aspect of life in the Old West. A visit to the mountain is well worth the effort.
Who knows, maybe Coronadoâs ghost, along with Ute guardian spirits of the sacred landscape, still roam the mountainside when the full moon rises.
â Gary Ziegler