Cathedral Caverns State Park
The Cathedral Caverns State Park is located between Grant and Woodville in the Gunter Mountains in Marshall County ( Alabama ) of the U.S. state of Alabama. The state park consists of a developed show cave and 187 acres of above-ground parking area with walking trails, picnic areas, camping grounds and a climbing wall.
The oldest traces of settlement of white settlers come from 1803 when Hans Kennamer 275 m from the cave entrance, built a house and name stiftend for the Kennamer Cove worked.
Jay Gurley explored the 160 acre large cave in 1952, bought it and began the expansion of the show cave, the construction of pathways to the cave, the cabling and illumination with a total of 80,000 watts. A decade later, were annually 24,000 visitors recorded. Local attractions include the cave entrance with 7.6 m and 38.4 m wide, stalagmite "Goliath" with 13.7 m height and 74 m circumference and the rock formation " Frozen Waterfall ". After 20 years, Gurley had to close the cave for financial reasons.
1972 was awarded the Cathedral Cavern as a National Natural Landmark.
The Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources acquired the cave in 1987 and declared the Cathedral Caverns State Park. The following year, spearheads, arrowheads, fragments of pottery, flints and animal bones were found predominantly of small animals during archaeological investigations by the University of Alabama and Jacksonville State University in the entrance area. The oldest artifacts could be dated back 9000 years, the youngest were 200 years old. The rock formations in the cave caused several million years. Inside there is a constant air of 15.6 ° C. The Mystery River flows through the cave and, depending on rainfall variations in water depth between 15 cm and 12 m have.
In 1995 were filming the movie Tom and Huck place inside. In the following years, restoration work joined so that a reopening for tourists could take place in May 2000.
Swell
34.570855 - 86.227283244Koordinaten: 34 ° 34 ' 15.1 "N, 86 ° 13' 38.2 " W
- State Park in Alabama
- Marshall County ( Alabama)