Timpanogos Cave National Monument

Timpanogos Cave National Monument
IUCN Category III (Natural Monument)
Location	Utah, USA
Nearest city	American Fork, UT
Coordinates	40°26′26″N 111°42′34″W / 40.44056, -111.70944
Area	250 acres (1 km²)
Established	October 14, 1922
Total visitation	107,170 (in 2004)
Governing body	U.S. National Park Service

Timpanogos Cave National Monument is a cave system in the Wasatch mountains in American Fork Canyon near American Fork, Utah, in the United States. After a fairly difficult 1.5 mile hike on a paved trail up the side of a mountain, the cave opening is accessible. Tours are run when the monument is open from May through October.

There are three main chambers accessible in the tour: Hansen Cave, Middle Cave, and Timpanogos Cave. Many unique and colorful cave features or speleothems can be seen. Among the most interesting are the helictites, which are like hollowed straws of rock. They are thought to be formed when water travels through the tube and then evaporates, leaving a small mineral deposit at the end. Other speleothems found in the cave include: cave bacon, cave columns, flowstone, cave popcorn, cave drapery, stalactites and stalagmites.

Martin Hansen discovered Hansen Cave in the late 1800's, reportedly while tracking a mountain lion high up the side of American Fork Canyon. Unfortunately, many of this cave's features and formations were damaged or removed over a number of years.

The man who was given credit for discovering Timpanogos Cave was named Vearl J. Manwill. He came with the Payson Outdoors Club in 1921. The club might have come because of rumors of a hidden cave that no one could find. After doing the tour of Hansen's Cave, they all went different ways to try to find the rumored cave. Vearl went up above Hansen's, alone. After a little way, he found a crack, and looked in. He called the rest of the club to come look at what he had found.

That fall, George Heber Hansen and Wayne E. Hansen, Martin Hansen's son and grandson, were hunting on the other side of the canyon. While using binoculars to try to find deer, they came across another hole in the mountain, in between the other two caves. In a few days they came back, with 74 year-old Martin Hansen. Martin was the first human being in the cave, now called Middle Cave.

Fortunately, Middle Cave and Timpanogos Cave were discovered in an era where their formations and resources could be protected. The National Park Service, which oversees and preserves the cave complex, has continued to develop new ways to retain its natural features, including limiting lighting in the caves to retard growth of invasive organisms.

The Great Heart of Timpanogos

See also

• Protected areas of the United States
• Mount Timpanogos

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Timpanogos Cave National Monument

• National Park Service page on the Timpanogos
• A Utah travel site page about the caves
• A large collecton of Timpanogos Cave speleothem pictures
• Local caving Grotto

Donate to Wikimedia