For more than 100 years, residents of Glenwood Springs have been exploring the caves on Iron Mountain just above town.

The experience back in 1895 when Charles Darrow conducted the tours, wasn’t quite as pleasant as it is today. Back then visitors walked or rode a mule 1,500 feet up Iron Mountain to a a small hole in the ground where they wiggled through and dropped into the Fairy Caves.

Darrow charged 50 cents to visit his cave in 1895 – about a day’s wage for a hard rock miner. Early visitors to the cave tended to dress in their Sunday best for the expensive outing and saw only a fraction of what today’s visitor sees.

That isn’t to say Darrow’s tour wasn’t something special. Glenwood Springs was one of the first cities in the world with electric lights. The Fairy Caves almost certainly earned the distinction of being the first cave with electric lights.

Darrow also blasted a tunnel from the cave to a cliff overlooking Glenwood Canyon, town, and the Colorado River. The lookout is still known as Exclamation Point and remains part of the tour.

From Exclamation point, today’s visitor might see screaming thrillseekers swinging out over the canyon on the Swing Shot ride, which is part of the above ground Adventure Park. (See cover photo.)

Modern visitors can also skip the hike and ride in the luxury of the tram.

Other above-ground attractions include the Alpine Rush ride, The Canyon Flyer ride, horseback riding, gold and mineral panning, a play area for children, Doc’s Rock climbing wall and a full-service restaurant.

It was Darrow’s daughter that named the Fairy Caves. She watched the light from her lantern dance on the walls, saying it reminded her of fairies.

Darrow continued his tours until 1917 and World War I. For the next several decades the cave was visited only by the occasional explorer.

A member of the cave exploration group known as the Colorado Grotto in 1951 discovered an almost impossibly-narrow, 30-foot vertical chimney named Jam Crack. The chimney led to a large room called The Barn and to the formation-rich area now know as King’s Row.

Pete Prebble purchased the cave from the Darrow family in 1961 with commercial aspirations that never overcame the difficulties of Jam Crack. In 1983, Steve Beckley purchased the property with the same idea. This time, Beckley and his wife engineered and blasted a new tunnel into the caves and built elaborate walkways and decking for visitors. The new tunnel leads to The Barn and 172 steps lead to King’s Row.

A key feature to the Beckley stewardship of the caves are airlocks that allow visitors in the cave but keep the humidity of the caves inside. It is the humidity and dripping water that creates the marvelous formations and keeps a cave healthy.

A walking tour of the cave lasts just more than one hour. Guided adventure tours are also available to those who want to experience a more rugged cave exploration experience and visit some of the undeveloped portions of the caverns.

Exploration and mapping of the caverns continues. To date about three miles of passages – running to a depth of 278 feet – have been discovered.

Glenwood Caverns Adventure park is open daily 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Cave tours are 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.