McDONALD COUNTY CAVES

Last fall and early winter, Marilyn participated by speaker phone in a writing group that met each Tuesday at the Pineville Methodist Church. The “class” members wrote stories of their early life experiences and it allowed Marilyn to stay connected to dear friends she could no longer see often. In early February, they decided to meet only once a month and Marilyn misses the weekly contact. However, the March meeting is today and she had to get something written about an interesting place in McDonald County.

This is what she wrote:

In addition to being known as the “Show Me” state, Missouri is also known for its numerous caves. In fact, its other nickname is "The Cave State". In the previous link, the Dept. of Natural Resources says there are more than 6,000 known caves in the state. McDonald County, located in the southwest corner of the state contributes its share with 530 explored caves according to WIN, the Missouri Watershed site. A book written in 1956 Caves of Missouri lists the following named caves:

Bluffdwellers' Cave

Jacob's Cave

Long Cave

Mystery Cave

Panther Cave

Polar Bear Cave

Saltpeter Cave

Shingle Hollow Cave

Note that Jacobs cave is misspelled: It was named for Mr. Jacobs, not a man named Jacob. (MC)

At one time there were at least four caves open to the public. At this time, only one remains  –  Bluff Dwellers Cave.  An other cave that was very well known,  is Truitt's Cave  the link about the cave shows pictures of how the cave and restaurant look today. Marilyn remembers the lovely little restaurant with excellent food – with a spring flowing through it. Diners could select the trout they wanted for dinner from the fish swimming by their tables. It was lighted by classic oil lamps and was a great destination for discriminating diners. The table-ware was distinctive pale green Frankoma ware - a square shaped design that was another special touch. Her sister, Zella, worked there as a teen.

Another well known cave is "Salt Peter" cave on Big Sugar Creek Road. It was so named because during the Civil War, the soldiers dug out the bat guano to use as an ingredient for gun powder. Marilyn explored it as a teen, but she no longer is very interested in getting into a confined space. It became known as the “Jesse James Cave” as it was used in a scene in the 1939 movie “Jesse James” although Jesse was probably never near it in real life. It was also used as a hidden site by some counterfeiters. They got caught and were sent to the Big House in Jefferson City.

Perhaps her favorite cave to know about is described in the article she copied from Wikipedia. She has read the original research papers published about the exploration of the cave and from her friend, Jean, learned that Jean's father and the late J.L.B. Taylor aided in the exploration (J.L.B. Taylor is a shirt-tail relative of Marilyn's). This experience led to the two men and others from Pineville working on the excavation of the Cahokia Mounds near St. Louis, a far more well-known site.

Jacobs Cavern

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jacobs Cavern is a cavern near Pineville, McDonald County, Missouri, named after its discoverer, E. H. Jacobs of Bentonville, Arkansas. It was scientifically explored by him, in company with Professors Charles Peabody and Warren K. Moorehead, in 1903. The results were published in that year by Jacobs in the Benton County Sun; by C. N. Gould in Science, July 31, 1903; by Peabody in the Am. Anthropologist, Sept. 903; and in the Am. Journ. Archaeology, 1904; and by Peabody and Moorehead, 1904, as Bulletin I. of the Dept. of Archaeology in Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts, in the museum of which are exhibits, maps and photographs.

Jacobs Cavern is one of the smaller caves, hardly more than a rock-shelter, and is entirely in the St. Joe Limestone of the sub-carboniferous age. Its roof is a single flat stratum of limestone; its walls are well marked by lines of stratification; dripstone also partly covers the walls, fills a deep fissure at the end of the cave, and spreads over the floor, where it mingles with an ancient bed of ashes, forming an ash-breccia (mostly firm and solid) that encloses fragments of sandstone, flint spalls, flint implements, charcoal and bones. Underneath is the true floor of the cave, a mass of homogeneous yellow clay, one meter in thickness. It holds scattered fragments of limestone, and is itself the result of limestone degeneration. The length of the opening is over 21 meters; its depth 14 meters, and the height of roof above the undisturbed ash deposit varied from 1 m 20 cm to 2 m 60 cm The bone recess at the end was from 50 cm. to 80 cm. in height. The stratum of ashes was from 50 cm to 1 m 50 cm thick.

