The first tour was by lantern. If there's anything I regret missing, it's the Natural Entrance -- if you don't make it in there by 2 pm, you can't go. Thus, there was nothing else I could see once the King's Palace tour wrapped up at 3:30.
The Big Room is pretty amazing and you'll see some photos of it in the slideshow below. I'm not sure that it beats Jewel Cave (particularly Jewel Cave's Formation Room), but it's well worth a visit.
On the Left Hand Tunnel tour, our ranger told us a crazy story about some inebriated anti-government loons (four in all) who took hostages at the cave back in 1979. As we walked through the door to Left Hand Tunnel, you could see the marks of gunfire ... apparently these drunken idiots (who demanded that the government give them $1 million and fly them to Brazil) got spooked and thought they heard police approaching. So they started firing, even though there was no one there. Legend has it that there was a raccoon which used to wander 700 feet down to the cave's main hall and they may have heard it rattling around.
To make a long story short, negotiators eventually arrived and the gunmen reduced their demands -- it went from $1 million and a flight to Brazil to asking for bottles of whiskey ... and finally, agreeing to turn themselves in for a reduced sentence. Here's the story from http://carlsbadcavernshistory.blogspot.com:
The crisis began on Tuesday, July 10, 1979, at 3:20 p.m. when four Odessa, Texas men, two of them hiding firearms, took the elevator down to the underground lunchroom, intent on seizing hostages and making terrorist demands. Elevator operator Celia Valdez and passenger Park Technician Linda Phillips were taken hostage on the elevator ride down, and forced out of the elevator at gunpoint. Valdez escaped at her first opportunity by running into a crowd; for Phillips, being a hostage lasted nearly four hours.
The four terrorists, two Native Americans—Eugene Meroney (31) and William Lovejoy (28), and two Caucasians—Dennis Mark (39) and David Kuczynski (28), cleared the underground lunchroom, demanding that park employees help get the visitors out. During the evacuation of about 200 visitors from, the underground lunchroom, several gunshots rang out. Meroney ordered one of the park employees, Park Technician Jesus Fierro, to help get visitors out of the lunchroom; Meroney left Fierro, but quickly returned, pointed his rifle at Fierro!s feet, cocked the weapon, and pulled the trigger. The rifle failed to fire (“Operator Heard Episode Start,” El Paso Times, July 12 1979).
Holed up in the underground lunchroom, with hostage Park Technician Linda Phillips, their weapons, and a bottle of whiskey, the terrorists made known their demands: to talk to a reporter, to receive a million dollars, and to be flown to Brazil. Whether or not the four terrorists knew about the 100 or so visitors hiding at the Top of the Cross area is unclear, but what is clear is that they allowed some visitors to return to the surface in the elevators. Other visitors and employees walked out through the Natural Entrance.
During the shooting spree by the terrorists, a wooden bench, a wooden door, a wooden handrail, some audiovisual equipment, and a dress jacket were damaged by gunshot pellets. At 4:40 p.m. Carlsbad Current Argus publisher Ned Cantwell arrived and attempted to call the terrorists by telephone; they insisted that he come into the cave and talk to them in person. He went down to the terrorist-controlled underground lunchroom at 5:40 p.m
At 5:25 p.m. FBI Agent Jim Gallagher arrived at park and at 6:35 p.m. El Paso Special Agent Wallace Crossman, specially trained in hostage negotiations, arrived. Crossman assisted Area Manager Jack Linahan and Agent Gallagher in evaluating the gunmen’s demands.6 Crossman ordered an FBI Special Weapons Attack Team, which arrived 8:00 p.m. and put on stand-by.
Negotiations continued between Area Manager Jack Linahan and the hostage-takers via phone. At one point the gunmen offered to release the hostages in return for a bottle of whiskey, but Linahan refused. Linahan did indicate, however, that the US Attorney might be receptive to negotiating their demands.
Eventually, the abductors agreed to release Park Technician Phillips and newspaper publisher Cantwell, if the charges against the four Odessa, Texans would be reduced to misdemeanors. The FBI agreed and Phillips and Cantwell were released at 7:07 p.m.
Having traded their demands for a million dollars and a plane ride to Brazil for reduced criminal charges against them, the four gunmen surrendered at 8:47 p.m. Once arrested, the four terrorists faced bail of $250,000 per terrorist.
Btw, error in yesterday's post: it's unlikely that I saw a bat near Natural Entrance on Saturday evening, given that most bats hibernate in the winter. Duh! If you want to see bats at Carlsbad Caverns, April to October is the time to go.
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