[1][8] Native Americans likely were attracted to the area due to the cave, fresh spring water, and the nearby Mississippi River.

[10] In the 1770s, Cliff Cave was used by the French fur trappers and traders as a riverside tavern for travelers of the Mississippi River.

[1][4][11][12][13] The company planted twenty-five acres of grapes in the area which produced 3,000 gallons of wine in one year.

[11][14] The company itself had 240 acres of vineyard along the Mississippi River, and by 1870, the cave had a storage capacity of 100,000 gallons of wine.

[4] In the late 1800s, volunteer soldiers from Jefferson Barracks built a saloon in the cave entrance.

[11] In 1969, after the success of a St. Louis County Bond Issue, the purchase of the Cliff Cave property was initiated.

[4] The cave was created from the karst plateau in the area forming many sinkholes, dissolving the dolomite/limestone bedrock over time.

[4] The flora include wild grasses and wildflowers, silver maple, sycamore, cottonwood, black willow and box elder.

[4] The fauna include beavers, migratory waterfowl, great blue herons, and egrets.

[4] This trail affords a scenic vantage point to see the Mississippi River from the bluffs.

[22] One boy survived and was found 18 hours after the flood with mild head trauma and hypothermia.

[22] On October 5, 2008, an eighteen-year-old high school student slipped and fatally fell from a steep bluff.

[11] On November 7, 2016, during a dispute with his wife, a man drove his four- and five-year-old sons to the park, and an AMBER Alert was issued.