CARLSBAD CAVERNS NATIONAL PARK

By Caroline Clemmons

They say what we fear fascinates us, which may explain my fascination with caves. I have a fear of closed in, underground places and that pretty well describes a cavern. Contradictory as it sounds, when I was growing up in West Texas I longed to tour Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico. However, when my family traveled back and forth from Texas to California, we did not deviate from Point A to Point B. Ever! Fortunately, my husband is a fun traveling companion willing to take a side trip when the opportunity and time permit. So, I finally saw these caverns—well, the main one.

Carlsbad is huge, of course. What I didn’t know is that there are over a hundred caves in Carlsbad Caverns National Park and many more in the area. Prior to this, the fact that Caverns is plural had never caught my notice.

My husband had visited Carlsbad when he was a boy and again as a teen. One of the things he and his brother lamented is the loss of colors from the formations inside the main cavern. A guide explained this change was due to exposure to circulating air.

Doesn't this look scary?

Environmentally destructive events happened through the years—blasting to install elevators, air whooshing down the elevator shafts, electricity, plumbing, paving, etc. Officials constructed air locks to protect the formations from further degradation but great damage had already occurred. Since I hadn’t been on the tour before to make a comparison, I was awed by the varied beauty the formations offered. And, I’ll admit, very uncomfortable being underground!

Stalagtites stick tight to the roof,

stalamites might grow to reach the roof.

Thanks to an inland sea

Carlsbad Cavern is one of over 300 limestone caves in a fossil reef laid down by an inland sea 250 to 280 million years ago. Twelve to fourteen thousand years ago, American Indians lived in the Guadalupe Mountains. Some of their cooking ring sites and pictographs have been found within the present day boundaries of the park. By the 1500s, Spanish explorers were passing through present-day west Texas and southeastern New Mexico. Eddy, New Mexico, which later became the town of Carlsbad, was established in 1888. New Mexico became a state in 1912.  

Although the first to discover the caverns is disputed, credit is most often given to a sixteen-year-old cowboy, Jim White. From April 6 to May 8, 1923, Robert Holley of the General Land Office surveyed and mapped the cavern, guided by Jim White and photographed by Ray V. Davis. Holley recommended the establishment as a national monument. On October 25, Carlsbad Cave National Monument was established.

Those aren't ants, they're people.

Work Begins

From 1923 to 1927,  W.F. McIlvain served as the first superintendent. His job involved overseeing the first trails, stairs and lights. He supervised Jim White, worked with Willis T. Lee, and coordinated with city officials, including the Chamber of Commerce. For this sure-to-have-been-a-headache position, he made $12 a year.

Not until 1924 and the sponsorship of National Geographic Society, did Dr. Willis T. Lee, assisted by Jim White, extensively explore the cavern. The staircase from the natural entrance to Bat Cave was installed, eliminating use of (Euww) a guano bucket to enter the cave.

Trails were laid beginning in 1926 through the Main Corridor, Kings Palace, Queens Chamber, and three quarters of the Big Room. Electric lights were installed in Main Corridor and Kings Palace followed a year later by the trail past Bottomless Pit (such an inviting name).

And They're Off...

That’s when Cavern Supply Company was established as the park concessioner. The entry fee was set at $2.00 per person. On May 14, 1930, Congress upgraded the designation to Carlsbad Caverns National Park. On June 23, the first wedding ceremony was held in Carlsbad Cavern, performed at Rock of Ages formation. 

Rock of Ages Formation

Continual improvements have been made since then. In addition to tours of the main cavern, park rangers will arrange tours to other caverns within the park. An amphitheater is set up for those who wish to view the evening flight of bats from the caverns.

Mexican Free-Tailed Bats 

Emerging From Caverns

I suppose there are caverns in every part of the world. There certainly are many, many in Texas. My family and I have visited a lot of them because, while I'm NOT a fan of dark holes in the ground, one has to overcome phobias for the greater good. We tried to show our children as many historic sites as we could. That included watching the bats emerge from Carlsbad's main cavern.

My Journey

In my personal writing journey, I’ve used caverns and caves in several books. The first was THE MOST UNSUITABLE HUSBAND, in which the male main character, Nate, overcomes his fear of a cavern to rescue a child. Another was HIGH STAKES BRIDE, in which the hero, Zach Stone, saves the heroine, Alice, by taking shelter in a cavern then helps her exit out the other side. (That’s one of my favorites of my books, by the way.) In addition, the contemporary romance/mystery GRANT ME THE MOON, and the mystery ALMOST HOME use a cave as a major part of the plot. Others by me which utilize a cave to a lesser degree are the historical romances AN AGENT FOR LYDIA, GARNET, MAIL-ORDER PROMISE, and PRUDENCE. Whew, I must be obsessed by caves.

