The Celebrated Black Explorer Stephen Bishop and Mammoth Cave: Observations by an English Journalist in 1853 Gary A. O’Dell and Angelo I. George

The Mammoth Cave of Kentucky, an known passages. In 1835, Edmund Francis international Biosphere Reserve and World Lee, a civil engineer then living in Cincinnati, Heritage Site, is the longest surveyed cave Ohio, determined the as-then known length in the world with over 412 miles accurately of the cave using a surveyor’s transit, rod and charted and has a rich history of exploration chain. The survey and map indicated about dating back for more than two centuries. The eight miles of passage. A few years later, on name of Stephen Bishop (1821-1857) is well October 20, 1838, Mammoth Cave guide known to modern cavers and forever linked to Stephen L. Bishop, Hiram C. Stevenson the story of Mammoth Cave. Many consider from Georgetown, Kentucky, and several him to be one of the greatest cave explorers other explorers traversed the Bottomless Pit, who ever lived. Born into slavery in Barren opening up many more miles of virgin cave County, Stephen was acquired as a teen-ager to exploration.3 by Franklin Gorin (1798-1877), a lawyer During the winter of 1841-1842, in Glasgow, Kentucky. When Gorin and Stephen drafted a new map of Mammoth Alexander A. Harvey purchased Mammoth Cave incorporating the many recent discov- Cave on April 17, 1838, for $5000, Gorin eries, using the 1835 Edmund F. Lee map brought Stephen there to learn the trails and as a base. Bishop possessed a clear compre- lore of Mammoth Cave under the tutelage of hension of the cave as a three-dimensional cave manager Archibald Miller, Jr. and guide labyrinth, able to visualize the myriad inter- Joseph C. Shackelford. For his bold explora- connecting passages and how they were Stephen Bishop, the Guide. Illustration by J. tions, intimate knowledge of the cave, and related to other passages. Steven was given Barton for Horace C. Hovey, “One Hundred charismatic personality, Stephen became full cartographic credit, with the published Miles in Mammoth Cave,” Scribner’s Monthly the most celebrated of the guides. Today, version labeled, “By Stephen Bishop, One 20(October 1880), 922. A.I. George collection. we might well describe him as a self-taught of the Guides.” For a slave to be given credit There are no known likenesses of Bishop 1 drawn from life. When the Scribner’s article cave scientist or speleologist. for an intellectual work was an extraordinary was published, Bishop had been dead for Soon after its discovery in the closing achievement in the antebellum South, but 23 years. The artist may have copied from a years of the eighteenth century, Mammoth then Stephen Bishop was a most extraor- sketch or photograph, no longer in existence, Cave became an important source of dinary man. It would appear that he had a in the Mammoth Cave office at the time of saltpeter (potassium nitrate), the primary good self-taught classical education, for he his visit, but this is purely conjectural. The noted landscape painter Joachim Ferdinand component used in the manufacture of could quote from Greek and Latin classics Richardt visited Mammoth Cave during May- gunpowder. During the period leading up with facility, and from most accounts used June 1857, at the time of Stephen’s death, to the War of 1812, speculators and war quotations in the appropriate context for the and made a sketch of guide Nick Bransford preparations stimulated a saltpeter boom. wonders being described and understood the now housed in Mammoth Cave archives. Richardt also created a dramatic oil painting Kentucky was the most significant producer meaning of the words. Bishop knew some of boating on Echo River in the cave, in which of nitrates, derived from caves and rock- geology and continued to build his knowl- the black guides in the boats bear striking shelters, shipped to eastern manufacturers edge through conversations with scientists resemblances to Nick and Matt Bransford. and also supporting numerous small regional and scholars on his guided trips through gunpowder mills. From 1798 to 1816 the cave.4 and Nick Bransford and added Alfred, his Mammoth Cave became one of the most In 1839 the new owners, Gorin and personal slave, to the guide pool.5 productive and best known saltpeter caves Harvey, expanded their guide pool by leasing In the fall of 1853, Thomas Butler in the nation.2 the teen-aged slaves Mat and Nick Bransford Gunn visited Mammoth Cave and wrote Following a number of ownership from Glasgow attorney Thomas Bransford a detailed account of his experiences in changes, the first description of the cave, for $100 each per year. Both Mat Bransford his notebooks, an account that is as much “The Subterranean Voyage or the Mammoth and Stephen Bishop were very dynamic about the African-American guides as it is Cave Partially Explored,” appeared in east and outgoing, and liked to explore caves. about the cave. Gunn was born February coast newspapers in early 1810. The size They charmed the crowds and were much 15, 1826, in Banbury, England, and came of the great cave and the beautiful sights in demand as guides. On October 8 of that to New York in 1849. A freelance artist and within were considered breathtaking. The year, John Croghan, M.D., of Louisville, journalist, he traveled about the United States article described Mammoth as “the largest Kentucky, purchased Mammoth Cave and and submitted his reports to the New York cave now known…seven miles.” A few 1,610 surrounding acres from Franklin Gorin Times, which were published in the form of years later, the 1816 description by Nahum for $10,000 and renovated and expanded letters. On August 8, 1853, he received an Ward, “The Wonders of Nature,” was widely the hotel facilities. Croghan ushered in the appointment as a salaried correspondent for reprinted throughout the United States and golden age of tourism in Mammoth Cave, the Times, and set off on a tour of the Great abroad and propelled the cave into public and the cave remained part of his estate and Lakes region.6 On the evening of August awareness, helping to ensure that Mammoth managed by his heirs until the National Park 14, while aboard the steamboat Sam Ward Cave would soon become a popular tourist Service bought the cave in 1941. Stephen touring Lake Superior, he engaged in a long destination. Privately circulated sketch maps Bishop was included in the Gorin-Croghan conversation with another passenger, an made of the cave and its internal saltpeter land transaction and stayed on as a cave elderly New Yorker named Greenwood, who factory in 1811 indicated fourteen miles of guide; Croghan also continued to lease Mat planned to soon visit the famous Mammoth

4 NSS News, September 2018 Section of Map of the Explored Parts of the Mammoth Cave of Ky. By Stephen Bishop, one of the guides. Map used as an insert in Alexander Bullitt’s (1845) Rambles in the Mammoth Cave (Louisville, 1845). A.I. George collection.

Cave of Kentucky. Upon hearing this, Gunn Stephen Bishop led Gunn upon most of geographic and geologic features and places. was similarly inspired, and noted in his diary, these rambles, and Gunn proved well up to Over time many of these names changed “where I’ll go!” At Mackinac Island on the challenges posed by long days and long with new ownership or management, as September 17, he wrote, “I’m off tomor- miles spent underground. guides embellished their patter with more row by the [steamboat] Pacific, and then for Upon returning to New York, Gunn colorful descriptions to evoke images of an Kentucky and the Mammoth Cave.”7 continued his career in journalism, serving underworld steeped in mythology. Distances Gunn arrived at Louisville during the as a war correspondent for the Evening traveled and physical passage size descrip- afternoon of September 28, checking into Post covering the fall of Fort Sumter, and in tions were inflated, in part a consequence the Galt House hotel. He rose before dawn 1862, as correspondent for the New York of having to walk and scramble over the on the following morning to catch the stage, Daily Tribune. Gunn returned to England rough internal terrain and view the cavern “dressed by lamp-light in the corner of a in 1863, and died in Birmingham in 1903. landscape by feeble lamplight, but also to large room, four beds in’t, each having its His voluminous U.S. dairies, which contain impress visitors. one or two occupants. And then after some not only daily entries but also many of his Gunn’s visit to Mammoth Cave occurred half hours waiting at the portal of the hotel, drawings and published articles, constitute at a time when the idea of landscape tour- looking out on the chill dark street, into the 21 volumes covering the period from July 7, ism was beginning to flower in America. stage.... Over a hundred miles stage-riding is 1849 to April 7, 1863, and are housed in Although well-to-do citizens in England had before us.”8 Two long and wearisome days the archives of the Missouri History Museum developed an enthusiasm for seeking out of jolting along bad roads brought Gunn in St. Louis. scenic landscapes during the last quarter of to the hotel at Mammoth Cave, where he Gunn recorded a rich assortment of the eighteenth century, Americans of the would spend the better part of a week Mammoth Cave place names evoking period were too preoccupied with taming enthusiastically exploring the passages of classical mythology, romanticism, and a vast wilderness, founding towns, and the Mammoth and other caves in the vicinity. contemporary persons, as well as a variety of struggle for independence from Britain to

NSS News, September 2018 5 the remainder of the nineteenth century, from the extreme end. All around is beauti- hundreds of accounts of the cave were writ- ful woodland, forest trees and shrubbery, ten by visitors and published in journals, behind, a large garden. newspapers, and often lavishly illustrated The estate, a vast one, comprising books, all of which served to stimulate public 1700 acres, belonged to one Dr Croghan interest. Because Mammoth Cave was one of Louisville,13 and by him was willed to of the more difficult popular attractions to certain trustees, by them to be managed reach, the number of annual visitors did for the behoof of spendthrift heirs, who not exceed 2,000 until about 1860. Today, would with due drab and bottle, have long Mammoth Cave National Park draws nearly ere this, have dispossessed themselves of it, two million visitors each year, of whom more but for want of power. Mr. Miller, the agent than 500,000 tour the cave.10 here resident,14 was about, a brother in law, Although Thomas Butler Gunn never Coates reigned in his stead.15 Quite a way published his account of Mammoth Cave, out of the track of the world is the place, no his diary entries concerning his visit are town or hamlet for a score of miles, Kentucky richly detailed and the product of a keen wildwood, mountain and brake engirdling observer. The following extract is taken from you. Southern folk crowd the place during Volume 6 of his diaries, covering the period the sultry summer months, but we’re in the September 30 to October 5, 1853, begin- tail of the season and but a handful of visitors ning with his departure from Bell’s Tavern, a here. The long porticos were all uncrowded, landmark hotel not far from Mammoth Cave the sunlight basked on the luxuriant lawn that served as a gathering point for tourists and fine trees, and a little knot of idlers had bound for the cave.11 collected at the portal. [Transcript begins] 30. Friday. Uprising Two or three negro guides, or waiters, and breakfasting done, forthwith we enter a wooly-headed, black velvety skinned boy the Stage for the Cave. Through nine miles with his large white eyes, and four or five of leafy loveliness, up steep hillsides, through dogs, little and big, were waiting the advent green, wildly luxuriant valleys all tangled of any chance visitors. In an arm chair, with with wild-vine and creepers, by savage glade its back tilted against the wall, sat a good- Thomas Butler Gunn, self-portrait made in and over mountain we jolt onwards. But for looking young Southerner,16 idly cracking 1853 at about the time of his visit to Mammoth the atrocious stones in the road the place his whip, or criticising the horsemanship Gunn Diaries Cave. , Vol. 6, p 5. might have been a dream of Fairy land; the of an Irish retainer of the establishment, have time or energy to spare for extended autumnal leaf tints, the exquisite varying who was attempting to leap a horse over recreational pursuits. It was not until the shades of yellow, red, purple and black and a fence, in the field in front. Inscribing our 1820s and 1830s that circumstances in the the fresh green around were indescribably names on the hotel books, we borrowed new nation had evolved to foster a similar beautiful. And ever present the red clusters from a colored waiter (yclept St Clair) flannel passion for tourism by Americans. By this of sumach berries, with its not less brilliant jackets, of a yellow hue & caps and were put time, the construction of turnpikes and leaves. Nevertheless we were glad to descry under charge of Stephen for the descent in improved stagecoach service, navigation of and disembark at the Cave House.12 It is a the Cave.17 inland waterways by steamboats, building of long plain building two stories in heighth, Now this same guide is a notable fellow canals, and, soon to come, construction of and a lengthy wing projecting angle-wise in his way, and has identified himself with the railroads, led to a revolution in transportation that made formerly remote locations acces- sible. As an enhanced transportation system came into being, taverns, inns and hostelries sprang up along the roadsides and around destinations that assured travelers of relative safety and comfort away from home.9 Improved transportation was insuf- ficient in itself to spur American tourism without compelling destinations to draw visitors. Popular attractions are essentially cultural artifacts that have been created by the work of artists and writers through acts of painting them and describing them, and by the building of accommodations for visi- tors in their vicinity. During the antebellum era, the two most popular tourist attrac- tions were Niagara Falls and Mammoth Cave, both made culturally prominent by the large body of images and descriptions that established them as important destina- tions on the tourist itinerary. From the first The Cave House. Illustration by John W. Orr for Horace Martin, Pictorial Guide to the Mammoth published description of Mammoth Cave in Cave, Kentucky, (New York, 1851), frontispiece. A.I. George collection. The Cave House later 1810, “The Subterranean Voyage,” through became known as the Mammoth Cave Hotel.

