From AMAZING STORIES March 1947, pp. 171-173
Sirs:
I have just returned from a trip to investigate
the Dorr brothers cave reported by Charles H.
Gesner in the last issue of Amazing Stories.
There is a cave. I was unable to enter the cave
myself, but I shall report my findings.
Harmer's story, through Gesner, is based on a
series of legends started by a man named Plummer. All Harmer's stuff, plus a lot more, has been
traced to Plummer. A local archaeologist (the rest of
the letter in this file is truncated)
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[NEW LETTER]
I read Gesner's letter, then studied a map of the
area. Mitchell's caverns were the only ones shown
in this general district. I and two companions
stopped at Mitchell's before continuing our search
for the Dorr cave. A good thing we did! Our
most authentic information came from Jack
Mitchell, the discoverer, owner, and operator of
Mitchell's Caverns. (More about these later.)
Mitchell has been in the Dorr caves, icnows the
history, and has pictures of the cave. According to
Mitchell, the cave is small, and all the stories
merely fables. It is located five miles northeast
of the desert town of Cima. Cima may be
reached from Highways 66, 91, or 95 along the
Nevada-California border.
The cave is located in a geological formation
common to that area. That part of the Mojave
desert is an ancient ocean bed, now a limestone
formation. In some places volcanic plugs have
been forced up through the limestone, breaking
the crust and forming mountains. Both the
Ivanpah, and the Providence ranges (where Mitch-
ell's caverns are) are of this formation. The volcanic
plugs are rhyolite, the limestone
on edge against it.
Limestone caves formed in such a formation are
limited in size. They can only extend from the
broken upper edge, to the permanent ground
water level, a distance rarely over 2,000 feet. The
thickness of the limestone determines the horizontal
extent, in Mitchell's caves, about a thousand
feet. Any geologist will confirm the fact that
huge caverns such as Gesner mentions are impossible
in such a formation. There is not sufficient
rock to support the arch necessary to form such
domes. Carlsbad, yes, Mojave, no!
Now to clean up a few loose ends of Gesner's
story. Harmer left the Daily News about six
months ago. I have been unable to locate him
since. We were also unable to find out anything
at all about the supposed blueprint by a U.S.
Geodetic agent.
Jack Mitchell discovered his caves in 1929, and
began to open them in 1934. At present only part
of them are open to the public. Some of the
deeper caves are not yet fully explored. Mitchell
himself is a living legend of the Mojave. His
story of the caves is alone worth the trip. For
the cave hunter, the rockhound, anthropologists,
the botanists, or the writer, these caves are well
worth a visit. If anyone is interested, the best road
to Mitchell's Caverns is by way of Essex, 30 miles
west of Needles, California, on Highway 66. Turn
north at Essex on a desert road for 22 miles. Signs
point the way and the road ends at Mitchell's
doorstep. There is no mystery here.
John G. Bullock,
Thank you, Mr. Bullock, for the CHMBS (Note. This is an abbreviation of: C-ave H-unters M-utual B-enefit S-ociety). — Ed.
1616 S. Barrington Ave.,
West Los Angeles 2S, Calif.