New Caves in Cedar Park

Zach Szabo, Reporter

Down in the Avery Ranch area, a cave was found on the land sometime ago and is still being worked on to this day.

 

The new owner of the land seeks to turn the caves into an educational opportunity with the growing possibility of working with schools to provide students with programs. We got to speak with Matt Turner about how the cave was originally discovered.

 

“It was found during the construction of the Avery Ranch subdivision, so when they were coming through to do the trenching to put it all these utilities-they have this giant trencher” said Turner. “They were trenching through and they hit a big pocket and contacted some cavers, had their environmental group came out to look at it to decide if it was worth saving. So, they then went ahead and saved it.

 

The caves were originally found sixteen years ago back in 2001. Since that time, the area has been blocked off to prevent people without proper authorization from entering inside. There are still some modifications to be made in order for the caves to be safe for citizens.

 

“We need to do some lights. The lighting in the cave is no longer where it should be. We hope to make it a little brighter” said Turner.
The Texas Cave Management Association has been putting in a lot of effort to conserve and make use of these caves. Although it will take some more time, Turner seems to believe that the cave will have made great progress in the not-too-distant future.