wonder Digging

Show caves or commercial caves are and have been very popular. My first exhibit cave was Wonder Cave on the north side of Monteagle, Tennessee.

I can remember walking through a narrow passage into a nice formation room, but not much else about the cave, this was in the late fifties and I was surprised to hear that it only closed in 1988 and may have reopened shortly thereafter. of that. I’m sure it has most likely opened and closed many times since my visit there.

It was one of the first commercial caves in Tennessee, opening to the public in 1900. The door leading into the cave is padlocked, but apparently you can swim through the stream that runs out of the cave. From 1900 to 1917, flat-bottomed boats provided tourist rides to the cave on the Mystic River that ran through the cave. When a new entrance opened, the boat tours ended. This cave was more popular than Ruby Falls until about 1963. After Interstate 24 bypassed the cave by a couple of miles, visitors declined and slowly disappeared from public view. The cave had more than two million visitors until it was closed for good in 2000.

An interesting account of a visit by Rob Payne was posted online:

My favorite memory of Wonder Cave was going out at night with my two older cousins ​​Ricky and Glen and their after-hours dates. Park without the truck lights on, dodge the barking dogs, with a flashlight, prepare the flashlights quietly, then go down into the beautiful cave. What a wonderful place that might one day reopen.

Wonder Cave Bed and Breakfast in Middle Tennessee offered visitors an adventurous underground experience. In 1897, Wonder Cave was discovered by college students and the inn was built in the late 1920s. Guides and tour members brought Coleman lanterns and was considered the finest show cave in Tennessee.

Randy of Pelham, Tennessee posted additional information about the Wonder Cave property on the internet.

The Cave was run by the Raulston family until 1980 after the death of Frank Raulston. I got married there in 1992. My family traded a cow for the cave property in 1900. The log house was the office until the welcome center was built (early 1960s) on additional land purchased by the Raulston family after my grandfather’s barn burned down. . The Raulstons purchased the Reider house land from the Reider children after the death of their parents. The house was west of the welcome center, at the end of the end of the road. My great-aunt, Nanny, had a house built on a piece of land in Reider’s place down the narrow gravel driveway, great-uncles Ben (across from the welcome center) and Henry (at the other end of the big block from Ben’s). other children lived in the area, but not at Reider’s place.

Of the 167 known exhibit caves in the United States, 37 are located in the states of Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, and Florida. Show caves have a problem, one of decline and overuse. Simply by being open to so much public traffic, dust and sluggishness accumulate, along with mold and algae growing around lighting systems. Most show caves now turn off the lights as the tours go by. The lanterns used in Wonder Cave help reduce algae growth by preventing the formations from turning green. LED headlamps are very inexpensive nowadays and the experience of entering a cave with a light that only shines in the direction you are looking would be great for the one time visitor.

I feel strongly that we should support show caves so that more people realize the wonderful treasures that remain underground in our backyards. At the same time, we need to preserve the cave and all its wonders. This becomes a real challenge for show cave owners and operators.