Marengo Cave
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Marengo Cave is located in Marengo, Indiana. One of only four show caves in Indiana, public tours of the cave have been given since 1883. Tours commenced just days after the cave's discovery by two school children.
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[edit] Early history
Marengo Cave was discovered on September 6th, 1883 by Orris and Blanche Heistand, brother and sister. Orris was 11 years old, his older sister Blanche was 15. Blanche worked as a cook at the local Marengo Academy and had heard some of the boys discussing a sinkhole they had found in the woods nearby. They suspected it might lead to a cave and were talking of returning with lanterns later.
Blanche decided to beat the boys to it. She ran home from school that day, enlisted her brother Orris, took two candles and set off into the woods. Lighting the candles the children crawled down a narrow passageway approximetaly 50 feet long and were the first humans known to set foot in Marengo Cave. Awed by what they had seen but quickly becoming afraid of the darkness they retreated back to the surface.
Three days later they notified the land owner, Samuel Stewart, who's land they had been trespassing on when they discovered the cave. The kids thought they had found diamonds because of the sparkling flowstone formations their candles revealed briefly while they were inside the cave. Believing the cave to possibly contain diamonds, Stewart quickly organized a group of men from the town and explored the cavern. Guided tours started soon afterwards for one quarter per person.
The Stewart family continued ownership of the cave until 1955 when Floyd Denton purchased the cave with great plans for development. Unfortunately, his plans were cut short when he died of a stroke in 1961. The present ownership purchased the cave in 1973 during the period when Interstate 64 was being constructed through southern Indiana. With better roads, an increasingly mobile population and aggressive promotion and quality improvements, the cave business began to grow again. The cave and surrounding park have grown nearly continuously the past 30 years.
[edit] Recent News
1992
A small crawlway known as "Blowing Bat Crawl" was finally broken through on June 14, 1992 leading to the discovery of the stream level of Marengo Cave. Approximately 3.5 miles were added to the cave's length with this discovery. The largest room of any cave in Indiana was also discovered in the stream level. There is almost 5 miles of known passageway to date at Marengo Cave, making it one of the longest caves in Indiana.
Today
Marengo cave is open all year long and offers two different walking tours. The Dripstone Trail tour covers 1 mile of the cave and takes approximately 60-70 minutes to complete. The Crystal Palace tour takes 35-40 minutes to complete and covers one third a mile of the cave. Both tours see different sections of the cave and are not similar.
Marengo cave also offers two different wild tours available to groups of 6 or more persons. Advance reservations are required.
