July 2, 2024 • 42 mins
This week we head to Virginia to visit Luray Caverns, the most highly decorated caverns in the world according to the Smithsonian. In this episode, we hear from three professionals who share the history of the caverns, the science behind the decorating formations, and how The Great Stalacpipe Organ creates music.
Phantom Chasers
Luray Caverns was discovered on August 13th, 1878 by three local men: Andrew J. Campbell (a local tinsmith), William Campbell, and local photographer Benton Stebbins. These fellows were prospecting for a show cave as they knew of a cave in southern Virginia that was open and giving tours. If they could find a cave, they too could make some money.
They spent a whole summer looking at every sinkhole on every farmer's land, all around town. The townspeople thought they were crazy, calling them “Phantom Chasers”. Eventually, the group came across one particular sinkhole. When they put their hands down, they felt cool air coming out of a quarter-size hole in the ground. They enlarged the hole enough for one man, Andrew Campbell, to slide down on a rope with a candle in hand. They discovered what they were looking for, one of the largest caverns in the world.
The Science of Cavern Decor
Cavern formations are created when water on the surface infiltrates into the ground. It picks up minerals that are in the soil and rock as it seeps into the earth.
Eventually, it enters the cavern system through microscopic pores in the rock. As the water drips and flows in, it deposits those minerals along the ceilings, walls, and floors. And over many, many years those minerals build up and reconstitute into these larger formations.
On average, scientists estimate that formations at Luray take around 120 years to grow one cubic inch. The largest formation in the cavern system is 40 feet tall, 120 feet in circumference at the base, and is an estimated seven and a half million years old. It’s called the Giant Redwood Tree as it resembles the trunk of a giant Sequoia.
The Great Stalacpipe Organ
Mr. Leland Sprinkles brought his son to Luray Caverns for his fifth birthday. At the time, tour guides would play a tune on the stalactites and stalagmites by striking them with a mallet. This gave Mr. Sprinkles, an engineer and organist, the idea to create a playable organ using the cave’s formations. With an agreement over a handshake, Sprinkles began developing the organ.
He would scout for tones by striking the formations and pick those that were closest. Then he would tune them to concert pitch by sanding them down. It was first played in 1957 and is still in use today. It covers three and a half acres, making it the world’s largest natural musical instrument!
Episode Links:
- Luray Caverns webpage: https://luraycaverns.com/
- Discovery of Luray Caverns, Virginia by Russell H. Gurneebook: https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/discovery-of-luray-caverns-virginia_russell-h-gurnee/1801668/item/8715266/#edition=727824&idiq=32909429
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of
Curator's Choice.
To celebrate July 4th, we aretaking a break from our
regularly scheduled programs andwe're bringing to you an
episode from our archive.
It is the LeRae Caverns episodefrom Virginia.
Hello everyone and welcome toanother episode of Curator's
(00:35):
Choice.
You might have noticed that theintro music is a little
different this time around andit's because that is the sound
of the great stalag pipe organin Luray Caverns playing
Fiorelis.
Obviously, that's going to comeup later on our episode today
and we're at Luray Caverns.
Luray Caverns is in Virginia andit is one of the most decorated
(00:57):
cave systems in the world, orat least according to the
Smithsonian and we're going tobe exploring not only Luray
Caverns but they have a lot ofother tourist stops in the area.
So they have the ShenandoahHeritage Valley Museum, they
have the Car and Carriage Museum, they have a little toy museum
where you walk through and cansee old toys of the day.
(01:18):
So there's a lot going on andwe're just going to start with
Luray Caverns.
In the next few episodes we'llbe covering those other amazing
museums.
Another reason why today'sepisode is special is I'm
interviewing three people atonce.
I was a little intimidated, butI think the chemistry was
awesome and they were such a fungroup.
(01:40):
I'm sure you're going to enjoythis episode.
First, you're going to hearfrom Bill Huffman, who is the
Director of Marketing and PublicRelations, then we'll be
speaking with Tara Jewell,senior Sales Representative, a
former tour guide, and thenLarry Moyer, who is the great
stalactite pipe organ engineer.
If you'd like to see picturesof today's episode, please go to
CuratorsChoicePodcastcom, oryou can check us out on Facebook
(02:04):
and Instagram.
All right, let's get started.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
I have worked at Luray Caverns.
I'm in my 19th year and that'snot counting high school and
college.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Oh, so you're a true Luray nerd.
We all are.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
It's such a great company to work for and a great
place and people come and stayand they never leave.
They never really have.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
That's fantastic, especially after 19 years, and
you still love it.
That's pretty cool.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
It is very cool and it's it's a great place to work.
It's so much fun to seefamilies come and connect and
enjoy nature and really creatememories that last a lifetime,
and that's what it's all aboutfor for me.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Luray Caverns was actually the first caves that
I've ever been to.
So I'm from Nevada and you knowwe have hot springs and desert
and coming out here getting tosee all the greenery and
everything's been great.
But then they brought me toLuray Caverns because they were
like oh so you're on the EastCoast now which means you have
to go to United States, doesit's?
true, so that's what we did andI was just so excited because
(03:05):
it's so cool down there and youguys have built it up pretty
great up here.
But Luray has a prettyinteresting history outside of
just being amazing caverns aswell.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
Sure sure, the town of Luray, or just Luray, how
Luray Caverns was discovered.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
I don't know much about the town of Luray.
To be honest, I'm assuming it'shere because of the caverns,
and this was a little while ago,so I can't be held too
accountable for my poor memorybut.
I do know that Luray Cavernsitself has an old history with I
mean back to the 1800s.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
Sure Luray Caverns was discovered on August 13,
1878, by three local men BentonStebbins, andrew Campbell and
William Campbell.
And they by three local menBenton Stebbins, andrew Campbell
and William Campbell and theywere actually looking for
caverns.
They knew of a cave in SouthVirginia that was open and
giving tours and they thought,wow, if we could find a cave we
could make some money ourselves.
(03:56):
So they spent a whole summerlooking at every sinkhole on
every farmer's land all aroundtown.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
This was not a chance discovery.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
It was not a chance discovery.
It was not a chance discovery.
They were actually prospectingfor a cave, if you can believe
it or not, and they spent allsummer, hot summer, looking at
all the farmland and they hadactually checked this hill out
once before and they thoughtwell, we'll do it one more time.
So you know, the townspeoplethought they were crazy.
They called them phantomchasers.
(04:25):
But they did come and did see alittle sinkhole and they put
their hand down and felt alittle cool air coming out of
about a quarter size hole in theground and I thought this is
unusual for a hot August day.
So they enlarged the hole theydug.
Finally they had it big enoughfor one man to slide down.
(04:45):
That was Andrew Campbell, on arope and with a candle, and they
actually discovered what theywere looking for One of the
largest caverns in the world andthe largest caverns on the East
Coast, and it is a stunninglybeautiful cavern.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
And it was found because it was opening the size
of a quarter.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
Size of a quarter.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
I mean that's crazy, that's incredible.
They were actually able to findthat anyways.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
It is incredible, after looking and actually
finding what they were lookingfor.
It's amazing.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
Were they brothers or were they just close friends?
Speaker 3 (05:17):
They were friends.
I think Andrew Campbell andWilliam Campbell were related,
but they weren't brothers.
They were cousins, I believe.
Yeah, they were cousins.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
And so they succeeded in this fool's errand of
finding this caverns, and thenI'm assuming they tried to turn
it into an amazing cash crop,because that's exactly what I
would do.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
They certainly did.
On November 6th that same yearthey had built a little
structure and started givingtours, and that was the first
illumination of the caverns, andthey did start giving tours
immediately.
So it's we've been giving toursevery day since, except for
COVID stopped us for a fewmonths, but we had been giving.
We'd been open consecutivelyover 50,000 days until then.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
So I think we can just in the future, we'll just
cut COVID out of the entireequation.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
Let's just pretend like that doesn't happen.
You can still hold that titlecontinuously open.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
I feel like.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
But the history of the caverns is kind of
fascinating because the man whoowned this land, sam Brubaker,
had a lot of debts and so theland went up for auction.
So the discoverers actuallybought it at this auction and
they didn't reveal that they hadfound the cave, actually bought
it at this auction and theydidn't reveal that they had
(06:26):
found the cave.
So this went to court and thecourt battle raged for years on
the proper ownership of the landand finally it went all the way
to the Virginia Supreme Courtwhere it was decided that the
discoverers lost, so they didn'treally get the benefits of
their reward.
It took a couple years for thecourt case to go through.
(06:47):
So they did lose the cavern'sproperty and it went to Mr
Brubaker's creditor, which wasactually his brother-in-law, and
his brother-in-law sold theland to the Luray Cave and
Railroad Company, which isactually a subsidiary of the
railroad of Norfolk Southern, sothe railroad owned it.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
They built a little shack and they were doing some
tours and then the battle, thelegal battle, started happening,
and so they I mean, they didn'treally hardly make any money
off of their discovery at alland they lost the property that
they had technically bought.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
That's correct.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
Man, that sucks that totally sucks.
Dang.
So and this is probably likeoutside the scope of this, but
I'm just personally curious howwere they able to lose the land?
Was it just because theyweren't honest about why they
had bought it?
Speaker 3 (07:38):
Exactly so.
There was a hidden value of theland that they didn't report,
and so that's how they lost it.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
Oh man, what a shame yeah bummer for them.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
Really sucks for them .
Speaker 1 (07:52):
And why didn't the original landowner keep it?
