Colossal and Grotesque.

DECEMBER, 1936 ARIZONA HIGHWAYS 11 Colossal and Grotesque Weird Wonders Greet Visitor to Caverns Deep in Rincon Range Near Tucson

ONE of Arizona's most fascinating yet unheralded natural wonders is Colossal Cave of Pima County which is reached over an improved highway, eight miles off U. S. 80, approximately 19 miles East of Tucson.

In 1884, when crime was picturesque but illegal, a Southern Pacific train was boarded by masked bandits and looted to the extent of sixty thousand dollars. The sheriff and his posse gave chase with all the technique since popularized by the western movie; but their quarry escaped them somewhere in the tortuous windings of Colossal Cave.

The bandits had knowledge of an exit from the cave with which their pursuers were unacquainted. The train-robbers have never been heard of to this day. while the sheriff and his men were found three days later, unable to find even the entrance to the cul de sac into which they had been lured. They had lost themselves in the miles of tunnels and rooms comprising this huge cavern.

Starting at the base of Rincon Mountains, 39 miles of the Colossal Cave have since been explored, enough to convince experts that here is the largest and strangest of all caves. Its domes and cathedrals, stalactites and stalagmites, resemble the conventional cave. Dry and dusty now, the ground waters no more find access to the cave; they have long since done their work in carving the lime formations, leaving behind caricatures of buildings and humans in the countless miles of connecting caverns, under the millions of tons of mountain overhead. In the years to come many more miles of the cave will be developed and new statues unveiled, even stranger, if possible, than those already uncovered.

Now being developed by Civilian Conservation Corps works under direction of the National Park Service, Colossal Cave County Park had 1,600 visitors during the four-months' period ending October 1. Development at the Park has progressed to a point where it is becoming a magnet that attracts tourists to Tucson in increasing numbers.

Extensive routes have been excavated through the limestone caverns, with flagstone trails, steps and handrails provided. Passages, chambers and trails have been artistically illuminated with concealed lights. Additional mileage of underground passageways was discovered recently when a party of scientists, equipped with compasses and other instruments spent more than a week beneath Wrong mountain without seeing daylight.