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8A • COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL • NOVEMBER 7, 2018 Off beat Oregon No. 520 Central Oregon Coast’s Lost Crystal cave By Finn J.D. John For The Sentinel (Note: Th is article is a re- writing and re-researching of a shorter column fi rst published on March 28, 2010.) C entral Oregon is cave country. Th ere may be more caves, discovered and undiscovered, within a 100-mile radius of Bend than anywhere else in the country — ranging in size from tiny, dan- gerous lava tubelets like Th imble Cave to mile-long subterranean vaults like Lava River Cave. To the dedicated cadre of spe- lunkers who enjoy exploring these secret underground spaces, fi nding any previously unknown cave is a dream. But there’s one particular cave — one that may actually not exist, but probably does — for which cave buff s have been keep- ing their eyes peeled for more than a century now. Th is cave is usually called “the Lost Crystal Cave.” And lost it is indeed — so lost that no one re- ally knows whether to fi le it un- der “geology” or “folklore.” Th ere are two basic variants on the Lost Crystal Cave leg- end, and dozens of sub-variants; passed on from mouth to ear for generations, the story has changed and grown like a wind- blown juniper tree. Both variants estimate the worth of the cave, as described, as roughly $1 million — but it’s pretty clear that they don’t really know, since they’ve been using that same number for about 50 years now. Th e most commonly heard version of the tale comes from Marjorie Smith, the daughter of a Bend shopkeeper named Nich- olas Smith, who spent most of the 1910s and 1920s beating the bushes looking for it. Marjorie was about 10 years old when it was supposedly found, so her recollections carry some author- ity. According to Marjorie, the crystal cave was discovered by a group of cowboys on a cattle drive from Burns to LaPine. Near Pine Mountain, the drovers stopped for the night to make camp and cook dinner. While hunting up some wood for a cooking fi re, the cowboys found a cave entrance; looking inside with a light, they gasped and stared. Th ey were in a room-size cavern, and the walls and ceil- ings were covered with thou- sands and thousands of clear diamond-like crystals. Th e cowboys broke some off for souvenirs and contin- ued on their voyage to La Pine, and then to Bend. When they arrived, they told anyone who would listen what they had found, off ering the chunks of crystals as proof. Th e cowboys had places to go, so they moved on shortly aft er that. But Marjorie’s father, Nicholas Smith, got curious af- ter examining the crystals. So he rode out south of town to try to pick up the trail of the cattle drive. Th is he soon did, and by nosing around at the places where he found the cowboys had camped, he found the cave. It was everything the cowboys had said. But the weather was looking ominous, and Nicholas didn’t want to get stuck out on the range in the snowstorm that he thought was coming — or get stuck sheltering in a cave with no food while his horse shivered outside. He broke off a few more crystals and, noting the relevant landmarks as best he could, hur- ried home to Bend. Th at spring, he returned — or tried to. Problem was, without the cattle trail to follow, he had no idea where to go; and the landmarks he’d tried to use just weren’t helping him. Nicholas Smith spent the next 20 years fruitlessly searching for the cave. He found plenty of caves during that time — little pockets under rimrock and lava tubes of the type the Bend area is peppered with — but no sign of the crystal cave. T he other version of the Crystal Cave story came from Aubrey Perry, son-in-law of Newt Cobb, one of the men who supposedly discovered it. In this version, there were three men and they were not driving cattle; they were on their way from Millican Ranch, where they’d just fi nished a job shearing sheep, heading for the old Shon- quest Ranch near Sunriver. Th ey stopped to camp for the night; while gathering fi rewood one of them found the cave entrance; and that’s how the story comes into circulation in Bend. Th e trouble with this story is, it’s geographically impossible. Geologist Larry Chitwood told writer Melany Tupper that the terrain between Millican and