Forestville Mystery Cave State Park is a state park in

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

. It contains the village of Forestville, which has been restored to a 19th-century appearance. The Minnesota Historical Society operates it as a historic site. Below ground the park contains Mystery Cave, the state's longest

cave A cave or cavern is a natural void in the ground, specifically a space large enough for a human to enter. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground. The word ''cave'' can refer to smaller openings such as sea ...

, which is open to the public. The park is between Spring Valley and

Preston, Minnesota Preston is a city in Fillmore County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 1,325 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Fillmore County. The Root River runs through it, and Mystery Cave State Park is nearby. It bills itself as " ...

Mystery Cave

The park is in the

Driftless Area The Driftless Area, a topographical and cultural region in the American Midwest, comprises southwestern Wisconsin, southeastern Minnesota, northeastern Iowa, and the extreme northwestern corner of Illinois. Never covered by ice during the las ...

, noted for its karst topography, which includes

sinkhole A sinkhole is a depression or hole in the ground caused by some form of collapse of the surface layer. The term is sometimes used to refer to doline, enclosed depressions that are locally also known as ''vrtače'' and shakeholes, and to openi ...

s and

s. The park is about from Mystery Cave and occupies approximately , with camping, interpretive programs, and hiking, horseback, cross-country skiing trails, cold water streams and excellent trout fishing. The cave includes stalactites, stalagmites, and underground pools, and is a constant . It has over of passages in two rock layers and is being resurveyed and remapped by volunteers.

Geologic history

About 450 million years ago sedimentary rocks were deposited as the land was intermittently covered by shallow seas that transgressed and regressed. Over the eons the alternating deposits of mud and oceanic debris were compressed to form

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

, shale and

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates ...

layers. Today these layers are above sea level. Within the last 500,000 to 1,000,000 years, flood waters dissolved along fractures in the limestone bedrock to create most of the cave. Acidic rainwater also sculpted the land above and around the cave, creating thousands of

sinkholes A sinkhole is a depression or hole in the ground caused by some form of collapse of the surface layer. The term is sometimes used to refer to doline, enclosed depressions that are locally also known as ''vrtače'' and shakeholes, and to openi ...

and other karst features in the surrounding county.

Wildlife

The park contains a range of wildlife, from relatively rare species such as glacial snails and

timber rattlesnake The timber rattlesnake, canebrake rattlesnake, or banded rattlesnake (''Crotalus horridus'') Wright AH, Wright AA (1957). ''Handbook of Snakes of the United States and Canada''. Ithaca and London: Comstock Publishing Associates, a division of ...

s to common species such as

deer Deer or true deer are hoofed ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. The two main groups of deer are the Cervinae, including the muntjac, the elk (wapiti), the red deer, and the fallow deer; and the Capreolinae, including the re ...

raccoon The raccoon ( or , ''Procyon lotor''), sometimes called the common raccoon to distinguish it from other species, is a mammal native to North America. It is the largest of the procyonid family, having a body length of , and a body weight of ...

, beaver, two species of fox, mink, opossum,

woodchuck The groundhog (''Marmota monax''), also known as a woodchuck, is a rodent of the family Sciuridae, belonging to the group of large ground squirrels known as marmots. The groundhog is a lowland creature of North America; it is found through m ...

, and four species of

squirrels Squirrels are members of the family Sciuridae, a family that includes small or medium-size rodents. The squirrel family includes tree squirrels, ground squirrels (including chipmunks and prairie dogs, among others), and flying squirrels. Squ ...

. Coyotes howl at dusk. Numerous reptiles and amphibians are present. At least 175 species of birds have also been recorded. The South Branch of the Root River contains brown trout, brook trout, and rainbow trout.

Historic Forestville

The Minnesota Historical Society operates Historic Forestville as a

living museum A living museum, also known as a living history museum, is a type of museum which recreates historical settings to simulate a past time period, providing visitors with an experiential interpretation of history. It is a type of museum that recrea ...

set in 1899. Costumed interpreters portray Forestville residents and go about daily activities in the general store, house, kitchen, farm, and barn. Forestville was a rural trade center in the 1800s that declined after the railroad was built elsewhere in 1868. Thomas Meighen, son of one of the town's founders, owned the entire village by 1890, including the general store, and the local residents worked on his property for housing and credit in the store. Admission to Historic Forestville is separate from the caves. Historic Forestville is open from May through October.

References

External links

Forestville/Mystery Cave State Park

Minnesota Historical Society: Historic Forestville
{{authority control 1941 establishments in Minnesota Caves of Minnesota Driftless Area Landforms of Fillmore County, Minnesota Living museums in Minnesota Minnesota Historical Society Minnesota state historic sites Museums in Fillmore County, Minnesota Protected areas established in 1941 Protected areas of Fillmore County, Minnesota Show caves in the United States State parks of Minnesota Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Minnesota National Register of Historic Places in Fillmore County, Minnesota