Organ Cave facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Organ Cave |
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The main historical (and commercial) entrance to Organ Cave
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 Organ Cave
Location in West Virginia
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| Floor elevation | 2,188 ft (667 m) |
| Length | 38.452 miles (61.882 km) |
| Geography | |
| Location | United States, West Virginia, Greenbrier |
Organ Cave is a very large and historic cave located in Greenbrier County, West Virginia, USA. The town nearby is even named after this amazing cave!
In 1973, the Organ Cave System was named a National Natural Landmark. This means it's a special place because it's one of the biggest cave systems in West Virginia. It's also famous for its old "saltpeter" vats. Saltpeter was used to make gunpowder a long time ago.
Today, Organ Cave is the third-longest known cave in West Virginia. It's also been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 2005. This means it's an important historical site.
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Discovering Organ Cave's Past
Organ Cave holds many clues about Earth's ancient history. Scientists have found fossils of huge animals that lived long ago. These include the giant ground sloth, grizzly bear, nine-banded armadillo, and even sabre-tooth cats. Fossils of reindeer and Ice Age porcupines have also been found.
Humans have used Organ Cave for a very long time too. Flint arrowheads found inside show that early Native Americans explored the cave. There's a date "1704" scratched on a wall, but the first white settlers came to this area in the 1740s. So, that date might have been added later.
Making Gunpowder in the Cave
People started using the cave before 1835 to get a material called nitre (or saltpeter). This was a key ingredient for making gunpowder. During the American Civil War, Confederate soldiers, led by General Robert E. Lee, came back to the cave. They mined even more nitre to help with the war effort.
Today, Organ Cave has the largest collection of Civil War-era saltpeter hoppers in the country. These hoppers were special tools used to turn cave dirt into potassium nitrate, which is what saltpeter is made of.
How Big is Organ Cave?
The first detailed maps of Organ Cave were made in July 1948 by members of the National Speleological Society. For many years, people thought it was the longest cave in the world!
As of 2010, the Organ Cave System has about 38.452 miles (61.882 km) of mapped passages. This makes it the 39th longest cave in the world. It's also the 9th longest in the United States and the 3rd longest in West Virginia. That's a lot of underground exploring!
The Mystery of Jefferson's Giant Ground Sloth
For a long time, people believed that a famous fossil of a giant ground sloth, studied by Thomas Jefferson, came from Organ Cave. Jefferson, who later became president, never visited the cave himself. He received the fossil from a friend in 1796.
In the early 1900s, a local man named Andrew Price helped spread the idea that the fossil came from Organ Cave. However, in 1995, a scientist from the Smithsonian named Frederick Grady suggested a different cave. He thought the fossil actually came from Haynes Cave in a nearby county, based on old land records.
Even with this new idea, the governor of West Virginia held a ceremony at Organ Cave in 2008. He presented a certificate saying that the giant ground sloth (Megalonyx jeffersonii) is the "Official West Virginia State Fossil." The certificate also repeated the belief that the fossil was found in Organ Cave, even though there wasn't new proof.
