Location Taken: Alton, Illinois.
Time Taken: November 2012
Along the northern shore of the Mississippi river, just north of St. Louis, tall limestone cliffs stand tall and pale. Some places they are worn down, the trees descending to the rivers. And others are carved by less natural forces.
This particular cave system, for instance.
It’s an old quarry. They chose not to remove the cliff itself, as similar modern operations do, but instead carved into it. Tall supporting columns rise from the floor to keep the ceiling in place, and they stand strong long after the last stone was pulled from the earth.
I wonder if those miners ever looked up and wondered if perhaps today was the day, when an errant move carved away too much and the delicate balance of the whole system was fatally upset. Someone with an overly active imagination probably wouldn’t do too well at that profession.
