HERMITAGE, Tenn. -- A giant sinkhole at the Hermitage will get a treatment few sinkholes in Tennessee have ever received. It will be completely excavated for two reasons: to see if it's contaminating water and to see what mysteries are at the bottom of the hole.

Far away from the restored splendor of President Andrew Jackson's historic home, down past fields farmers plowed 100 years ago, a ring of trees surrounds a huge, 40-foot-wide sinkhole.

The decades can be dug through, from the 80s on top on down to the 1920s.

"Since we really can't see more than 10 feet, 15 feet into the sinkhole, we're really not sure what we will find," asked Jeffrie Hunter, Hermitage Site Operations.

But that mystery is coming to an end. The Nature Conservancy received a grant to improve groundwater in Tennessee and will excavate the sinkhole.

The excavation begins in two weeks.