Cave-In-Rock State Park is an Illinois state park, on , in the town of Cave-in-Rock, Hardin County,

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. The state park contains the historic Cave-In-Rock, a landmark of the

Ohio River The Ohio River is a long river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of Illino ...

. It is maintained by the

Illinois Department of Natural Resources The Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) is the code department of the Illinois state government that operates the state parks and state recreation areas, enforces the fishing and game laws of Illinois, regulates Illinois coal mines, ...

(IDNR).Joe McFarland, "The Hole in the River", ''Outdoor Illinois'' XVIII:11 (November 2010), pages 2-5.

Geology

The park's primary feature is a -wide riverside cave formed by wind and water erosion and cataclysmic effects of the 1811–12 New Madrid earthquakes. The Cave-in-Rock was worn into the limestone bluffs of the Ohio River by floods, especially those caused by glacial meltwater following the Wisconsin ice age. Unlike

Mammoth Cave Mammoth Cave National Park is an American national park in west-central Kentucky, encompassing portions of Mammoth Cave, the longest cave system known in the world. Since the 1972 unification of Mammoth Cave with the even-longer system under F ...

in nearby

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...

, it was not formed by typical

karst Karst is a topography formed from the dissolution of soluble rocks such as limestone, dolomite, and gypsum. It is characterized by underground drainage systems with sinkholes and caves. It has also been documented for more weathering-resistant ro ...

processes; it is a tunnel eroded into the bluff.

History

Cave-in-Rock was known and used for thousands of years by the Native Americans. The first European to discover the Cave was M. de Lery of

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

, who in 1729 mapped and named it "''caverne dans Le Roc''" (cf. supra). This name, translated directly into English, is the name the cave bears to this day. Other names for the cave included Rock-In-Cave, Rocking Cave, Rock-and-Cave, House of Nature, The Cave, Big Cave, Potato Cave, and Murrell's Cave. During the 1790s and the first three decades of the 19th century, Cave-in-Rock reached the height of its

notoriety Notorious means well known for a negative trait, characteristic, or action. It may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Notorious'' (1946 film), a thriller directed by Alfred Hitchcock * ''Notorious'' (1992 film), a TV film re ...

Flatboats A flatboat (or broadhorn) was a rectangular flat-bottomed boat with square ends used to transport freight and passengers on inland waterways in the United States. The flatboat could be any size, but essentially it was a large, sturdy tub with a ...

carrying farm produce from Kentucky, Ohio, and southern Indiana began to float down the Ohio River towards the marketplace in

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

. As a known Ohio River landmark, the cave was a landmark of this dangerous journey. From approximately 1797 until 1799, the cave was a hideout for a notorious gang of

bandit Banditry is a type of organized crime committed by outlaws typically involving the threat or use of violence. A person who engages in banditry is known as a bandit and primarily commits crimes such as extortion, robbery, and murder, either as an ...

s headed by

Samuel Mason Samuel Ross Mason, also spelled Meason (November 8, 1739 – 1803), was a Virginia militia captain, on the American western frontier, during the American Revolutionary War. After the war, he became the leader of the Mason Gang, a criminal gang o ...

, who preyed upon the lawless river commerce. The outlaws

Frank Frank or Franks may refer to: People * Frank (given name) * Frank (surname) * Franks (surname) * Franks, a medieval Germanic people * Frank, a term in the Muslim world for all western Europeans, particularly during the Crusades - see Farang Curr ...

and

Jesse James Jesse Woodson James (September 5, 1847April 3, 1882) was an American outlaw, bank and train robber, guerrilla and leader of the James–Younger Gang. Raised in the " Little Dixie" area of Western Missouri, James and his family maintained stro ...

of the notorious

James–Younger Gang The James–Younger Gang was a notable 19th-century gang of United States, American outlaws that revolved around Jesse James and his brother Frank James. The gang was based in the state of Missouri, the home of most of the members. Membership f ...

also hid out in the cave, according to local lore, leaving their marks in the cave. Later in the 19th century, Cave-in-Rock was tamed by settlers who formed the river town of Cave-In-Rock, Illinois near the cave. The town survives to this day. It became the site of a river

ferry A ferry is a ship, watercraft or amphibious vehicle used to carry passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A passenger ferry with many stops, such as in Venice, Italy, is sometimes called a water bus or water taxi ...

, adjacent to the state park, that crosses the Ohio River from

Illinois Route 1 Illinois Route 1 (IL 1) is a state highway in the U.S. state of Illinois. Running parallel to the Indiana border, the highway starts at the free ferry crossing to Kentucky at Cave-in-Rock on the Ohio River and runs north to the south sid ...

Kentucky Route 91 Kentucky Route 91 (KY 91) is a state highway that traverses three counties in western Kentucky. It begins in Hopkinsville, Kentucky and ends at the Ohio River, the Kentucky-Illinois state line in northern Crittenden County. Route description H ...

. The cave has been the main feature of Illinois' Cave-in-Rock State Park since 1929.

First Illinois state park

With the inauguration of

steamboat A steamboat is a boat that is marine propulsion, propelled primarily by marine steam engine, steam power, typically driving propellers or Paddle steamer, paddlewheels. Steamboats sometimes use the ship prefix, prefix designation SS, S.S. or S/S ...

traffic on the Ohio River in the 1810s, travelers such as artist

Karl Bodmer Johann Carl Bodmer (11 February 1809 – 30 October 1893) was a Swiss-French printmaker, etcher, lithographer, zinc engraver, draughtsman, painter, illustrator and hunter. Known as Karl Bodmer in literature and paintings, as a Swiss and French c ...

bought tickets to steam up and down the river, and Cave-in-Rock has been a recognized landmark of river tourism ever since. In 1929, the state of Illinois acquired 64.5 acres of land, including the cave. Other small parcels of land were acquired later to form the current park. The state park, which stretches from the river's edge to the top of the adjacent bluff, is maintained by IDNR for Ohio River access, camping, and hiking, including hikes to the historic cave.

In popular culture

Walt Disney Productions The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

used the site for the 1956 Davy Crockett adventure, ''

Davy Crockett and the River Pirates ''Davy Crockett and the River Pirates'' is a 1956 American Western film produced by Walt Disney Productions. A prequel to '' Davy Crockett: King of the Wild Frontier'', the feature film is an edited and recut compilation of the last two episode ...

''. The cave overlooks Davy Crockett, his sidekick Georgie, and "King of the River" Mike Fink battling a group of river pirates headquartered at Cave-in-Rock. In 1962, the John Ford Western epic film '' How the West Was Won'' featured the cave. The 1999 ''In Search of History'' series Episode: River Pirates, a history documentary about the earliest and most active river pirates and frontier killers in the Ohio River Valley in the late 18th and early 19th Centuries, included the cave.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cave-In-Rock State Park Protected areas of Hardin County, Illinois State parks of Illinois Protected areas established in 1929 Caves of Illinois Show caves in the United States Landforms of Hardin County, Illinois 1929 establishments in Illinois