My Corner Online
Smallin Civil War Cave
Smallin Civil War Cave is located at 575 N Smallin Rd, Ozark, Christian County, Missouri. It is a privately owned cave opened to tours and the owners do a fabulous work at making the place feel similar to a state-run park. We visited on June 24, 2023. We arrived early and had to wait for them to open the gates and then the first tour did not start for a while as we waited for more folks to arrive. A man who took our tour with us was a former guide so I was able to listen to his extra incites along the tour which was kind of neat. Since we had the dogs with us, hubby waited outside with the dogs while I took the tour. He is able to watch the recording.
The parking lot is huge as they are able to handle a lot of folks it seems.
You do not go in this building, but rather around to the right down a path with signs to read before you enter the shop where you pay and look around the shop to buy a souvenir before your tour while you wait. The tour starts with a movie.
This plaque tells you about Quincy A. Smallin whom they named the cave.
This tree is about 250 years old and is a marker tree which points shelter, food, or water. I have previously been aware of these trees bent by the Indians to point to water.
There are three caves. This is the first one that we went in and it is called the Fielding Cave.
The second cave is too small to be considered a cave by regulations. It is to the right before you walk in the Smallin Cave. Our guide called it the Cave of Disappointment.
There is Spring water running through both caves and the Civil War soldiers took advantage of the cool air, water, and shelter.
This place was previously owned by the Assembly of God church and church camps were held here. Our guide and one of the others in our group remember coming here as a child. Many of the improvements in the cave were built by this church whose headquarters are in Springfield.
There are steps, or the ladder, to the right of this rock.
There are petroglyph on the face of the same rock by the Native Americans. The sun marks one of them.
To hear all of the stories about these photos, watch the above video.
There are living beings in caves and here we see a salamander.
This is the end of the tour with the walkway, but another tour can be purchased that takes you beyond this pond of water.
As we walked back, I took another photo of the outside of the first cave.
