Found! Santa is working deep inside Rickwood Caverns State Park.

Forget the North Pole.  We just found Santa hard at work in a cave in Alabama at Rickwood Caverns State Park.

Beginning this past weekend Rickwood Caverns, which is near Warrior, Alabama, 25 miles north of Birmingham opened up it special presentation of Santa’s Underground Workshop. The cave is decorated with over 100,000 Christmas lights and of course Santa will be found deep inside the cave daily, hard at work.

“Basically what we are doing now during the Christmas season, is giving back to the community, giving them something really nice and unusual for Christmas. Hopefully folks will enjoy a family outing, because that’s what we are all about,” added Pendergrass.

The special Santa’s Underground Workshop tour will be open through Dec. 23. Admission is $10.

Rickwood Caverns State Park makes a comeback

The cave at Rickwood Caverns was commercialized in the late 50s. The state purchased the area in 1974 to be operated as a State Park. The beloved State Park was recently closed on October 2015 because of funding shortages.  It was re-opened in Spring of 2016.

In November of 2016, the state resolved its State Park funding woes after the voters of Alabama approved a constitutional amendment protecting State Park appropriations.

This fiscal year, two years after its closure, Rickwood actually turned a profit according to Lamar Pendergrass.

If you are interested in seeing Rickwood Caverns without the holiday lights, check it out year round beginning in January. The limestone cave is estimated to be about 260 million years old and about a mile long with a path of 4,962 feet that descends 175 feet underground. It takes about 45 minutes to an hour to take the tour of the caverns.

But of course, now is a great time to bring your family, friends and especially children to experience a memorable tour of lights, natural history and the man himself – Santa.

* Tickets are $10 and children 3 and under are free.  Tour hours are 2 p.m.-8 p.m. December 1-23. Additional information can be found on the State Park website.