SAN ANTONIO – In May, a new cavern was found at the Natural Bridge Caverns and since then cavers have been exploring it. Now they say they’ve carbon dated guano and say it came from bats thousands of years ago.

• Cave expeditions can take 19 hours
• Crew members carry 30 to 50 lbs. when going inside
• Now being called Travertine Passage

The new cave was discovered while cavers were looking for a connection to an already known area. Instead they found the 600-foot cavern, which has now been named the Travertine Passage.

Natural Bridge Caverns says this is the largest discovery inside the cave system since 1967.

Since the discovery, crews have been working on surveying the cave including documenting the interior with maps, sketches, photos, and video.

They’ve even found an additional chamber large enough to fit a regulation size tennis court with spectators.

There is still additional exploration that is still going on inside the cave.

One of the discoveries found were abandoned bat roosts and guano piles. Samples taken from the piles are estimated to be 6,300 and 7,500 years old.

It takes about 6 hours for cavers to travel to just the entrance of this cave and because of this, owners of the property are looking into whether drilling a new entrance is an option.

Natural Bridge Caverns says this could allow for a safer and fast route inside that would help preserve the natural entrance.