WHITEHALL, Mont.-
Sixty-five years ago the Civilian Conservation Corps snaked electrical wire through Lewis and Clark Caverns to illuminate magnificent limestone formations and narrow footpaths in a Montana mountainside's pitch-black hole.
The lamps enabled visitors to view limestone columns, cathedral-like spires and formations named for the things they resemble: popcorn, bacon and soda straws. Today, the annual 55,000 visitors taking two-mile, guided cave tours still rely on those Depression-era lights.
Not for long, though.
Designers are at work on a new electrical system that accounts for most of an $800,000 improvement project at Lewis and Clark Caverns State Park. Officials expect rewiring to start this fall and continue into the spring.
The park in the London Hills 18 miles from the mining town of Whitehall is near the Jefferson River, which Meriwether Lewis and William Clark traveled with their Corps of Discovery in 1805.
Although there is no evidence the explorers ever actually saw the caves 1,400 feet above the river, they were named Lewis and Clark Caverns by President Theodore Roosevelt, who designated the place a national monument in 1908.
Details at or call 406-287-3541.
