Many individuals and groups have been involved in the exploration of Wind Cave, one of the world's longest caves. The cave is still being explored with no end in sight. Indigenous tribes have lived in the Black Hills since time immemorial. These early inhabitants were the first to find what is known today as Wind Cave. It is believed that the natural entrance to Wind Cave is that breathing hole.
The natural entrance is said to be an entrance to the spirit world. It's also said that the first people and bison emerged from the spirit world deep within the cave through the natural entrance. In , while riding their horses up a draw, Tom and Jesse Bingham heard the sound of blowing wind on a calm day. Following the sound, they came upon a hole in the ground. When Jesse looked into the hole the wind blew his hat right off. The story of a hole that will blow the hat off quickly spread and other people ventured out to the area to see this blowing hole.
The first written record of a trip into Wind Cave was by Frank Herbert, a Black Hills pioneer who visited the cave in I was supposed to lead, Herbert said. We had to jump down a hole that I could just about squeeze through, six or seven feet. I started down with my lantern. Had to crawl on hands and knees facing a terrible wind for about fifty feet, and then the main hole seemed to be going down at right angles and very steep, but it gave a good foothold.
After exploring for a time, Herbert and Sprague began the long climb back toward the entrance: We started on back, found the string and followed it. Those on top helped to pull us up. They went down as far as where the main part turned down, but got scared and went back. It was led by Robert F. Although the trip was intended to be of a preliminary nature and lasted only 10 days, more surveying and scientific research was conducted during these 10 days then all other previous times.
Approximately 3 miles of cave were mapped. Peck with his science project at the National Science Fair in Peck today is a professor of biology at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. In they made a breakaway from the known portion of the cave. Herb and Jan kept a diary of their explorations of Wind Cave. A crawlway near Rome led them westward into Omnibus Hall. This eventually led them to Calcite Lake, the first lake discovered in the cave. From until their return to intensive survey in Jewel Cave in , they surveyed 15, feet of virgin cave and set the stage for even larger discoveries to be made several years later.
