THE JOURNAL OF SPELEAN HISTORY

JANUARY – JUNE 2008 VOL. 42, NO. 1, ISSUE 133

The Journal of Spelean History

Official Publication American Spelean History Association History Section National Speleological Society

January – June 2008 Vol. 42, No. 1, Issue 133

The Association for determining whether material is copyrighted and securing the appropriate The American Spelean History Association permissions. (ASHA) is an Internal Organization of the National Speleological Society and exists for Back Issues the study, dissemination, and interpretation of spelean history, and related purposes. All JSH began publication in 1968 and copies of persons who are interested in these goals are all back issues are available, although many cordially invited to become members. Dues early issues are reprints. The cost (postage are $2 per issue of the Journal of Spelean History. included) is $2.50 per copy for a single copy, Dues can be paid for up to 20 issues ($40). $2 per copy for 2-3 copies, $1.50 per copy for Checks should be made payable to “ASHA” 4-7 copies, or $1 per copy for 8 or more and mailed to the treasurer. copies. Order back issues from the Treasurer.

The Journal A complete index to JSH is available at the ASHA website, www.cavehistory.org. The Journal of Spelean History (JSH) is the Association’s publication and is mailed to all Officers members. JSH includes articles covering a wide variety of topics relating to man’s use of President: Dean Snyder, 3213 Fairland Drive, caves, including historical cave explorations, Schnecksville, PA 18078 saltpeter and other mineral extraction, and show cave development. All members are Vice-President: Carolyn E. Cronk, 1595 strongly encouraged to contribute material Blueberry Hills Road, Monument, CO 80132 and to comment on published material. ASHA assumes no responsibility for Secretary-Treasurer: Bob Hoke, 6304 statements made by contributors. Kaybro Street, Laurel, MD 20707 [email protected] Authors are strongly encouraged to submit electronic copies in Microsoft Editor: Greg Brick, 1001 Front Avenue, Word, with minimal formatting, by email. Saint Paul, Minnesota, 55103 Images should be saved as jpg. Photos [email protected] and illustrations will be returned upon request. ASHA cannot publish Trustees: Larry E. Matthews, Marion O. copyrighted material without permission. Smith, Gary K. Soule, Jack Speece Contributors are themselves responsible

2 JSH 133

CONTENTS

Craighead Caverns (Lost Sea) Saltpeter Works Marion O. Smith………….……………….....4

A Visit to Mammoth Cave in the Winter of 1876-7 Marlin F. Hawley……...... 9

Love, Power, and the Mammoth Cave Estate Nicole Margaritha Bull……………..…...... 15

The Cave Cure: Old and New Ideas on the Healing Properties of Caves Colleen O’Connor Olson……………………………..…...... 21

Cave Clippings……...…………………….……….……..……...... ……………...………25

Reprint Section……...…………………….…….……..…….…………………….……………27

Book Reviews…………………………………………………...……………………………….29

Front Cover: “A Strange Sanitarium,” from Hovey’s Celebrated American Caverns. See the article by Colleen O’Connor Olson in this issue.

JSH 133 3 CRAIGHEAD CAVERNS (LOST SEA) SALTPETER WORKS

Marion O. Smith

During the first half of the 19th Century, 29, Ross received $2,000 from Captain Smith William B. Craighead (d. March 18, 1850), a Stansbury “as an advance upon Saltpetre to be farmer possessing 900 acres near Dancing furnished” and Ross and McCue gave their Branch in Monroe County, owned one of bond for that amount.2 southeastern Tennessee’s most significant Ross at the advent of the war lived in caves. Long known as Craighead Cave or Monroe County. He apparently was the son Caverns, it is located some five and a half of the Lexington, Virginia, man who, during miles from Sweetwater on the northwest side the years 1814-18, acquired ownership of Big of Milksick Knobs, with a listed length and Bone Cave, Tennessee’s most prominent depth of 7,530 and 276 feet. At some early saltpeter mine. Randolph, Jr., was born in time it was mined for saltpeter, probably by Virginia sometime between 1815 and 1818. In permission of the Cherokee Nation during or 1850 he was some sort of contractor in before the War of 1812-15. By 1842, the cave Franklin County, Tennessee. There, on was so well known that an author devoted September 16, 1851, he married Catherine J. three pages of his book to its description: Hale. She must have died during the following decade, because about November 9, 1861, in The entrance is about mid-way between the summit Monroe County, Ross married Mary Ann, and the base of the ridge; and is…just large enough to admit a large man….The descent…is perpendicar for widow of Newton J. Spillman. Already the about twenty feet; and then a gradual slope…for owner of land in Pike County, Illinois, and several hundred yards; when a chamber opens….There Vanderburgh County, Indiana, Ross are a chain of chambers, connected by narrow apparently got involved with Craighead Cave passes…but each successive chamber is nearly as large through his association with Mary Ann, as the first….In one of the large rooms, there is an inexhaustible bank of nitrous earth, from which great because her brother Joseph C. Boyd, (d. June, quantities of salt-petre have been manufactured….The 1863), was one of the purchasers of the connected links , or successive chambers of the main Craighead property. McCue (1816-180), a cavern, continue about three quarters of a mile…. In native and resident of Augusta County, some of the chambers, there are …stalactites hanging Virginia, was a well-to-do farmer and long- from…above, some…perhaps ten inches in diameter and ten feet in length, some not larger than a goose- time member of the state House of Delegates. quill….1 In late 1860 he sought patents for and promoted a self-loading “Virginia Gun” Upon the creation of the Confederacy in 1861 invented by his partner and neighbor, there was renewed interest in finding sources Lorenzo Sibert.3 of saltpeter, the main ingredient of The extent of development and the gunpowder. In June of that year Randolph amount of saltpeter, if any, delivered by Ross Ross, Jr., and John Marshall McCue obtained and McCue is not known. They may have had a contract with the Confederate Ordnance difficulty in setting up their operation, or Bureau “for fifty tons” of saltpeter, which possibly their contract was only good through they were to make “from caves…which are 1861. But, whatever the situation, Ross’s believed to be almost inexhaustible.” Late that participation in the partnership seems to have same month a Nashville paper reported that ended about that time. On January 6, 1862, “Parties” were “engaged in the manufacture McCue made a new agreement with Colonel of Saltpetre in a cave in the ‘Milk Sick Knobs’ Josiah Gorgas, chief of Ordnance, “to of Monroe county.” On the following August deliver…Two hundred and fifty thousand

