Featured Park

Take A Cool Trip 'Down Under' At Longhorn Cavern State Park

Back before hydroelectric power from Buchanan Dam first surged through the Highland Lakes area northwest of Austin in 1937 making refrigerated air possible for Central Texas residents, Longhorn Cavern provided the only "air conditioning" for sweltering citizens. Today, the cavern's constant 68 degrees serves as a secondary reason to visit this subterranean attraction formed by surface erosion and an underground river.

The main attraction at Longhorn Cavern State Park is the cavern itself, a series of rooms, tunnels, and sinkholes carved out of Ellenburger limestone deposited 500 million years ago when the area was covered by a shallow sea.

Of Texas' eight show caves, Longhorn Cavern is the only one formed not just by the seepage of surface water, but also by calcium carbonate-rich underground lakes and rivers that raged through cracks and holes, dissolving and eroding solid limestone several million years ago during the down cutting of the Colorado River. The result is a wonder world of odd-shaped rock formations, domed ceilings, gaping sinkholes, tight crawlways, fascinating rock carvings that look like animals and human faces, rooms of sparkling crystals and alabaster halls of dolomite resembling exquisite Italian marble.

Just as fascinating as Longhorn Cavern's natural history is its cultural history. Its first visitors were prehistoric creatures such as mammoths, giant bison, bears and a host of smaller critters. The first evidence of human visitation dates some 300 years ago when Comanche Indians sought refuge in the cavern. They held council meetings in the cavern's largest room and chipped flint from cave walls to make weapons and tools. Early Texas frontier settlers, Confederate soldiers, Wild West outlaws, Roaring 20s "party animals" and the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) followed over the next two centuries.

It took eight years (1934-42) for the determined CCC "boys" of Company 854 to carve a 645-acre state park out of the rugged Hill Country terrain and transform the silt-filled cavern into a show cave that draws more than 40,000 visitors a year. Using picks, axes, shovels and wooden wheelbarrows with iron-rimmed wheels, the laborers removed several tons of river sediment, bat guano and debris deposited over the millennia. They used much of the extracted material to build Park Road 4, explored and lit more than two miles of the cavern, built limestone rock walls and arches, and erected various park structures, most of which still stand today.

The boyish faces of the 200 workers who toiled under rather primitive conditions to create this remarkable attraction stare out from historic photographs hanging in the park's full-service deli and snack bar, and exhibited inside the old Administration Building that houses the state's only CCC museum. In their haste to get to the nearby cavern entrance, which is located behind the rustic but handsome limestone block and timber, park visitors often neglect to explore inside or take in the view from atop the two-story building. Be sure to check out the fireplace hearth constructed with large, calcite crystals that reach to the ceiling.

Longhorn Cavern State Park sits on former ranch land acquired by the state in 1932. The park opened to the public in 1938 and in 1971 was designated a Registered National Landmark. The park is owned by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and operated by private business concessionaires who also run the popular Vanishing Texas River Cruise on nearby Lake Buchanan.

Though the park offers picnic facilities, a nature trail and three-story, rock observation deck with panoramic views of the surrounding countryside—including a good view of the distant Faulkenstein Castle, most park visitors come to Longhorn Cavern to take the 1.25-mile guided tour of the cavern.

Visitors access Longhorn Cavern through what is known as The Sam Bass Entrance constructed in the 1930s by CCC workers 36 feet below a picturesque land bridge. Above ground, a rock wall and arches mark the entrance to the stairs, 52 in all, leading to the cavern entrance.

Guides such as Al Gerow, who also conducts special geology tours, lead groups of volunteer spelunkers along a series of trails, pointing out noteworthy cave formations and features, such as the Queen's Watch Dog, Indian Council Room (where the biweekly "Simple Sounds" acoustical music series occurs), Eagle's Wing and the Chandelier Room with dozens of icicle-like stalactites formed from mineral-laden, dripping water. Get hit by a drop of falling water, he tells you, and you've just gotten a lucky "cave kiss." "Watch your head" and "keep your children with you," are common admonishments from Gerow to tour participants who make their way through sometimes narrow and oft-slippery passageways with low ceilings like Lumbago Alley.

Cave tours are sprinkled with colorful narratives about who has used Longhorn Cavern over the last 150 years. History records that Confederate troops during the Civil War, for instance, mined guano from the millions of Mexican free-tail bats that once called the cavern home to make gunpowder. Then there is the tale told of a daring rescue by Texas Rangers of a beautiful young San Antonio area girl who was held for ransom by Comanches in the cavern.

But one of Longhorn Cavern's most interesting footnotes in history occurred during Prohibition years in the 1920s when rancher D. G. Sherrard used the cavern as a dance hall, nightclub and restaurant. Patrons paid good money to drink bootleg whiskey, dance to big bands and eat elegant meals by candlelight in the Indian Council Room. The onset of the Great Depression, however, brought the Texas entrepreneur's enterprise to a screeching halt, according to Gerow.

Longhorn Cavern State Park is one of more than 90 state parks and historic sites that make up the Texas State Park System. Adult admission (for visitors age 20 and older) to take the guided, 90-minute tour of the Cavern is $12.99. Seniors (age 60-plus), teens (age 13-19), and active military pay $11.99 each. Entrance into the cave for State Parks Pass holders is also $11.99 each, and children (ages 2-12) are $7.99 each. During the summer (May 30-Sept. 1), Cavern tours are held hourly from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., seven days a week. During the rest of the year, tours are held three times a day, Monday-Friday, and every hour Saturday-Sunday. The park is located between Marble Falls and Burnet on Park Road 4 six miles west of U.S. 281 in Burnet County. For more information, call the park toll-free at (877) 441-CAVE. To learn about all of the Texas state parks, call (800) 792-1112, or access the TPWD Web site: www.tpwd.state.tx.us.