James Larkin White

Infobox Person
name = James Larkin White

---

image_size = 200px
caption = Jim White
birth_date = birth date|1882|7|11|mf=y
birth_place = Mason County, Texas
death_date = death date and age|1946|4|26|1882|7|11|mf=y
death_place = Carlsbad, New Mexico
occupation = Cave promoter/explorer

James Larkin White (July 11, 1882 – April 26, 1946), better known as Jim White, was a cowboy, guano miner, cave explorer, and park ranger for the National Park Service. He is best remembered as the discoverer, early promoter and explorer of what is known today as "Carlsbad Caverns" in Carlsbad Caverns National Park, New Mexico.

Birth

Jim White was born on July 11, 1882, on a ranch in Mason County, Texas.cite web |url=http://www.epcc.edu/ftp/Homes/monicaw/borderlands/23/Jim%20White.htm |title=Jim White Explored Carlsbad Caverns for Years |accessmonthday=July 24 |accessyear=2008 |author=Ruth Reyes, Kyndle Tooke, Audra Graziano and Casandra Jimenez |work=Borderlands |publisher=El Paso Community College] He started working in the cattle business at a very early age and preferred it to the school his father forced him to attend. He favored "bustin' broncos to books and blackboards". One day, when Jim had had enough of school, he begged his father to let him do something else. "I want to be a cowboy", he said. So, when he was 10 years old, his father agreed to take him to the southeastern corner of the New Mexico Territory. He left him at the ranch of John and Dan Lucas ("XXX Ranch"). His father bought land at Lonetree, just west of the developing town of Eddy (Carlsbad today), and moved the rest of the family there three years later. Jim occasionally stayed at his family's small horse farm, but mostly lived and worked at the Lucas ranch.

Discovery

An inscription reading "J White 1898"cite web |url=http://www.nps.gov/cave/planyourvisit/upload/CHU_20040225.pdf |title=Cave History Update; CHU #9–February 25, 2004 |accessmonthday=September 26 |accessyear=2008 |author=Neal R. Bullington |work=Cave History Update |format=PDF |publisher=National Park Service] was discovered deep within Carlsbad Caverns in the 1980s. It provides witness to the presence of a 16 year old Jim White.

While riding his horse through the Chihuahuan Desert looking for stray cattle for the Lucas brothers, Jim saw a plume of bats rising from the desert hills. It appeared to be a volcano, or a whirlwind but did not behave quite like either.cite book |title=Jim White's Own Story, the Discovery and History of Carlsbad Caverns |last=White |first=Jim |year=1932 |publisher=Jim White and Charley Lee White |editor=Frank Ernest Nicholson] He tied his horse to a nearby tree and worked his way through the brush to the edge of a large opening in the ground. Jim described the moment by saying, "I found myself gazing into the biggest and blackest hole I had ever seen, out of which the bats seemed literally to boil".

Exploration

A few days later, he returned to the cave with some rope, fence wire and a hatchet. He cut wood from some nearby shrubs and assembled a makeshift ladder. He lowered the ladder into the opening and using a homemade kerosene lantern, descended approximately convert|50|ft to the first serviceable ledge. He climbed down an additional convert|20|ft to a floor. Using the "sickly glow" of his lantern, he made his way into the cave. He felt as if he "... was wandering into the very core of the Guadalupe Mountains."

After reaching a chamber, he noted two tunnels leading off in opposite directions, one downward and to the right and one, more level, to the left. He decided to go left first and discovered the Bat Cave. He explored it for a while then proceeded down the other tunnel.

By the time he reached the first formations, he had "... crept cat-like across a dozen dangerous ledges and past many tremendous openings ...". He saw more stalagmites, "... each seemingly larger and more beautifully formed than the ones I'd passed". He encountered chandeliers, stalactites, soda straws, flowstone, pools of water, rimstone dams and other formations. He dropped rocks into pits to determine their depth. He rolled one boulder into a pit and it fell for a couple of seconds and then "... kept rolling and rolling until its sound became an echo".

Then the light from his homemade kerosene lantern went out. The darkness seemed to smother him. Jim described the incident by saying, "It seemed as though a million tons of black wool descended upon me."

Jim White's Own Story

The original record of the early events surrounding Jim White and Carlsbad Caverns comes from a booklet, self-published in 1932, titled "Jim White's Own Story". The booklet was ghost written by Frank Ernest Nicholson in exchange for payment of a boarding bill.cite book |last=Nymeyer |first=Robert |date=1991 |title=Carlsbad Cavern The Early Years; A Photographic History of the Cave and Its People |editor=Rose Houk |publisher=Carlsbad Caverns, Guadalupe Mountains Association |coauthors=William R. Halliday, M.D. |isbn=0-916907-0-1] Nicholson was a journalist and led the ill-fated "Nicholson Expedition" to Carlsbad Caverns in 1929 sponsored by The New York Times.

