Marvel Cave is one of the nature’s greatest wonders that evolved around the entrance to the Silver Dollar City theme park in Branson. The cave was opened as an Ozarks tourist attraction in 1894 by a Canadian entrepreneur William Henry Lynch. It run for more than fifty years as a tourist show cave. By 1950, the cave was leased by Hugo Herschend, a Danish immigrant from Chicago. In 1960, Silver Dollar City theme park was introduced and built near the entrance to Marvel Cave and it continued to be a popular tourist attraction in Branson.
The cave was originally known as Marble Cave when miners thought that marble could be found in the cave. When it was found out that no marble was ever mined inside the Marble Cave, the name was changed to Marvel Cave. The cave is known to be one of the largest caves in Missouri, with the biggest cave entry rooms of any cave in North America and for being one of the longest running tourist attractions in Branson.
A Marvel Cave tour is always included with your ticket when you visit the Silver Dollar City where the tours depart every half hour. To begin the tour, you will have to travel to the surface 300 feet below and get in the Cathedral Room. The excitingly wonderful Cathedral Room is the largest cave entrance in the whole USA. The tour lasts 60 minutes and most of it is spent climbing about 600 stairs. The cave tour offers a trained cave guide who will guide your journey and give you interesting and entertaining facts of geographical and historical importance of the cave.
A unique cable train designed to take cave visitors back to the surface with 1070 foot climb was installed in 1957. Thereby giving visitors an easy climb to get back up to a daylight. Many famous spelunkers have ventured the Marvel Cave which is Missouri’s deepest cave with rich history and interesting facts. The tour to the Marvel Cave is a unique opportunity to see Mother Nature where only a few were fortunate to experience the beauty and wonder of the cave.
Explore the Marvel Cave’s darkest and deepest secret and experience a wonderful cave tour using a lantern light. The last lantern light tour starts 90 minutes before closing time. Tour guides are dressed in costumes that delight guests with interesting facts and little known histories during this daily nostalgic journey. Lantern Light Tour is open to guests above 11 years old to see the Mammoth Room. This big room is located just to the right of guest trail in the Cathedral Room. The re-opened trail highlights the bat wall, the only surviving Spanish ladder left in the cave (circa 1541) and many interesting stories.
If you want to discover the interesting facts and historical treasures of the Marvel Cave, visit the original tourist attraction in Branson and enjoy some of several exciting activities of the 1800s style theme park of Silver Dollar City.
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