You said it went to his benefit.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
He was in financial difficulties and had a lot of
debts and the land went up forauction to kind of pay for his
debts, and that's when thediscoverers bought it.
And, of course, finally, whenit went through the court system
, it kicked back to whoever heldthe lien for Mr Brubaker's
(08:16):
property, which was hisbrother-in-law.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
So now the railroad has it, the railroad has it.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
What did the?
Speaker 1 (08:21):
railroad, do with it.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
They built a big hotel in Loray and people would
come on excursion trips.
They would get off at the trainstation, take a wagon out here
and tour the caverns.
Those people were hardy backthen.
They would come in their fullwoolen clothes and have a little
torch.
(08:42):
It was not the paved pathwayswe have today.
There were more gravel, roughlittle walkways and they would
come and tour.
I mean, it was a big discovery.
People knew about it.
It was in the New York Herald.
It was all over the place.
Those beautiful caverns hadbeen found in Virginia.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
I was griping about having to drive down that curvy
mess that's next door.
I can't imagine having to trekin a covered wagon.
No doubt.
Maybe I should just stopcomplaining so much.
So I think it was almost amissed opportunity, although
it's probably a good thing thatthey didn't do it.
But the railroad, they shouldhave put a little cart in little
(09:26):
railroad cart rides, I feellike.
I mean, that just seems to mean obvious move, but it's
probably good that they didn't,so they didn't damage the
structures that are in there now.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
Exactly.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
So how long was the railroad in charge of it?
The railroad was done.
Speaker 3 (09:40):
Let's see, the railroad was in charge for about
two or three years, I believenot too long and then it went,
had various owners.
It was sold to a land trackkind of investment group and
there was a local owner and thenTC Northcott out of Elmira, new
York rented the land here in1901, and then Mr Northcott
(10:04):
finally purchased it in 1905 for$60,000.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
And is that what made Luray look the way that it is
today?
Speaker 3 (10:12):
Exactly, mr Northcott really started the process of
kind of making the tour pathsand the tour path has changed
over time.
So there used to be a lot ofsteps in the caverns.
People would go in really tightplaces.
All that has kind of changedtoday and we have a kind of a
more modern figure eight pathway.
(10:32):
You don't retrace your steps,there are no steps in the
caverns.
We've in 2019, we eliminatedthe steps for the entrance and
we have a brand new, lovelyentrance.
So anyone can make it down intothe caverns if you would like to
you certainly can, so it hasopened it up to a lot more
people now.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
I'm assuming, back before they kind of had the more
figure eight structure of goingthrough.
You probably had a lot ofpeople going places.
They might not belong and I'mwondering did a lot of people
kind of try to break off andsteal some of the pieces?
Speaker 3 (11:05):
Well, at the very end of the tour the tour used to
end kind of, you know, about amile into the caverns where it
is now, and that section wasenlarged in the 50s, I believe,
to kind of give a little bit,have a better pathway out.
But that place you can kind ofsee where people would break off
of stalactites.
They just didn't have the ideaof preservation that we do today
(11:28):
.
So it's unfortunate, but justthe way it was.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Definitely so.
I think that a lot of peoplemight kind of know oh, you know,
it's a cave, what's in a cave?
But what makes Luray so special?
Speaker 3 (11:40):
To me Luray is very special.
Luray Caverns is so specialbecause of the beautiful
decoration of the caverns.
It is one of the most highlydecorated caverns in the world
and the Smithsonian Instituteeven said that.
So the Smithsonian Institutionsaid that it is the most highly
decorated caverns.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
So it's not decorated because you guys have ribbons
everywhere.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
No, it's decorated with stalactites and stalagmites
.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
So can you tell us a little bit about those, how they
form and, I think, really putinto people's brains?
They take forever to be created.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
They do take a long time.
I'll let my colleague Taraexplain that one.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Perfectly okay, so we'll pass it over In school,
how I always remembered it wasthe right the stalagmites, the M
is the mountains, becausethey're growing up from the
bottom up, like how themountains look.
Speaker 4 (12:27):
that's how I always remember it stalagmites versus
stalactites, hanging down, seewe always say stalactites hang
tight to the ceiling andstalagmites might grow up to
reach the ceiling.
I have not heard that one well,and we have like a joke in the
caverns that we do.
I always did it on my tourswhen I explained the difference
between them and we have whenthey grow together, or you know,
(12:48):
stalactite reaches the ground,stalagmite reaches the top.
They're called a column orpillar.
I always called them columnsinstead of pillars because if
you're like me from around herein Page County, pillars are what
you sleep on at nighttime.
People love that one.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
That works out perfectly.
So what does make Luray Cavernsso special in the terms of your
pillars?
Speaker 4 (13:12):
So all of our formations.
As Bill had said, there it'svery heavily decorated with all
these formations and theformations are all formed
whenever there's water up on thesurface like precipitation, the
water gets absorbed into theground, it picks up minerals
that are in the soil and itcontinues to seep down lower
into the earth.
Eventually it enters into thecavern system through
(13:34):
microscopic pores in the rockand as the water drips and flows
in, it deposits those mineralsalong the ceilings, walls and
floors and over many, many yearsof this those minerals will
build up and reconstitute intothese larger formations.
But of course that takes a longtime to grow.
On average, scientists estimatethat most of our formations
would take around 120 years togrow one cubic inch.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Oh man, and doesn't that just break your soul when
you imagine people just tearingoff like 500 years worth of a
tiny piece.
Speaker 4 (14:05):
It's incredible.
Absolutely.
You don't realize it.
You know, the really cool thingI think about the caverns is
that it makes you feel so small.
You know, when you're standingin the caverns, you're in the
middle of something that'shundreds of millions of years
old and you know, even just thetiniest little bit of growth is
probably significantly olderthan we'll ever live to be.
(14:27):
And you know, it's amazing.
You wouldn't really think thatuntil you actually just stand
there and take it all in.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
And it's really cool.
So when it's coming down andyou're creating these
stalagmites and stalactites, itobviously has to have a space to
do that, like the opening ofthe inside of the caverns.
What originally created thatopening?
Speaker 4 (14:46):
oh, good question.
That's really interesting stuff.
Um, so back during theOrdovician period, this is 400
450 million years ago, the sealevels were much higher.
So this, actually this wholevalley here, was covered in
water.
It was all a large inland seakind of.
So the animals that lived inthat water would eventually die.
(15:07):
Their bodies would sink down tothe bottom and over many years,
with time and pressure, bonesand skeletons compact and create
sedimentary rock.
So this formed a huge block ofstone that ran all along the
seafloor and so after that, youknow, the sea levels lowered.
The earth was entering ice ages, so the sea levels lowered.
Then we have this whole areawas cleared out.
(15:28):
More land could form over topof that stone and that all
became underground stone.
So this left sedimentary rock.
It's actually today calledBeekman Town Dolomite because it
runs all the way from BeekmanTown, new York, all down the
east coast, down towards Floridatown, new York, all down the
east coast, down towards Florida.
So it's really interestingbecause a lot of caverns there
are solutional caverns in thisarea are actually parts of that
(15:50):
same strip of dolomite, hollowedout in different sections to
create different systems.
And what causes the hollowingout process is it's really what
makes it a solutional caverns isthat water in the ground
combines with carbon dioxide inthe atmosphere and in the soil,
forming carbonic acid, and asthat moves and shifts below the
surface, it hollows away theopenings of the caverns by
(16:12):
eating away weakest rock.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
That's cool, and the weakest rock is eventually gone.
Exactly.
And then what creates is thisbig cavern with these amazing
features inside, exactly thesedecorations that are not actual
yeah, it leaves all that roomfor the secondary growth.
Speaker 4 (16:24):
That's fantastic.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
So you guys have.
Obviously, it's just filled inthere with all different kinds
of formations, but can you tellus a little bit more?
I mean, you spoke about thecolumns that form when they meet
, but I know that there'sdifferent specific ones that you
guys have that you highlight onthe tours.
Speaker 4 (16:39):
Right.
So the first major formationthat you see when you enter the
caverns is the Washington Column.
Andrew Campbell himself namedit the Washington Column in
honor of this nation's firstpresident, george Washington.
As you go deeper into thecaverns you see some really
significant formations.
The largest formation in thecavern system is 40 feet tall,
(17:00):
120 feet around the base andcircumference and is an
estimated 7 and a half millionyears old.
And we call that our giantredwood tree because it
resembles the trunk of a giantredwood or sequoia.
We also have another reallyincredible formation called
Saracen's Tent.
It's personally one of mypersonal favorites in the
caverns.
It is a drapery formation.
(17:21):
Drapery is a little differentthan stalactites.
They still come down from theceilings but stalactites form
where ceilings are pretty levelso the water can come in and
drip straight down.
So it forms, you know, thatconical shape of a stalactite.
But when you have a ceilingthat's tilted or slanted on an
incline, the water comes throughthe pores but doesn't drip
straight down.
It's held to the ceiling bysurface tension and it trickles
(17:43):
down along the ceiling and itdeposits those minerals it's
carrying into a long, thin line.
So every year they form downinto a sheet like formation and
those are a little thinner thanthe stalactites, but they do.
They look like draperieshanging up and they're just
really beautiful formations, andSaracen's tent is considered to
be one of the best examples ofa drapery in the world, so it's
(18:04):
a very cool formation.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
And it's here at Luray, just saying Another
fantastic reason why Luray isgreat.
So you're talking about thesedifferent kinds of formations.
I know that when I visited thelast time they looked like they
were different colors.
