Souvenir Room
Beyond the Ghost Room, the cave decreases in size. Towards the exit, there are some fairly small rooms, including the Souvenir Room, named for all its broken formations. There is a smaller space just beyond the Souvenir Room. They may be tighter quarters but these rooms display some large crystals, several faults, and the remains of a large animal.
Geology
Room Development
Two faults intersect at the Souvenir Room, establishing narrow crisscrossed sections. The first fault initiated room development. The second fault, which is nearly perpendicular to the first, offset the main passageway so it is no longer in a straight line. Both faults probably “gnashed their rocky teeth” and ground down the surrounding rock cracks filled with calcite now forms the best boxwork of the tour (Roth 44).
Cave Formations
Stalactites and other ceiling-clinging formations once adorned the Souvenir Room before it was put to use as a “giftshop” in the early 1900s. Stalagmites remain along with flowstone and several white formations, including the Double Column and Wedding Cake. Pendants can also be seen along the floor.
Despite the damage done to formations in this room, several unique formations are present. A small bit of flowstone hangs over the walkway to the right, with two bumps on its surface: stalagmites in the making. A flashlight reveals that the flowstone’s bumps are crystals of calcite, large enough to see with the naked eye. Farther along, a clean cross-section of the flowstone displays long needles of calcite topped by much smaller crystals. The size of the crystals suggests long, slow growth that was abruptly changed. Most likely, an entrance expanded and increased airflow, since deposition rates are sensitive to chemical changes (Dreybrodt 543, 546; Roth 44).
Bones
Past the Souvenir Room, a set of 3,000 year old black bear bones were uncovered in 1998 when the asphalt was being replaced with a cement walkway. Some of the bones’ were disturbed with the introduction of the trail in the 1930s, but others remain in their original positions. Other bones were found in the cave as well and they serve as good indicators of past cave environment and surface ecosystems (Roth 45; Andrews and Pinto Leona 561-562).
Dreybrodt, Wolfgang. “Speleothem Deposition.” Encyclopedia of Caves. David Culver and William White, ed. Burlington: Elsevier Academic Press, 2005. 543-549.
Andrews, Peter and Ana C. Pinto Leona. “Paleontology: Animal Remains in Caves.” Encyclopedia of Caves and Karst Science. John Gunn, ed. New York: Fitzroy Dearborn, 2004. 561-564.
Roth, John. “Interpretive Manual for the Monument’s Showcave”. Cave Junction: Oregon Caves National Monument, 2011. 44, 45.