Cliff Cave Park
Cliff Cave County Park | |
---|---|
Type | County Park |
Location | 806 Cliff Cave Rd, St Louis, Missouri, United States |
Coordinates | 38°27′39″N 90°17′34″W / 38.4609°N 90.2929°W |
Area | 525 acres (2.12 km2) |
Created | 1972 |
Operated by | St. Louis County, Missouri |
Website | http://www.stlouisco.com/ParksandRecreation/ParkPages/CliffCave |
Cliff Cave Park is a 525-acre public park located in
History
Native Americans likely were attracted to the area due to the cave, fresh spring water, and the nearby Mississippi River.[4] They regarded the cave as a sacred place.[9]
In 1749, Jean Baptiste Gamache first acquired the land through a land grant from the Spanish government.[10]
In the 1770s, Cliff Cave was used by the French fur trappers and traders as a riverside tavern for travelers of the Mississippi River.[1][4][9][11]
In 1854, Christopher W. Spalding and Henry W. Williams purchased the area.[11] In 1857, they placed boundaries for the Cliff Cave subdivisions, selling lots from 1.7 acres to 24.7 acres.[11]
In the 1860s, during the Civil War, Confederate soldiers were thought to use the cave as a rendezvous point.[10]
After the Civil War, Missouri became a center of winemaking in the Midwest.[12] In 1866, the Cliff Cave Wine Company was established; in 1868, they purchased the area for $36,176 to use the cave as a natural wine cellar.[1][4][11][12][13] The company planted twenty-five acres of grapes in the area which produced 3,000 gallons of wine in one year.[11][14] The company itself had 240 acres of vineyard along the Mississippi River, and by 1870, the cave had a storage capacity of 100,000 gallons of wine.[12] Stonework near the cave entrance added in this time still exists today.[4]
In the late 1800s, volunteer soldiers from
Caves in Missouri were sometimes used by criminals and outlaws in the 19th and 20th centuries.[13] In the early 1900s, Cliff Cave was known as Jesse James Cave (a name shared with other caves in Missouri).[13] During the 1920s, the Mob used the cave as a place to discard bodies.[9][15][16][17]
A tavern and café called "Girlies" was located in the area.[11] A pool of cold water and a mineral odor, named Sun King Pool, was sourced by a spring, but now is the location of the parking lot.[11]
In 1969, after the success of a St. Louis County Bond Issue, the purchase of the Cliff Cave property was initiated.[6][11] The land was valued at $400,000.[1][11] The funding was matched with federal acquisition dollars from the Land and Water Conservation Fund and other agencies.[6][11] In the fall of 1972, the property was acquired.[1][6][11] In the spring of 1977, Cliff Cave Park was officially opened to the public.[6][11]
In 1986, a referendum was held which designated the park as one of five Natural Heritage Parks in the area, limiting the amount of park construction and development to five percent of the total park area.[6][18]
Features
Cliff Cave
Cliff Cave, also known as Indian Cave, is a natural cave that is considered the second longest cave in St. Louis County, with 4723 ft (1514 m) of cave passage surveyed.
In October 2009, a
Mississippi Trail
The Mississippi Trail is a 5.1-mile, flat, paved trail loop accessible to hikers and bikers.
Spring Valley Trail
The Spring Valley Trail is a 3-mile natural treadway trail accessible to equestrians, hikers, and mountain bikers.[1][4] Cliff Cave can be accessed from this trail.[4] The trail goes up a valley, then reaches a karst plateau and forms a loop in the woodlands.[4] The flora include hickory and oak trees.[4]
River Bluff Trail
The River Bluff Trail is a 1-mile flat, natural treadway trail accessible to equestrians, hikers, and mountain bikers.
Incidents
On July 23, 1993, six people were killed while exploring the cave due to a flash flood.
On October 5, 2008, an eighteen-year-old high school student slipped and fatally fell from a steep bluff.[11]
On November 7, 2016, during a dispute with his wife, a man drove his four- and five-year-old sons to the park, and an
References
- ^ ISBN 978-0-7627-8379-3. Retrieved 2016-11-21.
- ^ a b "Cliff Cave Trails". St.Louis County Government. Retrieved 2016-11-21.
- ^ a b c d "Cliff Cave". St.Louis County Government. Retrieved 2016-11-21.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z "Cliff Cave Park Trail Guide" (PDF). St.Louis County Government. 2013-10-15. Retrieved 2016-11-21.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-365-12274-3. Retrieved 2016-11-21.
- ^ a b c d e f "Cliff Cave Park:Park History" (PDF). St.Louis County Government. 2013-10-15. Retrieved 2016-11-21.
- ^ "Mississippi Greenway - Cliff Cave Park". Great Rivers Greenway. 2015-06-09. Retrieved 2016-11-21.
- ^ "Best View of the Mississippi - People & Places". Riverfront Times. 2009-09-30. Retrieved 2016-11-21.
- ^ a b c d e f g Wilson, Andrea (2010-07-08). "Not Your Ordinary Day in the Park". STLParent.com. Archived from the original on 2016-11-21. Retrieved 2016-11-21.
- ^ a b c d Leeming Jr., Frank (1963-05-28). "Old Cliff Cave, Popular Rendezvous Of Outlaws, May Soon Be Extinct". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. St. Louis, Missouri.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Birmingham, Steve (2008-10-13). "County officials say Cliff Cave park still safe". stltoday.com. Retrieved 2016-11-21.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-520-06224-5. Retrieved 2016-11-21.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-8262-6645-3. Retrieved 2016-11-21.
- ^ "Saint Louis: The Future Great City of the World. by L. U. Reavis". Making of America Books. 1871. p. 81. Retrieved 2016-11-21.
- ^ Geocaching (2016-11-19). "Cliff Cave". Geocaching. Retrieved 2016-11-21.
- ^ "Cliff Cave". STLCC.edu. 1993-07-23. Retrieved 2016-11-21.
- ^ "Strange Stories". Missouri History & Hauntings. 1900-07-29. Retrieved 2016-11-21.
- ^ Raletz, Alyson E. (2004-08-04). "Residents, councilman have concerns about new proposal for Cliff Cave Park". Call Newspapers. Archived from the original on 2016-11-22. Retrieved 2016-11-21.
- ^ Bretz, J.H. (1956). Caves of Missouri. Caves of Missouri. State of Missouri, Department of Business and Administration, Division of Geological Survey and Water Resources. p. 436–7.
- ^ a b Post-Dispatch, The (2014-07-23). "From the archives: Cave flood drowns 4, 3 missing". stltoday.com. Retrieved 2016-11-21.
- ^ a b "Flash Flood Kills 4 in Missouri Cave : Disaster: Three other spelunkers are presumed dead in underground tragedy. Region's death toll now at 38. Crews work to plug leak under St. Louis flood wall". latimes. 1993-07-24. Retrieved 2016-11-21.
- ^ a b c d e Smothers, Ronald (1993-07-25). "THE MIDWEST FLOODING; Stranded Boy Is Rescued After Flood in Cave Killed 4 Youths and 2 Adults". The New York Times. Retrieved 2016-11-21.
- ^ a b "Mo. man kills 4- and 5-year-old sons and then himself in murder-suicide, police say". Washington Post. 2016-11-07. Retrieved 2016-11-21.
- ^ a b Gallagher, Jim (2016-11-06). "Father kills two children, then fatally shoots self in St. Louis County standoff with police". stltoday.com. Retrieved 2016-11-21.