When we travel I have a soft spot for certain types of attractions. I've taken my readers to county fairs from the Pacific Northwest to New England. I've investigated every kind of off beat museum that crosses my path. Everyone knows my very favorite big museum is the MET in NYC. However, I'm also a sucker for caverns.
Therefore, when I saw the advertisement for the Dixie Caverns, I could hardly wait to go. Sure enough, it was everything I hoped for. The discovery story was fascinating. It's 1920 and a couple of 13 year old boys were out with their dog fooling around. The dog fell into a hole, and the boys couldn't get her out. Long story short - they got a couple of adults and some rope One of the boys was lowered into the hole, rescued the dog, DIXIE, and discovered the cavern.
Over the next few years, the boys explored in the cavern named for their dog. They crawled into narrow places with their lanterns moving from one discovery to the next. Here's one of the crawl spaces - so tight, they broke off the rock 'soda straws' hanging down in the crawl space.
Crawl space
Broken soda straws from crawling under them
In 1923 the Dixie Caverns opened to tourists. One little hitch in the tour - the tourists were lowered individually by rope down the through the same hole Dixie the dog fell into.
The green are leaves - this viewpoint was from the
bottom of the cavern - approximately 15 feet -
pretty long way to be lowered by rope!
In the 1950's the caverns underwent a major upgrade. No more rope lowering. Stairs were poured, floors were laid. You didn't have to crawl around. All the dirt and debris dug out during the remodel was packed together in the shape of a wedge of cheese, and over the next 60 years, the dripping water loaded with minerals coated the wedge.
Facing the front point of the "cheese"
floors are on each side.
Drake and I are standing under the "wedding bell".
(Caverns always name their formations.)
Yes, I'm beet red with my jacket tied around my waist. Even though the caverns are a constant 55 degrees, I'm so hot my glasses are fogging up. Drake has on three layers of clothes. According to our guide, getting 'dripped' on - especially on your head - is a guarantee of good luck. I'm going to be very lucky.... I wonder how long it will last?
If caverns are your thing, there are more photos with lots of named stalactites and .
stalagmites. If the cave wasn't enough fun, there was a huge 'collectibles' antique mall attached to the gift shop with dozens of booths selling everything from record albums, to vintage everything else. (I bought some handmade crocheted pot holders and a set of salt and pepper shakers made out of pressed glass with flower etchings and silver tops.)
Am I a tourist or what?
I'd look at the pictures individually, so you can see the captions.
