Last year, I took my kids to see Onondaga Cave [1] located in Leasburg, Missouri. The state of Missouri runs this site. The park rangers present visitors with detailed descriptions regarding the geology of the cave. These descriptions often include time frames that run in the hundreds of millions of years. Here’s a sample, from the Onondaga Cave website:
About a billion years ago, the Ozarks were a hotbed of volcanic activity centered about 45 miles to the southeast, in Iron and Reynolds counties. The igneous remains of this activity formed the surface of granites, rhyolites, felsites and basalts that are exposed there. These rocks are the basement layer here, about 1,000 to 1,500 feet below the cave. This basement layer is not flat but tilted. About 600 million years ago, this volcanic activity calmed and the region cooled, condensing great amounts of water vapor, which formed shallow (about 200 foot deep) seas. These seas were the birthplace of the Eminence and Gasconade formations of dolomite, chert, sandstone and shale in which Onondaga Cave is formed. It is believed that the Ozarks were uplifted above sea level (or the seas retreated, take your pick) four times before they fell for the last time about 280 million years ago. One final major uplift (of dry land) took place 50 million to 7 million years ago.
For those who enjoy exploring large case, Onondaga is a terrific place to visit. It is a place to see a spectacular natural wonder and to learn a lot in the process.
Missouri has a second enormous cave, Meramec Caverns. [2] As you can see from the Meramec Caverns website, the private owners of this second cave are absolutely unwilling to say anything about geology. This cave is marketed as a place where Jesse James and his gang hid some of their loot. It is also a place to buy fudge and ice cream, according to much of the advertising. The website also promotes Meramec Caverns as a place to attend church services. Meramec Caverns is marketed through the use of almost 50 billboards located between St. Louis and Stanton Missouri (site of the cave), a distance of less than 80 miles. None of these billboards mentions anything about the geology of the cave.
As it turns out, Meramec Caverns is an incredible cave, well worth exploring. Nowhere during the tour, however, did our tour guide mentione anything about the age of the cave or the dates on which important geological events occurred. At the end of our one-hour tour I approached the tour guide and asked her about the age of the cave. She hesitantly responded that the cave was formed in “prehistoric” times. I told her that “prehistoric” included a wide range of time. “What more can you tell me about the age of this cave?”
The woman sheepishly admitted to me that she doesn’t usually mention the age of the cave because many of the visitors on these tours have become perturbed with her. Some of these visitors heckle her in front of the other visitors.
I asked her if these hecklers were people who believed that the Bible was literally true, and she stated yes. She said that when she has stated the true age of the cave (portions of the cave are 70 million years old), Bible thumpers call out things like “That’s not true!” or “If only!” They sometimes call out passages from the Bible. It can all get quite unpleasant, according to our tour guide. Her solution is simply not to mention the age of the cave during most tours. She has discussed this issue with the other tour guides and this is how they handle their tours too.
Meramec Caverns thinks it knows his audience well, and throws them lots of red meat. We noticed this strategy during our tour of a large room the owners named the “Theater” of the cave. You can see a multicolor lit photo of one portion of this room here. [3] It was toward the end of the hour-long tour that our tour guide of Meramec Caverns played two patriotic songs while she used a small console to flicker colored lights onto the cave wall. Before the beginning of the second song, the tour guide announced that the second song would be dedicated to the brave soldiers who are fighting in Iraq. She then hit a button to play Kate Smith singing “God bless America.” She flickered red white and blue lights onto the stalactites and stalagmites. As Kate crescendoed toward the end of the song, our tour guide hit yet another button to project a large American flag on the cave wall.
What a shame, I thought. There was no need for such a carnival atmosphere. Meramec Caverns is a naturally incredible cave. I also wondered, “What do the features of Meramec Caverns have to do with Iraq, K. Smith, God or the American flag?” For the owners of Meramec Caverns, the answer was obvious.
My recent vacation with my family took us to several other Missouri state parks. At the state parks (unlike Meramec Caverns, which is privately owned) the ages of the geological features were candidly disclosed. For instance, at a delightful park entitled “Elephant Rocks,” [4] we learned that the huge granite boulders were originally formed 1.5 billion years ago. At a small but significant State Park, Mastodon State Historic Site, [5] the employees told us of mastodon bones that were tens of thousands of years old, much older than 6,000 years, the date during which many creationists argue that God created the earth. The woman who worked at Mastodon State Historic Site told us that she is commonly confronted by creationists who insists that the geologists’ dates are wrong. They sometimes confront her, demanding that she discuss her own religious beliefs with them.
I went away from Mastodon State Historic Site having learned an incredible story based upon real facts. I learned that huge elephant-like creatures and giant sloths roamed Missouri a mere 10,000 years ago. I learned that the Clovis people hunted these extraordinary creatures, at least for a brief time. To take this incredible story to heart, all one needs to do is follow the evidence where it leads. No Kate Smith necessary. No need to support the troops. No flashing lights needed to drive the story home.
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