A show cave —also called tourist cave , public cave , and, in the United States, commercial cave —is a cave which has been made accessible to the public for guided visits.
61-537: Mark Twain Cave — originally McDowell's Cave — is a show cave located near Hannibal, Missouri . It was named for author Mark Twain whose real name was Samuel Langhorne Clemens . Clemens lived in Hannibal from 1839 to 1853, age 4 to 17. It is the oldest operating show cave in the state, giving tours continuously since 1886. Along with nearby Cameron Cave, it became a registered National Natural Landmark in 1972, with
122-447: A Resurrectionist or grave robber to dig up a grave rather than to topple down iron or steel doors guarding the mausoleum. A flaw in the design of the mausoleum was the stained glass or other windows within. Almost every family between the 18th and 19th century had a religious affiliation. Many of these families (usually with a Christian affiliation) would put stained glass within the mausoleums. The grave robbers would then just have to smash
183-553: A broader pattern of colonial violence against Indigenous Australians, which included forced removal from their land, massacres, and the forced assimilation of Indigenous children into white Australian society. One of the most notorious examples of grave robbery in Australia is the case of the Tasmanian Aboriginals (see also: Black War ). After the last full-blooded Tasmanian Aboriginal woman died in 1876, her body
244-477: A citation reading "Exceptionally good examples of the maze type of cavern development." The cave — as "McDougal's Cave" — plays an important role in the novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) by Mark Twain and was renamed in honor of the author in 1880. Geologically Mark Twain Cave and its nearby neighbor Cameron Cave differ from most of the 6,500+ caves found in Missouri. Both are believed to be remnants of
305-488: A functional role in protection against graverobbing. These feature strongly in French and British layouts. Typically these would be a semi-enclosed stone structure with an ornamental cast iron access gate and usually plainer rails to the roof or sides. Although the protective function of the vaults became redundant by 1840 most mid 19th century cemeteries continue to include vaults as a visual focal point in their layouts. This
366-419: A labyrinth of crooked aisles that ran into each other and out again and led nowhere. It was said that one might wander days and nights together through its intricate tangle of rifts and chasms and never find the end of the cave. The cave was little known outside of the immediate Hannibal region until 1876, when Twain's landmark novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer was published. Soon tourists worldwide were making
427-411: A mausoleum for his daughter, age fourteen. The body of this poor child was put in a copper cylinder filled with alcohol, and this suspended in one of the dismal avenues of the cave. However in 1849, when McDowell learned that locals had been daring each other to break into the cave and open the cylinder, disrespecting his child’s remains, he had the body removed for a more traditional, and safer, burial in
488-406: A much larger cave system cut apart by a glacier and millions of years of erosion, leading to speculation by geologists and common citizens alike that there may be further undiscovered caves in the Hannibal region. This speculation was heightened in 2006 when the entrance to a previously unknown cave was found during construction of a new elementary school. A major difference is that Mark Twain Cave has
549-464: A near total lack of speleothems , mineral deposits like stalagmites and stalactites in large open areas. Mark Twain Cave and Cameron Cave instead have a multitude of narrow, winding passages. The caves are made mostly of a soft limestone called Louisiana Lithographic Limestone that is found only in a 35-mile (56 km) area around Hannibal and Louisiana, Missouri . The limestone has been estimated by geologists to be about 350 million years old, while
610-477: A not uncommon practice prior to the 20th century. Twain would weave that suspicion into the plot of Tom Sawyer in a grave robbing scene involving Injun Joe . According to folklore, McDowell used the cave as a secret Confederate weapons storage cache during the American Civil War . McDowell was an ardent Southern supporter, and indeed had a stash of cannons and muskets, previously intended to aid
671-520: A select number of days, the family would delegate this duty amongst them and close friends. As grave robbing became a lucrative business in the 19th century, a bribe would convince some guards to look the other way. In Scotland, construction of guard towers became common in the late 18th century, usually in a position overlooking most of the burial ground. Within the Great Pyramid of Giza (completed around 2560 BC), an Egyptian deterrent system
