A Local’s Guide to Caves in Missouri

If you go underground in the state of Missouri, you’ll find that it’s not very solid. It’s more like a piece of Swiss cheese than anything else. Missouri is second in the country right behind Tennessee in the number of known caves, and if we keep counting, we may just be first. Not a whole lot of local people are aware of it, but the underneath of the city of St. Louis is riddled with caves, most of them now closed. Every once in awhile you will read in the paper that one of them has been broken into and used for one of the same purposes they were used for at the turn of the century: to throw a big party. The get-togethers nowadays, (called Raves), are frowned upon by the city, but back in the days before refrigeration, a lot of the caves were owned by the beer barons and used to keep the un-pasteurized beer from spoiling in the intense St. Louis heat. Some of the families used the back of the caverns for the beer and the bigger rooms for socializing. I guess to have air conditioning in the summer, you had to either purchase a whole lot of ice, or be wealthy enough to own a cave.

I think that for the right amount of cash, you can still probably rent out a cave somewhere in Missouri, but if you just want to escape the heat or the cold of winter, the sixty degree year-round average temperature and stunning natural beauty of the area’s caves might be just what you’re looking for.

Most everyone locally is familiar with St. Louis’ two premier cave attractions within a thirty-minute drive from the city: Meramec Caverns and Onondaga Cave. Both were carved out of the rock by the same Meramec River and both are along Interstate 44, (old Route 66). Meramec Caverns is near Stanton, Missouri and is famous as the hideout of the old west outlaw Jesse James. I’ve been through the cave more times than I can count and I remember once thinking how cool it would be to live there. You wouldn’t need air conditioning or heat, and part of the river runs through it, so there would be plenty of drinking water. With all of the rocks scattered about, you wouldn’t need any furniture, and the thoughtful folks that run the tours have installed electricity, so all you would have to do is set up your stereo and a big screen TV and you would be all set. A sunlamp might also come in handy if you wanted to catch some rays. Hey, it worked for our ancestors and they didn’t have all of the modern conveniences.

Ok, so maybe you just want to visit. Start out with the guided tours of Meramec and Onondaga, and then work your way up to some of the smaller caves in the area. Though it’s not a natural cave, you might want to check out the old lead mines in Bonne Terre, Missouri just a little farther southwest off of 44. There aren’t any natural rock formations there, but you sure can learn a lot about lead mining.

Missouri is home to some 6,000 caves and about forty of them lie below Meramec State Park, which is near Sullivan, about 65 miles southwest of St. Louis. Some of the caves are open to park visitors and some require a permit. A few of them, sadly, are open to teenagers who want to get drunk and party on Saturday nights, as evidenced by the beer cans, cigarette butts, and condom wrappers left behind. You’d be better off going through Fisher Cave in the park with a couple of spare flashlights and a park ranger.

Most of the guided tours are extremely safe, unless you scrape your knee or a stalactite falls on you after holding on for about a million years, but if you decide to explore on your own, some safety tips are essential. Rockwoods reservation offers an occasional course on cave safety. You can contact the Missouri Department of Conservation for more information. The short list is this: always have at least three or four people with you, bring three sources of light, sturdy shoes that have good traction, and heavy clothing. Helmets are recommended. You don’t have to go out and purchase a special one, a bike helmet will do.

And, above all, don’t refer to yourself as a Spelunker just because it sounds cool. This really grates on the nerves of the people who are actually Spelunkers, and doing so could be dangerous without a helmet.