Niagara Cave

Since its opening as a tourist attraction in 1934, Niagara Cave near Harmony has welcomed thousands of visitors from around the world into its inspiring environment. The unique underground space is filled with distinctive rock architecture and naturally carved pathways created by freshwater underground streams.

Niagara Cave is the largest limestone cave in the Midwest, with a maximum depth of 200 feet and a vertical relief of about 150 feet. An interior passageway extends for 1,750 feet past striking geological features, including a gorge (the Grand Canyon), a limestone island (the Battleship), and a rounded concave ceiling (Cathedral Dome). Its interior maintains a constant temperature of forty-eight degrees.

The first documented entry of the cave occurred in 1924, when three meandering pigs fell through a sinkhole a few miles southwest of Harmony. They fell seventy-five feet before landing inside a spacious cavern. It wasn’t long before their owner, a local farmer, noticed his pigs were missing. The farmer found more than his livestock when he retrieved them. Gasping lamplight in the underground’s dark dampness revealed the shimmering, golden-hued walls of an undiscovered grotto, nearly magical in its display of varied rock formations.

Eight years later, in 1932, three amateur spelunkers thoroughly explored the cave. Landowner Al Cremer, Leo Tekippe, and Joe Flynn slipped through the open crevice and spent two hours examining the cave’s layout. What they discovered was breathtaking: ceilings that sometimes measured 100 feet high, a sixty-two-foot waterfall that emptied into a swiftly moving underground stream, ancient fossils, established walkways, and impressive stone formations. The successful expedition led to an exciting idea: opening the cave to public tours.

Inspired by the waterfall, Cremer, Tekippe, and Flynn named the site Niagara Cave and opened it to tourists in June 1934. In its opening season, it was one of the most advertised tourism attractions in the country. Hundreds of billboards advertising the cave lined highways across the state, region, and country. The first wedding in the cave’s chapel took place in 1935. Al Cremer sold the cave to Ron and Nancy Vikre in 1981; the Vikres, in turn, sold it to Mark and Jennifer Bishop in 1995.

In 2014, the cave celebrated the ninetieth anniversary of its first documented entry by shutting off the overhead electrical lighting and hosting guided lantern tours. The tours gave visitors a similar experience to that of the first spelunkers. In 2015, it became the first commercial cave in the world to be powered by solar energy. It has been consistently ranked as a top cave destination in America by several media outlets, including CNN and the Travel Channel. A 2016 USA Today poll ranked it as the second-best cave in the country.

Between 25,000 and 30,000 visitors tour the cave each year. They marvel at the icicle-like stalactites suspended from the ceiling and the cone-like stalagmites protruding upwards from the floor. Over 400 couples have exchanged wedding vows in the chapel. Visitors can shop the gift shop, play eighteen holes of mini golf, pan for gemstones and fossils, and enjoy an outdoor picnic.