Lookout Mountain Caverns (Lookout Mountain Cave, or Lower Cave) is the second-longest known cave in Hamilton County, Tennessee.[citation needed] Its mapped length of 2.481 miles (3.993 kilometers) places it at 361st on the United States Long Caves List.[citation needed] Unofficially, anecdotal reports of cave expeditions have exceed 12 miles with legends exceeding 82 miles.[1] The cave is closed and public access is forbidden.
The Lookout Mountain Cave entrance was at the base of Lookout Mountain along the Tennessee River at Moccasin Bend. The original opening was natural unlike manmade access to Ruby Falls. The opening is visible from "right-of-way boundaries" of the Railway and Interstate 24, although it is widely considered to be sealed inside the tunnel. Despite the closure, the cave is bisected by a tunnel on a second railroad just south of the main entrance forcing one to emerge on the railway inside the tunnel and then accessing the rest of the cave from there. Officially the cave is closed, therefore accessing the cave is regarded as illegal trespassing.
A 400-ft elevator shaft was built in 1928/1929, but it was closed and sealed in 2005.
Legend tells of an entrance at Noccalula Falls Park in Gadsden, Alabama (near that state's Lookout Mountain) about 82 miles away from Lookout Mountain.[1] The entrance may have been closed in 1870 by dynamite due to moonshining, the legend has received significant attention by geologists and others.[2]
Attractions
Several miles of the lower cave is mapped and developed with wooden steps and lighting.[1]
Rock Formations
Mystic Cove
Solomon's Temple
Devil's Seat
the Oriental Palace
the Winding Serpentine Trail
The cave floor contains 13 square stone boxes. The history of the boxes are unknown and have been speculated to have been involved in either Masonic or Ku Klux Klan meetings.[1] Moonshiners and outlaws also utilized the cave.
History
Prehistory
The cave is estimated to be 240 million years old.[3][4] A 2005 expedition in Lookout Mountain Cave identified bones that dated back to the last ice age (Pleistocene). A 1992 expedition found three jaguar skeletons, and in 1982 other animal remains were found and transferred to the Louisville Museum of Natural History.[1]
1800s
The cave served as a campsite for the indigenous Native Americans. David S. Butrick from the Brainerd Mission, established in 1817, was the first to document visiting the lower cave in 1823.[1][5]
Lookout Mountain Cave was owned by Robert Cravens during the American Civil War. He contracted with the Tennessee Military and Financial Board to deliver saltpeter to the Confederate government. On June 1, 1862, he rented the cave to the Confederate Nitre and Mining Bureau, who operated the cave until 1863 when Federal forces occupied Chattanooga. At one point the saltpeter mining operation was attacked by Federal forces: "Morale suffered after forces under General Ormsby M. Mitchel shelled the cave on June 7, 1863." Clearly, the cave was still in Confederate hands on that date. (See Matthews, 2007) The cave was also used as a hospital in the civil war where patients/visitors left 'graffiti' which may include the signature of Andrew Jackson.[1]
An 1869 article appearing in Scientific American notes a cave within Lookout Mountain that extends over 8 miles.[6]
in 1898 J.B. Pound sold underground rights to Southern Railway.[5]
1900s
Between 1905 and 1908, the Southern Railway developed a double-track tunnel through part of Lookout Cave. Pollution from the locomotives deposited soot throughout the cave.[1]
1920s-1930s
Lookout Mountain Cave
Leo Lambert (1895-1955) was a chemist and natural scientist credited with first exploring Raccoon Mountain Caverns. He married Ruby Eugenia Losey in 1916.[7] In 1923, Lambert attempted to reopen Lookout Mountain Cave to open a tourist attraction as the Lookout Mountain Cave Company.[7] In 1928, he drilled to open a 400ft. elevator shaft, however, on December 28 an opening was discovered and the following 17 hours were spent exploring, resulting in the discovery of a 145ft waterfall draining into the Tennessee River which Lambert named after his wife, Ruby, as Ruby Falls.[7] Lambert developed both caves for his company, however, the 'upper cave' with Ruby Falls was far more popular than the 'lower cave' Lookout Mountain Cave therefore he discounted tours in 1935.[7] The Great Depression resulted in bankruptcy causing Lambert to sell to Claude Brown for $25,000.[1]
1940s
Claude Brown died in 1944. His wife controlled the cave and sold it between 1947 and 1949, eventually entering the partial ownership of the Lookout Advertising Company known posting roadside signs.[5]
1960
Although Lookout Mountain Caverns has not been open to tourists for quite some time, the management of Ruby Falls did allow researchers to take the elevator (the shaft excavated in 1928–1929) down to Lookout Mountain Caverns by prior arrangement. This access resulted in the discovery of new passages since Thomas C. Barr Jr.'s description was published in 1961. Barr's 1961 discussion of the cave says that the cave was intersected by a railway tunnel, and thus the cave accumulated soot that led to its closing to tourists. He says that "exploring of the cave is unpleasant because of the necessity of wading, crawling, climbing, and becoming covered with soot, which coats all the upward-facing surfaces." He says the soot extends well over a mile into the cave.