6 NSS News, September 2018 place to such an extent that folk inquire for varying not much the twelve months round. him in special, esteeming themselves happy Winging our lamps, through the palpable in securing his services. He’s a picturesque obscure, and black and dark night we go, varlet, a bright yellowish, warm complex- the cave arch expands and is lost in gloom, ioned mulatto with jetty black curling hair and we’re in the Rotunda.25 A monstrous under his low crowned, wide brimmed hat; subterranean Vestibule, a hundred feet in bright eyes and sharp knowing glance. He height, two hundred in length & and one- sports a mustache, smokes eternally, and is hundred and fifty in width, roofed in by one altogether the sort of fellow Gavarin18 would vast rock, sans chink or crevice, save where like to sketch and Dumas to describe.19 Of at its borders a jagged cornice work may his other peculiarities more anon. He, with be observed. Monstrous rock buttresses are his fellows were born thralls to Dr Croghan, around, and from this huge oval-shaped hall are freed now, by his will, and in two years on either side two galleries diverge. But none or so will have earned money to transport of this could we descry through the murky them to Liberia.20 Stephen Bishop (that’s air, had not Stephen, (who has heretofore his whole name), has been about the cave sported one or two lines from Virgil which fifteen years, assisting to make most of the he has acquired parrot-fashion, un-knowing discoveries. their meaning) lit a Bengal light.26 Up it Off we start, for about the space of two sparkles, fizzing and flaring; the yawning hundred yards down a road, mulberry trees rock ribbs and giant boulders start out into overhead and around by the sloping hillside, grim distinctness, the great chamber in all which being pursued straight onwards leads its heighth, depth and hugeness is at once to Green River. But we, on the right turning though but for brief space seen. sharply, are now gazing downwards at the We pass on, turning neither to the right Cave’s mouth. A great, oval-shaped cavern nor the left. Great, black-walled Bat Room at the bottom of a ravine, rude rock-steps on the former (reflecting no ray of light from winding downwards from the front, under torch or lantern) lay unvisited; and equally Entrance to the Cave, View Taken from the the overarching rock strata. From the arches so, on the latter, Audubon’s Avenue, with Inside. Illustration by John Andrew for Horace Martin, Pictorial Guide to the Mammoth Cave, centre, issuing forth from pendant verdure its dimly seen roof, and wide space, its Kentucky, (New York, 1851), facing p. 19. A.I. and tree shrubbery, plashes down a spring of natural well and columnar stalagmites upris- George collection. In reality, the Cave Hotel bright water into a long trough below, behind ing to the roof, its mystic cloud like ceiling, could not be viewed from inside the entrance. which, and partially closing the entrance is a and entire length of a quarter of a mile.27 rough log hut (This used for a larder during Little Bat Room, a branch of it, pit 200 feet by the Gothic Avenue; would afford facility the summer’s heat).21 All about & above, wild deep, Bats in it in winter.28 But down the either for lookers on or performers in the vines and creepers hang, their fresh sun-lit Main cave29 we speed, Kentucky cliffs (thus bobbing, hopping, jigging, sliding, shuffling, green standing out deliciously from the hell- denominated from assumed semblance ‘twixt dodging, oscillating business yclept dancing. black night within. them and rocks on that named river)30 are Here follows a broad level road onwards. A chill blast of air from the Cavern’s passed and descending brief space we are in On the left is Willie’s spring, a pretty fluted 35 jaws welcomes us, as, our lamps having the Church.31 Another great hall, perchance niche, water worn, and small basin. This been procured from an adjacent, (formerly a hundred feet across, and sixty in height is so called from a clerical ass, who fiddle in habited, but now disused) building, down- and perched up on the left a rock pulpit; hand, strolled through the country, under the wards we go, Stephen, cigar in mouth, wherepon sermons have been preached, plagiarised title of “Wandering Willie”; and in leading the way. We now spy stones piled whether prompted by theological coxcombry sentimental boobyism, chose to rest a night up on either side of the way, and long wood or amiable intent to justify and screen slum- here. And just beyond are corn-cobs scat- pipes, heretofore used in conveying water ber thereby induced I know not. Methinks tered, remnants left by the oxen employed by farther on into the cave to hoppers used by however, that if an audience of Troglodytes the miners, and also a steep niche, from cave saltpeter makes. During the war of 1812 could be convened, some good might be ceiling to pit, perhaps thirty feet in depth, the profits of this manufacture set folks to effect by a Sermon in the Mammoth Cave. continual water plashings dripping down- extensive cave exploration; and the earth in Passing more banks of nitrous earth, wards into a large but inaccessible room. the Mammoth Cave, instinct with nitre was tracks of oxen, prints of wheels, made thirty Well Cave and Rock Cave are left used to good purpose, being purchased by years agone; by more Hoppers, leaching behind; and now looming out of the black- government contractors, Gratz & Wilkins vats, pipes, pump frames, and the like,32 ness on the right we see Giant’s Coffin. for that object.22 The war ending, prices we are in the Gothic Galleries. On either A huge stone Sarcophagus shaped mass, fell, and for manufacturing ends the Cave side here are caves, the one to the left, so distinct that mouldings could be seen was disused. Later, however, did miners, sand-choked is but penetrable for brief about its lid, fit burial spot for Polypheme desirous of raising a dollar or so, have done space, that to the right, entitled the Gothic [Polyphemus] after his love madness for 36 a little lixivating the nitrous earth, but they Avenue, joins the former by a gallery, stretch- Galatea. The white limestone forming it were solitary cases. ing sheer across the Main Cave.33 We are stands out clear & sharp from the gloom Onwards we go, through a long low now half a mile or so from the cave mouth. of the over arching cave beyond, and a cavernous strait the Narrows,23 passing to Reserving the wonders of Gothic Avenue sort of pit twixt it & the mound of rough reach it through a doorway in a rough stone for future exploration, we held on to the rocks in front aids the effect marvellously. wall, stretching cross wise athwart the cave.24 Ball Room, this named from its availability Immediately above, on the white ceiling is a The cave breath is chill and strong, but for subterranean terpsichorean34 gymnas- strangely shaped gypsum incrustation, like to slackens as we advance, until a temperately tics. A rock orchestra, a gallery stretching an Ant-Eater on a bough. And now we quit cold, tranquil atmosphere is around you, back towards the level of the embankment the Main Cave, branching off it a narrow,

NSS News, September 2018 7 partly retrograding passage behind the short space there; and back passing by Side brooding below shows where it had alit. Ugh! Coffin. Turning to the right we press onwards Saddle pit, 65 feet deep, irregularly shaped, what a fall! To go crashing down there, out for the Deserted Chambers, and enter a low, 20 feet long, but not over 8 wide. A brief of Life and Hope and Love! Albeit styled though spacious circular room, perhaps 100 walk farther and descent down a ladder from Bottomless, it is 120 feet from the bridge feet in diameter. It is the Wooden Bowls, so above, to the Labyrinth. Winding snake like level. The bridge being crossed, we speed called from that article being here found, at onwards, one end of this conducts us to along a devious passage for a space, and an early exploration.37 To the right, down a Gorin’s Dome.41 here, again two routes present themselves. ladder, and now the Steeps of Time, twenty Bidding as we go forwards till we come Deciding we entered, crouching low, the feet in space, are passed.38 to an oval space, there to look, but by no Valley of Humility, past the Scotchman’s We are now in the Deserted Chambers.39 means get through, Stephen starts off to the Trap, (a huge slab as if placed for capturing, Mocassin tracks have been found here, as right. We gaze out, and above dimly descry so called after Donaldson)44 through a sand elsewhere.40 Arriving at Richardsons spring, an overarching dome, below a black and embankment, into the Winding Way, or Fat a little pool of clear water, Stephen here terrible abyss. Right across in front of us, in Man’s Misery. deposits our dinner basket, as we intend sharp clear cut grooves, suddenly abruptly ‘Tis a low, serpentine passage through here to feed on returning - with unforeseen ending a great screen of hanging limestone a winding cave perhaps a hundred feet long, result, as will here after appear. Along the is seen. But a fizz is heard and bright glare and scarcely a foot and half wide. Heaven Cavernous Archway we speed, noticing a of light rises from the boulders to the right knows what pre-Adamite days witnessed the small branching passage to the left leading to of the pit, and in a minute the whole place is mining, eddying whirls of the black subter- Covered Pit. This ugly hole is some twelve or illumed. Up flaring in clear cold light it burns, ranean rivers which excavated all these awful more feet across, lidded over by a thin rock dancing on the fluted rock screen, the jagged caves. Here they must have rushed, roared strata, a rock mass resting in its centre, and cliffs and boulders below, the fearful gulf slop- and surged in the darkness! Emerging with down below we hear water plashing. But a ing sheer, straight downwards from where no small satisfaction into Great Relief Hall, we gaze, all eye, there to stand upright again, in its ample awe, and admira- space we turn to the right, making for River tion. From Shelby’s Hall, at a hundred yards distance. Here anon dome, above, to the we reach Bacon Chamber, the low spacious bottom abyss ‘tis 160 ceiling of which is all covered with strangely feet.42 Quitting this, shaped rock pendants, like unto geologic we ascend a ladder, bones, petrified, canvas-covered swines’ and proceed towards flesh, in varying joints. It must have been the Bottomless Pit, water-worn in the rock, which may have which ends the offered more or less resistance, according range of Deserted to its hardness. Chambers, which are From the right here branches forth an half a mile in length avenue to the Mammoth Dome, the hugest from their starting one in this subterranean world.45 A vast place. hall, black as Erebus46 three hundred feet Across this awful by a hundred in diameter, two hundred in pit no human foot height; standing high as the loosely piled had ever sped, until rock floor you may feel the awful pall of a Georgian gentle- darkness blanking out all light, life, and man, and Stephen, creation, even as though they has passed by means of a ladder away for evermore. Black-brooding Night crossed the black rests solemnly, intensely, terribly on you. chasm, twenty feet in A place where Time, and Space exist not, width, and over two where the Majesty of Darkness is everything. hundred in depth.43 A rapid, painful, burning brain-pulsation, a A bridge with stout feeling of utter insignificance and awe are handrail from an with you. Fit place for the Titan-born twins outstretching point Otus and Ephialtes to hold the bateless god of now gives easier blood captive, fit place for Ares to lie prone access, and although in brazen chains, threefold bound at their it creaks and vibrates feet, as in Flaxman’s47 drawing. is safe enough. Paper But back speeding, we from River Hall saturated with oil is approach the Dead Sea. Fast grip on the iron ignited and dropped handrail now (very necessarily here placed), flickering down; and for the slippery rock, down-sloping, glides one’s hair bristles off into a murky pool thirty feet below, some with horror as lower, two and twenty deep. But for aught you see lower down it falls, it may be twenty fathom, and with sullen till a faint sparkle in plunge and dismal plash go the stones we the murk midnight hurl over to its bottom. A steep ladder next, and turn holding to each round down we go; Gorin’s Dome. Illustration by French landscape artist and early aeronaut balloonist Albert Tissandier, in Six Mois aux États-Unis, (Paris, 1886), 54. A.I. and so deviously for a few steps round a rock George collection. corner, an ugly bit, for the rock floor slopes

