Front Royal, Virginia
Due to the naturally occurring limestone, the humid environment, and many years of erosion, caverns are prevalent in Virginia. Eight of the caverns are open to the public, though many more may remain undiscovered or unexplored.
Skyline Caverns in Front Royal is one of the most recently discovered, as Walter Amos discovered the caverns in 1937. A retired geologist, Amos was looking for a “tourist cavern” to develop that would be close to the newly opened Shenandoah National Park.
What Walter Amos found was camel crickets, which he knew would only live in dark, damp areas. The caverns themselves had only a small area that needed to be dug out; the rest was well-preserved. Once the cave’s floors were cleaned, Skyline Caverns opened to the general public in 1939.
During the cave excavation, Walter Amos discovered a room blocked by mud. When clearing the room, a pocket of air was rapidly released. Inside the room, Amos found what came to be known as anthodites. An anthodite is an unusual crystal formation that expands in any direction. Skyline Caverns is one of only four known caverns worldwide that contain anthodites, calcium crystals that formed in a vacuum.
As for the cavern features, the American Eagle formation is the oldest and largest formation in Skyline Caverns. It is 15′ * 15′ and over 170,000 years old. Skyline has multiple formations found throughout many rooms. Because Skyline was discovered later than many other caves, the caverns have been better protected from some of the common problems found in caves with excessive human activity.
Caverns are always fascinating to visit, and Virginia is a great state to check out many of these underground features. The current tour at Skyline Caverns covers about 20% of the known distance during a visit. I was curious about the other 80% of the caverns that we did not see on our guided tour. This cave is not accessible unless you can walk, so you should not visit if you have mobility issues. Skyline Caverns is well worth the admission, and I’m glad that we spent some time there on our visit to Shenandoah National Park.
