Location: Kentucky
Area: 52,830 acres (21,380 ha)
Info: (270) 758 2180
Open: Mar- Oct 8am- 6pm daily
Nov- Feb 8:45am- 5pm
Closed: Dec. 25
Fees and permits
There are no fees to enter the park. Guided
cave tours, however, range in price from $5 to $48.
Mammoth Cave National Park is the longest cave system known in the world situated in central Kentucky. Mammoth Cave National Park covers an area of 52,830 acres (21,380 ha) in Barren, Edmonson and Hart counties. Mammoth Cave National Park comprising parts of the Colossal Cave (Mammoth Cave) is the largest cave system in the world. The official name of the system is the Mammoth Cave System, although it could be called the Flint-Mammoth-Toohey-Eudora-Joppa-Jim Lee Cave System to allude to the hills under which the cave has been formed. The park was constituted as a national park on July 1, 1941. It became a World Heritage Site on October 27, 1981 and a Biosphere Reserve on September 26, 1990.
The Mammoth Cave in southwestern Kentucky is a
calcareous cavern that has more than 484 km of galleries at five
different heights. It is the longest known cave system in the world.
Its underground currents form the Green River. At the deepest level
it reaches about 110 m below the surface. It is home to endemic
terrestrial and aquatic cave animals such as molluscs, arthropods,
and vertebrates: spiders, gamaros, a crayfish, and several species
of blind fish. All of them lacking eyes and born as albinos. The
temperature inside the cave remains almost constant at 12.2 ° C. In
some parts of the cave the crystals of calcite, gypsum and other
precipitated minerals cover the rock formations forming striking
landscapes.
The 21,380 hectares of Mammoth Cave park (214
km²) are located in Edmonson County (Kentucky), with small areas
extending eastward through Hart County and Barren County. It is
centered around the Green River with a tributary, the Nolin River
that flows into the Green just inside the park. Green River has a
dam near the west boundary of the Mammoth Cave park, so the river
only flows freely in a stretch of the eastern part of the park.
The Mammoth Cave was discovered and used by humans before the
arrival of Europeans to the continent. There are archaeological
remains of native inhabitants of prehistoric times. In 1835 the
mummified body of a pre-Columbian man was found. It was rediscovered
in 1798. During the American War of 1812, "La Rotonda", the great
chamber of the main cave, was excavated in search of potassium
nitrate to make gunpowder. Almost two million people visit the park
every year.
During the summer it is possible to explore a tiny
part of the cave without a ranger, but all other areas of the cave
require a ranger guide. Besides the year round tours, there are many
others that are offered seasonally. It is best to check the park
website, or contact the park directly for exact tours offered during
your planned visit. In the summer, reservations are strongly
recommended as tours sell out quickly, but at other times of year it
is usually possible to sign up for a tour when you arrive at the
park.
Domes and Dripstones Tour. Offered daily, year-round. A
tour that includes a dramatic series of domes and pits. This tour
includes the entirety of the cave covered in the Frozen Niagara
Tour. The tour lasts 2 hours and covers 3/4 of a mile (1.2 km).
Approximately 500 steps must be traversed. $12.
Frozen Niagara
Tour. Offered daily, year-round. This short tour visits the most
highly-decorated area of the cave, offering a chance to see cave
formations including the massive "Frozen Niagara". The tour lasts
for 1.25 hours and covers approximately a quarter of a mile (400 m),
with a few stairs and some ducking. $10.
Historic Tour. Offered
daily, year-round. This tour enters through the natural entrance and
covers two miles of cave passages, including Fat Man's Misery,
several old mining areas, Mammoth Dome, and a variety of lengthy
caverns. There is a fair amount of ducking, twisting, and stair
climbing during the two-hour tour. Note that due to the geology of
the site, most of the portion of the cave that you'll see on this
tour, while often large and impressive, lacks the stalactites and
stalagmites that many people expect to see in limestone caves. If
you've only got time for one tour and want to see more "decorated"
caves, you should opt for the Domes and Dripstones tour. $12.
Location
Mammoth Cave National Park is located in
the center of the US state of Kentucky in the region called the
Pennyroyal Plateau at an altitude close to 205 m. The park is located
near interstate highway 65 which connects the capital of Tennessee,
Nashville, to Louisville. It covers 214 km2 in the Green River basin,
straddling Edmonson, Hart and Barren counties. This river is a tributary
of the Ohio which is itself a major tributary of the Mississippi.
Located in a temperate zone, the park is intimately linked to water,
whether through the waterways that have shaped the karst plateaus of the
region and crisscross the forests, or the rainfall that allows the
development of an ecosystem. rich and diverse in the region.
