Sign In: The Writing on the Wall

This article was originally published in The Midden – Great Basin National Park: Vol. 15, No. 1, Summer 2015.

A signature in Lehman Cave dating from 1885. This signature is by E. W. Meecham and G. R. (George Robison).

NPS Photo

By David Harwood, Researcher

Tens of thousands of visitors come to Great Basin National Park every year, many attracted to the lure of underground adventure to be found in Lehman Cave. While the cave’s natural beauty and geologic wonders frequently inspire awe, few visitors realize that almost every room and tunnel contain signatures from visitors since Absalom Lehman opened the caves to the public roughly 130 years ago. While Lehman encouraged visitors to sign their names in the cave, the same behavior today would result in serious legal consequences! That said, any signature over 50 years old is generally considered historically significant.

The earliest signature that has been found in the cave is dated July 4, 1885, although newspaper accounts of the beauty of Lehman’s Cave appeared as early as April 1885.

To date, nearly 2,200 signatures, initials, and other messages have been discovered within the cave, and several locations still remain undocumented. Some names appear a number of times in the cave indicating multiple visits or just the impulse to write one’s name in every room explored. Information that may be gleaned from the many signatures include dates of visitation, cave exploration, numbers of visitors in the early years after discovery, visitation season, visitation groups (e.g., school field trip and friendship groupings), age, and place of residence at the time of the visit.

The names were written using four different methods. The most common was the graphite pencil, easy to carry and sharpen with a case knife as needed. The second was charcoal, used primarily in 1885. This method was also easy to carry and procure, just grab some out of your previous night’s campfire. The third method was soot from a candle or oil or carbide lamp depending on the era of visitation. The fourth medium used was the rarest: writing that weathers into a purple residue with the signature itself sometimes remaining readable or disintegrating completely leaving behind only a purple blob.

The cave signatures document the explorers who entered the cave. There are more than twenty differing stories that tell how the cave was detected and several dates between 1869 and 1885 cited as the moment of its discovery. Who it was that originally explored the cave also appears open to debate. The first to go beyond the entrance to seriously examine the interior, according to E. W. Clay, are as follows:

“(A) group of us men and a boy about 10 decided to go into the cave some A signature in Lehman Cave dating from 1885. This signature is by E. W. Meecham and G. R. (George Robison). distance and explore around. We were the very first people to go beyond the main entrance. There were seven of us. They were myself, Edwin W. Clay: Bob Kimball, a contractor, . . . Willard Burbank; Ab Lehman; Ed Lake, who was the boy about ten years old; Sam Forman, and I have forgotten who the seventh person was.”

The individual he could not remember was his wife, Laura Margaret “Margie” Clay. The persons in this first group took charcoal with them to mark arrows on the walls to show the way out. While this group did not leave their signatures initially, they did return at a later date to do so. Of the original seven who were in that early group, only the names of Bob Kimball and Sam Forman are not found within the parts of the cave that have been searched for names.

A concentration of signatures in the Talus Room of Lehman Cave.

NPS Photo

George Thomas Baker gives another account of the cave’s first exploration party. He states that the first to enter were himself, Lehman, Dan Simonson, E. W. Clay, William Atkinson, Isaac Gandy, D. A. Gonder, Philip M. (Doc) Baker, and Philip’s wife, Nettie. The earliest date found in Lehman Caves is July 4, 1885 and is associated with Dan Simonson, Doc Baker, and the initials B. M., whose identity has yet to be determined. In addition to these, more explorers were soon adding their names to the walls.

The next recorded date is two days later, July 6, 1885, left by an M. J. Fitzuel, George Robison, and E. W. Meecham.

When Absalom Lehman opened the cave for visitation in in the spring of 1885, he was still in the process of constructing ladders, ramps, and widening passageways with help of a Mr. Coburn, to provide easy access to the main parts of the cave.

It was during this time that reports began to appear in newspapers announcing the discovery of “Lehman’s Wonderful Cave.” While it may seem that the first description of Lehman Caves would have appeared in The Southern Utah Times because its name is written in large letters in the Talus Room in the back of the cave associated with early 1885 dates, the first surviving documented mention of the cave is in the White Pine Reflex as described in the White Pine News (both newspapers published in Taylor, Nevada at the time) on April 25, 1885. The White Pine News published a description of “Lehman’s Cave” in October 3, 1885.

While signatures are found throughout the cave, there are several areas of concentration. One such location is found through a side passage into the Crystal Palace, which would have been considered a turn around point by tours lead by Absalom Lehman and most others from 1885 to 1892. In this room Lehman constructed a platform several feet up one side of the passage in order to provide visitors access to a smooth portion of the cave wall upon which to write their names.

Another concentrated signature area is found in Nichol’s Annex off of the Sunken Gardens. Two other locations where numerous names are found together is the Skating Rink (Inscription Room) and the Talus Room. These may be obvious areas, but rarely does anyone notice the two dozen or so names as they are ascending the stairs located in the Music Room.

Editor’s Note: More on these cave signatures and the history of these early visitors to the cave will be found in the next issue of The Midden.