4 JSH 133 pounds of saltpeter or as much as can be a lengthy epistle to Confederate Secretary of delivered within the current year.” The War George W. Randolph, which provides saltpeter was “to be procured from caves,” the best wartime documentation about the with no more than eight percent impurities, mining at and near what is now the Lost Sea and sent to “the nearest Railroad Station.” Cave: The Confederate government pledged to pay “forty cents per pound,” although this was …I wish to have my son John J Sibert…detailed to assist me in the management of Two of the most later raised to seventy-five cents. The next day essential and important nitre works in E. Tennessee[.] I the Virginia legislature adopted a joint have been here for six months organiseing my nitre resolution authorizing “McCue or any other works which have been producing from 50 to 100 per citizen of the commonwealth” making Day (of 24 hours) [.] from necessity I have had to “saltpeter or other munitions of war” to take devote my whole time to the buisness here 500 Miles from my family & home in Virginia--because I could from the state to any other Confederate state not get the kind of man to conduct the business in my “any number of free negroes” to work in absense…. I made application to Capt [Robert H.] those facilities. Two days after that the Temple, Supt of the 7th Nitre Dist Knoxville Tenn. to Ordnance Bureau advanced McCue $1,500, have my son detailed but he informed me that the which he as principal and fellow Augusta detail was refused upon the grounds that a man could not be detailed out of Virginia to work in the Nitre Countian William M. Tate (c. 1816-1889) as works in Tennessee. As there are exceptions to all security bound themselves. If McCue “fully general rules cant you in this case of mine detail my son and faithfully” accounted to the Confederate to come to Tennessee to take charge of one of my nitre states the money, meaning if saltpeter worth works, or the management of boath of the works in my at least that amount was made, then the absense from the works, looking up provissions &c for “obligation [was] to be void and of none the use of the nitre works…. My establishments are 4 Now the most productive of any works in Tennessee effect.” or Virginia. In a few days I shall be able to produce per It is not known if McCue ever set foot week 600 lb of nitre….we have nitre earth enough to in East Tennessee, or induced any Virginia work fifty men or more for Two or 3 years, to come— free blacks to go there. But his new partner in and according to my judgement—I have examined all the important Caves in Virginia & E Tennessee—and the procurement of saltpeter, Lorenzo Sibert, frankly say that I know of no such a field of nitre to soon moved south to oversee the operation. operate in as I have. I have 56 hoppers that will hold Seemingly a talented and enterprising man, 1300 B[ushels] nitre earth at one time and evaporating little has been learned about him. Born facilities to evaporate 3000 Gall of Beer per day. I now around 1810 to 1815, he was a geologist work 30 hands & could work 50 to advantage [.] Without the proper assistance I shall next Month have before the war besides being a gun designer. to suspend my works, to visit home…. I have had a After the conflict he for a time supervised the hard time of it here but yet as old as I am I willing to mining of manganese in Rockbridge County, endure hardship…to the utmost of my physical powers Virginia, and invented “a process for making to whip the Yankees and gain our independence…. I cast steel.” By 1870 he superintended an iron am surrounded here with infernal (so called union) 5 men—who would like to see me fail but go ahead is my works in his home county. motto now and for ever until free from yankee On June 12, 1862, William G. Strange, power…. a former professor at Richmond College, Virginia, and temporarily an assistant It is not clear if Sibert’s two saltpeter works superintendent of the recently established were separate leaching sites for dirt brought Niter District No. 7, East Tennessee, out of Craighead Caverns or if his men were journeyed to Sweetwater and made an mining two caves. The other known saltpeter inspection of “Sieberts Cave.” Unfortunately, caves in Monroe County, Daugherty and his observations have not survived. However, Morgan, are several miles away, which makes the following August 11, at “Nitre works it more likely that Sibert leached earth from Monroe County E Tennessee,” Siebert wrote only Craighead Cave. John J. Sibert (b. c1841)

JSH 133 5 was never detailed to help manage the nitrate of potash (salt petre)…. Four of us formed a Tennessee saltpeter operation. Instead, he company and furnished capital to put up works at the th great Craighead cave. Seven others were detailed with remained as a soldier in the 5 Virginia us, eleven in all. We camped there and worked Infantry. Although his father did not then faithfully two years and a half until Federal soldiers know it, on August 9, 1862, young Sibert had came to Sweetwater…in Sept. 1863, when we tore been captured at Cedar Mountain, Virginia. down our works and scattered to our homes to prevent He was exchanged the following December, capture…. We ran heavy wires down into the cave with to later suffer a head wound at Gettysburg carriers for half bushel buckets and a wheel and cord at and a second capture at Spotsylvania, May 12, the top and at the two angles and going some distance 1864. It is uncertain if he survived the war.6 along the cave. This for hauling out the earth and it Little additional wartime data worked well. From the mouth of the cave we made a pertaining to Sibert’s saltpeter operation has plank shute down the hill to the head of a hollow about been found. On February 13, 1863, the new one hundred yards. We…put a cover on it. We made th hoppers holding fifty bushels, ten for dirt and one for superintendent of the 7 Niter District, ashes, of four foot boards set in troughs…. Close by Captain Thomas J. Finnie, requisitioned from we put up a furnace with four kettles, two of fifty and the Confederate ordnance officer at Knoxville two of seventy-five gallons capacity each. It was twelve percussion muskets, 240 cartridges, necessary to have a large amount of water to leach the earth and ashes. This we got from a spring about eighty and an ammunition box, all “for the use of yards further down the hollow, by erecting a scaffold Twelve Men Employed at…the Craighead and pump thirty feet high and running troughs on Cave.” Samuel McKinney (1845-1912), one of scaffolds up to the hoppers. Pumping proved to be the Finnie’s traveling agents, was in the hardest and most disagreeable work in the whole Sweetwater—Madisonville area the following business. It took about two hours to raise enough water for a day…. April and May. Then, about August 8, 1863, The nitre lye was boiled from early morning Nathaniel A. Pratt (1834-1906), the chemist at until about three o’clock in the evening, being dipped the Nitre Bureau’s 2nd Division office at from the upper kettles to the lower ones as it became Augusta, Georgia, paid $3 for “Horsehire stronger, then it was lifted from the lowest kettle to a from Nitre Caves to Madisonville.”7 large trough where potash lye was mixed in until it ceased to make a white cloud of precipitate. In the The writings of miners at Craighead course of an hour the precipitate settled to the bottom Caverns, made available during the 1900s, do in a mushy lime, leaving the liquid clear. We then had a not mention Ross, McCue, or Sibert. Charles solution of potassium nitrate…. This solution was Wesley Hicks (1842-1923), a local resident, drawn off carefully into the kettle again and boiled after the war became a lawyer, living most of down…. It was then thrown into a deep, narrow trough to “shoot.” Next morning nearly the whole of it his life in Madisonville except a brief period in would be a mass of needle-like crystals shooting in Topeka, Kansas, and his last three years in every direction in the trough. When drained and dried Dayton, Rhea County. His remembrances, this was commercial saltpeter. As I now remember, we written about 1922, probably have the most made about fifty pounds daily…. validity. He claimed he was “conscripted and We camped at the works and worked regularly from Monday morning to Saturday evening, sometimes detailed to make salt petre” and “Served from till dark. When we went home, we left someone to March 1861 to Sept. 1863—30 months.” His protect the works and keep the lye from running over recollection as to the time employed may have the troughs and wasting. been foggy because the Confederate conscript law was not enacted until April, 1862. His Hick’s writings named other Craighead version of saltpeter making in Monroe County Caverns workers: Reverend G.H. Coltharp (b. is as follows: c.1834), Jacob (b. c.1828) and F. Marion Kinser (b. c.1837), John Wilson (b. c.1842), On account of periodical attacks of inflamitory Thomas Forkner (1830-1906), John Gallaher, rheumatism I did not volunteer but was detailed by our Thomas Conner Bellamy (b. c.1835), conscript enrolling officer, Abraham Steakley, to make

