February 4, 1893

Marble Cave gets national exposure on the cover of Scientific American magazine. Now called Marvel Cave, Missouri’s deepest known cave has a grand cavern so large that promoters inflated hot air balloons inside to showcase the size of the natural wonder.

Based upon content from the book Missouri 365: This Day in Missouri History by John W. Brown, broadcaster and Missouri historian. Get your copy at Reedy Press.

Photo courtesy Silver Dollar City

Related: Only a fraction of the Show-Me State’s 6,400+ caves are open to the public. Read about five of Missouri Life magazine’s five favorite show caves. (From the Missouri Life magazine archives.)