Set in central Kentucky lies the longest known cave in the world. With over 400 miles of known passages, it's by far the longest. During the 1800s, Mammoth Cave along with Niagara Falls were the world's leading tourist destinations.
My dad and I set out to do the basic, entry level cave tour. This would be a great choice as we had an excellent guide, Jerry Bransford, who knew much about the history. A year ago he featured in a NY Times article. Apparently many of Jerry's family worked as guides at Mammoth Cave going back to the mid 1800s. He shared many of the stories that have been passed down the generations, including the time his great, great grandfather passed out in the cave.
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| Brnsford, giving it to us straight |
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| A profitable business back in the day |
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| My dad exiting the cave |
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| Many rural families had to leave when Mammoth became a National Park in 1941 |
My most recent experiences with caves involved much scrambling and squeezing through small pathways, beating up my body in the process. This would not be the case today, as I entered the cave with families of tourists and entered a room that could swallow all of Clarksville Cave. I longed to explore the cave solo with my headlamp, but the tour was interesting, providing some of the history of the area.
Saltpeter was mined from the cave to manufacture gunpowder. Supposedly, this was integral to the defeat of the British in the War of 1812. Of course, there were slaves laboring away to do this dirty work. Bransfords great, great grandparents were among them. The cave also used to have boat trips through the cave during its tourist heyday. Today it sees a little over half a million tourists, far fewer than Yellowstone and the Smokies, let alone Niagara.
Nice factoid. I didn't know that Mammoth was the world's longest cave system.
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