6 JSH 133 McKinney Walker, and A. L. or Alfred 63, 93; Sarah G. Cox Sands, History of Monroe McKeehan (b. c.1839).8 County, Tennessee (3 vols., Baltimore, 1982-89), The “History of the Lost Sea” 1, pt. 1:507; Tennessee Cave Survey; J.W. M. currently sold at the cave alludes to “an old Breazeale, Life As It Is; or Matters and Things in diary” found “previous to 1934” which had General (Knoxville, 1842), 131-34. been kept by the Reverend J. H. (not G. H. as Hicks wrote) Coltharp, the man “in charge of 2. Confederate Papers Relating to Citizens or manufacturing gunpowder [saltpeter] in the Business Firms, RG109 (M346, Roll 885), Caverns.” The persons in possession of this National Archives, Randolph Ross, Jr., File; “diary” during the 1930s as well as now are The War of Rebellion: Official Records of the Union not revealed, but someone, perhaps and Confederate Armies (70 vols. in 128 books, Coltharp’s son George, made notes from it, or Washington, D.C., 1880-1901), Ser. 4, Vol. maybe even transcribed it. But, without seeing 1:556; Nashville Republican Banner, June 21, the original diary, the reliance of the data 1861; New Orleans Daily Picayune, September purported to come from it cannot be 10, 1861. confirmed, although most of the names mentioned match census records. One more 3. 1850 Census, Tenn., Franklin, 14th Dist., cave laborer was named, James Franklin 211; 1870, Knox, Knoxville, 2nd Ward, 1; Billie Magill (1825-fl 1887), who according to other Burks and Hall Burks, trans., Marriage Records sources was “decidedly opposed” to the war. of Franklin County, Tennessee 1838-1875 One supplier of ashes was William McKeehan (Winchester, Tenn., 1979), 137; Reba B. (b. c1825) and some of the men “boarded Boyer, Monroe County, Tennessee Records 1820- with a Mrs. Mercer,” who was perhaps Ann 1870 (2 vols., Easley, S.C., 1967-70), 1:53, 179; (b. c 1820), the wife of farmer James Mercer 2:134; Boyer, Monroe Chancery Court Records, (b. c1812).9 135, 136; John Marshall McCue Papers, The amount of saltpeter made at Special Collections, Margaret I. King Library, Craighead Caverns during the Civil War is University of Kentucky, Lexington; Citizens unknown, but it probably was enough to Papers (M346, Roll 622), J. Marshall McCue make it one of the top producers in East File. After the war Ross was a hotel keeper in Tennessee. Records of nine deliveries by Knoxville, Tennessee, and Marion, South McCue and Siebert, May 20-August 30, 1862, Carolina. 1870 Census, Tenn., Knox, show a total of 1,092 pounds, of which nearly Knoxville, 2nd Ward, 1; Atlanta Constitution, 36% occurred in August. Tom Murrah, agent Jan. 24, 1877. of the Southern Express Company, in seventeen transactions from May 25, 1862, to 4. Citizens Papers (M346, Roll 622), J. July 4, 1863, recorded that at least 3,653 gross Marshall McCue File; Acts of the General pounds of saltpeter were shipped from Assembly of the State of Virginia, Passed in 1861-2 Sweetwater to Knoxville. Surely, the majority in the Eighty-Sixth Year of the Commonwealth of that amount came from Craighead Cave. (Richmond, 1862), 146; 1870 Census Va., Further, data is completely missing for Augusta, Pastures Twp., Summerdean P.O., October and December, 1862 and February, 39; Margaret C. Reese, Abstract of Augusta April-June, 1863, when the 7th Niter District County, Virginia Death Registers 1853-1896 was at the peak of its productivity.10 (Waynesboro, Va., 1983), 207. “1861 D.D. Davis” is on the wall of Craighead Cave, but it NOTES is unknown if this man worked for Ross and McCue or was just a tourist. 1. Reba B. Boyer, Monroe County, Tennessee Chancery Court Records 1832-1887 (n. p., 1988),

JSH 133 7 5. 1860 Census, Va., Augusta, N. SubDiv., 754; Vol. 3; 781; 1860 Census, Tenn., Burke’s Mill P.O., 51; (1870), Pastures Twp., Monroe, 3rd Dist., p. 29; 6th Dist., 83; 19th Summerdean P.O., 32; Charles B. Dew, Bond Dist., 259; Boyer, Monroe County Records, 1:75; of Iron: Master and Slave at Buffalo Forge (New William B. Lenoir, History of Sweetwater Valley, York and London, 1994), 355. Tennessee (Baltimore, 1976 [1916]), 84. On September 5-6, 1863, Lieutenant Colonel 6. Citizens Papers (M346, Roll 990), William George E. Ross and the 45th Ohio Mounted G. Strange File; Letters Received by the Infantry visited Sweetwater just long enough Confederate Secretary of War 1861-1865, to gather “all arms, stores, & c.,” left there by RG109 (M437, Roll 7), National Archives, the Confederates. Official Records, Ser. 1. Vol. File S (WD) 835; Tennessee Cave Survey; Lee 30, Pt. 2:589. The following names are A. Wallace, Jr., 5th Virginia Infantry (Lynchburg, smoked or scratched on the walls of Va., 1988), 158. Craighead (Lost Sea) Caves near an 1863 date; W. R. Gallaher, T.R. Handy, J.B. Morris, J.K. 7. Compiled Service Records…Nitre and Gallaher, F.M. KINSER, John Wilson, and Mining Bureau, RG109 (M258, Rolls 111, 112, John Gallaher. July 24, 1987, and November 113), National Archives, T.J. Finnie, Samuel 14, 2004, notes in possession of Marion O. McKinney, N.A. Pratt Files; Knoxville Journal Smith. and Tribune, Jan. 28, 1912; Citizens Papers (M346, Roll 635), Samuel McKinney File; 9. History of the Lost Sea (n. d., n. p.), section Robert M. Myers, The Children of Pride (New under “Gunpowder Not Tourists”; 1860 Haven and London, 1972), 1648. Census, Tenn., Monroe, 6th Dist., 76; 7th Dist., 85; 8th Dist., 104; Goodspeed’s History of 8. Confederate Questionnaires, Tennessee Tennessee, East Tennessee Edition (1887), State Library and Archives, Nashville, Charles 1002. W. Hicks File; Evan Hicks, The Hicks Family of East Tennessee (n. p., 1982), 44-46; Sands, 10. Citizens Papers (M346, Rolls 622, 727), History of Monroe County, Vol. 1. pt.1:574-75, McCue & Siebert, Tom Murrah Files.