Mammoth Cave is a remarkably stable system that
developed in limestone strata dating from the Mississippian (Lower
Carboniferous) period and topped by a layer of sandstone. 350 million
years ago, North America was much further south and Kentucky was located
10 degrees south of the equator. The entire region was then covered by a
shallow tropical sea populated by coral fauna and other forms of marine
life.
As they died, the shells or exoskeletons of these
organisms, rich in calcium carbonate, fell to the bottom of the sea,
transforming over time into limestone rocks. For 70 million years, the
layer of limestone thus thickened until sediments rich in sand, carried
by a river, came to cover the limestone by settling. The sands were
later transformed into sandstone, the Big Clifty sandstone.
Today, the rocks in the caves house fossils from this
era, the end of the Paleozoic, including crinoids, gastropod shells and
shark teeth.
Then, about 280 million years ago, the land emerged.
The tectonic forces then caused progressive deformations of the plateau,
giving rise to numerous cracks between the layers. At the same time, the
river systems were put in place and could then erode the rock and thread
through the ground to dig galleries. Today, the system is thus composed
of galleries that extend over more than 591 kilometers, a figure that is
revised upwards each year according to new discoveries and connections.
The geological formation located in the upper part of the caves of
Mammoth Cave is known as the Big Clifty sandstone. Beneath this
resistant rock layer, a set of other formations composed of limestone
rocks have been largely protected from erosion. However, in places, the
limestone rocks have been in contact with runoff water from the surface.
These then began their long work of erosion and dissolution of the
limestone. The water emerges punctually on the surface in the form of
springs before sinking again into the ground, at the level of the
contact zone between the sandstone and the limestone rock. It is in
these limestone formations that speleology in the region developed.
Among the limestone layers of the stratigraphic column located under
the Big Clifty formation, we find in increasing order of depth: the
Girkin formation, the Sainte Geneviève limestone and the Saint Louis
limestone. The passage of the main cave is located between the formation
of Girkin (bottom) and that of Sainte Geneviève (top). Each of these
primary limestone layers can also be subdivided into subunits. One area
of research is to correlate stratigraphy with records made by explorers.
This thus makes it possible to produce approximate three-dimensional
maps of the delimitation between the different layers without having to
resort to drilling or core drilling.
Water penetrates the upper
sandstone cover with difficulty, except in the areas where there are
vertical cracks. This protection explains why the ancient passages near
the surface are very dry and have no stalactites, stalagmites or any
other formation that requires water in the form of drops or flows.
However, the sandstone layer has been dissolved and eroded in
several places in the park, such as in the “Frozen Niagara” room. The
transition zone between limestone and sandstone can be observed by
hiking between the valley floor and the ridges. Indeed, as a general
rule, when one approaches the top of a ridge, the rock outcrops show a
change in composition from limestone to sandstone, at a defined altitude
(if we neglect the collapse of the sandstone blocks which broke away
from the ridges and rolled down the limestone slopes below).
To
the south of the park, one can observe at the bottom of a valley a
gigantic sinkhole which has developed and is known as the "cedar basin".
A small river enters on one side of this sinkhole, before disappearing
underground on the other side.
The park is located in the humid subtropical climate
zone (Köppen Cfa). Summers are generally hot and humid. Annual rainfall
averages 1,329 mm. Like Kentucky and its capital Louisville, the park is
part of a region where tornadoes can occur.
Temperatures are
generally positive during the day, the majority of this precipitation
falls in the form of rain. According to a study by the National Parks
Conservation Association, the park's rainfall is ten times more acidic
than the national average. In this area of Kentucky, the climate is hot
and humid in summer (due to the influence of air masses from the Gulf of
Mexico) and invigorating in winter. Located on the route of several
storm systems, the park experiences several stormy episodes per year,
mainly between March and September. The average annual temperature is
thus 13.6°C, with a summer average of 26.6°C and a winter average of
1.7°C. As for the interior of the caves, the temperature there is
constant at 12°C.
Groundwater comes from surface water thanks in
particular to the many cracks located at the level of the sandstone
plates. The water circulating in depth crosses the underlying limestone
layers before emerging at the level of resurgences. The Green River,
which zigzags from east to west through the park, is thus fed by several
springs from the limestone layer. It extends for 43 kilometers inside
the park, before joining the Ohio River, further west.
As it
seeps into the ground, rainwater acidified by atmospheric carbon dioxide
dissolves the limestone rocks. Gradually, these are eroded and
underground streams are formed.
The hydrology of the Mammoth Cave
system is dependent on a collection of limestone caverns, thousands of
sinkholes, hundreds of sunken rivers and approximately two hundred local
springs. Typically, surface water and groundwater in a basin all flow to
the same source or set of sources. Within this karst system, if a
pollutant is dumped into a point source, it is redistributed to nearly
53 different sources along the Green in the Bear Wallow Basin, through
interconnected networks. This clearly demonstrates the importance of
preserving the hydrological basin from all external pollution.
