Russell Cave National Monument

Location: Jackson County in the Northeast corner of Alabama near the border with Tennessee and Georgia.

Introduction:
As my wife and I are trying to complete our tours of National Park Service operated properties we sometimes have to go off the beaten path to find them, Big Bend while large and famous park is just one example, we have hit several others in the past, before I started blogging hence why they aren't on here, as well though. I like visiting the smaller and/or less visited parks because it is easy to say to brag about the random ones you get, but I also would like to see some of these parks get more visits so I want to make sure that I get to blogging about them. We came across Russell Cave National Monument while on a trip from Nashville to Chattanooga (note there was another park visited in the process so expect another post soon) and we noticed it on the NPS find a park map so we figured we pretty much had to hit it up.

Russell Cave National Monument (Wikipedia page) is one of the smaller parks I have ever visited but if anything that adds to its flair. Driving through back roads in northern Alabama has never been on a wish list of mine, note I'm not saying I have a problem with it just never saw myself doing it, but to get to the park you need to do this. When we arrived on the warm early October day (yes I have been sitting on this post for a while so what) we ate lunch in the nice little picnic area in the front of the park. It was a weekday so they didn't have any events going on, they do on some weekends, so we got a personal tour of the visitor center which is always nice and had a great experience.

Geographically Russell Cave is in the southern Appalachian Mountains and sits in a valley just a short distance from the Tennessee River. The trail system is not extensive, there are only 2 and they both branch off the same base trail, but they allow you to see the "cave" as well as other geographic formations typical of Karst systems, such as a major sinkhole. The main trail that goes to the cave is on a boardwalk so is very accessible to anyone from those in wheelchairs to those with strollers and overall the park is a good stop for people traveling through the region to stop and eat a picnic lunch and to stretch their legs, just remember to sign the guestbook inside the visitor center if you do stop.

Visitors to Russell Cave are no longer able to go very deep into the cave, I would guess for safety reasons since it wasn't a very developed cave, but there is a little overhang area where there are displays. The actual portion of the cave that, according to our guide, they used to allow people to go into has a river flowing into it that you can actually see flow from under a rock wall near where the sinkhole is. The cave has a long history with humans where it served as a likely home to humans for at least 8,000 years. This is actually why the Russell Cave is a national monument. During the 50s the cave was the site of excavations by the Smithsonian and National Geographic, there were a couple of papers published on it and Nat Geo published an article titled Life 8,000 years ago uncovered in an Alabama cave (I can't find a spot to link for it online so if someone knows where I can find it let me know in the comments), I will talk more about the archeological excavations in the geology section. A short time later the National Geographic Society, who owned the land at the time, donated the land to the NPS which allowed for the creation of Russell Cave National Monument.

Geology:
During the Mississippian much of the western portion of the current Appalachian Mountains was under, or near a, shallow warm ocean. The Mississippian, for those who might not know, is part of the Carboniferous which is named for the large number of coal formations from around the world. In the Russell Cave area the sea was shallow and warm which allowed for a large limestone deposit to form. It is likely that there are many reef building organisms preserved in the formation but I didn't get close enough to the rocks to actually get a chance to look. As I have explained in the past (see here and here), limestone is dissolved away by water that is slightly acidified by CO2. Since I have explained this in the past I wont say anything more here.

The current Appalachian Mountains have slowly been being uplifted further and further west as time as gone on. This uplift is caused by an isostatic response caused by sediment from the eroding mountains being loaded onto the edge of the continent. As the mountains are uplifted the rivers that flow through the region cut down through the rocks, this is why there are large valleys along the New River in West Virginia, as they try to stay at base level. In the area near Russell Cave the Tennessee River has been working hard to cut down through the rocks and it is likely either the river itself or one of its tributaries cut down to the rocks and exposed Russell Cave.

We know that there were humans in North America by at least 10,000 years ago. Humans like to use premade shelters for safety etc and sometime around 8,000 years ago we know humans first appeared in Russell Cave. Humans were able to use the cave because the roof fell in, due to the typical karst processes, and a build up of sediment around the portions of the roof that fell in. This sediment made a dry area above what would have been a typical flood level, although large flood would likely have still covered the area. The sediment trapped evidence of the humans who used the cave including arrowheads, fish hooks, and bones of killed animals. The excavations have found influence of multiple cultures through time but there is little current excavation, that I know of at least, so there may even be some evidence of earlier times. I would not be surprised if under the level last excavated even if there aren't humans it is likely that there will be some fossilized animal remains but I can't know for sure without further excavations.

More Pictures: All photos in this post were taken by the author ask for permission if you want to use any of them.


Looking into the cave.



One of the displays in the cave.



The creek that formed the cave coming out of the rock wall right nearby that has a sinkhole on the otherside.


Further Reading:

Miller, C.F., 1956. Life 8,000 years ago uncovered in an Alabama cave. National Geographic Magazine. (Seriously someone find this for me please)

National Park Service Series homepage