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.

The book was later translated into English in 1932, The Hermit of the Cavern by May E. Francis, a University of Texas professor.

The cave was closed during WWII because most of the men were away fighting in Europe and strict gas rationing limited travel.

[2] Frank Nicholson (formerly of Carlsbad Caverns) was the first person in modern times to explore the cave all the way to the Cathedral Room.

Bernard was married to Mary Rose (née Kronkosky), who said that Edith Gray and she and their children would worry and wait for the cave explorers to come back out into the light of day.

According to a newspaper article from November 1931[4] in the San Antonio Express News, they had some waterproof molasses buckets that they put their lights in.

In the 1930s, a flag-stop on the San Antonio-Boerne SA&AP train line ran by the cave about 100 yards (91 m) from the entrance.

In 1993, the Walt Disney Company filmed a movie called Father Hood starring Patrick Swayze.

A 45- to 60-minute commercial tour passes through 0.5 miles (0.80 km) of flowstone corridors and winding chambers, which leads 132 feet (40 m) below the surface and into the Cathedral Room.

Below the Cathedral Room is another cave that is only accessible through a drainpipe that was installed in the early 1960s after the natural passage collapsed during a flood.

Also to be found in the cave are microscopic creatures called Stygobromus dejectus, the Cascade Caverns amphipod.

[12] Also, amphibians, crawfish, reptiles, tricolored bats (Pipistrellus), and the rare Cascade Caverns neotenic salamanders live in the cave.

Native American artifacts, human remains, and even a pistol were reportedly found during excavation of the front room.