Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Fantastic Caverns
A few years ago, I wrote an article about the history of Fantastic Caverns that was published in the Ozarks Mountaineer. Probably the thing that stands out most in my mind from the research I did for the article concerns the popular story about the twelve adventurous women from Springfield who comprised the first explorers of the cave. The reason I particularly remember this aspect of the story is because I learned from my research that it's not true. After John Knox discovered the cave on his land northwest of Springfield, he announced his discovery and opened it up for public exploration in early 1867. The first group to explore the cavern went out from Springfield on February 14 and contained no women. The group that included the twelve women from the Springfield Women's Athletic Club did not explore the cave until February 27, almost two weeks later. Contemporaneous newspaper reports in the Springfield Tri-Weekly Patriot make these facts clear, but the idea of twelve adventurous women composing the first exploratory party makes a good story. So, it has been handed down as part of the popular mythology of Fantastic Caverns and is still perpetuated today, I believe, in some of the tourist attraction's own brochures. Why quibble over two weeks? I suppose.
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7 comments:
What are the names of the women from the athletic Club who did do the exploring?
I checked my files and can't find the newspaper account containing the names of the women at the moment, but I'll look some more. I think the women's names can also still be seen inside the cave, where they were etched.
Do you have any further info about these women? I'm so fascinated in this story and would love to know more. Thanks!
Katherine, No, I've checked through my file on this subject that I accumulated when I first wrote the article, but I've never gone back and tried to do additional research on the women. So, I still don't know their names or much of anything else about them.
I have a picture of the names. May be good only for a month or so.
https://ibb.co/sCymwQF
https://ibb.co/6Jf7xHn
One more, a bit clearer
Thanks for posting, Tom93. I recall seeing the names when I last toured the cave, but I apparently did not take a picture of them, because I cannot find such a pic in my files.
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