Breakfast Club
An Affiliate of the
The Knife & Fork
Breakfast Club Visits
Benson,
21 Oct 2006
by Warren McIlvoy
The October Breakfast Club event
featured a new fly-in destination,
I choose to fly a more scenic route to Benson via GRINE intersection
(about 5-miles north of
As we approach San Manuel, the tall stacks of the smelter at the south
end of town are clearly visible. In the brief time that it took us to fly from
the area northwest of
As we depart the San Manual area, we are soon hugging the eastern slopes
of the
After everyone had arrived, we broke-up into small groups to begin loading the five
vehicles that
The following is a snippet of history about Benson:
"When the
Southern Pacific Railroad (now Union Pacific) came through southern
The city's origins are embedded
in the railroad industry, and its history etched in times of the Spanish
conquistadors, Jesuit priests, trappers, the Mormon Battalion and prospectors
that is now Benson and its surrounding communities.
Located within the picturesque San Pedro Valley, portrait-type landscapes of
endless green pastures dotted by grazing cattle are commonplace in Benson and
its neighboring communities of St. David, Pomerene,
J-Six Ranchettes, Mescal and Cascabel,
together, the area comprises the northern portion of the San Pedro River
Valley.
In addition to the railroad, the Pony Express rode to and from Dragoon with
mail and the Butterfield Overland Stage carried mail and passengers from
While Benson continues to draw tourists, the city is taking steps to beautify
the historical downtown district. An authentic old-style railroad depot houses
the city's
About 11:15 we loaded-up the four remaining cars
for the drive to Kartchner Caverns State Park, about a 15-mile drive
south on State Route 90. Kartchner Caverns State Park, located near the north
end of the Whetstone Mountains, is a subterranean jewel box of
spectacular, 200,000-year-old towering formations of stalactites and
stalagmites, and is one of the only a handful of "living"
caves in the world. The 550-acre park complex also includes a Discovery
Center and is home to hundreds of Myotis Velfere bats, which roost here as part of their migration.
The follow are some excerpts by Ken Travous, Director,
"
When Randy Tuffs (who died in
2002) and Gary Tenen first ventured into the cave in
1974, there were no human footprints. Imagine. There were footprints on the
moon before there were footprints in Kartchner.
Basic chemical reactions have been the architect of this underground landscape.
Those reactions that first hollowed out the limestone base are still filling it
with stalactites, "soda straws," and calcite "shields,"
still staining the walls with mineral tapestries of reds, blue-greens, browns,
grays, and whites.
Because Kartchner's humidity is almost 100 percent and the
temperature is a steady 68* F just below the surface of the desert, we knew
we'd need to ensure that the cave didn't dry out when we opened it to the
public. Dry air would halt the essential chemical reactions still at work in
the cave.
Lighting the cave would be
particularly tricky. Microscopic spores would enter on people's clothing, and
the lights added along the paths could trigger their growth in the humid
conditions, with untold results. Keep the lights too low, however, and visitors
would stumble dangerously.
The list of issue seemed endless. How would we protect the small colony of bats
that roost n Kartchner during the summer? How large should a group tour be, and
how long should a tour take, without threatening the subterranean ecosystem?
Could we develop cave trails without stairs that would allow complete access
for the disabled visitor?
I recall a hunting trip with my grandfather when I was young. Alone for a
while, I found a large English walnut tree to sit under and, thinking youthful
thoughts, wondered if anyone had ever sat there before. Looking down, I say a
discarded tin can. I had wondered ever since if there were any place left on
Earth that man hadn't ruined with disrespect. Kartchner Caverns is such a place."
Randy Tufts and Gary Tenen, The Adventure Begins*
"Randy Tufts, a
Tucson native had an insatiable curiosity about caves and in 1966, started
making regular trips to the Whetstone Mountains looking, as he put it,
"for a cave no one had ever found." After about a dozen trips
into the range, Tufts had met with little success. Finally, out of
frustration he stopped at the Lone Star Mine and asked one of the miners
if he knew of any caves in the area. The miner said yes, there was a cave
nearby.