1980s-1990s
Various academic expeditions:
March 1982: Joel Sneed, Carole Sneed, and Larry O. Blair[8]
2000s
In 2005 the State of Tennessee's elevator inspectors required the Ruby Falls operators to seal the portion of the elevator shaft below Ruby Falls and the cave became totally inaccessible as of 2006.
Related Research Articles
White County is a county located in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 census, the population was 27,351. Its county seat is Sparta.
Warren County is a county located on the Cumberland Plateau in Middle Tennessee, one of the three Grand Divisions of the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 census, the population was 40,953. Its county seat is McMinnville. Warren County comprises the McMinnville, TN Micropolitan Statistical Area.
Hamilton County is a county located in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is located in the southern part of East Tennessee on the border with Georgia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 366,207, making it the fourth-most populous county in Tennessee. Its county seat is Chattanooga, located along the Tennessee River. The county was named for Alexander Hamilton, the first secretary of the treasury.
Cumberland County is a county located in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 census, the population was 61,145. Its county seat is Crossville. Cumberland County comprises the Crossville, TN micropolitan statistical area.
Lookout Mountain is a mountain ridge located at the northwest corner of the U.S. state of Georgia, the northeast corner of Alabama, and along the southeastern Tennessee state line in Chattanooga. Lookout Mountain was the scene of the 18th-century "Last Battle of the Cherokees" in this area during the Nickajack Expedition. On November 24, 1863, during the American Civil War, the Battle of Lookout Mountain took place here.
The Lærdal Tunnel is a 24.51-kilometre-long (15.23 mi) road tunnel connecting the municipalities of Lærdal and Aurland in Vestland county, Norway; the southwest end of the tunnel is approximately 117 kilometres (73 mi) northeast of Bergen. It carries two lanes of European Route E16, and was the final link completing the main highway that now enables car travel between Oslo and Bergen with no ferry connections and no difficult mountain crossings during winter. It is the longest road tunnel in the world, succeeding the Swiss Gotthard Road Tunnel.
Sauta Cave National Wildlife Refuge is a 264-acre (107 ha) National Wildlife Refuge located in northeastern Alabama, near the Sauty Creek embayment of Guntersville Lake.
Ruby Falls is a series of underground cascading waterfalls totaling 145 feet (44 m) in Lookout Mountain, near Chattanooga, Tennessee, in the United States.
Craighead Caverns is an extensive cave system located in between Sweetwater and Madisonville, Tennessee. It is best known for containing the United States' largest and the world's second largest non-subglacial underground lake, The Lost Sea. In addition to the lake, the caverns contain an abundance of crystal clusters called anthodites, stalactites, stalagmites, and a waterfall.
Cumberland Caverns is a national natural landmark and show cave located in McMinnville, Tennessee. It is the second longest cave in Tennessee and makes the list of longest caves in the United States and in the world.
The Lookout Mountain Incline Railway is a 4 ft 8+1⁄2 instandard gauge inclined plane funicular railway leading to the top of Lookout Mountain from the historic St. Elmo neighborhood of Chattanooga, Tennessee. Passengers are transported from St. Elmo's Station at the base, to Point Park at the mountain summit, which overlooks the city and the Tennessee River. It is just a short drive to three of Chattanooga's main tourist attractions, Ruby Falls, Cavern Castle, and Rock City. The railway is approximately one mile (1.6 km) in length. It has a maximum grade of 72.7%, making it one of the world's steepest passenger railways. It obtained Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark status in 1991. The cable system for the cars was made by the Otis Elevator Company.
