| Burritt Museum Interesting Notes | |
*Burritt Museum & Park is 1580 feet above sea level.
*The Park contains 167 acres and is 960 feet above the valley floor.
*The grounds are open daily at 7 a.m., closing at 7 p.m. from April through September and at 5 p.m. from October through March.
*Membership in the Museum is available through the Burritt Museum Association. Individual memberships begin at $15 and family memberships at $25. These are renewable annually and tax deductible to the extent allowed by law.
*The Cross was erected in 1963 by the Huntsville Ministerial Association with donations from local churches and businessmen. It is constructed of 3'x4' steel and concrete block sections; 74 feet high and 31 feet wide. The front surface of marblized chips reflects light from floodlights near the base. It is maintained by city and county governments.
*The Coal Mine is a dog-leg mine active prior to the Civil War. During the occupation of Huntsville, the Union Army confiscated the ouput of the mine for their use. Operations were expanded after the war when as many as 30 wagons a day hauled coal to the city. Miners earned one dollar per 100 pounds of coal dug, with some workers earning as much as $33 a day. Coal was mined on the mountain as late as 1899. DO NOT ENTER as the ceiling of the cave is unstable.
*The Natural Well is a pit-cave; opening through a 196-foot vertical shaft, then slanting down a rubble slope to a floor 245 feet below the surface. The cave opens into spectacular Cathedral Hall with a 100 foot high ceiling. The total length of the cave is 1150 feet with several domes and a 20 foot waterfall. The first recorded entry was in 1881. The Huntsville Grotto of the National Speleological Society has mapped the entire cave.
*The Goat Barn Foundation is the concrete pad located on the Rock Bluff Trail beyond the Cross. It is all that remains of the bar in which Dr. Burritt kept his goat herd. The milk from the herd was kept cool by storing it in the coal mine. Because of the many years that the goats freely foraged on the estate, the Museum is continually having to reintroduce native plants to the Park.
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