Home / History
History of Crystal Cave
Alfred Mann and the opening of Crystal Cave
From a hillside sinkhole to a show cave opened in 1893, run for decades by three sisters, mapped in 1970 and reopened for a new generation.
- Before 1893
A hillside sinkhole and two earlier owners
The first recorded owners of the cave, William A. Wallace and then William Jenkins, never tried to develop it as an attraction.
- Before 1893
A furniture store for a cave
Alfred Mann, born in Brighton, England, ran a furniture store on South Avenue in Springfield. After about five years he traded the store for 140 acres that included the cave. His daughters liked to say he bought the cave and the land was thrown in.
- 1893
The cave opens to visitors
Alfred Mann opened the cave to the public, the second commercial cave in Missouri after Mark Twain Cave in Hannibal, which opened in 1886.
- The Mann years
A cave that was also a farm
The Mann family grew mushrooms in the entrance room and sold them in other cities. The family story was that this was the first cave used to grow mushrooms in America.
- The 1920s
Three sisters take over
After Alfred Mann died, his daughters Agnes, Ada and Margaret ran the cave for more than four decades. They advertised only with a few highway signs, worried they would get more visitors than they could handle.
- The Mann years
Truman and Ripley
Harry S. Truman toured the cave while campaigning for the U.S. Senate. Robert Ripley of Believe It or Not featured the Upside Down Well and a tree root that reaches down to the water.
- 1969
A friend inherits the cave
When the last of the three sisters died, she left the cave to her longtime friend Estle Funkhouser.
- 1970 to 1971
The cave is mapped
Members of the Heart of the Ozarks Grotto, directed by R. L. Taylor and K. C. Thomson, surveyed and mapped Crystal Cave. Their plan is the base of the interactive map on this site.
- About 1982
The Richardsons buy the cave
After thirteen years of ownership Estle Funkhouser sold the cave to her sister and brother-in-law, Loyd and Edith Richardson.
- 1983
Loyd's Room and a new well
Loyd's Room opened, and a new well was drilled into the cave.
- 1986
The last 500 feet open
The last 500 feet of passage, starting at Jacob's Room, opened to visitors for the first time.
- Around 2000
The Helictite and Ghost rooms open
The Helictite Room and the Ghost Room, home to thirteen white stalagmites, both opened officially around 2000, when Loyd Richardson was in his early 80s.
- March 2022
The cave reopens
After nearly a decade closed, the cave reopened to visitors on March 23, 2022, under new ownership. It now offers guided tours, plus a wild cave tour on Saturdays.
The people
Alfred Mann
Born in Brighton, England, Alfred Mann bought the cave and the land around it, named it and opened it to the public in 1893. Earlier owners had not tried to develop it.
Agnes, Ada and Margaret Mann
The three Mann sisters ran the cave for about 44 years. In the newspaper feature that profiled them, Agnes guided the tours, Ada drove the family car and Margaret cooked and ran the tractor. They kept a dozen rescue dogs. Their line, in the article's words: "We like to enjoy it."
Estle Funkhouser
A longtime friend of the Mann sisters. She owned the cave from 1969 for 13 years.
Loyd and Edith Richardson
They bought the cave from Estle Funkhouser around 1982, rewired it to modern standards and opened several new passages, including Loyd's Room, the last 500 feet of the tour, and around 2000 the Helictite and Ghost rooms.
Six stories from the cave
He traded a furniture store for a cave
Alfred Mann gave up a shop on South Avenue for 140 acres, and his daughters joked that the land came free with the cave.
Two gates, two histories
The gate at the top of the sinkhole came from an old Springfield cemetery, and the doors at the entrance came from the old Springfield jail.
A cave that was a farm
Mushrooms grew underground in the entrance room and were shipped to other cities, possibly a first for any cave in America.
A broken cathedral
In the Cathedral Chamber an ancient shift of the earth snapped the columns and slid one half past the other.
Chimes in the ceiling
Visitors once struck the stalactites in the Chimes Room to hear them ring. The tour stopped long ago, but the broken chimes are still up there to see.
A well that pours
The Upside Down Well is a shaft in the ceiling, and when it rains enough it turns into a waterfall.
A cave that bends
Helictites twist instead of hanging straight, and geologists still debate why.
Sources: a historic listing packet, a mid-century newspaper feature on the Mann sisters, the cave's own site, and the cave's current staff. Dates marked approximate are still being confirmed.