The first hydrological studies carried out indicated that the water
flowed directly from Sinking Creek and Doty Creek to Graham's Spring,
passing through Mill's Cave, connected to two other caves downstream of
the Elk's Spring complex. . In addition, surface water near Sinking
Creek flowed into two sinkholes (Sinking Branch and Little Sinking
Creek) before re-emerging at the source of Mill Hole. The Mammoth Cave
aquifer has a rapid flow, varying between 300 and 3,000 meters per day
which means that rainwater flows rapidly through the cave system. In the
event of flooding, the boundaries of these basins can be broken and the
water then flows into the other sources, with serious consequences when
a pollutant is introduced into the drainage of the karst system.
Mammoth Cave's ecosystem is rich in terms of endemic
species. Indeed, the caves are home to species that have undergone
adaptive evolution to the light-poor environment (very similar to the
species of the abyssal depths). Much research was done on this ecosystem
in the 1980s and 1990s, notably by Tom Poulson at the University of
Illinois at Chicago and Kathleen Lavoie at the University of Michigan at
Flint. The caves are home to over 200 different animal species, mostly
invertebrates, 42 of which are adapted to living in total darkness. On
the surface, the park hosts nearly 43 types of mammals, 207 species of
birds, 37 species of reptiles and 27 species of amphibians.
Usual
cave dwellers, many bats can be found in the caverns of Mammoth Cave:
the Indiana bat, the hoary bat, the little brown bat, the big brown bat
and the pipistrelle. from the east. The overall population of these and
even rarer species (such as the pygmy bat) peaked at 9 or 12 million
individuals in the historical section alone. Although these species
still exist in Mammoth Cave, their numbers are now only a few thousand
at most. The main reason for this gradual disappearance comes from the
destruction by man of their habitat, due to the commercial exploitation
of the caves. Nevertheless, the process of ecological restoration of
this part of Mammoth Cave is the subject of an ongoing effort to
facilitate the return of bats. However, not all species in the park live
in caves. This is particularly the case of the red bat which lives in
the forest and is only very rarely found in an underground environment.
Other animal species also inhabit the caves, such as the cave
grasshopper, long-tailed salamander, mudpuppy, blind fish, orconects and
the cave shrimp. In addition, animals that evolve on the surface can
also take refuge in the entrance of the caves, but only rarely venture
into the depths of the caves.
There are nearly 82 species of fish
living in the Green River, making it one of the most biologically
diverse rivers in North America. On the banks of the park's waterways,
one can encounter wood ducks, turtles, kingfishers and great blue
herons. In addition, forests also form a suitable habitat for many
animal species, wild or tamed. Among the most observed species are the
white-tailed deer, the chipmunk squirrel and the raccoon. You can also
find snakes (such as the corn snake, the garter snake or the scarlet
false coral) and in particular two that are venomous, the timber
rattlesnake and the copper-headed moccasin. Threatened species have also
been observed in the park, including the bald eagle which winters and
nests there, or the white-faced woodpecker. Species reintroduction
experiments have also been successfully conducted for wild turkeys and
Canadian beavers.
With an area reaching 214 km2, the park shelters on
its surface a flourishing and diversified vegetation. The park is, in
fact, located in a transition zone between the large prairies and the
dry oak-hickory forests to the west, the humid mesophyte forests to the
east, the subtropical climate to the south and the cold climate to the
north. . The Mammoth Cave area thus materializes the border between
several natural distribution areas of plants.
This meeting area
between the different plant areas is home to more than 1,300 species of
plants, among which we can find 84 species of trees, 28 species of
shrubs and climbing plants, 29 species of ferns, 209 species of flowers,
67 species of algae, 27 species of fungi and 7 species of mosses.
This temperate deciduous forest is dominated by oaks (particularly
white and black oaks and chestnuts), as well as hickories and a few
beeches, ashes, maples, tulip trees and Virginia junipers9. In the north
of the park, tsugas, yellow birches, umbrella magnolias and hollies grow
in the sandstone gorges.
Local conditions of humidity, acidity or
temperature can also allow the development of plant or animal niches.
The humidity that reigns around the watercourses thus promotes the
growth of sometimes rare plants such as bladderwort, arrowhead grass,
sedge, rush or lanceolate violet (Viola lanceolata). The park also
offers plenty of room for Kentucky's characteristic grass, Kentucky
bluegrass, which can be found along roadsides or in meadows. This grass,
called Blue Grass in North America, gave its name to the nearby
Bluegrass region.
