by tmazanec1 » Aug 18, 2016 2:38 pm
They had two tours, we took both. My cousin liked the historic tour (discovered 1897) but that part of the cave was heavily vandalized.
The natural wonders half of the cave was opened in 1925, and was in better shape. There was one stalagmite which was called the lucky one...if you rubbed it you would have good luck. They stopped that in 1926 but the damage was done, now they call it the dirty stalagmite.
My favorite speleothem was the one that looks like a water pump, but the most interesting were the "dual features"...a stalactite which starts out as brown iron oxide and turns to white calcium carbonate.
There are only five places in the world with this...one in Brazil, three in Europe and this one.
The colors are great for a cave...black and blue from manganese dioxide, orange, brown and red from iron oxide and white from calcite.
Best cave I have seen.