Mammoth Cave National Park
Encyclopedia
Mammoth Cave National Park is a U.S. National Park in central Kentucky
, encompassing portions of Mammoth Cave, the longest cave
system known in the world. The official name of the system is the Mammoth-Flint Ridge Cave System for the ridge under which the cave has formed. The park was established as a national park
on July 1, 1941. It became a World Heritage Site
on October 27, 1981, and an international Biosphere Reserve
on September 26, 1990.
The park's 52835 acres (21,381.6 ha) are located primarily in Edmonson County, Kentucky
, with small areas extending eastward into Hart County
and Barren County
. It is centered around the Green River
, with a tributary
, the Nolin River
, feeding into the Green just inside the park. With over 390 miles (627.6 km) of passageways it is by far the world's longest known cave system, being well over twice as long as the second-longest cave system, which is South Dakota
's Jewel Cave
with just over 150 miles (241.4 km) of known passageways.
strata
capped by a layer of sandstone
, making the system remarkably stable. It is known to include more than 390 miles (627.6 km) of passageway; new discoveries and connections add several miles to this figure each year. Mammoth Cave National Park was established to preserve the cave system.
The upper sandstone member is known as the Big Clifty Sandstone
: thin, sparse layers of limestone interspersed within the sandstones give rise to an epikarstic zone
, in which tiny conduits (cave passages too small to enter) are dissolved by the natural acidity of groundwater. The epikarstic zone concentrates local flows of runoff into high-elevation springs which emerge at the edges of ridges. The resurgent water from these springs typically flows briefly on the surface before sinking underground again at elevation of the contact between the sandstone caprock
and the underlying massive limestones. It is in these underlying massive limestone layers that the human-explorable caves
of the region have naturally developed.
The limestone layers of the stratigraphic column beneath the Big Clifty, in increasing order of depth below the ridgetops, are the Girkin Formation
, the St. Genevieve Limestone, and the St. Louis Limestone
. For example, the large Main Cave passage seen on the Historic Tour is located at the bottom of the Girkin and the top of the St. Genevieve Formation.
Each of the primary layers of limestone are divided further into named geological units and subunits. One area of cave research involves correlating the stratigraphy with the cave survey produced by explorers. This makes it possible to produce approximate three-dimensional maps of the contours of the various layer boundaries without the necessity for test wells and extracting core samples.
The upper sandstone caprock is relatively hard for water to penetrate: the exceptions are where vertical cracks occur. This protective role means that many of the older, upper passages of the cave system are very dry, with no stalactite
s, stalagmite
s, or other formations which require flowing or dripping water to develop.
However, the sandstone caprock layer has been dissolved and eroded at many locations within the park, such as the Frozen Niagara room. The "contact" between limestone and sandstone can be found by hiking from the valley bottoms to the ridgetops: typically, as one approaches the top of a ridge, one sees the outcrops of exposed rock change in composition from limestone to sandstone at a well-defined elevation.
At one valley bottom in the southern region of the park, a massive sinkhole
has developed. Known as "Cedar Sink," the sinkhole features a small river entering one side and disappearing back underground at the other side.
Mammoth Cave is home to the endangered
Kentucky cave shrimp
, a sightless albino shrimp
.
The National Park Service
offers several cave tours to visitors. Some notable features of the cave, such as Grand Avenue, Frozen Niagara, and Fat Man's Misery, can be seen on lighted tours ranging from one to six hours in length. Two tours, lit only by visitor-carried paraffin lamps, are popular alternatives to the electric-lit routes. Several "wild" tours venture away from the developed parts of the cave into muddy crawls and dusty tunnels. The lectures delivered by the National Park Service cave guides are varied by tour, so that in taking several tours the visitor learns about different facets of the cave's formation, or of the cave's human history and prehistory.
The Echo River Tour, one of the cave's most famous attractions, used to take visitors on a boat ride along an underground river. The tour was discontinued for logistic and environmental reasons in the early 1990s.
The story of human beings in relation to Mammoth Cave spans six thousand years. Several sets of Native American
remains have been recovered from Mammoth Cave, or other nearby caves in the region, in both the 19th and 20th centuries. Most mummies
found represent examples of intentional burial, with ample evidence of pre-Columbian funerary practice.
An exception to purposeful burial was discovered when in 1935 the remains of an adult male were discovered under a large boulder. The boulder had shifted and settled onto the victim, a pre-Columbian miner, who had disturbed the rubble supporting it. The remains of the ancient victim were named "Lost John" and exhibited to the public into the 1970s, when they were interred in a secret location in Mammoth Cave for reasons of preservation as well as emerging political sensitivities with respect to the public display of Native American remains.
Research beginning in the late 1950s led by Patty Jo Watson
of Washington University
in St. Louis, Missouri
has done much to illuminate the lives of the late Archaic and early Woodland peoples
who explored and exploited caves in the region. Preserved by the constant cave environment, dietary evidence yielded carbon dates
enabling Watson and others to determine the age of the specimens, and an analysis of their content, also pioneered by Watson, allows determination of the relative content of plant and meat in the diet of either culture over a period spanning several thousand years. This analysis indicates a timed transition from a hunter-gatherer
culture to plant domestication and agriculture
.
Another technique employed in archaeological research
at Mammoth Cave was "experimental archaeology
", in which modern explorers were sent into the cave using the same technology as that employed by the ancient cultures whose leftover implements lie discarded in many parts of the cave. The goal was to gain insight into the problems faced by the ancient people who explored the cave, by placing the researchers in a similar physical situation.
Ancient human remains and artifacts within the caves are protected by various federal and state laws. One of the most basic facts to be determined about a newly discovered artifact is its precise location and situation. Even slightly moving a prehistoric artifact contaminates it from a research perspective. Explorers are properly trained not to disturb archaeological evidence, and some areas of the cave remain out-of-bounds for even seasoned explorers, unless the subject of the trip is archaeological research on that area.
Besides the remains that have been discovered in the portion of the cave accessible through the Historic Entrance of Mammoth Cave, the remains of cane torches used by Native Americans, as well as other artifacts such as drawings, gourd fragments, and woven grass moccasin slippers are found in the Salts Cave section of the system in Flint Ridge.
The 31000 acres (12,545.3 ha) tract known as the "Pollard Survey" was sold by indenture
September 10, 1791 in Philadelphia by William Pollard. 19897 acres (8,052 ha) of the "Pollard Survey" between the North bank of Bacon Creek and the Green River
were purchased by Thomas Lang, Jr., a British American
merchant from Yorkshire, England on June 3, 1796, for £4,116/13s/0d (£4,116.65). The land was lost to a local county tax claim during the War of 1812
.
Legend has it that the first European to discover Mammoth Cave was either John Houchin or his brother Francis Houchin, in 1797. While hunting, Houchin pursued a wounded bear to the cave's large entrance opening near the Green River. Some Houchin Family tales have John Decatur "Johnny Dick" Houchin as the discoverer of the cave, but this is highly unlikely because Johnny Dick was only 10 years old in 1797 and was unlikely to be out hunting bears at such a tender age. His father John is the more likely candidate from that branch of the family tree, but the most probable candidate for discoverer of Mammoth Cave is Francis "Frank" Houchin whose land was much closer to the cave entrance than his brother John's. There is also the argument that their brother Charles Houchin, who was known as a great hunter and trapper, was the man who shot that bear and chased it into the cave. The shadow over Charles's claim is the fact that he was residing in Illinois until 1801. Contrary to this story is Brucker and Watson's The Longest Cave, which asserts that the cave was "certainly known before that time." Caves in the area were known before the discovery of the entrance to Mammoth Cave. Even Francis Houchin had a cave entrance on his land very near the bend in the Green River known as the Turnhole, which is less than a mile from the main entrance of Mammoth Cave.
The land containing this historic entrance was first surveyed and registered in 1798 under the name of Valentine Simons. Simons began exploiting Mammoth Cave for its saltpeter
reserves.
According to family records passed down through the Houchin, and later Henderson families, John Houchin was bear hunting and the bear turned and began to chase him. He found the cave entrance when he ran into the cave for protection from the charging bear.
, when Mammoth Cave's saltpeter reserves became significant due to the British
blockade of United States
's ports. The blockade starved the American military of saltpeter and therefore gunpowder. As a result, the domestic price of saltpeter rose and production based on nitrates extracted from caves such as Mammoth Cave became more lucrative.
In July 1812, the cave was purchased from Simon and other owners by Charles Wilkins and an investor from Philadelphia named Hyman Gratz. Soon the cave was being mined for calcium nitrate
on an industrial scale.
A half-interest in the cave changed hands for ten thousand dollars (a huge sum at the time). After the war when prices fell, the workings were abandoned and it became a minor tourist attraction centering on a Native American
mummy
discovered nearby.
When Wilkins died his estate's executors sold his interest in the cave to Gratz. In the spring of 1838, the cave was sold by the Gratz brothers to Franklin Gorin, who intended to operate Mammoth Cave purely as a tourist attraction, the bottom long having since fallen out of the saltpeter market. Gorin was a slave owner, and used his slaves as tour guides. One of these slaves would make a number of important contributions to human knowledge of the cave, and become one of Mammoth Cave's most celebrated historical figures.
Stephen Bishop
, an African-American slave
and a guide to the cave during the 1840s and 1850s, was one of the first people to make extensive map
s of the cave, and named many of the cave's features.
Stephen Bishop was introduced to Mammoth Cave in 1838 by Franklin Gorin. Gorin wrote, after Bishop's death: "I placed a guide in the cave – the celebrated and great Stephen, and he aided in making the discoveries. He was the first person who ever crossed the Bottomless Pit, and he, myself and another person whose name I have forgotten were the only persons ever at the bottom of Gorin's Dome to my knowledge.
