Part 21

Ramsey's Cave, better known as Freeman's Cave, is in a bluff on the right bank of Big Piney River, 3 miles below Miller's Cave. It is about 150 feet above the level of the stream and the same below the summit of the hill behind it. Within a hundred yards to east and west are shallow ravines by which access is fairly easy to a ledge nearly on the same level as the cave; this is wide enough for one person to traverse, but in most places too narrow for two abreast. The talus in front is rough and steep but a crooked path with no difficult grades can be made to the water.

Chambers on each side near the entrance, which are accessible only by means of a ladder, provide excellent living quarters and command approach from any direction, even along the foot of the cliff on either side.

The entrance, which faces southwest, is a symmetrical arch 75 feet wide and 20 feet high.

Bedrock shows just in front, covered with loose material washed over the cliff. The floor ascends and the roof descends toward the rear, until at 70 feet they approach within 6 feet of each other; beyond this the cave is choked with fallen rocks and with earth and gravel probably from a sink hole some distance back on top of the hill.

Refuse shows about the entrance and for 40 feet toward the rear, where earth from the interior has worked down over it. The surface is strewn with rocks, large and small, so that excavations are possible only in small areas. Several holes were dug at intervals between the front and the rear; a considerable amount of ashes was found over the middle portion, thrown from still farther back. Very little was found in them. The rock bottom slopes upward slightly and was covered in some places with clay and gravel, on which lay the ashes and other refuse; these were nowhere more than 3 feet deep, and usually much thinner.

The place was so difficult to work in and the returns were so scanty that systematic investigation did not seem warranted, and the work was not extended. The only objects secured were a bone perforator, part of another one, a snail shell, apparently a bead, a very small piece of sandstone used as a grinder or polisher for bones, a fragment of worked mussel shell, and nine rough flints. There were also a few small fragments of pottery.

A man living near the cave reported that a few years ago he was digging in a narrow space between the east wall and a large fallen rock. He came upon the feet of two skeletons and took out the lower leg bones. Being assured by a friend that these were not bones of Indians because they were not "red," and so must be remains of white people, he replaced them and threw the earth back on them. He was certain the spot had never since been disturbed; but in this he was mistaken, for investigation revealed a pile of human bones lying in confusion, in which the frames of two individuals, as he had said, were mingled; but no trace of the skull or jaw of either. Evidently some one had come afterwards in search of the skulls. The femur of the larger individual was just 19 inches long; the other frame was much smaller; but all other bones were in such fragmentary condition they could not be measured.

There is a rock shelter a short distance down the river from the Ramsey Cave and in the same ledge. It is 45 feet long, 15 feet deep, and 8 feet high in front, the roof coming down to the floor at the rear. There is nothing to show that it was ever used, even as a camping place.

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A fourth of a mile above this cave is another from which flows a never-failing spring. There is a pile of ashes near the front, containing some refuse, but these mark only the site of an occasional camp, as the place could not be occupied in wet weather.

GRAHAM CAVE

On Graham's land, high up in a bluff facing Big Piney, opposite the mouth of Spring Creek, is a small cave difficult to reach and not suitable for occupancy.

PILLMAN'S OR SPRING CREEK, CAVE (25)

At the mouth of Spring Creek, on land of John Pillman, near the top of the bluff, is a cave with an entrance 30 feet wide and 30 feet high. A steep rock ledge at the front offers an impassable obstacle to any stock except goats. The front chamber is well lighted for a distance of 80 feet, where it makes a turn. Bedrock is exposed near the entrance and rises toward the rear, showing here and there through the covering of earth, which is not more than 2 feet deep anywhere. Water cracks appear even in the highest spots, proving the floor to be saturated at times. There is considerable refuse inside the cave, but none in front, and it is reported that human skeletons have been found in it. If so they must have been on a ledge or in a crevice. Plate 2, a, shows the hill, from the west; plate 2, b, the entrance to the cave.

Two large cairns stood on top of the bluff above the cave. So far as can be determined in their dilapidated condition, there seems to have been a row of stones inclosing a definite area, but it is impossible to ascertain with certainty whether this was the case.

On a lower ridge, to the north, are three similar but smaller cairns. These are constructed entirely of sandstone slabs, and there was plainly some sort of system used in placing them; but, as in the case of the first, it can not now be determined whether there was a continuous wall, and, if so, whether it was more than one stone high.

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A village site is reported in the river bottom on David Thomas's farm on the Big Piney, near Moab.

There were cairns, now totally destroyed, at two places on the ridge over which passes the road from Devil's Elbow to Spring Creek.

WOODLAND HOLLOW CAVE

A minor ravine, known as Woodland Hollow, opens into a small unnamed creek a mile above its junction with Big Piney River at the Devil's Elbow. In the west slope of this ravine is a large cave, named from its location. Through the middle part the floor is muddy; along the wall on the left, dry cave earth, with a width of 20 to 30 feet, extends for 70 feet from the entrance, its surface 4 feet above the level of the wet floor. A smaller amount of dry earth lies along the opposite wall. The sides of the cavern recede at the bottom, the dry earth passing under them. No estimate can be made as to the total depth of the deposits. At the mouth of a ground-hog burrow were two bone perforators, potsherds, fragments of bones, and pieces of worked flint, including two knives, which had been thrown out by the animal. Two mortar stones were found on the margin of the dry earth.

The cave belongs to Philip Becker, of St. Louis, who peremptorily refused to allow any examination whatever to be made; the only case in the whole region where cheerful permission was not given for any amount of excavation desired.

Three cairns, all demolished, stood on the Stuart property, half a mile from Woodland Cave.

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There is a cairn on top of Lost Hill, half a mile south of Blue, or Shanghai, Spring on Big Piney.

WALLED GRAVES AT DEVIL'S ELBOW (26)

Three miles above the point at which it passes out of the hills into the bottom lands on its way to the Gasconade, the Big Piney River doubles on itself with an abrupt curve, which raftsmen have named "The Devil's Elbow." For more than a mile above and below this bend the stream flows in opposite directions in nearly parallel east and west channels around the foot of a spur from the high land to the west.

Into the Elbow, on its outer curve, three ravines from the east and southeast open within a fourth of a mile. They form the boundaries of two very narrow ridges or "hog-backs," which terminate in precipitous slopes near the river. For some distance back from the points the limestone bedrock crops out, a slight accumulation of earth in the crevices supporting a scanty covering of weeds but being insufficient to permit the growth of trees or bushes; hence the term "balds" by which they are locally known. The ridges have a gradual and nearly uniform slope toward the summit of the hill, which lies half a mile to the eastward. The sandstone capping the hill appears within a few hundred feet and is covered with an abundant growth. On the upland are many large trees.