Longhorn Caverns is rich in history and folklore. It is a young geologic formation only a few million years old. Bones of elephant, bison, bear, deer, and other animals have been found there. When white men came to the area in the 1840s, Indians already knew the caverns, and Rangers once found and rescued a kidnapped girl from Indians in "Council Room." During the Civil War, from 1861 to 1865, gunpowder was manufactured and stored there. In the 1870s outlaws, including the Sam Bass gang, sometimes lived in the cavern. It was the site of a night club in the 1920s and was opened to the public in 1932.