"After Stephen crossed the Bottomless Pit, we discovered all that part of the cave now known beyond that point. Previous to those discoveries, all interest centered in what is known as the 'Old Cave' ... but now many of the points are but little known, although as Stephen was wont to say, they were 'grand, gloomy and peculiar'."
In 1839, Dr. John Croghan
of Louisville
bought the Mammoth Cave Estate, including Bishop and its other slaves from their previous owner, Franklin Gorin. Croghan briefly ran an ill-fated tuberculosis
hospital in the cave, the vapors of which he believed would cure his patients. A widespread epidemic of the period, tuberculosis would ultimately claim the lives of both Bishop and Croghan.
Throughout the 19th century, the fame of Mammoth Cave would grow so that the cave became an international sensation.
At the same time, the cave attracted the attention of 19th century writers such as Dr. Robert Montgomery Bird, the Rev. Robert Davidson, the Rev. Horace Martin, Alexander Clark Bullitt, Nathaniel Parker Willis
(who visited in June 1852), Bayard Taylor
(in May, 1855), Dr. William Stump Forwood (in Spring 1867), the naturalist John Muir
(early September 1867), the Rev. Horace Carter Hovey, and others. As a result of the growing renown of Mammoth Cave, the cave boasted famous visitors such as actor Edwin Booth
(his brother, John Wilkes Booth
, assassinated
Abraham Lincoln
in 1865), singer Jenny Lind
(who visited the cave on April 5, 1851), and violinist Ole Bull
who together gave a concert in one of the caves. Two chambers in the caves have since been known as "Booth's Amphitheatre" and "Ole Bull´s Concert Hall".
By 1859 when the Louisville and Nashville Railroad
opened its main line between these cities Colonel Larkin J. Procter owned the Mammoth Cave Estate. He also owned the stagecoach line that ran between Glasgow Junction (Park City
) and the Mammoth Cave Estate. This line transported tourists to Mammoth Caves until 1886 when he established the Mammoth Cave Railroad
.
The difficulties of farming life in the hardscrabble, poor soil of the cave country influenced local owners of smaller nearby caves to see opportunities for commercial exploitation, particularly given the success of Mammoth Cave as a tourist attraction. The "Kentucky Cave Wars" were a period of bitter competition between local cave owners for tourist money. Broad tactics of deception were used to lure visitors away from their intended destination to other private show caves. Misleading signs were placed along the roads leading to the Mammoth Cave. A typical strategy during the early days of automobile travel involved representatives (known as "cappers") of other private show caves hopping aboard a tourist's car's running board, and leading the passengers to believe that Mammoth Cave was closed, quarantined, caved in or otherwise inaccessible.
In 1906, Mammoth Cave became accessible by steamboat
with the construction of a lock and dam at Brownsville, Kentucky
. The construction of this dam has had a long-term impact on the biota of the cave. The dam's construction would also prove to have implications for cave exploration.
In 1909, Max Kaemper
, a young German mining engineer arrived at the cave by way of New York. Kaemper had just graduated from technical college and his family had sent him on a trip abroad as a graduation present. Originally intending to spend two weeks at Mammoth Cave, Kaemper spent several months. With the assistance of African-American slave descendant Ed Bishop, Kaemper produced a remarkably accurate instrumental survey of many kilometers of Mammoth Cave, including many new discoveries. Reportedly, Kaemper also produced a corresponding survey of the land surface overlying the cave: this information was to be useful in the opening of other entrances to the cave, as soon happened with the Violet City entrance.
The Croghan family suppressed the topographic element of Kaemper's map, and it is not known to survive today, although the cave map portion of Kaemper's work stands as a triumph of accurate cave cartography: not until the early 1960s and the advent of the modern exploration period would these passages be surveyed and mapped with greater accuracy. Kaemper returned to Berlin, and from the point of view of the Mammoth Cave country, disappeared entirely. It was not until the turn of the 21st century that a group of German tourists, after visiting the cave, researched Kaemper's family and determined his sad fate: the young Kaemper was killed in trench warfare
in World War I
at the Battle of the Somme just eight years later, in 1917.
Famed French cave explorer Édouard-Alfred Martel
visited the cave for three days in October 1912. Without access to the closely held survey data, Martel was permitted to make barometric observations in the cave for the purpose of determining the relative elevation of different locations in the cave. He identified different levels of the cave, and correctly noted that the level of Echo River within the cave was controlled by that of the Green River on the surface. Martel lamented the 1906 construction of the dam at Brownsville, pointing out that this made a full hydrologic study of the cave impossible. Among his precise descriptions of the hydrogeologic setting of Mammoth Cave, Martel offered the speculative conclusion that Mammoth Cave was connected to Salts and Colossal Caves: this would not be proven correct until 60 years after Martel's visit.
In the early 1920s, George Morrison blasted a number of entrances to Mammoth Cave on land not owned by the Croghan Estate. Absent the data from the Croghan's secretive surveys, performed by Kaemper, Bishop, and others, which had not been published in a form suitable for determining the geographic extent of the cave, it was now conclusively shown that the Croghans had been for years exhibiting portions of Mammoth Cave which were not under land they owned. Lawsuits were filed and for a time, different entrances to the cave were operated in direct competition with each other.
In the early 20th century, Floyd Collins
spent ten years exploring the Flint Ridge Cave System (the most important legacy of these explorations was the discovery of Floyd Collins' Crystal Cave and exploration in Salts cave) before dying at Sand Cave, Kentucky, in 1925. While exploring Sand Cave, he dislodged a rock onto his leg while in a tight crawlway and was unable to free himself. Attempts to rescue Collins created a media sensation: the resulting publicity would draw prominent Kentuckians to initiate a movement which would soon result in the formation of Mammoth Cave National Park.
As the last of the Croghan heirs died, advocacy momentum grew among wealthy citizens of Kentucky for the establishment of Mammoth Cave National Park. Private citizens formed the Mammoth Cave National Park Association in 1926. The Park was authorized May 25, 1926.
Donated funds were used to purchase some farmsteads in the region, while other tracts within the proposed National Park boundary were acquired by right of eminent domain
. In contrast to the formation of other National Parks in the sparsely populated American West, thousands of people would be forcibly relocated in the process of forming Mammoth Cave National Park. Often eminent domain proceedings were bitter, with landowners paid what were considered to be inadequate sums. The resulting acrimony still resonates within the region. Though deer hunting is prohibited within the park, the park boundary is ringed with poachers' deer blinds, hunting platforms which face into the park.
For legal reasons, the federal government was prohibited from restoring or developing the cleared farmsteads while the private Association held the land: this regulation was evaded by the operation of "a maximum of four" CCC
camps from May 22, 1933 to July 1942.
According to the National Park Service, "On May 14, 1934 the minimum park area was provided. On May 22, 1936, the minimum area was accepted "for administration and protection."
Superintendent Hoskins later wrote of a summer tanager
named Pete who arrived at the guide house on or around every April 20, starting in 1938. The bird ate from food held in the hands of the guides, to the delight of visitors, and provided food to his less-tame mate.
. R. Taylor Hoskins, the second Acting Superintendent under the old Association, became the first official Superintendent, a position he held until 1951.
The New Entrance, closed to visitors since 1941, was reopened on December 26, 1951, becoming the entrance used for the beginning of the Frozen Niagara tour.
By 1954, Mammoth Cave National Park's land holdings encompassed all lands within its outer boundary with the exception of two privately held tracts. One of these, the old Lee Collins farm, had been sold to Harry Thomas of Horse Cave, Kentucky, whose grandson, William "Bill" Austin, operated Collins Crystal Cave as a show cave in direct competition with the National Park, which was forced to maintain roads leading to the property. Condemnation and purchase of the Crystal Cave property seemed only a matter of time.
In February 1954, a two-week expedition under the auspices of the National Speleological Society
was organized at the invitation of Austin: this expedition became known as C-3, or the Collins Crystal Cave Expedition.
The C-3 expedition drew public interest, first from a photo essay published by Robert Halmi (in either Sports Illustrated
or Look
magazine) and later from the publication of a double first-person account of the expedition, The Caves Beyond: The Story of the Collins Crystal Cave Expedition by Joe Lawrence, Jr. (then president of the National Speleological Society) and Roger Brucker
. The expedition proved conclusively that passages in Crystal Cave extended toward Mammoth Cave proper, at least exceeding the Crystal Cave property boundaries. However, this information was closely held by the explorers: it was feared that the National Park Service might forbid exploration were this known.
In 1955 Crystal Cave was connected by survey with Unknown Cave, the first connection in the Flint Ridge system.
Some of the participants in the C-3 expedition wished to continue their explorations past the conclusion of the C-3 Expedition, and organized as the Flint Ridge Reconnaissance under the guidance of Austin, Jim Dyer, John J. Lehrberger and E. Robert Pohl. This organization was incorporated in 1957 as the Cave Research Foundation
. The organization sought to legitimize the cave explorers' activity through the support of original academic and scientific research. Notable scientists who studied Mammoth Cave during this period include Patty Jo Watson
(see section on prehistory.)
In March 1961, the Crystal Cave property was sold to the National Park Service for a sum of $285,000. At the same time, the Great Onyx Cave
property, the only other remaining private inholding
, was purchased for $365,000. The Cave Research Foundation was permitted to continue their exploration through a Memorandum of Understanding with the National Park Service.
Colossal Cave was connected by survey to Salts Cave in 1960 and in 1961 Colossal-Salts cave was similarly connected to Crystal-Unknown cave, creating a single cave system under much of Flint Ridge. By 1972, the Flint Ridge Cave System had been surveyed to a length of 86.5 miles (139.2 km), making it the longest cave in the world.
