HISTORY: African American jazz band officially opened Wonderland Cave as a nightclub

Jazz group played Wonderland Cave

February 15, 2024 at 4:15 a.m.

Submitted photo/Bella Vista Historical Museum Clarence Love and his band, The Africans, performed at Wonderland Cave in Bella Vista in the 1930s. The group played the cave's official opening as a nightclub on May 31, 1930.
Submitted photo/Bella Vista Historical Museum Clarence Love and his band, The Africans, performed at Wonderland Cave in Bella Vista in the 1930s. The group played the cave's official opening as a nightclub on May 31, 1930.

Band music was one of the major cornerstones of the amenities of the Bella Vista Summer Resort during the Linebarger brothers' ownership period between 1917 and 1952.