The National Park Service offers visitors several cave
tours. Popular tours last from one to six hours and tour Mammoth Cave's
signature sites, such as Grand Avenue, Frozen Niagara, and Fat Man's
Misery. Two tours are also offered as an alternative to those that take
place in caves lit by floodlights. Each visitor then carries their own
paraffin lamp. “Wild” tours are also organized for those who are looking
for adventure and which consist of venturing into areas with little or
no development, with muddy catholes and dusty tunnels.
The guided
tours of the park are notable for the quality of their program, with
graphics accompanying the artefacts displayed in certain places.
Lectures are led by National Park Service guides, each of whom
emphasizes different specifics, so that on each visit the visitor learns
more about different facets of cave formation or life. humans since
prehistoric times. Several guides enrich their presentations with a
“theatrical” component to entertain visitors with humour. The tradition
of tourist visits to the cave dates back to the period just after the
War of 1812, with guides like Stephen Bishop. This style of humor is an
integral part of the Girl Guide tradition and a proper part of the
interpretive program.
The Echo River Tour is one of the most
famous attractions as it consists of a boat ride along the underground
river. This tour has not been offered to visitors since the early 1990s
for logistical and environmental reasons.
The Frozen Niagara is a
travertine speleothem that is characterized by rocks resembling the
waves of a waterfall. The travertine formations appear in the cave due
to the presence of cracks and faults in the ceiling, which allow water
to infiltrate and migrate into the chamber. The chamber of the Frozen
Niagara thus presents stalagmites and stalactites which were formed
thanks to the infiltration of water rich in minerals. Indeed, the
stalactites arise from the accumulation of calcium carbonate when the
water flows from the ceiling of the cave, while the stalagmites rise
where the drops fall, flowing down the stalactites, causing mineral
precipitation. Over time, the two speleothems end up joining and
draperies (fluipierre) end up forming by precipitation on the walls.
Most of Mammoth Cave's speleothems are concentrated in this chamber as
it is the only area in the park not protected by a mantle of sand and
shale, forming an aquiclude.
The Snowball Room is an underground
cafeteria, whose name comes from the crystalline masses of gray-white
gypsum, in the shape of a snowball, and which cover a large part of the
ceiling of this vast space. These formations probably arise from the
imprisonment of gypsum minerals in the microporous structure of the
limestone. The infiltration of water rich in calcium and sulphate thus
led to the accumulation of minerals around these primitive crystals, to
form these whitish masses.
Audubon Avenue is a long cave whose
walls have the particularity of resembling a pile of plates because of
the superposition of sedimentary plates. This avenue is typical of
erosive caves which are dug by underground watercourses. Formed during
the Mississippian, these limestone layers contrast sharply with the
earthy soil covered with rubble and form an impressive ensemble. In
particular, you can observe the characteristic formations of the
Pennyroyal plateau: the Saint Louis limestone, the Sainte Geneviève
limestone and the Girkin formation.
The relationship that binds humans to the Mammoth Cave
has lasted nearly six millennia and has gone through many phases, from
exploration to its exploitation, including its cultural influence in the
region. It is a perpetual interaction between man and his environment.
Prehistory
Native American human remains were repeatedly
unearthed in or around Mammoth Cave Park in the 19th and 20th centuries,
including a mummy discovered in 1813 and nicknamed "Short Cave Mummy".
of the little cave"). In most cases, signs have been found indicating
that the mummies were buried intentionally, according to the burial
practices of pre-Columbian times.
However, in 1935, Grover
Campbell and Lyman Cutliff discovered the remains of a man who was an
exception to these practices. The victim was indeed found under a huge
rock, which seems to indicate that while clearing rubble, the
pre-Columbian miner probably released a rock which rolled over him. The
remains of this victim, nicknamed “Lost John” (“Lost John”), were
exposed to the public in the 1970s, before being buried in a place kept
secret within Mammoth Cave in the face of controversy. Indeed, this
decision was taken both for reasons of preservation and for political
reasons because of the exacerbation of sensitivities coming from
emerging Native American tribes.
In the late 1950s, research was
done by archaeologist Patty Watson of Washington University in St.
Louis. These made it possible to learn more about the way of life of the
last Archaic peoples and the new peoples of the forests who explored and
used the caves of the region. Thanks to the protected environment of the
caves, Dr. Watson's team was able to perform carbon-14 dating of food
remains to determine the age of the specimens and to analyze their
contents. The results obtained from remains spanning several thousand
years have made it possible to highlight an evolution in food behavior
by moving from a hunter-gatherer mode to that of the domestication of
plants and agriculture. Archaeologists have also discovered clues that
these early humans harvested crystals and minerals from the caves of
Mammoth Cave.
Another technique employed during archaeological
excavations at Mammoth Cave was experimental archaeology: modern
explorers descended into the cave using the same technologies employed
by ancient cultures. The aim was to better understand the problems faced
by the ancient tribes who explored the cave, by placing the researchers
in the same physical situation.
