ince then, the cave has been operated under several names including Enchanted Caverns and Fantasy World Caverns. Jeff and Amy Hargroves purchased the cave in early 2017 and took it back to its original public name – Stark Caverns. The cave reopened for tours with a temporary Visitor’s Center in July 2017. Jeff had history with the cave since he had worked as a Tour Guide at the cave during his high school years in Eldon.
The entire cave tour is paved and lit. It stays a mild 57 degrees year-round, and is 90 percent handicapped accessible. It is a good-size cave, with many spectacular natural formations including soda straws, flow stone, stalactites, stalagmites, helictites (bent soda straws), and big beautiful columns. The cave’s predominate fossil is stromatolite -fossilized blue green sea algae that was alive during the time Missouri was submerged. Stromatolites cover a significant portion of the ceilings within Stark Caverns. Geologic records indicate that the Stark Caverns stromatolite quality and quantity are among the largest in North America..