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Marengo Cave

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🕳️ Caves

Marengo Cave

Marengo, IN · Indiana Cave Country

About

Two schoolchildren stumbled into Marengo Cave on a September afternoon in 1883, and tours have run almost without pause ever since, which makes this one of the oldest show caves in the country. The reason it became a National Natural Landmark is the sheer density of the decoration: the Crystal Palace and Queen's Palace chambers are packed wall to wall with stalactites, soda straws, and honey-colored flowstone draperies, earning it a reputation as the most heavily ornamented cavern in the region. Two walking tours split the difference, the quick Crystal Palace loop through the showpiece rooms and the longer Dripstone Trail past totem-pole formations and the cave's underground stream level, both held at a steady 52 degrees year round.

Highlights

Crystal Palace and Queen's Palace, two chambers packed wall to wall with formationsDiscovered by two children in 1883, one of America's oldest continuously toured show cavesNational Natural Landmark, the most heavily decorated cavern in the Interior LowlandsDripstone Trail tour past totem-pole columns down to the underground stream level

Getting there

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Curated guides that feature Marengo Cave.

America's Best Caves22 places

America's Best Caves

Step out of the daylight into another world: the longest cave on the planet in Kentucky, a desert chamber big enough to swallow a stadium in New Mexico, an underground waterfall in Tennessee, and a living crystal cavern in Arizona. Some you walk, some you ride a boat through, and one you crawl with a headlamp. America's great caves and caverns, from the national parks to the lantern-lit show caves.