Growing up in Fair Grove during the 1950s and early 1960s, I was well aware of Crystal Cave, located about halfway between Fair Grove and Springfield on old Highway 65. (The segment between Springfield and Crystal Cave is now part of Highway H, and the segment between Fair Grove and Crystal Cave is, I believe, now called Shelby Road.) I went by the cave ever time I made a trip to Springfield. However, I never actually visited it until a few years ago when I did an article about it for the Ozarks Reader.
Crystal Cave was opened to the public in 1893 by Englishman Alfred Mann, and his three daughters took over the cave when he died in 1925. They ran it for over forty years (including the time I lived at Fair Grove), until the last one died in 1969 and willed it a family friend, Estel Funkhouser. She ran it until 1982, when her sister, Edith Richardson, and Edith's husband, Lloyd, took over. The Richardsons were still running the place in early 2005 when I visited. However, as far as I can tell, the cave is now closed to the public. Apparently the Richardsons either died or got too old to continue running it and could find no one to take their place. They were in their mid eighties at the time of my visit.
Crystal Cave was never highly commercialized. No drive-through trams or anything like that. No colored lights to try to enhance the beauty of the cave. As Lloyd Richardson told me during my visit, the cave was beautiful enough in its natural state and didn't need any artificial enhancement. Also, the cave was not particularly accessible. It had narrow pathways, several fairly steep climbs, and so forth. However, I have to say that Crystal Cave was one of the neatest caves I've ever seen and my visit to it was the most enjoyable cave tour I've ever taken (not that I've taken all that many).
So, it's kinda sad to see the old cave closed. It had been open to the public continuously (except for a very brief period in 1969) for well over 100 years. But now it's gone. Maybe someone will acquire it and reopen it one of these days.
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Looking at Google Maps, you can go right up to the entrance. The street view image they use is from 2007 and there are cars in the parking lot. However, the satellite image they use is from 2012 and it appears to be abandoned.
Mr. Richardson died earlier this year (2014). He was a resident at Elfindale nursing home. I believe his wife Edith passed away before he did. I worked in Crystal Cave when I was in college, 1991. The Richardsons were amazing people. Lloyd was constantly digging out a new room, and he let me see a room that only a few had ever seen--filled with beautiful crystal formations. I don't know the future plans for the cave, but I do hope it reopens someday so my children can see it. It was a privilege to guide tours there that summer.
Thanks, Angie, for the update. I'm sorry to hear that both Mr. Richardson and his wife have passed away, although I'm not surprised, since, as I said in my original post, they were already pretty old when I visited the cave over nine years ago.
I am trying to find out property ownership on Crystal cave and so far have hit a road block any information on that would be great. I went there as a kid, as did my daughter before it closed, we went out by there this past weekend and I would like to go about finding a way to get it reopened. Any help would be wonderful. Thanks
I'm not sure how one might go about finding out who owns the Crystal Cave property now other than to go out there and inquire of neighbors or perhaps through the courthouse in Springfield.
The Greene County recorders office would know
I visited there when I was a kid on a field trip, Estel Funkhouser was my third grade teacher. I don't remember much about it but I would like to see it re-open so I could take my nieces and nephews to see it.
I know this comment is really old but it's now for sale.
Sad to hear it’s closed. I was just thinking today about taking the neighbor kids to see it. It has been a few years obviously since the last time I went, but we used to go quite often. I too have seen the “special room“ where the soda straws grow sideways and then connect together forming a U shape. Lloyd was very protective of that room and really wasn’t supposed to let anyone see it under orders from state officials. They told him it was the only place in Missouri that they knew of with those formations. On that particular day the tour included me a young neighbor boy and then a woman and her son who was kind of “Handsy.” Lloyd sent the rest of them on into another room, then he looked at me and said “come over here, I have some thing I want you to see, but I didn’t want to show that kid because he touches too much.”
He was a really cool guy. I remember one day I called up to see if My wife I and another couple could go for a tour. He answered the phone and said something along the lines of “well I wasn’t planning on doing any more tours today” disappointedly I said “well OK, I guess we’ll just find something else to do. Maybe will go to bass pro.” He paused for a few seconds and then asked “how many of you want to see the cave today?” I said “oh there’s four of us, but we’re driving from Carthage so it would take us a while to get there.“ He said “well come on up. I’ll be waiting for you.“ Every tour I had of the cave but one was given by Lloyd and his trusty dog. The one exception, was when he wasn’t feeling well, so Edith did the tour that day. I remember his stories of how the gate sealing the entrance to the cave came from the local jail house, and the stories of the mann sisters. how they used to tell tales while they were in the cave giving tours. One was of the old witch that the towns people chased down into the cave. He would shine His flashlight along the ceiling to highlight a series of upside down “foot prints“ where she ran around the ceiling as he told it. Then he would tell how she became encased in stone but in one last act of defiance to the towns people she stuck her tongue out and he would shine the light on a piece of chert sticking out from the wall high up, that really did look a lot like someone sticking their tongue out. As I would go over the years, I would get to see the new rooms that Lloyd had dug out and created access to. he did it the old-school way with a shovel and a pickax. He would use the rocks and the clay and other debris to fill in the steps and the walkways throughout the cave. Somewhere I have photos Of Me and my kids taken inside the cave in one of his favorite spots “The photo gallery” where you could walk up and stand between two stalactite formations. He was always obliging to be the one to take the photos with an old-school 35mm camera back in those days. He was one of a kind. I really hope someone does open the cave back up. Would love to see it one more time with the neighbor kids, before I get too old to crawl under the huge passage that leads back to several of the rooms.
They are in the process of reopening the cave this year.
Good to hear that the cave may re-open soon.
They have reopen, was there today. They put in a good pathway, kept the handrails, and even added a few color lights to show off the natural beauty. Felt like they are still working on updating and reopening some pathways that are closed right now. Great time and fun crew.
Good to hear that they've reopened.
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