Excerpts from CBS News by Lee Cowan:

If you listen carefully in the high desert of northern New Mexico, you might just hear something more than the wind. It’s the underground sound of a man obsessed. His name is Ra Paulette. For the past 25 years — with only his dog for company – he has been scraping and shaping New Mexico’s sandstone into man-made caves of art. “You know, when you’re doing something you love and are drawn to it, you want to do it all the time.”

He calls them his wilderness shrines — massive in scale, poetic in their design. If his work takes your breath away, that’s just what he hoped it would do. “I see this as an environmental project; I’m trying to open up people’s feelings,” he said. One small opening pales in comparison to the cavern he’s dug inside. It took close to 900 hours to dig.

He has no degree in sculpting. He’s not a structural engineer, and he’s not an architect. He is simply a man who found his passion. “Most of the wonder that I feel is in the actual making of the caves,” he said. “Once they’re made, I move on, if I want fresh wonder.” He’s found that fresh wonder digging about a dozen caves so far, most commissioned by nearby residents who want a piece of livable art. One cave along the Rio Grande River even has power, a wood floor, and a colorful bathtub with running water. It took Paulette two years to dig.

He charged a mere $12 an hour in labor. “You don’t do this for the money, you’re not getting rich off making these beautiful places,” said Cowan. “No, it’s the process, you know? I’m having the time of my life.” Amazingly, Paulette’s designs have been largely unnoticed — until recently, that is. A documentary filmmaker heard of the caves, and spent three years following Paulette as he dug. The result was “Cavedigger, “a film so unique it was nominated for an Academy Award. Suddenly, Ra Paulette was a caveman with a following.

“If there was one simple thing you wanted people to take away from being in one of your caves, what would it be?” asked Cowan. “At least a moment, or a length of time in which they had a deeper feeling and deeper understanding of themselves, and life,” he replied.

 

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