Springfield Underground

Missouri’s Cheese Caves Are a Mystery

"Farther south, deep in the Ozarks, a rumor continues to swirl that below the city of Springfield has a sprawling cave of cheese, spread by Modern Farmer, for example. Natural caves such as Crystal Caves or Fantastic Caverns are de rigueur for the area, and a popular attraction for field trips and tourists. But this rumored cave — the cheese cave — is actually a 3.2 million-square-foot warehouse known as Springfield Underground, which opened in 1946 as a limestone quarry. Is there cheese? Yes. But what type and how much remains a mystery as the company rents storage space to private clients and debunks the myth that government cheese is hiding inside. "The USDA is not a tenant of Springfield Underground and we do not have a pound of government-owned cheese," Christina Angle, CFO for the Erlen Group, told Food & Wine. "That said, Springfield Underground is a critical part of our nation’s supply chain for many of our tenants’ products, including cheese." - Anne Roderique-Jones