8 JSH 133 A VISIT TO MAMMOTH CAVE IN THE WINTER OF 1876-7

Marlin F. Hawley

Mammoth Cave was discovered in the late A VISIT TO MAMMOTH CAVE 1790s and by the second decade of the nineteenth century had already become a Oakland, January 22nd, 1877 tourist attraction. Continued exploration within the cave led to significant increases in Dear Brother Albert, its reported length, only adding to the mystique. By 1877, innumerable publications, Time flies and if I do not soon give you some including guidebooks and promotional tracts, account of my visit to Mammoth Cave … made the cave famous on the both sides of shall omit it altogether I am afraid. the Atlantic.1 With the exception of my visits to The following description of those two places [i.e., Mammoth Cave and Mammoth Cave comes from a hitherto Salt Lake City], the postal cards gave you unpublished letter, dated January 22, 1877, about all that was of interest connected with written by George B. Flint, an Oakland, my journey. After our delay in [Pennsylvania], California, druggist, to his younger brother I found we would arrive in Cincinnati at one Albert Stowell Flint. The letter was found or two o’clock in the morning and have to among the papers of Albert’s son, Alfred T. change cars if I followed the route for which Flint, in the Wisconsin Historical Society, my ticket had been purchased. It was so bitter Madison, Wisconsin. For more biographical cold I didn’t like to do that, and as the car I details, see the sketch following the letter. was in was going through to Louisville Flint does not give the specific date of connecting these with train for Cave City, his visit to Mammoth Cave, but it probably concluded to stay in it and pay the extra fare, took place a few weeks prior to his letter, rather than bother with the changes necessary placing it in late December 1876, or perhaps if I continued the other route. more likely, early January 1877. As such, it When I awoke in the morning we belongs to the less common narratives of were well on our way to [Louisville] where we winter visits to Mammoth Cave. [See also arrived about 8 o’clock as near as I remember. Hovey’s “Mammoth Cave in March,” this We did not go into the city, but went around issue.] it on a transfer train about 5 miles to the George Flint’s tour was a side trip on Nashville R.R. meeting the train bound south the return journey from Salem, Massachusetts, at a junction. Arrived at Cave City about 3 his birthplace, to California. The text that P.M. The weather had moderated a great deal follows omits a lengthy description of Salt and it was quite comfortable, and it was very Lake City and its environs. I have transcribed fortunate for me, for the ride to the Cave 8 it as written, retaining his occasionally gnarled miles would have frozen me to death, had the syntax and grammar and most of his thermometer been down below zero. contractions. The letter was, as he explained I supposed as a matter of course they at its close, written with some haste, which would keep me waiting over one night at Cave doubtless accounts for its stylistic City each way, but such was not the case for shortcomings. For ease of reading, in 10 minutes from the time I alighted from abbreviated material has been spelled out and the train a man drove up with a horse and placed in brackets in a few instances. Omitted light wagon ready to take me, and I was told I material is indicated by ellipses. could go over the short route that night and

JSH 133 9 the long next day. I was greatly surprised at A short distance farther and we left our the moderate charges and good treatment I overcoats until our return. received, in great contrast to the charges &c at Care is necessary in going along the Niagara Falls. Although I was the only Main Gallery on account of the many pits— passenger it was only $3.00 up and back and dug by the Saltpeter miners, who worked here in summer is only $2.00. At the Cave they during the war of 1812 to 14. These workings charge $3.00 per day at the Hotel, which extend in about a mile from the mouth of the seems to be well kept. For the short route cave, many of their timbers still remain with Guide $2.00 and long route $3.00. apparently free from decay. The bottom We started off to the west of the R.R. which is now hard as rock, was then soft and and immediately commenced ascending a the hoof marks of the oxen as well as the range of hills, well wooded, and through a wheel marks are very distinct now, in places country that must be very pleasant in summer, being several inches deep. but was then dreary and uninteresting. I found Near the mouth of the cave were it cold riding, though only my hands, feet, ears millions of bats suspended from the walls and & nose suffered. We ascended until at a pretty overhead, in some places only 3 or 4 together, good elevation, at a rough guess 1500 feet and in others large masses of them. They about Cave City. The road is a wretched one. hibernate here in great numbers. They kept up We then began to descend, and reached the a continual squeaking. I knocked several Hotel just after sundown. They had a roaring down, but they didn’t come out their torpor at fire in the office and after warming myself, all. viewing some of the Eyeless Fish and other We arrived shortly at the Rotunda, curiosities started with one of the Guides for when I found why the Guide carried a the cave.2 Daylight was most gone when we knapsack he had. A bengal light was touched started and we had our lantern lighted. We off, and threw a strong light into the recesses had four, much like a common one but of the Rotunda. There was nothing without glass. A short distance in rear of the particularly beautiful about it, merely an house we descended by a path into a cañon, enlargement of the gallery in which we were turning back in the direction of the Hotel travelling. This Main Gallery is six miles in when we reached the bottom. There was a length. From it not far from the entrance is light fall of snow on the ground, just enough Audubon’s Ave., which we did not explore. to whiten it. A hundred yards perhaps The gallery averaged about 50 feet wide, and brought us to the yawning mouth, the floor forty high, the limestone worn away overhead descending steeply. Overhead was an arch of so that in places great shelves of it extending limestone from which little streams of water from the sides, nearly met overhead, and then were trickling down and congealing below had above, the gallery enlarged again. formed a large ice cone. The path leads in on Every now and then the Guide the extreme right. As we passed along the stopped to light up some dark chamber or roof lowered gradually until perhaps 100 yards some deep pit with his Bengal Lights, or oiled in, a wall obstructed the passage, and in it was paper. The latter a good supply of which he an open door of iron like that of a prison, had was particularly useful in a dome or pit. which is kept constantly locked. There is a We left the Main Gallery after a while going very strong draft of air through this gate, off into a side Gallery, which we entered by a inward at this time but outward in summer. flight of wood steps. I will not describe the The Guide requested me to hurry through, many places of interest as the guide book holding my light before me, which I did, and which I shall send you will give you a very found the increase of temperature very great. good idea, and I am afraid I shall not have the time to go too much into detail. I must