Is that just because it'sdifferent minerals that are
being seeped down?
Speaker 4 (18:21):
Exactly the colorations that you're seeing
down there are all naturalexcept for one.
All the different colors arecaused by different chemical
compounds in those minerals thatare being carried in.
So the most common color you'llsee down there is anywhere from
a tan to orange, yellow, red orbrown.
That's all caused by iron oxide.
Then you have grays, blues andblacks, which are manganese
(18:43):
oxide, and then you have thatstriking bright white that you
see sometimes, and that'scalcium carbonate or calcite.
The only color that's unnaturalin the caverns is green, and
that's because it's moss andalgae caused by the artificial
lighting.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
Oh, so it wasn't there before, but now that it's
been lit up ever since therailroad company put that
electricity in.
Speaker 4 (19:03):
Exactly.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
So then, is the moss growing?
Is it just growing on theoutside of it?
And it's kind of giving thatsheen Exactly.
Speaker 4 (19:09):
and you know there's some spots in that and and Mr
Moyer here would actually tellyou that there is some you know
cave maintenance done in slowingdown and getting rid of the
moss and algae growth so thatyou can see the natural
coloration of the stone.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
Very cool, Very cool.
So last time I was here againas well, someone was telling me
that you guys used to hold bigdancing events in one of the
larger cavern spaces, Right?
Speaker 4 (19:35):
What was that?
That is my favorite room in theentire caverns the cathedral.
The cathedral is also calledthe ballroom or wedding room,
because we did used to holdball-like dances festivities
there, and to this day we stillhold weddings.
We've had well over 500weddings take place in the
caverns so far over the years.
The vast majority of them arein that room.
The cathedral is one of thedeeper parts of the caverns tour
(19:59):
, and it's also home to thegreat stalact pipe organ, which
is the world's largest naturalmusical instrument and the only
one of its kind that's reallycool.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
So it's the most decorated caverns.
How big is?
I mean, I'm assuming you knowwhen you go on the tour you only
get to see a portion of whatthere actually is down there
yeah, the whole caverns is 64acres, so it's definitely really
large.
Speaker 4 (20:21):
um, from the pathway you do get to see over about 48
acres, so you do actually get tosee the vast majority of the
caverns.
And most of the areas that areoff of the pathway are just, you
know, they're very inaccessibleor additional damage would have
to be done to actually put apathway through those areas.
But I will say I have seenquite a few of the areas that
are off the tour route and thebest of the best is on the tour.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
it's on display you can see it yes absolutely.
That's really cool, that'sfantastic.
Well, so do you want to hear alittle bit?
Speaker 4 (20:52):
oh wait I did.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
I did want to ask about the egg.
Speaker 4 (20:56):
Oh yeah, the lagmite egg, yeah so the uh, the two
fried eggs.
They're actually a prettynotable formation to a lot of
people who come here.
You know years and years beforeand they, like I, was here when
I was a kid they always askabout the fried eggs.
They're still here and thefried eggs actually formed
because they were twostalagmites that were just next
to a ramp that was beingconstructed and they were just
(21:19):
like any other stalagmite in thecaverns.
But the construction workerswho were actually putting in
that ramp cut those formationswith heavy equipment and it
actually left the bases brokenopen and it exposed the crystal
inside of them.
All of our formations here.
They grow a dense crystal inthem and it's really, it's
really amazing.
But the center of these theylooked like yellowish and then
(21:40):
they had white rings of calcitearound them and they really did
give off the look of two friedeggs.
People used to be allowed torub them for good luck, but the
oil in our skin does discolorthe rock as well.
As you know, it could stop anyfuture growth.
But those formations areconsidered dead formations
because of everyone rubbing themfor good luck, no matter how
(22:01):
much water drips on them oranything, they could never grow
more.
Um, but because of all that youcan also see that the fried
eggs no longer really have ayellow yolk.
They're a little more grayish,so a lot of people say they look
like oysters on a half shell.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
Now oh man this side of the country with y'all's
oysters it is a force to be.
I've never had an oyster untilI came out here.
Speaker 4 (22:30):
I'm not on the oyster train.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
Let's just say that, well same, I'm not a fan.
Validation All right, this isgood.
Speaker 4 (22:42):
Yeah, so the wishing well is towards the end of our
tour as well.
It's right before the friedeggs.
The wishing well is the deepestbody of water in the caverns
it's six feet deep.
It has a really interestingturquoise coloration and that's
caused by the copper frompennies that were tossed in.
Over the years.
It gradually stained the rockthat color.
Every year we actually do drainthe well, pull out all the
coins and put them into asavings account in the bank and
then, once we've saved up areally large, respectable amount
(23:04):
, we donate it to differentcharities and nonprofit
organizations.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
Okay, so I have to butt in here just really quickly
.
There is a section that's comingup where a lot of really fun
stuff was talked about, butunfortunately it was from
someone who wasn't with the mic,so I'm just going to give you a
quick rundown of what they saidbecause I don't want it to be
missed, but the audio isbasically unusable.
(23:29):
So she mentioned that, for theamount of money that they
usually get each year isgenerally about $30,000 to
$40,000 that they're able togive to charities, and Bill said
that this year they collectedall of the coins and they're in
the middle of the cleaningprocess.
This is also when Dakota jumpedin with a really clever joke of
(23:50):
oh, you have to have the, youhave to launder the money, which
was actually pretty good andthen they use a cement mixer, a
portable cement mixer, to cleanthe money.
And he says that that isfinished and they are currently
being counted and they have tobe brought out in these bags of
money and they think thatthey're going to have quite a
(24:12):
bit this year.
They've got money sacks full ofcoins.
But I wanted to make sure thatyou guys got the opportunity to
get that bit of information andwe're going to jump right back
in with Tara.
Speaker 4 (24:23):
So Dream Lake is another really popular stop in
the caverns.
A lot of people love that one.
It is the largest body of waterin the cavern system and it's
really interesting though,because it looks so deep, but
it's not.
It's so shallow and the reallycool thing is that, uh, it looks
, you know, five to six feetdeep in most areas, but most
(24:45):
areas it's about it's about afoot deep.
The deepest it gets is about 18to 20 inches deep at the very
deepest point and uh, why doesit look so deep?
yeah well, the reason why itgives that is because it has a
perfect mirror reflection of theceiling above.
So it's such clean, pure water.
It's all naturally filteredinto the caverns and it's so
(25:05):
still that it actually providesthat perfect mirror reflection.
So it's really deceiving.
But then, if you like, forexample, shine a light down on
the water, you can very easilysee the bottom of it, because
it's right beneath the surfacethere.
It's really cool.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
I'm also curious this is also just kind of another
random question that I thoughtabout but you know they're
continuously growing right theinside of these caverns.
Are there any examples today ofa cavern like that just
completely being full, like justfilling with these stalagmites
and stalactites?
Speaker 4 (25:35):
Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, you gotta keep in mind,even though this is one of the
more heavily decorated cavernsin the world, it's also a very,
very large cavern system, sothere's a lot of space to fill
in.
So, you know, it's certainlypossible to have much smaller
cavern systems that are almostcompletely filled in with
formations that make them prettyinaccessible.
(25:55):
None of them that I canpersonally think of.
You know, that would be reallyopen to exploring at all, but
they definitely would exist outthere and, given the chance, if
they have long enough to do so,most cavern systems would become
much more filled in.
You know and that includes oursis still active and growing in
(26:16):
some areas.
There are some caverns,formations that are just
continuously wet.
So those were still constantlygrowing and who knows where
there'll be, you know, thousandsand thousands of years in the
future.
So it's certainly possible tohave that somewhere in the world
, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
Are there any myths and legends about your caverns?
And I bring this up because wejust watched the cave, I'm not
saying I would recommend it.
But we had it on in thebackground and there were these
crazy fat light creatures thatwere hunting the explorers and
of course they could see throughsonar and all this.
But I'm just curious do youguys have any myths around?
Speaker 3 (26:56):
No, I really don't know of any, actually Not
particularly Sorry, notparticularly.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
You're crushing my superstition dreams right now.
Are there any ghosts?
Speaker 4 (27:04):
I guess people have to eventually have gone missing
at some point to have thecommunity around it come up with
scary things or scary sounds,but we don't know of any like
paranormal activity, but I willsay that we do have an
interesting spot in our tourcalled Skeleton's Gorge, and
yeah, that seems like somethingthat you'd be interested in.
So Skeleton's Gorge and theprincess column that's in
(27:26):
Skeleton's Gorge were actuallyboth named that because when the
explorers first came throughback in 1878, they actually
discovered at the base of thatcolumn down in the gorge several
bones, and these bones whenthey excavated them them, they
actually had them kind ofstudied the bones.
They didn't have many, it wasabout 20 bone fragments, but
(27:47):
they could tell, judging by bythe hip bones, that they belong
to a young girl, most likely inher late teens to early 20s, is
what the theory is.
And then the fact that theywere embedded in several inches
of stone was really interestingbecause that kind of gave us a
little bit more of an idea onwhat happened where she came
(28:08):
from.
See, the first theory was thatshe was a Native American who
had found the caverns before theexplorers had, and that she got
lost and died in the cavernsystem.
And that was the theory for awhile.
But if that had been true theyshould have found more bones.
I mean, there were over 200bones in the human body.
They only found about 20 smallfragments.
They also were embedded inseveral inches of stone, and
(28:30):
that actually tells us they werehere for a few hundred years
before the explorers found thecaverns.
