Jacob Spaulding and Spaulding’s Cavern in the Garden of the Gods

Jacob Spaulding was a trapper who, in the fall of 1848, discovered a hidden cavern located within the Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs. Named Spaulding’s Cavern, in his honor, the trapper’s discovery plays a crucial role in Girl in the Glass. In the novel, the cavern leads to an encouter with an Epistolith, and his journal documenting the event is important enough people will kill to get their hands on it.

Not much else is known about Jacob Spaulding, other than his description of the cavern’s discovery. The trapper entered the cavern through a narrow passage in the North Gateway Rock’s west face, the small, smooth hole, barely large enough for a man to squeeze through. Inside, Spaulding crawled upward for about twenty-five feet to reach the cave's main chamber. The large room, described as roughly 15 feet wide, 200 feet long, and 100 feet high, showed signs of animal visitation, the sandy floor covered in mountain lion prints. A small stream of cold water trickled from the ceiling, and the cave was completely dark, with no light penetrating the sandstone rock.

Spaulding's Cavern holds historical value, as early visitors left inscriptions, still visible today. The city sealed the cave in 1935 after a cave-in (the rocky aftermath visible in the picture), although people have occasionally snuck in or entered for preservation and documentation purposes.

Rare look inside Spaulding’s Cave

Wall carvings from 1866 and 1870