Our tour of Wind Cave began at the natural entrance, a small hole that acts as a natural barometer. The kids were able to get up close to the opening to feel the cool air rushing out at them. It was really neat.
The first recorded finding of Wind Cave was in 1881. Jesse and Tom Bingham were attracted to the cave by a whistling noise. As the story goes, wind was blowing out of the cave entrance with such force that it blew off Tom’s hat. A few days later when Jesse returned to show this phenomenon to some friends, he was surprised to find the wind had switched directions and his hat was sucked into the cave.
Wind cave is most famous for its rare boxwork formations, seen in the pictures to the right. It is composed of thin calcite fins resembling honeycombs. You can see a little bit of the frostwork in the bottom left hand picture.
Wind Cave is the fourth largest cave in the world. Almost all of the 131 miles of explored passageway lie under only 1 square mile of land. Imagine an ant trying to crawl through a sponge, and you can imagine what it is like to explore this cave.
Max, Me, Maddie
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