Today, tours of Marvel Cave, located on the grounds of Silver Dollar City, are free to anyone paying admission to the theme park. The cave is little more than a sidelight, though, and many visitors to Silver Dollar City bypass the subterranean tour altogether. Once upon a time, the situation was reversed. As most people who live in the Ozarks know, Marvel Cave as a tourist attraction predated Silver Dollar City by many years. The cave was not just the main attraction in the vicinity; it was the only attraction. Starting about 1960, Silver Dollar City grew up around the cave, but in the very early days of the theme park, the cave was still the main attraction. Visitors had to pay to tour the cave, but admission to Silver Dollar City was free. Quite a switch from the way it is today.
Evidence suggests that Marvel Cave was known to Osage Indians hundreds of years before white men inhabited the Ozarks, and early Europeans may have explored the cave as early as the mid-1500s. The first recorded exploration of the cave, however, was led by St. Louis lead-mining magnate Henry T. Blow in 1869. Blow's group didn't find lead, but in the early 1880s, another group of explorers, led by T. Hodges Jones, found evidence of what they thought was marble. Jones and his fellow investors bought the property, named the cave Marble Cave, and formed the Marble Cave Mining and Manufacturing Company. A town called Marmaros (Greek for marble) was platted nearby, and it soon had a hotel, a general store, and several other businesses.
However, no marble was ever taken out of the cave, and when the mining enterprise died, so did the town. In 1889, William Henry Lynch bought the property sight unseen and planned to develop it as a tourist attraction. When he explored it shortly afterward, he was especially impressed by Marble Cave's huge cathedral room, which he envisioned as an entertainment venue that could draw thousands of people to hear music, listen to speeches, and so forth. Lynch opened up previously blocked passages of the cave and installed ladders to accommodate tourists of the cave, and he began promoting the cave not only as a place to tour but also as an entertainment venue. He called the cave the "greatest natural chamber in the world." The thing that was working against the cave, however, was its isolated location and the lack of transportation to reach it. Lynch focused much of his attention on trying to bring a railroad to the vicinity of the cave.
In early 1893, there was still no railroad to the area, but word had gradually begun to reach the outside world about the wonders of Marble Cave, thanks to articles in magazines and newspapers like the St. Louis Globe-Democrat and the Kansas City Times. While still waiting for a railroad, Lynch arranged, in the meantime, for a daily stage line to run between Springfield and Marble Cave. He also had plans to light the cave with electric lights and to build a hotel near the cave to accommodate overnight visitors. In the fall of 1894, Lynch staged a huge celebration in and on the grounds of Marble Cave, taking out entire newspaper supplements to publicize and promote the event. He advertised the event as a big musical bash, a literary convention, an oratory competition, a sightseeing expedition, and a religious observance all rolled into one. He even invited young couples to come to the event to get married in the beautiful cathedral room. He told the people of the region that the success of the event would help sell the Ozarks as a place where people would want to come and visit.
The fall 1894 event was a moderate success, but it demonstrated once again the need for a railroad. By late 1902, the nearest railroad to Marble Cave was still forty miles away, but the Missouri Pacific was in the process of building a line to the cave. As the project was announced and got underway, Lynch once again threw himself into promoting the cave. He gave speeches in St. Louis and other cities about the wonders of the cave and got write-ups about it in various newspapers. It was also in 1902 that the cave first started being called Marvel Cave instead of Marble Cave, at least informally. However, the two names were used almost interchangeably and the official name may not have been changed until after Lynch's death in 1927, as the Silver Dollar City website says.
Alas, the plans for a railroad to Marvel Cave never materialized, but by the 1910s, the advent of automobiles had made the question a somewhat moot point. For example, in November 1915, during a special event at the cave, auto service to the cave was offered from nearby Reeds Spring, which did have a railroad.
In 1927, William Lynch died, his daughters took over Marble Cave, and it officially became known as Marvel Cave, although, as I say, it had been called Marvel Cave at least on an irregular basis for twenty-five years. In 1950, the Herschend family purchased a 99-year lease on the property from the Lynch sisters. In 1960, the Herschends opened Silver Dollar City on the grounds of the cave, and over the years, the theme park has gradually engulfed the cave and dwarfed its importance. Although there are still many people who enjoy tours of the cave, there are many others who go to Silver Dollar City exclusively for the amusement rides and other entertainment.
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