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#1732788116200732-600: A shipment of 12 bodies of southern African Americans. "They came in barrels labeled [as containing] turpentine and were shipped to a local hardware store that dealt in painting materials". State laws in Mississippi and North Carolina were passed in the 19th century which allowed medical schools to use the remains of those at the bottom of society's hierarchy—the unclaimed bodies of poor persons and residents of almshouses , and those buried in potter's fields for anatomical study. The option to dissect Confederate soldiers
793-541: A sinkhole in the ground across the valley from Mark Twain Cave. After some digging, he discovered a large natural underground room. Further exploration found a cave even larger than Mark Twain Cave, with more twisted pathways. This "sister" cave was named for the Cameron family. Tours of Cameron Cave are offered, but are of a more primitive nature. The cave has no electric lights, and the only modifications made have been those mandated by law for safety. The entire cave complex
854-406: A small hillside opening south of current-day Hannibal. Upon investigation with torches, he and his brothers found that the small opening led to a large underground labyrinth. The cave proved a popular diversion for mid-19th century Hannibal residents, especially children, including the young Sam Clemens . These childhood explorations would later reappear in five of Mark Twain's books. The proximity to
915-447: A succession of owners in the late 1800s and early 1900s, Cameron had served as manager of the cave property. He was the first to establish standardized tour routes within the cave, construct a small building near the entrance for ticket sales, and advertise the cave in newspapers as "Mark Twain Cave". One cold winter day in 1925, Judge Evan Thomas Cameron's son Archie was caring for the family's cattle herd when he noticed steam rising from
976-453: A year or two after burial. They are common throughout northern Europe. They usually predate any graverobbing periods and indeed serve no purpose in relation to graverobbing as they stored bones not bodies. Up to 31 recorded mort houses were scattered throughout Scotland and northern England. Usually these structures were built within or near cemeteries to make transportation easier. Prior to grave robbers, they were used to store dead bodies in
1037-404: Is often a critical point within overall composition. One of the most simplistic and low-tech methods to prevent grave robbing were to have an individual guard over the newly buried body. This was done until decomposition of the body was brought to a point where they would no longer be desirable for medical use. If families did not have enough money to hire an individual to watch over the grave for
1098-579: Is often called a semi-wild cave. Access may involve anything between an easy stroll and dangerous climbing . Most cave accidents happen in this kind of cave, as visitors underestimate the difficulties and dangers. The oldest known show cave in the world is probably Reed Flute Cave in China with inscriptions from 792 in the time of the Tang dynasty . Other old show caves are Postojna Cave in Slovenia , with
1159-590: Is privately owned by Todd and Austin Curry, who purchased the complex in 2020. It had previously been owned by the Coleberd family, descendants of Judge Cameron. The complex includes the Mark Twain and Cameron caves, a campground, a gift shop/visitors center, a candle shop, and a winery. Other available activities include The Life and Times of Mark Twain , a one-man stage performance that covers various highlights and
1220-400: Is the act of uncovering a grave , tomb or crypt to steal commodities . It is usually perpetrated to take and profit from valuable artefacts or personal property . A related act is body snatching , a term denoting the contested or unlawful taking of a body (usually from a grave), which can be extended to the unlawful taking of organs alone. Grave robbing has caused great difficulty to
1281-695: The Harz in Germany though this cave was intensively visited much earlier. The development of electric lighting enabled the illumination of show caves. Early experiments with electric light in caves were carried out by Lieutenant Edward Cracknel in 1880 at Chifley Cave , Jenolan Caves , Australia . In 1881, Sloupsko-Šošůvské Jeskyně , Czech Republic , became the first cave in the world with electric arc light. This light did not use light bulbs, but electric arc lamps with carbon electrodes, which burned down and had to be replaced after some time. The first cave in