10 JSH 133 mention however the Star Chamber, which is having been in two hours. A nice supper one of the prettiest if not the prettiest thing awaited me, and after sitting around in the about the cave. We came to a good place to office a while, went to bed a roaring fire being sit down and he requested me to do so, saying built in my room, and which burned all night. that if I wasn’t afraid to be left alone he would At 8 o’clock the next morning was let me know how it seemed to be left alone in ready for the long route with the same Guide. the cave. Blowing all the lights out save one He is a colored man, they call him Matt. He which he took, he started off down a passage says he has been at the cave 37 years acting as which descended to a lower level than the a Guide. There are three of them, one is Gallery in which I was. When the light had always away in winter, but returns each nearly disappeared, he sang out to me to look season. Matt had a lunch along for this day’s up. I did so and was surprised. It looked trip. For a mile or so we followed the route of exactly as though the roof of the cave was off, the previous evening, and then branched off. and I was looking at the sky above. The stars Mile after mile I followed my dusky were not brilliant however, but just as they companion along these mysterious old river would appear on a hazy night. He then courses, occasionally stopping, to light up and produced the illusion of the cloud passing view some particular point of interest. A very over the heavens, and clearing off again, beautiful one was the snow cloud chamber, which was very natural indeed. Shouting to when looking along the ceiling away from a me to remain quiet he then disappeared strong light, it had the appearance of the sky altogether for some minutes. I could no more when it is covered with white fleecy clouds. see than though I had been submerged in a The Fat Man’s Misery is a curious place, and lake of ink, and although I suppose it was as an uncomfortable one to go through. Was silent as could be, still it seemed as though quite long and crooked. You walk in a narrow there was a loud ringing in my ears, such as trench so narrow sometimes that you have to you fancy in a quiet dark room but much go along sideways. About waist high it widens more marked. At length along the Gallery in out, and is arched overhead at times so low the direction we had come I saw a faint light that you have to stoop down as far as which gradually increased much like the dawn possible. Here is a latitudinal section which of day, and finally the guide with his light will explain what I mean. Emerging from this, appeared again, the passage he had taken a large Gallery is entered called the Great leading up into the Gallery again farther back. Relief, and it is certainly a great relief to get The Grand Crossing struck me as into it. Lake Lethe was so low that we used being very grand, from the large size of the the boats there merely for bridges to cross at two Galleries composing it. The Main Gallery two points. At Echo River however we took a along which we were traveling, was crossed by boat, a kind of mud scow on a small scale. It another equally large, the bottom of the other was moved by means of a grape vine on being higher however some 10 to 12 feet. Our which sprouts several inches long were lights did not penetrate its mysterious depths. growing. At first the top of the Gallery was so Gorin’s Dome was a wonderful one. I low that the Guide propelled the boat by looked into it from a small opening half way pushing on the rock overhead, but soon had between top and bottom. The Guide threw in to use a paddle as it grew higher. There were lighted paper which went sailing down in many little holes worn in the rock at the water circles until it reached the bottom. Water was line, and the waves striking into them as we continually trickling down the walls of this sailed along made a noise much like the dome, and the deposit continually going on beating of a drum. The echo was magnificent. gave it the appearance of being hung with Matt kept up a succession of low musical cloth. We emerged from the cave at 7 o’clock notes, with an occasional shout which seemed

JSH 133 11 to travel for miles through the cave and return an opening would not be suspected, and from to us.3 I fired a pistol shot, and was astonished which descent is made over loose rock to the at the result. The firing of a battery of artillery, floor of the Gallery. We emerged from the and a regiment of infantry, backed by the cave around 1 o’clock having been in 5 hours. thunders of heaven could scarcely equal it. I Had a cup of hot tea and then started back to repeated it several times, the sound like the Cave City, arriving just before dark. Had a shouting seeming to travel for miles to return good supper and bought some stereoscopic to us. views of the cave.4 Through Silliman’s Ave, the Pass of El The north bound train did not pass Ghor and Cleveland’s Cabinet we arrived at until midnight, and not caring to go to bed length at Groghan’s Hall and the Maelstrom, went over to the depot where the Hotel at the end of the long route, and 9 miles from closed, though they offered to let me stay in the mouth of the cave. It was early yet, most the Hotel if I chose, waking the coloured boy parties not reaching this point until 12 o’clock when I wished to leave. The waiting room at and it was only a little after 10. Where there the depot was very comfortable though small, was nothing of particular interest I trudged and I settled back in a corner for a nap, but in along steadily after Matt and didn’t stop to a few moments a couple of tramps entered, rest every little while as he says most people followed shortly by others the night be cold, do. We stopped at the usual place for lunch and I thought twouldn’t do to go to sleep or I on our way back, arriving at 11 o’clock. Now should be relieved of my watch and other for the first time I realized that it was not so valuables. As we were due in L’ville at 4 A.M. very warm in the cave. The temperature is didn’t think about it worth while to go into a always at 59°. We had become quite warm sleeper, so didn’t have much of a rest that with walking, and before we had done eating night. I had a letter of introduction of a got quite chilled, and were glad to resume the leading Pharmacist of L’ville from one of my journey as soon as lunch was disposed of, and friends in New York, but wasn’t there long lamps filled. On approaching Echo River, enough to use it, or to see anything of the heard the echo of voices at the other end, and place…. we shouted back and forth several times. On I have written rapidly and rather the boat I caught one of the crickets that incoherently I fear but hope you will be paid inhabit the cave. It looked more like a spider. for reading the letter. If I had more time Arrived at the other end of the river there was would try and make it more interesting. no one there, but it afterwards proved as we I sent Sunday’s Chronicle yesterday surmised that it was the man who drove me enclosing the guide book of the cave5… Must up from Cave City, and another who stays at close now and get to bed. If you can find time the Hotel. from your studies to write would like to hear From Reveler’s Hall we went through from you. the Corkscrew into the Main Gallery thereby saving a mile and a half in distance, but I from your [affectionate] brother think next time I would walk the mile and a half, rather than go through it. Was very Geo. B crooked as its name implies, and seems to be all through detached boulders, which seem THE FLINT BROTHERS: ready to fall in and close the passage. In A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH several places it is so small that it is rather a tight squeeze to get through. Was upwards, George B. and Albert S. Flint were descended very steep and brings the climber out finally, from old Yankee families. The brothers, born way up in one side of the Main Gallery where to Simeon and Ellen Rebecca Pollard Flint of

