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Ellison's Cave facts for kids

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Ellison's Cave
Ellison's Cave dug entrance, Georgia.JPG
Ellison's Cave dug entrance
Location Walker County, Georgia

Ellison's Cave is a super deep pit cave found in Walker County, Georgia. It's located on Pigeon Mountain, which is part of the Appalachian Mountains in Northwest Georgia. This cave is one of the deepest in the United States! It's famous for having the deepest open pit in the whole country, called Fantastic Pit. The cave stretches over 12 miles long and goes down an amazing 1063 feet (about the height of a 100-story building!).

Amazing Deep Pits

Ellison's Cave has many incredible underground drops, called pits. It's home to the two deepest pits in the main part of the United States:

  • Fantastic Pit: This pit is 586 feet deep. That's taller than the Washington Monument!
  • Incredible Pit: This pit is 440 feet deep.

These two huge pits are on opposite sides of the cave. Close to Fantastic Pit, you can also find Smokey I (500 feet deep) and Smokey II (262 feet deep), along with other very deep drops. There are more than seven different paths to reach the very bottom of the cave from the Fantastic Pit side.

How the Cave Formed

Ellison's Cave is a type of cave called a solution cave. This means it formed when water dissolved rock over a very long time. It's located in the Ridge and Valley geologic region of northwest Georgia, right within a crack in the bedrock of Pigeon Mountain.

Millions of years ago, during the Ordovician Period, huge forces that created the Appalachian Mountains also made many fault lines (cracks in the Earth's crust). These cracks stretch from northern Alabama to eastern Tennessee. Over time, more mountain-building events created a large zone of cracks in the bedrock across the southern Appalachians and northern Georgia. Because of these cracks, and because the area has a lot of soft rocks like gypsum and limestone, water could easily flow through and carve out the incredibly deep passages of Ellison's Cave.

Visiting the Cave

The Georgia Department of Natural Resources manages Ellison's Cave and the land around it. The cave is open to visitors all year long.

Images for kids

  • Looking out of Ellison’s Cave

    A view looking out of Ellison's Cave.

See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Cueva Ellison's para niños

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