The Russell Cave National Monument is a U.S. National Monument in northeastern Alabama, United States, close to the town of Bridgeport. The Monument was established on May 11, 1961, when 310 acres (1.3 km2) of land were donated by the National Geographic Society to the American people. It is now maintained by the National Park Service. The National Monument was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966.
With a mapped length of 7.2 miles (11.6 km), Russell Cave is the third longest mapped cave in Alabama, is ranked 90th on the United States Long Cave List, and is currently listed as number 314 on the World Long Cave List. Its exceptionally large main entrance was used as a shelter by prehistoric Indians from the earliest known human settlement in the southeastern United States, through to European colonization. The surrounding forest provided food, tools and fuel for fires.
Read more about Russell Cave National Monument: Geology, Archeological Surveys, Biology, Visitation
Famous quotes containing the words russell, cave, national and/or monument:
“How like a prodigal doth nature seem,
When thou, for all thy gold, so common art!
Thou teachest me to deem
More sacredly of every human heart,
Since each reflects in joy its scanty gleam
Of Heaven, and could some wondrous secret show,
Did we but pay the love we owe,
And with a child’s undoubting wisdom look
On all these living pages of God’s book.”
—James Russell Lowell (1819–1891)
“The human mind is indeed a cave swarming with strange forms of life, most of them unconscious and unilluminated. Unless we can understand something as to how the motives that issue from this obscurity are generated, we can hardly hope to foresee or control them.”
—Charles Horton Cooley (1864–1929)
“I came here for one thing only, to try to help national Ireland—and if there is no such thing in existence then the sooner I pay for my illusions the better.”
—Roger Casement (1864–1916)
“The volatile truth of our words should continually betray the inadequacy of the residual statement. Their truth is instantly translated; its literal monument alone remains.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)