Caves have been inhabited and served as the stage for mythological tales in most cultures, past and present.
Indigenous peoples used Missouri’s numerous caves for shelter long before Europeans arrived.
For a century-and-a-half, Meramec Cave it was mined for saltpeter (potassium nitrate, which is used in the manufacture of fireworks, fluxes, gunpowder, etc.), and was even named “Saltpeter Cave.”