12 JSH 133 Salem, Massachusetts, were two of seven Massachusetts schools, but he took his formal children.6 As a young man, Simeon Flint studies much more seriously than had George apprenticed as a mason, but in later life he and continued on to college, graduating from achieved success as a builder, a manufacturer Harvard University with a degree in of sewer pipe, and dealer in building materials mathematics in 1875.10 Following graduation in that city. from Harvard, though, he, too, headed west George Benjamin Flint, born on to California where he briefly taught in the August 28, 1846, was the eldest of the Flint public school system. California did not have children. He received his early education in the attraction for him that it did for his Salem, but apparently of restless character, at brother and, shortly, he returned home to take age 16 he went to sea out of Boston on a ship up a course of studies in mechanical involved in the East India trade. His travels engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of took him to various Asian ports, including Technology (MIT). Sometime thereafter, he Hong Kong. After a year at sea, George Flint left MIT for Princeton, where he pursued arrived in San Francisco, where he found astronomy, studying under the noted work as a clerk in a drug store owned by his American astronomer, Charles A. Young. uncle, Charles P. Pollard. He left his uncle’s Advanced study in astronomy continued at employ in 1868, returning for a time to the the University of Cincinnati, where Albert east. By late summer of that year, he was back received his Master of Arts degree in 1880. He in California, where he again took up as a was employed by the U.S. Naval Observatory clerk, this time for druggist E.P. Sanford. from 1881 to 1889. During his years living in Within a few years, George became a partner Washington, D.C., he married Helen A. in the firm of Sanford, Kelsey & Company in Thomas, of that city, in 1884; the couple had Oakland, California. While thus employed, he three children, two daughters and one son.11 also completed a professional course in In 1889, Flint left the U.S. Naval pharmacy from the Pharmaceutical College of Observatory and relocated with his family to San Francisco. In 1878, Flint and Kelsey sold Wisconsin, where Albert, known as Stowell their share of the company to the senior Flint, began an assistantship in the Washburn partner and used the money from the sale to Observatory at the University of Wisconsin. establish a store of their own. A decade later, He remained on the faculty at Wisconsin for George bought out his partner’s share of the the remainder of his life. In addition to business and became the store’s sole teaching and fundamental observational proprietor.7 The Oakland Tribune, in 1890, research in astronomy,12 Professor Flint, hailed Flint as “One of the Best Known despite the fact that he spent many nights at Druggists on the Coast.” 8 the observatory, was active in local church Until the press of business affairs and and civic organizations and served for a time his impending marriage rendered it difficult, as secretary and editor for the Wisconsin Flint was an early and ardent supporter of the Academy of Science, Arts, and Letters. He Oakland Light Cavalry, an area militia formed retired in 1920 but continued his astronomical in 1878. He married Abbie L. DeGolia, of research as time and age permitted. Albert Placerville, California, in 1887. The couple died in Madison, Wisconsin on February 22, had three children; according to the 1910 1923.13 federal census George also supported his George and Albert were close and elderly widowed aunt.9 George B. Flint passed kept up a regular correspondence through away in Oakland ca. 1921. their adult lives. Many of these letters resulted The letter’s recipient, Albert S. Flint, from their travels and were often charmingly was born September 12, 1853. Like his older illustrated with hand drawn sketches.14 brother, he was educated in Salem,

JSH 133 13 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 5. Unfortunately, Flint did not specify the title. By 1877, several Mammoth Cave guidebooks had been published, including William S. Forwood’s 1875 I would like to thank the research staff of the volume, An Historical and Descriptive Narrative of the Oakland Public Library, Oakland, CA, for Mammoth Cave of Kentucky, 4th edition, and A Guide providing information about George B. Flint. Manual to the Mammoth Cave of Kentucky, published in Dee Lund was of immense assistance in Glasgow, Kentucky, in 1876. Comparison of Flint’s researching George B. Flint, as well. I am descriptions of Mammoth Cave attractions and these guides offers no hints as which of these guidebooks he indebted to Mammoth Cave historian Bob may have been referring, if either. Flint’s description of Thompson for information, encouragement, the effects of gunfire at Echo River is reminiscent of and his comments on a draft of this paper. He Bullitt’s 1845 description, “The report of a pistol is as also provided a digital copy of his Mammoth that of the heaviest artillery, and long and afar does the Cave of Kentucky: A Catalogue of Noted Artists, echo resound, like the muttering of distant thunder;” see Bullit, 1845 [1985 reprint], Rambles in the Mammoth Photographers & Writers of Mammoth Cave. Cave, p. 85, Cave Books, St. Louis, Missouri.

NOTES 6. Anonymous, 1892, “George Benjamin Flint,” The Bay of San Francisco, Vol. 2, pp. 154-156. Lewis 1. Harold Meloy, 1985, Introduction to Rambles in the Publishing Company, Chicago, Illinois. Mammoth Cave, by Alexander C. Bullit, Cave Books, St. Louis, Missouri. See also Bob Thompson, 2000, “Early 7. Ibid. Writers Flocked to Mammoth Cave,” http://kentuckyexplorer.com/nonmembers/00-05030.html, 8. The Oakland Tribune, Annual Illustrated Edition, 1890. accessed May 14, 2007. Of course, the Journal of Spelean History has published many interesting accounts of 9. U.S. Census data for 1910 from www.ancestry.com. visits to the cave. 10. Raymond Smith Dugan, 1931, “Flint, Albert 2. Flint’s guide for both tours was Mat Bransford. On Stowell,” in Dictionary of American Biography, Vol. VI, the Bransford family, see Harold Meloy, 1985, “The edited by Allen Johnson and Dumas Malone, pp. 470- Bransfords Show Mammoth Cave,” Journal of Spelean 471. Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York. History, Vol. 19, No. 1. pp. 4-8 and Kristin Ohlson, 2006, “The Bransfords of Mammoth Cave,” American 11. The Wisconsin State Journal, February 22, 1923, “Prof. Legacy, Spring 2006, pp. 17-24. Stowell Flint, Astronomer, Dead.”

3. Many tourists reported the guides singing, which, as 12. Among Albert Stowell Flint’s many publications are Flint was not so entertained, may have been dependent such titles as Observations of the Right Ascension of the Stars on the number and composition of tours. See Joseph Observed with the Prism Apparatus, 1895, Madison; The C. Douglas, 1998, “Music in the Mammoth Cave: An Computation of the Times of Rising and Setting of the Moon, Important Aspect of 19th Century Cave Tourism,” 1911, Northfield, Minnesota; and Observations for Stellar Journal of Spelean History, Vol. 32, No. 3, pp. 47-59. Parallax: 2, series 1898-1915, 1919, Madison.

