Sauta Cave National Wildlife Refuge in northeastern Alabama preserves a cave with a long human history and major ecological importance. Cherokee people mined saltpeter there, and in 1819 Jackson County briefly used the cave as its county seat. Mining continued through the War of 1812 and the Civil War, when about 60 enslaved men were forced to work for the Confederate Ordnance Bureau, leaving physical traces still visible. In the 20th century the site also served as a fishing store, nightclub, and fallout shelter. Acquired by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 1978, it is now chiefly valued as a sanctuary for bats and other sensitive cave wildlife.