The Cave Spring Historical Society hopes to discover Tuesday what’s behind the walls of the Green Hotel on Broad Street. They have an idea, but won’t know until they start “skinning” the surface of the old hotel.

Dianna Edwards Haney, with The Green Hotel/Log Cabin Committee, said the right side of the Green Hotel, which closed in the 1950s, had bowed outward, and within a hole a log can be seen.

“It was always rumored that there was a log cabin at the core of the hotel,” she said. “It could be a stagecoach post, dating back to 1840 or 1850, or it could even date back to the Cherokee, which could be 1830 or earlier.”

Current owner William Benefield has given permission to the historical society to uncover the log cabin, Haney said.

The historical society will be working with experts in cabin restoration from Paul Davis Restoration and members of the Georgia Historic Trust to essentially “skin” the historic Green Hotel.

Haney explained that the first phase of the operation will be to “skin” the area where the cabin is, removing a portion of the old hotel’s outer walls.

She said the Cave Spring Historical Society has agreed to fund the first phase, which will cost $1,200.

The second phase could be the preservation of the cabin, and that cost has not been determined.

Anyone is welcome to come to watch as the cabin is uncovered Tuesday at 9 a.m., Haney said.

“The Historical Society will have tables and refreshments and will be selling the blue shingles from the hotel as souvenirs to raise funds towards the extraction and restoration of the cabin,” Haney said. “Whatever’s in there has been in there conservatively for 127 years.”