During the 1960s, Cave Research Foundation (CRF) exploration and mapping teams had found passageways in the Flint Ridge Cave System that penetrated under Houchins Valley and came within 800 feet of known passages in Mammoth Cave. In 1972, CRF Chief Cartographer John Wilcox pursued an aggressive program to finally connect the caves, fielding several expeditions from the Flint Ridge side as well as exploring leads in Mammoth Cave.
On a July, 1972 trip deep in the Flint Ridge Cave System, Patricia Crowther—with her slight frame of 115 pounds (52.2 kg)—crawled through a narrow canyon later dubbed the "Tight Spot", which acted as a filter for larger cavers.
A subsequent trip past the Tight Spot on August 30, 1972 by Wilcox, Crowther, Richard Zopf, and Tom Brucker discovered the name "Pete H" inscribed on the wall of a river passage with an arrow pointing in the direction of Mammoth Cave. The name is believed to have been carved by Pete Hanson, who was active in exploring the cave in the 1930s. Hanson had been killed in World War II
. The passage was named Hanson's Lost River by the explorers.
Finally, on September 9, 1972, a six-person CRF team of Wilcox, Crowther, Zopf, Gary Eller, Stephen Wells, and Cleveland Pinnix (a National Park Service ranger) followed Hanson's Lost River downstream to discover its connection with Echo River in Cascade Hall of Mammoth Cave. With this linking of the Flint Ridge and Mammoth Cave systems, the "Everest of speleology" had been climbed. The integrated cave system contained 144.4 miles (232.4 km) of surveyed passages and had fourteen entrances.
At the same time, discoveries made outside the Park by an independent group called the Central Kentucky Karst Coalition or CKKC resulted in the survey of tens of miles in Roppel Cave east of the Park. On September 10, 1983, a connection was made between the Proctor/Morrison's section of the Mammoth Cave system and Roppel Cave. The connection was made by two mixed parties of CRF and CKKC explorers. Each party entered through a separate entrance and met in the middle before continuing in the same direction to exit at the opposite entrance. The resulting total surveyed length was near 300 miles (482.8 km). Incremental discoveries since then have pushed the total to more than 392 miles (630.9 km).
On March 19, 2005, a connection into the Roppel Cave portion of the system was surveyed from a small cave under Eudora Ridge, adding approximately three miles to the known length of the Mammoth Cave System. The newly found entrance to the cave, now termed the "Hoover Entrance," had been discovered in September, 2003.
It is certain that many more miles of cave passages await discovery in the region. Discovery of new natural entrances is a rare event: the primary mode of discovery involves the pursuit of side passages identified during routine systematic exploration of cave passages entered from known entrances.
. The Fisher Ridge Cave System was discovered in January 1981 by a group of Michigan cavers associated with the Detroit Urban Grotto of the National Speleological Society
. So far, the cave has been mapped to 114 miles (183.5 km). In 1976, Rick Schwartz discovered a large cave south of the Mammoth Cave Park boundary. This cave became known as the Martin Ridge Cave System in 1996 as new exploration connected the nearby caves of Whigpistle Cave (Schwartz's original entrance), Martin Ridge Cave, and Jackpot Caves. As of December 2008, the Martin Ridge Cave System is mapped to a length of 34 miles (54.7 km), and exploration continues.
Indiana bat
(Myotis sodalis), Gray bat
(Myotis grisescens), Little brown bat
(Myotis lucifugus), Big brown bat
(Eptesicus fuscus), and the Eastern pipistrelle
bat (Pipistrellus subflavus).
All together, these and more rare bat species such as the Eastern Small-footed Bat had estimated populations of 9–12 million just in the Historic Section. While these species still exist in Mammoth Cave, their numbers are now no more than a few thousand at best. Ecological restoration of this portion of Mammoth Cave, and facilitating the return of bats, is an ongoing effort. Not all bat species here inhabit the Cave; the red bat (Lasiurus borealis) is a forest-dweller, found underground only rarely.
Other animals which inhabit the caves include:
two genera of crickets (Hadenoecus subterraneus
) and (Ceuthophilus stygius) (Ceuthophilus latens), a cave salamander
(Eurycea lucifuga), two genera of eyeless cave fish (Typhlichthys subterraneus
) and (Amblyopsis spelaea), a cave crayfish (Orconectes pellucidus), and a cave shrimp (Palaemonias ganteri)
In addition, some surface animals may take refuge in the entrances of the caves but do not generally venture into the deep portions of the cavern system.
to the north. It is a virtual certainty that no cave passages connecting to Mammoth will ever be found north of the Green River, or substantially east of the Sinkhole Plain which is the primary recharge area (the place where water enters) for the cave. More tantalizing is the prospect of ancient passages to the south which might bridge the current drainage divide between the Green River basin and the Barren River
basin south of it, but in that case, the maximum expected southerly extent of Mammoth Cave would be the Barren River.
It is true, however, that the layers of sedimentary rock in which Mammoth Cave has formed do extend many miles in almost any direction from Mammoth Cave. These rocks were all laid down over the same period. The similarity of the rocks of the broader region to those in the immediate vicinity of Mammoth Cave means that conditions are right for cave formation; however, the absolute boundaries of the Mammoth Cave system are known, so it is expected that these other caves will not be found to connect to Mammoth Cave.
have ever been found in Mammoth Cave, and the name of the cave has nothing to do with this extinct mammal. Rather, the name "Mammoth" refers to the cave's large size, compared to other caves. Ironically, the name was given even before the cave system's true extent was fully known. Modern discoveries have proven the aptness of the name; old predictions of the cave's final length have been far outstripped by actual discoveries.
The list is incomplete.
Kentucky
The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...
, encompassing portions of Mammoth Cave, the longest cave
Cave
A cave or cavern is a natural underground space large enough for a human to enter. The term applies to natural cavities some part of which is in total darkness. The word cave also includes smaller spaces like rock shelters, sea caves, and grottos.Speleology is the science of exploration and study...
system known in the world. The official name of the system is the Mammoth-Flint Ridge Cave System for the ridge under which the cave has formed. The park was established as a national park
National park
A national park is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or owns. Although individual nations designate their own national parks differently A national park is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or...
on July 1, 1941. It became a World Heritage Site
World Heritage Site
A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a place that is listed by the UNESCO as of special cultural or physical significance...
on October 27, 1981, and an international Biosphere Reserve
Biosphere reserve
The Man and the Biosphere Programme of UNESCO was established in 1971 to promote interdisciplinary approaches to management, research and education in ecosystem conservation and sustainable use of natural resources.-Development:...
on September 26, 1990.
The park's 52835 acres (21,381.6 ha) are located primarily in Edmonson County, Kentucky
Edmonson County, Kentucky
Edmonson County is a county located in the U.S. state of Kentucky. It was formed in 1826. As of 2007, the population was 11,978. It is included in the Bowling Green Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its county seat is Brownsville...
, with small areas extending eastward into Hart County
Hart County, Kentucky
Hart County is a county located in the U.S. state — or, more correctly, "Commonwealth" — of Kentucky. It was formed in 1819. , the population was 17,445. Its county seat is Munfordville. The county is named for Captain Nathaniel G. S. Hart, a Kentucky militia officer in the War of 1812...
and Barren County
Barren County, Kentucky
As of the census of 2000, there were 38,033 people, 15,346 households, and 10,941 families residing in the county. The population density was . There were 17,095 housing units at an average density of...
. It is centered around the Green River
Green River (Kentucky)
The Green River is a tributary of the Ohio River that rises in Lincoln County in south-central Kentucky. Tributaries of the Green River include the Barren River, the Nolin River, the Pond River and the Rough River...
, with a tributary
Tributary
A tributary or affluent is a stream or river that flows into a main stem river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean...
, the Nolin River
Nolin River
The Nolin River is a tributary of the Green River in central Kentucky in the United States. Via the Green and Ohio rivers, it is part of the watershed of the Mississippi River...
, feeding into the Green just inside the park. With over 390 miles (627.6 km) of passageways it is by far the world's longest known cave system, being well over twice as long as the second-longest cave system, which is South Dakota
South Dakota
South Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux American Indian tribes. Once a part of Dakota Territory, South Dakota became a state on November 2, 1889. The state has an area of and an estimated population of just over...
's Jewel Cave
Jewel Cave National Monument
Jewel Cave National Monument contains Jewel Cave, currently the second longest cave in the world, with just over of mapped passageways. It is located approximately west of the town of Custer in South Dakota's Black Hills...
with just over 150 miles (241.4 km) of known passageways.
Limestone labyrinth
Mammoth Cave developed in thick Mississippian-aged limestoneLimestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....
strata
Stratum
In geology and related fields, a stratum is a layer of sedimentary rock or soil with internally consistent characteristics that distinguish it from other layers...
capped by a layer of sandstone
Sandstone
Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...
, making the system remarkably stable. It is known to include more than 390 miles (627.6 km) of passageway; new discoveries and connections add several miles to this figure each year. Mammoth Cave National Park was established to preserve the cave system.
The upper sandstone member is known as the Big Clifty Sandstone
Big Clifty Sandstone
The Big Clifty Sandstone is a geologic formation in Kentucky. It is sandstone that is Pennsylvanian in age. At Mammoth Cave National Park it overlies the Girkin Formation, the Ste. Genevieve Limestone, and the St. Louis Limestone, providing a cap for the entire cave system...
