Going back to what the guide was "reported" to have said, the "quartz" comment is something I have heard from many guides at many caves. It's a prevalent guide "info-virus." I suspect it's a mis-hearing of the word "coarse" in describing crystals. I heard this same thing a number of years ago from a guide at Inner Space and was curious where they got their info. The guide, when asked, said the formations were made of quartz because the crystals were so big and they sparkled. I asked, "you mean 'coarse,' like big or rough?" And she said, "yes. The crystals are big or quartz." Our guides starting out will often make the same mistake. And I've also heard it at Sonora.
How does this stuff get started? The best I can guess is that guides go and visit other caves, hear what other guides say, and incorporate that into their own tours. This is why I call such things info-viruses. And once a guide gets "infected," they will often spread that mis-information to other guides at their cave. A good example of a prevalent info-virus was one that traveled around Texas guides about 20 years ago. It went something like this: "long ago" there was an electrical fire in [insert cave name here]. After [X] number of [days/weeks/months], the smoke was smelled in this cave we're in now [or insert another commercial cave name that's even further away]. This proves that all the caves in Texas are connected by tiny holes and passages which allowed the smoke to travel that distance. When I first started as a guide back in high school, I had heard this very story from the guide who was training me at the time. He said that he had heard it from a guide at Sonora. Not knowing any better, I used that same story on my tours. It always got a good response. A couple of years later, we did a trip to other commercial caves and we heard it at Wonder World and also at Inner Space. The Inner Space guide said he had heard it from a tour at NBC. The last time I heard this tale was around 1995, and it was at Longhorn. But I never heard it after that. So I suppose somewhat similar to an actual virus, it takes time to run through a population and eventually dies out - or the population dies off (in this case quits) and the virus dies out. Please don't go and tell a guide this story ... like polio, it's a good thing this one is gone! The "going blind after [x] number of [days/weeks/months] of total darkness" is another good example, and this is what I would consider as the longest lasting guide mistakes. I heard it when I started at NBC, used it until I found out otherwise, and I still hear it from time to time. It's a hard one to kill. Brian
