Mammoth Cave National Park

Beneath the green ridges of central Kentucky lies an underground wonderland that has fascinated humans since the dawn of time. A maze of limestone caves honeycomb the area, the granddaddy of them all being Mammoth Cave, with more than 350 miles of surveyed passageways.

Formed over millions of years, Mammoth Cave is the longest known cave in the world. Men have explored the cave for over 4,000 years, beginning with the prehistoric people of the Later Archaic and Early Woodland cultures between 1,000 and 3,000 BC. These early explorers left behind evidence of their presence in the form of petroglyphs, charred fragments of cane reeds, mussel shells, gourd bowls, and woven sandals.

Modern people first discovered the cave in 1798, and since then it has been explored, exploited, admired, and now protected as a National Park, a World Heritage Site and an International Biosphere Reserve.

Mammoth Cave ’s 350 miles of known passageways and chambers are only a small part of this huge underground labyrinth. Geologists estimate that there could be as many as 600 miles of caverns still waiting to be discovered. As it is, the cave is more than three times longer than any other cave yet discovered. Holding the world’s most diverse cave ecosystem, with approximately 130 forms of life living here, Mammoth Cave is a scientific and natural wonder.

One of the earliest uses of the cave in modern times was as a source for saltpeter, a key ingredient in the manufacture of gunpowder. With the heavy demand for saltpeter created by the War of 1812, African slaves were brought into the cave to mine the mineral.

Mammoth Cave played an important part in the development of American tourism. Development of Mammoth Cave as a tourist attraction began soon after it was rediscovered in the late 1700s, and by 1816 it was drawing tourists, who ventured underground with guides and the aid of torches. The same slaves who had labored in the saltpeter mines were now utilized as tour guides. Steven Bishop and Mat and Nick Bransford, slaves belonging to the cave’s owner, became legendary as tour guides during this period. The Bransfords and their descendants continued as guides in Mammoth Cave for more than a hundred years.

Steven Bishop began working in the cave at the age of seventeen and discovered more miles of the cave than anyone else past or present. He was the first to cross the previously impassable Bottomless Pit, and the first to see the eyeless fish that inhabit the cave’s rivers.

In 1935 the remains of a prehistoric explorer were found near one of the cave’s tour routes. Nicknamed Lost John and later the Mammoth Cave Mummy, his discovery confirmed the presence of early visitors to Mammoth Cave .

Along with the early scenic national parks, Mammoth Cave helped define our national identity in the 19^th Century. Since America did not have the cultural antiquities of Europe , our natural wonders became our national treasures.

Above ground, the National Park Service administers 53,000 surface acres, which include hiking trails, campgrounds, scenic drives, nearly thirty miles of the Green and Nolin rivers for boating, fishing, and canoeing, horse trails, a Visitor center, and the Mammoth Cave Hotel.

The Parks Service has developed several different tours to introduce visitors to Mammoth Cave . The tours explore different parts of the cave, and are designed with different degrees of physical difficulty to accommodate most visitors. Tours vary in length from just over one hour for the relatively easy Mammoth Cave Discovery Tour to the Wild Cave Tour, which takes over six hours and is recommended only for those in good physical condition, since it involves free-climbing cave walls, lengthy crawls through areas as tight as nine inches high, crawling on hands and knees over jagged rocks, crawling through wet areas, and twisting and turning in and out of tight openings. Most tours fall someplace in the middle, averaging two to three hours, and requiring climbing one or two steep stairways or hills.

We opted for the Frozen Niagara tour, a two hour excursion that took us 250 feet underground down a series of rather steep stairways and involved squeezing through two or three pretty tight passageways, but the effort was more than worthwhile. The fantastic sites that awaited us were nothing short of awesome.

Pausing in a massive underground chamber, our tour guide had us take seats on wooden benches, then shut off the lights to allow us to experience total darkness of an intensity most of us just cannot understand without having been there.

Though bats, blind cave fish, blind shrimp, and many other creatures inhabit the cave system, we saw only cave crickets on our trip. The Frozen Niagara is a beautiful rock formation created over eons, and while our guide told us Mammoth Cave does not have nearly as many formations as other caves, whet we saw was certainly impressive. Photography is permitted inside the cave, and everyone on our tour was happily snapping away, trying to capture the beauty around us to show to the folks back home.

The walk down into the cave included nearly 300 stair steps, and returning to the surface involved a couple of steep trails and another 200 or so steps. While not the most strenuous tour at Mammoth Cave , it would not be recommended for anyone with physical challenges or in poor physical condition. The tour guides led us at a relaxed pace, allowing time to stop for rest breaks along the way. Though it was hot outside on the day we visited, underground temperatures average between mid-50s to low 60s. Long pants and a light jacket or sweater are recommended, though we were in short sleeve shirts and not uncomfortable.

Mammoth Cave National Park is located about 85 miles south of Louisville, Kentucky, and the same distance north of Nashville, Tennessee, off Interstate 65. No park entrance fee is charged, though there is a fee for the different cave tours. Calling ahead for reservations for cave tours during the peak summer season is recommended. There is plenty of room to park an RV at the Visitor Center . There is a campground inside the park, operated by a private concessionaire. For more information on Mammoth Cave National Park , call 270-758-2328, or log onto the Internet at www.nps.gov/maca.