: thin, sparse layers of limestone interspersed within the sandstones give rise to an epikarstic zone
KARST
Kilometer-square Area Radio Synthesis Telescope is a Chinese telescope project to which FAST is a forerunner. KARST is a set of large spherical reflectors on karst landforms, which are bowlshaped limestone sinkholes named after the Kras region in Slovenia and Northern Italy. It will consist of...
, in which tiny conduits (cave passages too small to enter) are dissolved by the natural acidity of groundwater. The epikarstic zone concentrates local flows of runoff into high-elevation springs which emerge at the edges of ridges. The resurgent water from these springs typically flows briefly on the surface before sinking underground again at elevation of the contact between the sandstone caprock
Caprock
The Caprock is a region in the Panhandle of Texas . It is the land to the west of the Caprock Escarpment, which separates it from plains stretching to the east at a much lower elevation....
and the underlying massive limestones. It is in these underlying massive limestone layers that the human-explorable caves
Caving
Caving—also occasionally known as spelunking in the United States and potholing in the United Kingdom—is the recreational pastime of exploring wild cave systems...
of the region have naturally developed.
The limestone layers of the stratigraphic column beneath the Big Clifty, in increasing order of depth below the ridgetops, are the Girkin Formation
Girkin Formation
The Girkin Formation is a geologic formation located in the Chester Escarpment of central Kentucky, USA. It comprises a level of Mammoth Cave and lies above the Ste. Genevieve Limestone and St. Louis Limestone and below the Big Clifty Sandstone in that area...
, the St. Genevieve Limestone, and the St. Louis Limestone
St. Louis Limestone
The St. Louis Limestone is a large geologic formation covering a wide area of the midwest of the United States. It is named after an exposure at St. Louis, Missouri. It consists of sedimentary limestone with scattered chert beds, including the heavily chertified Lost River Chert Bed in the Horse...
. For example, the large Main Cave passage seen on the Historic Tour is located at the bottom of the Girkin and the top of the St. Genevieve Formation.
The upper sandstone caprock is relatively hard for water to penetrate: the exceptions are where vertical cracks occur. This protective role means that many of the older, upper passages of the cave system are very dry, with no stalactite
Stalactite
A stalactite , "to drip", and meaning "that which drips") is a type of speleothem that hangs from the ceiling of limestone caves. It is a type of dripstone...
s, stalagmite
Stalagmite
A stalagmite is a type of speleothem that rises from the floor of a limestone cave due to the dripping of mineralized solutions and the deposition of calcium carbonate. This stalagmite formation occurs only under certain pH conditions within the underground cavern. The corresponding formation on...
s, or other formations which require flowing or dripping water to develop.
However, the sandstone caprock layer has been dissolved and eroded at many locations within the park, such as the Frozen Niagara room. The "contact" between limestone and sandstone can be found by hiking from the valley bottoms to the ridgetops: typically, as one approaches the top of a ridge, one sees the outcrops of exposed rock change in composition from limestone to sandstone at a well-defined elevation.
At one valley bottom in the southern region of the park, a massive sinkhole
Sinkhole
A sinkhole, also known as a sink, shake hole, swallow hole, swallet, doline or cenote, is a natural depression or hole in the Earth's surface caused by karst processes — the chemical dissolution of carbonate rocks or suffosion processes for example in sandstone...
has developed. Known as "Cedar Sink," the sinkhole features a small river entering one side and disappearing back underground at the other side.
Mammoth Cave is home to the endangered
Endangered species
An endangered species is a population of organisms which is at risk of becoming extinct because it is either few in numbers, or threatened by changing environmental or predation parameters...
Kentucky cave shrimp
Kentucky cave shrimp
The Kentucky cave shrimp, Palaemonias ganteri, is an eyeless, troglobite shrimp. It lives in caves in Barren County, Edmonson County, Hart County and Warren County, Kentucky...
, a sightless albino shrimp
Shrimp
Shrimp are swimming, decapod crustaceans classified in the infraorder Caridea, found widely around the world in both fresh and salt water. Adult shrimp are filter feeding benthic animals living close to the bottom. They can live in schools and can swim rapidly backwards. Shrimp are an important...
.
Visiting
National Park Service
The National Park Service is the U.S. federal agency that manages all national parks, many national monuments, and other conservation and historical properties with various title designations...
offers several cave tours to visitors. Some notable features of the cave, such as Grand Avenue, Frozen Niagara, and Fat Man's Misery, can be seen on lighted tours ranging from one to six hours in length. Two tours, lit only by visitor-carried paraffin lamps, are popular alternatives to the electric-lit routes. Several "wild" tours venture away from the developed parts of the cave into muddy crawls and dusty tunnels. The lectures delivered by the National Park Service cave guides are varied by tour, so that in taking several tours the visitor learns about different facets of the cave's formation, or of the cave's human history and prehistory.
The Echo River Tour, one of the cave's most famous attractions, used to take visitors on a boat ride along an underground river. The tour was discontinued for logistic and environmental reasons in the early 1990s.
Prehistory
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
remains have been recovered from Mammoth Cave, or other nearby caves in the region, in both the 19th and 20th centuries. Most mummies
Mummy
A mummy is a body, human or animal, whose skin and organs have been preserved by either intentional or incidental exposure to chemicals, extreme coldness , very low humidity, or lack of air when bodies are submerged in bogs, so that the recovered body will not decay further if kept in cool and dry...
found represent examples of intentional burial, with ample evidence of pre-Columbian funerary practice.
An exception to purposeful burial was discovered when in 1935 the remains of an adult male were discovered under a large boulder. The boulder had shifted and settled onto the victim, a pre-Columbian miner, who had disturbed the rubble supporting it. The remains of the ancient victim were named "Lost John" and exhibited to the public into the 1970s, when they were interred in a secret location in Mammoth Cave for reasons of preservation as well as emerging political sensitivities with respect to the public display of Native American remains.
Research beginning in the late 1950s led by Patty Jo Watson
Patty Jo Watson
Patty Jo Watson is an American archaeologist renowned for her work on Pre-Columbian Native Americans, especially in the Mammoth Cave region of Kentucky. She is now Distinguished University Professor Emerita, Archaeology at Washington University in St. Louis...
of Washington University
Washington University in St. Louis
Washington University in St. Louis is a private research university located in suburban St. Louis, Missouri. Founded in 1853, and named for George Washington, the university has students and faculty from all fifty U.S. states and more than 110 nations...
in St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
has done much to illuminate the lives of the late Archaic and early Woodland peoples
Woodland period
The Woodland period of North American pre-Columbian cultures was from roughly 1000 BCE to 1000 CE in the eastern part of North America. The term "Woodland Period" was introduced in the 1930s as a generic header for prehistoric sites falling between the Archaic hunter-gatherers and the...
who explored and exploited caves in the region. Preserved by the constant cave environment, dietary evidence yielded carbon dates
Radiocarbon dating
Radiocarbon dating is a radiometric dating method that uses the naturally occurring radioisotope carbon-14 to estimate the age of carbon-bearing materials up to about 58,000 to 62,000 years. Raw, i.e. uncalibrated, radiocarbon ages are usually reported in radiocarbon years "Before Present" ,...
enabling Watson and others to determine the age of the specimens, and an analysis of their content, also pioneered by Watson, allows determination of the relative content of plant and meat in the diet of either culture over a period spanning several thousand years. This analysis indicates a timed transition from a hunter-gatherer
Hunter-gatherer
A hunter-gatherer or forage society is one in which most or all food is obtained from wild plants and animals, in contrast to agricultural societies which rely mainly on domesticated species. Hunting and gathering was the ancestral subsistence mode of Homo, and all modern humans were...
culture to plant domestication and agriculture
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
.
Another technique employed in archaeological research
Archaeology
Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...
at Mammoth Cave was "experimental archaeology
Experimental archaeology
Experimental archaeology employs a number of different methods, techniques, analyses, and approaches in order to generate and test hypotheses, based upon archaeological source material, like ancient structures or artifacts. It should not be confused with primitive technology which is not concerned...
", in which modern explorers were sent into the cave using the same technology as that employed by the ancient cultures whose leftover implements lie discarded in many parts of the cave. The goal was to gain insight into the problems faced by the ancient people who explored the cave, by placing the researchers in a similar physical situation.
Ancient human remains and artifacts within the caves are protected by various federal and state laws. One of the most basic facts to be determined about a newly discovered artifact is its precise location and situation. Even slightly moving a prehistoric artifact contaminates it from a research perspective. Explorers are properly trained not to disturb archaeological evidence, and some areas of the cave remain out-of-bounds for even seasoned explorers, unless the subject of the trip is archaeological research on that area.
Besides the remains that have been discovered in the portion of the cave accessible through the Historic Entrance of Mammoth Cave, the remains of cane torches used by Native Americans, as well as other artifacts such as drawings, gourd fragments, and woven grass moccasin slippers are found in the Salts Cave section of the system in Flint Ridge.
Earliest known history
Indenture
An indenture is a legal contract reflecting a debt or purchase obligation, specifically referring to two types of practices: in historical usage, an indentured servant status, and in modern usage, an instrument used for commercial debt or real estate transaction.-Historical usage:An indenture is a...
September 10, 1791 in Philadelphia by William Pollard. 19897 acres (8,052 ha) of the "Pollard Survey" between the North bank of Bacon Creek and the Green River
Green River (Kentucky)
The Green River is a tributary of the Ohio River that rises in Lincoln County in south-central Kentucky. Tributaries of the Green River include the Barren River, the Nolin River, the Pond River and the Rough River...
were purchased by Thomas Lang, Jr., a British American
British American
British Americans are citizens of the United States whose ancestry originates wholly or partly in the United Kingdom . The term is seldom used by people to refer to themselves and is used primarily as a demographic or historical research term...
merchant from Yorkshire, England on June 3, 1796, for £4,116/13s/0d (£4,116.65). The land was lost to a local county tax claim during the War of 1812
War of 1812
The War of 1812 was a military conflict fought between the forces of the United States of America and those of the British Empire. The Americans declared war in 1812 for several reasons, including trade restrictions because of Britain's ongoing war with France, impressment of American merchant...
