Meramec Caverns

To give Cheryl a chance to have a long drive, we visited the Meramec Caverns. The promise of the caves only being 60 degrees farenheit was also a pretty good incentive as it meant relief from the high 90s that we were experiencing.

Meramec Caverns is about an hour west of where we live & is the largest commercial cave in the state of Missouri. (Missouri is also known as the Cave state, being home to more than 6,000 surveyed caves). Local tribes of Indians have used the caves as shelter & in the 1700's, a French miner, Jacques Renault, founded one of the Cavern's greatest natural resources, saltpeter (used to manufacture gunpowder). During the Civil War, a Federal powder mill in the cave was blown up by Confederate guerrillas that included Jesse James. In the early 1870's, Jesse James and his band returned to the Caverns on numerous occasions & used them as their hideout after train and bank robberies.

The tour took about an hour & twenty minutes & each part of the caverns was lit as you entered them. So, if you didn't keep up, you could find youself plunged into darkness.

After completing the tour, we each had an ice cream. They had about 25 different flavours, with Beth going for cotton candy (candyfloss), Cheryl having strawberries & cream, & I settled for cookie dough.

We then went on a a boat ride on the Meramec. As we drove into the caverns, we saw that there was a campsite, & most of the people there must of had boats as the river was absolutely heaving with people & watercraft. There were people canoeing, swimming, & just generally having fun in the water. Around the bend from the boat mooring, we saw that some people had just set their tents up on the banks of the river & were having a party - mad!

Once back on dry land, we did some panning for gold. Beth was well impressed with her stash of stones & minerals. We finished off our visit with a quick visit to Granny's store to buy some fudge - cheaper than that at Union Station, but just as good!