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#17327881162001342-462: The Little Dixie area southwest of Hannibal. In September 1879, following the robbery of a train in nearby Saverton, Missouri , the cave proved a ready and secure hideout for few days rest. James even signed and dated one of the caves walls using a pencil. That section of the cave used to be open to tours but has since been excluded from the tour as the pencil marks have faded. The cave was but
1403-693: The Mark Twain Boyhood Home & Museum in Hannibal and the Mark Twain House in Hartford, Connecticut, discovered "Clemens" written on the cave wall during a special tour for Twain scholars. She and owner Linda Coleberd had been searching for the signature for decades. Twain scholars Alan Gribben and Kevin Mac Donnell authenticated the signature. Show cave A show cave is a cave that has been made accessible to
1464-479: The Mississippi River and its cooling breezes made the small valley between the river bluffs containing the caves a popular site for family picnics and church outings in the summertime. Pioneering Hannibal physician Dr. Joseph Nash McDowell purchased the cave in the late 1840s and used it for several years as a laboratory for medical research on human corpses. His belief that traditional burial 'stifled
1525-759: The black market . Those intercepted, in a public justice domain, are inclined to deny their guilt. Though some artifacts may make their way to museums or scholars, the majority end up in private collections. Grave robbing in China is a practice stretching back to antiquity; the classic Chinese text Lüshi Chunqiu , dating to the 2nd century BCE, advised readers to plan simple burials to discourage looting. The presence of jade burial suits and other valuables in tombs were powerful temptations to rob graves. In modern China, grave robbing has been perpetrated by both amateurs (such as farmers and migrant laborers) and by professional thieves associated with transnational criminal networks . The practice reached epidemic proportions in
1586-480: The 1820s. Mausolea do not play a major role in the history of graverobbing and are largely built as a display of wealth rather than security. Historically mausoleums have been used as a sign of a family's wealth and a symbol of gentry and nobility in many countries. In the mid and late 19th century in North America, more and more families began to buy mausoleums. The belief was that it would be easier for
1647-536: The 1980s, as the development and construction boom following the Chinese economic reform led to many archaeological sites being revealed. Other peaks of tomb robbing occurred in the early 2000s and in the 2010s, when the plunder of graves was on the upswing due to an increase in global and domestic demand (and prices) for Chinese antiquities. The provinces of Henan , Shaanxi , and Shanxi were particularly affected by tomb robbing. Ancient Egyptian tombs are one of
1708-840: The Ancient World outside of Egypt. The Romans ( Byzantium ) also suffered decades of theft and destruction of tombs, crypts, and graves. In parts of Europe, graves are robbed on an accelerating and alarming scale. Many grave robbers work with metal detectors and some of the groups are organised criminals , feeding the black market with highly prized archaeological artifacts. Merovingian graves in France and Germany and Anglo-Saxon graves in England contain many metal grave goods, mostly of iron. Grave robbers often leave them, being only interested in gold and silver. Grave contexts, ceramics, iron weapons and skeletons are typically destroyed in
1769-584: The accessibility of the automobile (in the early 19th century), the transportation of bodies was difficult. An example of this is Mount Auburn Cemetery, in Cambridge Massachusetts. It was the first rural cemetery inside the United States. The rural location of the cemetery created transportation issues. In addition, the terrain of and around the area was formidable, as the designer, Henry Alexander Scammell Dearborn , wanted to leave
1830-451: The cave passages were formed some 100 million years ago. Mark Twain Cave covers some 3 miles (4.8 km) with four entrances and 260 passages and has a year-round temperature of 52 °F (11 °C). While it is possible that prehistoric Native Americans were aware of the cave, the earliest documentation claims that Mark Twain Cave was discovered in the winter of 1819-1820 by a local hunter, Jack Simms, when his dog chased an animal into
1891-409: The consent of Indigenous communities but were used to advance racist and pseudoscientific theories about their supposed inferiority. It was a common practice carried out by medical students who needed corpses for dissection and research. This practice continued until the late nineteenth century when laws were introduced to regulate the supply of cadavers for medical research. This was all part of
