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Mammoth
Cave |
Historic Entrance |
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As the summer starts to heat up, you are probably looking for a relatively inexpensive, cool, and
education place to run the brats to, that can be tons of fun for all ages. The perhaps is no place that better fits
the description as Mammoth Cave in Cave City KY. |
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Mammoth Cave doesn't have the colorful
stalagmites and stalactites that make some caves famous. Lighting is minimal;
signs are nonexistent, and there's no pipe organ playing
"Shenandoah" like the one at Luray Caverns in Virginia. |
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Yet Mammoth's claims to fame are many. It's
the longest cave in the world, with more than 360 miles of connected tunnels.
It's also the second-oldest tourist attraction in America, after Niagara
Falls, with guided tours offered since 1816. Huts used by an 1840's
tuberculosis colony still stand, as do mining pits from 1812. Most amazing of
all is how far back Mammoth's human connections stretch: Mummies have been
found in the cave, and you can still see petroglyphs (cave drawings) that are
thousands of years old. |
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It has taken over 250 million years for the
caves as we know them to develop in Mammoth Cave National Park. The area has
undergone many changes during that time to help create the expansive cave
system. Throughout the millions of years the earth was subject to movement
and upheaval from being in an area of earthquakes and faults. As the earth
lifted, the rock layers became tilted and cracked. During this time the once
existent sea slowly disappeared. Frequent rains and rivers combined with the
wind helped to wear away many layers of sedimentary rock that had been formed
over the years. |
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A little over one million years ago, the Green
River cut out a gorge in the limestone and all the underground water drained
out of this opening to leave the limestone caves drained and dry. Mammoth entered recorded history around 1798
when John Houchins, a Kentucky homesteader, shot and wounded a bear, then
followed the critter into a natural cave entrance that is still used today. But most of the tunnels and passages where
discovered by a slave named Stephen Bishop (1780-1850). While searching for
saltpeter Bishop chartered most of the tunnels used today.In 1835 Bishop also
discovered tunnels littered with discarded moccasins, reed torches and several
mummified bodies pre-Columbian Indians in the cave. Eventually archaeologists
determined these artifacts were up to 4,000 years old; the cool, dry cave air
had preserved them. During the Underground Railroad Era, Bishop
often used the cave to hide fugitive slaves who were on their way north to
cross the Ohio River. |
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Visitors now can get a taste of those trips on
the Violet City Lantern Tour, a three-hour, 3-mile hike without electric
lights. Instead, hikers use kerosene lamps to illuminate the cave's steep,
dark paths, just as visitors did 150 years ago. Mammoth is a relatively dry cave, which is why
it has few of the icicle-like formations associated with caves; those are
made when moisture drips through minerals in cave walls. Instead, what makes the
Violet City tour so interesting are the artifacts. Guides often wrote their
names on the walls using candle smoke, and encouraged their guests to do the
same. Today's tourists will find "Wad Wallace 1868" written on one wall, and
on another, "E. Bishop," left by the son of Steve Bishop. Ranger Sholar, who led our tour, also pointed
out remnants of stick torches lodged in the cave's rocky ceiling, which he
said had been left some 4,000 years ago. "Wood is durable, as long as it is
dry," he said. When lit, the pole torches -- made of cane reed from the
nearby Green River -- would give light for 30 to 60 minutes. The Violet City tour also includes a look at
the petroglyphs. These charcoal drawings were left on an immense, flat stone
slab called Devil's Looking Glass, which appears to have been placed at a
prominent angle on a tunnel path, as if the ancient artists wanted maximum
visibility for their work. One drawing looks like a snake, or a lightning
bolt; another resembles a human form, with two arms and two legs, but it
might also have been a crude map of four nearby passages leading to a natural
rotunda. |
Stairs take you down
into the cave…
…to some of the few
formations |
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You won't see any mummies on the tour, but you
will pass the spot where one was found in 1935. Nicknamed "Lost John," the
5-foot-3-inch man wearing a shell necklace was considered a major
archaeological find and was exhibited until 1976, when federal law prohibited
the display of Indian remains. Lost John was buried near where he was found. Other artifacts include the pits where 70
slaves and indentured servants worked hand-mining thousands of pounds of
nitrate, or saltpeter, during the War of 1812. The nitrate was used to make
gunpowder, which had skyrocketed in price during the war after Britain
blockaded Eastern U.S. ports. It was shipped for processing to a Delaware
chemist named E.I. DuPont, whose family's firm still bears his name. Later the cave was purchased by Dr. John
Croghan, who in 1842 set up a colony for tubercular patients. Croghan thought
the cave air would be restorative, but his patients actually grew worse, due
to smoke from torches and cooking fires in the cave. They died within a year,
and Croghan, who'd lived with them, later died of the disease himself. The
Violet City tour passes by their huts. But biologists have documented 130 different
species on animals including rats, bats, mice, crickets, salamanders, snakes
and, in the cave's river, eyeless crayfish and shrimp. In 1981, the United Nations designated it a
World Heritage Site, on the same list with the Egyptian Pyramids and the
Grand Canyon, and in 1990 UNESCO classified it as an International Biosphere
Reserve. Daily tours often sell out, so make
reservations. Fees range from $4 for short self-guided tours, to $10 to $15
for longer tours accompanied by park rangers, to a $45, six-hour "Wild
Cave" tour that involves crawling through tight passages. For families,
try the two-hour "Frozen Niagara" tour and the three-hour
"Violet City Lantern Tour." (Kids under 6 not permitted on the
Violet City tour.) Both tours have steep, sometimes slippery climbs;
temperature hovers around 50 degrees. For details, check Mammoth Cave or call (270) 758-2180. Located 90 minutes from Louisville or
Nashville on I-65 at the Cave City exits. You can camp in the park, or stay
at one of Cave City's inexpensive motels. The Best Western offers Jacuzzi
suites for soothing the bones after exploration. While your in the area also
consider visiting the Corvette Museum in nearby Bowling Green! |
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