.
Legend has it that the first European to discover Mammoth Cave was either John Houchin or his brother Francis Houchin, in 1797. While hunting, Houchin pursued a wounded bear to the cave's large entrance opening near the Green River. Some Houchin Family tales have John Decatur "Johnny Dick" Houchin as the discoverer of the cave, but this is highly unlikely because Johnny Dick was only 10 years old in 1797 and was unlikely to be out hunting bears at such a tender age. His father John is the more likely candidate from that branch of the family tree, but the most probable candidate for discoverer of Mammoth Cave is Francis "Frank" Houchin whose land was much closer to the cave entrance than his brother John's. There is also the argument that their brother Charles Houchin, who was known as a great hunter and trapper, was the man who shot that bear and chased it into the cave. The shadow over Charles's claim is the fact that he was residing in Illinois until 1801. Contrary to this story is Brucker and Watson's The Longest Cave, which asserts that the cave was "certainly known before that time." Caves in the area were known before the discovery of the entrance to Mammoth Cave. Even Francis Houchin had a cave entrance on his land very near the bend in the Green River known as the Turnhole, which is less than a mile from the main entrance of Mammoth Cave.
The land containing this historic entrance was first surveyed and registered in 1798 under the name of Valentine Simons. Simons began exploiting Mammoth Cave for its saltpeter
Potassium nitrate
Potassium nitrate is a chemical compound with the formula KNO3. It is an ionic salt of potassium ions K+ and nitrate ions NO3−.It occurs as a mineral niter and is a natural solid source of nitrogen. Its common names include saltpetre , from medieval Latin sal petræ: "stone salt" or possibly "Salt...
reserves.
According to family records passed down through the Houchin, and later Henderson families, John Houchin was bear hunting and the bear turned and began to chase him. He found the cave entrance when he ran into the cave for protection from the charging bear.
19th century
In partnership with Valentine Simon, various other individuals would own the land through the War of 1812War of 1812
The War of 1812 was a military conflict fought between the forces of the United States of America and those of the British Empire. The Americans declared war in 1812 for several reasons, including trade restrictions because of Britain's ongoing war with France, impressment of American merchant...
, when Mammoth Cave's saltpeter reserves became significant due to the British
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom during the period when what is now the Republic of Ireland formed a part of it....
blockade of United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
's ports. The blockade starved the American military of saltpeter and therefore gunpowder. As a result, the domestic price of saltpeter rose and production based on nitrates extracted from caves such as Mammoth Cave became more lucrative.
In July 1812, the cave was purchased from Simon and other owners by Charles Wilkins and an investor from Philadelphia named Hyman Gratz. Soon the cave was being mined for calcium nitrate
Calcium nitrate
Calcium nitrate, also called Norgessalpeter , is the inorganic compound with the formula Ca2. This colourless salt absorbs moisture from the air and is commonly found as a tetrahydrate. It is mainly used as a component in fertilizers but is found other applications...
on an industrial scale.
A half-interest in the cave changed hands for ten thousand dollars (a huge sum at the time). After the war when prices fell, the workings were abandoned and it became a minor tourist attraction centering on a Native American
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
mummy
Mummy
A mummy is a body, human or animal, whose skin and organs have been preserved by either intentional or incidental exposure to chemicals, extreme coldness , very low humidity, or lack of air when bodies are submerged in bogs, so that the recovered body will not decay further if kept in cool and dry...
discovered nearby.
When Wilkins died his estate's executors sold his interest in the cave to Gratz. In the spring of 1838, the cave was sold by the Gratz brothers to Franklin Gorin, who intended to operate Mammoth Cave purely as a tourist attraction, the bottom long having since fallen out of the saltpeter market. Gorin was a slave owner, and used his slaves as tour guides. One of these slaves would make a number of important contributions to human knowledge of the cave, and become one of Mammoth Cave's most celebrated historical figures.
Stephen Bishop
Stephen Bishop (cave explorer)
Stephen Bishop was a mixed race slave famous for being one of the lead explorers and guides to the Mammoth Cave in the U.S. state of Kentucky....
, an African-American slave
History of slavery in the United States
Slavery in the United States was a form of slave labor which existed as a legal institution in North America for more than a century before the founding of the United States in 1776, and continued mostly in the South until the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in...
and a guide to the cave during the 1840s and 1850s, was one of the first people to make extensive map
Map
A map is a visual representation of an area—a symbolic depiction highlighting relationships between elements of that space such as objects, regions, and themes....
s of the cave, and named many of the cave's features.
Stephen Bishop was introduced to Mammoth Cave in 1838 by Franklin Gorin. Gorin wrote, after Bishop's death: "I placed a guide in the cave – the celebrated and great Stephen, and he aided in making the discoveries. He was the first person who ever crossed the Bottomless Pit, and he, myself and another person whose name I have forgotten were the only persons ever at the bottom of Gorin's Dome to my knowledge.
"After Stephen crossed the Bottomless Pit, we discovered all that part of the cave now known beyond that point. Previous to those discoveries, all interest centered in what is known as the 'Old Cave' ... but now many of the points are but little known, although as Stephen was wont to say, they were 'grand, gloomy and peculiar'."
In 1839, Dr. John Croghan
John Croghan
Dr. John Croghan was an American medical doctor who helped establish Louisville Marine Hospital and organized some tuberculosis medical experiments and tours for Mammoth Cave, in Kentucky during 1839-1849....
of Louisville
Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kentucky, and the county seat of Jefferson County. Since 2003, the city's borders have been coterminous with those of the county because of a city-county merger. The city's population at the 2010 census was 741,096...
bought the Mammoth Cave Estate, including Bishop and its other slaves from their previous owner, Franklin Gorin. Croghan briefly ran an ill-fated tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
hospital in the cave, the vapors of which he believed would cure his patients. A widespread epidemic of the period, tuberculosis would ultimately claim the lives of both Bishop and Croghan.
Throughout the 19th century, the fame of Mammoth Cave would grow so that the cave became an international sensation.
At the same time, the cave attracted the attention of 19th century writers such as Dr. Robert Montgomery Bird, the Rev. Robert Davidson, the Rev. Horace Martin, Alexander Clark Bullitt, Nathaniel Parker Willis
Nathaniel Parker Willis
Nathaniel Parker Willis , also known as N. P. Willis, was an American author, poet and editor who worked with several notable American writers including Edgar Allan Poe and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. He became the highest-paid magazine writer of his day. For a time, he was the employer of former...
(who visited in June 1852), Bayard Taylor
Bayard Taylor
Bayard Taylor was an American poet, literary critic, translator, and travel author.-Life and work:...
(in May, 1855), Dr. William Stump Forwood (in Spring 1867), the naturalist John Muir
John Muir
John Muir was a Scottish-born American naturalist, author, and early advocate of preservation of wilderness in the United States. His letters, essays, and books telling of his adventures in nature, especially in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, have been read by millions...
(early September 1867), the Rev. Horace Carter Hovey, and others. As a result of the growing renown of Mammoth Cave, the cave boasted famous visitors such as actor Edwin Booth
Edwin Booth
Edwin Thomas Booth was a famous 19th century American actor who toured throughout America and the major capitals of Europe, performing Shakespearean plays. In 1869 he founded Booth's Theatre in New York, a spectacular theatre that was quite modern for its time...
(his brother, John Wilkes Booth
John Wilkes Booth
John Wilkes Booth was an American stage actor who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre, in Washington, D.C., on April 14, 1865. Booth was a member of the prominent 19th century Booth theatrical family from Maryland and, by the 1860s, was a well-known actor...
, assassinated
Abraham Lincoln assassination
The assassination of United States President Abraham Lincoln took place on Good Friday, April 14, 1865, as the American Civil War was drawing to a close. The assassination occurred five days after the commanding General of the Army of Northern Virginia, Robert E. Lee, and his battered Army of...
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
in 1865), singer Jenny Lind
Jenny Lind
Johanna Maria Lind , better known as Jenny Lind, was a Swedish opera singer, often known as the "Swedish Nightingale". One of the most highly regarded singers of the 19th century, she is known for her performances in soprano roles in opera in Sweden and across Europe, and for an extraordinarily...
(who visited the cave on April 5, 1851), and violinist Ole Bull
Ole Bull
Ole Bornemann Bull was a Norwegian violinist and composer.-Background:Bull was born in Bergen. He was the eldest of ten children of Johan Storm Bull and Anna Dorothea Borse Geelmuyden . His brother, Georg Andreas Bull became a noted Norwegian architect...
who together gave a concert in one of the caves. Two chambers in the caves have since been known as "Booth's Amphitheatre" and "Ole Bull´s Concert Hall".
By 1859 when the Louisville and Nashville Railroad
Louisville and Nashville Railroad
The Louisville and Nashville Railroad was a Class I railroad that operated freight and passenger services in the southeast United States.Chartered by the state of Kentucky in 1850, the L&N, as it was generally known, grew into one of the great success stories of American business...
opened its main line between these cities Colonel Larkin J. Procter owned the Mammoth Cave Estate. He also owned the stagecoach line that ran between Glasgow Junction (Park City
Park City, Kentucky
Park City is a city in Barren County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 517 at the 2000 census. It has historically served as a gateway to nearby Mammoth Cave National Park and Diamond Caverns, a privately-owned cave attraction....