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1952-518: The discovery of a previously unknown family cemetery by a new landowner. One notable historical incident occurred during the evening of November 7, 1876, when a group of counterfeiters attempted to steal Abraham Lincoln 's body from his grave in Springfield, Illinois , in an attempt to secure the release of their imprisoned leader, counterfeit engraver Benjamin Boyd. However, a Secret Service agent
2013-457: The early days of British colonisation, when Aboriginal burial sites were viewed merely as sites of scientific curiosity and anthropological study, and sought to collect and study their remains before they disappeared altogether. This belief was reflected in the work of anthropologists and scientists who travelled to Australia in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to collect Aboriginal remains for study. These remains were not only taken without
2074-472: The family vault behind the newly-built Missouri Medical College where he worked. A fable of the body being forcibly removed by angry Hannibal citizens, having heard of it from the children who had used the body to enhance their telling of ghost stories, was added to the rumors that swirled around McDowell. Many in St. Louis believed that McDowell also used bodies stolen from local graves for his medical examinations,
2135-399: The generations. Efforts to repatriate stolen Indigenous remains and protect Indigenous burial sites have been ongoing in Australia for many years. In recent years, there has been a growing movement to return stolen remains to their traditional owners for proper burial and commemoration. The geography and placement of burial grounds became a deterrent within itself. This is because without
2196-418: The glass to break in and to retrieve the body. Making it even easier, around the 1830s families began to fear burying family members. To remedy this, families would put a spare key somewhere within the mausoleum and create doors with two way locks. Grave robbers could break a window, recover the body, find the key, and walk straight out the front door of the mausoleum. Unlike mausolea, cemetery vaults did play
2257-574: The grave. These deterrents, used commonly in Scotland, would be rented from the sexton until the body decomposed and were used on a circulating basis. At the passage of the Dissections Act the purpose became redundant and they were left where last used, sometimes being incorporated into the grave marker by addition of inscription. A mort house, ossuaries or dead house was used to store bones (usually skulls and femurs) gleaned from graves
2318-469: The humor of the author's life from a first-person perspective. One of the newest additions to the cave complex is Sticks & Stones, an interactive gem shop where children and adults can sluice for semi-precious stones, much like Twain did in his brief gold panning career. One of the most notable visitors was U.S. President Jimmy Carter , who toured Mark Twain Cave with his family in 1979. The guided tour of Mark Twain Cave takes approximately 55 minutes, while
2379-411: The journey to see the real-life cave that provided the basis for the novel's fictional "MacDougal's Cave", where Tom and Becky Thatcher 's lives were endangered by Injun Joe. The first regular tours by paying customers began in 1886 when local farmer John East charged tourists a dime to see some of the places inside the cave made famous by the novel. East excavated an entrance for these tours, but found it
2440-491: The larger Cameron Cave tour averages one hour twenty minutes in length. Mark Twain Cave is open year-around except Thanksgiving and Christmas days. Cameron Cave is open from Memorial Day through Labor Day only. For decades, cave owners, scholars, and visitors searched for the signature of Sam Clemens among the 250,000 signatures visitors had written on the walls of the cave in candle smoke, pencil, paint, and even berry juice. On July 26, 2019, Cindy Lovell , former director of both
2501-612: The most common examples of tomb or grave robbery. Most of the tombs in Egypt's Valley of the Kings were robbed within one hundred years of their sealing (including the tomb of the famous King Tutankhamen , which was raided at least twice before it was discovered in 1922). As most of the artifacts in these ancient burial sites have been discovered, it is through the conditions of the tombs and presumed articles that are missing in which historians and archaeologists are able to determine whether
