Author Description

This book describes nine caves in the greater Chattanooga area that are either currently open to the public or that have been open to the public at some time in the past. The caves included are Lookout Mountain Cave, Mystery Falls Cave, Ruby Falls Cave, Raccoon Mountain Caverns, Nickajack Cave, Sequoyah Caverns, Mystic Caverns, Russell Cave, and Wonder Cave. Each cave is described from it's earliest human use, frequently by prehistoric peoples, through white settlement, saltpeter mining, and commercial developement. Nickajack Cave, for example, was used by prehistoric Native Americans, was the site of a Cherokee Indian village in the early 1800s, a saltpeter mine during both the War of 1812 and the Civil War, the site of Civil War activity by both the North and the South, and a commercial cave in the last 1800s up through the 1940s. Today the cave is a Wildlife Refuge for rare and endangered bats. The cave was the site on an incredible hoax in 1927, country music star Johnny Cash attempted to commit suicide there, and the site of a spectacular rescue in 1992. Every cave described in the book has a long and interesting history.