Dixie Caverns
— the cool that lives under the ridge.
Not only on a wall.
Dixie Caverns, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
Each tile ships in a kraft box, tied with cream ribbon, with a handwritten note from the studio if you'd like to add one.
Three or five different vistas, hung together — a chapter of places you've been, or want to go.
“A show cave under the limestone ridges of Roanoke County, opened to the public in 1923 after a farm dog named Dixie tumbled into the entrance and was found below. The temperature inside holds near 56 degrees year round, regardless of the weather above. Visitors come down the wooden stairs from the gift shop and into a quiet that has been there a very long time. from the studio
The place, in three passes.
Dixie Caverns sits beside U.S. Route 11 and Interstate 81 just west of Salem, in Roanoke County, Virginia. The cave was opened for tours in 1923 after a local boy followed his dog, Dixie, through a sinkhole on the family farm. Carved into Cambrian limestone of the Valley and Ridge province, the cavern runs through a series of rooms reached by a climbing path rather than a descending one, which is unusual among Virginia show caves. The site has remained continuously family-operated for a century.
The cave holds a steady temperature of about 56 degrees Fahrenheit through every season, the average of Roanoke County's year above ground. Summer visitors notice the cool the moment they cross the doorway; winter visitors notice the cave is warmer than the parking lot. Humidity stays near saturation, which keeps the formations growing and the breath visible under the lamps. The Wedding Bell room, with its tall draped column, is the deepest stop on the standard tour route.
The cave is open daily for guided tours that run about 45 minutes and cover roughly a quarter mile of passage on a stair-and-walkway route. The entrance is at the back of a gift shop and rock shop on U.S. 11, with a campground next door. Children under five enter free; the surface property includes a small museum of regional minerals. The site is privately held and does not require advance reservation outside of large group bookings.
