DeSoto Caverns

DeSoto Caverns is a series of caves and a tourist attraction located in Childersburg, Talladega County, Alabama. Located in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, it is touted as "Alabama's Big Cave". In addition to the caves, the park offers various other attractions, including a three-quarter acre maze known as the Lost Trail Maze, panning for gemstones, a climbing wall, and amusement park style rides. While on the caverns tour, visitors can view a sound, light, and water show that changes with the holidays and seasons.Before being commercialized as DeSoto Caverns, the cave was well known locally as Kymulga Cave. There is evidence that the cave was formerly used by Native Americans, and it was mined during the Civil War.Cave structureThe main room of the cave is twelve stories high and larger than a football field. The entrance has been enlarged from an earlier period when it was a 4ft by 8ft hole in the side of a hill.It was thought at one time that the cave system was very large, extending from near Childersburg to Talladega, Alabama. However, explorations have revealed only one place where the cave continues for any distance beyond the main room. At the left end of the rear wall of the main room, the cave continues some two or three hundred yards, ending at a blank wall and a small pool of water. With the possible exception of an underwater exit through this pool, there are no other known unexplored routes in the cave.The caverns are noted for one of the largest continuing accumulations of onyx-marble stalagmites and stalactites in the world. DeSoto Caverns has actively growing rock formations (speleothems). For this reason, guests are not permitted to touch most of the rock formations.