) and the Mammoth Cave Estate. This line transported tourists to Mammoth Caves until 1886 when he established the Mammoth Cave Railroad
Mammoth Cave Railroad
Mammoth Cave Railroad was a short rail line with a small train off the Louisville and Nashville Railroad that went to Mammoth Caves in Kentucky. The tiny railroad from Glasgow Junction to Mammoth Caves was started in 1886 and operated for 45 years...
.
Early 20th century: The Kentucky Cave Wars
In 1906, Mammoth Cave became accessible by steamboat
Steamboat
A steamboat or steamship, sometimes called a steamer, is a ship in which the primary method of propulsion is steam power, typically driving propellers or paddlewheels...
with the construction of a lock and dam at Brownsville, Kentucky
Brownsville, Kentucky
Brownsville is a city in and the county seat of Edmonson County, Kentucky, United States. The population is 1,000 at the 2000 census. It is included in the Bowling Green, Kentucky Metropolitan Statistical Area...
. The construction of this dam has had a long-term impact on the biota of the cave. The dam's construction would also prove to have implications for cave exploration.
In 1909, Max Kaemper
Max Kaemper
Max Kämper was a German citizen and engineer.His 1908 survey and map of Mammoth Cave, Kentucky represent the first accurate instrumental survey of portions of the cave system...
, a young German mining engineer arrived at the cave by way of New York. Kaemper had just graduated from technical college and his family had sent him on a trip abroad as a graduation present. Originally intending to spend two weeks at Mammoth Cave, Kaemper spent several months. With the assistance of African-American slave descendant Ed Bishop, Kaemper produced a remarkably accurate instrumental survey of many kilometers of Mammoth Cave, including many new discoveries. Reportedly, Kaemper also produced a corresponding survey of the land surface overlying the cave: this information was to be useful in the opening of other entrances to the cave, as soon happened with the Violet City entrance.
The Croghan family suppressed the topographic element of Kaemper's map, and it is not known to survive today, although the cave map portion of Kaemper's work stands as a triumph of accurate cave cartography: not until the early 1960s and the advent of the modern exploration period would these passages be surveyed and mapped with greater accuracy. Kaemper returned to Berlin, and from the point of view of the Mammoth Cave country, disappeared entirely. It was not until the turn of the 21st century that a group of German tourists, after visiting the cave, researched Kaemper's family and determined his sad fate: the young Kaemper was killed in trench warfare
Trench warfare
Trench warfare is a form of occupied fighting lines, consisting largely of trenches, in which troops are largely immune to the enemy's small arms fire and are substantially sheltered from artillery...
in World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
at the Battle of the Somme just eight years later, in 1917.
Famed French cave explorer Édouard-Alfred Martel
Édouard-Alfred Martel
, the 'father of modern speleology', was a world pioneer of cave exploration, study, and documentation...
visited the cave for three days in October 1912. Without access to the closely held survey data, Martel was permitted to make barometric observations in the cave for the purpose of determining the relative elevation of different locations in the cave. He identified different levels of the cave, and correctly noted that the level of Echo River within the cave was controlled by that of the Green River on the surface. Martel lamented the 1906 construction of the dam at Brownsville, pointing out that this made a full hydrologic study of the cave impossible. Among his precise descriptions of the hydrogeologic setting of Mammoth Cave, Martel offered the speculative conclusion that Mammoth Cave was connected to Salts and Colossal Caves: this would not be proven correct until 60 years after Martel's visit.
In the early 1920s, George Morrison blasted a number of entrances to Mammoth Cave on land not owned by the Croghan Estate. Absent the data from the Croghan's secretive surveys, performed by Kaemper, Bishop, and others, which had not been published in a form suitable for determining the geographic extent of the cave, it was now conclusively shown that the Croghans had been for years exhibiting portions of Mammoth Cave which were not under land they owned. Lawsuits were filed and for a time, different entrances to the cave were operated in direct competition with each other.
In the early 20th century, Floyd Collins
Floyd Collins
William Floyd Collins was a celebrated pioneer cave explorer in central Kentucky, an area that is the location of hundreds of miles of interconnected caves, including the Mammoth Cave National Park...
spent ten years exploring the Flint Ridge Cave System (the most important legacy of these explorations was the discovery of Floyd Collins' Crystal Cave and exploration in Salts cave) before dying at Sand Cave, Kentucky, in 1925. While exploring Sand Cave, he dislodged a rock onto his leg while in a tight crawlway and was unable to free himself. Attempts to rescue Collins created a media sensation: the resulting publicity would draw prominent Kentuckians to initiate a movement which would soon result in the formation of Mammoth Cave National Park.
The National Park Movement (1926–1941)
Donated funds were used to purchase some farmsteads in the region, while other tracts within the proposed National Park boundary were acquired by right of eminent domain
Eminent domain
Eminent domain , compulsory purchase , resumption/compulsory acquisition , or expropriation is an action of the state to seize a citizen's private property, expropriate property, or seize a citizen's rights in property with due monetary compensation, but without the owner's consent...
. In contrast to the formation of other National Parks in the sparsely populated American West, thousands of people would be forcibly relocated in the process of forming Mammoth Cave National Park. Often eminent domain proceedings were bitter, with landowners paid what were considered to be inadequate sums. The resulting acrimony still resonates within the region. Though deer hunting is prohibited within the park, the park boundary is ringed with poachers' deer blinds, hunting platforms which face into the park.
For legal reasons, the federal government was prohibited from restoring or developing the cleared farmsteads while the private Association held the land: this regulation was evaded by the operation of "a maximum of four" CCC
Civilian Conservation Corps
The Civilian Conservation Corps was a public work relief program that operated from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men from relief families, ages 18–25. A part of the New Deal of President Franklin D...
camps from May 22, 1933 to July 1942.
According to the National Park Service, "On May 14, 1934 the minimum park area was provided. On May 22, 1936, the minimum area was accepted "for administration and protection."
Superintendent Hoskins later wrote of a summer tanager
Summer Tanager
The Summer Tanager, Piranga rubra, is a medium-sized American songbird. Formerly placed in the tanager family , it and other members of its genus are now classified in the cardinal family...
named Pete who arrived at the guide house on or around every April 20, starting in 1938. The bird ate from food held in the hands of the guides, to the delight of visitors, and provided food to his less-tame mate.
Birth of the National Park (1941)
Mammoth Cave National Park was officially dedicated on July 1, 1941. By coincidence, the same year saw the incorporation of the National Speleological SocietyNational Speleological Society
The National Speleological Society is an organization formed in 1941 to advance the exploration, conservation, study, and understanding of caves in the United States. Originally located in Washington D.C., its current offices are in Huntsville, Alabama...
. R. Taylor Hoskins, the second Acting Superintendent under the old Association, became the first official Superintendent, a position he held until 1951.
The New Entrance, closed to visitors since 1941, was reopened on December 26, 1951, becoming the entrance used for the beginning of the Frozen Niagara tour.
The Longest Cave (1954–1972)
In February 1954, a two-week expedition under the auspices of the National Speleological Society
National Speleological Society
The National Speleological Society is an organization formed in 1941 to advance the exploration, conservation, study, and understanding of caves in the United States. Originally located in Washington D.C., its current offices are in Huntsville, Alabama...
was organized at the invitation of Austin: this expedition became known as C-3, or the Collins Crystal Cave Expedition.
The C-3 expedition drew public interest, first from a photo essay published by Robert Halmi (in either Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated is an American sports media company owned by media conglomerate Time Warner. Its self titled magazine has over 3.5 million subscribers and is read by 23 million adults each week, including over 18 million men. It was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the...
or Look
Look (American magazine)
Look was a bi-weekly, general-interest magazine published in Des Moines, Iowa from 1937 to 1971, with more of an emphasis on photographs than articles...
magazine) and later from the publication of a double first-person account of the expedition, The Caves Beyond: The Story of the Collins Crystal Cave Expedition by Joe Lawrence, Jr. (then president of the National Speleological Society) and Roger Brucker
Roger Brucker
Roger W. Brucker is an American cave explorer and author of books about caves. He is most closely associated with Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, the world's longest cave, which he has been exploring and writing about since 1954.-Early life:...
. The expedition proved conclusively that passages in Crystal Cave extended toward Mammoth Cave proper, at least exceeding the Crystal Cave property boundaries. However, this information was closely held by the explorers: it was feared that the National Park Service might forbid exploration were this known.
In 1955 Crystal Cave was connected by survey with Unknown Cave, the first connection in the Flint Ridge system.
Some of the participants in the C-3 expedition wished to continue their explorations past the conclusion of the C-3 Expedition, and organized as the Flint Ridge Reconnaissance under the guidance of Austin, Jim Dyer, John J. Lehrberger and E. Robert Pohl. This organization was incorporated in 1957 as the Cave Research Foundation
Cave Research Foundation
The Cave Research Foundation is an American private, non-profit group dedicated to the exploration, research, and conservation of caves. The group arose in the early 1950s from the exploration efforts at Floyd Collins Crystal Cave, now within Mammoth Cave National Park...
. The organization sought to legitimize the cave explorers' activity through the support of original academic and scientific research. Notable scientists who studied Mammoth Cave during this period include Patty Jo Watson
Patty Jo Watson
Patty Jo Watson is an American archaeologist renowned for her work on Pre-Columbian Native Americans, especially in the Mammoth Cave region of Kentucky. She is now Distinguished University Professor Emerita, Archaeology at Washington University in St. Louis...
(see section on prehistory.)