So what most likely happenedinstead was that she was a
Native American who died on thesurface and her bones were
washed down into the cavernsbelow by a sinkhole after she
had been buried in the area.
They did find a little higherup in the gorge several other
(28:51):
bones along the wall, and thoseactually came from a different
individual.
Now, they couldn't tell if theybelonged to a male or a female,
but they did contain arthritis,which indicates they came from
a much older adult than thisyoung girl.
And that also further kind oflends to that theory that they
were buried on the surface andsome of the bones were washed in
.
The bones were all removed andthey're currently still in
(29:12):
storage at the Smithsonian inWashington DC.
That's really fantastic.
Speaker 1 (29:16):
It really is Very cool.
Not fantastic for the youngwoman who passed away but just
the fact that the entire storywe could get a better idea of
who she was or at least whathappened to her remains.
Speaker 4 (29:28):
That's really cool, very neat stuff.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
Fantastic.
Alright, let's hear about someorgans that are not played by
ghosts.
Fine, they're still cool.
Speaker 5 (29:38):
There's probably some stories I could tell you about
that.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
So, just from what I gathered, you manage the organ
and it sounds like you do a lotof the the work inside the cave
as well, the caverns as well.
Speaker 5 (29:51):
Yeah, yeah, I do, I do.
We all do lots of differentthings here.
Speaker 1 (29:55):
Common of historical places.
Everyone's doing multiple,multiple jobs.
Common of historical places.
Everyone's doing multiple,multiple jobs, right?
So tell me a little bit moreabout so you were talking
obviously I really want to getto this the the organ, but you
were saying that sometimes theygrow molds on the stalagmites
and stalactites, or algae, algae, moths and algae.
How do you guys take care ofthat?
Speaker 5 (30:17):
we spray it, we we use a mixture, a couple
different products and we sprayit and it typically grows closer
to the lights.
The biggest way we combat it iskeep the lights off when
there's no one down there Inbetween tours, as the tour
guides would go through, theywould cut the lights on and off,
(30:38):
which also helps keep people upwith the group, and of course
the lights are always off atnight.
But we do have to treat certainareas to try to keep it under
control.
Speaker 1 (30:52):
And you spray it with .
Is it just spray with like ahigh pressure water?
Speaker 5 (30:55):
Yeah, yeah, we have some pump sprayers and some.
We have different things we usedepending where you're at.
We have some that can reachhigh and then some, you know, we
take a little squirt bottle andjust give it a couple squirts.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
Oh so all it takes is the water and you just kind of
wipe it away.
You don't have to use anythingspecific yeah yeah, it's nothing
, it's.
Speaker 5 (31:09):
It's a mixture.
I don't want to say, you know,bleach or something like that,
but it's a.
It's a chemical that you canuse for, or algae, it's.
It's the same stuff you couldbuy, types of stuff you could
buy.
Do the siding on your house?
Speaker 1 (31:23):
oh, okay, the vinyl siding and stuff so, besides
keeping up with the algaegrowing on on the features, what
are some other maintenancethings that you guys have to do
with, something that is a cavernwith a bunch of really cool
things inside?
Speaker 5 (31:34):
uh, change light bulbs.
Uh, it's.
It's probably close to 800lights down there.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
You said that and I was like oh yeah, big deal,
that's a lot of lights.
Speaker 5 (31:46):
Now I will say, since we have gone totally with LED
lighting, they last longer andthey do a really, really good
job.
Some of the other maintenanceis obviously letting humans in.
We have to keep the place clean.
You know, we wash down thesidewalks and things like that.
Speaker 1 (32:06):
I guess there's probably not that much that you
have to do to the featuresthemselves.
I mean just because they don'tchange very quickly.
Speaker 5 (32:12):
No.
Speaker 1 (32:13):
So you kind of just leave them alone.
They do their own thing.
Occasionally wipe them downwith water to get rid of some
moss.
Speaker 5 (32:17):
None's ever popped up in the way.
Speaker 4 (32:24):
Makes sense, leave them alone.
Speaker 1 (32:24):
they do the wrong thing occasionally wipe them
down with water to get rid ofsome moss.
None's ever popped up in theway makes sense.
Yeah, I guess that shows myinexperience of managing a
cavern.
Uh, so, but the part that isreally really interesting, that
you have a lot to do with isyour organ.
So tell us a little bit aboutwhat this organ is and why it's
so cool because it is reallycool.
Speaker 5 (32:34):
Well, the, the great select pipe organ, uh was I
guess from the beginning.
Mr Leland Sprinkle came throughon the tour, brought his son
through on his fifth birthdayand all the guides would play a
little tune on the stalactitesin a little section.
And he got this idea as he wasdriving home.
He's like you know, he was anengineer, by the way, and an
(32:56):
organist and he said I wonder ifI could make an organ to play
music and use the stalactites astone sources.
So he came back, approached theowners of the company, senior
management, and they agreed andthe way I understand it, they
agreed on a handshake and hestarted in 1954.
It was first played in 1957.
Speaker 1 (33:17):
So it took him a couple years just to kind of get
everything.
Speaker 5 (33:20):
Right.
Speaker 1 (33:20):
And I imagine it's probably incredibly complex
because you have to find theright tone for the right.
Speaker 5 (33:24):
Right, and what he did?
He would scout for tones and hewould go all over the cave and
pick ones that were as close ashe could find and then actually
tune them to concert pitch, andthey're still being used today.
It covers three and a halfacres and that makes it the
largest musical instrument howdoes one tune?
Speaker 1 (33:44):
was he just like shaving off little bits?
Speaker 5 (33:46):
you sand it, just sand it down, yep, you would
find one that you, of course,can't add to it, but you can.
Can take them down, and if I heactually found, is it two or
three that were considered closeenough to be concert pitch.
Speaker 1 (34:06):
Just naturally.
Speaker 5 (34:07):
Yeah, but the rest had to be tuned.
Speaker 1 (34:09):
How many are there?
Speaker 5 (34:11):
Right now we're running 37, which is three
octaves, and one note of thefifth octave is what we're
running.
We do have marked probablyclose to 20 more that we could
expand to if we decide to.
The organ is capable of doingso much more than what it's
doing now, but we just haven'tmade that decision to expand it
(34:31):
anymore.
Speaker 1 (34:32):
Well, you said I mean it's technically the largest
instrument in the world.
But I'm curious you just havelittle wires with little
microphones and a little tinyhammer microphones.
Speaker 5 (34:43):
Uh, what we do is a good example, like I would
explain to my tours when I was atour guide.
Like 100 years ago, I would saylooking good, thank you I'd say
, if I were to walk up to theconsole and push down on the key
, it would send an electricalimpulse to a solenoid Some
people call them plungers, somepeople call them hammers and it
(35:06):
would gently tap the stalactitethat has been tuned and it gives
off the tone.
Speaker 1 (35:11):
Oh, and I guess, since this is in a cavern, you
can hear it.
Speaker 5 (35:14):
Yeah, you can hear it Now what we have done, because
some are so far away we do usean amplification system.
We don't use microphones.
What we do is we use a magneticpickup and it's basically like
a guitar pickup type thing andit sets next to the stalactite.
Of course you can't really seethis I guess you can, but it
(35:37):
sits next to the stalactite andthere's a bolt in the bottom of
the stalactite.
The bolt's half nickel, halfiron and the magnetic pickup is
basically a magnet wrapped witha coil of wire, so it just picks
up the vibration and takes itback to our sound system.
So you couldn't talk into it,it wouldn't pick that up, but it
will pick up a vibration.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
And I guess you guys never actually have to go back,
just like how you do with apiano and you have to retune it,
you guys-.
Speaker 5 (36:01):
We haven't had to retune one yet and I don't know
that we will, but maybe someday.
The biggest problem with havingthe instrument down there is
the constant humidity, becauseit's near 100% humidity and
there's a lot of electronicsinvolved, so it is a lot of
maintenance to this machine tokeep it going.
Speaker 1 (36:22):
And everything feeds back into.
Basically and I am not reallyin with instruments I don't know
how to do any of that.
So I'm assuming the organ islike a little piano and you can
push the keys and then that'swhat's sending those impulses.
So it's all centralized in thisone space.
Speaker 5 (36:37):
You can have someone sitting and playing.
We bring all the sound back tothe cathedral, which is one of
the largest rooms that she wastalking about earlier, and
that's where the console is.
It's a four-manual console thatwe use.
Speaker 1 (36:50):
What does that mean it?
Speaker 5 (36:52):
has four keyboards.
Speaker 1 (36:53):
Okay, Okay cool.
Speaker 5 (36:57):
We use the bottom of single notes is what I call it.
The next keyboard up is they'recoupled by octaves.
Speaker 1 (37:03):
Do you guys have someone that comes down and
periodically plays, or do peopleget to hear this when they come
?
Speaker 5 (37:08):
Yeah, we have an automatic system to play it for
every tour, so every tour getsto hear it.
It's based like a player piano,if you remember when they would
have the roll with the sheet ofplastic over it, and that's.
We have that system.
We have updated that some overtime, but it is a live
performance and if you'restanding in the right spot, you
(37:29):
can see the, the solenoid strike, the stalactites.
Speaker 1 (37:32):
What's the melody that's playing?
Speaker 5 (37:34):
Right now it's a mighty fortress.
We're probably going to soonswitch it to O'Shanador because
that's kind of themed with thevalley here.
Oh, that's fantastic.
We're able to play a lot ofdifferent songs.
We have Christmas songs, wehave America the Beautiful I
can't remember off the top.
