About 2,400 feet beneath Humpback Mountain in McDowell County, Steven Mistichelli leads a tour group through Linville Caverns with his flashlight. Stalactites hang down in various shapes and sizes, almost a mirror image of the Blue Ridge skyline that rises about half a mile above.
As he rounds a corner, the low ceilings — on average about seven or eight feet tall — jump to 23 feet. “This is what we call our cathedral room,” he says. He illuminates a small opening above the walkway, guiding visitors’ eyes to a rock formation known as “the wedding scene.” He points out the rough shape of a bishop holding a staff, standing to the left of a couple. “You can almost hear church bells,” he says.
Throughout his tour, Mistichelli reveals images in the formations. In eroded limestone, he sees everything from strips of bacon to a T. rex’s smile. In one of the caverns’ largest stalactites, coated in algae and moss, he sees the face of a green elephant.
This practice is as subjective as looking for shapes in clouds, but if you spent as much time as Mistichelli does in the depths of these ancient caverns, you’d start putting faces to rocks, too. Mistichelli has joined a long list of visitors who’ve stumbled upon the caverns, though each saw something different in the natural wonder.
Open to the public since 1937 and owned by the same family since 1940, Linville Caverns are the state’s only active limestone caverns that visitors can tour. photograph by VisitNC.com
For two local fishermen in 1822, the caverns were the answer to a riddle: How were trout swimming straight into solid rock? The men slid through a fissure to discover another world beneath the mountain — and the disappearing fish.
For lost or deserting Confederate and Union soldiers, the caverns were a refuge from the violence of the Civil War. There was even an alcove that held a small fire to keep the men warm — until locals followed the smoke, leading to their discovery.
For Thomas Edison, who sent an expedition here in search of platinum for his incandescent lamps, the caverns presented an opportunity for innovation and progress. The 1884 expedition was led by William Earl Hidden, who never found any platinum but did carve his initials into one of the walls.
Today, Mistichelli and other guides lead new visitors through the caverns. As its wonders are revealed, they, too, discover a place that’s almost unimaginable.
Linville Caverns
19929 U.S. Highway 221 North
Marion, NC 28752
(828) 756-4171
linvillecaverns.com
In Linville Caverns, water drips from the walls and stalactites and flows through fissures in the rock, delivering trout and salamanders from the North Fork of the Catawba River into the caverns’ cool embrace. But there’s one place beneath Humpback Mountain where the walls narrow and the water sits as still as glass.
In a corner of the caverns, tour groups carefully step onto a metal grate that rests over the Bottomless Pool. It got its name in the 1930s, when a 250-foot weighted line was dropped into the pool and never touched the bottom. In 2005, divers explored the water, but again, they couldn’t locate the bottom. Some have even used underwater cameras to navigate the pool, but because of the many ledges along its walls, it’s almost impossible to determine where the bottom is — if there is one.
Tour guide Steven Mistichelli has other theories. He thinks that those folks in the 1930s just needed a longer line. Standing over the pool, he says with a wink. “I believe that’s about 251 feet.”
When you’re touring Linville Caverns, pay attention to the dark corners, nooks, and crannies: You might see some of the caverns’ year-round residents.
illustration by JAMES OLSTEIN
As you walk through the door that separates the caverns from the outside world, a stream from the nearby river parallels your path. That’s where salamanders and mountain trout enter the caverns. Tour guides throw trout food their way throughout the day.
illustration by JAMES OLSTEIN
Hundreds of bats once hibernated in the caverns, but their numbers have been dwindling due to white-nose syndrome. Bats help control insect populations in and outside the caverns, so if you’re lucky enough to see one, say thank you.
If you spot a tiny eight-legged creature while you’re ducking under stalactites, you could be looking at the rare Linville Caverns Spider. The arachnid’s orange-and-yellow coloring blends into the walls, which might explain why it wasn’t discovered until 1947.
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