Majestic Caverns (formerly known as DeSoto Caverns) is a series of caves and a tourist attraction located in Childersburg, Talladega County, Alabama. Located in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, it is touted as "Alabama's Big Cave". In addition to the caves, the park offers various other attractions, including a three-quarter acre maze known as the Lost Trail Maze, panning for gemstones, a climbing wall, and amusement park style rides. While on the caverns tour, visitors can view a sound, light, and water show that changes with the holidays and seasons.
Carlsbad Caverns National Park is an American national park in the Guadalupe Mountains of southeastern New Mexico. The primary attraction of the park is the show cave Carlsbad Cavern. Visitors to the cave can hike in on their own via the natural entrance or take an elevator from the visitor center.
Raccoon Mountain Caverns is a cave located in Chattanooga, Tennessee in a band of Mississippian Period limestone, part of the Cumberland Plateau.
Nickajack Cave is a large, partially flooded cave in Marion County, Tennessee. It was partially flooded by the Tennessee Valley Authority's Nickajack Lake, created by the construction of Nickajack Dam in 1967. The entrance was originally 140 feet wide and 50 feet high. There is now about 25–30 feet of water at the entrance, so the portion of the entrance above water is 140 feet wide and 20–25 feet high. It houses a large colony of gray bats, an endangered species, and the water levels have posed a danger to the bat colony. The cave took its name from the Chickamauga Cherokee town of Nickajack, located between its mouth and the Tennessee River. The town was once attacked and destroyed in 1794 by the Nickajack Expedition.
Gap Cave is located just underneath Pinnacle Overlook in the Cumberland Gap National Historical Park, Claiborne County, TN. The entrance to the cave is at the tristate area of Tennessee, Virginia and Kentucky, just over the border into Virginia. Currently, the cave has a surveyed length of 18.5 miles and is the 42nd longest cave in the United States and 154th in the world. There are six known entrances: the Gap Cave Entrance, an artificial entrance, known as the Cudjo's Cave Entrance, the Stream Entrance, the Soldiers Cave Entrance, the Big Saltpeter Cave Entrance, and the Wellhole. All lead into the same cave, Gap Cave.
Manitou Cave is a cave in Alabama, near the town of Fort Payne, in the side of Lookout Mountain. In the early 1800s, the Fort Payne area was a Cherokee settlement named Willstown. This was the home of Sequoyah during his time of creating the Cherokee syllabary. Later, Sequoyah's son wrote on the walls of Manitou Cave using this syllabary, documenting ceremonial events and other culturally significant information and history. In the 1830s, Cherokee people were forcibly relocated from this area along the Trail of Tears, leaving the cave empty for some time. During the Civil War, the cave was a source of saltpeter for the Confederate Army. The mineral was mined by laborers to provide the essential ingredient for black powder. The cave was also designated fallout shelter during the Cold War.
A subterranean waterfall, tierous waterfall, or underground waterfall is a waterfall located underground, usually in a cave or mine. They are a common feature in cave systems where there are vertical or near vertical geological structures for the weathering process to exploit, and sufficient gradient between the sink and the rising. Notable examples include Ruby Falls, 44 metres (144 ft) high, in Lookout Mountain Caverns, a show cave in Tennessee and Gaping Gill in the Yorkshire Dales, UK with a fall of 98 metres. The highest known subterranean waterfall is in Vrtoglavica Cave in Slovenia, and is at least 400 metres (1,300 ft).
Mystic River Falls is a river raft ride located at Silver Dollar City in Branson, Missouri. The ride is an upgraded installation and direct replacement of the former Lost River of the Ozarks attraction, which was removed following the 2018 season, as well as an investment to celebrate the park's 60th anniversary. As of its construction in 2020, Mystic River Falls holds the record for the Western Hemisphere's highest drop on a raft slide at 45 feet (14 m) tall, as well as a total linear length of 2,100 feet (640 m) and a unique elevator lift. Mystic River Falls soft opened for members on July 5, 2020 and officially opened to the public on July 21, 2020.
Barr, Jr., Thomas C. (1961), Caves of Tennessee, State of Tennessee, Department of Conservation and Commerce, Division of Geology, Bulletin 64, pp.249–250.
"Caves of Chattanooga" by Larry E. Matthews, 2007, Published by the National Speleological Society, ISBN978-1-879961-27-2, Chapter 1 - Lookout Mountain Cave, pages 13–30.
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