Federal and Kentucky state laws
protect human remains and archaeological remains found in excavations.
The basis of archeology when discovering an object is to determine its
precise position and environment. The smallest displacement of a
prehistoric object can make it unusable within the framework of a
research activity. In order to avoid any disturbance, certain areas of
the cave remain inaccessible unless you have a specific task to perform
there.
Along with the remains that were discovered near the
historic Mammoth Cave entrance, remnants of Native American cane torches
were found in Salts Cave in Flint Ridge.
Eighteenth century
The area known as "Pollard's lot" and extending over 130 km2 was sold by
William Pollard, September 10, 1791, to the city of Philadelphia. On
June 3, 1796, an American merchant from Yorkshire, Thomas Lang Jr,
purchased 80 km2 located between the north bank of Bacon Creek and the
Green for £4,116.13. These lands, however, were lost to the county
through a tax claim in the War of 1812.
Legend has it that the
first European to discover Mammoth Cave was John Houchin, in 1797. While
hunting, Houchin chased an injured bear to the cave's grand entrance
near the Green River. However, Brucker and Watson have questioned this
discovery in The Longest Cave stating that the cavern was "probably
already known before that date".
The land housing this historic
entrance was first surveyed and recorded in 1798 in the name of Valentin
Simons. Simons began mining Mammoth Cave for its saltpeter reserves. The
calcium nitrate (Ca(NO3)2) contained in the guano of the bats was then
harvested and then converted, by metathesis using potash (potassium
carbonate, K2CO3), into potassium nitrate (KNO3) or saltpeter , one of
the elements necessary for the preparation of gunpowder.
XIXth
century
During the War of 1812, Valentine Simon and the other owners
of the site gained importance with the surge in the price of saltpetre.
Indeed, the British blockade of American ports prevented any supply of
saltpeter and therefore of gunpowder, which led to the gradual reduction
of gunpowder stocks in the barracks. As a result, selling prices soared
and sites using nitrate extraction, such as Mammoth Cave, made more
profits.
In July 1812, the winery was bought out by Charles
Wilkins and a Philadelphia investor named Hyman Gratz. It was then that
the exploitation on an industrial scale of the calcium nitrate deposits,
present in the rock of the caves, really began. After half of the firm's
shares were bought out for $10,000, the company suffered heavy losses
after the war and eventually closed its doors. The site then became a
minor tourist attraction whose activity was centered around a Native
American mummy discovered nearby.
When Wilkins died, his
executors liquidated his shares in the cave by selling them back to the
Gratzes. In the spring of 1838, the Gratz brothers resold the cave again
to Franklin Gorin, for whom the goal was to make it a tourist attraction
(the saltpeter market having collapsed a long time ago). Gorin used his
own slaves to act as tour guides in the caves. Among his slaves was one
of the people who brought the most to the understanding of the cave and
contributed to making it a prominent tourist spot: Stephen Bishop. This
African-American slave who served as a guide from the 1840s to the
1850s, was one of the pioneers in terms of cave mapping and is the
origin of the naming of many caves.
Stephen Bishop first
discovered Mammoth Cave in 1838, thanks to Franklin Gorin. After
Bishop's death, Gorin wrote:
“I installed a guide in the cave, the
great and famous Stephen, and he helped us make new discoveries. He was
the first to ever cross Bottomless Chasm, and Stephen, myself, and
another person whose name I forget are the only ones who have descended
to the very bottom of Gorin's Dome, as far as I know.
“After Stephen
had crossed Bottomless Chasm, we discovered a whole section of the caves
that was previously unknown. Before these discoveries, all attention was
focused on what is now known as the "Old Cave"... but today almost all
the caves are known, although, as Stephen used to say , they were "tall,
dark and strange".
In 1839, Doctor John Croghan of Louisville
decided to buy back the entire Mammoth Cave estate, along with Bishop
and other slaves from Franklin Gorin. Croghan believed that the fumes
from the cave could cure tuberculosis patients and so wanted to open a
tuberculosis hospital there in the cave. A generalized epidemic of
tuberculosis finally got the better of Bishop and Croghan.
Throughout the 19th century, Mammoth Cave's fame steadily grew, so the
cave quickly became an international sensation. From the 1860s, it was
used for tourism. The cave has notably attracted the attention of
authors such as Robert M. Bird, the Reverend Robert Davidson, the
Reverend Horace Martin, Alexander C. Bullitt, Nathaniel Parker Willis
(who visited it in June 1852), Bayard Taylor (in May 1855), William
Stump Forwood (in spring 1867), naturalist John Muir (early September
1867), Reverend Horace Carter Hovey and many more. It was also visited
by actor Edwin Booth, singer Jenny Lind (April 5, 1851) and violinist
Ole Bull.
