Crystal Cave offers under-this-world experience

SPRING VALLEY – Executive Director Eric McMaster said Crystal Cave was discovered by two local farm boys in 1881.

“William and George Vanasse were playing in a field here in Spring Valley, and they saw a woodchuck go into a small hole in the ground,” he said. “They came back the next day with a kerosene lantern, opened it up and lowered themselves down into the hole – thus, discovering Crystal Cave.”

Prior to 1941 – when McMaster said Henry and Mary Friede purchased the property with the intention of “developing a show cave” – he said Crystal Cave remained “a local curiosity.”

“They bought it in 1941 and then opened it up in 1942,” he said.

Nearly a century and a half later, McMaster said Crystal Cave is now a go-to day-trip destination for both West Central Wisconsinites and Minnesotans from across the Mississippi...