Tufts returned with two friends and his uncle. They hiked around the
limestone knolls and eventually found a sinkhole and an opening that led into a
small chamber. There was a narrow crack along one wall and they looked to see
if it might lead deeper in. They could determine nothing and, feeling the
boulders near the crack were unstable, decided to leave. The chamber must be
just another dusty dry hole that wasn't worth pursuing. However, Tufts
marked the hole on his topographic map.
Gary Tenen, a fellow student and co-worker at
a coffeehouse where the both worked, knew of Tufts interest in
caving, but he had never tried it. Because of his own interest in science-he
was an entomology student-he asked Tufts to take him on one of his
caving excursions. Their first trip was to a cave in the
Tufts told Tenen about his theory
regarding the sinkhole that he had explored in the Whetstones and the
two agreed to explore the next weekend. On a cool November afternoon, they went
back and entered the sinkhole. They squirmed into the chamber, and Tufts
said that, although everything looked much as he remembered it, something
seemed different. "This time the air was moving." Tufts
said. There was a breeze coming up from between the rocks, through a crack. Not
just any breeze. It was warm, moist, and smelled like bat guano. This was new
and compelling evidence." Following a year of more intensive exploration
of their discovery, Randy and Gary realized that they had
discovered something very special. It was only after that they had realized
that what they had found was on private property, that they approached the
Kartchner family to let them know about the treasure that was located on
their property. Over the next 14-years, Gary and Randy, along
with the Kartchner family, explored ways to protect and develop the
cave. In some cases, they had assumed aliases to help conceal the location of
the cave as they met with various groups and organizations around the country.
It seems that the people that are known for cave exploring,
are often associated with specific locations and in order to keep the location
of their find a secret, it required the assumption of the aliases. Their
efforts to fund the development of the cave using private funding did not prove
to be feasible and after consulting with the Kartchner family, they
decided that it might be more realistic to explore the possibility in
convincing the state government to purchase and develop the property.
After a clandestine meeting with then Governor Bruce Babbit that
captured his interest, the Governor wanted to see the cave for himself. After a
tour of the caverns by Babbit and his two young sons, who were sworn to
secrecy, Babbit was impressed and threw his support behind the
clandestine movement to get the cave into public ownership.
It took three more years, two more governors, two more state parks directors,
and some tense, behind the scenes political maneuvering before the state bought
the cave. Everyone involved was so consumed with the need for secrecy that
State Parks Director Ken Travous asked state
legislative leaders to write the bill authorizing the cave's purchase in
obscure language so that no one would know what was at stake.
Senate Bill 1188 was passed on April 27, 1988 authorizing the expenditure of
$1,625,000 to purchase the property and only then was the language changed to
clearly establish what is now Kartchner Caverns State Park. "
Of course, the $1.6 million to purchase the
property was just the tip of the ice burg. It took many more millions to
develop the property and cave into the jewel that it is today. I can recall
reading about the often contentious relationship between the legislature and
the State Parks Director regarding the cost overruns involving the park
development. I am truly confident that, after taking one of the cave tours,
that once you emerge from that jewel of a cave, that you would be indisputably
convinced that they did it right.
Following the cave tour, we
returned to the airport for our trip back to the valley. Most of the aircraft
took on fuel to help compensate Southwestern Aviation for the use of the
vehicles. And on that note, I wish to extend our deepest appreciation to Nancy
Martin for her efforts on our behalf. Without her assistance, this event
could not have taken place. You can visit the web site for Southwestern
Aviation at: www.swernaviation.com.
The Benson Gang
What's Next?
In November, the Breakfast Club will be returning to an old favorite, Borrego Springs
and the La Casa del Zorro Resort. This is one of the destinations where
the adventure of getting there along with the destination, is outstanding. Our
December destination is another old favorite of
*Excerpts taken from: '
You can learn a little bit more about Benson by visiting their web site
at: http://www.cityofbenson.com/index.asp?Type=B_LIST&SEC={F91BF408-2031-4406-9DB6-6E0DDEFC1536}
Click on the Benson link to view photos of this fly-in event.