It took me forever to pick out the photographs for my last post on Longhorn Cavern State Park.  I wanted to fill in some of the details on the Longhorn Cavern State Park in this post. Longhorn Cavern State Park features Longhorn Cavern, a Texas Hill Country wonder created over thousands of years by the dissolving and abrading action of water on the limestone bedrock of the area. Longhorn Cavern is one of the few river-formed caverns in the world, which makes it unique.

Fossil remains show that Ice Age animals once occupied the cave. Earliest records indicate that the Comanche Indians were the first people to use the cavern. The cavern was used as a Confederate stronghold where gunpowder was stored  in secret during the Civil War. The cavern is also rumored to have been the hideout of Sam Bass, a legendary Texas outlaw.  Legend has it that there is a treasure trove from his last bank robbery stashed in the cave. During Prohibition, a Speakeasy operated inside the cavern, complete with a 9-piece band.  On Sunday mornings, bleachers were set up in the same area so that people could attend services.

The park was dedicated in 1931.  Work began shortly thereafter on the park using convict labor.  Due to the concerns of neighbors, this practice was discontinued.  Not much work was completed until the Civilian Conservation Corps began work on the park.  During the four years the CCC was active in the park, 2-1/2 million cubic yards of earth, guano and rock were removed using only manual labor, buckets, shovels and wheelbarrows.  This cleared a  1-1/2 mile trail within the cave that includes the tour of today. Most of this rock and fill was used to form the base of Park Road 4.  World War II stopped all CCC activity in the park and all parks in Texas and the USA.

Today, in addition to the standard tour, there are special tours that may be arranged, like geology tours, biology tours, paranormal tours, phototography tours, wild cave tours, as well as weddings and concerts.  This cave has more action than downtown on a Saturday night.

Longhorn Cavern is formed in the upper massive limestone of the Gorman Formation, Ellenberger group, of Ordovician age. Longhorn Cavern lies within the Llano uplift. When the Llano Uplift was thrust up during the time of  Precambrian mountain building, the Llano Uplift was covered in Lower Cretaceous, Devonian, Mississippi and Pennsylvania strata.  These rocks are gone now, weathered and eroded away.

The Cavern is located on Backbone Ridge, which is a huge wedge of Paleozoic sedimentary rocks dropped between igneous and metamorphic rocks of Precambrian age. We spent most of a day exploring one the largest show caves in the world, Longhorn Cavern State Park. The park is located on 700+ acres, complete with hiking trails, picnic tables, restrooms and other day use facilities. From Inks Lake, we headed south on Park Road 4 and followed the signs. If you are looking for a beautiful drive, look for Park Road 4.

The developed portion of the Cavern is 1.2 miles. The round trip guided tour takes about 2 hours and includes quite a few stairs. I took over 100 photographs; the ones in the slide show are just the ones I could name.