A natural wonder

Luray Caverns offers unique Valley experience

By Sean Youngberg, staff writer
Posted on October 29, 2007

Twenty-five minutes north of JMU in the charming little town of Luray lies a 400 million-year-old secret: Luray Caverns, a natural phenomenon that no human had laid eyes on until a little over century ago.

Almost 130 years ago, four men went out searching to find what they believed to be a small underground cave. Armed with nothing more than their bare hands, a candle and hopes of a discovery they stumbled upon the largest series of caverns the eastern U.S..

For several decades disputes over rightful ownership of the land encompassed Luray Caverns but in 1905 the Luray Caverns Corporation bought the land and remain owners to this day.

In 1974 the National Park Service and the Department of the Interior designated Luray Caverns a national landmark. They proclaimed that, “the site possessed exceptional value as an illustration of the Nation’s natural heritage and contributed to a better understanding of man’s environment.”

Now, well over a century since its discovery Luray Caverns attracts more than 500,000 tourists a year. People travel from all over North America and the globe to see what National Geographic refers to as a “fairyland in stone.”

Brian Richards, an 18-year-old veteran tour guide, says that he gets tourists, “from all over the world, including Japan, Russia, Korea, the United Kingdom and even China.”

On the mile-and-a-quarter long journey down below the earth’s surface one will is able to observe an innumerable amount of natural creations, including the world’s largest musical instrument, a gigantic wooly mammoth and ‘Dream Lake,’ along with thousands of other formations.

“It’s amazing, it’s unreal, it looks so fake,” said Denise Garner who was making her first trip back to the Caverns in fifteen years.

Garner’s boyfriend Roger Mitchell was a boy the last time he made the trip to the caverns, “I came with my parents about thirty-nine years ago,” he said.

The couple came together because they “wanted to see it as adults,” said Garner. “It’s just as amazing and beautiful as I remembered it,” added Mitchell. 

The hour-long  tours cost $19 and begin each day at 9 a.m. and run through 6 p.m. until Oct. 31 and 4 p.m. beginning Nov. 1.