BRANSON, Mo. -- If you want to get to the bottom, the very bottom, of Branson, head to Marvel Cave, below Silver Dollar City.

The Osage knew of the cave -- there's a legend about a young brave chasing a bear, and both disappearing into a hole in the ground. The Indians called the bottomless pit the Devil's Den.

A half-dozen wooden ladders found in the cave indicate the Spanish may have entered it in the 1500s in their search for gold, silver and the fountain of youth.

A group of miners came from St. Louis in 1869 to see whether they could find something valuable in the cave. They discovered 25-foot-deep piles of bat guano, which had some worth as fertilizer and a component for making gunpowder. They thought the slick formations were made of marble, and Devil's Den became Marble Cave.

A small community called Marble City grew up around the cave's mouth, but there wasn't much left when William Lynch bought about 1 square mile around the cave entrance for $10,000 in 1889.

The dark and foreboding cave is the deepest in Missouri, 505 feet below the surface of the ground. For decades, ladders were used to enter its 20-story-high Cathedral Room.

Harold Bell Wright, whose 1907 book, "The Shepherd of the Hills," drew nationwide attention to the Ozarks, visited the cave on many occasions. He called it Little Pete's Cave in his writings.

Hugo Herschend took over the property in 1950 and began developing it as a commercial cave, installing lights. In the 1950s, square dances were held in the Cathedral Room. In 1958, a 208-foot tunnel was blasted through the rock and a cable train was constructed to make cave tours a one-way trip. And in 1960, a concrete tower replaced the ladders.

The Herschend family used the mining-town theme when creating Silver Dollar city around the cave entrance. Visitors to the park today can tour the cave as part of their admission, or pay an extra $10 for a longer tour by electric lantern. Admission for children 8 to 11 is $5, but younger children are not permitted.

Visitors on the lantern tour climb 600 stairs on their half-mile walk into the cave. The route goes through the Cathedral Room, passes the Liberty Bell formation, into the Cloud and Shoe rooms, and by the Gulf of Doom, a 76-foot drop to a pool. Bats flit by on the way.

"A lot of folks think it's a new ride, or we built it," said Wanetta Bright, who led my lantern tour. "I say, 'No, it's the reason the park is here.'"

For more information on Marvel Cave and Silver Dollar City, call 1-800-831-4386, or visit silverdollarcity.com.