The Rocky Mountain Chamber: what a collapse left behind

This chamber is a remnant of what would have been the largest chamber in the cave. When it collapsed, it left behind the Lake Room and the piles of fallen rock that give the chamber its "mountains."

Just before it you pass the Washington Monument, a formation in an area of its own. We believe it is the formation that was copied, section by section, for the Smithsonian Institution in the 1920s or 1930s and then put on display. Many of the cave's named formations are here in the chamber, among them the Rock of Ages, the Castle and Little Pigs Lunch Counter. The green you see on the rock is mostly lichen, moss or algae, depending on the moisture and light.

What to know

• The chamber is a remnant of what would have been the cave's largest chamber. Its collapse left the Lake Room and the Rocky Mountains behind.
• Formations named by Alfred Mann and his daughters include the Rock of Ages, the Castle and Little Pigs Lunch Counter.
• The green color is mostly lichen, moss or algae, depending on moisture and light.
• We believe the Washington Monument, just before this chamber, is the formation copied in sections for the Smithsonian Institution in the 1920s or 1930s.
• The chamber ends in a narrow crawlway toward the Lake Room.

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Position from the 1970 to 1971 survey, approximate.