About Great Stalacpipe Organ
Deep inside Luray Caverns is an organ whose pipes are not pipes at all. The Great Stalacpipe Organ uses carefully selected stalactites spread across more than three acres of cave as its sounding elements, turning the cavern itself into part of the instrument.
Leland W. Sprinkle, a mathematician and electronics scientist who worked at the Pentagon, conceived the idea after watching a guide strike a cave formation with a mallet. Beginning in 1954, Sprinkle spent three years searching the cavern with tuning forks for formations that could produce the notes he needed. Selected stalactites were carefully tuned, then fitted with electronically controlled rubber-tipped mallets.
A four-manual console sends electrical signals to the mallets distributed through the cave. Pressing a key causes a mallet to strike a real stalactite somewhere in the surrounding chambers. Because the formations are spread over such a large area, the music is literally produced by the cave around the listener.
The organ was dedicated in 1957 and remains one of Luray Caverns’ defining attractions. It can operate through an automated system but is also capable of being played manually. Plenty of caves have formations that ring when struck. Luray turned several acres of them into what it calls the world’s largest musical instrument.