The State Where America's Government Cheese Caves Still Exist

A cheese cave may sound like a gift from the gods. Indeed, there are underground caverns that store massive amounts of cheese. In the United States, former mining caves have been repurposed as storage facilities. These underground tunnels offer climate-controlled spaces where large amounts of cheese can be kept to mature or simply stay fresh. Some of these areas are big enough for tractors to drive through.

When President Jimmy Carter sought to support the dairy industry in 1977, his encouragement of dairy farmers meant that production and the prices of milk skyrocketed (not unlike modern rising food prices). As a result, Americans faced a surplus of cheese in the '80s. President Regan began passing out blocks of "government cheese" through the Emergency Food Assistance Program to try to distribute it. Instead of the kinds of cheeses that would need to be eaten or tossed, processed cheese could be transported and kept more easily. Though this government cheese was being used, storage was an issue, and caves came to the rescue. Places like Missouri, known as the Cave State, offered thousands of limestone caves for this purpose, as underground areas provide space where a consistent temperature makes storage easy.  

A large warehouse known as Springfield Underground in Missouri houses various food products, like cheese. In addition to cheeses, coffee and other foods are kept here. The Springfield Underground complex offers over 3 million square feet of storage facilities and has housed major brands like PepsiCo. What once started as a quarry and is now an industrial park has made it clear that its underground storage isn't a government facility, however, but is simply a family-run business.

Americans certainly weren't the first to consider caves as prime storage areas. In the United Kingdom, cheese was matured in limestone caves, but there's a significant difference in the ways the food is placed. Overseas cheese develops in flavor when stored and left underground, while the American cheese tucked away in caves isn't maturing in taste or texture. This is a product that is simply stored. Plus, while cheese caves in England can be visited, along with other cheese tours on offer, we don't have the same luxury in the United States, so the lore surrounding these Missouri caves continues to build.