We've got a bunch of differentthings we could play.
Speaker 1 (37:54):
So what they were telling me earlier is that
they're going to tune it to playthe Curator's Choice opening
intro song.
They don't know this, but soI'm curious too when you guys do
like weddings and things, doyou play the wedding song?
Speaker 5 (38:09):
No, I have not made that for it yet.
We have talked about that.
We had a meeting not too longago.
We were talking about if weshould offer that or not.
Speaker 1 (38:20):
So you said it's the automatic, so it automatically
plays.
But can someone sit down andplay it?
Oh wow, that's pretty cool.
Speaker 5 (38:26):
We don't offer that very often.
We have it played for specialoccasions.
We've had a few things like wasit Good Morning America was
here, some different things likethat's been here and we would
have someone play it for them.
Speaker 1 (38:39):
That's really cool.
So you can't just be like, heylook, I play piano, Let me give
it a shot.
Something a little bit moreprestigious.
Speaker 5 (38:45):
I keep it locked.
Speaker 3 (38:47):
You get that all the time.
Speaker 1 (38:48):
Well, and then you would definitely get that one
parent that's like no, mychild's a prodigy and they come
over and they very protectiveover the instrument.
That's really really cool.
Well, thank you guys so much,this was so cool no-transcript.
Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of
Curator's Choice.
To celebrate July 4th, we aretaking a break from our
regularly scheduled programs andwe're bringing to you an
episode from our archive.
It is the LeRae Caverns episodefrom Virginia.
Hello everyone and welcome toanother episode of Curator's
(00:35):
Choice.
You might have noticed that theintro music is a little
different this time around andit's because that is the sound
of the great stalag pipe organin Luray Caverns playing
Fiorelis.
Obviously, that's going to comeup later on our episode today
and we're at Luray Caverns.
Luray Caverns is in Virginia andit is one of the most decorated
(00:57):
cave systems in the world, orat least according to the
Smithsonian and we're going tobe exploring not only Luray
Caverns but they have a lot ofother tourist stops in the area.
So they have the ShenandoahHeritage Valley Museum, they
have the Car and Carriage Museum, they have a little toy museum
where you walk through and cansee old toys of the day.
(01:18):
So there's a lot going on andwe're just going to start with
Luray Caverns.
In the next few episodes we'llbe covering those other amazing
museums.
Another reason why today'sepisode is special is I'm
interviewing three people atonce.
I was a little intimidated, butI think the chemistry was
awesome and they were such a fungroup.
(01:40):
I'm sure you're going to enjoythis episode.
First, you're going to hearfrom Bill Huffman, who is the
Director of Marketing and PublicRelations, then we'll be
speaking with Tara Jewell,senior Sales Representative, a
former tour guide, and thenLarry Moyer, who is the great
stalactite pipe organ engineer.
If you'd like to see picturesof today's episode, please go to
CuratorsChoicePodcastcom, oryou can check us out on Facebook
(02:04):
and Instagram.
All right, let's get started.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
I have worked at Luray Caverns.
I'm in my 19th year and that'snot counting high school and
college.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Oh, so you're a true Luray nerd.
We all are.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
It's such a great company to work for and a great
place and people come and stayand they never leave.
They never really have.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
That's fantastic, especially after 19 years, and
you still love it.
That's pretty cool.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
It is very cool and it's it's a great place to work.
It's so much fun to seefamilies come and connect and
enjoy nature and really creatememories that last a lifetime,
and that's what it's all aboutfor for me.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Luray Caverns was actually the first caves that
I've ever been to.
So I'm from Nevada and you knowwe have hot springs and desert
and coming out here getting tosee all the greenery and
everything's been great.
But then they brought me toLuray Caverns because they were
like oh so you're on the EastCoast now which means you have
to go to United States, doesit's?
true, so that's what we did andI was just so excited because
(03:05):
it's so cool down there and youguys have built it up pretty
great up here.
But Luray has a prettyinteresting history outside of
just being amazing caverns aswell.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
Sure sure, the town of Luray, or just Luray, how
Luray Caverns was discovered.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
I don't know much about the town of Luray.
To be honest, I'm assuming it'shere because of the caverns,
and this was a little while ago,so I can't be held too
accountable for my poor memorybut.
I do know that Luray Cavernsitself has an old history with I
mean back to the 1800s.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
Sure Luray Caverns was discovered on August 13,
1878, by three local men BentonStebbins, andrew Campbell and
William Campbell.
And they by three local menBenton Stebbins, andrew Campbell
and William Campbell and theywere actually looking for
caverns.
They knew of a cave in SouthVirginia that was open and
giving tours and they thought,wow, if we could find a cave we
could make some money ourselves.
(03:56):
So they spent a whole summerlooking at every sinkhole on
every farmer's land all aroundtown.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
This was not a chance discovery.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
It was not a chance discovery.
It was not a chance discovery.
They were actually prospectingfor a cave, if you can believe
it or not, and they spent allsummer, hot summer, looking at
all the farmland and they hadactually checked this hill out
once before and they thoughtwell, we'll do it one more time.
So you know, the townspeoplethought they were crazy.
They called them phantomchasers.
(04:25):
But they did come and did see alittle sinkhole and they put
their hand down and felt alittle cool air coming out of
about a quarter size hole in theground and I thought this is
unusual for a hot August day.
So they enlarged the hole theydug.
Finally they had it big enoughfor one man to slide down.
(04:45):
That was Andrew Campbell, on arope and with a candle, and they
actually discovered what theywere looking for One of the
largest caverns in the world andthe largest caverns on the East
Coast, and it is a stunninglybeautiful cavern.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
And it was found because it was opening the size
of a quarter.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
Size of a quarter.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
I mean that's crazy, that's incredible.
They were actually able to findthat anyways.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
It is incredible, after looking and actually
finding what they were lookingfor.
It's amazing.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
Were they brothers or were they just close friends?
Speaker 3 (05:17):
They were friends.
I think Andrew Campbell andWilliam Campbell were related,
but they weren't brothers.
They were cousins, I believe.
Yeah, they were cousins.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
And so they succeeded in this fool's errand of
finding this caverns, and thenI'm assuming they tried to turn
it into an amazing cash crop,because that's exactly what I
would do.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
They certainly did.
On November 6th that same yearthey had built a little
structure and started givingtours, and that was the first
illumination of the caverns, andthey did start giving tours
immediately.
So it's we've been giving toursevery day since, except for
COVID stopped us for a fewmonths, but we had been giving.
We'd been open consecutivelyover 50,000 days until then.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
So I think we can just in the future, we'll just
cut COVID out of the entireequation.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
Let's just pretend like that doesn't happen.
You can still hold that titlecontinuously open.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
I feel like.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
But the history of the caverns is kind of
fascinating because the man whoowned this land, sam Brubaker,
had a lot of debts and so theland went up for auction.
So the discoverers actuallybought it at this auction and
they didn't reveal that they hadfound the cave, actually bought
it at this auction and theydidn't reveal that they had
(06:26):
found the cave.
So this went to court and thecourt battle raged for years on
the proper ownership of the landand finally it went all the way
to the Virginia Supreme Courtwhere it was decided that the
discoverers lost, so they didn'treally get the benefits of
their reward.
It took a couple years for thecourt case to go through.
(06:47):
So they did lose the cavern'sproperty and it went to Mr
Brubaker's creditor, which wasactually his brother-in-law, and
his brother-in-law sold theland to the Luray Cave and
Railroad Company, which isactually a subsidiary of the
railroad of Norfolk Southern, sothe railroad owned it.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
They built a little shack and they were doing some
tours and then the battle, thelegal battle, started happening,
and so they I mean, they didn'treally hardly make any money
off of their discovery at alland they lost the property that
they had technically bought.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
That's correct.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
Man, that sucks that totally sucks.
Dang.
So and this is probably likeoutside the scope of this, but
I'm just personally curious howwere they able to lose the land?
Was it just because theyweren't honest about why they
had bought it?
Speaker 3 (07:38):
Exactly so.
There was a hidden value of theland that they didn't report,
and so that's how they lost it.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
Oh man, what a shame yeah bummer for them.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
Really sucks for them .
Speaker 1 (07:52):
And why didn't the original landowner keep it?
You said it went to his benefit.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
He was in financial difficulties and had a lot of
debts and the land went up forauction to kind of pay for his
debts, and that's when thediscoverers bought it.
And, of course, finally, whenit went through the court system
, it kicked back to whoever heldthe lien for Mr Brubaker's
(08:16):
property, which was hisbrother-in-law.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
So now the railroad has it, the railroad has it.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
What did the?
Speaker 1 (08:21):
railroad, do with it.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
They built a big hotel in Loray and people would
come on excursion trips.
They would get off at the trainstation, take a wagon out here
and tour the caverns.
Those people were hardy backthen.
They would come in their fullwoolen clothes and have a little
torch.
(08:42):
It was not the paved pathwayswe have today.
There were more gravel, roughlittle walkways and they would
come and tour.
I mean, it was a big discovery.
People knew about it.
It was in the New York Herald.
It was all over the place.
Those beautiful caverns hadbeen found in Virginia.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
I was griping about having to drive down that curvy
mess that's next door.
I can't imagine having to trekin a covered wagon.
No doubt.
Maybe I should just stopcomplaining so much.
So I think it was almost amissed opportunity, although
it's probably a good thing thatthey didn't do it.
But the railroad, they shouldhave put a little cart in little
(09:26):
railroad cart rides, I feellike.
