Visiting Luray Caverns

This morning, we went to Luray Caverns. It was so cool! There were lots of stalactites and stalagmites. Stalactites grow down from the roof, and stalagmites grow up from the floor. There were also lots of really cool rock formations.

In one place, there was a large organ! But instead of using pipes on the organ to play the notes, there were lots of wires attached to the organ, and all those wires were attached to stalactites and stalagmites. Whenever a note was played on the organ, the mechanism lightly tapped a certain stalactite or stalagmite, making it play the note! One of the employees turned on the organ, making it play a song. It sounded really cool!

The caverns had been discovered about 150 years ago, in 1878, by William Campbell, Andrew Campbell, and Benton Stebbins. Can you imagine what it must have felt like to discover a whole network of caverns? It must have felt pretty amazing!

After we were finished in the caverns, we went to see some of the small museums that had been set up around the cavern entrance. One of them was a car and automobile museum, which had a lot of old automobiles and cars. After this, we had lunch and went to see one more thing before we went home. It was a replica of an old town. You could go into each building, and a lot of old books and furniture had been set up so you could see how people lived many decades ago.

Welcome to Luray Caverns!

Remember, the ones on the top are stalactites, and the ones on the bottom are stalagmites. Here's a way to make it easier to remember this: Stalactites hold on tight to the roof, and stalagmites might connect with the ones on the roof.

What do you see in this picture? You might see a set of stalactites on the roof, and a set of stalagmites on the floor. Look harder, and you'll see that the "stalagmites" are actually a perfect reflection of the stalactites on the roof.

Looks a lot like a fancy stone column, doesn't it?

This is the organ I told you about, The Great Stalacpipe Organ. It was made about 50 years ago, and the person who invented it (Mr. Leland W. Sprinkle, a mathematician and electronics engineer from Springfield, Virginia) worked on it for three years!

Sometimes, it's played for entertainment, but not very often. Can you guess why? Look closely, and you'll see that this is no ordinary organ. It has four sets of keys! There aren't a whole lot of people who can play this instrument (which is actually the largest in the entire world!), which means live performances are rare.