In March 1961, the Crystal Cave property was sold to the National Park Service for a sum of $285,000. At the same time, the Great Onyx Cave
Great Onyx Cave
Great Onyx Cave is a cave located in Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky, United States. The National Park Service offers a commercial tour of the cave.-Discovery:...
property, the only other remaining private inholding
Inholding
An inholding is privately owned land inside the boundary of a national park, national forest, state park, or similar publicly owned, protected area...
, was purchased for $365,000. The Cave Research Foundation was permitted to continue their exploration through a Memorandum of Understanding with the National Park Service.
Colossal Cave was connected by survey to Salts Cave in 1960 and in 1961 Colossal-Salts cave was similarly connected to Crystal-Unknown cave, creating a single cave system under much of Flint Ridge. By 1972, the Flint Ridge Cave System had been surveyed to a length of 86.5 miles (139.2 km), making it the longest cave in the world.
Flint–Mammoth Connection (1972)
On a July, 1972 trip deep in the Flint Ridge Cave System, Patricia Crowther—with her slight frame of 115 pounds (52.2 kg)—crawled through a narrow canyon later dubbed the "Tight Spot", which acted as a filter for larger cavers.
A subsequent trip past the Tight Spot on August 30, 1972 by Wilcox, Crowther, Richard Zopf, and Tom Brucker discovered the name "Pete H" inscribed on the wall of a river passage with an arrow pointing in the direction of Mammoth Cave. The name is believed to have been carved by Pete Hanson, who was active in exploring the cave in the 1930s. Hanson had been killed in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. The passage was named Hanson's Lost River by the explorers.
Finally, on September 9, 1972, a six-person CRF team of Wilcox, Crowther, Zopf, Gary Eller, Stephen Wells, and Cleveland Pinnix (a National Park Service ranger) followed Hanson's Lost River downstream to discover its connection with Echo River in Cascade Hall of Mammoth Cave. With this linking of the Flint Ridge and Mammoth Cave systems, the "Everest of speleology" had been climbed. The integrated cave system contained 144.4 miles (232.4 km) of surveyed passages and had fourteen entrances.
Recent discoveries
Further connections between Mammoth Cave and smaller caves or cave systems have followed, notably to Proctor/Morrison Cave beneath nearby Joppa Ridge in 1979. Proctor cave was discovered by Jonathan Doyle, a Union army deserter during the Civil war, and was later owned by the Mammoth cave railroad, before being explored by the CRF. Morrison cave was discovered by George Morrison in the 1920s. This connection pushed the frontier of Mammoth exploration southeastward.At the same time, discoveries made outside the Park by an independent group called the Central Kentucky Karst Coalition or CKKC resulted in the survey of tens of miles in Roppel Cave east of the Park. On September 10, 1983, a connection was made between the Proctor/Morrison's section of the Mammoth Cave system and Roppel Cave. The connection was made by two mixed parties of CRF and CKKC explorers. Each party entered through a separate entrance and met in the middle before continuing in the same direction to exit at the opposite entrance. The resulting total surveyed length was near 300 miles (482.8 km). Incremental discoveries since then have pushed the total to more than 392 miles (630.9 km).
On March 19, 2005, a connection into the Roppel Cave portion of the system was surveyed from a small cave under Eudora Ridge, adding approximately three miles to the known length of the Mammoth Cave System. The newly found entrance to the cave, now termed the "Hoover Entrance," had been discovered in September, 2003.
It is certain that many more miles of cave passages await discovery in the region. Discovery of new natural entrances is a rare event: the primary mode of discovery involves the pursuit of side passages identified during routine systematic exploration of cave passages entered from known entrances.
Related and nearby caves
Two other massive cave systems lie short distances from Mammoth Cave: the Fisher Ridge Cave System and the Martin Ridge Cave SystemMartin Ridge Cave System
The Martin Ridge Cave System is a large cave near Mammoth Cave, Kentucky. The system, composed of the interconnected Whigpistle, Martin Ridge, and Jackpot Caves, has been mapped to over , and is currently the United States' eleventh longest cave.-Discovery:...
. The Fisher Ridge Cave System was discovered in January 1981 by a group of Michigan cavers associated with the Detroit Urban Grotto of the National Speleological Society
National Speleological Society
The National Speleological Society is an organization formed in 1941 to advance the exploration, conservation, study, and understanding of caves in the United States. Originally located in Washington D.C., its current offices are in Huntsville, Alabama...
. So far, the cave has been mapped to 114 miles (183.5 km). In 1976, Rick Schwartz discovered a large cave south of the Mammoth Cave Park boundary. This cave became known as the Martin Ridge Cave System in 1996 as new exploration connected the nearby caves of Whigpistle Cave (Schwartz's original entrance), Martin Ridge Cave, and Jackpot Caves. As of December 2008, the Martin Ridge Cave System is mapped to a length of 34 miles (54.7 km), and exploration continues.
Biology and ecosystem
The bats that inhabit the caverns are the following:Indiana bat
Indiana bat
The Indiana bat is a medium-sized mouse-eared bat native to North America. It lives primarily in eastern and midwestern states and in parts of the south of the United States. The Indiana bat is gray, black, or chestnut in colour and is 1.2–2 inches and weighs about 1/4 an ounce...
(Myotis sodalis), Gray bat
Gray Bat
Myotis grisescens once flourished in caves all over the southeastern United States, but due to human disturbance, Gray Bat populations declined severely during the early and mid portion of the 20th century. At one cave alone, the Georgetown Cave in Northwestern Alabama, populations declined from...
(Myotis grisescens), Little brown bat
Little brown bat
The little brown bat is a species of the genus Myotis , one of the most common bats of North America...
(Myotis lucifugus), Big brown bat
Big brown bat
The Big Brown Bat is larger in size than comparative species of bats, from about 4 to 5 inches in body length, with a 11-13 inch wingspan and weighing 1/2 to 5/8 ounce. The fur is moderately long, and shiny brown...
(Eptesicus fuscus), and the Eastern pipistrelle
Eastern Pipistrelle
The Tricolored Bat is a species of bat that is widely distributed throughout the eastern parts of North America, ranging west until Kansas and Texas, from Honduras up north until southern Ontario...
bat (Pipistrellus subflavus).
All together, these and more rare bat species such as the Eastern Small-footed Bat had estimated populations of 9–12 million just in the Historic Section. While these species still exist in Mammoth Cave, their numbers are now no more than a few thousand at best. Ecological restoration of this portion of Mammoth Cave, and facilitating the return of bats, is an ongoing effort. Not all bat species here inhabit the Cave; the red bat (Lasiurus borealis) is a forest-dweller, found underground only rarely.
Other animals which inhabit the caves include:
two genera of crickets (Hadenoecus subterraneus
Hadenoecus
Hadenoecus is a genus of common cave cricket of the southeastern United States. The Mammoth Cave system in central Kentucky is populated by the species Hadenoecus subterraneous....
) and (Ceuthophilus stygius) (Ceuthophilus latens), a cave salamander
Cave salamander
The Spotted-tail Salamander is a species of cave salamander.-Distribution:This species is found in Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Virginia, West Virginia, Oklahoma and Kansas.-Identification:...
(Eurycea lucifuga), two genera of eyeless cave fish (Typhlichthys subterraneus
Typhlichthys subterraneus
Typhlichthys subterraneus is a species of fish in the Amblyopsidae family. It is endemic to karst regions of the eastern United States.-Taxonomy:...
) and (Amblyopsis spelaea), a cave crayfish (Orconectes pellucidus), and a cave shrimp (Palaemonias ganteri)
In addition, some surface animals may take refuge in the entrances of the caves but do not generally venture into the deep portions of the cavern system.
Misconceptions relating to Mammoth Cave's impressive length
The superlatives which are justly applied to Mammoth Cave often lead to exaggeration of the cave's extent and reach. One such misconception is that the cave extends far beyond its well-known geographical boundaries, even to other states in the United States. This misconception is easily debunked. Caves of Mammoth's type form as water from the surface seeks the level of the surface streams that drain them: in Mammoth Cave's case, the Green RiverGreen River (Kentucky)
The Green River is a tributary of the Ohio River that rises in Lincoln County in south-central Kentucky. Tributaries of the Green River include the Barren River, the Nolin River, the Pond River and the Rough River...
to the north. It is a virtual certainty that no cave passages connecting to Mammoth will ever be found north of the Green River, or substantially east of the Sinkhole Plain which is the primary recharge area (the place where water enters) for the cave. More tantalizing is the prospect of ancient passages to the south which might bridge the current drainage divide between the Green River basin and the Barren River
Barren River
The Barren River is a river in western Kentucky, USA. It is the largest tributary of the Green River, which drains more of Kentucky than any other river. The Barren River rises in Monroe County and flows into the Green in northeast Warren County....
basin south of it, but in that case, the maximum expected southerly extent of Mammoth Cave would be the Barren River.
It is true, however, that the layers of sedimentary rock in which Mammoth Cave has formed do extend many miles in almost any direction from Mammoth Cave. These rocks were all laid down over the same period. The similarity of the rocks of the broader region to those in the immediate vicinity of Mammoth Cave means that conditions are right for cave formation; however, the absolute boundaries of the Mammoth Cave system are known, so it is expected that these other caves will not be found to connect to Mammoth Cave.
Misconceptions related to the Mammoth Cave System's name
No fossils of the woolly mammothWoolly mammoth
The woolly mammoth , also called the tundra mammoth, is a species of mammoth. This animal is known from bones and frozen carcasses from northern North America and northern Eurasia with the best preserved carcasses in Siberia...
have ever been found in Mammoth Cave, and the name of the cave has nothing to do with this extinct mammal. Rather, the name "Mammoth" refers to the cave's large size, compared to other caves. Ironically, the name was given even before the cave system's true extent was fully known. Modern discoveries have proven the aptness of the name; old predictions of the cave's final length have been far outstripped by actual discoveries.
