After a two-and-a-half-year closure due to COVID and necessary maintenance, Cincinnati Museum Center’s replica limestone cave reopens this weekend. The Cave will officially welcome guests beginning Friday, September 2.
Since its opening in the Cincinnati Museum of Natural History in 1967, The Cave has thrilled guests with a journey through over 500 feet of narrow twists and turns across two levels. When the museum moved to Union Terminal as part of Cincinnati Museum Center in 1990, The Cave moved with it. Fifty-five years later, the darkened passageways, cascading waterfalls and cave formations continue to delight explorers.
“The beauty of The Cave is that it truly connects you to the natural world around you in immersive, dynamic ways,” said Elizabeth Pierce, president and CEO of Cincinnati Museum Center. “It remains one of our guests’ favorite exhibits and has been the one asked about most over the past two years of COVID pivots and recovery. After some necessary prudence and needed repairs, we’re excited to welcome our community to go caving once again.”
The Cave is modeled after similar cave formations in the tri-state, including Mammoth Cave. The exhibit features two trails, allowing guests of all abilities a chance to explore. The lower trail sends you shimmying through tight corridors and down narrow stairways, while the accessible upper trail offers spectacular overlooks and opportunities for discovery. Just outside the entrance, CMC’s big brown bat colony and other cave-dwelling critters, including crickets and fish, introduce you to some of the inhabitants of Earth’s subterranean labyrinths.
The Cave is located in CMC’s Museum of Natural History & Science near the entrance to the Ice Age Gallery and the stairway to the Neil Armstrong Space Exploration Gallery, presented by the Harold C. Schott Foundation.
For more information, visit www.cincymuseum.org
