Discover America’s Largest Underground Lake, The Lost Sea, in the Foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains
In the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains is America’s largest and the world’s second largest underground lake, The Lost Sea. The lake is located in an extensive cave system known as Craighead Caverns, a National Park Service National Natural Landmark, located in Sweetwater, TN.
The caverns are named after their former owner Cherokee Chief Craighead and were used by the Native Americans as a tribal council meeting place. In 1939, 20,000 year-old bones and footprints of a giant Pleistocene jaguar were discovered in Craighead Caverns and are now on display at the Museum of Natural History in New York City. There are markings on the walls of the cave left by Confederate soldiers who mined saltpeter in the cave during the Civil War.
The underground lake was discovered in 1905 by 13-year-old Ben Sands. At 220 feet wide and 800 feet long, The Lost Sea has made it into the Guinness World Records. The Lost Sea is second only to Dragon’s Breath Cave as the world’s largest, non-subglacial, underground lake. That cave is located in Namibia, a country in southern Africa.
HeySmokies’ own intrepid reporter Laurie Crater Battles, recently visited The Lost Sea for a first-hand account of this amazing adventure deep under the mountains:
Go underground at The Lost Sea Adventure in Sweetwater, Tennessee for a land and water experience that’ll have your family talking for years! I love caves. I suppose that makes me a cave woman (who reads an awful lot). I was not surprised to find myself relishing every minute of a recent tour of this fabulous attraction. It’s basically a wide-open cavern, complete with twists, turns, ups and downs, and eons of history that also features a 4-acre lake you can traverse by glass-bottomed boat. What could be better for the urban adventurer? Nothing, I submit to you!
Though visiting in winter means you don’t get to tour the attraction’s village of historical shops and sites (more about that later), what it does mean is that you are not sandwiched into the throng (up to 1,000-person-a-day strong) that passes through the doors of this place every summer. You get to hop into a tour with a handful of others and meander through the place at a leisurely pace. You’re not crowded. You get good pictures and, best of all, you can savor this unique and wonderful natural phenomenon.
As soon as you enter the caverns, you’re treated to a vista that’s fairly expansive. You can see bends in the path, lit by recessed illumination that was added to give you a feel for the nooks and crannies that give the cave character. Your tour guide will fill you in on where to spot crystals and formations (like the larger one that resembles giant slices of bacon) and regale you with stories of Indians meeting in secret (See the smoke stains?) and Confederate soldiers using stalagmites for target practice.
Calcium deposits on the ceiling produce a substance that has “Neosporin”-like healing properties. Plants in the caverns grow due to the spores brought in by people like me. There is a secretive world underground here, and it’s fun to explore it.
