Crawford State Park Heritage Site – state parks quest #68

Five things

#1. Crawford State Park is home to one of the longest limestone caves in Washington. A 1911 federal survey mapped the Gardner cave as 2,072 feet long. Newspaper articles at the time called it the Pend Oreille Cave, and it was accessed via the Boundary Trail, the cleared strip of land that signifies the border between the US and Canada. The trail is only about a quarter-mile from the cave, and after the ranger told us about the primitive Canada Trail that reached it, there was no way I was not going to investigate. A short walk through the forest brought us to the border clearing, which stretched as far as I could see in both directions. To the west the land rose to a ridge and the V of the border was clearly visible.

#2. The cave is named for Edward E. Gardner, a homesteader and reputed bootlegger who claimed to have “discovered” the cave around 1900. His homestead did not include the cave; rather, he was hunting with a friend when they saw a “steamlike vapor arising in the timber a short distance from them.” Investigating further, they found the opening. Depending on the version you prefer, though, another story has Gardner finding the cave while checking on his moonshine stills. Either way, it seems probable that Gardner lost the cave in a poker game with Crawford in 1920, although it’s not immediately apparent that the men would have had much in common beyond a fondness for poker and a desire to benefit from the area’s natural resources. Both Gardner and Crawford came to the area attracted by mining for gold, silver, zinc, and lead.

#3. The cave tour, for which advance reservations are required, penetrates about three-quarters of the way into the cave, which is 500 million years old, 295 feet deep and features stalactites, stalagmites, and rimstone pools as well as all sorts of fanciful shapes and formations. Some refer to it a “Little Mammoth Cave,” a nod to its much larger cousin preserved in a national park in Kentucky.

#4. Ranger Erica told us to watch for little brown bats, which roost in the cave, and the Bushy Tailed Wood Rat, a type of pack rat that had constructed a nest near the cave entrance. In the park’s early years, she said, visitors explored on their own using lanterns and candles. In the 1950s State Parks built a rock wall around the cave entrance, and in the 1970s upgraded the lighting and started offering guided tours. Much of the tour is on metal walkways and stairs, and after we reached the end and did the obligatory “lights out” moment to experience utter darkness, Ranger Erica told us the cave extends another 500 feet beyond where we stood. As if to emphasize the point, we heard voices and watched as two researchers from Oregon State University emerged from the depths below us. They’d come from an area called “The Narrows,” which is navigable lying down on your back and on hands and knees, using ropes.

#5. Crawford is one of the earliest state parks, which may seem odd because it’s so far away from big settlements—Spokane is more than two hours by car. It was a gift from William H. Crawford, a justice of the peace and businessman who operated a general store in Metaline. He acquired the property, including the cave, in 1920, and the next year, after logging the land, gave 40 acres to State Parks. Thus it was a way to offload “useless” property on which he would have otherwise had to pay taxes. Either way, it was the first significant geological site included in the nascent state parks system. Indeed, the impulse to preserve geological curiosities has roots in the creation of Yellowstone, Carlsbad Caverns, Oregon Caves, and other cave parks, so maybe it’s not so odd after all.

Fast Facts about Crawford State Park Heritage Site

• 40-acre day-use park, open mid-May to mid-September 
• picnic tables, picnic shelter, grills, restrooms
• cave tour (reservations required, check the park website), hiking, birding, wildlife viewing
• Discover Pass required, $10 daily or, for a very reasonable $30, purchase an annual pass
• park brochure

---

Land Acknowledgment

Crawford State Park Heritage Site occupies the traditional [and unceded] lands of the Ktunaxa,  Sinixt, Upper Columbia United Tribes, and Syilx Okanogan peoples, who have lived and travelled here since time immemorial. 

---