Nature
Endless Caverns, about 3 miles south of New Market in Virginia, became a Shenandoah Valley attraction after its reported discovery in October 1879, when two boys hunting rabbits on Ruben Zirkle’s land uncovered an opening and explored a series of underground chambers by rope and candlelight. The Zirkle family soon offered candlelit tours, and a major modernization followed after Colonel Brown bought the cave in 1919 and reopened it in August 1920 with electric lighting designed by Phineas Stephens. Later electrical improvements in 1928 further established it as a developed show cave. Today it extends 5.5 miles and reaches 160 feet deep, with bats living inside.
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Virginia · United States
