DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and friend, this one's worth your full attention. Somewhere beneath the Hill Country of Hays County, the earth itself cracked open — not last week, not last century, but in the deep prehistoric past, when the ground along the Balcones Fault shifted and left behind a void that would hold secrets for a very long time. They say Indians camped here.
They say Spaniards came through too, especially priests, who left their own kind of mark — anaqua trees, planted right here in the area, still standin as living evidence of whoever passed through. And if the legends are to be believed, and legends usually want to be, robber gangs in the 1820s used this place to stash their Camino Real booty. Whatever they took off that old road, the story goes, some of it ended up down in the dark.
But the cave kept its own counsel for a good long while after that. Then came 1893. Mark A. and Elizabeth Burleson Bevers were drilling a water well right there at their home — an ordinary enough task — when the drill dropped.
One hundred and fifty-eight feet, straight down into nothing. That's not a well. That's a door.
And just like that, Wonder Cave was discovered for Anglo-Texas. Now, finding a cave and doing something with a cave are two different propositions. It wasn't until about 1900 that the place became the first commercially opened cave in the state of Texas.
A man named W. S. Davis took folks down into that darkness by candlelight, guiding them through what the earth had been hiding since before anyone was keeping records.
Then in 1916, a man named A. B. Rogers made his move.
He bought Wonder Cave for fifty dollars — and a gray horse. You heard that right. Fifty dollars and one gray horse.
Whatever you think about that trade, Rogers apparently thought it was the bargain of a lifetime, because he spent his lifetime proving it — in discovery and development, down in the fault, down in the dark. The earth cracked, the priests planted, the robbers buried, the drill fell, the candles flickered, and one man paid in horseflesh for the privilege of devoting himself to a cave. Wonder Cave earned its name before anyone even knew it was there.
What the marker says
In Balcones Fault, created by prehistoric earth shift. Said to have been campsite of Indians and Spaniards, especially priests who planted anaqua trees in area. By legend, robber gangs in 1820s cached Camino Real booty here. Discovered 1893 for Anglo-Texas by Mark A. and Elizabeth Burleson Bevers, after water well drill fell 158 feet at their home here. This became first commercially opened cave in state about 1900 when W. S. Davis gave guided tours by candlelight; bought in 1916 for $50 and a gray horse by A. B. Rogers, who spent his lifetime in discovery and development.