Located in Blount County near the former resort town of Blount
Springs, Bangor Cave is best known for its incarnation as a
nightclub and gambling hall in the late 1930s. Some decades
before that, however, it was a popular tourist destination for
locals and for patrons of the mineral springs at the Blount
Springs resort. Discovered in the late nineteenth century,
reportedly by state geologist Walter B. Jones, Bangor Cave is
located about four miles northeast of Blount Springs. It occurs
in a rock formation known as the Bangor Limestone, which dates
to the Mississippian period (360 to 325 million years ago). The
cave was formed as acidic groundwater percolated through small
cracks and fissures in the limestone beds, which had become
tilted during mountain-building periods in the Earth's geologic
history. The cave ceiling still displays wavy patterns created
by the flowing water. A 1933 Geological Survey of Alabama report
suggests that the cave was formed at least in part by the
settling of the cave's floor as a