Brushy Creek cave not first natural wonder discovered in Williamson County

Finding a 22-foot-tall underground cave came as a surprise for brushy creek neighbors Thursday. But caves are not uncommon for Williamson county. In the 1960's the Inner Space Cavern was discovered by highway workers building I-35.

Taunya Vessels with Inner Space Cavern said there is a great deal of limestone in the area creating the natural wonders.

"When it rains outside the water trickles into the ground and mixes with the cave plant and animal matter which makes a light carbonic acid and that seeps into all a little cracks and stuff in the limestone and eventually will eat the soft as part of the rock and that's what forms the cave," Vessel said. “People don't know they are living on top of caves there's probably a lot of even better more beautiful caves than ours that hasn't been discovered."

The cave in Brushy Creek was discovered when homeowners realized they didn’t have any water. Geologists mapped the cave Friday and learned the cave is 45 feet wide and 160 feet long extending underneath three homes.

Brushy Creek neighbors said they are waiting to learn more about the cave and its ceiling stability. Williamson County official Connie Odom said they won't know the stability until the structural engineers take a look at it.

"Our environmental folks when they came out didn't have a concern but certainly that's everyone's individual choice and we are going to be meeting with homeowners individually to make sure that we keep them on the information that we have."

Inner Space Cavern has several layers of rock and limestone about 50 feet from the surface that help protect the cavern from collapsing.