![]() The large chamber of Moaning Caverns draws large numbers of guests every year to see the beauty of the cave. From there, a ten-story spiral staircase leads down to a second platform at the base of the chamber. The narrow wooden staircase ends at a flat platform 65 feet underground. The secondary entrance is a narrow crack in the earth which was enlarged to permit commercial entry into the cavern beginning in 1920. One, in the form of a 45-feet vertical chimney dropping into the center of the room, was discovered during the Gold Rush in the early 1850s. There are two natural entrances into the chamber. With a 20–30 foot thick ceiling, the open area inside the chamber is, in fact, tall enough to hold the Statue of Liberty (pedestal excluded). The massive room reaches over 180 feet before funneling into smaller passageways. Moaning Caverns is home to the largest single cave chamber open to the public in California. The cave has long been the resting spot for the bodies of prehistoric people who fell into its opening. For example, the Calaveras Skull, found in the same area was deemed to be a hoax. There was a lot of controversy about these and other remains in the caves. Orr also discovered the important Arlington Springs Man remains that are now considered authentic. Nevertheless, there are also many other human bones in these caves, some of them from the more recent periods. ![]() Orr, these human deposits were about 12,000 years old, for they were under 420 mm. Moaning Caverns is also an archaeological site. Including the off-trail areas, the cave reaches a depth of 410 feet (124 m). It is open to the public for walking tours and spelunking. The portion of the cave developed for tourists consists of a spacious vertical shaft 165 feet tall, which is descended by a combination of stairs and a unique 100-foot-high (30 m) spiral staircase built in the early 1900s. It gets its name from the moaning sound that echoed out of the cave luring people to the entrance, however expansion of the opening to allow access for the public disrupted the sounds. It was discovered in modern times by gold miners in 1851, but it has long been known as an interesting geological feature by prehistoric peoples. It is developed in marble of the Calaveras Formation. Moaning Caverns is a solutional cave located in the Calaveras County, California, near Vallecito, California in the heart of the state's Gold Country. Moaning Cave from the bottom of the shaft
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