Since we are well into National Surveyors Week, observed from March 17-23, I thought it might be interesting to look at the exploits of a few of our county’s oldest historical surveyors. Capt. Benjamin Louis Eulalie de Bonneville, of Fort Bonneville fame, is usually not thought of as a surveyor. Bonneville was in the area in the early 1830s, ostensibly to do some hunting and trapping, but there is evidence that the War Department (U.S. Army) had actually sent Bonneville to the Rocky Mountains to document the native situation and to do some mapping. It is that mapping that we are interested in, particularly his journal entries regarding an area in the Wind River Mountains.
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Since we are well into National Surveyors Week, observed from March 17-23, I thought it might be interesting to look at the exploits of a few of our county’s oldest historical surveyors.
Capt. Benjamin Louis Eulalie de Bonneville, of Fort Bonneville fame, is usually not thought of as a surveyor. Bonneville was in the area in the early 1830s, ostensibly to do some hunting and trapping, but there is evidence that the War Department (U.S. Army) had actually sent Bonneville to the Rocky Mountains to document the native situation and to do some mapping. It is that mapping that we are interested in, particularly his journal entries regarding an area in the Wind River Mountains.
While mapping the westerly slope of the Wind River range, he claims to have come across a cave that he describes in fantastical terms. I don't have a copy of his journal or the report he submitted to the War Department, but another surveyor of the 1890s claimed to have a copy.
William O. “Billy” Owen was a General Land Office (GLO – predecessor to the BLM) surveyor who surveyed a few of our townships. He and another GLO surveyor, Franklin O. Sawin, were working in the area and decided to see if they could find this cave which was reported to be located at 42°46'N, 109°20'W. (To see where the cave is supposed to be located, plug these coordinates into Google Earth or the County’s GIS mapserver.)
Owen claims they did find it and wrote an article about it that appeared in the Nov. 2, 1890 Laramie Republican. Quoting from Owen’s article, “A copy of that report is before me as I write... Following the account of a scramble among the Wind River peaks I find the following: “‘Descending this rugged slope it was our good fortune to make the discovery of a subterranean cave which, for extent and great natural curiosities is, in my opinion, unsurpassed by anything of the kind now known to the world... These are the most gigantic stalactites I have ever seen, four of them, as we found by actual measure, exceeding 25 feet in length.’”
It is stated that Bonneville didn’t have enough time to explore the cave more thoroughly. And that’s where Owen takes up the challenge, entering the cave with Sawin and documenting what they saw.
He goes on to describe finding a small circular lake, a ten-ton block of stone 20 feet long perfectly balanced upon a stone spire, a forest of stalagmites and stalactites 25 feet long, a huge revolving ball in a circular receptacle filled with water, giant mushrooms 5-8 feet high, and other fantastical things. By now, they are over 3,000 feet into the cave and need to head back. But they’ve taken many twists and turns! How will they find their way out? Luckily, Owen kept a careful log on their way in. On their way out, near the entrance they see some letters carved into the rock that they had missed upon entering. The letters were: “B.L.E. BONNEVILLE, 1832.”
It should be noted that numerous people have spent years searching for this cave and have found nothing. There are no limestone outcrops in the area which are usually necessary for caves. However, if anyone is interested in reading Owen's full story, download a publication by the Wyoming State Geological Survey titled “Caves of Wyoming – Bulletin 59,” published in 1976. Go to page 201 and you’ll see Owen’s full account. The whole publication is pretty interesting in and of itself as it lists many of the known caves in Wyoming as of 1976.
William Owen was a civil engineer, land surveyor, state auditor, and author. It would appear he had a fondness for fiction. Although having said that, there is an unpublished manuscript titled “Reminiscences of William O. Owen, 1930” that he wrote that is a little more staid compared to his account of Bonneville's cave.
Capt. B.L.E. Bonneville is better known, in part because of Washington Irving’s publication of “The Adventures of Captain Bonneville,” in 1837. The book can be obtained on Amazon, or you can find a transcribed copy via Project Gutenberg on the Internet.
Skylar Wilson is a semi-retired land surveyor in Sublette County, member of the Wyoming Board of licensing for land surveyors and engineers and the Sublette County Surveyor.