I mean, that just seems to mean obvious move, but it's
probably good that they didn't,so they didn't damage the
structures that are in there now.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
Exactly.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
So how long was the railroad in charge of it?
The railroad was done.
Speaker 3 (09:40):
Let's see, the railroad was in charge for about
two or three years, I believenot too long and then it went,
had various owners.
It was sold to a land trackkind of investment group and
there was a local owner and thenTC Northcott out of Elmira, new
York rented the land here in1901, and then Mr Northcott
(10:04):
finally purchased it in 1905 for$60,000.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
And is that what made Luray look the way that it is
today?
Speaker 3 (10:12):
Exactly, mr Northcott really started the process of
kind of making the tour pathsand the tour path has changed
over time.
So there used to be a lot ofsteps in the caverns.
People would go in really tightplaces.
All that has kind of changedtoday and we have a kind of a
more modern figure eight pathway.
(10:32):
You don't retrace your steps,there are no steps in the
caverns.
We've in 2019, we eliminatedthe steps for the entrance and
we have a brand new, lovelyentrance.
So anyone can make it down intothe caverns if you would like to
you certainly can, so it hasopened it up to a lot more
people now.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
I'm assuming, back before they kind of had the more
figure eight structure of goingthrough.
You probably had a lot ofpeople going places.
They might not belong and I'mwondering did a lot of people
kind of try to break off andsteal some of the pieces?
Speaker 3 (11:05):
Well, at the very end of the tour the tour used to
end kind of, you know, about amile into the caverns where it
is now, and that section wasenlarged in the 50s, I believe,
to kind of give a little bit,have a better pathway out.
But that place you can kind ofsee where people would break off
of stalactites.
They just didn't have the ideaof preservation that we do today
(11:28):
.
So it's unfortunate, but justthe way it was.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Definitely so.
I think that a lot of peoplemight kind of know oh, you know,
it's a cave, what's in a cave?
But what makes Luray so special?
Speaker 3 (11:40):
To me Luray is very special.
Luray Caverns is so specialbecause of the beautiful
decoration of the caverns.
It is one of the most highlydecorated caverns in the world
and the Smithsonian Instituteeven said that.
So the Smithsonian Institutionsaid that it is the most highly
decorated caverns.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
So it's not decorated because you guys have ribbons
everywhere.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
No, it's decorated with stalactites and stalagmites
.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
So can you tell us a little bit about those, how they
form and, I think, really putinto people's brains?
They take forever to be created.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
They do take a long time.
I'll let my colleague Taraexplain that one.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Perfectly okay, so we'll pass it over In school,
how I always remembered it wasthe right the stalagmites, the M
is the mountains, becausethey're growing up from the
bottom up, like how themountains look.
Speaker 4 (12:27):
that's how I always remember it stalagmites versus
stalactites, hanging down, seewe always say stalactites hang
tight to the ceiling andstalagmites might grow up to
reach the ceiling.
I have not heard that one well,and we have like a joke in the
caverns that we do.
I always did it on my tourswhen I explained the difference
between them and we have whenthey grow together, or you know,
(12:48):
stalactite reaches the ground,stalagmite reaches the top.
They're called a column orpillar.
I always called them columnsinstead of pillars because if
you're like me from around herein Page County, pillars are what
you sleep on at nighttime.
People love that one.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
That works out perfectly.
So what does make Luray Cavernsso special in the terms of your
pillars?
Speaker 4 (13:12):
So all of our formations.
As Bill had said, there it'svery heavily decorated with all
these formations and theformations are all formed
whenever there's water up on thesurface like precipitation, the
water gets absorbed into theground, it picks up minerals
that are in the soil and itcontinues to seep down lower
into the earth.
Eventually it enters into thecavern system through
(13:34):
microscopic pores in the rockand as the water drips and flows
in, it deposits those mineralsalong the ceilings, walls and
floors and over many, many yearsof this those minerals will
build up and reconstitute intothese larger formations.
But of course that takes a longtime to grow.
On average, scientists estimatethat most of our formations
would take around 120 years togrow one cubic inch.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Oh man, and doesn't that just break your soul when
you imagine people just tearingoff like 500 years worth of a
tiny piece.
Speaker 4 (14:05):
It's incredible.
Absolutely.
You don't realize it.
You know, the really cool thingI think about the caverns is
that it makes you feel so small.
You know, when you're standingin the caverns, you're in the
middle of something that'shundreds of millions of years
old and you know, even just thetiniest little bit of growth is
probably significantly olderthan we'll ever live to be.
(14:27):
And you know, it's amazing.
You wouldn't really think thatuntil you actually just stand
there and take it all in.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
And it's really cool.
So when it's coming down andyou're creating these
stalagmites and stalactites, itobviously has to have a space to
do that, like the opening ofthe inside of the caverns.
What originally created thatopening?
Speaker 4 (14:46):
oh, good question.
That's really interesting stuff.
Um, so back during theOrdovician period, this is 400
450 million years ago, the sealevels were much higher.
So this, actually this wholevalley here, was covered in
water.
It was all a large inland seakind of.
So the animals that lived inthat water would eventually die.
(15:07):
Their bodies would sink down tothe bottom and over many years,
with time and pressure, bonesand skeletons compact and create
sedimentary rock.
So this formed a huge block ofstone that ran all along the
seafloor and so after that, youknow, the sea levels lowered.
The earth was entering ice ages, so the sea levels lowered.
Then we have this whole areawas cleared out.
(15:28):
More land could form over topof that stone and that all
became underground stone.
So this left sedimentary rock.
It's actually today calledBeekman Town Dolomite because it
runs all the way from BeekmanTown, new York, all down the
east coast, down towards Floridatown, new York, all down the
east coast, down towards Florida.
So it's really interestingbecause a lot of caverns there
are solutional caverns in thisarea are actually parts of that
(15:50):
same strip of dolomite, hollowedout in different sections to
create different systems.
And what causes the hollowingout process is it's really what
makes it a solutional caverns isthat water in the ground
combines with carbon dioxide inthe atmosphere and in the soil,
forming carbonic acid, and asthat moves and shifts below the
surface, it hollows away theopenings of the caverns by
(16:12):
eating away weakest rock.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
That's cool, and the weakest rock is eventually gone.
Exactly.
And then what creates is thisbig cavern with these amazing
features inside, exactly thesedecorations that are not actual
yeah, it leaves all that roomfor the secondary growth.
Speaker 4 (16:24):
That's fantastic.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
So you guys have.
Obviously, it's just filled inthere with all different kinds
of formations, but can you tellus a little bit more?
I mean, you spoke about thecolumns that form when they meet
, but I know that there'sdifferent specific ones that you
guys have that you highlight onthe tours.
Speaker 4 (16:39):
Right.
So the first major formationthat you see when you enter the
caverns is the Washington Column.
Andrew Campbell himself namedit the Washington Column in
honor of this nation's firstpresident, george Washington.
As you go deeper into thecaverns you see some really
significant formations.
The largest formation in thecavern system is 40 feet tall,
(17:00):
120 feet around the base andcircumference and is an
estimated 7 and a half millionyears old.
And we call that our giantredwood tree because it
resembles the trunk of a giantredwood or sequoia.
We also have another reallyincredible formation called
Saracen's Tent.
It's personally one of mypersonal favorites in the
caverns.
It is a drapery formation.
(17:21):
Drapery is a little differentthan stalactites.
They still come down from theceilings but stalactites form
where ceilings are pretty levelso the water can come in and
drip straight down.
So it forms, you know, thatconical shape of a stalactite.
But when you have a ceilingthat's tilted or slanted on an
incline, the water comes throughthe pores but doesn't drip
straight down.
It's held to the ceiling bysurface tension and it trickles
(17:43):
down along the ceiling and itdeposits those minerals it's
carrying into a long, thin line.
So every year they form downinto a sheet like formation and
those are a little thinner thanthe stalactites, but they do.
They look like draperieshanging up and they're just
really beautiful formations, andSaracen's tent is considered to
be one of the best examples ofa drapery in the world, so it's
(18:04):
a very cool formation.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
And it's here at Luray, just saying Another
fantastic reason why Luray isgreat.
So you're talking about thesedifferent kinds of formations.
I know that when I visited thelast time they looked like they
were different colors.
Is that just because it'sdifferent minerals that are
being seeped down?
Speaker 4 (18:21):
Exactly the colorations that you're seeing
down there are all naturalexcept for one.
All the different colors arecaused by different chemical
compounds in those minerals thatare being carried in.
So the most common color you'llsee down there is anywhere from
a tan to orange, yellow, red orbrown.
That's all caused by iron oxide.
Then you have grays, blues andblacks, which are manganese
(18:43):
oxide, and then you have thatstriking bright white that you
see sometimes, and that'scalcium carbonate or calcite.
The only color that's unnaturalin the caverns is green, and
that's because it's moss andalgae caused by the artificial
lighting.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
Oh, so it wasn't there before, but now that it's
been lit up ever since therailroad company put that
electricity in.
Speaker 4 (19:03):
Exactly.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
So then, is the moss growing?
Is it just growing on theoutside of it?
And it's kind of giving thatsheen Exactly.
Speaker 4 (19:09):
and you know there's some spots in that and and Mr
Moyer here would actually tellyou that there is some you know
cave maintenance done in slowingdown and getting rid of the
moss and algae growth so thatyou can see the natural
coloration of the stone.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
Very cool, Very cool.
So last time I was here againas well, someone was telling me
that you guys used to hold bigdancing events in one of the
larger cavern spaces, Right?