8 NSS News, September 2018 horribly, and you have the full consciousness do not (you fancy) reach of what is below, in mind. But ‘tis done, and sheer up to the ceiling we near the rivers. To the right flows Styx,48 which, like a midnight unseen, though over it we pass (after thread- firmament seen from ing a rough avenue), on the so-called Natural the depths of a ravine, Bridge, a chaos of rocks fallen from above, broods over you. But it is and before us, on the left hand, approached but that the ribbed rocks by a muddy slope lies Lethe’s sluggish pool.49 are of lighter hue than Just beyond the bridge the rivers join, though the gypsum covered roof not from any observation of my own could where small and multi- I have made the discovery. tudinous bits having These so-called rivers and Lakes are dropped off have besprin- but deep pools, in the very lowest part of kled this subterranean sky the cave; they rise and fall with the Green with innumerable stars. River, though how, or through what cranny A more marvellous and and fissure communicating is not known. perfect illusion can not be But their level varies not above two feet from conceived. In this describ- that of Green River, ever.50 A party were on ing it, I think of it as the ahead, exploring the wonders beyond the reality of that which it is Rivers, and in I should have at once have but the similitude - that proceeded, but that my companions could solemn star-bespangled spare but limited time, and wished to return firmament may, for all by the stage of this same afternoon. So I the gazer knows (as his postponed Troglodyzing further, and turn- back against the rock ing back we sought the Deserted Chambers wall he stares upwards), for lunch. be at an immensity of But reaching Richardson’s Spring, distance overhead. and Stephen examining his basket, lo! the Meantime, taking our cold food therein deposited had vanished, lamps, Stephen crosses and naught but fragmentary bread scraps the hall, and disappears remained. The rats were the thieves. I then in an unseen cavity in the imagined, either that the said food was a floor. Dimmer becomes myth, or that Stephen had made cats paws the lamp glare, and as we Discovered by Stephen Bishop in November 1840, rising 192 feet of apochyrphal [sic] rats for the occasion; gaze aloft, blackly passing Mammoth Dome is the largest and highest void in the cave. Source: with injustice however, for on subsequent athwart that solemn sky Harper’s Weekly, Supplement, October 28, 1876, p. 881 occasions I saw rats at this very place. Some overhead goes a slow laughter and drollery and a few niggerish thunder cloud - Stephens’ hand over the imprecations followed, and then we rose to lamp! Anon blackness rushes down upon Dr Brodnax mounts the stage and is off. I see further, for an hour or so yet remained us, overwhelming and overpowering, a fraternize with the only two folk left, one ere stage departure. darkness that may be felt, and thus we stand a Maine man, who leaves on the morrow, Back to the Main Cave we sped, reach- till a lamp dawn afar behind from the other and a young Louisianan, the good looking ing it where heretofore we had branched off end of the crevice passage which the guide Southerner heretofore spoken of (and of by the Giant’s Coffin. An abrupt, acute angle has passed through. This “Star Chamber whom plenty anon) and talk by a wood fire of rock passed the road turning sharp to the business” is perchance the very finest thing till nigh midnight with the former, and then left we, after duly noting gypsum incrusta- in the Mammoth Cave. to bed, intending more Cave exploration on tions in fancifully shaped Giant and Pigmy On proceeding, over the rough loose the morrow. on the ceiling enter the Sick Room. Two stones, the Mackarel Ceiling and Floating 1st of October. Saturday. It had rained roofless huts, stone-built, stand here. And Clouds overhead, we pass through the hard and fast all the night, and the leaves here, and in some dozen others (frame built Banquet Hall (Branching off here, unvisited overhead were dank with moisture, and the and now pulled down for hotel uses), fifteen by us, lie the Black Chambers, wild savage sky overclouded as I Stephen alone accompa- years back did consumption-smitten mortals scenery, forming an avenue a mile and nying again descended into the Cave Mouth. live, in hope to ‘scape the King of Terrors, a half in length, then abruptly terminat- Whether the passage across the river would it being hoped and asserted that the Cave ing). And Solitary Cave, small but full of be practicable we knew not, but intended atmosphere might prove beneficial. From fine stalactytes is also undisturbed, and I making trial. Not much time was devoted differing states they came, in various stages know not what other places hereabouts. to the objects on our way, as heretofore. of disease, some abiding months here, one Salts, gypsum, quartz and ochre are here Stephen kept on, I following, and we came two years in dreary torchlight hope. But by found. But we approach the end of the to Lake Lethe in due time. It had risen mate- one died, the faith in darkness and cave Main Cave - 4-1/2 miles from its entrance. rially, and he at once doubted effecting the atmosphere with him, and they all fled to Passing a Cascade we are in the Chief City passage; nevertheless unto the wet, dirty, live or die as might be in the sunlight and air or Temple, a monstrous room, where stand- flat boat we entered, after much baling out above. Naught remains but the two roofless ing on a great mountain of stones we may of water had been done on Stephen’s part. huts and the story.51 learn that ‘tis 900 feet long, 300 wide, and Both lamps were placed on the prow, and Now we enter on the Star Chamber - a 100 in height. And now we turn backwards, I standing erect, Stephen paddle in hand, long lofty hall, perhaps 60 feet high, the to the gladsome day, and a hearty meal at guides the boat onwards. Sheer up on massy rock walls on either side of which the Cave Hotel, at the expiration of which either side, sans beach or margin, rise the

NSS News, September 2018 9 tion might still have present condition. There is also a winding been effected but the tortuous avenue by which you can get to the boats were visibly here, bottom of the Bottomless Pit, the which I’m and we couldn’t have now sorry I didn’t do. got one across to Echo Upwards of an hour thus spent we River. So my explo- ascended to the Bridge, and crossing it, ration had yet to be entered Penseco Avenue. Through Wild Hall deferred. We freed the (with the gypsum incrusted ceiling preceding submerged boat with it), Snow Ball Arch, some 10 feet wide, 8 some difficulty, and high, with small ball like incrustations depen- then after some gettings dant from its roof, to the Great Crossings. out as mud banks in the Here two galleries intersect at right angles, Great Walk, returned, and the stone strata connecting the upper and disembarked. The galleries having fallen downwards, a Bengal day was yet young and light being fired all around looks drastically, therefore determined, savagely grand. (I’m wrong in stating they if barred access to the cross at right angles - in plan these galleries subterranean world represent a figure 8). On proceeding we beyond these black find a region of Stalagmites and Stalactites pools to explore more (the former having fallen on and uprisen fully on the other side. from the floor, the latter still dependant). So to the Pine Apple Bush and the Devil’s Pulpit, the Bottomless Pit we names of which explain their character are sped, this time issu- here. Some of the stalag and stalactites are ing at an opening into so crystallized as to be almost pure alabaster, some distance below and lit up in the lamp glare held behind them, the former one. Here, look beautiful. Angelica’s Grottos end this sitting on a monstrous Avenue, which is about a mile in length from projecting rock chair, the bridge over the Bottomless Pit. the black void below Again we retrace our steps, for Gothic did we converse Avenue, branching off from the Main Cave and smoke sociably, at about half a mile from the entrance, is Stephen romancing yet to be visited.54 Up a flight of steps into not a little touching his a wide passageway, which pursued for a discoveries, risks and space brings us into the Haunted Chambers, adventures; how he had so called from an incident here occurring clambered, descended, during the Salt-petre making time. A young The River Styx. Illustration by John Andrew for Horace Martin, Pictorial and explored, being fellow getting lost, and here remaining for Guide to the Mammoth Cave, Kentucky, (New York, 1851), facing p. 61. veritably the Columbus some time, got so horribly affrighted that A.I. George collection. of the Cave. Anon on the appearance of his negro comrades we fell to routing and with torches for his rescue, he incontinently rocks out of the grisly pool over which we rummaging at a hole in the rock floor, and imagined that he was already defunct and in glide. Above, the ceiling can be dimly seen, telling me how there were fearful pits and hell, and fiends approaching to his torment. and when either of us lift up our voices and hollars of unknown and unascertainable In this place Indian mummies have been sing, solemn sonorous echo reverberations depths on every side of us, he with attentive, found,55 one with highly ornamented garm- roll through the caverns, even as if strange earnest look, pitched a stone downwards. ture,56 skins, bark woven articles, snake spirits brooded on the black ledges eternally, “Listen!” said he, “did you hear how far skins, eagle’s claws and I wot57 now how and were answering our invocations.52 The it went?” “About five feet, I should say” much more Indian finery. river winds, blackness closing on us behind, quoth I. He attempted denial, and repeated On-speeding, we pass stalactites, one and 150 yards have been passed over. And the experiment again and again, but I was if stricken sounding like to a bell’s note now we ought to be at the Great Walk, still stubborn in speaking my conviction. (broken heretofore by a clamor-loving disembarking here to pass to where another So with more routing the crevice was at Pennsylvanian), and our footsteps re-echoing boat awaits us on Echo River. But it is all full length cleared of the loose stones which had hollowly (for we tread on caverns!) we enter of water. The river has risen indeed! blockaded it, and half-burying his body in the stalagmite and stalactite decorated Louisa’s On we keep and now before us, block- essay he managed to pitch a stone in. In the Bower. Post Oak Pillar is next, a rare stone- ading the way are two boats, one almost dead silence I listened intensely, and heard it impregnated water petrifaction, up rising wholly submerged, one end being past under go knock! knock in its progress downwards, and down hanging, and then we enter the a low arch on the right. Through this arch decreasing in sound at each leap, till it had Register Rooms, Old and New. The white- we should have had to pass, but ‘twas filled, passed out of hearing, nor yet reached the ness of the ceilings of these avenues has covered by the risen water.53 There was a bottom of that awful fissure, which might been villainously smirched and befouled by little horror in the notion that there lay the have reached to the earth’s centre for aught nobodies names executed in lamp smoke, passage intended, albeit had a boat been I knew. ‘Twas a very successful bit of the hence their appelation. awaiting us on the other side of Purgatory, horrible, knowing the whilst that you were Gothic Chapel follows, an extensive a rough rock passage which we ought to over this pit, on certain rock masses which and exquisite mimicry of architectural have reached by keeping on. The explora- had, earthquake shaken, tumbled into their handiwork. ‘Tis a large elliptically-shaped

