Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

The Paradise Lost formation is one of the most magnificent inside the Oregon Caves.

It's a bit unnerving as you enter the pitch-black darkness, squeezing through one of many narrow corridors inside the ancient marble cave. Sound never echoes, rather wanders off to die, as strange shapes – bulbous and beautiful – loom just beyond behind the curtain of darkness.



Is it simple curiosity that drives us to explore these dark caverns? Or is there something in the stalactites and marble columns that draws us deeper, like the countless bats who roost there every winter?



The Oregon Caves National Monument and Preserve, nicknamed "the marble halls of Oregon," is a beautiful, ancient cavern found in the Siskiyou Mountains of southwest Oregon. In a state with no shortage of natural beauty, it remains an entirely unique attraction.

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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

A guided tour at the Oregon Caves National Monument and Preserve leads through an ancient marble cave.

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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

Modern metal stairs lead up through the many sections of the cave.

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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

Calcite formations grow on the walls inside the cave.

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Despite the plural name, the Oregon Caves is in fact a single cave (it was once thought to be many) that stretches roughly 15,000 feet underground. It's open to exploration on one of several kinds of tours, from family-friendly to adventurous, led by park rangers between late March and early November.



Lights along the walls illuminate parts of the passageways, where low-pitched ceilings sometimes require walking in an awkward crouch. Carved stone steps and modern ladders lead up the 300 feet of elevation gain to places with fanciful names like "Belly of the Whale," "Paradise Lost" and "Ghost Room."



The lights also illuminate a few of the many spectacular marble formations, created drip by drip over millions of years.

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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

Visitors on a tour stop to admire the cave ceiling.

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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

One of many formations inside the Oregon Caves, this one found inside the Ghost Room.

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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

Formations inside the Oregon Caves grow slowly, at a rate of about one inch every 1,000 years.

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Around 250 million years ago, the Oregon Caves began as bacterial reefs surrounding an offshore volcano in the Pacific Ocean, eventually forming into limestone. As the tectonic plates below the ocean collided, the formation was forced underground, where heat and pressure metamorphosed the limestone into marble.



Uplift then created the Siskiyou Mountains, raising the cave to 4,000 feet above sea level. As a forest grew above, water dripped into the cavern, over time carving cracks into wide tunnels. A small stream called the River Styx still flows through the Oregon Caves today.



The cave was likely discovered by native tribes, but first became known to white settlers in 1874, when Elijah Davidson followed his dog to the entrance and wandered inside. Private tours started almost immediately, running sporadically until 1909 when President Taft established the Oregon Caves National Monument.



Since then, millions of people have made the long, winding drive from the nearby town of Cave Junction to visit the natural attraction. In 2018, however, the monument saw fewer visitors than any other year on record – likely impacted by wildfires that have burned across southern Oregon and the temporary closure of the Oregon Caves Chateau, a historic lodge located beside the visitor center.

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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

A tour guide shines a flashlight through a block of translucent calcite near the end of the cave tour.

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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

Stalactites take about 1,000 years to grow an inch, but early visitors made a habit of breaking them off for souvenirs.

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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

While limestone caves are common, caves made of marble are more rare.

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While not nearly as popular as nearby Crater Lake, the Oregon Caves are truly one of Oregon's most remarkable natural attractions. We have plenty of caves carved out by lava tubes, scattered around the high desert east of the Cascade Mountains, but none match the grandeur or the mystery of these ancient marble caverns.



It might be timelessness that makes the cave appealing. It takes a stalactite in the Oregon Caves 1,000 years to grow an inch, and to see some hanging even six inches from the ceiling is a humbling sight. We instinctively seek out places that put our human lives in perspective, and while mountains and oceans make us feel small, a cave reminds us of the fleeting nature of life.



All our lives will eventually end but the Oregon Caves will go on, growing and dissolving, drip by drip into eternity.



SEE MORE PHOTOS BELOW

--Jamie Hale | jhale@oregonian.com | @HaleJamesB

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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

The Paradise Lost formation is one of the most magnificent inside the Oregon Caves.

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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

Early visitors wrote their names on the cave walls using pencil, their marks made permanent by a thin layer of slow-forming calcite.

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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

A tour guide shows an old photograph of a caveman-themed wedding that took place inside the marble caves sometime around the 1930s.

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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

Lights illuminate passageways and some of the formations inside the Oregon Caves.

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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

The Ghost Room is one of the largest inside the Oregon Caves, located near the end of the tour.

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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

One of many formations inside the Oregon Caves, this one found inside the Ghost Room.

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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

A guided tour at the Oregon Caves National Monument and Preserve leads through an ancient marble cave system, found beneath the Siskiyou Mountains in southwest Oregon.

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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

A lit passageway is seen through the pitch-black darkness inside the cave.

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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

Stalactites take about 1,000 years to grow an inch, but early visitors made a habit of breaking them off for souvenirs.

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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

A visitor takes a picture of an illuminated formation on the cave tour.

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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

Lights illuminate passageways and some of the formations inside the Oregon Caves.

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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

A kind of formation the tour guides call "cave bacon" is found in the Ghost Room of the cave.

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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

Lights illuminate passageways and some of the formations inside the Oregon Caves.