Liberty Memorial and National World War I Museum
Kansas City, Missouri
After World War I ended in 1918, a group of prominent Kansans and Missourians formed the Liberty Memorial Association to raise money to build a monument to those who lost their lives in the Great War. In less than a year, the organization had raised $2.5 million, the equivalent of $34 million today.
Work on the Egyptian Revival-style tower began in 1921, and the 265-foot Liberty Memorial was completed in 1926. An elevator runs nearly to the top of the limestone tower, and 43 more steps lead to a viewing area. The tower is topped with a “flame” that is actually red-colored steam.
Over the years, maintenance was delayed and repairs were put off, and eventually, the tower’s understructure became unsafe, said Matthew Naylor, president and CEO.
“People came together again like they did in the early ’20s and said, ‘We need to do something about this,’” he added.
Voters passed a one-time sales tax that, paired with private donations, raised more than $100 million to restore the memorial and carve out a space beneath it for the National World War I Museum. The memorial reopened in 2002, and the museum opened in 2006.
The association has been gathering artifacts globally since 1920, so the museum collection is “deep and wide,” Naylor said.
“That’s what makes this extraordinary; we have almost 100 years of collecting,” he said. “The capacity for us to engage visitors in the experience is really tremendous.”
Ruby Falls
Chattanooga, Tennessee
Like many great discoveries, that of Ruby Falls was an accident. Local cave enthusiast Leo Lambert was hoping to reopen Lookout Mountain Cave, which was shut off when the railroad blasted a tunnel through the mountain. In 1928, Lambert’s crews were digging an elevator shaft to create a new entrance to the sealed-off cavern when one man felt a gush of air from a small opening.
That crevice led to Ruby Falls, a 145-foot-high waterfall deep inside Lookout Mountain. Lambert named the falls after his wife, Ruby, and opened the cavern to public tours in 1929.
Now in its 85th year, Ruby Falls draws hundreds of thousands of visitors every year, said president Hugh Morrow.
“It’s a special place,” he said. “I always tell folks in Chattanooga, ‘If you want to take a 250-foot elevator ride into a mountain, walk 2,200 feet back into the mountain, be 1,120 feet underground and see a 145-foot waterfall, there’s only one place in the world to do it, and it’s right here.’”
Guides lead people through the cave, where it’s always 60 degrees, to Ruby Falls Cavern, where the waterfall cascades to a pool on the cave floor. Jewel-tone electric lights make the falls glow blue, green, purple and pink.
“If you’re ever having a bad day, just walk out there and watch a family or a group or anyone,” Morrow said. “When the lights cut on at the falls, you can see their excitement.”
