Ernie Pyle wrote of visiting Carlsbad Caverns in 1938. That was just fifteen years after tourists started visiting the caves. Jim White, the cowboy who first explored the caves was still around then. White first entered the caves as a sixteen year old in 1898. It wasn't until 1922 that White convinced someone else to take a look at the underground marvels he had been discovering for two dozen years. The government moved in but they didn't just shove the cowboy aside. When Pyle visited, Jim White had a stand inside the cave where he sold a booklet for 75° which, according to Pyle, he dealt "out so fast he resembles a chef in a Los Angeles hamburger stand". I had hoped that the book was still available and it is -- at $6.95. It includes some truly interesting pictures including one of Jim with the big bucket that lowered the first tourists into the caverns. At least one ladder that Jim built can still be seen in the caverns. The book also contains a picture of Thomas Boles. Boles was the park superintendent for many years and the fellow who spoke to Pyle and others at the Rock of Ages formation. The total darkness they experienced there was once a standard part of a visit but is no longer practical. Another sign that things are different is that fact that, in 1938, Boyles "asks that cigarettes be doused" in order to achieve complete darkness. With the lights out, Pyle says "Your soul creeps and you sit there in mental obeisance." The silence is eventually broken by four rangers singing the hymn Rock of Ages and the lights are slowly turned back on.