The following clipping, from the St Paul Dispatch, December 3, 1913, is the earliest document I have seen regarding the mysterious inner room of Carver’s Cave. However, the discovery narrative presented therein is also of interest as the earliest Minnesota “trip report” to employ the rhetoric that has become so familiar in caving newsletters everywhere nowadays: the images of virginity and penetration, the thinly veiled suggestion that previous explorers were incompetent, that this latest discovery tops all previous ones, etc. It’s interesting to see, in such a brief piece, an early, local example of this sort of thing!
Here’s the background. In 1913, John W. Armstrong, Ramsey County surveyor, showed John H. Colwell where to dig to reopen Carver’s Cave, which had been supposedly “lost thirty years” owing to the accumulation of talus at the foot of the bluff. Colwell reopened the cave in November 1913 using a horse-drawn scraper. Armstrong and Colwell then entered into a prolonged contest for control of the cave, according to archeologist Alan R. Woolworth. There were locks on top of locks, lost keys, policemen, threats of lawsuits, etc., for some weeks. Armstrong, aided by Frank Koalaska, scored points by finding a new room in the cave. A map of the alleged discoveries—resembling a diagram of the multi-compartmented stomach of a ruminant—was later published by journalist Charles T. Burnley.
NEW INNER ROOM IN CARVER’S CAVE
“Blind” Passageway Leads Explorers to Third Great Chamber.
NEVER ENTERED BY MAN
Frank Koalaska Makes Discovery After Removing Intervening Rock—Proud of Achievement.
A third chamber in Carver’s cave, one which was never known to have been entered by man, was discovered yesterday by J. H. Armstrong, county surveyor, and Frank Koalaska, foreman in charge of the work of restoring the cave.
“I do not believe that anybody else ever has entered this chamber,” said Mr. Armstrong today. “There are no marks or hieroglyphics on the walls and from the way we discovered it, I believe that Mr. Koalaska and myself were the first men to ever visit it.
“About 25 feet from the orifice of the cave, there is a passageway about 8 feet wide and about 20 feet long. This has hitherto believed to be a ‘blind passage-way.’”
Rock is Removed.
In draining the water out of the cave, Mr. Koalaska and his men have been dredging dirt out of the bottom of the lake so as to make a deeper ditch. While the men were working at the end of this passageway, yesterday a huge rock was removed and a small hole was discovered leading farther into the wall. A rod ten feet long was pushed into this hole and it was found that no further wall was struck.
Koalaska telephoned to Mr. Armstrong and with picks and axes they chopped away much of the sandstone, making a hole about 3 feet high. When they had penetrated about 8 feet of the wall, another cavern, 75 feet long and 25 feet wide with a ceiling 10 feet high was discovered.
Walls Not Smoke-stained.
Taking a lantern, Armstrong and Koalaska crawled through the new tunnel and made an investigation of the cavern. No markings were discernible on the walls, which were not stained by smoke as are the other caverns. Nothing but sand drifted in with the water was on the floor of the cave. The farther end of the cave also was filled with water and sand. Mr. Armstrong believes that this leads to another cavern.
“I do not believe that anybody else has ever been in this cavern,” said Mr. Armstrong. “None of the older settlers have ever heard of it and if the Indians had used it as a council chamber or dwelling place it is almost certain that we would have found some of their markings or relics. I believe that we were the first two men that ever penetrated the cave.”
The water is still too high in the farther end of the main cavern to penetrate any farther into the other covern [sic] which is just beyond.
“I feel proud of discovering this new cavern,” said Mr. Koalaska. “To think that thousands have passed it year after year without ever knowing of its existence, and that we have added one of the biggest attractions to Carver’s cave seems worth almost any effort. We will keep right on with the work at the other chamber, and I feel that even a bigger thing will result.”