10 NSS News, September 2018 room, at either end screened off by great turned back towards daylight and the upper miles of caverns on the other side; but Green stalagmite columns; others also, beautiful world, I keeping on with the party. Nothing River being carefully watched, any persons exceedingly rising from the floor to roughly new however was noted, excepting a low there exploring might be warned in time. ribbed and groined arches, variously hued. arched cave adjacent to (if I recollect rightly) A very small rise fills up the low arches, Asses twain (two legged ones) were wed Penseco Avenue, where crawling under for but one of twelve feet would be required to here, once, thinking perchance they did a some space, we procured pieces of ochre.61 close up the avenue of Purgatory. Were it notable thing, as if any-body couldn’t effect At the Cave Hotel by 4 in the after- thus closed at the commencement of rains it. In one of the great stalagmite columns is noon, quite a party assembled around the or floods, luckless mortals on the other side a rough seat, dubbed Wilkin’s or the Devil’s well furnished supper table. Mr. Miller, the must perforce tarry there, no other outlet Arm Chair, the former appelation it was landlord, had returned, a true gentleman, being available. from a past owner of the Cave.58 Here (if quietly courteous in everything, and to an October 2. Sunday. With Kellam and you let him) Stephen will say Eliza Cook’s accurate knowledge of the Cave equalling Stephen set off, as yesterday agreed upon, trash about embalming a chair with tears that of any guide adding much and varied to explore White’s Cave, a minor attrac- and be-dewing it with sighs.59 The fellow information far above their dubiously reliable tion, not generally visited, in the vicinity.64 has a pleasant, mellowish voice, and uses traditions. There are four guides, all niggers. Like Knights Templars we bestrode our it indifferently well. Vulcan’s Forge, roughly Three of them are still slaves, but will all by horse, Stephen walking beside us bearing shaped like one, Napoleon’s Breastworks, Croghan’s will, sooner or later be transmitted the lamps. Less than a mile of forest road or Scott, or Taylor’s Breastworks, for they to Liberia, whether Stephen will go in two brought us to the place, where the cave were indifferently called either. I prefer the years time. He is now earning the money mouth almost hidden by pendant vines and latter twain, as I see no reason for giving the for it. His former owner was his father. The greenery, pierced a hill side, threes above Scoundrel Corsican preference over honest constant newspaper glorification of Stephen and all around. Dismounting, downwards we men. A rock embankment, like to military together with the Latin scraps he’d picked up crept, attired in cave costume, and swinging work, of some length. the Elephant’s Head, have made him a Cave lion, and therefore our lamps as usual. At this place I have no a stalactite mass, thus shaped, sans trunk, the other three good fellows are snubbed detail of nomenclature and varying peculiar- dependant from above, Hercules Pillars, and into comparative insignificance, all visitors ity to give, for unique and singularly beautiful the Lover’s Leap. The latter, a sharp pointed being eager for Stephen’s guidance; whereas as it is, it’s but one cavern, a thousand feet rock out-jutting into a black rotunda-pit is the others troglodyze just as well, sans the long from entrance to end partially divided in notable to look upon - of course no lover ever display of vanities and self will and harmless twain by a wondrous screen of stalactites and did jump from it, hence its name. braggadocio. Mat, says Mr Miller, is the only stalagmites; which petrified rock-drippings To the right, downwards we go through one whose word he can thoroughly depend and adamantine icicles indeed are around on Elbow Crevice, a narrow pass, but 3 feet on. Round a blazing wood fire, Mr. M, the every side. From the whole roof they depend, wide, though 50 high, winding under the good-looking young Southerner, hight Oliver hard but translucent, slender, long, massive, avenue we have just left (But of this being Kellam, and I sat sociably smoking far into fantastically shaped, varying ever, strangely the avenue I’m not certain - I think there’s the night. beautiful as a dream. Nor this alone, for two here and it may be the one leading to Nought worse than a sprained ankle the floor is all worn into winding, shell-like, the right). Bonaparte’s Dome, and before it has occurred in cave peregrinations. Folk continuous curves, the hard, sharp clear-cut The Cooling Tub, a water filled basin, deep have been lost for varying times, once for and long enow for a bath. The Cinder Banks, a drearily-passed forty-eight hours,62 but a massy cinder-like heap, dark colored, just discovery has always ended the horror of below the Forge of Vulcan, above. Lake it. Once owing to some fools conduct on Purity ends this avenue. ‘Tis a clear, fresh the part of a girl a boat was sunken on water pool, shallow, but 12 or 15 feet Echo River. The party, a wedding one from in length, and in its pure waters swims a Bowlingreen (a little town hereabouts), were solitary eyeless fish, here brought from the wetted by three feet of water, their lights Echo River, the most solitary thing I fancy extinguished, themselves horribly scared, in this world, equalling the “Man who first but presently landed on a rock platform by discovered himself to be an Atheist.”60 This the exertions of guide Nicholas. And then he Avenue extends for about the space of a contrived to raise the boat, bale it out and get mile from the entrance from the Main Cave. the party back, though in the darkness, to And now, retracing our steps to the be rescued by Stephen, sent in by Mr Miller, Deserted Chambers and Richardson’s who found that Green River was rising, and Spring, we there took dinner, the basket was anxious about the safety of the visitors.63 containing which having, this time, been There’s in reality little chance of danger in hung from a projecting rock ledge, was unap- the Cave, excepting from an overcrowded proachable by the rats, two or three of which boat and folly on the part of its occupants. we saw as we sat, eating. They ran about in Were one to sink in the deeper parts of side holes and winding crevices and though Echo River, inevitable, unspeakably horrible assailed by Stephen were uncaptured. Mutual death would result to all; the bravest swim- cigars finished our meal, and lights approach- mer might strike out in that ice-cold water ing near intimated another party, under the and Cimmerian blackness, clutching at slimy convoy of guide Alfred. A clergyman and his rocks offering no grip or landing place, and wife, from the banks of the Hudson, another all in vain. The streams wind and turn that woman, and two or three men. They wished even a guide would have but little chance. Devil’s Armchair. Illustration by W.L.S. for “Notes on Kentucky and Tennessee,” for Stephen’s company, but he after some And these Rivers might rise, as during Winter Scribner’s Monthly 9(December 1874), 131. A.I. hundred yards and a latin quotation or so, and Spring they do, barring access to the George collection.

NSS News, September 2018 11 ere we met them, so he turned back, accom- panying his friends, I keeping on with Alfred. It was a sunny, exhilarating afternoon, and pleasant riding through the forest road despite rocks and consequent joltings. Alfred drew up and tarried for half an hour at a farm house, where his wife was visiting; and when he again started, a negro woman bore him company for some space, she on horseback also.68 Having parted from her, we at another house were joined by a boy and two young fellows, who proceeded with us to the Cave Entrance, which lies, as usual, on a rocky hill side, but quite out of the way of road or path, so you have to ride through the forest for some hundreds of yards to reach it. Dismounting, and preparing our lamps, one of the young fellows (more boy than man) was inclined to venture with us, but on his expressing a mild apprehension that we might be “lost,” Alfred was so desper- ately ironical at the notion that he speedily convinced me he didn’t know much of this place. It is scarcely ever visited, presenting no very great attractions in points of curiousity; there hadn’t been an explorer for years two or three, so they told me. Boy deciding to go, down we clambered, descending a very steep and hazardous declivity, over loose rock, presenting every unpleasant variety of sharp angles upwards. I doubt if it could have been managed but for a stout and very long vine-stem which was fastened above to Unidentified black guide leading tourists in Mammoth Cave, illustrated by Hammatt Billings for hold on by. “State of Kentucky,” Ballou’s Pictorial Drawing-Room Companion, 11(November 29, 1856), 337. A.I. George collection. This Cave I shall not attempt to describe in detail, nor indeed could I. Three avenues branch off from the entrance hall, at some rock ridges serpentining hither and thither, beautiful all. Towards the farther parts of the little distance from the mouth, each of which up, down, in and out in the strangest fashion. Cavern, these feature become fewer, rough we severally explored. They are very wild, The hollows between filled with bright clear cave above and below, and an ascent over gloomy, and savage, huge chaotic rock piles ice-cold water, now deep enough to cover loose rough rock-masses, rather steep has have to be clambered over; long avenues arm to elbow joint, now shallow enow to be to be effected. Stalactites and stalagmites monotonous and wearisome threaded to bottomed by finger-point. appear again, if I recollect at the end, though the sounds of the shrill gibber of myriads of For unguessable centuries here hath of no very extraordinary size or beauty. bats which cluster, hanging head downwards Nature been silently at work at this strange Returning to the Hotel (where our in close bunches of about twenty or thirty, witchery, and with what wonderous result! I clerical friend had been favouring the folks from the ceiling. Like thick black knots of never saw, imagined, dreamed of, aught like with a sermon in the big ball room above) moss they bespeck the roof for half a mile to it, and for many an hour, when thought- we dined; and an hour so subsequently set together, all the winter; and their querulous ful many thousands of miles away, will the off on horseback, under the guidance of gibber was strange and solemn to listen to, as remembrance haunt me, that there, amid Alfred to explore Long’s Cave, at about we sped on, disturbing them with our lamp- wild Kentucky Hills, in darkness and with five miles distance.66 Stephen was sick, glare. Some stalactites there are, and queer, forests above lies the unspeakable beauty of having complained of indisposition during fantastically shaped, water worn niches, or White’s Cave. Well now can I understand the the last day or two. Alfred, having admitted figures, idol or monkey shaped; and some inspiration which produced Bird’s “Merry the he had been in the Cave in question once black, terrible pits. One of these, respect- Miner.”65 Hanging our lantherns behind the before, consented, though a little unwillingly ing which Bird tells a story69 of two men central screen, the effect was indescribable. (indeed the good fellows do have enough of getting here lost, their lights extinguished, On the rounded, spear-shaped, transpar- troglodyzing on week days) to accompany themselves disputing as to which way lay ent rock icicles the light glistened on the me. Kellam was persuaded to go though the path outwards, and one crawling as great down-hanging stalactite masses which not intending exploring but only awaiting us. being precipitated down an abyss and there meeting in marriage-petrification with the He, having seen the Mammoth Cave to his perished by the fall, I wished to find. Alfred stalagmites below form strange columnar satisfaction, was tarrying the advent of two pointed out one pit as the place, but it was shapes, on the pools and thin rock curves of friends from Georgetown, Kentucky, then to comparatively speaking shallow, and no-wise the floor, on distant hollows where stalactites proceed with them, and certain mares down answered the description I had in mind about dimly seen beyond stalactites indicate inac- south, by land, to his Louisiana home.67 And it, so though he took it in dudgeon I denied ceptably minute winding ways; wondrously we had not cantered above a mile and a half the identity. And on reaching the third