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2562-1071: The natural terrain (including ponds and hills) within the cemetery. If someone wanted to rob a grave, they would have to maneuver around these obstacles and navigate large stretches of land in the dark. Note that Mount Auburn Cemetery is over 175 acres. Other cemeteries, of the time, that were originally built away from populated areas for similar reasons, include: Mount Hope Cemetery in Bangor, Maine (1834); Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1836); Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Taunton, Massachusetts (1836); Mount Hope Cemetery in Rochester, New York (1838); Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York (1838); and, Green Mount Cemetery in Baltimore, Maryland (1838). A mortsafe or mort safe
2623-441: The poor were frequently the target of grave robbing. African Americans would often be compelled to bury their dead in a potter's field , not having the access or money for a proper funeral. When buried in potter's fields, the dead were not normally buried very deeply. A grave robber could wait discreetly in the distance until nobody else was in sight, then quickly and easily disinter the body from its shallow resting place. Once
2684-578: The presumed first record of a cave tour in 1213. Other early show caves are Jasov Cave in Slovakia with inscriptions from 1452, the Sontheimer Höhle in Germany which was reportedly visited by Herzog Ulrich von Württemberg on 20 May 1516 and Vilenica Cave in Slovenia where entrance fees were taken from 1633 on. In 1649, the first "authorized" cave guide started guiding Baumannshöhle in
2745-820: The process. In Eastern Europe , including Southeast Europe and the European part of Russia , grave robbers target all kinds of historically important graves, from prehistoric tombs to World War II graves. Modern grave robbing in North America also involves long-abandoned or forgotten private Antebellum Period to pre- Great Depression era grave sites. These sites are often desecrated by grave robbers in search of old and valuable jewellery. Affected sites are typically in rural, forested areas where once-prominent, wealthy landowners and their families were interred. The remote and often undocumented locations of defunct private cemeteries make them particularly susceptible to grave robbery. The practice may be encouraged by default upon
2806-768: The public for guided visits, where a cave is defined as a natural occurring void beneath the surface of the earth, per the International Show Caves Association. A show cave may be managed by a government or commercial organization and made accessible to the general public, usually for an entrance fee. Unlike wild caves, they may possess regular opening hours, guided group tours, constructed trails and stairs, color artificial illumination and other lighting, musical/video/laser shows and concerts, elevators, small trains, and boats if they contain underground water features. Some caves (mainly in Asia) open to
2867-486: The public have temples, monasteries and religious statues or monuments. Some caves are visited by millions of tourists annually. The term is used inconsistently between nations: many countries tend to call all caves which are open to the public show caves or public caves in contrary to all other caves which are not allowed to enter. However, there are many such caves which are not developed with trails, light and tours, which are visited by very many people. This kind of cave
2928-467: The railroad was invented and tracks laid, the sale of the bodies of African American slaves from the South for dissection began in earnest. The bodies were robbed from graves by night doctors and shipped to medical schools in the northern part of the United States. One New England anatomy professor reported that, in the 1880s and 1890s, he entered into an arrangement in which he received, twice each semester,
2989-406: The rebels in his home state of Kentucky in 1846, stockpiled at his St. Louis medical college, as evidenced when an angry mob gathered outside the building, mistakenly accusing McDowell of murder. One of the former Confederates who likely had knowledge of the cave from his war service is the legendary outlaw Jesse James . James had ridden with Quantrill's Raiders and Bloody Bill Anderson throughout
3050-457: The repercussions of being in possession of stolen goods; the blame (and charges) were placed upon the lower-class grave robbers. Today's antiquities trade has become a streamlined industry, the speed at which these artifacts enter the market has grown exponentially. Laws to prevent grave robbing have been enacted in these regions, but due to extreme poverty, these grave robberies continue to grow each year. Enslaved and free blacks, immigrants, and
3111-432: The soul of the dead', and a different type of interment would aid communication between living and dead, led to one of the cave's more notorious episodes, and inspiration for Twain, when McDowell placed his recently deceased child Amanda in a preserving coffin inside the cave work space. Twain's book Life on the Mississippi offered a description of the activities: In my time the person who owned it [the cave] turned it into