Death

Jim White died on April 26, 1946 in a hospital in Carlsbad, New Mexico at the age of 63. He suffered from Bright's disease and died of coronary thrombosis. He told a reporter for the "Carlsbad Current-Argus", two days before his death, that he felt well but was not ready to ride a horse to California, again. He is buried alongside his wife, Fannie, at Carlsbad Municipal Cemetery in Carlsbad. The epitaph on his tombstone reads "The Discoverer of Carlsbad Caverns".cite book |title=Buried Treasures: Famous and Unusual Gravesites in New Mexico History |last=Melzer |first=Richard, Ph.D. |year=2007 |publisher=Sunstone Press |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=UxiTZmoAAKgC&pg=PA145&sig=ACfU3U1pKZH7M3yotvr6o8df0bv8ir3SiA#PPA145,M1 |isbn=0-8653-4531-7 |pages=p. 145 |chapter=No. 129]

Chronology

*1882 (July 11): Jim White is born in Mason County, Texas.
*1888: development of the town of Eddy (Carlsbad today) begins.
*1892: Jim White moves to New Mexico Territory just a few miles from Eddy.cite web |url=http://www.nps.gov/cave/historyculture/upload/history_site_bulletin.pdf |title=Carlsbad Caverns, Caverns' Chronology |format=PDF |accessmonthday=July 23 |accessyear=2008 |work=National Park Service]
*1893: the town of Eddy is incorporated.cite web |url=http://www.communitylink.com/us/nm/carlsbad/profile/history.htm |title=Carlsbad New Mexico, History |accessmonthday=July 24 |accessyear=2008]
*1895: Jim White's family moves to join him in New Mexico.cite book |title=One Man's Dream, the story of Jim White Discoverer and Explorer of the Carlsbad Caverns |last=Caiar |first=Ruth |year=1957 |publisher=Pageant Press, Inc. |coauthors=Jim White Jr.] "Cavern's Chronology" says that Jim White moved with his family to the New Mexico Territory in 1892. "One Man's Dream" says that his father took him to the territory and left him in 1892 and the family came to join him three years later.]
*1898: Jim White first enters the cave."Jim White's Own Story" and "One Man's Dream" say the date of first entry into the cave was 1901; but, Jim admits that he is not certain. "Caverns Chronology" puts the date at 1898 based on an inscription found in the cave in the 1980s which reads "1898 J. White".]
*1899: the citizens of Eddy vote to rename the town to "Carlsbad".
*1912 (January 6): New Mexico becomes a state.
*1915 – 1918: Ray V. Davis takes the first photographs from inside the caverns.
*1918: New Mexico Governor W. E. Lindsay incorporated the town of Carlsbad.
*1923: Ray V. Davis caverns photographs are first published in the New York Times.
*1923 (April 6 – May 8): Jim White guides Robert Holley of the General Land Office and Ray V. Davis (photographer) to survey and map the caverns. Holley recommends the establishment of a National Monument.
*1923 (October 25): Carlsbad Cave National Monument is established.
*1923 – 1927: W. F. McIlvain supervises Jim White and Willis T. Lee in the construction of the first trails, stairs and the installation of the first lights.
*1924 (March 20 – September 15): the National Geographic Society sponsors Willis T. Lee, guided by Jim White, to explore the caverns.
*1925: entrance staircase is installed replacing the guano bucket as the means to enter the cave.
*1926 (May 1): Jim White becomes "Chief Ranger" of Carlsbad Cave National Monument.
*1928 (September): Amelia Earhart visits the caverns.
*1929 (May 5): Jim White resigns as Chief Ranger.
*1930 (May 14): Congress establishes Carlsbad Caverns National Park.
*1937 (February 9): Jim White begins selling "Jim White's Own Story" in the cave.
*1946 (April 26): Jim White dies in Carlsbad.

Notes

References

Further reading

*cite book |last=White |first=Jim |date=1932 |title=Jim White's Own Story; the Discovery and History of Carlsbad Caverns |editor=Frank Ernest Nicholson |publisher=Jim White and Charley Lee White
*cite book |last=Caiar |first=Ruth |date=1957 |title=One Man's Dream, the story of Jim White Discoverer and Explorer of the Carlsbad Caverns |publisher=Pageant Press, Inc.
*cite book |last=Nymeyer |first=Robert |date=1991 |title=Carlsbad Cavern The Early Years; A Photographic History of the Cave and Its People |editor=Rose Houk |publisher=Carlsbad Caverns, Guadalupe Mountains Association |coauthors=William R. Halliday, M.D. |isbn=0-916907-0-1

External links

*PDFLink| [http://www.nps.gov/cave/planyourvisit/upload/CHU_20050427.pdf "Cave History Update", April 27, 2005] , reprint of an interview with Jim White Jr. conducted by park historian Bob Hoff; originally printed in "History Leads & Resources" (September 2, 1994).
*PDFLink| [http://www.nps.gov/cave/planyourvisit/upload/CHU_20040225.pdf "Cave History Update", February 25, 2004] , an essay by park naturalist Neal R. Bullington from May 1968 which attempts to discern who actually discovered Carlsbad Caverns.
* [http://epcc.edu/ftp/Homes/monicaw/borderlands/23/Jim%20White.htm "Borderlands", Jim White Explored Carlsbad Caverns for Years] , an article from El Paso Community College.
* [http://carlsbadcavernshistory.blogspot.com Retired Park Historian's CAVE/NPS History] , retired park historian Bob Hoff writes about Carlsbad Caverns history.