Ruby Falls

Ruby Falls, a thundering 145-foot waterfall is located on Lookout Mountain in Chattanooga. On your fun-filled and educational tour you will delight in viewing intriguing formations and have the opportunity to walk behind the sparkling waterfall. Millions of visitors thrilled for 75 years.

Ruby Falls Cave, unlike Lookout Mountain Cave, had no natural openings and could not be entered until the 20th Century; it therefore does not have the various artifacts which are often associated with caves in the southeastern United States. In 1905 the natural entrance to Lookout Mountain Cave was closed during the construction of a railway tunnel. In the 1920s a chemist and cave enthusiast named Leo Lambert thought that he could re-open the cave as atourist attraction, and formed a company to do so. He planned to make an opening further up the mountain than the original opening and transport tourists to the cave via an elevator. For this purpose, his company purchased land on the side of Lookout Mountain above Lookout Mountain Cave and in 1928 began to drill through the limestone. In doing so, they discovered a small passageway about 18 inches high and four feet wide. Exploring this opening, Lambert discovered the formerly hidden Ruby Falls Cave and its waterfall. On his next trip to visit the cave, Lambert took his wife Ruby, and told her that he would name the falls after her.


Tourism and Advertising

Lambert decided to open both caves to the public, although Lookout Mountain Cave was closed in 1935 since it was not very popular with tourists, who were much more impressed with the upper cave. Public tours began in 1930. Electric lights were installed in the cave, making it one of the first commercial caves to be so outfitted.[8] Motorists travelling on I-75 in the 1970s were subjected to dozens - maybe hundreds - of billboards along their route with the words "SEE RUBY FALLS" beginning hundreds of miles north and south of the falls itself. Ruby Falls remains a staple ofChattanooga tourism, operating daily. Ruby Falls is owned by the Steiner family of Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Ruby Falls and the larger Lookout Mountain Caverns complex have been designated a National Historic Landmark. It is often associated with the nearby Rock City attraction, which lies atop Lookout Mountain.