Located in Cardwell Mountain two miles north, the cave was discovered about 1810 by Aaron Higgenbotham, an early surveyor and turnpike builder. For over a century it has been renowned for its vastness and rare formations. Higgenbotham built a nearby road over which Cherokees descended the mountain on the Trail of Tears in 1838. During the Civil War, saltpeter was mined in the cave for the manufacture of Confederate gunpowder.