Wyandotte Caves
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An old photo of the entrance to Wyandotte Cave
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 Map of Indiana
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| Location | Crawford County, Indiana |
| Nearest city | Leavenworth |
| Coordinates | 38°13′41″N 86°17′46″W / 38.22806°N 86.29611°WCoordinates: 38°13′41″N 86°17′46″W / 38.22806°N 86.29611°W |
| Designated | 1972 |
Wyandotte Caves, a pair of limestone caves located on the Ohio River in Harrison-Crawford State Forest in Crawford County, 5 miles (8 km) north-east of Leavenworth and 12 miles (19 km) from Corydon in southern Indiana, is a popular tourist attraction. Wyandotte Caves were designated a National Natural Landmark in 1972. They are now part of O'Bannon Woods State Park. The cave system is the 5th largest in the state of Indiana.
The term "Wyandotte Caves" is used to refer to Wyandotte Cave (sometimes called the "Historic Cave") and Little Wyandotte Cave (also called Siberts Cave and sometimes called the "New Cave"), but the two caves are completely different. They are located very close to each other, and are owned and managed by the same entity. There the resemblance ends.
Wyandotte Caves began to form in the Pliocene Era, about 2 million years ago. Like most of Southern Indiana's caves, the caves were formed when water dissolved limestone, causing hollow caves to form.
The limestone which forms much of Southern Indiana's bedrock, and from which Wyandotte and other local caves are formed, was first deposited in the Mississippian epoch (360 Ma to 325 Ma), when Indiana was covered by a shallow inland sea.
Although the glaciers of the Pliocene and periods did not quite reach as far south as the area now known as Crawford County, where Wyandotte and Marengo Caves are located, they dramatically influenced the development of those caves.
The Ohio River was formed at this time, and today flows only minutes from Wyandotte Caves. The advancing and retreating glaciers destroyed the pre-existing Teays River, and the Ohio River was formed, draining the land that the Teays once drained. As the glaciers melted, the icy cold water flowing towards the Ohio River (which was then much higher than it is now) dissolved the limestone which is the bedrock for much of Southern Indiana, hollowing out caves such as Wyandotte.
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