4. Flint may have been referring to a series 26 13. The Wisconsin State Journal, February 22, 1923. stereoscopic views of Mammoth Cave made by Mandeville Thum, a medical doctor from Louisville, 14. Several of these letters are part of the Smithsonian Kentucky, probably in 1876, and which were Institution’s Archives of American Art. For a copyrighted on November 22, 1876, and again in description of them, see http://aaa.si.edu/guides/site- February 1877, though this time without Thum’s name sketchbooks/index.cfm/fuseaction/collections.Detailcollection/C attached. There was also a set of 42 stereo views made ollectionGuideID/798. George Flint is, incidentally, by Charles Waldack in 1866. See Bob Thompson, 2006, misidentified as a mining engineer. William C. Flint was The Mammoth Cave of Kentucky: A Catalogue of Noted the family’s mining engineer. Other of the brothers’ Artists, Photographers & Writers of Mammoth Cave (updated illustrated letters can be found in the Alfred T. Flint July 2006). Papers, Wisconsin Historical Society.

14 JSH 133 LOVE, POWER, AND THE MAMMOTH CAVE ESTATE

Nicole Margaritha Bull

Virginia Jean Laas’s 1998 book, Love and Power to Violet because he accrued neither the in the Nineteenth Century: the Marriage of Violet wealth nor the political power that Violet Blair, tells the tale of an independent, thought befitting the husband of a Blair. It powerful nineteenth century socialite, Violet wasn’t until he gained control of the Blair Janin (1848-1933). Violet’s family, no Mammoth Cave Estate that Violet finally strangers to wealth or fame, included George began to respect him and show some Rogers Clark, the Revolutionary war hero devotion towards him. As such, Mammoth who founded the city of Louisville, Kentucky, Cave provided an opportunity for Albert to and William Clark, who along with redeem himself to the Blair family and to Meriwether Lewis led the Corps of Discovery Violet. Eventually this twist of fate led to a to the Pacific Ocean.1 The Blair house, named Washington socialite helping her husband run for the family, still stands in Washington, a cave in rural Kentucky. This rather unlikely D.C., serving as the official house for scenario provides a fascinating insight into presidential guests. The Blair family’s fame love, power, and gender roles in nineteenth even extends into the spelean world; Violet’s century America. uncle, John Croghan, purchased the Mammoth Cave of Kentucky in 1839, eventually developing it into a preeminent tourist destination. During Dr. Croghan’s management of Mammoth Cave many new miles of passageways were discovered, primarily by his African-American slave Stephen Bishop, who became famous for leading daring and adventurous cave tours. Dr. Croghan also ran a rather unsuccessful medical experiment in the cave, keeping patients suffering from consumption, or tuberculosis, in the cave day and night in the hopes the subterranean air would cure them. He eventually succumbed to the very disease he was trying to cure, and left the property to his numerous nieces and nephews including Violet. Despite inheriting the estate from Dr. Croghan, Violet avoided playing a direct role in managing Mammoth Cave for years, preferring to merely receive the royalty checks generated by hiring outside supervisors. This arrangement continued until her husband, Albert Janin, a judge from New Orleans, decided to become a trustee of Mammoth The extensive collection of letters written by Cave. Before he became involved with Violet and Albert detail every aspect of their Mammoth Cave, Albert was a disappointment courtship, marriage, and life. In her diary,

JSH 133 15 Violet was brutally honest about her view of It seemed that the grand belle of Washington, Victorian society and her dissatisfaction over who had her pick of so many men, had made her own marriage within the confines of that a mistake. Violet wrote that Albert would society. Long before they became entangled in have been perfectly content with all of the the Mammoth Cave Estate, their marriage had creature comforts that her wealth provided been on rocky ground thanks to Violet’s even if she wasn’t in the picture. haughty personality and her conviction that no man would ever be worthy of her. This was in a large part due to Violet’s good looks, as she was beautiful; five feet two inches tall, slender, with blue eyes and brown hair past her waist. Her nicknames included “sunbeam” and “La Belle Blonde.” Violet’s friend, Anne Scott, said she was “endowed with magic powers to attract men and bend them to her will.” After all, this was the girl who liked conquests so much that she coldheartedly flirted with the goal of acquiring a dozen marriage proposals before the age of twenty- one. Violet continued to brush off suitors until Albert Janin came along. He was crafty enough to play to her intellectual side since Violet had studied many subjects including Dutch, Spanish, Latin, French, geometry, and geology. Violet was very calculating in choosing Janin, realizing that she loved him best of all of her other beaus, and that he had the most intelligence. She did complain that he was a southerner and a Frenchman. The couple were married on May 14, 1874, but from the beginning the marriage was troubled.

This was in large part due to Albert’s failing business ventures and fruitless political races. By the beginning of the twentieth After a relative claimed that Albert had lost century Violet seemed to take a less caustic $200,000 trying to build a canal in the St. view of her marriage, seemingly resigned to Bernard Parish in New Orleans, Violet wrote disappointment. “My own marriage has not in her diary that it seemed as if her life were been happy, Heaven knows, but I have stuck over. “I cannot help feeling that he is not the to my bargain like an honest woman.” She did man I thought him when I married… An recognize that none of her other lovers would enemy reading his letters & comparing things have made her happy either, “Bert at least would say that he was either a knave or a does not meddle with me—He lives his life, fool… I think he has been foolish & objectless, smoking, and reading newspapers, excessively weak.” Albert subsequently lost a & I mine too busy to think & despair.” Just second congressional race in 1882, leading when it seemed as if the marriage between Violet to confide in her diary, “I love him Violet Blair and Albert Janin was going to be a more than I care to say sometimes…’’ but colossal failure, Albert finally found a business “My life is not what I had a right to expect.”

