Cave of the Mounds: Accidentally Discovered Underground
Wisconsin
On August fourth, nineteen thirty-nine, a limestone quarry crew blasting rock on the old Brigham family farm near Blue Mounds accidentally blew open a hole in the earth. What they found stopped all quarrying immediately. Below the farm that Ebenezer Brigham had homesteaded in eighteen twenty-eight lay an elaborate limestone cave, one hundred eleven years undiscovered, filled with stalactites, stalagmites, crystal ponds, and mineral formations built up over millions of years in the dark.
When Cave of the Mounds opened to public tours in May nineteen forty, more than fifty-nine thousand visitors arrived in the first eight weeks. It is a National Natural Landmark today, and the quarry that found it never blasted another stone.
