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toxic fumes had dispersed. The were found much
later. “These pests follow the
national pattern, the despair of all highway engineers and park maintenance men
as well as owners of private property. Stories
grow and become alluring as Dorr had said. In one
published account unconcerned with facts, the story had it that a syndicate
operates the cavern mine and Dorr just leans back and watches the gold roll in.
Earl would have liked that.
“Kokoweef
remains a continued story with chapters yet to be written, but not too soon.
Preliminary development work is naturally inconclusive. But if and when the
denouement of the drama comes by way of time and toil and vindicates Earl Dorr,
the suceeing chapters will fill a volume -– and several banks. --HOWARD D.
CLARK"
The following information, related to Kokoweef
caverns, appears on pages 155-157 of William R. Hallid'ay's book, 'DEPTHS OF
THE EARTH':
"...Our
organizational meeting late in 1948 had been as full of the Kokoweef story as
of the ‘Cave of the Winding’ Stair.
“A lengthy
cave 3,000 feet deep, a 500-foot stalactite, and a tidal river with rich placer
gold could hardly be ignored. Someone had even looked up the original affidavit
in which a wind-tanned prospector named E. P. Dorr swore to all these things
and much more.
“This was
in the Grandest
"’Let's go talk to Dr. Foster Hewitt,’ suggested a student at
nearby California Institute of Technology. ‘He's spent all his life out there.
I bet he knows about it?’
“Three of
us were given a prompt appointment with