In the event you're interested, here's a snippet from HIGH STAKES BRIDE when the hero and heroine first meet:

Zach slipped into the bedroll and waited, pistol in hand. He feigned sleep, wondering what kind of man tarried nearby. Whoever it was could have picked Zach off, so the sidewinder must not have murder on his mind.

Probably up to no good hiding out like that, though, because any Westerner would share his campfire and vittles with anyone who rode into camp. Zach wriggled into a comfortable spot and lay motionless. Anger at recent events helped him remain awake.

The footfalls came so softly he almost missed them. He opened his eyes a slit, but enough to see a thin shadow move toward the fire. About then heavy clouds overhead parted and the moonlight revealed a boy who scooped up a slice of bacon and slid it into his mouth.

The culprit set Zach’s tin plate on the ground near the fire, ladled beans into it, and picked up a fork. He squatted down and balanced the plate on his knees before he commenced eating. Zach noticed he kept his left hand in his pocket the whole time.

Something must be wrong with the thief’s left arm.  Looked too young for it to have been a casualty of the War. Lots of other ways to get hurt out here. Whatever had happened to his left arm, his right one worked well enough. He forked food into his mouth like he hadn’t eaten in a week.

Zach let him shovel beans for a few minutes. Crook or not, anyone that hungry deserved a meal. When the kid stopped eating, Zach couldn’t figure out what he was doing.  It looked as if he used the fork to scratch around on the ground, so he must have eaten his fill. Zach slipped his hand from beneath the cover and cocked the pistol.

“Hold it right there, son. I’d like to know why you’re eating without at least a howdy to the man who provided the food.”

The boy paused, then set the plate down slowly. “I left money here on a rock to pay for it.”

Odd sounding voice, but the kid was probably scared. Zach slipped from his bedroll and stood, but kept his gun pointed at the food robber. “Maybe.”

Zach walked toward the kid, careful to train his gaze so the firelight didn’t dim his eyesight. Sure enough, he spotted a couple of coins on the rock beside his pot of beans, or what remained of them, and his empty plate.

He faced the intruder. “Why not just come into camp earlier instead of sneaking in after you thought I was asleep?”

“I—I was afraid you weren’t friendly.”

Zach thought he also heard the kid mutter what sounded like “...or maybe too friendly.” Must be the wind, he thought, as he neared the boy.

Zach motioned with his free hand. “I don’t begrudge anyone food, but I hate dishonesty and sneaking around.  Stand up so I can see you.”

The kid stood, hat low over his face and his good hand clenched.

Zach reached to push the brim back. “What’s your name?”

The kid stepped forward. “None of your business, mister.”

A fistful of sand hit Zach’s face. He heard his assailant run. Mad as the devil, Zach brushed grit from his eyes and set out in pursuit. The kid was fast, he’d give him that, but so was Zach. His longer legs narrowed the distance between them.  With a running lunge, he tackled the kid.

“Oof. Let me go.” The lad was all wriggles and kicking feet as he squirmed trying to escape.

Zach wasn’t about to let that happen. They rolled in the dirt. In one move Zach pinned the boy’s good arm. The hat fell aside and a mass of curls spilled around the kid’s face.

His jacket parted and unmistakable curves pushed upward where Zach’s other hand rested. Zach stared in disbelief. Registering his hand pressed against a heavenly mound shocked him and he jerked his paw away.

“Well, I’ll be damned. You’re not a boy.”

The woman glared at him. “Right, and you’re not exactly a feather. Get off me.”

Zach stood and bent to help her but she curled into a ball where she lay. “Ma’am, you okay?”

“Just dandy.” She sat up, moving like a hundred-year-old. She glared at him while holding her stomach with her good hand. The other arm dangled uselessly. “You’ve likely broken the few uninjured bones I had left.”

His temper flared. “Hey, lady, don’t try to put the blame on me. If you’d been honest and come into camp like any other traveler, I’d have shared my food with you.”

“Yeah, well a woman on her own can’t be too careful and I don’t know you or anything about you.”

Universal Amazon Link https://mybook.to/Zach  

Many will be celebrating the holiday via Zoom and Skype. Whatever your situation, I hope you and your family enjoy a safe and healthy Thanksgiving!