12 NSS News, September 2018 avenue, a short one, it was plain I (and the man propelling us onwards by the light of our right, and again joining the Gallery, to Ole boy, also) were right. three lamps placed on the fore-plank; now Bull’s Concert Hall, where that ingenious Here a great pit stretched right across using his paddle, now with hands upon the Norwegian did, it is said, once draw forth the cave, barring all access further, save low ceiling as motive power. Low curving the inspiriting strains from his inspired cat- by descent.70 The approach to the edge arch bent over our squatting forms, to meet gut.75 On the left we spy a great rock-mass slopes upwards, thence the horrible chasm the dismal pool on either side, in the liquid fancifully shaped like to the stern of a sinks precipitously down, for sixty or fifty blackness of which our lanthern glare was vessel, the Great Western, as ‘tis called.76 feet. Alfred descended by means of a pine redly reflected. The waters were scarcely a Another, adjacent, though smaller, whimsi- tree, which with its branches lopped off finger’s length from the gunwale of the boat, cally like a Sitting Rabbit. Hereabouts ends form a rough ladder, for the recovery of deep withal, no shore or projection visible. Sillimans Avenue, and the Pass of El Ghor the poor fellows body years ago. Mr Miller That was a solemnly passed five minutes, to commences. In part of this the path serpen- had mentioned it to me. You can go some crouch down with the pitiless rock pressing tines beside a wildly piles mass of titanic hundred yards below, then the avenue ends. over you, the horrible waters below, solid fragments of rock which have fallen from The margin above runs on to the left of the blackness before and behind, and to think above, a Stonehenge thrown down about the pit for little space, like a path, but ending of green trees and birds and bright sunlight ears of the Troglodytes. One place you stoop suddenly. A sombre, gloomy place. Alfred high up over you, as Schiller has it: under with a shudder, a monstrous slab called found the body of an unfortunate racoon “To think of light and air above The Hanging Rock, sustained only by two below, who had toppled over in the dark, Of Human Voices and Human Love”72 points. Anon an Ugly Hole is espied, named breaking his nose and ending his life at one after the fatal one of Calcutta,77 but 13 feet and the same time. He had not rotted, but Right glad was I to round to where deep, though sombre enough in appearance looked mummified and his teeth grinned the other twain awaited us, yet I would not to be 30. To the right too, is a rock imitation dismally. We left him, depriving him of part willingly have missed that grisly ferry-path. of a gigantic Kings crown, the rock mimicry of his tail. Of the length of these subterranean rivers is of the ornaments of the golden rigol78 It was night when we got to the outer difficult to judge, so prone are you to imagine being very curious. And now, we’ve been world (the Cave may be 4 or 5 miles in them longer than they are. Lake Lethe (Mr doing an hours walking, we reach Hebe’s length) and we had a dark ride back to the Miller is my authority) is 150 yards at low Spring, strongly, and to my thinking, nastily Hotel, there to supper, a blazing fires and an water, when boats are kept at its entrance, impregnated with sulphur.79 Nevertheless evening with Kellam and his friends.71 and at the first Arch. In high water at the being thirsty we drank of it, some copiously. 3. Monday. As yesterday planned Second and Third (where Purgatory and I must not forget to mention that the snow a party of four made up for the entire Echo River join) crossing Echo River from white crystalized gypsum in the ceilings of exploration of the Mammoth Cave. Others, the arch to the end you pass over 600 yards some of these caverns give them a pretty the clergyman, his wife and two or three space. The eyeless fish are caught here, fanciful appearance. Hebe’s Spring, to all intended only to visit the regions this side of eyeless crawfish also. Some of the former I appearance finishes the Cavern. the rivers, under the guidance of Nicholas; saw at the New York Crystal Palace;73 they But what of this steep ladder which Kellam & his friends and myself determined are white, about five inches in length, sans all we have just, with difficulty passed (for the on crossing, did the rivers permit. No rains wrinkle or intimation of sight, as may well be, way is here horribly narrow) in getting to had occurred since Saturday, nevertheless a generation of fish succeeding generation in the Spring? Why, up it, you have to go for had not Mr Miller accompanied us, Alfred, these rayless caverns. That there’s unknown 20 feet or so, to new subterranean worlds indeed any of the guides would have done all cavernous communication, larger than crev- beyond. And up it, not without hard squeez- possible to have avoided crossing, as it would ices and dripping places, with Green River ing you mount, the jagged rocks pressing on involve wet feet and wading disagreeables. is also made manifest by the fact that these you all around, till you scramble into Martha’s As ‘twas they made such objection, but it eyeless fish have been caught in the river. Vineyard. Here the roof incrustations mimic was quietly overruled, and leaving the other But to our journey. Landing at the other clustering bundles of grapes, carbonate of party behind, we four (Mr Miller accompany- side of Echo River, we pass through a dark lime and sulphur drippings being the mate- ing us until we were safe on our way) were filthy region, rendered so by the recent rising rials of this geologic Bacchanal domain. presently on Lethe. Winding along, the of the waters. The rocks over which we Olindo [sic: Elindo] Avenue is next, including black void above, and by the overhanging progressed were all coated with dark mud; it Washington’s Hall, a spacious and beautiful cliffs, rock islets and promontories, we held covered the jagged side walls, the ledges, and cavern; its roof all gemmed with gypsum our way. The first arch was now visible, but holes, all seemed mud in intermediate prog- concretions, rosette shaped, laminated, or barely practicable, the Great Walk still half ress toward becoming rock. Silliman’s long curled into flower bosses, and other curiously submerged, necessitating much jumping and Avenue, over a mile in length (and so called exquisite geologic prettinesses, which can even wading, and my boots were speedily after the Professor of that name)74 follows be and are much damaged by the paws of filled with water. Clay’s Cave, in which are the Rivers. ‘Twas at curiousity gapers. The floor of this cavern is Echo River being reached in safety, first monotonous and filthy. A cascade dimly rough, and rock strewn, and as visitors gener- Mr Miller and another attache of the Hotel, seen to the right, rushing down with angry ally dine here there are plenty of deposits of who had accompanyed us, turned back. roar indicated Cascade Hall, Wellington’s mildewed ham, bread and chicken bones. We, embarking in another boat held on, Gallery and the Infernal Regions follow. And Also a foolish pile of stones with dampened and another landing place being reached, about here, on huge mud covered slabs of fragments of papers and silly names of sillier Alfred intimated he was about to go under rock, chaotically piled on every side, we ate nobodies writ upon them. the second arch; inquiring who wished to a hearty dinner, picking chicken-limbs with There is an avenue here, branching accompany him, and who would foot it great content and demolishing cold lies. off to the right, leading to a grotto called through Purgatory. I preferred the watery With lightened spirits and heavier stom- Marian’s cabinet, with pretty roof incrus- way, as did Maurice Keene, one of Kellam’s achs, onwards we then sped. Through, or tations, and a side cut, hight The Lover’s Kentuckian born friends. So, crawling low by, Stephens Galleries; noticing the Valley Retreat, leading to Paradise. This amorously under the black arch we glide, our sable boat- way, a winding side cut turning off to the named avenue is a tortuous winding one,

