Majestic Caverns (formerly known as DeSoto Caverns) is a series of 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 a three-quarter acre maze known as the Lost Trail Maze, panning for gemstones, a climbing wall, and amusement park style rides. While on the caverns tour, visitors can view a 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 is evidence that the cave was formerly used by Native Americans, and it was mined during the Civil War.
In June of 2022, the park announced that "DeSoto Caverns" as it had been known for many years would be renamed "Majestic Caverns."
Cave structure
The main room of the cave is just over ten stories high and larger than a football field. The entrance has been enlarged from an earlier period when it was a by hole in the side of a hill.
It was thought at one time that the cave system was very large, extending from near Childersburg to Talladega, Alabama. However, explorations have revealed only one place where the cave continues for any distance beyond the main room. At the left end of the rear wall of the main room, the cave continues some two or three hundred yards, ending at a blank wall and a small pool of water. With the possible exception of an underwater exit through this pool, there are no other known unexplored routes in the cave.
The caverns are noted for one of the largest continuing accumulations of onyx-marble stalagmites and stalactites in the world. DeSoto Caverns has actively growing rock formations (speleothems). For this reason, guests are not permitted to touch most of the rock formations.
History of the caverns
Early Native Americans
A burial site of the early Native American Copena culture can be seen in DeSoto Caverns. The term 'Copena' comes from the first three letters of copper and the last three letters of Galena, two materials commonly found in these burials. Caves were considered good burial spots by the Copena culture because they offered a peaceful and protective environment for the spirits of the dead.
The burial was discovered in 1963 by a team of archaeologists from the University of Alabama. It contained the skeletons of five Native Americans, one of whom was a child. Of special note was an immense jawbone that scientists believe belonged to a man who would have been more than seven feet tall. In 1995, DeSoto Caverns officials cooperated with a group of Native Americans who wished to rebury the remains of these five people in an undisclosed area of the cave.
16th century
The arrival of Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto and his expedition in 1540 marked the beginning of European recorded history in Alabama. At the time of de Soto's arrival, the Muscogee people inhabited Alabama and other parts of the Southeast. In Talladega County, where DeSoto Caverns is located, the Coosa people represented the Muscogee. The Coosa chiefdom—the first in Alabama's recorded history—extended roughly from Gadsden to Wetumpka, on both sides of the Coosa River. Their capital, also called Coosa (meaning "canebrake"), was near what is now Childersburg; and just a few miles to the east was DeSoto Caverns, their ancestral cave.
The de Soto expedition spent a little over five weeks in the Coosa capital. The Coosa Micco (or chief) warmly welcomed de Soto during a ceremony that took place near the entrance of DeSoto Caverns. Despite the Micco's kindness and an offer of land, de Soto took him hostage and took slaves from among the Coosa people.
18th century
During George Washington's presidency, Benjamin Hawkins was appointed General Superintendent for Indian Affairs, with responsibility for all Native American tribes south of the Ohio River. In December 1796, he visited the upper Creek Indian territory and in his report to the president described the magnificence of DeSoto Caverns. This report makes DeSoto Caverns the first officially recorded cave in the United States.
