See Nan Go: Fantastic Caverns

I love caves.

I love the beauty, I love the mystery and I love the chance to tour them. I sincerely thank all the intrepid, curious folks who saw a hole and just had to see where it went. With that said, here are some of my pictures from touring the Fantastic Caverns near Springfield, Missouri.

This is a cut-away diagram of the caverns. It might give you a better idea of the shape and length of the caves. The entrance and exits are at the top right hand corner of the picture. Click on the picture to get an enlarged view that you can actually read.

The cave was first explored and mapped by twelve members of a mid-nineteenth century hiking club.....all women! Isn't that amazing and wonderful for that era? You can still see their names written in candle soot on a slab in the cave. I can't imagine trying to explore in skirts. I would love to be able to see photographs of that group in their working gear.

Fantastic Caverns is one of only four caves in the world that you can ride through and the only one in the United States. The cave has been used for many things in the past 150 years. It was even a dance hall and speak-easy at one time in the 1920s.

I had thought to include a bit of the cavern's history in here but I think if you are curious, you can find much more detail on the Roadside America site. http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/13068 and on the official cavern site http://www.fantasticcaverns.com/ >

You ride into the cave on trailers pulled by propane powered jeeps.

This the old steam engine sitting outside the cavern that was once used to power the cave lights. In the demonstration it powered up with a loud bang that had everyone jumping.

As you approach the cave you wonder if there is enough head room. I looked around and many of the passengers were already ducking their heads. Some of the interior passages were a bit narrow but our heads were safe as long as we kept them inside the tram edges.