NSS News, September 2018 13 unexplored (it presents but a range of Rocky Mountains) and by 7 or so we saw the stars and heaven’s vault again. Two and twenty miles cave walking, creeping, climbing and crawling had we done. I was wet to my knees, somewhat cut and bruised, my sturdy boots torn irrecoverably, not very tired, but satisfied with the Underground World. 4. Wednesday. Passed indoors, in my room, for the most part, writing. At evening by the cheery wood fire below, with Kellam and his friends. They, having made another Cave visit today, start for Louisiana on the morrow, and Kellam again renewing an invitation he had before made, that I should accompany them it was cordially seconded by the other two. [Transcript ends] Thomas Butler Gunn and his new friends, Oliver Kellam, Keene Richards and Morris Keene, rode southwest after leaving Mammoth Cave on October 5, passing through Tennessee and Alabama during the next two weeks and crossing into the state of Mississippi on October 19. Gunn recorded The Maelstrom. Illustration by John Brewer for “The Mammoth Cave of Kentucky,” The Illustrated long, hot, dusty miles on the road with but London News, 34(March 5, 1859), 221. A.I. George collection. rough accommodations at day’s end, usually putting up for the night in the ramshackle about three or four feet high, and people rent and distorted rocks around; a mount home of some rural dweller. They crossed the have to progress tripodically, lamp being of sharp edged, angular, wickedly-shaped state in nine days, through vast cotton fields carried in fore paw. This avenue is 1-1/2 stones a hundred feet in height to be first and swamps, and finally reached the east miles in length. But pursuing the regular line ascended, then descended, for the Rock bank of the Mississippi River on the evening of march, from Washington’s Hall, through Mountains run sheer across the avenue. An of October 28. Locating a boat and willing the Snow ball rooms, the whole low ceiling ugly bit of travelling, where I got about my boatmen, the three young men and their of which is covered by gypsum incrusta- twentieth fall. Upwards from the Dismal horses were ferried across to the Lousiana tions like to damaged snow balls. Mary’s Hollow we climbed, and pursued our way side, debarking on the lands of Transylvania Bower and Virginia’s Festoon follow, also up the avenue straight ahead. Ten minutes Plantation owned by Richard’s grandfather. a deep cross fissure in the nipple-studded or less brought us to where a very hazard- Gunn stayed at Transylvania for two Mammiliary Ceiling. The last Rose of ous descent down dank rocks on our left weeks, exploring this and neighboring Summer is another sentimentally named conducted us to Serena’s dome or arbour, plantations in company with his friends, on prettiness. A short avenue turns off here a very well of place with beautiful stalactites October 31 recording that the “free and easy to the right leading to the Grotto of Egeria. and stalagmites, surround a little Spring, ways, and pleasant people will not easily But we now enter Cleveland’s Cabinet, hight Medora’s. Like unclarified ice, of a pass from my memory.” Yet here Gunn was which includes, I think, the two miles to the yellowish color, sometimes solid, sometimes confronted with the reality of slavery in the end of the cave. A wide avenue, not very hollow, they drip, depend and rise, stone Deep South, and found it profoundly disturb- high, its ceilings all curious with carbonate impregnated water drops hanging from ing. As an English visitor whose American and sulphate of lime mimicries; Acanthus their solid icicle-like points. Their beauty is travels had, to this point, been confined leaves, roses, lilies, leaves, shrubs and I wot however much marred by the dank yellow- mainly to the northern section, Gunn’s views not what else. Diamond Grotto is studded ish mud coating covering them. Standing in on the slavery issue, like many educated with bright sparkling points, which wink this pit like spot, shut in as it were, for the Englishmen and Northerners of his class, had and glisten in the lamp glare, rarely; Saint ascent is high and almost steep as a wall, largely been ambivalent. His perception of Cecilia’s grotto with curious crystallizations, and knowing ‘tis the End of the Mammoth the inherent mental inferiority of blacks had some containing Epsom Salts. Charlotte’s Cave is a sensation in its way, something to tainted his view of the cave guide Stephen Grotto (so named by Stephen in honor of his be remembered. Bishop to the point where he had been wife) is also beautifully fantastic.80 All these Back returning to Dismal Hollow we unwilling to accept that Stephen possessed, names I may have not given in their proper now go to the left avenue, Croghan’s not just intimate knowledge of the cave order - ‘tis difficult to do so, even for those Hall,81 a huge one in dimensions, with environment, but an education that allowed who know the Cave thoroughly. more stalagmites and stalactites, a screen him to discourse knowledgeably upon the These grotto avenues past, you issue of them barring all progress further. There geology of the cave and to select quotations forth on a savage mass of loosely piled is a hideous pit here, to the right, perhaps from Greek and Roman classics that were rocks, hight the Rocky Mountains. The bluish the deepest throughout the whole range appropriate to the circumstances.83 glare of a Bengal light shows a vast cavern, of caves, and into its black abysses a sooty Gunn, after being confined to bed the remembrance of which might make a cascade rushes roaring down unseen from with a fever for a week’s time, digesting all Nightmare more horrible. To the right and the roof behind.82 Ugh! to listen there to that he had seen of plantation life, finally left, and straight before you, it stretches off its sullen continuous plunge downwards. departed up the Mississippi River by steam- into blackness, colossal, jagged and hideously Back we turned, leaving the right avenue boat on November 12. In the years ahead,

14 NSS News, September 2018 his personal views on slavery, as expressed Edition,” [Alexander C. Bullitt], Rambles in about eight miles from Mammoth Cave. The in a multitude of diary entries, hardened into the Mammoth Cave During the Year 1844 hotel provided exceptional food and bever- revulsion against the institution. One would by a Visiter, (New York: Johnson Reprint, ages, lodging, cave guides, and horses or a like to think that, perhaps, exposure to not 1973 [1845]), xii; L. [Leo] T. [Tymann], 1838, stage to the great cave. Franklin Gorin, The “Mammoth Cave, Nov. 3d, 1838,” Frankfort Times of Long Ago, Barren County, Kentucky only the unpleasant realities of slavery in (KY) Commonwealth, November 21, 1838. (Louisville: John P. Morton, 1929), 63. Louisiana, but the time spent in the company Leo Tymann was an educator operating of an obviously intelligent black man such Leo Tymann’s Public Seminary in Frankfort, 12 The Cave House was later called the as Stephen Bishop, may have been pivotal Kentucky. Mammoth Cave Hotel. moments in this evolution.84 4 Meloy, “Introduction,” xxii; Forwood, Narrative 13 John Croghan, M.D. (1790-1849) was a long- of the Mammoth Cave, 26); Maria Child, time resident of Louisville, Kentucky. Born Acknowledgment “Mammoth Cave,” Bentley’s Miscellany, 14: into wealth, he made an additional fortune in Special thanks to Diana Emerson 419; Taylor, At Home and Abroad, 206; . the salt brine industry. His uncle was George George for scanning and preparing the Rogers Clark, founder of Louisville. He never antique illustrations for publication. 5 Meloy, “Introduction,” xii; Joy M. Lyons, married, and when he died in 1849, Mammoth Making Their Mark, the Signature of Slavery Cave was willed to his nieces and nephews. at Mammoth Cave, (Fort Washington, PA: Eastern National, 2006), 44, 49; Harold Meloy, 14 William Scott Miller, Sr. (1815-1899) was “Outline of Mammoth Cave History,” Journal manager of the hotel and cave from 1850 to of Spelean History, 13 (January-June, 1979), 1856, and then from 1875 to 1881. He was the 28; David Bieri, “Some of the Lesser-Known grandson of Archibald Miller, Sr. (1785-1842), Guides of Mammoth Cave.” MACA 27490, who was manager of the saltpeter works from Mammoth Cave National Park. 1811-1812.

6 Gunn Diaries, Vol. 6, 46. The diaries of Thomas 15 In 1842, William Scott Miller married Elizabeth Stephen Bishop’s signature in Pensacola Butler Gunn are archived at the Missouri Taylor Coats (1825-1881), daughter of George Avenue, dated 1844 History Museum in St. Louis, and are available Coats (1799-1867). Reference here is prob- online in their entirety through a link to LeHigh ably to Elizabeth’s brother John, who lived University (Bethlehem, PA) https://pfaffs.web. with the Millers at about this time. Notes lehigh.edu/node/60175. 16 1 Ed Klausner, “President’s Column,” CRF Oliver Kellam, heir to Pecan Grove Plantation 7 Newsletter (Cave Research Foundation) Gunn Diaries, Vol. 6, 60, 110. Gunn’s accounts in East Carroll Parish, Louisiana, of whom 46(February 2018), 2; Harold Meloy, of the Great Lakes region, “Lake Superior more is later said. “Introduction to the Reprint Edition,” [Alexander Letters,” was serialized in the New York Times 17 C. Bullitt], Rambles in the Mammoth Cave on September 3, 14, and October 15, 1853. Part of the Mammoth Cave exploring During the Year 1844 by a Visiter, (New York: experience was to dress for the occasion. 8 Johnson Reprint, 1973 [1845]), xi; Angelo Gunn Diaries, Vol. 6, 127. The Galt House was Management provided a cave costume in the I. George, Mammoth Cave Saltpeter Works the premier lodging in Louisville, Kentucky. form of old clothing, large enough to slip over (Louisville: H.M.I. Press, 2005), 8. This was the first of four hotels by the same every day wear. The cave costume provided name. It was built about 1835 and destroyed warmth in the cool cave environment and 2 Samuel W. Thomas, Eugene H. Conner, by fire on January 11, 1865. protection for the wearer’s own garments. and Harold Meloy, “A History of Mammoth Visitors traversed many kinds of passages, 9 Cave, Emphasizing Tourist Development John F. Sears, Sacred Places: American from dusty trails with soot-covered rocks and and Medical Experimentation Under Dr. Tourist Attractions in the Nineteenth Century walls, to passages that were muddy and wet. John Croghan,” Register of the Kentucky (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, Women were issued bloomers. Historical Society, 68 (October, 1970), 323; 1998), 3-11; Richard H. Gassan, The Birth of 18 Angelo I. George, Mammoth Cave Saltpeter American Tourism: New York, the Hudson French artist Paul Gavarni (1804-1866), Works (Louisville: H.M.I. Press, 2005), 1-105; Valley, and American Culture, 1790-1830 known for sketches portraying the various Gary A. O’Dell, “Saltpeter Manufacturing and (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, classes of French society. Marketing and its Relation to the Gunpowder 2008), 2-6. 19 Industry in Kentucky During the Nineteenth Alexandre Dumas (1802-1870), one of the 10 Century,” In Historical Archaeology in Sears, Sacred Places, 72; Taylor, At Home most widely read French authors of the era Kentucky, ed. Kim A. McBride, W. Stephen and Abroad, 224; Horace C. Hovey, Guide whose novels include the Count of Monte McBride and David Pollack, 67-105 (Frankfort: Book to the Mammoth Cave of Kentucky Cristo and The Three Musketeers. Kentucky Heritage Council, 1996), 89-94; (Cincinnati, 1884), 15; “Frequently Asked 20 Gary A. O’Dell and Angelo I. George, “Rock Questions,” Mammoth Cave National Park Gunn is in error here; Stephen and Alfred Shelter Niter Mines of Eastern Kentucky,” website, https://www.nps.gov/maca/faqs.htm, were not emancipated until 1856. Historical Archaeology 48 (2, 2015): 91-121. accessed July 28, 2016. 21 The two room log hut was located about 11 3 Anonymous, “The Subterranean Voyage Gunn Diaries, Volume 6, 127-156. The text 100 yards from the sinkhole or present-day or the Mammoth Cave Partially Explored,” has been reformatted to include paragraph “Historic Entrance” of Mammoth Cave on the Richmond (VA) Enquirer, April 20, 1810; breaks to improve readability, and a minor hill overlooking the valley. The structure was Nahum Ward, “Wonders of Nature,” Lexington amount of irrelevant material removed. Bell’s built during the saltpeter mining era for the Kentucky Gazette, September 9, 1816; Tavern was once a famous hotel landmark and head overseer and agent Archibald Miller, Frederick Ridgely, Unpublished letter and important stage stop along the Natchez Trace Sr. and his family. Adjacent to the entrance “Eye-Draught Map of Mammoth Cave” to between Louisville, Kentucky, and Nashville, was a one-story frame structure that was also Dr. Benjamin Rush, dated March 15, 1811. Tennessee. William Bell operated the estab- referred to as the “Cave House.” During the Library, American Philosophical Society; lishment from about 1820 until the summer of time of Gunn’s visit, the structure was used Burton Faust, Saltpetre Mining in Mammoth 1860 when a fire destroyed the structure. The to store lamps, fuel, and cave costumes. The Cave, Ky. (Louisville: Filson Club, 1967), 34; hotel and stage stop “had no superior, and was abode was built by John Croghan for his cave Edmund F. Lee, Notes on the Mammoth Cave, universally known in America and Europe.” manager Archibald Miller, Jr., (father of William to Accompany a Map (Cincinnati, 1835), 28; The building was located immediately west Scott Miller) and his family and used as a Harold Meloy, “Introduction to the Reprint of present-day Park City, and was situated residence 1842-1845. Cold air blowing out of

