De Soto Caverns

De Soto Caverns

DeSoto Caverns are a series of geologic caves and a tourist attraction located in Childersburg, Talladega County, Alabama. Located in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, it is touted as "Alabama's Big Cave". In addition to the caves, the park offers various other attractions, including The Lost Trail Maze, a three-quarter acre maze, panning for gemstones, wall climb, and amusement park style rides. While on the caverns tour, visitors can view the Sound, Light, and Water Show, that changes with the holidays and seasons.

Before being commercialized as DeSoto Caverns, the cave was well known locally as Kymulga Cave. There were local legends about the cave being used by Native Americans and as a source of minerals used in the Civil War. It was also said that during WWII, there was a dancefloor and honky-tonk in the huge main room. Another legend held that the cave system went miles - from near Childersburg to Talladega, Alabama. However, some teenagers climbed, shimmied up, slid on their bellies and crawled through every nook and cranny of the cave and they found only one significant place where the cave continued for any distance beyond the main room. This continuation was on the left side, at the end of the main room, opposite the entrance (which at that time was only a 4-foot-high (1.2 m) by 8-foot-wide (2.4 m) hole in the side of the hill). The cave ends at a blank wall and a small pool of water about two or three hundred yards beyond the main room. With the possible exception of an underwater exit through this pool, to their knowledge and experience, there are no other unexplored routes in the cave.