Missouri maybe the Show-Me State, but others like to think of it as the Cave State as well. Missouri is home to about 6,000 caves, so, I guess they are worthy of the title.
Day 3 – We started day three by traveling down to Springfield, MO. Took the kids to the Discovery Center. It’s a small interactive science museum geared toward kids. They had a great time and so did the parents and grandparents.
The main thing we wanted to do is tour the Fantastic Caverns. It is the only cave in the United States that does drive through tours. That made it a great activity for everyone. After being discovered by the owners’ hunting the dog, he put an ad in the local paper for someone to explore the cave. He received an answer from the Women’s Springfield Athletic Club in 1867. The 12 women that were the first to explore the cave are painted on one of the cave walls. The caverns were a speakeasy during prohibition and were also the site for a number of music concerts in the 50’s and 60’s. Fantastic Caverns still holds concerts there on rare occasions. Apparently, the acoustics are great, but nobody in our tour group wanted to give it a try.
