Luray Caverns

Luray Caverns has a reflecting pool, appearing to double the number of formations
Luray Caverns has a reflecting pool, appearing to double the number of formations
Source: David Jones, Reflecting cavern lake

In Virginia, Luray Caverns is the commercial cave with the greatest number of speleothems - stalactites, stalagmites, and other formations.

It also has the largest musical instrument in the world, the "Great Stalacpipe Organ." Today, organists use a keyboard to trigger hammers to vibrate stalactites that resonate at different frequencies. Electronic mallets are wired throughout the caverns and connected to a keyboard. When the organist depresses a key, a rubber-tipped plunger strikes a stalactite that creates a tone. As the organist combines notes, visitors deep underground hear classics and other tunes such as "Shenandoah."

Leland Sprinkle, the inventor, conceived the idea after visiting the cave with his five-year old son in 1954. He saw a tour guide use a rubber mallet to tap cave formations and make sounds. He began his initiative by finding different stalactites throughout Luray Caverns that could serve as the equivalent of individual organ pipes:1

He began his monumental three-year project by searching the vast chambers of the caverns, with the aid of 13 English tuning forks, tapping potential formations. Stalactites were selected from over 3 1/2 acres of the caverns and painstakingly altered to precisely match the tone needed to become part of what would eventually become the world's largest musical instrument.

Caves and Springs in Virginia

Commercial Caves in Virginia

soon after discovery, people began tapping out tunes on a stalactite formation in Luray Caverns known as the Organ
soon after discovery, people began tapping out tunes on a stalactite formation in Luray Caverns known as the Organ
Source: Norfolk and Western Railroad, The Caverns of Luray (p.36)

Links

Rev. Horace Hovey mapped Luray Caverns and defined names of many formations
Rev. Horace Hovey mapped Luray Caverns and defined names of many formations
Source: Internet Archive, The Luray Cave (by S. J. Ammen, 1882)

early cave guides joked that a formation that appeared to be fish drying on a rack was made of rockfish
early cave guides joked that a formation that appeared to be fish drying on a rack was made of "rockfish"
Source: Norfolk and Western Railroad, The Caverns of Luray (p.22)

References

1. "The Great Stalacpipe Organ," Luray Cverns, https://luraycaverns.com/news/the-great-stalacpipe-organ/; "The world's largest musical instrument is in the mountains of Virginia," National Public Radio, November 5, 2023, https://www.npr.org/2023/11/05/1210734114/the-worlds-largest-musical-instrument-is-in-the-mountains-of-virginia (last checked November 5, 2023)

Luray Caverns has attracted tourists since its discovery in 1878
Luray Caverns has attracted tourists since its discovery in 1878
Source: Library of Congress, Virginia - grandest of American caverns - scene in the ballroom in the newly-discovered cave at Luray, Page County, December 27th, 1878

Virginia Geology
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