Sunriver is just not old enough to support the growth of quartz crystals the size of the samples. So could the crystals have been something else? Ice? Opals? Maybe, but that wouldn’t ex- plain the sheepmen’s having brought quartz crystals back from their journey. S o, what are we left with? Not much. But, there is a third possibility. What if the cowboys were actually on a drive from somewhere other than Burns? What if they were com- ing into the Bend-La Pine area from, say, Baker City or John Day, and somehow — by acci- dent or by design — the story got altered? When the original version of this story was fi rst published in the Redmond Spokesman, back in 2010, I got a phone call from a gentleman from Pendleton. I didn’t catch his name, although he did throw it; it was just as well, since I know he wouldn’t have been OK with being mentioned by name in this article. Judging by his voice, I would estimate he was 75 to 85 years old. In any case, he was mostly interested to know more details of where I thought the cave was. I told him the legends I’d unearthed. When he spoke next, he ac- tually sounded relieved. With a chuckle, he told me the cave was nowhere near the places I was talking about; it was northeast of Bend, he said, about 150 miles out of town. He made it pretty clear that that was as close as he was going to get to revealing its location. But it was, he told me, real; he had been there, several times. Now, this was 2010, and he was calling me from a land-line — meaning this was a long-dis- tance phone call that he was pay- ing for. He didn’t come off as the kind of fellow who has nothing better to do with his time than phone up strangers long-dis- tance to lie about crystal caves. So, perhaps everyone has been beating the bushes on the wrong side of town for all these years? Th at certainly could explain 100 years of failure to fi nd anything. But there is one more possi- bility as well. And to explain it, I have to tell you what happened in 2010 at the Arnold Ice Cave. In the late 1880s and early 1900s, the Arnold Ice Cave was a source for ice in the summer- time for the city of Bend. Th en aff ordable refrigeration technol- ogy came along and made it un- necessary, and aft er that, people stopped going to the cave to cut blocks of ice. But the ice continued to grow in the cave, and by about 1940 it had fi lled up enough of it to block off the entrance. In 2010, the groundwater fl ows changed, and the cave cleared enough for people to start coming in again. Members of the caver group Central Ore- gon Grotto eagerly came to the site and explored it, carefully documenting all the neat old ar- tifacts they found inside: an old cigarette box, a rusty ax, the skull of what appeared to be an actual E verything for Your Eyes Only Comprehensive family, medical eyecare and optical services We provide exams for Cataracts, Glaucoma, Diabetic and Lasik Serving Cottage Grove since 2006 Book an appointment today! Medical, vision and fl exible spending plans welcome. Mon-Thurs 9M-5PM FRI 9AM-4PM 257 N. 8th St 541-942-5000 www.PCVI.com Dentistry is our profession, people are our focus. Birch Avenue Dental Dentistry is our profession, people are our focus. Birch Avenue Dental 1325 Birch Ave. 541-942-2471 • General Dentistry Stoc k up befo r they e ’re gone ! wolf. Th en word leaked out to the general public. And within a few years, all the artifacts had been pilfered and the walls of the cave were covered with spray-painted graffi ti. In the following year, 2011, a group of bonfi re partiers with a bag of spray-paint cans covered Hidden Forest Cave with about 15 cans’ worth of graffi ti, cover- ing over Native American picto- graphs in the process. It’s a pretty safe bet that if any of the cave buff s who remember the Arnold Ice Cave — or— were to stumble across the crystal cave today, they’d keep their mouths shut. Th ey might even drag some brush over the entrance before leaving, to try and keep it hidden a little longer. Clean Burn Wood Pellets WE DELIVER ! LANDSCAPE AND BUILDING MATERIALS Open 7 days a week! 7919 N. River Road 541-942-4664 (Sources: Tupper, Melany. High Desert Roses: Signifi cant Stories from Central Oregon. Christmas Valley: 1stBooks, 2003; Wood, Patti D. “Th e Mystery of the Lost Crystal Cave,” Little Known Tales from Oregon History. Bend: