Russell Cave National Monument is a U.S. national monument in northeastern Alabama, United States, close to the city of Bridgeport. The monument was established on May 11, 1961, when 310 acres of land were donated by the National Geographic Society to the American people.
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its not what it used to be back in the 1970s and 80s. you could go in cave back then, now you can not, the rangers are too busy watching t.v. to talk with you, the last time i was by there, a young arrogant ranger was to busy with t.v. to answer questions about a book. if you go hiking i do have a warning, they are some big rattlesnakes there. sometimes in summer, be careful and stop close to the bridge, you just might find a good size rattler on the outside of the bridge rails sunning over the creek. now for anyone planning on coming here and never have been before, its not a hop skip and jump from the i24 in kimball tn, its 4 lane most of the way then tiny back roads loaded with deer, and they have no fear in darting out in front of you. just when you think you reached the end of civilization you will reach the cave. but there is hope, just a few more miles you come up on some actually living people again in Orme Tn . to be honest there is nothing to see here, i would actually take this place off a national monument, its a waste of tax payers money to keep the t.v. watching ranger paid. everything was removed from the inside of the cave back in the 1950s. so its just a big empty cave with plenty of vipers. there is a picnic area, you better have your own food, because there is no restaurants for miles and miles. listen this is the brutal honest truth about...
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I am a travel writer for National Park Planner and I visited Russell Cave National Monument in February, 2014. Russell Cave is located in the northeast corner of Alabama, not far from the Tennessee/Alabama state line near the town of Bridgeport. Created in 1961, the monument preserves a cave shelter that was inhabited off and on for nearly 9000 years. Artifacts dating all the way back to the Paleo-Hunter period of the southeastern United States have been found in the cave.
The park includes a Visitor Center with a small museum. A picnic area is located near the Visitor Center. Guests are welcome to visit the cave shelter on their own or on a Ranger guided tour. Currently tours are offered daily at 11 AM, but times can change so be sure the check the park’s Guided Tours web page for the latest schedule. Tours lasts about 30 minutes. In addition to the cave tour, there are two trails in the park, though one is just a shorter version of the other. As one of the less involving parks in the National Park system, visitors can be in and out of Russell Cave National Monument in one to three hours.
For complete information on the park, please visit National Park...
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I was disappointed with what we could see. Drove over an hour to get there thinking we could go into the cave, but no!! The boardwalk ends about 20 ft from the entrance, and you could barely see inside.
The following is taken from the NPS website:
Russell Cave is an archeological site with one of the most complete records of prehistoric cultures in the Southeast. In the 1950s, archeologists uncovered a large quantity of artifacts representing over 10,000 years of use in a single place.
The cave has yielded projectile points, fishhooks (7500 to 5000 BC and 3500 to 500 BC), basketry (7500 to 5000 BC), and ceramics (7500 BC to 1540 AD). Pottery shards date from the earliest ceramic pieces to those of the early 19th century, and some of the fishhooks are of a type not seen...
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