In the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, in the Blue Ridge Mountains, there's a network

of dark, cold caves called La Rey Caverns.

A path leads down into the cave and it takes you past Dream Lake, a big pool with this

calm, reflective surface.

And all around it, there are a ton of stalagtites hanging down from the ceiling and stalagmites

reaching up from the ground.

It's this jaw-droppingly beautiful space.

But wander a little further into the cave and your jaw might drop a little more.

Because there in the middle of the cave is an enormous organ.

This isn't your average church organ.

Because instead of pipes, every key of this organ is connected to a tiny mallet that

hits a different stalagtite.

This is Atlas Obscura, a celebration of the world's strange, incredible, and wondrous places.

And today, we visit the great stalagg pipe organ.

And we meet the son of the man who made it.

He would get letters from people all over the world, and then he developed an international

following him.

They all sort of thought my dad was a genius.

This story of Leland Sprinkle and this stalagg pipe organ, after this.

So, my parents came to me and said, well, for your birthday, you get your choice.

We're going to have a birthday party, or we can take a trip to a cave.

And I said, the cave.

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