The ash surface was staked off into square meters, and the substance carefully removed in order. Each stalactite, stalagmite and pilaster was measured, numbered, and removed in sections. Six human skeletons were found buried in the ashes. Seven-tenths of a cubic metre of animal bones were found: deer, bear, wolf, raccoon, opossum, beaver, buffalo, elk, turkey, woodchuck, tortoise and hog; all contemporary with man's occupancy. Three stone metates, one stone axe, one cdt and fifteen hammerstones were found. Jacobs Cavern was peculiarly rich in flint knives and projectile points. The sum total amounts to 419 objects, besides hundreds of fragments, cores, spalls and rejects, retained for study and comparison. Considerable numbers of bone or horn awls were found in the ashes, as well as fragments of pottery, but no ceremonial objects.

The rude type of the implements, the absence of fine pottery, and the peculiarities of the human remains, indicate a trace of occupants more ancient than the mound-builders. The deepest implement observed was buried 50 cm under the stalagmitic surface. Dr. Hovey has proved that the rate of stalagmitic growth in Wyandotte Cave, Indiana, is .0254 cm. annually; and if that was the rate in Jacobs Cavern, 1968 years would have been needed for the embedding of that implement. Polished rocks outside the cavern and pictographs in the vicinity indicate the work of a prehistoric race earlier than the Osage Indians, who were the historic owners previous to the advent of Europeans.

[edit]References

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.

There are other caves that were once available for exploration, the Henson Cave was never open officially to the public, but almost everyone Marilyn knew (except herself) had been in it at one time or another. She thought it interesting that the archeologists described it as “pristine” as she knew it had been well trafficked for many years.

Well, that is all Marilyn told me about this morning. Sometimes, she just goes on an on….

Lucky

Comments

[Gayla Elliff Slish]

Hi Lucky: Once upon a time I was a Spelunker in a few Pineville caves. I loved exploring them with my friends, the Hootens. Their dad and my dad crawled through the "mile-long" cave (could have been known by another name) back in the 1970's. I remember crawling on my hands and knees for a very long time, and then being able to stand up and walk around in a fairly big room. We exited the cave at another location and found their mother and my mother very relieved. I'm sure they had spent most of the afternoon praying. We made it fine. We also had fun in and around "Jesse James Cave". I enjoyed the tales my dad (Mike Elliff) would tell about him sitting in a tree watching the 'Jesse James' movie being made. Good times. Good memories. Thanks for the cave info.

[Mary DeLand]

Lucky, How I remember the caves around Cyclone! One was a huge cave across Big Sugar and high on a hill. A dripping spring was just below it and my dad built a trough to catch water. I've carried many buckets of water from that trough; it was cold and delicious. Near the Rachel Mustain home was a cave called The Glass Haystack. We kids would often wander around looking for it and delighted when we found it; the huge haystack was beautiful. Few people knew about it.

[.Marilyn .]

Thanks for the input about the Henson Cave, Bob. I didn't know how big it was, but was told there was one room 400 ft across and that Ronald Raines and another boy got lost in it for three days. Ben and Craig explored a cave that you had do dive under water to get to the next part. He didn't tell me about it untill a few years ago and I still get a clutch in my stomach thinking about the chances those teen age boys took. I also remember Mr. Ware. He was a great music teacher. It is interesting that there is no longer an interest in commercializing our caves. We need to protect the bats and other rare species, but some of them could be very helpful to the local economy. I understand that Truitt's is for sale at an outrageous price and it was damaged by blasting at the nearby quarry. There was another commercial cave across the street and one on Elk River at one time. Well, the caves are still there, but not accessible to the public.

[Marilyn York]

This is a vicarious thrill for me as I don't like closed, underground places, but really enjoyed reading about all of them and Bob's personal rememberance.

[Bob Kiple]

Hi Lucky, Its me again, this time I am commenting on the caves in McDonald Co. That cave that was so popular on the new hiway, the one they closed to all. My self and Sevaris Henson, and some others, (cant remember just who else)We went intio that cave severial times exploring it very through. In 1954 we took our class mates into that cave for an outing and we had a great time.Mr Oliver Weare our class sponser was with us, he was the music teacher at Pineville high school. That was some cave and very long also. You could go back in it for over a mile and then go up stairs to some great big rooms. We were an adventurious bunch.