Jim White

“ Crawling through the rocks and brush, Jim White approached the spot from which the bats seemed literally to boil. The incredulous young range-rider made a feeble guess about the number of bats—could think no further than millions—but realized that any hole with capacity for that many bats must be a whale of a big affair. Creeping still closer, Jim finally lay on the brink of the chasm and looked down ... into awesome, impenetrable blackness. ”

“ During the last day, I was over in one corner of what we later called ‘The Big Room’, crawling along a ledge of rock. I sat down to rest and just looked around as I sat there. Over on the other side of the ledge, what do you suppose I saw? Staring right back at me was the skull of a man! Fast as I could I brought my torch about, and there was the whole skeleton intact. If I thought some giant could have been living in this cave along with the giant formations, right there seemed to be my proof! ”

“ Reality descended swiftly, as if millions of tons of black wool drifted down to smother and choke. With the black loneliness paralyzing his bloodstream, Jim White tried to refill his lantern from the small emergency canteen of oil, brought for just such a moment. ”

“ Jim finally deduced that the skeleton was all that remained of some Indian who wandered into the cave out of curiosity, even as Jim himself had done. Failing to find the way out, the Indian must have starved there on the ledge. Cowboy White was often heard to muse that this Indian must have been an unusually brave Red Man, for it is known that Indians feared darkness and the unknown above all else. ”

“ Suddenly I was seized with a mad desire to run—to charge like a crazy bull when he’s cornered. I scrambled along the edge of a black gash in the rock, and rammed my head against those sharp-pointed critters above me that all at once seemed unfriendly. ”

“ Now familiar to the man, the startling, dazzling formations frightened the Kid, but as White expressed it: “He was a game little cuss, and never whimpered once. I doubt if any man could have stood up under the strain any better than the Kid”.
9
For three days, the strangely-matched pair roved and explored the recesses of the cave, covering about the same territory now open to visitors who take the guided tours. For Jim White and the Kid, however, there was not the comfortable element of bright lights—certainty—and sure-footed guides along well-established paths. ”

“ Newspaper men and writers would always receive complimentary tours from Jim White, who realized that printed stories, in whatever publications, would have untold advertising value. The crowd read of the Caverns at Carlsbad—they heard of them from friends—and they gathered in increasing numbers to be lowered in the old guano-bucket. Jim White lifted nervous spinsters across narrow ledges, and pulled fat ladies up steep inclines. ”

“ Bats!... millions of black little mammals drifting along the horizon and seeming to fuse into the hazy clouds of a New Mexico sunset! That was the spectacle which led Jim White, back at the turn of the century, to become interested in the colossal phenomenon designated by Act of Congress as Carlsbad Caverns National Park. ”

“ Then there were the days when Jim would greet some poor old farmer with a wife and bunch of kids. The family would want to take the trip through the Cavern, now beginning to achieve local fame, but who obviously could not afford that two-dollars-each admission price. Since it would seem unfair to admit them without charge while making others pay, Jim White would simply declare that day as “A Free Day”.
Graceful, Sheer Draperies of Pure Crystalline Cave Rock
Jim White, the Guide, had the pleasure of taking the very poor and the very rich through the fairyland beneath the New Mexico desert. ”

“ 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! ”

“ Through the kindness, generosity and foresight of several Carlsbad citizens, Jim White’s stairway was built a few months later. More than a hundred 24 thousand people used it during the next seven years, until the National Park Service completed the trail that slopes gently down the side of the wall ... a means of entrance far better than the old stairway.
Dr. Vernon Bailey was sent to the caverns to do the biological survey on the bats. Seeing the strange mammals hanging aloft in sleep, Dr. Bailey observed that there couldn’t be more than a thousand in the whole cave. ”

“ 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. ”

“ In spite of the rickety and exciting descent in the old bucket, and the inadequacy of the trails, there was never an accident ... never so much as a broken arm or leg. There were some hairbreadth escapes, with Jim White’s firm hand grasping someone by the seat of the pants to prevent a sudden plunge into a pit.
News of the wonderful cave out on the desert southwest of Carlsbad finally reached Washington and the authorities decided to check up on it. In April, 1923, the General Land Office in Washington sent Mr. Robert Holley, a mineral examiner to make a survey. Jim keenly felt Mr. ”