Who was the first person to make a radio broadcast from underground? I'm Colton from Ripley's.com and this is your Weird Minute. Robert Ripley was a pioneer of an on-location radio show, broadcasting from snake pits, underwater, and even underground.
Ripley and his crew descended 850 feet into Carlsbad Caverns, interviewing the National Park Superintendent Thomas Bowles and the man who's discovered the caverns, Jim White. White was a cowboy in 1898 when he spotted a plume of black shooting out of the horizon. He traced the cloud thinking it might be a fire or volcano, but when he arrived he realized it was actually a fog of bats roiling out of the deepest, blackest hole he had ever seen.
White explored the caverns alone using a lamp and homemade ladder made from wire, before his discovery was turned into a national park for the world to see. Ripley's favorite feature was what he called the unrequited love of the ages. A stalagmite and stalactite
had been growing towards each other for 50 million years, but after all that time, have failed to meet by just a quarter of an inch. To learn more about Ripley and the Caverns, head to ripleys.com, rate the Weird Minute if you haven't already, and tune in tomorrow for another Minute of Odd.