Longhorn Cavern

Longhorn Cavern was not dissolved out of the limestone in the usual slow way. It was cut, by an underground river that ran through the Burnet County rock and then receded thousands of years ago, which is why the passages are rounded and smooth rather than sharp, and why the walls look scoured. It was named a National Natural Landmark in 1971.

The human history is unusually crowded. Native people used the cave long before anyone wrote about it. Confederate soldiers are recorded as having used it during the Civil War. It has an outlaw story attached, involving Sam Bass and a stash of money, which the park itself is careful to call folklore rather than fact, and that is the honest way to hold it.

The strangest chapter is the most recent. In the late 1920s and early 1930s, local people ran the cavern as a nightclub. Bands played underground through the night and the shows were broadcast by radio back to San Antonio. It was known then as Sherrard's Cave, and it kept that life until it was dedicated as a state park in November 1933.

From 1934 to 1942, Company 854 of the Civilian Conservation Corps did the work that made it visitable: they built Park Road 4, the residences, pavilions and an observation tower in the National Park Service rustic style, and they shifted something like two and a half tons of silt, debris and guano out of the cave by hand before building the stairs and walkways. The administration building was listed as a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 1989.

The park covers about 646 acres. Walking tours run daily and last around ninety minutes on a well made path, with wild cave tours for anyone who would rather crawl. Chamber music returned to the cave in 2006, which given the nightclub years is less of a novelty than it sounds.