Family living in cave selling to highest bidder
By Chris Campbell
Five years ago, Curt and Deborah Sleeper decided to move their family into a cave they purchased on eBay.
Impractical, you might say? Not for the Sleeper clan.
Their backup plan involved packing up the children, Perry and Kian, and heading for Belize.
This family does things a little differently than most in Jefferson County.
"My wife and I are adventurous," Curt Sleeper said. "I've always been kind of a freelance person and we saw the cave and we fell in love with it."
The cave, which is housed in a massive sandstone bluff along Highway 61/67 in Festus, is well known to locals.
After decades of mining use, the cave was converted into a concert venue and roller rink by former owner Sue Morris in the late 1950s.
Christened "Caveland," the unusual spot attracted top talent - Bob Seger, Ted Nugent, Tina Turner and the MC5, just to name a few.
Not every artist was charmed by the novelty of playing in a cave, given the humidity and unusual acoustics.
"Ted Nugent said it was the worst show he ever played," Curt Sleeper said. "Bob Seger supposedly told him to just shut up and play."
Curt Sleeper said the experience of playing a concert inside a Festus cave was so surreal, in fact, that after Deborah contacted a member of the MC5 for a quote for a possible book about Caveland, he admitted he thought the entire experience was just a 70s-era hallucination.
"He jumped out of his chair and said 'that was real?'" Curt Sleeper said, laughing.
A large, bearded man who projects an air of monk-like serenity, Sleeper was charmed by the property from the outset.
Deborah was a bit more apprehensive, until she noticed a four-leaf clover growing on the property during the family's first visit.
Taking that cue from nature as a sure sign they were doing the right thing, the Sleepers purchased the cave and began the arduous task of turning a massive, hollowed out sandstone bluff into a family home.
It wasn't easy, or quick.
The family spent four years living in large, heated tents while painstakingly turning the cave into a rather spectacular living space sprawling past 17,000 square feet.
The family called their temporary living space "Tentworld," and Deborah Sleeper found herself using three buckets for laundry for several months in true frontier style.
"There wasn't a lot of privacy," Curt Sleeper said. "But I'd do it all over again. It was an adventure."
The front of the property is a mini-refuge for local wildlife. To the north of the cave entrance sits the "box canyon bog." This wooded area is home to several species of wildlife and a series of small waterfalls that creep down the face of the bluff during rainy weather.
As you navigate the muddy pathway of stones through the bog, a cacophony of cricket and frog noises greets you.
"There's a whole bunch of wildlife," Sleeper said. "King snakes, black snakes, an old barn owl, foxes."
Though it sits just a few hundred yards from a major thoroughfare, the area feels secluded, an ideal spot for intimate congress with nature.
Deborah Sleeper calls the box canyon "her sanctuary."
"It's just amazing," she said. "I love everything about the house. The kitchen, the walls."
The canyon features a 60-feet-by-120-feet pool of water that collects as a result of storm runoff from a subdivision directly above.
A compost pile and "guinea hen" pen sit nearby. Box turtles hide out among strawberry patches.
"That's the guinea dome," Curt Sleeper said. "It's empty. The foxes, hawks and feral dogs got some. I didn't get as many."
A handful of feral cats stalk the outer sections of the cave, kept in good condition by regular feedings from the Sleeper family.
One of the cats creeps forward, slowly evaluating new visitors. The Sleepers have named this cat Poubelle - French, for trash can.
Upon entry to the cave, one is struck by the beauty of the walls - and the rise in humidity.
The Sleepers use three professional-grade dehumidifiers to keep the massive cave interior livable.
"We pull about 300 gallons of water a day out of the air," Sleeper said.
The idea is to keep the cave below 80 percent humidity - the point at which life begins to sprout.
While the air is humid, it comes with a trade-off.
Because the interior of the cave is in the 60 degree to 70 degree range year-round, the cost to heat and cool the place is minimal.
The walls are striking, particularly the patterns etched across them.
"It's like cloud watching," Curt Sleeper said. "In the patterns you can see anything you want. I often find myself staring at the walls. It's a comfortable and peaceful environment."
The large entry room has a full, modern kitchen, study and a goldfish pond filled by the constant drip-drip of falling spring water from the ground above - a clever way to incorporate something few home builders would ever anticipate.
"It's an odd thing having natural spring water dropping into your room," Sleeper said.
Winding stairs lead to a second floor, with bedrooms and bathrooms, all carved from the sandstone walls.
To the rear of the entry room, another large room functions as storage and a gym for the family.
Curt Sleeper, a freelance website designer, is active on eBay, buying and reselling numerous items, many of which are housed in the cave.
Continuing forward, a third large room opens up about 100 feet below the surface.
Dark and a bit eerie, with a vintage bomb shelter sign rusting on the wall, this near-empty corridor functioned as the concert hall.
A tiny stage sits a few hundred feet ahead in the distance - the same raised bit of concrete once prowled by Tina Turner.
Though the Sleeper family clearly adores their home, they recently made a decision to list the property for sale on eBay for financial reasons.
"We don't want to move," Curt Sleeper said. "But we need to protect our equity. We put everything we had into this home."
The family is seeking bank assistance via mortgage refinancing, but so far has been unsuccessful.
They aren't giving up hope.
And if a sale is necessary, the family is facing the prospect with equanimity.
"I could die yesterday," Curt Sleeper said. "This is the most rewarding thing we've ever done. My children will remember this as long as they remember anything."
And they'll remember at least one more major event as well - the birth of a new brother or sister.
In the cave, no less.
Deborah Sleeper, due to give birth any day, is opting for a home birth, with the help of some visiting professional medical personnel.
"This will be the first baby born in a cave in I don't know how many years," Curt Sleeper said, smiling
And, with any luck, perhaps not the last.
I bet there are maybe some people out there somewhere, but can you imagine being a census worker trekking around all over the place looking in random caves?
Just kidding!
