What is 32 miles long and can’t be seen from the air?

Here’s one of our first discoveries.  What is approximately 32 miles long and can’t be seen from the air?  It’s one of the largest of its kind and you can be standing right on top of it and never even know it?  Can you guess?  Well we’re going to go to the Cumberland Plateau to go spelunking.

Grab your boots and your helmet because its time to go spelunking or exploring inside Tennessee’s largest show cave Cumberland Caverns.  Do you want to go?  Well let’s go.  You better hold on tight.

The climate underground is a constant 56 degree Fahrenheit year-round and very damp.  The humidity is 99%.  There are 32 miles of explored underground territory that make up Cumberland Caverns, which once ranked as the 2nd largest cave in America.  Since new underground territory continues to be explored and mapped across America, this ranking is constantly changing.  The entrance to the cave opens into a deep large area known as the volcano room.  A chandelier from the Loews Metropolitan Theater in New York lights the enormous cavern.  It is so large that it can house up to 500 people at a time.  The resident cave expert has explored these caves since he was a young boy.   Joining me know is Lewis Lamon also known as the Tennessee Caveman at Cumberland Caverns.

We asked Lewis how the Cumberland Caverns were made. Lewis answered, “Cumberland Caverns, like all caves, are eroded by water, carved by what we call freadic development of water carving through the caved passage ways.  This is why the cave was completely under water.”

Believe it or not, the caves are living.  They are constantly growing and changing; therefore, to touch the cave walls like this spot, will forever stunt its growth.  

We wondered if we’d see any animals in the cave – none were visible.  Yet, we were told that bats, rodents and other wildlife did inhabit the cave at times.  As we look at the various textures in the cave, the ceiling has pockets of water still dripping from its porous surface.  You’ll also discover something called cave popcorn – small kernels of calcium deposits attached to the cave ceiling.  Very rarely is there any chance that a ceiling will cave in.  The process is gradual.  Change takes place over thousands of years – it’s more of a crumbling affect.  Rock here is decomposing into soil.  So the rock is just basically deteriorating…crumbling away.

The rock formations in Cumberland Caverns have recognizable shapes, many of which have been named.  There is “Moby Dick” whose formation rises from fresh spring water.  The “Chess Men” rise to great heights.  We have to climb at least 50 feet to this section of the cavern.  Past the “Chess Men”, we head toward the formation known as “The King’s Throne”.  We have the pure white calcium formations being formed and the water dripping down is forming the calcium carbonate white layers over the round kind.

You’d be surprised to know the highest point in the caverns.  We know that it’s 159 feet straight up to the surface at this point here.

We aren’t the only ones to explore this cave.  The original explorer of the cave dated back to 1810 when Aaron Higginbotham made his discovery quite by accident.  After going in, his torch blew out; leaving him stranded perched on a high ledge.  Legend has it that he spent three days sitting there in the total darkness with no light and legend has it that his hair turned white from the ordeal.

Other explorers also left their mark.  Up here we have Sheelah Waters’ name on the ceiling, one of the original explorers of the cave in 1869.  They probably were carrying a torch that may have been 3 feet in length and could easily have stood here and reached the ceiling.  

So they did this by burning?  Lewis commented, “Yes, with an oil lamp or candle flame, one or the other.” Now if people write on cavern walls it is considered destructive.

As we continued through the cave we discovered that it was also used during the Civil War by soldiers for mining.  Minerals obtained from the caves allowed soldiers to make gun powder for their rifles.  

This extraordinary cave proves that you never know what wonder may be right under your feet.