Tucked into the ridges above Bridgeport, Russell Cave holds a story that stretches nearly nine millennia. You follow a shaded boardwalk to a vast rock shelter where people cooked, crafted, and thrived long before written history.
Even if you cannot step inside, the layers beneath your feet reveal meals, tools, and choices across changing climates and cultures. Ready to see how one limestone cave became a time capsule of America’s deep past?
An 8,700-Year Timeline
Stand at the mouth of Russell Cave and imagine time stacked like pages. Archaeologists traced an arc from about 6500 BCE to roughly 1650 CE, with people returning so often the floor rose several feet.
Fire pits, shell, and bone mark quiet dinners and busy seasons, a long conversation between families and this shelter…