The Kentucky Cave War (1900-1925)
The poverty of the
land surrounding the caves of Mammoth Cave made agricultural life
difficult. Local cave owners then wanted to capitalize on the tourist
success of Mammoth Cave. The "Kentucky Cave Wars" was a time of bitter
competition between caves in the region to attract tourists. The owners
thus largely used tactics aimed at deceiving visitors to attract them to
their own cave. In particular, they placed signs indicating false
information along the roads leading to Mammoth Cave. In the early
automotive age, it was also common to dispatch a representative who
jumped from car to car to "explain" to visitors that Mammoth Cave had
been closed, collapsed, was under quarantine, or simply inaccessible.
In 1906, Mammoth Cave became accessible by steamboat with the
construction of a dam in Brownsville. The construction of this dam had a
long term impact not only on the biotope of the cave, but also on the
exploration of the cave.
In 1908, a young German mining engineer,
Max Kaemper, arrived at the cave. He had just graduated from a technical
college and his family had decided to send him on a trip abroad to
reward him for his success. Originally, he intended to spend only two
weeks in Mammoth Cave, but Kaemper ended up staying there for several
months. With the help of the descendant of a slave, Ed Bishop, Kaemper
carried out an accurate topographical survey of the cave over many
kilometers, also including many finds. According to some information,
Kaemper also carried out a study of the surface located above the caves:
this study would have notably made it possible to discover new entrances
to the cave, including the one which allowed the opening of the entrance
of Violet City.
The Croghan family has since removed the
topographic markers present on the Kaempers map. The work done by
Kaemper on the map of a portion of the caves appears to be a
cartographic success. Indeed, it was not until the early 1960s, with the
advent of modern exploration, that these passages were studied and
mapped with greater precision. Kaemper then returned to Berlin, without
anyone in the Mammoth Cave area ever taking an interest in his
disappearance. It was not until the beginning of the 21st century that a
group of German tourists, after visiting the cave, began researching the
Kaemper family. They discovered that the young Kaemper was killed eight
years after his return, during the trench warfare of the Battle of the
Somme (1916), during the First World War.
The famous French cave
explorer Édouard-Alfred Martel also visited the cave for three days in
October 1912. Although he did not have access to the topographic data of
the site, Martel was authorized to make barometric observations in the
cave in order to to determine the relative altitude of the different
areas of the cave. He was thus able to identify different levels and
correctly noted that the level of the Echo River, inside the cave, was
controlled by that of the Green River on the surface. Martel lamented
the 1906 construction of the Brownsville Dam, arguing that it would make
any comprehensive hydrological study of the cave impossible. Among his
findings on the hydrogeological behavior of Mammoth Cave, Martel
speculated that Mammoth Cave was connected to Salts and Colossal caves.
This was only demonstrated sixty years later.
In the early 1920s,
George Morrison blasted a number of entrances to Mammoth Cave on land
not belonging to the Croghan estate. In the absence of publication of
the topographical data collected by Kaemper, Bishop and others, to
determine the true extent of the cave, it is now formally demonstrated
that the Croghans exploited, for many years, portions of Mammoth Cave.
which were not located under their land. Legal actions were taken and,
at one time, the various entrances to the cave were exploited in
parallel by several competitors.
In the early 20th century, Floyd
Collins also explored the Flint Ridge cave system for nearly ten years
before dying in 1925 in Sand Cave. As he explored a narrow passage in
this cave, a boulder dislodged and fell on his leg. He failed to free
himself and attempts to save him caused a stir in the media. One counts
among the inheritance of its works of explorations, the discovery of the
crystal cave of Floyd Collins and the cave of Salts.
Upon the death of the last Croghan heir, momentum for
the creation of Mammoth Cave National Park grew among the wealthy
citizens of Kentucky. In 1926, citizens formed the Mammoth Cave National
Park Association and finally obtained permission in principle for the
park on May 25, 1926.
The donations received were used to buy
farms in the region, while several administrative expropriations made it
possible to acquire many roads located within the borders proposed for
the national park. Unlike the creation of other national parks in the
American West where the population density is low, thousands of people
had to be forcibly moved in the process. These expropriations often went
wrong, because the landowners felt they had not been paid enough. Even
today, bitterness resonates in the region.
For legal reasons, the
federal government was not granted the right to restore or develop the
farms that had been destroyed, as long as the association owned them.
This regulation was circumvented by the installation of a “maximum of
four” camps of Civilian Conservation Corps, between May 1933 and July
1942. The National Park Service announced, on May 14, 1934, that the
minimum surface for the creation of the park had been reached and, on
May 22, 1936, that the minimum area had been reached for administration
and protection.
