Photo by Jeff Rose
In 1845, John Moore and his sons were mining for lead in the Ozark Mountains when they happened upon a cave filled with stunning ancient mineral formations. Their discovery became known as Moore’s Cave and legend has it that it was used by moonshiners in the late 1800s due to its secluded location and year-round temperature of 64 degrees. In 1927, a descending stairway was built for tours, and now the Northwest Arkansas attraction dubbed Cosmic Cavern welcomes 27,000 visitors annually. Its spectacular features include two “bottomless” blue-green lakes—the first discovered in 1963 and the second in 1993—of which cave divers have never found the floors to measure the true depth. Visitors may take guided walking tours to view these lakes and the cave’s giant stalactites, stalagmites, flowstone, and “soda straws” (hollow, tubular stalactites). For more adventurous types, the four-hour Wild Cave Tour involves crawling through undeveloped sections to spy untouched natural wonders. Still considered an active cave (since formations continue to grow due to the dripping water’s mineral deposits), Cosmic Cavern is also home to rare creatures such as blind cave trout and blind cave salamanders.
This article appears in the Summer 2025 issue of Southbound.
