J.A. Truitt was known as Cave Man of the Ozarks. In the early 1900s, he developed a half-dozen or so show caves in southwest Missouri. As a book about him put it, Truitt discovered “gold in our vast subterranean corridors and it was not sealed in a weathered chest. It came, and comes annually, from the thousands of tourists who beat paths to the mouths of many caves that he discovered and developed for sight-seeing.”
That book – titled "From the Cradle to the Cave" – was published in 1954. Even though Truitt is long gone, what he knew is still true. People love caves. For more than a century, folks across Missouri have developed commercial caves – known as show caves – for the public to see. Today, there’s about 20 of them in the Missouri Cave Association, which includes a few in Arkansas.
“It's part of the reason why we are the cave state. It's not that we have the most caves out of many states,” said Alex Sharp, the manager of Crystal Cave, who recently showed me around the longtime Greene County landmark. “I think it's like Tennessee or Kentucky that meets us there. But I think we by far have the most commercialized ones, especially that are privately owned. And part of that is just because of, you know, the culture of somebody having a cave on their property and charging people to take a look at it.”
This moment continues a story started by Alfred Mann, an immigrant from England who believed Crystal Cave’s sparkling, unique features would attract the public.
“This is the first room where we really get to have a nice glimpse of some of the crystals,” Sharp said. “So there's a lot of very tiny new straws up here. The very clear tips of them are where the crystals are being actively put down. So very slowly but surely over time, the mud and the clay gets all over them and turns them into that rusty iron color that we'll see throughout the cave. But those clear ones are new enough that they haven't had that process happen yet. Some of them are just decades, even years old. The fastest I've seen a crystal grow down here is about an inch over the five years I've worked here. Of course, that's a pretty slow, gradual process, but for cave growth, it's very, very fast.”
That beauty – and other efforts, like growing food in its dark environment – were part of the Mann family’s early days with the cave. After Mann died, his three daughters kept it going for many years, eventually passing it through others before it closed. It remained that way for years until 2022, when it was purchased and reopened.
Crystal Cave reminds how novelty has long played a role in getting customers to caves. For example, there’s a formation inside Crystal Cave called the Washington Monument, named because of its resemblance to the landmark on the National Mall. Its dinosaur trail and gift shop – complete with vintage games – are draws all their own, too.
Innovation is true across the region– like Meremec Caverns’ famous painted-barn billboards that have become part of the Ozarks landscape.
It’s also evident at Fantastic Caverns, one of the world’s only drive-through caves.
“That was really right in the kind of heyday of automobile tourism,” said Duncan Lang, its public relations director, who said the drive-through feature was added a few years after it opened as Fantastic Caverns in 1951. “So Route 66 – that was the heyday of Route 66. We had a lot of folks coming through Springfield. It timed out perfectly with that and really led to the the success of Fantastic Caverns.”
Tours are given nearly every day of the year at the caverns, which are known via many billboards showcasing its trams among well-lit cave formations. A random fact: Those trams weren’t always red.
“We had different colors, yellow and browns and what have you – greens,” said Chandis Ingenthron, a cave guide. “But red looks good in a photograph. So they settled in on red.”
Ingenthron first worked at Fantastic Caverns in college. He returned a few years ago in retirement.
“I think I like talking about the age of the cave without giving a date,” Ingenthron adds. “‘Look at this – this indicates that this part was under water for quite a while.’ And, ‘Look over here – this part indicates water moved through here, really quickly.’
“Suddenly you get the idea this is very old, and a lot of water has moved through here.”
As one leaves Fantastic Caverns, you see signs promoting caves – not only for the one you’re there to see. It’s part of the modern approach of the cave industry, at least around here, which focuses on collaboration.
“I think in the earlier stages of the show cave industry, there was a lot more competition between show cave owners that I think at one point in time got a little cutthroat,” Lang said. “But there was an active effort in the, I believe ‘60s, when the Missouri Cave Association was first started to kind of unify, with the understanding that every single cave in Missouri is unique. We're not really direct competitors in that regard, and if one guest has a wonderful experience at one show cave, they're far more likely to visit the others. So there's really been a trend in cooperation there in the show cave industry.”
