TRAVELERS’ CHECKS

Four caverns in the world are large enough to drive through. You’ll find them in France, Barbados, the former Yugoslavia and North America.

Nestled in Springfield, Missouri, in the heart of the Ozark Mountains, is America’s only ride-through cavern, Fantastic Caverns.

During Prohibition, it was a speakeasy and later, a space for Branson musicians to play. Today, a narrow road that is an 85 percent dry underground riverbed allows trams pulled by jeeps running on kerosene to host visitors 12 stories underground all year round.

The history of the deep inland formation is etched on its walls. During the Civil War, a local man was hunting in the Ozarks with his dog when the dog ran off and ventured into what is now Fantastic Caverns. The hunter began to call into the cave for his pet, and he could tell the cave was extremely large by the sounds of his echoing calls. After his dog surfaced, the man concealed the cave until the end of the Civil War, knowing Confederate and Union armies would use it to their advantage if it was discovered. After the war, the hunter put word out on the cave and asked for any brave adventurers to come to explore its depth. The first to respond were 12 girls, ages 13 through 19, in 1867. The girls used a can with a candle inside to get deep into the cave, and they wrote their names on the wall in victory. Their names are still visible today.

The cavern hosts up to 200 people at a time in the caves during the summer, according to tour guide Chelsey “JR” Mootrey. Visitors pile into the back of a tram and ride through the cave, making stops to examine rock formations, cave animals and a “hillbilly drive-in” at the back of the cave, where passengers view a short video about the science behind the cavern.

While driving past a large sinkhole, visitors learn that Fantastic Caverns floods every three years. Each time the cavern floods, floodwaters can take three or more days to recede until the cave can be re-entered, because the water is slowly draining into the sinkhole.

Mootrey said scientists are always measuring effects on the cave and how it is changing and growing with time. They study the impact of visitors and how to counteract it. Scientists have also discovered that each stalactite, which look like icicles hanging from the ceiling, grows only 0.0051 inches per year when water rich in calcium carbonate and carbon dioxide drips from the cave’s roof. Beneath stalactites, stalagmites are formed when calcium salts drip from the stalactite overhead. When the two meet, they form “pillars.” All of these can be examined in the cave.

Visitors can form their own opinions about the shapes these formations have taken, but many see a “ghost from ‘ScoobyDoo’ ” face and an “ice cream swirl” in the pillars, Mootrey said. They also see “twin pillars,” identical next to each other.

Once visitors have experienced Fantastic Caverns, the appetite to explore these inland formations might only grow. Luckily, two more caves are located near Springfield at the Smallin Civil War Caves, also in the Ozarks. The smaller cave is Sonrise, also referred to as Fielden Cave, and the larger is the Smallin Cave.

The Smallin Cave is about 55 feet tall and about 23 feet wide. The Sonrise Cave is much smaller and has been open to the public only since 2009, when the current owners bought the property. A permanent trail marker in the form of a bent tree sits near the entrance of both caves. These trail markers were used by American Indian tribes by manipulating a sapling to grow up and have two trunks stretching out in different directions. Early American Indians bent trees for many reasons — indicating water and food nearby, warning travelers of rough country ahead or acknowledging the existence of trails or caves.

Originally belonging to the Osage Tribe, the Smallin Cave is full of fossils, artifacts and remnants of hundreds of years of social activity. According to Civil War Caves guide Laura Lane, the Osage Tribe was very resourceful, religious and civilized.

They plucked the hair on their heads and faces, except for a ponytail at the very back of their heads. Lane believes this may have made it more difficult for enemies of the Osage to scalp them.

Inside the caves, discoloration on the walls shows where campfires were built, and formations in the rocks indicate where the tribe would sit. These stories and more are plentiful as visitors walk the grounds.

While cave animals may not always be visible at Fantastic Caverns, they are virtually always able to be seen at the Smallin Civil War Caves. Animals specific to caves due to the dark, damp environment include bats, pickerel frogs, blind cave crayfish, white spiders, cave salamanders and other blind animals. Groups often will stumble upon cave creatures during their tours.

After visiting the Smallin Civil War Caves and Fantastic Caverns, a grumbling belly can be silenced — for the rest of the night — by a visit to Lambert’s Cafe in Ozark. Bring an appetite and be prepared to roll out the door after you’ve experienced the throwed rolls, pass arounds and Southernstyle cooking at the eatery established in 1942 by Earl and Agnes Lambert.

What are throwed rolls? In the 1970s, Norman Lambert, son of Earl, overwhelmed during a busy dinner

Fantastic Caverns, 4872 N. Farm Road 125 in Springfield, is open year round, al though hours vary. Adult admission is $24 and children 6 to 12 are $17. Details: fantasticcaverns.com.

Tour Smallin Civil War Caves, 3575 N. Smallin Road in Ozark, in about an hour. Walk one-half mile using inclines and ramps. Adults 13 and older pay $17.95 and children 4 to 12 are $9.95. Tour 9:30 a.m. until 5 p.m.

rush, tossed a roll across the room when a customer asked for a one. Customers got such a kick out of the whole thing that soon the throwed roll became a must.

Now, folks come from all over to try to catch a hot roll in their hands, then hold it out as a waiter brings around a can of molasses to drizzle on the buns.

But rolls aren’t the only Monday through Saturday March through December, and 1 p.m. until 5 p.m. Sunday. Details: www.smallincave.com.

Be prepared to wait an hour and a half to be seated at Lambert’s Cafe, 1800 W. State Highway J in Ozark. The restaurant is open from 10:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. and reservations are not taken. Prices range from $10 to $18. Buns and “pass arounds” are free.

unique part of this cafe. Waiters walk around the cafe calling out “Fried Okra!” “Macaroni and Tomatoes!” “Fried Potatoes!” “Black-eyed Peas!” They give customers as much of these “pass arounds” as they desire at no additional charge. Put that on top of their big-portioned dinners and liter-sized beverages and diner are barely able to make their way to the exit.