Ruby Falls is a tall waterfall in Ruby Falls Cave of Lookout Mountain, in Chattanooga, Tennessee, United States. The cave is commercialized with electric lights, paved foot trails, and an elevator for access. The waterfall may only be visited by guided tour.

Geology

About 300 to 360 million years ago (in the Carboniferous Period, at the end of the Paleozoic Era), the eastern Tennessee area was covered with a shallow sea, the sediments of which eventually formed limestone rock. About 200 million years ago, this area was uplifted, forming Lookout Mountain and nearby ridges. Slightly acidic groundwater running through cracks in the limestone slowly dissolved the relatively soluble rock, causing narrow cracks to widen into passages. This process, called chemical weathering, caused various caves to form inside Lookout Mountain.

Among them were Lookout Mountain Cave, which had a natural entrance that opened to the surface, and Ruby Falls Cave, which did not. The two were unconnected until developers joined them to create Lookout Mountain Caverns. Ruby Falls Cave is the upper of the two and contains a variety of geological formations and curiosities that Lookout Mountain Cave does not have.

The Falls are located at the end of the main passage of Ruby Falls Cave, in a vertical shaft called a dome/pit. Like all caves in the region, the waterfall is naturally seasonally dependent and would be dry during certain times of the year. However, water is artificially circulated via pumps to maintain water flow year-round.

History

thumb|left|Lookout Mountain Castle

Ruby Falls Cave was discovered in 1928. The cave had no known natural entrances and thus it lacked the artifacts sometimes associated with caves in the southeastern United States.

In 1905, the natural entrance to the neighboring Lookout Mountain Cave was closed during the construction of a railway tunnel. In the 1920s, a chemist and cave enthusiast named Leo Lambert thought that he could re-open the cave as a tourist attraction, and formed a company to do so. He planned to make an opening farther up the mountain than the original opening and transport tourists to the cave via an elevator. For this purpose, his company purchased land on the side of Lookout Mountain above Lookout Mountain Cave and in 1928 began to drill through the limestone. In doing so, they discovered a small passageway about high and wide. Exploring this opening, Lambert discovered the never-before-seen underground waterfall.

After the discovery of Ruby Falls Caves, the tunnelers kept digging to locate the original cave they were searching for, the Lookout Mountain caverns, which they reached after approximately of tunneling ( below the summit of the mountain). On December 30, 1929 the Lookout Mountain caverns were open to the public, and by the following year in June the Ruby Falls cave was expanded and opened as well. By 1935 the lower of the two caves was blocked off due to Ruby Falls being the far more popular of the two caves.

In 1954, the pathway around the basin was cut in order to allow tourists a better view of the falls.

In April 2007, the National Speleological Society (NSS) published "Caves of Chattanooga" by Larry E. Matthews. Chapter 3, "Ruby Falls Cave", covers the history of Ruby Falls Cave from its discovery in 1928 through 2007 (includes 23 illustrations). Chapter 1, "Lookout Mountain Cave", covers the cave Leo Lambert was drilling for when he accidentally discovered Ruby Falls Cave.

Tourism and advertising

thumb|Ruby Falls, the deepest underground waterfall in a commercialized cave in the [[United States]]

thumb|Entrance to Ruby Falls

Lambert decided to open both caves to the public, although Lookout Mountain Cave was closed in 1935 since it was not as popular with tourists A large number of billboards were placed along I-75 in the 1970s and 1980s with the words "SEE RUBY FALLS" beginning hundreds of miles north and south of the falls itself.

See also

  • Cloudland Canyon State Park
  • List of waterfalls

Notes

  • Ruby Falls Official Website
  • City of Lookout Mountain, TN
  • Dread Hollow
  • Lookout Mountain Information