Speaker 4 (19:35):
What was that?
That is my favorite room in theentire caverns the cathedral.
The cathedral is also calledthe ballroom or wedding room,
because we did used to holdball-like dances festivities
there, and to this day we stillhold weddings.
We've had well over 500weddings take place in the
caverns so far over the years.
The vast majority of them arein that room.
The cathedral is one of thedeeper parts of the caverns tour
(19:59):
, and it's also home to thegreat stalact pipe organ, which
is the world's largest naturalmusical instrument and the only
one of its kind that's reallycool.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
So it's the most decorated caverns.
How big is?
I mean, I'm assuming you knowwhen you go on the tour you only
get to see a portion of whatthere actually is down there
yeah, the whole caverns is 64acres, so it's definitely really
large.
Speaker 4 (20:21):
um, from the pathway you do get to see over about 48
acres, so you do actually get tosee the vast majority of the
caverns.
And most of the areas that areoff of the pathway are just, you
know, they're very inaccessibleor additional damage would have
to be done to actually put apathway through those areas.
But I will say I have seenquite a few of the areas that
are off the tour route and thebest of the best is on the tour.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
it's on display you can see it yes absolutely.
That's really cool, that'sfantastic.
Well, so do you want to hear alittle bit?
Speaker 4 (20:52):
oh wait I did.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
I did want to ask about the egg.
Speaker 4 (20:56):
Oh yeah, the lagmite egg, yeah so the uh, the two
fried eggs.
They're actually a prettynotable formation to a lot of
people who come here.
You know years and years beforeand they, like I, was here when
I was a kid they always askabout the fried eggs.
They're still here and thefried eggs actually formed
because they were twostalagmites that were just next
to a ramp that was beingconstructed and they were just
(21:19):
like any other stalagmite in thecaverns.
But the construction workerswho were actually putting in
that ramp cut those formationswith heavy equipment and it
actually left the bases brokenopen and it exposed the crystal
inside of them.
All of our formations here.
They grow a dense crystal inthem and it's really, it's
really amazing.
But the center of these theylooked like yellowish and then
(21:40):
they had white rings of calcitearound them and they really did
give off the look of two friedeggs.
People used to be allowed torub them for good luck, but the
oil in our skin does discolorthe rock as well.
As you know, it could stop anyfuture growth.
But those formations areconsidered dead formations
because of everyone rubbing themfor good luck, no matter how
(22:01):
much water drips on them oranything, they could never grow
more.
Um, but because of all that youcan also see that the fried
eggs no longer really have ayellow yolk.
They're a little more grayish,so a lot of people say they look
like oysters on a half shell.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
Now oh man this side of the country with y'all's
oysters it is a force to be.
I've never had an oyster untilI came out here.
Speaker 4 (22:30):
I'm not on the oyster train.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
Let's just say that, well same, I'm not a fan.
Validation All right, this isgood.
Speaker 4 (22:42):
Yeah, so the wishing well is towards the end of our
tour as well.
It's right before the friedeggs.
The wishing well is the deepestbody of water in the caverns
it's six feet deep.
It has a really interestingturquoise coloration and that's
caused by the copper frompennies that were tossed in.
Over the years.
It gradually stained the rockthat color.
Every year we actually do drainthe well, pull out all the
coins and put them into asavings account in the bank and
then, once we've saved up areally large, respectable amount
(23:04):
, we donate it to differentcharities and nonprofit
organizations.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
Okay, so I have to butt in here just really quickly
.
There is a section that's comingup where a lot of really fun
stuff was talked about, butunfortunately it was from
someone who wasn't with the mic,so I'm just going to give you a
quick rundown of what they saidbecause I don't want it to be
missed, but the audio isbasically unusable.
(23:29):
So she mentioned that, for theamount of money that they
usually get each year isgenerally about $30,000 to
$40,000 that they're able togive to charities, and Bill said
that this year they collectedall of the coins and they're in
the middle of the cleaningprocess.
This is also when Dakota jumpedin with a really clever joke of
(23:50):
oh, you have to have the, youhave to launder the money, which
was actually pretty good andthen they use a cement mixer, a
portable cement mixer, to cleanthe money.
And he says that that isfinished and they are currently
being counted and they have tobe brought out in these bags of
money and they think thatthey're going to have quite a
(24:12):
bit this year.
They've got money sacks full ofcoins.
But I wanted to make sure thatyou guys got the opportunity to
get that bit of information andwe're going to jump right back
in with Tara.
Speaker 4 (24:23):
So Dream Lake is another really popular stop in
the caverns.
A lot of people love that one.
It is the largest body of waterin the cavern system and it's
really interesting though,because it looks so deep, but
it's not.
It's so shallow and the reallycool thing is that, uh, it looks
, you know, five to six feetdeep in most areas, but most
(24:45):
areas it's about it's about afoot deep.
The deepest it gets is about 18to 20 inches deep at the very
deepest point and uh, why doesit look so deep?
yeah well, the reason why itgives that is because it has a
perfect mirror reflection of theceiling above.
So it's such clean, pure water.
It's all naturally filteredinto the caverns and it's so
(25:05):
still that it actually providesthat perfect mirror reflection.
So it's really deceiving.
But then, if you like, forexample, shine a light down on
the water, you can very easilysee the bottom of it, because
it's right beneath the surfacethere.
It's really cool.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
I'm also curious this is also just kind of another
random question that I thoughtabout but you know they're
continuously growing right theinside of these caverns.
Are there any examples today ofa cavern like that just
completely being full, like justfilling with these stalagmites
and stalactites?
Speaker 4 (25:35):
Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, you gotta keep in mind,even though this is one of the
more heavily decorated cavernsin the world, it's also a very,
very large cavern system, sothere's a lot of space to fill
in.
So, you know, it's certainlypossible to have much smaller
cavern systems that are almostcompletely filled in with
formations that make them prettyinaccessible.
(25:55):
None of them that I canpersonally think of.
You know, that would be reallyopen to exploring at all, but
they definitely would exist outthere and, given the chance, if
they have long enough to do so,most cavern systems would become
much more filled in.
You know and that includes oursis still active and growing in
(26:16):
some areas.
There are some caverns,formations that are just
continuously wet.
So those were still constantlygrowing and who knows where
there'll be, you know, thousandsand thousands of years in the
future.
So it's certainly possible tohave that somewhere in the world
, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
Are there any myths and legends about your caverns?
And I bring this up because wejust watched the cave, I'm not
saying I would recommend it.
But we had it on in thebackground and there were these
crazy fat light creatures thatwere hunting the explorers and
of course they could see throughsonar and all this.
But I'm just curious do youguys have any myths around?
Speaker 3 (26:56):
No, I really don't know of any, actually Not
particularly Sorry, notparticularly.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
You're crushing my superstition dreams right now.
Are there any ghosts?
Speaker 4 (27:04):
I guess people have to eventually have gone missing
at some point to have thecommunity around it come up with
scary things or scary sounds,but we don't know of any like
paranormal activity, but I willsay that we do have an
interesting spot in our tourcalled Skeleton's Gorge, and
yeah, that seems like somethingthat you'd be interested in.
So Skeleton's Gorge and theprincess column that's in
(27:26):
Skeleton's Gorge were actuallyboth named that because when the
explorers first came throughback in 1878, they actually
discovered at the base of thatcolumn down in the gorge several
bones, and these bones whenthey excavated them them, they
actually had them kind ofstudied the bones.
They didn't have many, it wasabout 20 bone fragments, but
(27:47):
they could tell, judging by bythe hip bones, that they belong
to a young girl, most likely inher late teens to early 20s, is
what the theory is.
And then the fact that theywere embedded in several inches
of stone was really interestingbecause that kind of gave us a
little bit more of an idea onwhat happened where she came
(28:08):
from.
See, the first theory was thatshe was a Native American who
had found the caverns before theexplorers had, and that she got
lost and died in the cavernsystem.
And that was the theory for awhile.
But if that had been true theyshould have found more bones.
I mean, there were over 200bones in the human body.
They only found about 20 smallfragments.
They also were embedded inseveral inches of stone, and
(28:30):
that actually tells us they werehere for a few hundred years
before the explorers found thecaverns.
So what most likely happenedinstead was that she was a
Native American who died on thesurface and her bones were
washed down into the cavernsbelow by a sinkhole after she
had been buried in the area.
They did find a little higherup in the gorge several other
(28:51):
bones along the wall, and thoseactually came from a different
individual.
Now, they couldn't tell if theybelonged to a male or a female,
but they did contain arthritis,which indicates they came from
a much older adult than thisyoung girl.
And that also further kind oflends to that theory that they
were buried on the surface andsome of the bones were washed in
.
The bones were all removed andthey're currently still in
(29:12):
storage at the Smithsonian inWashington DC.
That's really fantastic.
Speaker 1 (29:16):
It really is Very cool.
Not fantastic for the youngwoman who passed away but just
the fact that the entire storywe could get a better idea of
who she was or at least whathappened to her remains.
Speaker 4 (29:28):
That's really cool, very neat stuff.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
Fantastic.
Alright, let's hear about someorgans that are not played by
ghosts.
Fine, they're still cool.
Speaker 5 (29:38):
There's probably some stories I could tell you about
that.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
So, just from what I gathered, you manage the organ
and it sounds like you do a lotof the the work inside the cave
as well, the caverns as well.
Speaker 5 (29:51):
Yeah, yeah, I do, I do.
We all do lots of differentthings here.
