Onyx Cave is a small show cave located about six miles (9.6 km) east of Eureka Springs, Arkansas. It has been a tourist attraction since 1893, making it the oldest show cave in Arkansas. It is probably also one of the most heavily damaged.
The cave does not contain onyx, but a kind of flowstone called cave onyx which has a similar appearance. During the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century many caves were named Onyx Cave, which makes it difficult to keep them apart.
Tours are not guided but are given by headsets which receive short range FM transmissions from small boxes, which alert tourists to chambers and rock formations. Since the cave has only one public opening, visitors must exit the cave the way they entered. The cave stays at an average temperature of 57 degrees Fahrenheit (13.8 degrees Celsius) year round. Most of the cave is not toured.
In 1969, some scenes from the B-Movie 'It's Alive' were filmed at Onyx Cave.
Famous quotes containing the word cave:
“The use of symbols has a certain power of emancipation and exhilaration for all men. We seem to be touched by a wand, which makes us dance and run about happily, like children. We are like persons who come out of a cave or cellar into the open air. This is the effect on us of tropes, fables, oracles, and all poetic forms. Poets are thus liberating gods.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)