Lost Sea is an example of the rich tapestry of tourist attractions in East Tennessee

8/30/2011

The Lost Sea, it seems, has been found by tourists visiting East Tennessee.

The natural attraction in East Tennessee has a history as interesting as it is long, and it fits well with other natural and human-made attractions in the area as well as the entire landscape, which offers remarkable sights for visitors as well as homegrown Tennesseans. The site attracts 170,000 visitors yearly.

Tourism jolts the local and statewide economy with a $13.3 billion impact and accounts for the employment of about 175,000 people, according to the Tennessee Department of Tourist Development. It is big business — and a successful one if our visitors enjoy what they see.

The Lost Sea adds to the rich diversity of attractions in East Tennessee, ranging from the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in Knoxville and the American Museum of Science and Energy in Oak Ridge. Add the Cherokee National Forest, Cades Cove and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and the playground for tourists is almost endless.

Of course, it is doubtful that anyone inhabited the Lost Sea's home in Craighead Caverns 20,000 years ago when a Pleistocene jaguar stumbled into the caves and couldn't find its way out. Tracks were discovered deep inside the cave.

Some of the animal's bones, found in 1939, are displayed at the American Museum of Natural History in New York; others are in the attraction's visitor center, according to the Lost Sea website.

The Cherokees were there in the early 19th century. During the Civil War, Confederate troops mined the caverns for saltpeter, which they could use in manufacturing gunpowder.

The caverns are the first natural formations that visitors to the attraction come across. The fact that it takes about 40 minutes before visitors make it to the underground sea is a testament to the importance of the caves and what is in them: a rare crystalline formation, commonly called cave flowers.

These are so abundant that the U.S. Department of Interior designated the Lost Sea as a Registered Natural Landmark. That is an honor the Lost Sea shares with such wonders as Cape Hatteras National Seashore in North Carolina and Yosemite National Park in California.

The underground sea is even more mysterious than the caves because no one knows the full extent of it. What tourists see is an 800-foot-long-by-200-foot-wide portion, and they can travel in glass-bottom boats and view large rainbow trout that inhabit the sea.

Source: Knoxville News Sentinel