Meramec Caverns
Show Cave · Sullivan, Missouri
A four-and-a-half-mile cavern system near Stanton, and the most heavily advertised attraction in Missouri - more than fifty billboards along Interstate 44, and a barn-roof advertising campaign that put its name across the Midwest in the Route 66 era. Union troops ran a saltpeter works here in the Civil War until Confederate guerrillas destroyed it, a raid the future outlaw Jesse James was probably part of. The cave leans hard on the Jesse James connection; the formations do not need the help.
1135 Wilderness Trail, Sullivan, Missouri, 63080, United States
Open daily year round with guided tours running through the day, generally from mid-morning to late afternoon with longer summer hours. Closed Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Tours are about eighty minutes. The campground, zipline and river operations are seasonal.