Devil’s Dive / The Italian Underground

Devil’s Dive, also, The Italian Underground. . Devil’s Dive , This deep, rugged wash presented problems for stagecoaches. , Drivers of wagons usually circled to the south rather than take the time to hitch up double teams needed for passage through the wash. Ruts made by thousands of wagons and stagecoaches can still b seen winding around and through Devil’s Dive. , “To go through, it was necessary for the horses to go on the run, to give the stage sufficient momentum to reach the top of the opposite side. Passengers usually preferred to get out and walk across this bad place, only the driver and messenger remained on the box.” - Stage Driver , The Italian Underground , Immigrant Italian Uberto Gibello earned a modest living digging wells and doing masonry work, but he had a vision. Between homesteading in 1887 and his death 23 years later, Gibello honeycombed this ridge with a series of caves. He also built an unusual split-level home, two wells and water storage tanks. Rock and concrete irrigation channels set into the terrace hillside were an unsuccessful attempt to start a vineyard. , This site is on private property. The caves are unstable and dangerous. Do not attempt to enter. , Shrine Cave - about 120 feet long with numerous small “shrines” carved into walls and a water well dug into the floor at the east end. be Main Cave- over 400 feet long, 10 feet wide and 6 feet high with entrances on opposite sides of the hill. Massive cave-ins now block the tunnel. , Gallery Cave and Room - 150-foot long branch of the main cave ended in the gallery where Gibello had cut out rough benches along the walls.