New Partnership promotes oldest tourist attraction

The Mermaid Society and Wonder World Cave and Park are entering into a new community partnership in the spirit of preserving the unique and prehistoric history that helped launch San Marcos’ tourism industry.

San Marcos’ oldest tourism attraction, the approximately 65 million year-old earthquake-formed cave at Wonder World Park,  opened to the public for the first time in 1903 as Wonder Cave. Since then, it has attracted millions of visitors to explore its uncommon geologic formations. 

Wonder Cave was discovered in 1893 by Mark A. Bevers, a former cowboy and freight hauler who settled in San Marcos around 1882. W.S. Davis took over Bevers’ Cave in 1903 and began operating it as a tourist attraction – 10 cents could buy you a guided cave tour in those days. Other attractions at the cave included a medicine show and a tent that housed a South American anteater.

The cave eventually became the property of Judge Will G.Barber. In 1916, Barber sold the property, cave and all, to A. B. Rogers – of A.B. Rogers Undertakers and Furniture Store and later Spring Lake Park Hotel, the precursor to Aquarena Springs Resort – for $50, a horse and a saddle. 

In 1955, Ralph Marker leased the cave from Paul Rogers, son of A.B. Rogers. Marker began an extensive advertising campaign which boosted business so much that the cave operation had to be enlarged. Then in 1958, Paul Rodgers sold the cave to the Mostyn family, and Wonder World Cave and Park has been family-owned-and-operated by three generations of Mostyns ever since.

Mermaid Society began in 2016, under founder July Moreno, with the idea of connecting San Marcos’ past to its current and future generations. The organization helped revive the memory of Aquarena Springs Resort, the amusement park that once boasted of an underwater theatre with Aquamaids and swimming pigs and attracted tourists from all over the world – today, The Meadows Center for Water and the Environment stands there. In early 2017, the Mermaid Society and The Meadows Center entered into a partnership to promote stewardship of the rver and preserve the history. Now Moreno, along with owner of Wonder World Cave and Park Kristin Williams, hopes that Mermaid Society can do the same with San Marcos’ unique earthquake-formed cave.

“For our mission, in connecting with Wonder World, we’re accomplishing our goal, which is arts and culture and preservation and heritage – all things San Marcos, and Wonder World is that,” Moreno said. “I think anytime you can get more than one person together on a shared vision, you’re that much stronger. And I think the fact that Kristin and I are on the same page about community and investing in the arts and culture in our community, I think that’s powerful.”

Williams and Moreno said that San Marcans have a rare kind of history in their own backyards with both of the largest and oldest tourist attractions, Wonder World Cave and Park and Aquarena Springs Resort that stood on the headwaters of the San Marcos River at Spring Lake, having histories that span back to before history was ever recorded. Spring Lake is one of the oldest continuously inhabited sites by humans in North America and has sustained life for millennia, while the Wonder World Cave is the result of continental plates colliding millions of years ago to form the Texas landscape we know today.

Williams took over the helm of Wonder World Park in October of 2017 and has been firing on all cylinders since. In the short time since, she has worked to revamp their current attractions and to put her own stamp on the family business with more events, more animals and more things to do for everyone.

“Whenever I took over, that was one of my challenges: Reintroducing the cave to the community,” Williams said. “People live here and they don’t know the true roots of San Marcos – that we had the first show cave and were a major tourism attraction along with Aquarena Springs. I want them to come out and discover the uniqueness of  their hometown.”

The Mermaid Society and Wonder World Park and Cave will hold a ribbon cutting on Saturday, March 16 at 10 a.m. in celebration of their new community partnership. 

They invite residents to take in the new park attractions and check out Mermaid Society's new headquarters at the park. All attending guests will receive a free train ride – but tickets are limited and will be provided on a "first-come" basis.  Maya the Mermaid will also make a guest appearance.

The partnership already has some programs in the works. They will be opening up a rotating art exhibit at the Wonder World gift shop called the Mermaid Boutique and eventually Mermaid Society will expand their SPLASH Patch Program – that started in 2017 as a youth initiative in collaboration with Girl Scout of Central Texas leadership to teach river and community stewardship – to include a Geology Patch. They are also working with the city’s mural arts program to place a mural on Bishop Street that highlights the unique history of Wonder World Cave and Park and The Meadows Center for Water and the Environment. 

For more information on the ribbon cutting and celebration, go to the Facebook event page.