A man from Laichingen named Johann Georg Mack (image
left), father of nine children, worked as sand digger.
In an area called Schallenlauh, 1 km south of Laichingen, he had found a
rich deposit of dolomite and dolomite sand.
The holes he dug in search of sand can still be seen today.
In the autumn 1892 the Sandmack, how he was called by the citizens of Laichingen, combining his profession and his family name, he mad a big pile of the Sand he found this day. But much to his surprise, the pile was gone the other morning. Were thiefes stealing his sand overnight? A little bit angry, he worked hard to compensate the loss, but this night he watched the sand pile. After some hours he noticed that the sand continously vanished into the earth. So the solutios was a crack in the earth, he opened while digging for sand the other day.
Mack's 16 year old son Ulrich was the first to enter the cave, armed with a rope and a candle. The story goes, that he discovered all the way down 40 Meters to the Great Hall (Große Halle) during tjhis first visit.
After World War I, a group of citizens from Laichingen, Otto Baur, Alfred Feinauer and Christian Lehmann started the systematic exploration and the development as a show cave. They opened an artificial entrance, constructed wooden ladders an pathways and buit a hut above the entrance.
But the wood of the ladders was not the best choice: in the high moisture of the cave the wood started to rot. After several years, the cave tours became very dangerous. In 1930 some enthusiasts decided to build concrete pathes and iron ladders and stairs. This work took until 1945.
1936/37 a new entrance building, a log cabin, was built and electric light installed.
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