This is that cave now known as (glances at his framed bumper sticker
collection)
"Mark Twain Cave".  The guides there (and, I think, Twain's autobiobraphy
and/or "Life on the Mississippi") tell us that a doctor put his dead
daughter
there in a metal container, immersed in some preservative solution
(alchohol?).
The boys of the town would dare each other to open the container and pull
her
out by the hair for a look.  The town - no doubt represented by the boys'
parents - didn't approve of this and the girl was moved to a more peaceful
grave.

Bob Rogers
Minneapolis, MN