 

MIXING FACT AND FICTION

                                            A Real Hero who helped my Fictional Hero

Those of us on this blog write fiction. Several of us write both contemporary and historical fiction, but we each write books set in the West. As my fellow authors have done, I have carefully researched my works. But then, I love reading reference material when it’s about my favorite subject. ☺ In researching for, HIGH STAKES BRIDE, which is releasing this week, I came across an historic hero who lived and worked in the area of Texas in which I live. Normally, I only use fictitious names in my works, but in this instance, I had my hero Zach Stone interact with this real-life hero, Brit Johnson.

John Wayne in "The Searchers"

“The Searchers” is the John Ford movie starring John Wayne and based on the novel by Allen LeMay,  whose story in turn was inspired by actual events detailed in Gregory Michno's "The Search for the Captives of Elm Creek." In “The Searchers,” a white man searches for his niece captured by Indians. Western Writers of America voted “The Searchers” the No. 1 Western of all time. In Weider History Group special issue of 100 Greatest Westerns, the movie ranks No. 7. Many people believe the movie is based on the search for Cynthia Ann Parker, but it's about another captured girl, and the movie doesn’t begin to tell the exciting real story.

The actual Elm Creek Raid “searcher” on whom the movie was based is Brit Johnson, a black man who hunted for his wife and children. His quest and recovery of his family as well as other victims kidnapped in that raid is the stuff of legends. As a result, there are at least three or four versions of the story. Here is my compilation of what I consider the most likely way the story happened.

Brit was born about 1840 in Tennessee or Kentucky. He was a slave of Moses Johnson, who came to Texas as part of Stephen F. Austin’s 300. Moses Johnson had intended to free Brit, but both agreed that the hassle incurred by freedmen of color in the south and southwest was too great. Instead, Brit worked as Moses’ ranch foreman and could come and go as he wished. On October 13, 1864, Brit had gone into Weatherford for winter supplies along with Allen Johnson and other ranchers and farmers.

Little Buffalo and seven hundred braves were also riding. Usually waiting for a full moon to raid, this time in broad daylight they swept down both banks of Elm Creek, killing and raping, burning houses and barns full of the summer's crops. They stole most of the horses and some of the cattle, killing or stampeding the rest. Among the first houses surrounded by the Comanche was that of Mrs. Elizabeth Fitzpatrick. She was there with her son, Joseph, 12, and her adult daughter, Susan Durgan, along with Susan's children, 3 year old Charlote "Lottie," and 18 month old Millie Jane. Britt's wife, Mary, and their three children were also there. Susan, who had run outside with a gun, was stripped, raped, and mutilated in the yard. Britt's son was killed and the others kidnapped.

Many wanted to ride after their loved ones, but chasing 700 Comanche was not the wisest option. They spent the winter rebuilding homes and sewing crops. Then, Brit Johnson went after his wife and daughters. He trailed Comanche and found a campsite. Here being a black man helped. On this trip he first traded for horses, recognizing two as those taken from near his home, one from Thomas Hamby and the favorite mare of Elizabeth Fitzpatrick. When he saw Mrs. Fitzpatrick, he pretended disinterest until he could ask the ally he'd made, Chief Milky Way, to trade for her on his behalf. He returned Mrs. Fitzpatrick to her home, with her riding her own mare.

Brit would not rest until he had recovered his wife, Mary, and their two children. In return for being rescued, Elizabeth Fitzpatrick committed part of her wealth to helping recover other kidnap victims from the Indians. She hoped to recover Lottie and Millie Jane. Financed by Elizabeth Fitzpatrick and Allen Johnson, Brit made three more trips into Indian Territory that summer as he slowly tracked down and purchased surviving captives from the Elm Creek Raid of October, 1864.

On his fourth trip, Britt again enlisted the aid of Chief Milky Way aka Chief Asa-Havie. The chief sent with Brit two trusted braves to bargain with the Kiowa, who were rumored to have some black captives. At the time Brit did not know if they were the ones he was seeking, but it turned out they were. Britt Johnson eventually recovered every other captive except Millie Durgan, who was supposedly sold and adopted into the tribe. Though her fate was not learned until over sixty years later, she lived a full and happy life as the adopted daughter of a chief. Poor Elizabeth Fitzpatrick never learned whether her granddaughter lived or died, but went to her grave believing Millie Jane was waiting to be rescued..

The photo above is of the woman many believe to be Millie Jane Durgan. The photo was taken when she was 69. She is the one member of the Elm Creek Raid who was not recovered. According to the researchers, Millie was adopted  by Chief Au-Soat-Sai-Mah and given the name Sain-Toh-Oodie (killed with a blunt arrow) by her godfather and concealed from whites by her foster parents. When asked about her, the tribe replied she had died of starvation the first winter. In reality, she grew up pampered and happy as the only child of her foster parents. She married a brave named Goombi and had nine children. Mrs. Goombi is buried near Mountain View, Oklahoma.