Sun Publishing, 1988; McGregor, Brent. “Hidden Forest Cave,” Th e Archaeology Channel, archaeol- ogychannel.org; Skeels, Matt G. “Arnold Ice Cave Pilfered,” Central Oregon Subterranean, mattskeels. wordpress.com) Finn J.D. John teaches at Oregon State University and writes about odd tidbits of Oregon history. For details, see www.fi nnjohn.com. To contact him or suggest a topic: fi nn2@offb eatoregon.com or 541- 357-2222. Worship Directory DRAIN: HOPE U.M.C. 131 W “A” St. Drain, OR 541-315-1617 Pastor: Lura Kidner-Miesen Fellowship & Song: 11:30am Potluck Lunch: 12:00pm Worship: 12:30pm Delight Valley Church of Christ 33087 Saginaw Rd. East 541-942-7711 Pastor: Bob Friend Two Services: 9am - Classic in the Chapel 10:30am - Contemporary in the Auditorium COTTAGE GROVE: 6th & Gibbs Church of Christ 195 N. 6th St. • 541-942-3822 Pastor: Aaron Earlywine 9:00am & 10:30am Christian Education: Pre-K through 5th www.6thandgibbs.com First Baptist Church 301 S. 6th st • 541-942-8242 Interim Pastor: Reed Webster Sunday School 9:30am Worship Service 11:00am Youth Wednesday 6:30pm cgfi rstbaptist.com Calvary Baptist Church 77873 S 6th St • 541-942-4290 Pastor: Riley Hendricks Sunday School: 9:45am Worship: 11:00am The Journey: Sunday 5:00pm Praying Thru Life: Wednesday 6:00pm First Presbyterian Church 3rd and Adams St 541-942-4479 Rev.: Karen Hill Worship: 10:00am Sunday School: 10:00am fpcgrove.com Calvary Chapel Cottage Grove 1447 Hwy 99 (Village Plaza) 541-942-6842 Pastor: Jeff Smith Two Services on Sun: 9am & 10:45am Youth Group Bible Study Child Care 10:45am Service Only www.cgcalvary.org Hope In The Grove 700 E. Gibbs • 401-855-5668 Pastor: Wayne Husk Sunday services: Worship: 9am Coffee Fellowship: 10:15am Bible Study: 10:30am Church of Christ 420 Monroe St • 541-942-8565 Sunday Service: 10:30am Cottage Grove Bible Church 1200 East Quincy Avenue 541-942-4771 Pastor:Bob Singer Worship 11am Sunday School:9:45am AWANA age 3-8th Grade, Wednesdays Sept-May, 6:30pm www.cgbible.org Cottage Grove Faith Center 33761 Row River Rd. 541-942-4851 Lead Pastor: Kevin Pruett www.cg4.tv Full Childrenʼs Ministry available Service: 10:00am Hope Fellowship United Pentecostal Church 100 S. Gateway Blvd. 541-942-2061 Pastor: Dave Bragg Worship: 11:00am Sunday Bible Study: 7:00pm Wednesday www.hopefellowshipupc.com “FINDING HOPE IN YOUR LIFE” Our Lady of Perpetual Help and St. Philip Benizi Catholic Churches 1025 N. 19th St. 541-942-3420 Father: Joseph Hung Nguyen Holy Mass: Tue-Thu: 8:30am; Sat:5:30pm Sun: 10:30am Confession: After daily mass, Sat. 4-5pm or by appointment St. Philip Benizi, Creswell 552 Holbrock Lane 541-895-8686, Sunday: 8:30am St. Andrews Episcopal Church 1301 W. Main • 541-767-9050 Rev. Lawrence Crumb “Church with the fl ags.” Worship: Sunday 10:30am All Welcome Seventh-day Adventist Church 820 South 10th Street 541-942-5213 Pastor: Kevin Miller Bible Study: Saturday, 9:15 am Worship Service: Saturday, 10:40 Mid-week Service: Wednesday, 1:00 Trinity Lutheran Church 6th & Quincy • 541-942-2373 Pastor: James L. Markus Sunday School & Adult Education 9:15am Sunday Worship 10:30 am Comm. Kitchen Free Meal Tue & Thur 5:00pm TLC Groups tlccg.com United Methodist Church 334 Washington • 541-942-3033 Pastor:Lura Kidner-Miesen Worship: 10:30am Comm. Dinner (Adults $5, Kids Free) 1st & 3rd Monday 5-6:00pm umcgrove.org Non-Denominational Church of Christ 1041 Pennoyer Ave 541-942-8928 Preacher: Tony Martin “VICTORY” Country Church Sunday Bible Study:10:00am Sunday Worship:10:50am & 5:30pm 913 S. 6th Street • 541-942-5913 Pastor: Barbara Dockery www.pennoyeravecoc.com Worship Service: 10:00am Message: “WE BELIEVE IN Old Time Gospel Fellowship MIRACLES” 103 S. 5th St. • 541-942-4999 Pastor: Jim Edwards CRESWELL: Sunday Service: 10:00am Join in Traditional Christian Worship Creswell Presbyterian Church 75 S 4th S • 541-895-3419 Rev. Seth Wheeler Adult Sunday School 9:15am Sunday Worship Service 10:30 am website www.creswellpres.org Worship With Us! • Implants Our Worship Directory is a weekly feature • Sedation in the newspaper. If your congregation • Financing would like to be a part of this directory, 1325 Birch Ave. Cottage Grove birchavenuedental.com 541-942-2471 Tammy L. McClung DDS • Park W. McClung DDS please contact the Cottage Grove Sentinel @ 541-942-3325