Skyline Caverns

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Skyline Caverns logo

Skyline Caverns, are a series of geologic caves and a tourist attraction located located in Front Royal, Virginia. The caverns were discovered in 1937 by a geologist from Winchester, Virginia named Dr. Walter S. Amos.

Skyline Caverns are now a tourist attraction open year round, and bills itself as the closest natural wonder to the United States national capital Washington, DC.

[edit] History

Amos was contracted by several private and government agencies to search for caves and caverns to open in conjunction with Skyline Drive. During his search, he came across the current parking lot of the caverns, which he noticed was in the shape of a sinkhole. Normally, sinkholes are created by the collapsing of a cavern roof, which takes the ground above with it.

Knowing this, Amos began to search the edges for some opening to the possible cave system below. He found this opening on the lip of the sinkhole by noticing a colony of camel crickets (which only live in damp, dark areas by nature) under a small ledge. Upon digging out the first "room" of the caverns, he came into a large system of connected rooms, most of which were navigable and cleared from all obstructions.

However, the cavern floor was lined with approximately 13 inches of mud and clay, which had to be cleared before the caverns could be opened to the public. During the clearing of this mud, Dr. Amos and his men discovered another area in the caverns that had been blocked for thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands of years. Upon clearing newly discovered areas, the geologist discovered anthodites. Anthodites are a very rare form of crystal that were discovered in Skyline Caverns, and have not been found in many other places since. These crystals are protected by Virginia State Law, and are kept behind closed doors that a tour guide must open for the public to view them.