Penateka Comanche Chief Milky Way, also
known as Chief Asa-Havie

In June 1865, Comanche Chief Asa-Havie paid a ransom for the black captives, rescued them, and took them to the Indian agent, who turned them over to Britt Johnson. By the time Johnson returned with his family, the Civil War was over and he truly was a free man. He had become famous for getting his family and others back from the Comanches, and he used his status to buy a wagon team and gain freight contracts. He moved his family to Parker County, where he set up his freight business. Johnson became quite successful, heading up wagon teams to haul freight between Weatherford and Fort Griffin. Government contracts went to his company because it was a government policy to favor business contracts with black freedmen. White businessmen gave him their business because his company was reliable and competitive. Not only that, the name Britt had become a local legend in North Texas. There was no shortage of work for their new company, and no shortage of friends in every community.

In 1867, the Federal government adopted a new so-called peace policy that guaranteed Indians on the Territory that the army would not arrest them if they were on the reservation. It could not punish any Indian for any crime without first obtaining permission from an Indian agent. The Indian agents, mostly Quakers, rarely gave that permission. The reservation had become a sanctuary for raiding that made the raids into Texas worse than ever before.

Britt Johnson died as heroically as he lived. On January 24, 1871, while he led a wagon train through Young County delivering supplies from Weatherford to Fort Griffin, a group of either five or twenty-five Kiowas, depending on the account, attacked the wagon train four miles to the east of Salt Creek. Johnson and the two other teamsters with him tried to defend the wagons, but there was little cover. Outnumbered, the teamsters put up a desperate fight. They killed their own horses and mules to make breastworks, bravely resisting to the end. When his two companions fell dead, Johnson desperately held back the attack using his dead horse for cover. After torturing, killing and scalping the men, and looting the wagons, the Kiowa headed toward their sanctuary in Indian Territory. When others, either soldiers from Fort Griffin or another set of teamsters depending on the account, found the site of this attack, they counted 173 rifle and pistol shells around the area where Johnson made his last stand. The men buried the mutilated bodies of Johnson and his men in a common grave next to the wagon road.

In HIGH STAKES BRIDE, I fictionally have Brit Johnson assist my hero, Zach Stone, rescue a boy kidnapped by the Kiowa. Later,the Paneteka Comanche who assisted Brit and Zach, comes to visit Zach at his home in what I hope is a moving farewell. Instead of Chief Milky Way, I made up the name White Eagle. I hope my taking liberty with the history in this instance translates into an enjoyable read. After all, that’s what authors strive for--entertaining our readers. Here’s the cover of that book:

It’s available in print and e-book. The ebook is at https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/238238?ref=CarolineClemmons and soon will be available at Amazon and Barnes and Noble, etc.

In Print at http://www.amazon.com/High-Stakes-Bride-Stone-Mountain/dp/1479253596/ref=sr_1_36?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1348605394&sr=1-36&keywords=caroline+clemmons

For those who might be interested in a more realistic book on Brit Johnson’s life, here’s the trailer of KILLED BY INDIANS 1871:

But that is NOT what HIGH STAKES BRIDE is about. To prove it, here's the blurb:


Mary Alice Price is on the run from dangerous men. She had known that when her stepfather died, she would have to hurriedly escape her stepbrothers. Hadn’t she heard them promise her to the meanest man in Texas as payment for high stakes gambling losses? One misfortune after another devils her until she links up with Zach Stone. He looks sturdy as his last name and invites her to his ranch where his two aunts will chaperone them. She figures life finally dealt her a winning hand.

Zach Stone has the sweetest ranch in all of Texas, at least he thinks he does. All he needs is a wife to build his family of boys and girls to carry on his ranch and name. He’s been jilted and vows he will never even speak to a woman again unless she's a relative. Then he comes across Alice Price and comes up with a crazy plan. He’s figured everything out, and is sure nothing can go wrong with his plan.

But life holds many surprises for Alice and Zach...

Thanks for stopping by!


Sources:
http://www.historynet.com/letter-from-wild-west-april-2009.htm
http://www.abilenetexashistory.com/?p=118
http://www.danielnew.com/nigger-britt.shtml By Daniel D.New
http://celiahayes.wordpress.com/2011/02/10/relatively-unknown-heroes/
Michael E. McClellan, "JOHNSON, BRITTON," Handbook of Texas Online (http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fjo07), accessed September 25, 2012. Published by the Texas State Historical Association.
Wikipedia
LONE STAR: A HISTORY OF TEXAS AND THE TEXANS, by T.R. Fehrenback