Title	Zanes Caves
Creator	Ohio Federal Writers' Project
Subject	Caverns Caves--Ohio Stalactites & stalagmites Ohio--History--Pictorial works Federal Writers' Project Geology
Time Period	1930s 1940s
Place	Jefferson Township (Ohio) Logan County (Ohio)
Description	Reverse reads: "Zanes Cave's - Bellefontaine, O. Logan Co." This photograph shows limestone stalactites. Now called Zane Shawnee Caverns, the cave system is located in Jefferson Township, just east of Bellefontaine, Ohio. The caverns are a show cave, or commercial cave, presently owned by the United Remnant Band of the Shawnee Nation. These caverns are located near the Ohio Caverns; both cave systems were formed by the same glacial process which deposited moraine upon nearby Campbell Hill. The land adjacent to Zane Shawnee Caverns was used as a thoroughfare for the Shawnee, as it provided a portage between the Great Miami River and the rivers feeding into Lake Erie, particularly the Maumee River. However, the caverns were not known to modernity until they were discovered in 1892, when John Dunlap rescued a boy and a dog from a sinkhole. The caverns were named the Zane Caverns, after the nearby village of Zanesfield. The caverns were operated as a show cave throughout most of the 20th century. In 1996, the Shawnee Nation URB purchased the caverns and surrounding land, and renamed the site as the Zane Shawnee Caverns. The URB continues to operate the caverns as a show cave, and has also founded the Shawnee Woodland Native American Museum on the site. This museum is among the few Native American museums owned and operated by a Native American tribe, and displays exhibits about George Drouillard, a mixed-blood Shawnee guide, chief hunter and interpreter for the Lewis & Clark Expedition. Also on the cavern site is "Southwind Park" a camping and retreat area which hosts URB events. A small permanent settlement has also been erected at the site.
Date of Original	ca. 1935-1940
Collection	Ohio Guide Photographs
Source	State Archives Series 1039 AV
Submitting Institution	Ohio History Connection
Rights	Online access is provided for research purposes only. For rights and reproduction requests or more information, go to http://www.ohiohistory.org/images/information
Type	StillImage
File Name	SA1039AV_B10F02_012_001.tif
Image Height	3730
Image Width	6096
File Size	90617618 Bytes
Display File Type	image/jp2
Format	picture
Date created	2010-04-29
Date modified	2012-04-26

Zanes Caves

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