Manitou Cave of Alabama: A Living Natural Museum and a Walk Through Time

Greater Birmingham chapter of OLLI@UA presents  “Manitou Cave of Alabama: A living Natural Museum and a Walk Through Time.”  The Manitou Cave is a 320-million-year-old Alabama treasure with a long and varied geological, biological, archaeological, cultural and historical significance. The cave was an underground ceremonial location for the Cherokee in the early 1800s before their forced removal on the Trail of Tears, a salt peter mine during the 1860s, one of the first tourist attractions in Alabama in the 1880s, a Cold War fall-out shelter and more. After interstate I-59 opened, travelers bypassed Fort Payne, where the cave is located, and Manitou Cave tourism declined. Manitou Cave closed in 1979 and remained abandoned for the next forty years. A representative of Manitou Cave of Alabama, a not-for-profit organization formed in 2016, will discuss how they have restored and revitalized the vandalized cave, the overgrown property and the derelict historic mid-century modern visitor center. The cave received international recognition because of recent research and discoveries, and in 2021, MCAL was designated as a certified NPS Trail of Tears National Historic Trails Interpretive Center. More of the discoveries and history of this unique Alabama treasure. Free admission.For more information on OLLI classes see www.olli.ua.edu