bsharmastl wrote:I really wonder why they were sealed?

During the 1960’s though, interest in the cave was revived thanks to Hubert and Charlotte Rother, the authors of the excellent and indispensable book, Lost Caves of St. Louis. They proposed a plan for re-opening the cave with the help of the Hondo Grotto, a local chapter of the Missouri Speological Society, a group of cave explorers. The problem they faced was getting into the cavern. The entrances had been sealed off years before when it was discovered that water from Benton Park was draining into the cave.



They picked up promising clues and bits of information and tried to follow as many leads as possible, but ran into a blank wall every time. There was seemingly no way into the cave. It is rumored to be completely under water today.

Cherokee Cave was opened to the public and it was a popular attraction for more than ten years. The cave remained open until 1960 and in 1961, it was purchased by the Missouri Highway department to clear the way for Interstate 55.



The museum and the cave entrance were demolished in 1964 and the cave was filled. Today, the only reminder of the unique place is a short street near Broadway and Cherokee in St. Louis called "Cave Street".

P-D, 1996 wrote:Missouri Speleology, a journal of the state's speleological survey, published a list of beer-cave sites 26 years ago that's one of the most comprehensive listings of known city cave sites. It includes a number of unnamed caves in the Lafayette Square and Soulard areas.



Here are some of those caverns, most of them inaccessible or extinct: Anheuser-Busch, 920 Pestalozzi. "We had some caves, but ours were very small," said William J. Vollmar, A-B's corporate archivist and historian. "Adolphus Busch was one of the very first to use refrigeration. The few that are in existence are now used as utility tunnels."



The brewery does have videotape of Green Tree Brewery caves at 10th and Sidney, taken in 1981 when the company acquired some of the property. "You know, there were eight or nine breweries, all with caves under them, within a 12-block radius of the brewery," he said.



Anthony & Kuhn Brewery cave, 7th and Sidney.



Benton Park (English) Cave, Benton Park. A beer, wine and mushroom cave that once had a small theater and beer garden. Ezra English made a malt liquor (ale) here; the English Brewery went out of business in the mid-1840s. In 1873, the city considered opening the cave to the public.



Consumer Cave, 1920 Shenandoah. The old beer cave for Falstaff, Lemp, Consumers and Stumpf breweries.



Gast Brewery Cave, North Broadway and Hornsby.



Glasgow Cave, Cass and Garrison. A winery and beer cave.



Green Tree Brewery cave (shared with Anthony & Kuhn), 9th and Sidney.



Home Brewery Cave, 3600 Salena.



Hyde Park Beer Cave, North Florissant and Salisbury.



Klausmann Brewery Cave, 8639 South Broadway, also a former beer garden.



Lyon Park Cave, Lyon Park, across from Anheuser-Busch. During the Civil War, it served as an ammunition storage area under the old city arsenal.



Phoenix Brewery Cave, 18th and Lafayette, in Lafayette Square.



Schneider Beer Cave, Chouteau and Mississippi. Also an underground beer garden.



Stifel Beer Cave, 17th and Market Streets (under Union Station).



Wainwright Brewery Cave, 10th and Gratiot.



Cherokee Brewery Cave, Cherokee and Iowa. Below an old optical building that was the Cherokee Brewery's gravity-fed brewhouse.



City motorcycle traffic policeman Gary Melker, 47, went down in a beer cave, probably a section of the Cherokee, last January. "Every turn was mazelike, and we were chest-deep in water part of the time," he said. "That's when we weren't crawling and digging through little openings." His photographs show a classic beer cave with arched stonework. "I would have taken more photos, except my hands were caked with mud and slime."

bonwich wrote:Given your website, White Rabbit, I assume you know about or have seen the cited Missouri Speleology publication from 1970.