About Ruby Falls
- Location: On 12.5 acres along Scenic Highway on the side of Lookout Mountain - What it is: A 145-foot high waterfall located 1,120 feet beneath the mountain - Owner: John T. Steiner Family Trust - President: Hugh Morrow - History: In 1905 the natural entrance to Lookout Mountain Cave was closed during the construction of a railway tunnel. In the 1920s a chemist and cave enthusiast named Leo Lambert tried to re-open the cave and discovered an underground waterfall in 1928. In 1930, Ruby Falls began hosting visitors. - Why the name: Lambert named the falls after his wife, Ruby.
Nearly a century after Leo Lambert discovered an underground waterfall beneath Lookout Mountain and named it for his wife Ruby, the popular tourist attraction will soon undergo its biggest expansion and upgrade.
Ruby Falls, the underground cave formed over the past 200 million years, isn't changing. Neither is the three-story stone castle that has anchored the mountainside attraction for nearly a century.
But the entranceway, parking and retail facilities above the historic falls soon will get a new look. Over the next decade, the owners of one of Chattanooga's biggest tourist attractions plan to invest more than $20 million to upgrade the facility and more than double the building space on the side of Lookout Mountain.
"History is to be embraced, but it's also to be enhanced," said Hugh Morrow, the president of Ruby Falls for the past eight years. "Over the next few months, the transformation is going to just be incredible."
Ruby Falls, an underground waterfall that has hosted millions of visitors over the past 86 years, will more than double its above-ground facilities and upgrade its parking, ticketing and entranceway in a series of improvements through the 2020s leading up to the century anniversary of its discovery in 2028.
Starting in January, work will begin on a new entrance lobby and ticketing process, and new elevators, observation platforms and restrooms will be installed, and additional parking, retail and photo facilities and cave tour areas will be expanded. Morrow said the attraction will also add timed ticketing to allow visitors to know when they will enter the cave and to encourage them to make the attraction more of a destination, rather than just a roadside stop.
"While our waterfall and history cannot change, Ruby Falls is growing as a world-class facility that will bridge our heritage into its second century," Morrow said during an announcement of the upgrade Tuesday promoting the theme of "Roaring into the Twenties."
Ruby Falls is home to America's deepest commercial cave and largest underground waterfall open for public viewing. It features a 145-foot waterfall located 1,120 feet beneath the surface of Lookout Mountain.
"It's exciting that Ruby Falls is making this investment that gives visitors one more reason to extend their stay," said Bob Doak, president and chief executive officer of the Chattanooga Convention and Visitors Bureau. "They have always done an incredible job of bridging the gap between historic and modern. Great cities - and great companies - are always looking ahead, and this is another example of how our community is doing that."
PGAV Destinations, a tourism design and consulting firm, helped develop the 12,000-square-foot expansion, visitors mall and parking improvements.
"The flow of visitors coming into Ruby Falls will be much better and there will be more opportunities for people to relax, shop and enjoy themselves while they are waiting to go into the cave," said Mike Konzen, principal and chair of PGAV Destinations. "This is still a very authentic and unique experience, unlike any other, but the folks at Ruby Falls have done a great job to keep up with technology and the changes in the way tourists get and share information."
Last year, Ruby Falls installed high-speed Wi-Fi within its cave so visitors who want can snap chat or use other social media to share their experience instantaneously.
Morrow said Ruby Falls is benefiting from the growth in tourism in Chattanooga, which has long billed itself as the Scenic Center of the South. Tourism spending has more than doubled in the past two decades.
Even though Ruby Falls draws only about half the visitation levels it did in its heyday in the 1960s and '70s, the attraction has grown business steadily since the Great Recession ended and envisions future growth from the expanded visitor and retail facilities being added at the attraction, along with the renewed focus on technology connections, historic preservation and environmental sustainability.
"When I was a kid, there were days you couldn't see Chattanooga from Ruby Falls because the pollution was so thick," Morrow said. "We've traveled across dirty streams and rivers to get to where we are today. You wouldn't have used a paddleboard on the river and you definitely wouldn't have run along the riverfront in the past. But all of that has changed, and millions of people now want to visit our city."
But for all the changes since Ruby Falls was first discovered in 1928, it remains one of the city's best known attractions around the globe.
"When people think about Chattanooga, they necessarily think about Ruby Falls, even though technically you are not in the city limits," Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke said. "Even when Chattanooga was at its worst times, Ruby Falls has always been a place where people want to go, and that says a lot about the strength and durability of this attraction."
The attraction is so attractive, especially after its $20 million upgrade, that Berke jokes that he wants to annex the attraction into the city of Chattanooga.
"Why should (Hamilton County Mayor Jim) Coppinger get all the taxes," he quipped.
Contact Dave Flessner at dflessner@timesfreepress.com or at 423-757-6340.