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#17327881162003172-570: The studies of archaeology , art history , and history . Countless precious grave sites and tombs have been robbed before scholars were able to examine them. In any way, the archaeological context and the historical and anthropological information are destroyed: Looting obliterates the memory of the ancient world and turns its highest artistic creations into decorations, adornments on a shelf, divorced from historical context and ultimately from all meaning. Grave robbers who are not caught usually sell relatively modern items anonymously and artifacts on
3233-456: The tomb has been robbed. Egyptian pharaohs often kept records of the precious items in their tombs, so an inventory check is presumed for archaeologists. Oftentimes, warnings would be left by the Pharaohs in the tombs of calamities and curses that would be laid upon any who touched the treasure, or the bodies, which did little to deter grave robbers. There are many examples of grave robbing in
3294-450: The twentieth century, with some cases reported as recently as the 1970s. The theft and desecration of Aboriginal burial sites and remains has had profound and ongoing impacts on Indigenous communities in Australia. For many Indigenous Australians, the loss of their ancestors' remains has denied them the opportunity to mourn and grieve their loved ones. It has also perpetuated a legacy of trauma and dispossession that has been passed down through
3355-495: The winter, being that the ground was too cold and in some cases impossible to dig into. An example is the Udny Mort House built in 1832, Aberdeenshire, north-east Scotland and still standing today. The coffin collar was an iron collar often fixed to a piece of wood. It was fixed around the neck of a corpse and then bolted to the bottom of a coffin. Most common reports of these collars being used came from Scotland around
3416-878: The world with electric light bulbs as we know them today was the Kraushöhle in Austria in 1883. But the light was abandoned after only seven years and then visited with carbide lamps for decades. Today the cave is guided with handheld LED lamps. In 1884, two more caves were equipped with electric light, Postojna Cave , Slovenia , and Olgahöhle , Germany . Because of the unwanted development of lampenflora ( algae attracted to heat and light) around incandescent electric lights in show caves, many of these attractions, such as Ingleborough Cave in England , have switched to cooler-temperature LED lighting . Grave robbery Grave robbery , tomb robbing , or tomb raiding
3477-533: Was also available, as Mississippi and North Carolina legally released those bodies to the families of the deceased. The North Carolina law also provided that the bodies of whites never be sent to an African American medical college (such as the Leonard Medical School ). These African American medical schools typically obtained unclaimed Black ‘‘potter’s field bodies’’. The practice of grave robbery against Aboriginal Australians can be traced back to
3538-415: Was an iron coffin or framework which helped to protect a grave by preventing the body from being dug up and taken away. Mortsafes were specific for the task of preventing bodies from being stolen for purposes of medical dissections. Other variants included movable stone slabs capable of being hoisted over the fresh grave. All work on the principle of greatly increasing the required time for criminals to access
3599-413: Was difficult to enter through it. In 1890, a new entry to the cave was created nearby. For over fifty years tourists saw the cave much as Twain had in his youth, by candlelight or lantern. That changed in 1939 when electric lights were added to the tour areas of the cave by the Cameron family. The cave had been purchased in 1923 by Judge E.T. Cameron, who had been a guide at the cave as a young man. Through
3660-581: Was exhumed and her skeleton sent to the Royal College of Surgeons in London for study. It was not until 1976, a century later, that her remains were finally returned to Australia for a proper burial. Probably the most prolific documented individual pillager of Indigenous burial sites was George Murray Black , who ransacked around 1,800 graves around Victoria , eastern South Australia and southern New South Wales . The practice continued well into
3721-437: Was present and had notified the police beforehand, so the grave robbers only succeeded in dislodging the lid of his coffin. As a consequence, when Lincoln was reburied, additional security measures were implemented to prevent further grave robbery attempts. Grave robbers often sold stolen Aztec or Mayan goods on the black market for an extremely high price. The buyers (museum curators, historians, etc.) didn't often suffer
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