Cliff Cave is a generally shallow cavern that can be explored by qualified individuals and groups for a distance of nearly 2000 feet. Those desiring to explore MUST HAVE a reservation made by calling 314-615-4FUN.
Indicate name of adult trip leader on permit.
No more than two permits at the same time.
Permits issued for hours between 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Use handout sheet sent with permit.
806 Cliff Cave Rd., St. Louis, MO 63129
~ from St. Louis County website
Cliff Cave, also known as Indian Cave (Archaeological Survey of MO no. 23SL895 and MO Speleological Survey no. SLO-013), is a important historic and archaeological site in Missouri. The cave is protected within Cliff Cave County Park, and can only be explored by permit from the St. Louis County Dept. of Parks and Recreation. A brief description of Cliff Cave is contained in Caves of Missouri by J. Harlan Bretz (1956:436-437).
Rock walls in the entrance of the cave were built by the Cliff Cave Wine Company in the 1800s. One tradition about the cave is that it was used for beer storage in the early 1900s. Flint waste flakes embedded in the clay floor of the entrance are evidence of Native American use of the cave before the 1700s. It is safe to assume that Cliff Cave/Indian Cave was used during the Archaic Period (ca. 7000 to 1000 BC) like other caves and rockshelters in Missouri and Illinois.
The large passageways near the mouth of the cave have been badly vandalized by spray paint. Over half of the cave floor has been dug away by historic commercial activity and looting. Please do not hurt this cave anymore! Do no dig in it. Do not spray paint its walls. Do not harm the bad [sic] colony. Please.
A 3 foot/1 meter water fall and associated pool of water is located approximately 200 ft. from the entrance of the cave and exactly at the point where the passageway turns and total darkness is encountered. Professor Michael Fuller suspects that Native Americans would have seen this pool as the home of a Wakon (Osage, spirit being). Why? At present, the cave stream is almost dead and supports only a few frogs and cave isopods (Caecidotea sp). It would have supported albino crayfish (Cambarus sp.), albino salamanders (Typhlotriton spelaeus) and blind fish ( Typhlichthys subterraneus) before urban pollution destroyed the fragile habitat of the cave. The albino and eyeless lifeforms in the cave stream would have thrived in the 3 ft. deep pool; their errie features would have been seen as supernatural manifestations. Big Brown Bat (Eptesicus fuscus) and the Eastern Pippistrelle (Pippistrellus subflavus) still use the cave. Their droppings would have provided a food resource for the cave life living in the underground stream.
Cliff Cave was the site of a tragic caving accident in 1993. If you want to stay safe then remain in the high ceiling portions of the cave and do not go into the crawlway passages. A natural bridge approximately 400 feet from the entrance is an interesting natural feature where the original phraetic tube cave passageway (above) is separated from the later vadose passageway (underneath). Cliff Cave has very few "typical" Ozark cave formations such as flowstone, stalactites or stalagmites. Several portions of scalloped bedrock in this area could be mistaken as reptilian flesh or shed snake skin. It is easy to recognize them as natural cave features under bright flashlights, but smoking cane torches would have provided a low level of light for prehistoric cavers and these features would have been interpreted as manifestations of Wakon.
Map of Cliff Cave prepared in 1982 showing 4,726 feet of cave. Provided by the Missouri Geological Survey, Rolla. Print this map off and take it with you if you are going to visit the cave. Only visit the cave under permit of St. Louis County Parks and Recreation.
Is there an explanation for the name "Indian Cave"? The cave has 4 entrances and literally "breathes" (produces a mist) during extremely cold winter days. It is very likely that the Osage and Illini people believed it to be inhabited by a Wakon (Osage, spirit being) during the days when the mist issues from the mouth of the cave. The cave is used by bats during certain months and some Native American traditions linked bats with the supernatural world. It is possible that Native American rock art once decorated the walls, but that will be hard to prove or disprove with all the modern graffiti. Professor Michael Fuller and Ranger Dennis Hogan briefly examined some likely portions of the cave wall, but found no immediate evidence. A thorough survey of the cave walls has not been done. Contract Professor Fuller or the Archaeological Survey of Missouri if you know of prehistoric rock art sites.
Notes on the History of the Cave
Human Discovery?
7850 BC to 6170 BC - Graham Cave Dates
6580 BC to 5750 BC - Modoc Dates
2150 - 1550 B.C. Titterington Phase at Modoc
AD 1600s Osage or Illini see the cave as sacred?
AD 1700s - French fur trappers make cave into a tavern
1749 - John Baptiste D'Gamache receives cave and land in Spanish Land Grant
early 1800s - Crystal City steamboat sunk at nearby Landing
1830s - Cliff Cave Wine Company formed - masonry work in cave
1850s - Two cattle thieves used cave or band of outlaws?
1860s - Confederate soldiers rendezvous at the cave
1871 - Cliff Cave Wine Company made 3000 gallons of wine (St. Louis the Future Great City of the World, 1871, page 81).
1879 - Cliff Cave Wine Company shut down
1898 - Cave a recreation spot for volunteer soldiers from Jefferson Barracks and they build a saloon in the entrance.
ca. 1910 - Anheuser-Busch leased cave. Stored beer was cooled by blocks of ice cut from the frozen river during the winter.
1920s - SpeakEasies along Cliff Cave Road. Mob dumped bodies in cave
1963 - County Police consider blasting shut the entrance at request of owner, Mr. H. Harold Pettus. He was mad after 75 highschool kids go into cave. One 18 year old student lost for 2 hours.
August 1965 - Cave partially mapped.
1966 - Cave report filed with MSS
1981 - Cave fully mapped by Adam Marty, J. Marty, and S. Bielawski
23 July 1993 - Four counselors and 16 boys from St. Joseph's Home for Boys enters Cliff Cave. Many groups from the home had visited the cave during the summer. This group did not have a counselor with experience in the cave. Not enough flash lights. 2 PM Flash flood in the right hand crawlway while a small group is exploring. Sunny day, although a flash flood warning was in effect. Road closed sign leading to cave. Went right when they should have gone left and crawled to the Drapery Room but never found the other entrances. Bad directions. Foolish choices, poor judgment, tragic outcome.
Darnell Redmond (31)
Jennifer Metherd (21)
Terrill Vincent (12)
Emmett Terry (9)
Tarrell Battle (10)
Melvin Bell (10)
Gary Mahr (13) survived
[1996 Jury awards $400,000 to Gary Mahr for trauma. Terrill Vincent's mother received $100,000; 3 other families had lawsuits that they settled out of court with Catholic Charities]
~ from website by St. Louis Community College Professor Michael Fuller (
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CLIFF CAVE, in the town of Oakville, in southeastern Saint Louis County, Missouri, has been a popular destination for revelers, ne'er-do-wells, and explorers for centuries. This cave is not the largest in the area, nor is it the most beautiful, but instead it is the most easily accessible cave for locals. The Saint Louis area, even the City itself, has many caves; but their entrances are obscure: some are hidden beneath locked manhole covers, while others are kept as reserves for bats and unique cave fauna, their whereabouts kept secret by the local speleological society. This cave, however, is well known.
~ from Rome of the West (
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