a view from the rear of the lower cave, showing burned embers on floor, notched log (on left) leading to upper cave, and flatboats on the river

(from the original drawing by charles alexander lesueur)

maximilian, prince of wied-neuwied, writes may 19, 1833: “we embarked on the paragon steamboat at shawneetown ... and after passing cave-in-rock

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island, a long wooded island, we glided past cave-in-rock, a cavern which has been drawn by lesueur.” lesueur’s drawing was made about 1825. it is an interior view looking out over the river and conveys a good idea of the cave’s size and form. however, the opening to the small upper cavity and the leaning pole for climbing into it are placed a little too far to the left.1

maximilian was accompanied by his artist, charles bodmer, who, during the course of his travels in north america, made eighty-one pictures, all of which were published in 1843 in the maximilian atlas. most of these drawings pertain to the life of the indians of the upper missouri, and stand today as the first and best record of the costumes of these tribes. among the subjects presented is his cave-in-rock picture, one of the two early views of the cave now available. bodmer probably drew it from memory. it shows a landscape interesting in itself, but it is an absolutely misleading presentation of the actual scene. from no point or angle does the view appear as drawn by him, or even suggest such a scene. by the ordinary working of nature no such changes could have been brought about in many centuries. the mouth of the cave is near the lower end of a long bluff of almost uniform height and opposite the lower end of cave-in-rock island. a camera picture of the lower end of this bluff, made in 1917, appears among the illustrations in this book. bodmer’s view places the opening in a short bluff that

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is more or less cone-shaped and opposite or above the head of an island. when high water reaches the mouth of the cave, as is shown by bodmer, then cave-in-rock island is submerged many feet and its banks cannot possibly be seen. this picture occurs in a number of books, but without any comments on its gross inaccuracy. some reproducers have taken the liberty of adding a setting sun in the background.

in 1916, j. bernhard alberts, of louisville, made an impressionistic painting of the mouth of the cave. his painting is true to the scene as it was at the time of his visit. he also drew a pencil sketch showing a general view of the interior with the inner edge of the mouth in the immediate foreground, the artist’s point of view being from just outside the mouth.