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The Sinkhole collapsed thousands of years
ago and is now geologically stable although there was a rockfall last
winter. The cavern is larger than a
football field, about 450 by 250 feet, but the opening at the top is only
50-60 feet across. From the edge of
the opening to the depth of the cavern is about 361 feet. The material from the collapsed dome formed
a mound over 200 feet high in the center of the cavern. There are two small bodies of pristine
water at the base of the mountain. The traditional story of discovery is that
Ammon Billings came across the awesome hole in 1876. He rushed home gasping, “Coney, I just came
from the outlet to Hell, the Devil’s own sinkhole.” Coney Billings lived until 1954 and related
this along with other stories of the Devil’s own sinkhole. There is also a story of a cowboy, Watt
Greenwell, who was lowered into the sinkhole in1880 to get water for his
crew. In 2008
technology caught up with the Sinkhole. Enthusiasts and Cavers came over a
period of several years to measure the cavern and then a
crew from Dallas used
proprietary techniques to photograph it and overlay the photographs to the LiDAR measurements. These combined efforts
will produce a 3-D version
of the Sinkhole with an in-place
exhibit at the Rocksprings Tourist Center set to debut
in late 2011. |
