Mercer Caverns

The cave was first known to an Indian Tribe called the Yokuts, who used it as a mortuary cave. They brought the bodies to the opening and let them roll down inside. They were hunters and moved their camp to follow the game, the cave was forgotten and the entrance filled with leaves and rocks.

Mercer Caverns was named after its discoverer, the gold prospector Walter J. Mercer. On a hot summer day, when resting in the shade under some trees near a limestone rock he felt a current of cool air. He saw dry grass around a small hole, about the size of his fist, where he felt a strong draft of cool air. A small rock he dropped into the hole fell for a long time. He opened the hole a bit more, got some rope and a candle and went inside. What he discovered was amazing.

The cave was opened to the public immediately after its discovery and a little work on securing the entrance. The guest books, signed by paying customers, date back to September 1885.

The cave is renowned for a wide range of speleothems. Beneath the calcite-based speleothems like stalacties, stalagmites, curtains and so forth, there is a range of aragonite minerals. The frost-like deposits are called Flos Ferri. The term describes a coral-like variety or habit of aragonite, not a mineral species, and translates iron flower.

Located on Sheep Ranch Road near Murphys

Follow the signs from downtown Murphys. Summer hours: Daily, 10 a.m. to 8:30 p.m., Memorial Day through September 30. Winter hours: October through May, Sunday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.