Ruby Falls
Got to stop off and tour Ruby Falls in Chattanooga. It is a subterranean waterfall 145 feet high located in caverns inside Lookout Mountain.
The caverns themself are not as impressive as Luray Caverns in Virginia, but the waterfall at Ruby Falls was stunning.
The story has it that Leo Lambert tried to dig an elevator shaft down to Lookout Mountain caverns in an attempt to open a tourist attraction. Halfway down they hit an air pocket and Lambert went spelunking and discovered the waterfall.
He had to crawl on his belly most of the half-mile to the waterfall and was bound to be covered in dust and mud by the time he got back 17 hours later. He returned the next day and dragged his wife down there to show her the waterfall, and named it Ruby Falls after his wife Ruby.
I bet she bitched all the way to the waterfall on that fateful day back in 1929 and Lambert probably had to name it Ruby Falls just to get her to stop nagging him about being muddy.
