The caverns were discovered in 1974, when
cavers Gary Tenen and Randy Tufts found a narrow crack in the bottom of a
sinkhole, and followed the source of warm, moist air toward what ended up being more than of pristine cave passages. Randy Tufts, PhD, who at the time of his death was a geologist and lunar and planetary scientist for
NASA, was introduced to caving as a young boy by his maternal uncle, who was also a geologist. His uncle showed Randy caves in Arizona that had been vandalized in various ways including graffiti, litter, and the theft of stalactites and stalagmites. At the age of 13, Randy read an English children's adventure book entitled, "Five Boys in a Cave." This book inspired him. At the time he decided to find a cave that had not ever been vandalized and protect it. For years, Randy would take his college peers out to the Whetstone limestone mountain range looking for caves, walking a grid, with no success until they asked a local miner if he had ever heard of a local cave. The miner pointed to the foothills below them. There they foundand nearly fell intoa deep sink hole filled with rattlesnakes. At the time, although they had found a sink hole and a small cave chamber, they did not think that the cave "went" anywhere. It was years later when Randy was on a picnic luncheon date, that he found another sink hole. He went home to gather his caving gear and asked Gary Tenen to join him to explore the new sink hole. That new sink hole was also disappointing, but Randy and Gary decided upon a whim to return to the prior sink hole. This time they could smell bat guano, a hint that the cave might be much larger than they had originally thought. It was after crawling the length of a football field, sometimes on their bellies, with only carbide lamps for light, that they came to a very small bat hole. After chipping away at the hole for hours they entered the "Big Room". While there, they realized that this discovery could place the caverns at risk. In 1985,
The Nature Conservancy acquired an option to purchase the land. The discovery of the cave was finally made public in 1988 when the landowners sold the area to the state for development as a park and show cavern. Prior to its grand opening in 1999, the state spent $28 million on a high-tech system of air-lock doors, misting machines and other equipment designed to preserve the cave. == Tourism information ==