Limestone mine The mine was originally called Louisville Crushed Stone. It was created by a massive
limestone quarry—with miners blasting out rock for over 42 years during the middle of the 20th century. It was acquired in 1989 by private investors who saw the potential to develop a portion of the space into an environmentally-conscious high security commercial storage facility.
Renovation Business park Exhausted of its mineable limestone, the property was purchased by Jim Lowry, Tom Tyler and Don Tyler in 1989 to be made into a "high-security business park". In February 2015, the mine housed 12 businesses in around .
Storage Because of its relatively stable temperature around and humidity, the mine was renovated to be used for storage. To be useful, the floor was raised by filling in parts of the mine with
recycled materials. A
fire-resistant safety corridor was also installed as an emergency exit. Various rooms are located throughout the mine to store various items from
road salt and vehicles to pretzels and amusement park rides.
Tourism In 2009, the Mega Cavern began offering a
Jeep-drawn tour of the area where the floor had been raised. Around Christmas, the mine hosts "Lights Under Louisville" where visitors can drive through the mine and view lighted holiday decorations; it is the largest such underground display in the world. Several years later, a
zipline tour and a ropes course were added to the offerings. With national and international attention, an underground
mountain bike park was opened to riders of all skill levels in February 2015. It was designed by
Joe Prisel with families in mind, and constructed in over 3 months. With 45 trails in of the mine's space, it was the world's largest indoor
bicycle park. The of trails (over interconnected) include "
jump lines,
pump tracks,
dual slalom,
BMX,
cross country, and
singletrack" and signs to indicate the difficulty of the trails. Bike rentals were planned to be offered in the near future. Partially due to the Mega Cavern's recycling business that filled the mine, trails were built with in layers with a rough bottom, sticky, red clay middle, and "good stuff" on top. The bike park is permanently closed. == See also ==