History
The Kennamer family's ancestors settled in the cave a long time ago, hence the name of the cave. Mr. Gurley, eventually, saw the cave and bought it from the Kennamer family.
Mr. Gurley maintained the cave as a tourist attraction from 1959 to 1974. The cave was sold in 1975 at an auction. The State of Alabama bought the cave in 1987 with the intent to reopen the site as a state park. After funding delays, restoration work actually began in 1995. In May 2000, the Cavern re-opened to the public.
In 1995, Cathedral Caverns provided the cave settings for the Disney Studios film Tom and Huck starring Jonathan Taylor Thomas as Tom Sawyer and Brad Renfro as Huckleberry Finn.
Archaeological excavations at the mouth of Cathedral Caverns have indicated occupation by Native Americans as recently as 200 years ago and perhaps as early as 7000 BCE.
Read more about this topic: Cathedral Caverns State Park
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“They are a sort of post-house,where the Fates
Change horses, making history change its tune,
Then spur away o’er empires and o’er states,
Leaving at last not much besides chronology,
Excepting the post-obits of theology.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)
“Free from public debt, at peace with all the world, and with no complicated interests to consult in our intercourse with foreign powers, the present may be hailed as the epoch in our history the most favorable for the settlement of those principles in our domestic policy which shall be best calculated to give stability to our Republic and secure the blessings of freedom to our citizens.”
—Andrew Jackson (1767–1845)
“The thing that struck me forcefully was the feeling of great age about the place. Standing on that old parade ground, which is now a cricket field, I could feel the dead generations crowding me. Here was the oldest settlement of freedmen in the Western world, no doubt. Men who had thrown off the bands of slavery by their own courage and ingenuity. The courage and daring of the Maroons strike like a purple beam across the history of Jamaica.”
—Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960)