Three Caves - Land Trust of North Alabama Huntsville, Alabama

Just two miles from downtown Huntsville, tucked inside a residential area, you’ll find an interesting remnant of local history. Three Caves sits among the trees on Land Trust of North Alabama’s Monte Sano Nature Preserve. Despite its name, it’s actually not a cave at all but a former limestone mine, originally known as Hermitage Quarry.

Beginning in spring 1945, Madison County leased the site to the Madison Limestone Company. For the next seven years, limestone harvested from the ground paved many of Huntsville’s streets and parking lots as the surrounding area quickly grew. To more easily access the higher quality limestone located further underground, a method of mining called “room and pillar” was used. This created the three cave-like openings that give the site its current name. There is also a maze of connecting caverns that extend approximately 6 acres underground.

In 1952, the quarry operation was closed due to skyrocketing costs and growth of the City of Huntsville that encroached closer and closer to the mine. The quarry site remained unused for the next several years with a couple of exceptions. During the Cuban Missile Crisis, officials designated it as a fallout shelter. It has served as a film site for movies and even a music video. (“The Ravagers” in 1978, “What Waits Below” in 1984, and Kansas’ “Reason to Be” in the early eighties)