Friday evening I had a dinner meeting with Annette Reynolds, the director & steward of Manitou Cave of Alabama. Afterward she took me to the cave grounds so I could see the work that has been completed so far.
The front area has been cleared all the way to the woods and to the pond, which was overgrown with 40 years of grass, trees, and kudzu. The old visitor building/gift shop has a new roof, and the wide trail leading up to the cave entrance has been cleared with new walkways and guard railings in place.
As much work that has been done, however, much more is needed. Hopefully someday, well into the future, it might be brought back to its glory days when it was a tourist attraction. For now it’s just awesome that someone wants to preserve the cave simply for its history. And it’s rich with that.
Some of you might remember visiting the cave when it was open to the public between 1961 and 1973. But the story goes back much further. The name Manitou is an Ojibwa word meaning “Spirit” and it is believed that humans used the cave for thousands of years. It also hosts many fossils and at least one endangered species.
The Cherokee inscriptions inside are now known to be from the Cherokee syllabary, which was created by Sequoyah. English language writings inside the cave date back to 1814. During the Civil War the cave was used as a troop encampment and was mined for saltpeter, which was the main ingredient to make gunpowder.
In 1888 the Fort Payne Coal and Iron Company opened the cave and by 1920 there were concrete steps along with wooden and steel bridges that led to the huge open room they called the “ballroom.” Electric lights were added and the who’s who of the area had mega parties.
This area of Alabama offers so much in the way of natural beauty and historical significance. Little River Canyon, for example, is incredible. We all know now that is was made into a national preserve, which will hopefully allow it to keep the funding needed to make sure it stays authentic and available to visitors and tourists for centuries to come.
But let us not forget the smaller wonders like Manitou Cave of Alabama that are just as important to our past with historical implications as anyplace around these parts. Let us applaud the efforts of Annette Reynolds and those who help her with this enormous task.
If you want to learn more about this project or if you want to see if you can help in any way, please visit the website at www.manitoucaveofal.org.