Jim White
Carlsbad Caverns National Park, New Mexico
But Jim White might as well have saved his breath. Convincing the gang at the ranch and camp was a hopeless task, and the Kid’s command of English was so inadequate that he could contribute little except “Si, si!” and nods of enthusiasm. That wasn’t enough. The story fell on unresponsive ears.
On the streets of Carlsbad, then called “Eddy”, just a few days after his fiery experience, Jim White met a friend who had once visited Mammoth Cave in Kentucky. The friend countered Jim’s story with the belief that there just couldn’t be a bigger cave than Mammoth! … so before long, two heads bent over encyclopedias and reference books with pictures and information about caves. The more Jim White learned—the more pictures he saw—the more positive he became that the cave he had explored was larger and more beautiful than any cavern then on record! At the turn of the century, Jim White had talked “bats” and “cave” until word went ’round that both the bats and the cave were in Jim’s head!
PICTURES PROVE JIM’S STORY
Jim White’s first descent into the cave was in 1901. During the next few years he was unable to convince anyone of the attractions of the cave sufficiently to have them pay much attention to its beauty. But as early as 1903 interest developed in the guano known to be there. In that year Abijah Long filed a placer mining claim to guano and other mineral rights for twenty acres around the entrance to the caverns. This claim is recorded in the Eddy County Mining Records. Again in 1908, and later in 1910 and 1912, other placer mining claims were filed on land in the vicinity of the cave entrance. This land was never patented. However, the land to the east, over the Bat Cave, belonged to the Santa Fe Railroad and was sold in 1905, and ownership of this forty acres changed hands a number of times before it was finally acquired by the government.
Jim continued to work on the ranch for awhile, but when the guano operations began, his interest in the cave induced him to go to work for the company removing the fertilizer. Although it is estimated that about a hundred thousand tons of guano were removed from the Bat Cave between 1903 and 1923, it was probably not a very profitable operation; for at least six different companies had a fling at it. Jim worked for all but one of them off and on, and never did any more than just make a bare living.
Through all these years Jim White made frequent efforts to convince someone—anyone who would listen—about the wonders he had seen beyond the cave entrance, beyond the rooms containing the guano. Despite his failure to win more than casual interest, whenever there was a lull in the guano business, he would take food and other supplies and explore more of the cave. In fact, Jim succeeded in getting some of the miners to explore the cave with him during their spare time, as is proven by the prevalence of names and dates (1904 to 1911) smudged on the ceilings, walls and rocks as far into the caverns as the King’s Palace.
One day came the thought that if he could get a photographer to make the trip with him, he could show photographic proof to the world of his now-favorite scene of adventure. His first attempt met with failure simply because the man who had the camera wanted a hundred dollars for the trip. Jim didn’t have a hundred dollars.
Along about 1920, economic conditions were mighty bad. Jim and Mrs. White were living in a shack near the cave entrance. Jim was always up at daylight, following the youthful custom long-ago established on the ranch. One morning, however, Jim didn’t rise with the dawn. For one of the few times in his married life, Mrs. White was up first.
She made coffee, then returned to the bedroom door somewhat alarmed, and asked:
“Jim, I’ve never known you to stay in bed so late … are you sick?”
Jim laughed reassurance. “I’ve just been layin’ here since day-break, thinkin’. I’ve made up my mind I’m going to get out of this bed and start showing people that cave, whether they want to see it or not!”
“How are you going to do it?” Mrs. White inquired.
“Right now I don’t know,” Jim stated. “But when I get up, I’m going to start”.
Jim lay still a little longer. The idea came that if the world could be made to see the cave, trails and guard-rails ought to be built, to gain even a relative amount of safety and accessibility. Jim rose, dressed, ate breakfast and started. He began moving rocks and leveling passageways through the first chamber. At dangerous ledges he searched out cracks in the rocks, into which he drove discarded axles from old automobiles. From one of these to another, Jim strung galvanized wire to serve as hand-holds. Working alone most of the time, he seemed tirelessly ready for an endless task, constantly buoyed by the thought that he was building a pathway over which many others might travel, into the incredibly beautiful fairyland so far below the hot desert.
Strange how much a man’s vision and energy can drive him to achieve! Strange, too, that Jim White’s consuming purpose was to lure an apparently disinterested world to see what he had seen—perhaps in order to justify his years of insistence that the place did exist somewhere beyond his own imagination. The world simply had to see this magnificent spectacle into which he had first crawled.
Working in the cave those countless hours and continuing to explore until he had visited most of the present known areas, Jim White felt his awesome appreciation translated into something akin to love. He wanted to display it proudly to other approving, comprehending eyes—and watch them light with awe and wonder. Jim was an unlettered man, as were most of his associates, and no written record of his findings was made.
At last two young men, crossing the country in an old jalopy pulled up at the cave and asked Jim if there was a chance to see it! Chance? Jim White would be delighted to show them through, he explained. One of them had a kodak. When the young fellow asked about flashlight powder, Jim told him about his effort to get a photographer to record a picture-story of the cave. At Jim’s suggestion that flashlight powder might be found in Carlsbad, the youths started back to town, offering to see if they could find a photographer who would make the trip, taking for his pay the right to distribute pictures. An early-morning start into the cave the next day was planned by Jim White and the first two persons from the outside world who ever expressed a desire to see into the underground palaces!