021 (Winter 1973) - National Speleological Society

st. Louis. The river originates northeast of Salem, Mo.
in Dent county and has a total length of about 240 miles.
The river is fed by more than forty springs, Meramec Springs
near Steelville being the largest.
Discovery of the cave came shortly after the year 1700.
The precise date has not been established. Certainly the
discovery came no later than 1730 and in so doing, it became
one of the first major cave discoveries on the North American
continent. (There are few American caves as prominent as
Meramec Caverns with a known history and/or discovery tjme
that pre-dates 1740.)
The Meramec River was discovered by Father James Gravier
in the year 1700 while he was one a voyage from the country
of Illinois to the south of the Mississippi. Le Sueur, who
ascended the Mississippi River during the same year J wrote,
about the Meramec River and its lead mines in his journal.
Father Jacques Marquette, a Jesuit missionary, is sometimes
credited with the discovery of Meramec Caverns because
he was one of the first white men to explore the lower reaches
of the Meramec Ri ver. The credit is more properly given to
"Jacques" Renault, or Philip Francis Renault.
This Man Called Renault
A. popular version of the local history says Itthe l"1eramec
Caverns were first discovered by Jacques Renault of Kaskaskia,
Illinois in l716tt• Promotional literature distributed by the
operators of the cavern has, for many years, perpetuated the
Jacques Renault name. Floyd Shoemaker, a prominent Missouri
historian, in referencing the caverns in 1943 amitted the name
"Jacques" when refering to Renault's na in association
with the caverns.
C·" '.. ,J
The name ttJacques" was common among the early lead
miners of the Meramec Valley. Tradition seems to have confused
the names.
The Renault in question --the discoverer of Meramec
Caverns -- was actually Philip Renault, a mineralogist, banker,
silver prospector, lead miner and gupowder manufacturer of
considerable note.
Philip Renaultame into the Mississippi Valley in 1719
with OO mechanIcs, miners an labalers (som ot whi_re
sIaves) to exo1t th ric lead and eRPpe resources of
southeastern Missouri. He was active in=te earlybistory of
Kaskaskia, Illinois and Ste. Genevieve, Missouri. He was
initially attracted by rumors carried to France that Missouri
mines and caves on the Meramec River contained gold and
silver. Renault and his men mined lead in both the Meramc
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