Park superintendents
- Robert P. Holland; September 2, 1936 – June 21, 1938; acting
- R. Taylor Hoskins; June 22, 1938 – June 30, 1941; acting
- R. Taylor Hoskins; July 1, 1941 – March 31, 1951
- Thomas C. Miller; April 1, 1951 – June 30, 1954
- Perry E. Brown; July 1, 1954 – September 14, 1963
- Paul McG. Miller; September 15, 1963 – December 30, 1965
- John A. Aubuchon; January 2, 1966 – September 7, 1968
- Robert H. Bendt; September 8, 1968 – January 23, 1971; assigned line supervision of Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historic Site, September 2, 1970 – April 27, 1975
- Joseph Kulesza; February 21, 1971 – May 31, 1976
- Albert A. Hawkins; July 4, 1976 – August 11, 1979
- Robert L. Deskins; August 12, 1979 – September 1, 1984
- Richard N. Strange; September 2, 1984 – December 8, 1984; acting
- Franklin D. Pridemore; December 9, 1984 – January 2, 1988
- David A. Mihalic; January 3, 1988 – July 1994
- Ronald R. Switzer; March 1995 – January 2005
- Bruce Powell; January 2005 – January 2006; acting
- Patrick Reed; January 2006 –
The list is incomplete.
See also
- Carlsbad Caverns National ParkCarlsbad Caverns National ParkCarlsbad Caverns National Park is a United States National Park in the Guadalupe Mountains in southeastern New Mexico. The primary attraction of the park for most visitors is the show cave, Carlsbad Caverns...
- Colossal CavernColossal CavernColossal Cavern is a cave in Kentucky, USA, the main entrance of which is at the foot of a steep hill beyond Eaton Valley, and 14 miles from Mammoth Cave. It is connected with what has long been known as the Bed Quilt Cave. Several entrances found by local explorers were rough and difficult...
- Karst topographyKARSTKilometer-square Area Radio Synthesis Telescope is a Chinese telescope project to which FAST is a forerunner. KARST is a set of large spherical reflectors on karst landforms, which are bowlshaped limestone sinkholes named after the Kras region in Slovenia and Northern Italy. It will consist of...
- List of Biosphere Reserves in the United States
- List of Conservation topics
General references
- Bridwell, Margaret M. (Bridwell 1952) The Story of Mammoth Cave National Park Kentucky: A Brief History 11th Edition 1971. (First edition copyright 1952.) No ISBN.
- Hoskins, R. Taylor Faithful Visitor First Park Superintendent R. Taylor Hoskins describes the yearly visits of "Pete" a tame summer tanagerSummer TanagerThe Summer Tanager, Piranga rubra, is a medium-sized American songbird. Formerly placed in the tanager family , it and other members of its genus are now classified in the cardinal family...
(Piranga rubra rubra.) In "The Regional Review, Vol VII, 1 and 2 (July–August 1941.) - Hovey, Horace Carter (Hovey 1880) One Hundred Miles in Mammoth Cave in 1880: an early exploration of America's most famous cavern. with introductory note by William R. Jones. Golden, Colorado: Outbooks. (Copyright 1982) ISBN 0-89646-054-1
- Watson, Richard A., ed. (Watson 1981) The Cave Research Foundation: Origins and the First Twelve Years 1957 - 1968 Mammoth Cave, Kentucky: Cave Research Foundation.
Brucker series
Roger W. Brucker http://www.rogerbrucker.com has co-authored four nonfiction books and authored one historical novel on the history and exploration of the Mammoth Cave System. They are presented here not in the order of publication, but in the order in which the events of the books' major narratives took place:- Brucker, Roger W. (2009) Grand, Gloomy, and Peculiar: Stephen Bishop at Mammoth Cave. Cave Books. ISBN 978-0-939748-72-3 (hbk) ISBN 978-0-939748-71-6 (pbk). Based on the true story of Stephen BishopStephen BishopStephen Bishop may refer to:* Stephen Bishop * Stephen Bishop , African American cave explorer* Stephen Bishop , U.S. musician...
, the slave who gained fame as a guide and explorer at Mammoth Cave from 1838 until his death in 1857, this historical novel is written from the perspective of Bishop's wife, Charlotte. Although it is a novel, Brucker has claimed the book does not alter any known historical facts. - Brucker, Roger W. and Murray, Robert K. (Brucker and Murray 1983) Trapped: The Story of Floyd Collins. University of Kentucky Press. Told by a scholar of early 20th century journalism and a veteran of the modern period of Mammoth Cave exploration, this book details the events of the entrapment and attempted rescue of Floyd CollinsFloyd CollinsWilliam Floyd Collins was a celebrated pioneer cave explorer in central Kentucky, an area that is the location of hundreds of miles of interconnected caves, including the Mammoth Cave National Park...
, who was trapped in a cave near Mammoth Cave in January 1925. - Lawrence, Jr, Joe and Brucker, Roger W. (Lawrence and Brucker 1955) The Caves Beyond: The story of the Floyd Collins' Crystal Cave Expedition New York: Funk and Wagnalls. Reprinted, with new introduction, by Zephyrus Press ISBN 0-914264-18-4 (pbk.) Details the story of the 1954 week-long C3 expedition from the separate points of view of the leader and an ordinary participant in the expedition, who went on to become one of the leaders of the then-nascent modern period of exploration.
- Brucker, Roger W. and Watson, Richard A. "Red" (Brucker and Watson 1976) The Longest Cave. New York : Knopf (reprinted 1987, with afterword: Carbondale, Illinois: Southern Illinois University Press) ISBN 0-8093-1322-7 (pbk.) A comprehensive story of the exploration of Mammoth Cave told by two of the founders of the Cave Research FoundationCave Research FoundationThe Cave Research Foundation is an American private, non-profit group dedicated to the exploration, research, and conservation of caves. The group arose in the early 1950s from the exploration efforts at Floyd Collins Crystal Cave, now within Mammoth Cave National Park...
. An invaluable appendix, "Historical Beginnings", outlines the story of the cave from prehistory to the mid 1950s, where the main narrative begins. The formation of the Cave Research Foundation is described from an insider perspective. A highly personal telling, this work is sometimes jokingly or with irony referred to by cavers as Roger and Red Go Caving, though its revered status in the literature and the reputations of the authors are hardly in doubt. The 1989 reprint includes an Afterword by the authors referring to the 1983 Roppel-Mammoth connection and other subsequent events. - Borden, James D. and Brucker, Roger W. (Borden and Brucker 2000) Beyond Mammoth Cave: A Tale of Obsession in the World's Longest Cave. Carbondale and Edwardsville, Illinois: Southern Illinois University Press. ISBN 0-8093-2346-X. Taking up where The Longest Cave leaves off, carries the story of Mammoth Cave Exploration from September 10, 1972 to September 10, 1983, when a connection was surveyed between Roppel Cave and the southern reaches of Mammoth Cave. Details the origins of the Central Kentucky Karst Coalition (CKKC).
Archaeology
- Meloy, Harold (Meloy 1968) Mummies of Mammoth Cave: An account of the Indian mummies discovered in Short Cave, Salts Cave, and Mammoth Cave, Kentucky Shelbyville, Indiana: Micron Publishing Co., 1990 (Original copyright 1968, 1977).
- Watson, Patty JoPatty Jo WatsonPatty Jo Watson is an American archaeologist renowned for her work on Pre-Columbian Native Americans, especially in the Mammoth Cave region of Kentucky. She is now Distinguished University Professor Emerita, Archaeology at Washington University in St. Louis...
(ed.) (Watson 1974) Archaeology of the Mammoth Cave Area. Reprinted 1997 by St. Louis: Cave Books ISBN 0-939748-41-X. 31 chapters by the foremost worker in the field of Mammoth Cave archaeology and several of her colleagues. The reprinted edition includes a brief new introduction and a brief updated bibliography.
Geology
- Brown, Richmond F. (Brown 1966). Hydrology of the Cavernous Limestones of the Mammoth Cave Area, Kentucky [Geological Survey Water-Supply Paper 1837]. Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office.
- Livesay, Ann, and McGrain, Preston (revised) (Livesay and McGrain 1962). Geology of the Mammoth Cave National Park Area. Kentucky Geological Survey, Series X, 1962. Special Publication 7, College of Arts and Sciences, University of Kentucky. Lexington, Kentucky: University of Kentucky.
- Palmer, Arthur N. (Palmer 1981) A Geological Guide to Mammoth Cave National Park. Teaneck, New Jersey: Zephyrus Press. ISBN 0-914264-28-1. 196 pp. From the "blurb" on the back cover: "How did Mammoth Cave form? How old is it? Why does it look the way it does? What do the rocks tell us? These and many other questions are answered in this book about America's most popular cave." Written for the lay reader, but with much technical information of interest to those with greater scientific literacyScientific literacyScientific literacy encompasses written, numerical, and digital literacy as they pertain to understanding science, its methodology, observations, and theories.-Definition:...
, by a retired professor of geology at SUNY Oneonta. - White, William B. and Elizabeth L., eds. (White and White 1989) Karst Hydrology: Concepts from the Mammoth Cave Area. New York: Van Nostrand Rheinhold. ISBN 0-442-22675-6.
External links
- Mammoth Cave National Park website
- Mammoth Cave Restoration Camp Official Site
- Mammoth Cave: Its Explorers, Miners,Archeologists, and Visitors, a National Park Service Teaching with Historic Places (TwHP) lesson plan
- Peter West, "Trying the Dark: Mammoth Cave and the Racial Imagination, 1839-1869", Southern Spaces, 9 February 2010