Speaker 1 (29:55):
Common of historical places.
Everyone's doing multiple,multiple jobs.
Common of historical places.
Everyone's doing multiple,multiple jobs, right?
So tell me a little bit moreabout so you were talking
obviously I really want to getto this the the organ, but you
were saying that sometimes theygrow molds on the stalagmites
and stalactites, or algae, algae, moths and algae.
How do you guys take care ofthat?
Speaker 5 (30:17):
we spray it, we we use a mixture, a couple
different products and we sprayit and it typically grows closer
to the lights.
The biggest way we combat it iskeep the lights off when
there's no one down there Inbetween tours, as the tour
guides would go through, theywould cut the lights on and off,
(30:38):
which also helps keep people upwith the group, and of course
the lights are always off atnight.
But we do have to treat certainareas to try to keep it under
control.
Speaker 1 (30:52):
And you spray it with .
Is it just spray with like ahigh pressure water?
Speaker 5 (30:55):
Yeah, yeah, we have some pump sprayers and some.
We have different things we usedepending where you're at.
We have some that can reachhigh and then some, you know, we
take a little squirt bottle andjust give it a couple squirts.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
Oh so all it takes is the water and you just kind of
wipe it away.
You don't have to use anythingspecific yeah yeah, it's nothing
, it's.
Speaker 5 (31:09):
It's a mixture.
I don't want to say, you know,bleach or something like that,
but it's a.
It's a chemical that you canuse for, or algae, it's.
It's the same stuff you couldbuy, types of stuff you could
buy.
Do the siding on your house?
Speaker 1 (31:23):
oh, okay, the vinyl siding and stuff so, besides
keeping up with the algaegrowing on on the features, what
are some other maintenancethings that you guys have to do
with, something that is a cavernwith a bunch of really cool
things inside?
Speaker 5 (31:34):
uh, change light bulbs.
Uh, it's.
It's probably close to 800lights down there.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
You said that and I was like oh yeah, big deal,
that's a lot of lights.
Speaker 5 (31:46):
Now I will say, since we have gone totally with LED
lighting, they last longer andthey do a really, really good
job.
Some of the other maintenanceis obviously letting humans in.
We have to keep the place clean.
You know, we wash down thesidewalks and things like that.
Speaker 1 (32:06):
I guess there's probably not that much that you
have to do to the featuresthemselves.
I mean just because they don'tchange very quickly.
Speaker 5 (32:12):
No.
Speaker 1 (32:13):
So you kind of just leave them alone.
They do their own thing.
Occasionally wipe them downwith water to get rid of some
moss.
Speaker 5 (32:17):
None's ever popped up in the way.
Speaker 4 (32:24):
Makes sense, leave them alone.
Speaker 1 (32:24):
they do the wrong thing occasionally wipe them
down with water to get rid ofsome moss.
None's ever popped up in theway makes sense.
Yeah, I guess that shows myinexperience of managing a
cavern.
Uh, so, but the part that isreally really interesting, that
you have a lot to do with isyour organ.
So tell us a little bit aboutwhat this organ is and why it's
so cool because it is reallycool.
Speaker 5 (32:34):
Well, the, the great select pipe organ, uh was I
guess from the beginning.
Mr Leland Sprinkle came throughon the tour, brought his son
through on his fifth birthdayand all the guides would play a
little tune on the stalactitesin a little section.
And he got this idea as he wasdriving home.
He's like you know, he was anengineer, by the way, and an
(32:56):
organist and he said I wonder ifI could make an organ to play
music and use the stalactites astone sources.
So he came back, approached theowners of the company, senior
management, and they agreed andthe way I understand it, they
agreed on a handshake and hestarted in 1954.
It was first played in 1957.
Speaker 1 (33:17):
So it took him a couple years just to kind of get
everything.
Speaker 5 (33:20):
Right.
Speaker 1 (33:20):
And I imagine it's probably incredibly complex
because you have to find theright tone for the right.
Speaker 5 (33:24):
Right, and what he did?
He would scout for tones and hewould go all over the cave and
pick ones that were as close ashe could find and then actually
tune them to concert pitch, andthey're still being used today.
It covers three and a halfacres and that makes it the
largest musical instrument howdoes one tune?
Speaker 1 (33:44):
was he just like shaving off little bits?
Speaker 5 (33:46):
you sand it, just sand it down, yep, you would
find one that you, of course,can't add to it, but you can.
Can take them down, and if I heactually found, is it two or
three that were considered closeenough to be concert pitch.
Speaker 1 (34:06):
Just naturally.
Speaker 5 (34:07):
Yeah, but the rest had to be tuned.
Speaker 1 (34:09):
How many are there?
Speaker 5 (34:11):
Right now we're running 37, which is three
octaves, and one note of thefifth octave is what we're
running.
We do have marked probablyclose to 20 more that we could
expand to if we decide to.
The organ is capable of doingso much more than what it's
doing now, but we just haven'tmade that decision to expand it
(34:31):
anymore.
Speaker 1 (34:32):
Well, you said I mean it's technically the largest
instrument in the world.
But I'm curious you just havelittle wires with little
microphones and a little tinyhammer microphones.
Speaker 5 (34:43):
Uh, what we do is a good example, like I would
explain to my tours when I was atour guide.
Like 100 years ago, I would saylooking good, thank you I'd say
, if I were to walk up to theconsole and push down on the key
, it would send an electricalimpulse to a solenoid Some
people call them plungers, somepeople call them hammers and it
(35:06):
would gently tap the stalactitethat has been tuned and it gives
off the tone.
Speaker 1 (35:11):
Oh, and I guess, since this is in a cavern, you
can hear it.
Speaker 5 (35:14):
Yeah, you can hear it Now what we have done, because
some are so far away we do usean amplification system.
We don't use microphones.
What we do is we use a magneticpickup and it's basically like
a guitar pickup type thing andit sets next to the stalactite.
Of course you can't really seethis I guess you can, but it
(35:37):
sits next to the stalactite andthere's a bolt in the bottom of
the stalactite.
The bolt's half nickel, halfiron and the magnetic pickup is
basically a magnet wrapped witha coil of wire, so it just picks
up the vibration and takes itback to our sound system.
So you couldn't talk into it,it wouldn't pick that up, but it
will pick up a vibration.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
And I guess you guys never actually have to go back,
just like how you do with apiano and you have to retune it,
you guys-.
Speaker 5 (36:01):
We haven't had to retune one yet and I don't know
that we will, but maybe someday.
The biggest problem with havingthe instrument down there is
the constant humidity, becauseit's near 100% humidity and
there's a lot of electronicsinvolved, so it is a lot of
maintenance to this machine tokeep it going.
Speaker 1 (36:22):
And everything feeds back into.
Basically and I am not reallyin with instruments I don't know
how to do any of that.
So I'm assuming the organ islike a little piano and you can
push the keys and then that'swhat's sending those impulses.
So it's all centralized in thisone space.
Speaker 5 (36:37):
You can have someone sitting and playing.
We bring all the sound back tothe cathedral, which is one of
the largest rooms that she wastalking about earlier, and
that's where the console is.
It's a four-manual console thatwe use.
Speaker 1 (36:50):
What does that mean it?
Speaker 5 (36:52):
has four keyboards.
Speaker 1 (36:53):
Okay, Okay cool.
Speaker 5 (36:57):
We use the bottom of single notes is what I call it.
The next keyboard up is they'recoupled by octaves.
Speaker 1 (37:03):
Do you guys have someone that comes down and
periodically plays, or do peopleget to hear this when they come
?
Speaker 5 (37:08):
Yeah, we have an automatic system to play it for
every tour, so every tour getsto hear it.
It's based like a player piano,if you remember when they would
have the roll with the sheet ofplastic over it, and that's.
We have that system.
We have updated that some overtime, but it is a live
performance and if you'restanding in the right spot, you
(37:29):
can see the, the solenoid strike, the stalactites.
Speaker 1 (37:32):
What's the melody that's playing?
Speaker 5 (37:34):
Right now it's a mighty fortress.
We're probably going to soonswitch it to O'Shanador because
that's kind of themed with thevalley here.
Oh, that's fantastic.
We're able to play a lot ofdifferent songs.
We have Christmas songs, wehave America the Beautiful I
can't remember off the top.
We've got a bunch of differentthings we could play.
Speaker 1 (37:54):
So what they were telling me earlier is that
they're going to tune it to playthe Curator's Choice opening
intro song.
They don't know this, but soI'm curious too when you guys do
like weddings and things, doyou play the wedding song?
Speaker 5 (38:09):
No, I have not made that for it yet.
We have talked about that.
We had a meeting not too longago.
We were talking about if weshould offer that or not.
Speaker 1 (38:20):
So you said it's the automatic, so it automatically
plays.
But can someone sit down andplay it?
Oh wow, that's pretty cool.
Speaker 5 (38:26):
We don't offer that very often.
We have it played for specialoccasions.
We've had a few things like wasit Good Morning America was
here, some different things likethat's been here and we would
have someone play it for them.
Speaker 1 (38:39):
That's really cool.
So you can't just be like, heylook, I play piano, Let me give
it a shot.
Something a little bit moreprestigious.
Speaker 5 (38:45):
I keep it locked.
Speaker 3 (38:47):
You get that all the time.
Speaker 1 (38:48):
Well, and then you would definitely get that one
parent that's like no, mychild's a prodigy and they come
over and they very protectiveover the instrument.
That's really really cool.
Well, thank you guys so much,this was so cool no-transcript.
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