Carolinas, Georgia & South Trips (Lonely Planet, 1st Edition) - Alex Leviton [149]
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THE CAVE WARS
By the 1920s, Mammoth Cave had become such a popular attraction that everyone wanted a piece of the action and the so-called “Cave Wars” broke out. Local farmers with smaller caves on their properties began advertising their own tours, even diverting travelers headed to Mammoth by claiming it was flooded or quarantined. Other landowners blasted open new entrances to Mammoth and set up shop.
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As you walk through the narrow passageways and vast chambers, a ranger in a wide-brimmed hat and tan uniform will regale you with stories of the cave’s strange history: Over here are the wooden pipelines. Here are the remains of the saltpeter works, where slaves mined calcium nitrate for gunpowder, to be used against the British in the War of 1812. Here’s a room known as the Church, where in the 1830s a young minister preached hellfire and brimstone to his congregation from atop a natural ledge called Pulpit Rock, his voice echoing in the lantern-lit gloom. Here’s the old TB sanitarium where cave owner Dr John Croghan brought 16 tuberculosis patients in the winter of 1941. Dead bats and the corpses of some Native Americans remained for years in the cave without decaying, so the air must have some vital properties, Croghan figured. Tour groups would pass the patients lying in stone huts in their dressing gowns, growing paler by the day. Soon the patients began to die, their bodies laid out on a stone called Corpse Rock. Several succumbed before Croghan admitted failure. And over here are the blind cave fish, adapted to their dark lives. By the time you emerge, blinking, into the sunlight, you’ll feel a bit like a blind cave fish yourself.
If it’s still early, you might want to shake off the subterranean shivers with a hike, bike or horseback ride along some of the park’s 70 miles of trails. Bunk down in the dowdy brick Mammoth Cave Hotel or snag one of the hotel’s freestanding rustic cottages. Or rough it at one of several developed and primitive Mammoth Cave Camping areas. The park is home to several species of endangered and threatened plants and animals, including the Eyeless Cave Shrimp and several kinds of lizards.
Dine at the park’s white-tablecloth Travertine Restaurant. The food may not be special, but there’s something deliciously retro about having a sit-down meal in a national park, like in the era when people arrived here by stagecoach and stayed for days. There’s also a very mid-century-looking Crystal Lake Coffee Shop, with cafeteria-style chairs and a simple snack bar menu.
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“There are caves everywhere on private land. Many of those places are still being explored. Cub Run Cave has a lot of formations and a really nice trail. Diamond Caverns has flowstone and big stalagmites. Frenchman’s Knob Pit is one of the deepest open-air shafts in the state. They used to mine saltpeter and grow mushrooms in Lone Star Saltpeter Cave. Hidden River Cave has a cave museum; they’ll take you on off-trail tours.”
Pat Kambesis, geologist, Cave City
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Or you could head to nearby Cave City, where the Wigwam Village Inn #2 is a cluster of concrete teepees surrounding a gift shop peddling Native American-themed kitsch. The #2 is one of three remaining Wigwam motels out of the seven built across the country in the mid-20th century (visiting all three - the others are in Arizona and California - would be a road trip adventure itself).
Wrap up your trip in Bowling Green, about 30 minutes away. This postcard-pretty little town is home to Western Kentucky University and the National Corvette Museum. See more than 50 examples of the classic sports car, or watch them being made at the factory across the way.
Emily Matchar
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TRIP INFORMATION
GETTING THERE
From Louisville, take I-65 south for 85 miles, exiting on exit 53 towards Cave City, and follow the signs towards the cave.
DO
Grand