Pg 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

Tenen knew of Tufts' interest in caving, but he had never tried it. Because of his own interest in science --he was an entomology student-- he asked Tufts to take him on one of his caving excursions. Their first trip was to a cave in the Huachuca Mountains, south of the Whetstones, and even though it was a heavily vandalized cave, the experience was enough to whet Tenen's appetite for caving. His enthusiasm rekindled Tufts' interest in caving, and before long the two were out scouring the vacant hills south and east of Tucson. In the fall of 1974 Tufts went back to the Whetstones with another friend, a non-caver. He quickly located the sinkhole at the spot he had marked earlier. However, this time, walking near a stream on the southern side of the hill, they found a horizontal hole some 60 yards from the sinkhole. Tufts wondered if the presence of the two openings meant there were cave passages between them. When he returned to Tucson, he told Tenen about his theory, and the two agreed to return the next weekend to do some exploring.

On a cool November afternoon they went back. First they explored the horizontal entrance, but concluded that major excavation would be needed to get into it any deeper than 30 feet. They decided to take a look at the opening on the other side, in the sinkhole, even though Tufts had checked it seven years earlier and found nothing. They squirmed into the chamber, and Tufts remarked that although everything looked more or less as he remembered it, something seemed different. "This time the air was moving. There was a breeze coming up from between the rocks, through a crack. Not just any breeze. It was warm, moist, and smelled like bat guano. This was new and compelling evidence," Tufts said. The fact that it was a cool November day no doubt made a difference. On the previous trip he hadn't felt the warm breeze from the cave because he had been there in warmer weather. "The cave wasn¹t breathing," he observed.
Encouraged, the two twisted their way down through the crack. Five feet below, and not visible from above, was a chamber about the size of an average living room. They soon saw unmistakable evidence --footprints and broken stalactites -- that others had been this far before. A crawl space led from the first "room" to a second small room. But, neither of the rooms, they concluded, were large enough to account for the breeze. Only a sizable cave could produce it, but where was it coming from?

After inspecting every square inch of the two rooms, they discovered a crawl-way at the floor level in the second room. It was about 10 inches high and two feet across. There was no doubt the breeze was coming from that hole. Tufts squirmed into it, inching forward about 20 feet until the tunnel came to an abrupt end against a rock barrier. However, in the middle of the barrier there was a hole, a six-inch oval. A damp wind blew through the small blowhole. Tufts tried to peer through the opening, but the wind kept blowing out his carbide light. This was the kind of moment that stirs a caver's blood.

Something was definitely behind that small fissure, but what could it be? The question cavers often ask when they find a new passage is, "Does it go?" meaning, does this lead anywhere or will it be another dead end? Clearly, this hole went someplace, but where? With the thrill of discovery propelling them, Tufts and Tenen went to work with an eight-pound sledgehammer, taking turns chipping away at the limestone bedrock until the hole was barely large enough for a person to squeeze through. Tenen, the smaller of the two, is 5 feet 7 inches tall and then weighed 130 pounds. He'd practiced for tight spots like this one by wiggling through ordinary coat hangers. Tufts, who is 6 feet tall and weighed 170 pounds, had to remove his shirt and exhale to make it through the opening. "It was like being born all over again," he remarked.

Text provided by Arizona State Parks

Next