Cascade Caverns

The cave has been open to the environment for many tens of thousands of years, as evidenced by prehistoric animal finds and Lipan Apache artifacts from the 1700s. In the mid-19th century, various legends existed about a hermit who lived on the ledge at the entrance to the cave. In 1878, August Siemering, one of the co-founders of the San Antonio Express News, wrote the book Ein Verfehltes Leben (A Stolen Life, or A Wasted Life) about a hermit who lived in the cave. The book was later translated into English in 1932, The Hermit of the Cavern by May E. Francis, a University of Texas professor.