NSS News, September 2018 15 the entrance provided natural air conditioning. 26 Here Gunn is expressing an unconscious (Louisville, 1840), 65; Bullitt, Rambles in the The structure burnt to the ground sometime bigotry, assuming that a black man could Mammoth Cave, 43-44. Son of a minister, he after Gunn’s 1853 visit. not possibly have knowledge of classical borrowed the name Wandering Willie, a blind literature. A “Bengal light” is a pyrotechnic flare fiddler featured in the 1824 Sir Walter Scott 22 Fleming Gatewood, Sr. (1766-1838), a salt that burns with a bright, steady light, formerly novel, Redgauntler. Meloy thought his father producer from Louisville, and the Lexington used mainly for signaling and illumination. The could be the Reverend Robert Richardson merchant and banker Charles Wilkins (1763- flares were made from potassium nitrate and of Cincinnati; Harold Meloy, “Riddles of 1827) purchased Mammoth Cave in 1810 to sulfur with various combinations of powdered Mammoth Cave,” Journal of Spelean History, manufacture saltpeter. In 1812, Philadelphia aluminum or magnesium, iron or steel filings, 4 (April-June, 1971), 31. merchant Hyman Gratz (1776-1857) bought and chemical additives such as antimony, out Gatewood’s interest in the cave. barium or copper, the latter of which imparted 36 Giant’s Coffin is a huge slab of fallen rock 23 The Narrows once was lined with dry stone a blue or green hue to the light. Statements (breakdown) resembling a coffin. Gunn waxes laid walls all the way to the Rotunda, the first elsewhere in Gunn’s narrative indicate that poetically here, in observing that the rock large room in the cave. Rocks collected from the flares used at Mammoth produced a reminds him of the coffin for Polyphemus, the the floor of the cave were used to construct brilliant blue light. First used in 1818, by the cyclops of Greek mythology. The giant lived on these walls during the saltpeter mining era. time of the Civil War most Bengal lights were the Island of the Cyclops (Sicily), and figures After 1870 this place was called Houtchins’ manufactured without the addition of color- prominently in Homer’s Odyssey. Galatea was Narrows, named for a pioneer-era hunter ing chemicals to produce a bright white light. the object of Polyphemus’ affection in Ovid’s who allegedly discovered the cave while Torches, known as “Bengal candles,” were Metamorphosis. Prior to the time of Stephen chasing a wounded bear into the cave. The made by coating the end of a wire with the Bishop, this feature was called the Steamboat; story was first told in 1870 by Franklin Gorin substance. The use of the term “Bengal” in Lee, Notes on the Map of Mammoth Cave, 20. to W. Stump Forwood and appeared in his the name comes from the Bengal region of book on Mammoth Cave. Prior to this, there India, which was a primary source for potas- 37 Wooden Bowls or the Wooden Bowl Room was no mention of the bear-discovery story, sium nitrate. was named for a prehistoric native American even during Gorin’s ownership of the cave. wooden bowl found by a saltpeter miner; Stephen Bishop most certainly would have 27 Audubon’s Avenue is named for the orni- Bullitt, Rambles in the Mammoth Cave, 60. enjoyed telling this exciting story; we can only thologist, naturalist and painter John James conclude that it is a tall tale with no relevance Audubon (1785-1851). 38 Bullitt (Rambles in the Mammoth Cave, 60) with actual events. Forwood, Narrative of was mystified as to what was meant by Steeps the Mammoth Cave, 24; Harold Meloy and 28 The “200 foot” deep Crevice Pit in the Little of Time. Forwood (Narrative of the Mammoth William R. Halliday, “A New Concept of the Bat Room connects into the top of Mammoth Cave, 66) clarified the name as Steps in Time, Initial History of Mammoth Cave, 1798-1812,” Dome. Edmund F. Lee erroneously deter- referring to a flight of stone steps. Journal of Spelean History, 1(October- mined the depth to be 280 feet. Lee, Notes December, 1968), 109. on the Map of Mammoth Cave, 17. 39 Deserted Chambers earned its designation through an atmosphere of abandonment and 24 From the saltpeter era down to the present, 29 The Main Cave stretches from the Historic gloomy character; Forwood, Narrative of the there has always been a passage door in the Entrance for 2-1/4 miles and ends in Symme’s Mammoth Cave, 64. back of the cave entrance area. Installation Pit. of the cave door was prompted by one of 40 Native American moccasin prints were the earliest environmental laws (1798) in 30 The Kentucky Cliffs are named for a perceived found near a small rock basin known as Kentucky; see C. S. Morehead and Mason resemblance to the picturesque Palisades Richardson’s Spring. Brown, A Digest of the Statute Laws of along the Kentucky River south of Lexington. Kentucky (Frankfort, 1834), 1414. The law 41 Gorin’s Dome is named for Franklin Gorin, required fencing of saltpeter processing 31 The “Church” is generally referred to as the one of the past owners of Mammoth Cave operations to bar the entry of livestock, since Methodist Church today. (1838-1839). The feature was discovered by waste products from saltpeter processing Stephen Bishop in 1838 while searching for were toxic to animals if ingested, even if the 32 The Second Hoppers are located beyond Charles F. Harvey (Gorin’s nephew) who was site had long been abandoned. The door also the Methodist Church and up a steep incline. lost in the cave for thirty-nine hours. served to restrain the population of slave work- Gunn’s comment of “more hoppers” suggests ers in the cave, and today controls the flow that Stephen mentioned the saltpeter factory 42 Shelby’s Dome is located over the Bottomless of people in and out of the cave, primarily for here rather than in the Rotunda. Today this Pit, and is named for the first governor of security and bat conservation. room is called Booth’s Amphitheatre and is Kentucky, Isaac Shelby (1750-1826). named for the stage actor and orator Edwin 25 The Rotunda is the first large room in the cave Booth (brother of John Wilkes Booth, assassin 43 Use of ladders to surmount challenging and the site of the First Hoppers, although of President Abraham Lincoln). In 1876, Edwin obstacles was a common mountaineering Gunn did not mention the saltpeter mining Booth gave a soliloquy from Hamlet from a practice in Bishop’s era and remains so today. artifacts here in the account of his trip under- prominence in Gothic Avenue overlooking the Gunn’s reference to a “Georgian gentleman” ground. Obviously it slipped his mind, because Second Hoppers. is a misinterpretation; Bishop’s companion when he is shown the Second Hoppers further in exploring beyond the Bottomless Pit down Main Cave, he reports “more hoppers.” 33 Gothic Galleries is a sediment-filled passage. was Hiram C. Stevenson of Georgetown, The hoppers were giant wooden vats filled To the right is a wooden staircase into Gothic Kentucky. with cave dirt from which the valuable nitrates Avenue, an upper level passage whose were leached with water. The liquid drippings continuance is high above the Second 44 Scotchman’s Trap was named by George from the vats containing dissolved nitrates Hoppers. Donaldson, a native of Scotland then resid- were sent to the surface through a pipeline ing in Indiana, who visited Mammoth Cave in using hand pumps. The liquid was there boiled 34 Pertaining to dancing. 1850. In his diary he noted, “When visiting the in iron kettles to concentrate the solution of cave along with a slave called Stephen, as my calcium nitrate. The concentrate was then 35 Willie’s Spring is also called Wandering guide, I christened this place the Scotchman’s poured through a vat of wood ashes, during Willie’s Spring. “Willie,” whose true identity Trap, which it has ever since remained.” which operation a chemical reaction occurs is unknown, walked from Cincinnati with Bessie L. Hufford, “George Donaldson, that exchanges the calcium for potassium in his violin and spent the night in the cave Whose Farm is Now an Indiana Park, was a the wood ashes, yielding potassium nitrate by the spring during the autumn of 1838; Mysterious Man,” Indianapolis Sunday Star, (also called saltpeter). see Robert Davidson, An Excursion to the June 16, 1929. Mammoth Cave, and the Barrens of Kentucky