Mammoth Cave National Park was officially opened
on July 1, 1941. Coincidentally, the same year saw the birth of the
National Speleological Society. The park association's second acting
superintendent, R. Taylor Hoskins, thus became the first official
superintendent from 1941 to 1951. The new entrance, closed to visitors
since 1941, was reopened on December 26, 1951, and then became the
entrance used for the start of the “Frozen Niagara” tour.
In 1954, Mammoth Cave National Park owned all of the
land within its boundaries except for two private tracts. One of these,
Lee Collins' old farmhouse, had been sold to Kentucky Horse cave owner
Harry Thomas. His grandson, William "Bill" Austin, exploited Collins'
Crystal Cave in direct competition with the national park, which was
then forced to maintain the roads leading to this property. In February
1954, at Austin's invitation, the National Speleological Society
organized a two-week expedition to its caves, better known as the C-3
expedition (for Collins Crystal Cave).
The C-3 expedition
attracted public interest thanks in particular to a photographic essay
published by Robert Halmi (in Sports Illustrated or in Look magazine)
and, later, to the publication of an account of the expedition. The
expedition conclusively proved that passages in Crystal Cave extended
all the way to Mammoth Cave, or at least they extended beyond the
boundaries of Crystal Cave property. However, this information was kept
secret by the explorers, as they feared that the National Park Service
would ban them from exploring if they found out.
In 1955, Crystal
Cave was connected to Unknown Cave, which was the first connection to
the Flint Ridge system. After the findings of the C-3 expedition, some
of the participants wanted to continue their explorations and organized
a group named Flint Ridge Reconnaissance, under the leadership of
Austin, Jim Dyer, John J. Lehrberger, and Dr. Robert E. Pohl. This
organization later took legal form in 1957 as the Cave Research
Foundation (literally, Foundation for Cave Research). The organization
sought to legitimize the activities of cave explorers through the
support of scientific and academic research.
In 1960 the Colossal
and Salts caves were connected, and by 1961 all entrance caves to the
Flint Ridge system were connected. In March 1961, the Crystal Cave
property was finally bought out by the National Park Service for
$285,000. Around the same time, the Great Onyx Cave property, the last
private land within the park, was also purchased for $365,000. The Cave
Research Foundation was nevertheless authorized to continue its
explorations thanks to the conclusion of an agreement with the service
of the national parks.
On September 9, 1972, a team of Cave Research
Foundation cartographers led by Dr. John P. Wilcox successfully tracked
a narrow, wet passage that connects two of the longest cave systems in
the region: the Flint Cave System Ridge and that of Mammoth Cave. This
connection made the combined Flint-Mammoth system the longest cave
system in the world. The Flint Ridge system has recently surpassed the
cave that held the record for length, the cave of Hölloch, in
Switzerland.
Subsequently, another trip to the junction, now
known as the Tight Spot, was arranged. This name, which literally means
"narrow point", comes from the fact that it acts as a filter for
speleologists: the passage is so narrow that only thin people can
squeeze through it. The expedition, consisting of Crowther, Wilcox,
Zopf, and Tom Brucker, found the name "Pete H" carved on the wall with
an arrow pointing in the direction of Mammoth Cave. The name is believed
to have been carved by Pete Hanson, who was actively exploring the cave
in the 1930s. Hanson was killed during World War II. This passage has
been named "Hanson's Lost River" for this reason.
On the
September 9 expedition, following the course of Hanson's Lost River, the
team reached the Cascade Hall of Mammoth Cave, definitive proof that
these caves were connected. John Wilcox emerged from the deep water and
saw a horizontal line appear above his field of vision. This line turned
out to be a handrail for tourists. He then exclaimed: “a small step for
a man in the conquest of Everest in speleology”. Indeed, of the many
kilometers of galleries and caves that Mammoth Cave contains, only a
small fraction is equipped with ramps and lighting. It is therefore
remarkable that the junction point between the two systems was located
in a very familiar place.
Other connections between Mammoth Cave and smaller
caves or cave systems have been uncovered, including that with the
Proctor/Morrison Caves (Proctor's Cave was discovered by Jonathan Doyle,
a deserter from the Army of Union during the Civil War and was owned by
the Mammoth cave railroad company, before being explored by the Cave
Research Foundation (CRF), as Morrison's cave was discovered by George
Morrison in the 1980s. 1920) near Joppa Ridge in 1979. This connection
pushed the frontier of Mammoth Cave exploration to the southeast.
At the same time, an independent group called the Central Kentucky
Karst Coalition (CKKC) discovered several tens of kilometers of
galleries, east of the park, in the Roppel Caves (named after the
explorer Jerry Roppel who discovered them in 1976 , with Jim Currens and
James Borden). On September 10, 1983, a connection was made between the
Proctor/Morrison section of the Mammoth Cave system and Roppel's Cave.
