Date Visited: 4/6/2019
As if our trip in 2018 didn’t do enough to inspire us to get out and enjoy our National Park System, our stop at Russell Cave National Monument really did us in. Why? Because after talking to one of the park rangers about our past trips she introduced us to the National Parks Passport book which includes a map of the National Park System. Viewing the map we realized how many places there were to see and suddenly our bucket list grew much longer!
We happened to stumbled upon the Russell Cave National Monument by chance. Before leaving for the Natchez Trace Parkway I was trying to find things to do along our route home through Alabama and that’s when I noticed the monument on the map. It sounded interesting so I looked it up online and Ta-Da! it made our list.
Significance
Archeological evidence excavated at the site dates the period of habitation from the end of the last ice age when humans crossed into the Americas via the Bering Strait land bridge roughly 10,000 BCE to the time of European settlement. The artifacts discovered at Russell Cave include the Paleo, Archaic, Woodland, and Mississippian periods making is known for being one of the most complete records of prehistoric cultures in the southeast.
The deepest artifacts were discovered more than 40 feet below the present day cave floor and a sampling of them along with other artifacts from the various periods can be viewed inside the visitor center.
History
- 1951 – Projectiles were discovered in the cave’s vicinity
- 1953 – Landover Oscar Ridley granted permission for the first of several excavations which took place over a period of nine years.
- 1956 – The 310 acre parcel of land was purchased from Ridley by the National Geographic Society
- 1961 – The National Geographic Society donated the land to the American people and it became a National Monument managed by the National Park Service.
- 1966 – The site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
- 1967 – The visitor center was dedicated and named after former National Geographic Society president Gilbert Grosvenor
Inside the visitor center we viewed a 7 minute video giving a brief summary of the cave’s history and the people who inhabited it before making our way to the boardwalk that leads down to the cave entrance.
From the boardwalk we looked out over the creek you see above . The source is a natural spring that flows into the cave and runs approximately 1.5 miles underground before meeting up with another river. When we were there the water was clear and the crystal blue pools were inviting.
Between the safety and shelter of the cave and the abundant natural resources we weren’t surprised that the cave had such a long history of use.
We continued along a short boardwalk to the large east facing mouth of the cave where we learned a little about each time period, the advancement of tool use, and other cultural changes.
The mouth of the cave was a large two chambered opening. The mapped length of the cave is 7.2 miles and there are several other entrances, but unlike many other cave systems in the National Parks access inside this cave is prohibited.
We skipped the 1.5 mile nature trail that is also a part of the National Monument and opted to return to the visitor center for a more careful study of the artifacts uncovered at the site. Mr. McGee was particularly interested in the ATLATL, which was used to increase the range and velocity of hand thrown projectiles. (I have a feeling he’s going to try to make one of these when we reach those retirement years.) The fishhooks fashioned from bone were my favorite.
So it is here where we received our first official stamp in our National Parks Passport book even though it was not the first of our National Park adventures. We hope to have many more stamps before we write the final story of our travel journal.
Next up: Noccalula Falls
Until then…
Russell Cave National Monument 3729 County Road 98 Bridgeport, AL 35740 (256) 495-2672 Website
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