16 NSS News, September 2018 45 Mammoth Dome is the largest and highest 52 Stephen often sang spirituals and popular Poems (London, 1838), 57. Cook also edited void in the cave. Bishop and an unidentified tunes while rowing visitors along Echo River. a publication which in 1849 contained an German visitor crawled through a hole to a His voice was described by Carlton H. Rogers account of the cave referring to the feature as drop-off ledge partway up the dome some- as “rich and musical.” Rogers, Incidents of “his Satanic Majesty’s Armchair”: Anon, “The time in November 1840. The following month Travel in the Southern States and Cuba (New Great Mammoth Cave of Kentucky,” Eliza Stephen and Mat brought four or five tourists York, 1862), 306-307. Cook’s Journal 32 (December 8, 1849), 88. and a quantity of rope to the drop-off point, and Mat and Stephen were lowered to the floor of 53 There are several places along the river 60 At the end of Gothic Avenue is a small drip the dome. The ceiling was estimated to be 400 passage where the ceiling level drops to within water rock basin called Lake Purity. Cave feet high; the actual height is about 192 feet. three feet of the water surface. Rainstorms guides would catch eyeless fish from Echo Meloy, “Introduction,” xviii; Bullitt, Rambles in and flooding of the Green River often raised River and release them into this basin. After the Mammoth Cave, 74; Palmer, Geological the water level, closing the passage underwa- Stephen Bishop crossed the Bottomless Pit on Guide to Mammoth Cave, 161. ter. One did not want to be on the other side October 20, 1838, a subsequent exploration when this happened! Upon returning from found a deeply pooled stream initially called 46 Erebus in Greek mythology is a place located the deeper regions of the cave, guides would the River Jordan, renamed Echo River on between Earth and Hades and is the essence encourage their charges to keep up the pace, the map of Mammoth Cave Bishop drew in of darkness. This is the region of the under- stay together and hasten through Echo River, 1841-1842. Eyeless albino fish, phantasmal world the recently dead must pass through in for it just might close off during an unexpected in appearance, were discovered in the river their afterlife. rainstorm, stranding everyone. Such an occur- (Davidson, Excursion to the Mammoth Cave, rence almost happened to a party of four on 54). In 1842 James E. DeKay provided the 47 Refers to the drawing “Otus and Ephialtis July 4, 1842 or 1843; K., “Correspondence. first scientific description of the blind fish, Holding Mars Captive” created by British Mammoth Cave -- No. 2,” The Cincinnati Amblyopsis spelaea, from Mammoth Cave, artist and sculptor John Flaxman (1755-1826) Miscellany or Antiquities of the West, vol. 2 in his Zoology of New York, Part IV, Fishes and first published as one of the illustrations (Cincinnati, 1846), 45. (Albany, 1842), 187. The earliest reference for The Iliad of Homer Engraved by Thomas to this stream was made by Tymann (1838), Piroli from the Compositions of John Flaxman, 54 Gothic Avenue is a high-level passage stud- who reported that “all believe that there is Sculptor (Rome, 1793), which were subse- ded with speleothems, reminiscent of Gothic more water in it than there is in Green River.” quently republished in numerous editions architecture in Europe. The passage was also and forms. called the Haunted Chambers, a designation 61 At the time, when the passage was first dating back to the saltpeter mining era. Miners discovered, the profuse gypsum incrustations 48 The River Styx in Mammoth is named for had to traverse this passage to reach a lower on the floor in Pensico Avenue had not yet the river in Greek mythology that forms the level that was rich in saltpeter deposits. The been trampled down by visitation. Walking on boundary between Earth and the Underworld. superstitious miners believed the Haunted the surface was similar to walking over a thin Chambers harbored ghosts and demons, a layer of ice-covered snow. 49 Lake Lethe derives its name from Lethe, in feeling reinforced when two prehistoric native Greek mythology one of the five rivers that American Indian mummies from neighboring 62 In 1838, Charles F. Harvey was lost for thirty- flow to Hades. The mythological river flowed Short Cave were temporarily stored in this nine hours, not forty-eight. through the Cave of Hypnos and through the chamber at a place called the Mummy’s Seat. Underworld, where all who drank from its 63 There are several conflicting accounts about waters experienced complete loss of memory. 55 No Indian mummies were ever actually found the boating accident on Green River, the in Gothic Avenue, a place completely covered differences most likely attributable to embel- 50 Bishop’s 1845 “Map of Mammoth Cave” by thick layers of flowstone, stalactites, stalag- lishments and errors of memory with the indicates Echo River, a major underground mites and columns. The reference is to a passage of time. Gunn’s account contradicts stream of the cave, ends in a lake. No one mummy later called Fawn Hoof, discovered by reports made shortly after the incident. Based at the time knew where the water went. They miners at nearby Short Cave in 1811. Interred on contemporary accounts, in the spring of were, however, aware that Echo River would in the floor with a large amount of grave goods, 1844 a wedding party of four entered the cave rise and fall with the level of Green River she wore an exotic feathered cape, and the guided by Stephen Bishop, not by Nicholas. outside the cave. John Locke, a geologist from whole body was wrapped in several layers of They were conducted into the lowest level of Cincinnati, conducted barometric measure- cloth, similar to burlap. the cave where the River Jordan (later, Echo ments in Mammoth Cave and was able to River) had to be traversed by boat. During determine that the level of Echo River was 56 Garmenture: clothing, dress their journey the boat capsized, throwing at the same elevation as Green River; see everybody overboard, where they had to try Benjamin B. Silliman, Jr., “On the Mammoth 57 Wot: to know (from “to wit”) to remain afloat, up to their chins in the cold Cave of Kentucky,” American Journal of water of the stream. Stephen calmed the Science and Arts, 2nd Series 11 (May 1851), 58 Wilkins’ or Devil’s Armchair is formed by a panicked tourists, and led them to dry ground, 333-334. stalactite and stalagmite joined as a column where they waited, shivering in the darkness. in such a way as to resemble a rather claus- When they failed to return, a search party was 51 Today the two remaining stone buildings are trophobic chair. It was named for Charles sent out. Mat, the guide leading the rescue called the T. B. Huts. Since ancient times, Wilkins, one of the early owners of the cave party, located the missing tourists when he the disease tuberculosis had been a scourge during the saltpeter era. In time, Wilkins’ name heard Stephen “cheering them, and direct- for which no known cure existed. During the was forgotten and the feature became known ing his movements while swimming, by the period 1842-1843 the owner of Mammoth as the Devil’s Armchair, perhaps a more suit- sound of their voices, which were raised, one Cave, John Croghan, M. D., conducted able appellation in a place sometimes known and all, in prayer and supplication for deliver- an unsuccessful experiment trying to cure as the Haunted Chambers. Much later the ance.” Everyone was returned safely. Anon., terminally ill patients by housing them inside feature was renamed Jenny Lind’s Armchair “An Awful Situation.” The Christian Citizen the cave, believing that the cave environ- honoring the 1851 visit of the opera singer (Worcester, MA), September 7, 1844; P. Er. ment would be beneficial. Croghan was popularly known as the Swedish Nightingale. Simmon [i.e., “Persimmon,” a pseudonym] himself infected with tuberculosis and died The formation is one of the iconic features in “The Mammoth Cave of Kentucky.” Boston of the malady in 1849. A cure for the disease Gothic Avenue. Weekly Messenger, September 18, 1844. was not discovered until shortly after World War Two, but tuberculosis is today making a 59 Gunn is here disparaging the sentimental 64 White’s Cave is a small grotto on the comeback due to antibiotic-resistant strains poem, “The Old Arm-Chair,” by the English Mammoth Cave estate, located less than of the bacterium. poet Eliza Cook (1818-1889), first published half a mile from the Cave Hotel. The cave is in 1838 in her volume, Melaia and Other heavily adorned with cave formations, and

NSS News, September 2018 17 self-guided and guided tours were offered. Norwegian violinist and composer, very 80 Cleveland’s Cabinet was discovered in July Travelogues report the cave was often visited popular in the United States, who gave an 1841 by Stephen Bishop and Brice Patton, during evening hours after supper. American concert tour in 1845 that included educator at the Blind Asylum of Louisville, a performance at Mammoth Cave. While and John Craig of Philadelphia. The passage 65 See “The Legend of Merry the Miner” in visiting the Echo River, Bull experienced a was named for the noted Bowdoin College Peter the Pilgrim: A Rambler’s Recollections, close call when, going through a tight crawl- (Brunswick, Maine) chemist and miner- vol. 1 (Philadelphia 1838), 22-71, by Robert way in advance of his guide, his light was alogist Parker Cleaveland (1780-1858). M. Bird (1806-1854). This is a fanciful tale of extinguished and, unknowingly, was perched Cleveland’s Cabinet is a long trunk cave Mammoth Cave. on a ledge above a long drop until rescued passage festooned with gypsum incrustations by the guide. This event is recounted in Sara in multitudes of shapes and forms, worthy of 66 Long Cave (a.k.a. Wright’s Cave; Pit Cave; C. Bull, Ole Bull: A Memoir (Cambridge, any museum mineral collection. When first Cave of Death; Saltpetre Cave; Grand Avenue 1882),175-176. discovered, the place resembled a winter Cave; Long’s Cave) is located about four miles wonderland. Bullitt, Rambles in Mammoth south of Mammoth Cave. The cave features 76 The Great Western Passage was named for Cave, 91-94; Horace C. Hovey, Guide an upper-level dry paleotrunk passage remi- the S.S. Great Western steamship, recognized Book to the Mammoth Cave of Kentucky niscent of a huge railroad tunnel, with gypsum for its fast speed utilizing steam-driven side- (Cincinnati, 1884) 59, 65-66. Gypsum cave formations and a highly fractured ceiling, but wheel paddles augmented with sails. For a formations in the shape of curved flower seldom visited according to Gunn. Mined for brief period (1838-1839), it was the largest and petals were first described scientifically by saltpeter prior to the War of 1812, the cave fastest passenger ship of its kind. It made the John Locke in a letter dated October 26, 1841, was visited in 1814 by Alexander Wright, a run between Bristol, England, and New York after the discovery of Cleveland’s Cabinet; saltpeter speculator who died while explor- City in record time, the Concorde jet of its day. see “Alabaster in the Mammoth Cave of ing the cave. For a long time thereafter, the Kentucky, American Journal of Science and cave was called Wright’s Cave or the Cave 77 Ugly Hole or the Black Hole of Calcutta Arts 42 (April 1842), 206-207. In a letter to the of Death. is a small constricting crevice named for a Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences notorious small dungeon at the British Fort date January 23, 1843, Locke gave the name 67 Kellam’s two Kentucky friends were William in Calcutta, India. When the fort was “oulophyllites” to these mineral deposits; see Alexander Keene Richards, of Georgetown, captured by Bengali troops on June 20, 1756, “Written Communications,” Proceedings of the and his cousin Morris Keene. Richards had the dungeon was crammed far beyond capac- Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia just returned from a horse-buying expedition ity with British prisoners of war, few of whom 1 (January and February, 1843), 244. to the Syrian desert, where he purchased survived the ordeal. The term “black hole” several Arabian horses he intended to breed became slang for a military prison during the 81 The name commemorated cave owner John to Thoroughbreds in an experiment to improve eighteenth century. Croghan. the endurance of race-horses. In later years, Richards would become one of the most 78 Rigol: a circle or diadem; crown. 82 The deep pit is called the Maelstrom, and was prominent Thoroughbred breeders in the first descended by rope in late August, 1858, nation. Co-author O’Dell is currently engaged 79 Hebe’s Spring in Mammoth Cave contained by William Courtland Prentice, son of George in researching and writing a book-length biog- waters that smelled of sulfur. Named for D. Prentice, editor of the Louisville Journal and raphy of Richards. Hēbē, the Greek goddess of youth, who was later the Courier-Journal. the daughter of Zeus and Hera and said to 68 Alfred’s wife was named Hannah. be capable of bestowing eternal youth. The 83 Gunn Dairies, Volume 6, 182-187. spring is emblematic of the fountain of youth 69 The story appears in Bird, “The Mammoth in mythology and the Spanish exploration of 84 Ibid., 187-190. Cave,” Peter the Pilgrim, vol. 2 (Philadelphia, Florida. 1838), 95-100.

70 When the cave was developed as a commer- cial attraction called Grand Avenue Cave during the late nineteenth century, this passage was named Lee Avenue, after cave explorer Thomas E. Lee.

71 The actual length of Long Cave is about 3-1/2 miles.

72 From the poem, “The Diver,” by Friedrich Schiller (1759-1805), written in 1797, whose theme is the danger in seeking too much knowledge.

73 Held in New York City during 1853, the Crystal Palace Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations was a great success. The nation’s industrial- ists sent exhibits and representatives touting their achievements in the modern world. Mammoth Cave sent examples of blind cave fish and albino crayfish.

74 Benjamin Silliman, Jr., (1816-1885), a chemist and naturalist on the faculty of the University of Louisville from 1849-1854 and later at Yale University, who visited Mammoth Cave in October 1850. Canyon passage leading to Echo River. Photo by Dave Bunnell in collaboration with his Photo Class at Mammoth Cave in 2013. Shown in the 2014 Photo Salon. 75 Ole Bornemann Bull (1810-1880) was a

18 NSS News, September 2018

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