Shelta Cave was once one of the eastern United States’s most diverse cave systems. Beetles, salamanders, shrimp, crayfish, and other creatures spent the majority of their time in the dark before Niemiller and other researchers discovered it. Many cave-dwelling species outlive their surface-dwelling relatives due to slower metabolisms, which is a typical evolutionary adaptation to subterranean life. These species are frequently blind and lack pigmentation.
For instance, the red swamp crayfish, the unlucky star of many a Louisiana crawfish boil, can survive for up to five years in the swamps and ditches where they reside. It is believed that the Shelta Cave crayfish has a lifespan similar to the southern cave crayfish, O. australis, which can live up to 22 years.
Shelta Cave is also home to a colony of gray bats. These cute, furry “microbats,” which could fit in the palm of your hand, left behind guano, which served as a valuable source of food for a variety of cave animals, including the Shelta Cave crayfish. The healthy ecosystem of bats, crayfish, and other Shelta Cave animals persisted unharmed for countless years.
Then came businessman Henry M. Fuller. Scott Shaw, who oversees the Shelta Cave Nature Preserve, claims that Fuller acquired the cave in 1888 and gave it his daughter’s name as a dedication. The cavern became a popular gathering place after Fuller added a wooden dance floor and some of the city’s first electric lights a year later. In times of heavy rainfall, when the underground lakes swelled, Fuller even offered boat tours for tourists. Fuller advertised the cave as the “eighth wonder of the world,” boasting that it was “the greatest sight on earth or under the earth” and that “all the discoveries of the old world pale into insignificance in comparison to this.” Shaw admits, “Yeah, it was a big affair, but it wasn’t meant to last.”
Shelta underwent a number of ownership changes after 1896, allegedly even turning into a speakeasy during Prohibition. The National Speleological Society (NSS), a group that investigates and defends caves, acquired the cave in 1967 in order to protect its distinctive ecosystem.