The link was made by two mixed teams made up of CRF and CKKC explorers.
Each team entered through a different entrance and they met in the
middle, demonstrating the connection. In total, they unearthed more than
480 km. Additional discoveries have since pushed that total to more than
591 km.
In 2005, another connection was discovered in the portion
of Roppel's Cave with another cave below Eudora Ridge (originally
discovered in 2003 by Alan Canon and James Wells.
Two other
remarkable underground systems develop near the Mammoth Cave system: the
Fisher Ridge Cave System was discovered in January 1981 by a group of
cavers from Michigan associated with the Detroit Urban Grotto section of
the National Speleological Society; the Martin Ridge Cave System was
discovered in 1976 by Rick Schwartz south of the park boundary, then in
1996 this system was connected with Whigpistle Cave and Jackpot Caves.
In 2008, the Martin Ridge Cave System reached 55 km of development; in
2019, the Fisher Ridge Cave System exceeds 209 kilometers of development
and thus becomes the 10th longest natural cave in the world.
Explorations of these two networks are continuing.
Although the main role of national parks is to protect
natural areas, they also fulfill a role in the development of rural
areas. The tourist activity of the site has indeed generated the
installation of many infrastructures both to cope with the influx of
tourists (hotels and restaurants) but also to offer recreational
activities. Tourism thus makes it possible to generate employment, to
increase revenue linked to taxes and to recover part of the external
revenue. From the peak in 1977, when the park attracted over 1.8 million
tourists, attendance remained fairly stable through the 1980s. During
the 1990s, attendance increased to 2 million (with a peak of 2,396,234
people in 1993) and suddenly collapsed from 2006 and currently
represents a tourist flow of 500,000 tourists each year.
All
towns along Interstate 65 were split in two, with a new economic
development node located closer to the onramps, draining economic
activity away from traditional town centers. Unlike the town of Park
City, which held a prominent place in the days of the railroad, Cave
City was able to take advantage of the freeway network. Since the first
half of the 20th century, it has now been the main tourist activity in
the region. The city thus hosts at its interchange six national hotel
chains, eight fast-food franchises and four major service station
brands. It also presents a rich and diversified recreational offer:
amusement park, souvenir shops, horseback riding, miniature golf, wax
museum, etc.
Nevertheless, the park has a negative influence on
the other cities of the region which are less well located. Indeed, all
tourist infrastructure being concentrated around the interchange, it
deprives neighboring towns of the associated financial windfall. In a
judgment concerning the introduction of a tax on Mammoth Cave tickets to
compensate for the loss of revenue, the judge justified this action by
arguing that if "Mammoth Cave National Park was a real national asset,
it brought very little economic benefit to Edmonson County. Furthermore,
another factor limiting the establishment of industries is generated by
the ban on truck traffic on the roads of the park.
Mammoth Cave National Park is managed by around 100
National Park Service employees, 20 of whom are attached to the
administration and management of the park. Furthermore, being located at
the intersection of three different counties, the management of the
transition zone is delegated to the district responsible for the
development of Barren River. This district is also responsible for
setting policy for the biosphere reserve. Given the roles entrusted to
the park in 1983, namely the preservation of the ecosystem and the
development of educational and scientific interests, the site is divided
into natural and historical zones in which the caves are classified
according to six categories.
The transition zone was established
in order to guarantee the protection of the biosphere reserve. It is
mainly located to the south and east of the central site where rainwater
infiltrates the cave system. This transition zone plans in particular to
limit groundwater pollution. The characteristic geology of Mammoth Cave
indeed works against it. Because of the rapid flow of rainwater through
the sedimentary rocks, the aquatic habitats of the cave are quickly
threatened by any external contamination: human waste, chemicals,
hydrocarbons from drilling... Local and federal authorities implemented
a sewage system throughout the area around Park City to prevent
contamination of waterways. The water is also used for agriculture,
grazing and tourism which involves a large amount of potential risk of
groundwater contamination of the karst system. In addition, the park has
implemented microclimate regulation systems to avoid endangering the
species living in the caves.
Rangers also work to protect
vegetation from disease and pests. Butternut is thus threatened by a
fungal infection similar to bark canker and elm blotch, which have
eradicated American chestnut and American elm. In addition, invasive
exotic plant species, such as honeysuckle, garlic mustard, kudzu, white
poplar or ailanthus, threaten the biodiversity of the natural ecosystem
of the national park.
Air quality is also another concern, since
ozone has been detected at a level too high for flora. Sensors have
indeed been installed to monitor the concentration of ozone, sulfur
dioxide, carbon monoxide and nitrogen monoxide (and its derivatives) in
the ambient air.