Lookout Mountain Caverns

Lookout Mountain Caverns (Lookout Mountain Cave) is currently the second longest known cave in Hamilton County, Tennessee.fact|date=March 2008 It is mapped length of 2.481 miles (3.993 kilometers) places it at 361st on the United States Long Caves List.

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 Barr's description was published in 1961. It also resulted in the discovery of prehistoric bones dating back to the last Ice Age (Pleistocene). Many old names and dates in this cave are of great interest to historians. The map of the cave in Barr's book indicates the existence of "Andy Jackson's Signature." Unfortunately, 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 is now totally inaccessible in 2006.

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.

References

citation
last = Barr, Jr.
first = Thomas C.
title = Caves of Tennessee
publisher = State of Tennessee, Department of Conservation and Commerce, Division of Geology, Bulletin 64
year = 1961
pages = 249-250.