Truman and members of his Democratic party had a planned visit to Missouri Caverns. Ī column formation known as the 'Rock of Ages'Ī situation occurred that mirrored the land disputes in 1934 when senatorial candidate Harry S. The court battles continued over the land disputes, and Onondaga suffered due to its more distant position from US 66 on State Road H, as compared to the closer Missouri Caverns.

Onondaga now had competition on two fronts from both Cathedral Cave and from the back portion of itself under the name Missouri Caverns. Though the entrance is now sealed, the ruins of the buildings over the entrance still exist not far from the current visitor parking area. In 1932, Missouri Caverns was opened as the first electrically lit cave in the Missouri Ozarks region. Another problem for Onondaga came from the commercial opening of the nearby Cathedral Cave (owned by Timmerman Nielson and managed by Al Keber). Their half of the cave became known as Missouri Caverns, with Robert Lee Mook as the manager. This discovery came from Ed Houser and Edward Myers, and with the help of Robert Lee Mook (Mook's brother), a tunnel was dug into Onondaga Cave and a fence was erected where the supposed property line existed. In 1930, this dispute became a three-way struggle over the land when William Mook (who leased the Indian Creek Land Company property from Benoist in 1913) discovered that about half of Onondaga Cave was under his land. Bradford eventually bought the cave property from Weinborg, but property disputes with Artressia Davis continued. In 1910, the property owned by Bothe was sold to his niece, Catharine Weinborg, who in turn leased the property to Bob Bradford in 1913. The translation of Onondaga is 'People of the Mountain.' The name for the cavern system was chosen in 1904 by Myrtle Land, and was named for an Iroquois tribe. The cave was opened as a tourist attraction for the upcoming Louisiana Purchase Exposition planned in St. The cavern's difficult access and a drop in interest in cave onyx made this venture a fruitless endeavor. īothe and Philip Franck formed a company with the intention of mining the cavern, and some test mining was performed. Upset about this turn of events, Christopher in turn sold his portion of the holdings to the Bothe group.

In 1902, over 15 years after their discovery, Eaton gave up on the cavern and sold his holdings to the Indian Creek Land Company in the care of Eugene Hunt Benoist. In 1899, Davis died and his property was sold (against the wishes of his widow, Artressia Davis) to a St. Arthur Hitch, one of the first tourists in the cave system, released a publication about the cave using Eaton's own flash-powder photographs. Unable to decide whether to continue the cave as a mine or as a tourist destination, the pair had the cave surveyed in 1897 for mining but also gave tours to make the money needed to develop the caverns further. Funds for development of the cave was something neither Christopher or Eaton could spare. Īt the time, ' cave onyx' was in demand for architecture, and many caves in the area were being harvested for this purpose. Inspired by their adventure, Christopher and Eaton acquired the land over the cave and began developing their discovery as the 'Mammoth Cave of Missouri', spawning a property dispute with Davis that lasted more than fifty years. With a borrowed boat and two of his friends (John Eaton and Mitis Horine), Christopher entered the cavern and spent an entire day exploring the tunnels within the property. In 1886, while studying the outlet of the spring that powered the new mill, a local resident by the name of Charles Christopher discovered that a cave existed behind the spring. A new mill was built on the property further away from the river at Davis Spring (now Onondaga Spring). When a large flood destroyed Cresswell's mill in 1881, the property was purchased by William Henry Rollision Davis. The family built a mill on the Meramec River near Saranac Springs. In 1850, the area was settled by George and Statirah Cresswell, who moved to the region from Washington County, Missouri with Statirah's adopted family, the Allisons.

The cave state