Don't be surprised if the staff at Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico is commiserating with the staff at Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota. They both can relate to having the elevator blues.
The main elevators at Carlsbad broke down in November 2015, a problem that stretched into 2018. Then in March 2018 three visitors were temporarily trapped when the elevator ground to a halt 740 feet down into the cavern.
In November 2016 problems with elevators caused some visitor inconveniences at Wind Cave. Then last July a problem took the elevators at the park out of action. Now park staff is scrambling to find the parts needed to fix the aged elevators.
"We have brought in some consultants to help us chart a path forward and they're going to be reporting back to the park in the next couple weeks and basically it's going to come down to can we put new parts on old equipment," Wind Cave spokesperson Tom Farrell told Rapid City's KEVN television. "If we can we'll probably be up and running this summer, if we can't we'll have to do a major overhaul and we could be down for over a year."
Comments
Elevators provide more accessibility for visitors in the park, making it a more welcome experience for all. Elevators also provide access to park sites that may not be accessible by foot, if they are underground or above ground. For this reason, I fully support having elevators in national parks. But, it is imperative that they are functioning properly! Stories of elevators breaking down could actually deter people from using them, or visiting that park altogether, as they might be wary of more accidents happening. Incidents at Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico from 2015-2018, and Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota in 2016 are frankly quite scary. Imagine being trapped in an elevator in a cavern 740 feet down; that would not make me want to come back to that park ever again or recommend it to friends/family. If park are utilizing elevators, they need to be properly maintained and inspected. Spokespeople from the parks with the elevator issues state that the complications were caused by old parts not being replaced. This is avoidable though. All parks with elevators should look to these instances as reminders to replace outdated elevator parts. Also, this shines a light on low funding for parks, and the need for a larger budget. Maybe the old elevator parts would have been replaced before disaster ensued if there was more money in the budget for those parks.
on July 12, 2021 my elevator at Carlsbad jolted then stopped 150 feet from the top. It was extremely alarming. Even though our phones had no signal, I still sent my mom an ILY text in case the elevator fell, in which case the result would certainly be death. There were six adults and two children. We only waited a minute before using the call button and alarm button, to no avail. We held a hand written sign that read, "STOPPED - HELP" to the surveillance camera for at least 30 minutes, again to no avail. Every time we heard the neighboring elevator whiz by we would ring the alarm. Every minute seemed like ten and the sense of impending doom led us all to attempt to call 911, even though none of us had a signal. After 45 minutes of panicking, calling and hitting the alarm button we eventually heard a faint, verbal, "help is on the way." Then nothing for so long we actually discussed whether we truly heard it or not. Eventually the park service called into the elevator. They had ABSOLUTELY NO idea how long we had been stopped. Once they got it working and back to the top, there was no one to even ask if we were okay. I sought someone out to ask what happened and the ranger merely shrugged, said the communication system was broken and that it wasn't his fault. Eventually we learned that the camera and call button goes to one office but it was that staff persons day off... This fact is infuriating because it seems like there must be a budget friendly remedy to complete reliance on communication from the elevator to just one person. In the last few years we have been to approximately 30 natl parks and maybe 100 other NPS designated units. I am also a devoted federal government employee in a different branch of the government. I have not been able to reconcile my love for the parks and dedication to the government with this traumatic experience and utterly unacceptable response.
Amber, I hope you have written to the Superintendent and Regional Director. What you experienced is unacceptable customer service.