This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Raccoon Mountain Caverns" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR(March 2021) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
View of Crystal Palace Room, the focal room of the commercial section of Raccoon Mountain Caverns
Raccoon Mountain Caverns is a cave located in Chattanooga, Tennessee in a band of Mississippian Period limestone, part of the Cumberland Plateau.
Parts of the cave system was discovered and documented as early as 1853, by 1929 Leo Lambert, a local caver who had recently discovered and opened Ruby Falls expanded the known cave passages.[1] Prior to Lambert's arrival, the property was owned by the Grand Hotel and used as a farm for their restaurant. On hot afternoons, it was said that the farmers would relax in front of several cracks in the rock at the base of the mountain and enjoy the cool air that was blowing out. In 1929, Leo Lambert was invited to explore the source of the air. As an experienced cave explorer, Lambert realized that in order for air to blow out of a crack in limestone rock, there must be a large cave beyond the crack to supply such a volume of air. Lambert enlarged the cracks and was rewarded by discovering several hundred feet of well-decorated cave passage in a cave that was close to U.S. Highway 41. He developed a series of trails, installed electric lights, and opened the cave to the public as "Tennessee Caverns" on June 28, 1931.
The original tour, now known as the Lambert Tour, circled the Crystal Palace Room which was believed to be the largest room in the cave. Some twenty years after its opening, the Smith Brothers were managing the cave and discovered a small hole just off the Crystal Palace Room. The opening pinched down to 7.5 inches, so tight that the explorers had to exhale so they could squeeze through the gap. Less than twenty feet later, they found that the passage opened into a larger room and continued their discoveries. Eventually, they were able to enlarge the tour to include these newly discovered areas. Today, this ~0.5 mile loop tour is known as The Crystal Palace Tour. Spelunking tours known as Wild Cave Expeditions, were added in the 1970s, allowing visitors to visit the undeveloped areas of the cave beyond the commercial section. To date, over 5.5 miles of passageway has been discovered and mapped, with new discoveries still being made.
The Raccoon Mountain Caverns entrance in Chattanooga, Tennessee
Over the years, the name of the cave was changed from Tennessee Caverns to Crystal City Caves to Crystal Caverns and eventually to its current name, Raccoon Mountain Caverns in the late 1970s. Today, the property is also home to a campground with full service RV sites, water and electric sites, primitive tent sites, and cabins.
The cave is known for its high level of active speleothem growth, fossils, and resident wildlife. In addition to several salamander species, the cave is home to a unique spider species referred to as the Crystal Caverns Cave Spider (Nesticus furtivus). This species, discovered initially in 1938, and officially described in 1984, is only known to exist within Raccoon Mountain Caverns.[2]
Raccoon Mountain Caverns is a major tourist attraction and is one of two caves in the Chattanooga/Hamilton County area that is open to the public.
^Goodrich, Samuel. A comprehensive geography and history, ancient and modern. New York, G. Savage. p. 81. Retrieved 30 October 2023.
^"Crystal Caverns Cave Spider - Nesticus furtivus - Overview - Encyclopedia of Life". Encyclopedia of Life. Retrieved 2018-09-13.
and 26 Related for: Raccoon Mountain Caverns information
RaccoonMountainCaverns is a cave located in Chattanooga, Tennessee in a band of Mississippian Period limestone, part of the Cumberland Plateau. Parts...
Lookout MountainCaverns (Lookout Mountain Cave, or Lower Cave) is the second-longest known cave in Hamilton County, Tennessee.[citation needed] Its mapped...
Crystal Caverns at Hupp's Hill, a former show cave near Strasburg, Virginia, U.S. RaccoonMountainCaverns, a former name of RaccoonMountainCaverns Crystal...
Crystal Caverns cave spider, is a species of true spider in the family Nesticidae. It is found only in RaccoonMountainCaverns, formerly Crystal Caverns, a...
in 2013 the species was discovered within Horseskull Cave and RaccoonMountainCaverns. Caecidotea nickajackensis was first recorded in Nickajack Cave...
in the United States. Cathedral Caverns Crystal Cavern DeSoto Caverns Dust Cave Fern Cave Manitou Cave Rickwood Caverns Russell Cave Sauta Cave Shelta...
of Kickapoo Cavern are scheduled every Saturday and require reservations. Mammals commonly found in the park include whitetail deer, raccoon, ringtail,...
following is a list of episodes of the Canadian animated television series The Raccoons. The series began as TV specials broadcast between 1980 and 1983 and a...
Little Wilson Creek Wilderness Mountain Lake Wilderness (Virginia / West Virginia) Peters Mountain Wilderness Raccoon Branch Wilderness Shawvers Run Wilderness...
a wide variety of smaller trees and other plants as well as bear, fox, raccoon, trout, grouse, wild turkey, vultures, owls, hawks, copperheads, and timber...
to make pulque, a fermented beverage. Animals that can be seen include raccoons (Procyon lotor), greater roadrunners (Geococcyx californianus), hooded...
Great Lake, it is the largest underground power station in Australia. RaccoonMountain Pumped-Storage Plant, Chattanooga, Tennessee, United States, built...
species of fox, bobwhite quail, two species of squirrel, turkey, rabbit, raccoon, and various waterfowl. Talladega National Forest is home to several threatened...
ten of which are open for tourism, including the popular Luray Caverns and Skyline Caverns. Virginia's iconic Natural Bridge is also the remaining roof...
developed Smoke Hole Caverns, just outside the Canyon, or with Smoke Hole Cave in the Canyon itself) is now better known as Cave Mountain Cave. Confederates...
Retrieved 27 June 2010. "Blue Ash – No More, No Less". Discogs. 1973. "Rocky Raccoon". Archived from the original on 12 December 2021. Retrieved 6 February...
and are regularly spotted include deer, fox, muskrat, beavers, opossum, raccoons, squirrels, and woodchucks. More than 100 sorts of flowers grow in the...
in the Central and Mountain West regions of the United States. The nation's longest, it rises in the eastern Centennial Mountains of the Bitterroot Range...
remaining. In Japanese, it is called Iriomote-yamaneko (西表山猫, "Iriomote mountain cat"). In local dialects of the Yaeyama language, it is known as yamamayaa...
different species of songbirds. Some common mammals include squirrels, raccoons, opossums, rabbits, and deer. About 10 endangered species live on the refuge;...
Your Money c-14m February 1976 Consumer Skills; Video Buffy, the Bored Raccoon writer: Steve Nelson c-10m 1982 Build Your Vocabulary David A. Smart (producer);...
Alabama's mysterious and beautiful caves and caverns include Sequoyah Caverns, Desoto Caverns, Rickwood Caverns and Russell Cave National Monument. Carl F...
the park include porcupine, gray fox, coyote, bobcat, white-tail deer, raccoon, badger and skunk. Reptiles found in the park are Texas horned lizard,...
Global Information
