STORY AND PHOTOS BY BOB JONES
Interior view of the ‘Big Room’ within Kartchner Caverns.
MIKE LEWIS WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
It was a balmy day just forty-five years ago this November, when two doughty spelunkers investigated a limestone sinkhole in the foothills of Arizona’s Whetstone Mountains. As mountains go, the Whetstones are not spectacular. They host limestone formations overlain with later rock formations that form Apache Peak and other high vistas. Located about fifty miles southeast of Tucson the foothills are part of a ranch owned by the Kartchner family. Little did they know that two dedicated spelunkers would change their ranch and family life.