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Jewel Cave National Monument

First national monument for cave protection, fifth-longest cave globally.

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Where it is

Street map of the area around Jewel Cave National Monument; the red dot marks 43°43′44″N 103°49′44″W
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors

Coordinates: 43°43′44″N 103°49′44″W (43.7290, -103.8290) · Open in OpenStreetMap

Coordinates and connected clubs: the infobox of Wikipedia: Jewel Cave National Monument (CC BY-SA 4.0). Map: drawn by Codexery from OpenStreetMap tiles.

As of September 7, 2024, the mapped passageways within Jewel Cave totaled 220.33 miles.[1] The monument's location is roughly 13 miles west of Custer, situated in South Dakota's Black Hills.[2] Calcite crystals covering numerous walls inside the cave are the reason for its name.[3]

Geography and history

The brothers built walkways and opened the cave to tourists, but their venture was unsuccessful and they sold their claim back to the government.[4] The cave is a solutional cave formed primarily in limestone, with most passages formed in the Pahasapa Formation from about 350 million years ago.[5] The cave intersects the surface at its only natural entrance in Hell Canyon.[1] In 1900, prospectors Frank and Albert Michaud discovered the cave after noticing cold air emerging from a small canyon hole.[4]

The designation of Jewel Cave as a national monument came from President Theodore Roosevelt on February 7, 1908.[4] Management of the monument was transferred from the United States Forest Service to the National Park Service in 1933, with tour operations starting in 1939.[4] Jewel Cave functions as a breathing cave, meaning airflow into and out of it is driven by fluctuations in external atmospheric pressure.[6]

What the cited sources add

The NPS cave exploration page states that more than 55% of the known cave lies outside the monument boundaries, under the Black Hills National Forest.[1] The same source notes that cave exploration and mapping have been done entirely by volunteers.[1] The NPS science page reports that airflow studies indicate only 3–5% of Jewel Cave has been discovered, suggesting another 5,000–7,000 miles may exist.[7] The NPS formations page explains that the calcite crystals formed when water became less acidic and precipitated a layer of calcite spar that covered all cave surfaces.[8]

According to the NPS animals page, the monument contains one of the western United States' largest bat hibernacula, and ten bat species have been documented there.[9] The NPS guided tours page reports that the cave maintains a constant temperature of 49°F throughout the year.[10]

References

  1. "Cave Exploration - Jewel Cave National Monument (U.S. National Park Service)", www.nps.gov. facts only, no text reused. nps.gov
  2. Wikipedia, "Jewel Cave National Monument" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Cave Exploration - Jewel Cave National Monument (U.S. National Park Service)", www.nps.gov; "Explorers return to mapping Jewel Cave after two-year hiatus", NewsCenter 1, November 5, 2021; "Jewel Cave Reaches 200 Miles", National Park Service (NPS), December 19, 2018 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Jewel Cave National Monument" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Formations - Jewel Cave National Monument (U.S. National Park Service)", www.nps.gov (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Jewel Cave National Monument" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Jewel Cave brochure; National Park Service; GPO, WDC (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Jewel Cave National Monument" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: KellerLynn, "Jewel Cave National Monument Geologic Resources Inventory Report, National Resource Report NPS/NRPC/GRD/NRR 2009/084", US National Park., 2009 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Jewel Cave National Monument" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "The National Parks: Index 2009–2011", National Park Service; "Foundation Document - Jewel Cave National Monument, South Dakota", National Park Service (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  7. "Science & Research - Jewel Cave National Monument (U.S. National Park Service)", www.nps.gov. facts only, no text reused. nps.gov
  8. "Formations - Jewel Cave National Monument (U.S. National Park Service)", www.nps.gov. facts only, no text reused. nps.gov
  9. "Animals - Jewel Cave National Monument (U.S. National Park Service)", www.nps.gov. facts only, no text reused. nps.gov
  10. "Guided Tours - Jewel Cave National Monument (U.S. National Park Service)", www.nps.gov. facts only, no text reused. nps.gov

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Jewel Cave National Monument (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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Sources

Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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