Rawhiti Cave become increasingly finer deeper down into the cave. A short walking track leads halfway down into the cavernous opening to a viewing platform. The diverse twilight-zone flora near the entrance of Rawhiti Cave makes this cave nationally significant. Over long periods of time, plant growth on the cave formations causes them to grow towards the sunlight as more calcium carbonate is deposited regularly on top of the plant growth. This phenomenon, called phytokarst, is most evident on the larger stalactites near the cave entrance, which are strongly curved outwards due to the heavy moss and fern growth on their sunlit
Cave of the Mounds air instead of water, the water droplets coming from the "lifeline", which are saturated with dissolved calcium carbonate, deposit solid calcium carbonate, which builds up over time to create speleothems. This is a very gradual process, usually taking 50 to 150 years to form one cubic inch of material, and continues to this day. The area around the Blue Mounds, Dane County, was first settled by Europeans in 1828 by Ebenezer Brigham, a successful lead miner from Massachusetts. He had traveled to Wisconsin to join in the lead rush of the late 1820s. After arriving, he set up operations just