16 JSH 133 proposition that garnered the approval of his to win control of the cave. She liked that the wife. The couple’s saving grace was the family now depended on Albert, “I am glad to Mammoth Cave of Kentucky that had been have them all know that you are much more willed to the children of John Croghan’s than just agreeable—that you can do.” siblings. Laas asserts, “The vehicle for this Albert’s new role seemed to make up [marital] rejuvenation was Mammoth Cave.” for any imperfections in her marriage, “[He] She claims that through his business may not be an affectionate husband to me,” intervention in Mammoth Cave, Albert was but “he has worked splendidly to carry out able to prove himself to his wife and regain our will.” Albert threw himself into his self-esteem. promoting, advertising, and expanding Although the property had not Mammoth Cave, and his efforts translated produced a profit in years, it did cause turmoil into larger profits than the heirs had ever among family members. Bickering over how before received. As Laas puts it, Violet could best to manage the estate had reached an finally view Albert as a “Manly Achiever.” In acute intensity by 1900. Albert suggested to her eyes, he had proved himself to her and to Violet that he should visit the cave on his way her family. Violet’s family did seem impressed to Washington “to quietly observe how with Albert’s management of the cave, matters are managed there.” Albert certainly probably in large part due to the better than had his hands full in attempting to revitalize average checks they were receiving from the the Mammoth Cave Estate. In 1893 Horace Mammoth Cave Estate. One relative, Lucy C. Carter Hovey, the author of One Hundred Miles Browne, wrote a very flattering letter to Albert in Mammoth Cave in 1880: an early Exploration of highlighting the improvements he had made America's most Famous Cavern, wrote that the to the grounds: entire operation had fallen into disrepair. Hovey claims that a cave as grand as I think we have done very well this dreadful year. The Mammoth Cave should hold interest to all grounds must look pretty with the many new cottages under the trees in place of the old hotel and I should Americans, but that the management of the like to see the transformation. We must …. our souls in cave dampened that interest. The party was patience and not look for great results until after the taxed fifteen cents per mile on the Mammoth war. I think you have been very successful and thank Cave Railroad and the hotel “if not literally you very much for your able management on affairs in dropping to pieces” was “far from luxurious Kentucky through such a troubled period. With love to or even thoroughly comfortable.” Violet, hoping she is well.

Albert meticulously went over cave During the last decades of their marriage financial records and observed daily Violet and Albert continued to live separate operations at the cave to give advice to the lives. Albert worked at the cave, returning for Croghan heirs. Albert had to tread carefully as brief visits to New Orleans, and Violet stayed Violet’s cousin, Daisey Nokes, points out in a in Washington to be with her mother. June 1924 letter to Violet, because some of Although at first Mammoth Cave did not the heirs depended on dividends from the enable the couple to spend any more time cave to survive. In 1901, Aunt Lucy asked that with each other, it did seem to finally bring Albert become a trustee, which led to another peace to their marriage. Albert maintained his family feud that lasted until 1904 when Albert independence, coming to Washington when was finally appointed to the position. This he wished, and Violet continued her busy greatly pleased Violet; she felt that this social schedule and involvement in patriotic provided him “a chance to show the family organizations. Albert’s success gave a balance what is in you.” She viewed this newfound to their marriage that had been lacking in control as a “great victory,” and she was “very previous years, and as Laas explains Violet no proud” of the manner in which he managed

JSH 133 17 longer “railed against Albert” in her diary or contract or transacting any business at all.” letters. Albert’s increasing senility only made him In June, 1914, Violet received two more determined to stay at the cave; he severe blows; her mother, Mary Blair, passed wanted to “die in harness,” while actively away on the sixth of the month, and in the engaged in work. Rather than urging Albert to last days of the month Violet learned that return to Washington, Violet made frequent Albert was very ill in Kentucky. She rushed to trips to Kentucky. Harsh winters, primitive care for him at the cave, trying to convince living conditions, and Albert’s rudeness made him to return to Washington. Instead they the trips very hard on her. Violet’s cousin ended up at what Violet described as a Daisey wrote a sympathetic letter in miserable, dirty Bowling Green hospital. December of 1923, “It seems too awful that Finally, Violet threatened to leave unless you should not only have the horrible anxiety Albert agreed to visit doctors in Washington; of Mr. Janin’s illness but besides so much he gave in and was diagnosed with a growth in discomfort.” When Violet left Kentucky in his bladder. The malady required two February of 1924, she admitted that she had operations on July 29 and August 13. “been very badly treated” but acknowledged Although the couple became increasingly that Albert’s illness was to blame. She claimed distant after this incident, Albert never lost his that “no rudeness, unkindness or profanity to affection for Violet, “The happiest days of my me matters.” Violet at age 75 was much present life are those that I pass at the mellower than the young spitfire who Moorings when I see you.” “I have never wouldn’t have tolerated rudeness from known or seen any girl or woman who made anyone, much less a husband. upon me the slightest impression of the During her visits to Mammoth Cave, possibility of her being more desirable as a life Violet began handling most of the business companion for me than you with your affairs of the cave. Her cousin, Spencer superior charm of body and mind.” Browne, seemed in favor of Violet Although Albert seemed content to maintaining control of the estate. He claimed, continue leading separate lives, Violet “Since 1849 the Cave administration has expressed a desire to spend more time with drifted on, barely (if at all) maintaining the him, “I would rather be with you than anyone status quo.” Browne seemed to have faith in else in the world.” “As time goes on we need Violet’s leadership, “Now that you have each other even more, I think. When are you matters entirely in you hands… and will direct coming?” Violet’s desire to be with Albert did your own keen and fertile mind to the bigger not stretch so far that she was willing to live problem of demonstrating the priceless value with him in rural Kentucky, which would have of the Cave in advance of its sale.” Her family taken her too far away from the comfortable seemed to feel sorry for her since she was so Washington life she was used to. Violet’s out of her element. In a letter from Lucy loneliness and desire to be with Albert Croghan Browne, she comments that Violet became thematic in her letters to him. In 1920 must be very anxious about her husband and she wrote, “I want you here at home, we are burdened with business troubles and cave not so young as we were 40 years ago and we matters. Other family members continue to are entitled to see more of each other.” By the comment on the endless feuding among the end of 1923, Albert’s failing health gave Violet Blairs. In a letter in June of 1924 Daisey another reason to want to be with him. Nokes mentions the bickering: According to his doctor, Albert at age seventy-five had “been confined to his room” Sophia Horner is going to come by for your letter for and was “mentally unfit and wholly incapable Wyatt Allen and Lucy Browne. I suppose they are mentally of making or entering into any waiting in Kentucky to get their hands on the Cave

18 JSH 133 when my Mother is gone. Did you ever see a copy of with its hostile court system, might enable the the Croghan’s will which said, “The Cave to be sold at cave to be turned into a national park. auction to the highest bidder on death of last original heir.” According to the letter Violet is “now bearing the entire responsibility of the cave Violet must have felt very out of place at management on her shoulders.” Sitgreaves Mammoth Cave, since the area lacked the found it a tragedy that Violet had to leave her high society and wealth she was used to comfortable home in Washington “with mingling with in Washington, D.C. Ironically, congenial pursuits” to live in “squalid during the last decade of the nineteenth surroundings at the Cave.” Near the end of century, long before she moved to Mammoth the letter Sitgreaves got to the heart of the Cave, Violet joined an elite but aging sector of matter, explaining that the heirs are in Washington society described as the “cave “imminent danger of loss of control of the dwellers.” This group consisted of old Cave property.” She suggested appointing an residents who were losing their foothold to agent to take over control of the cave before the nouveaux riche who were invading the “Janin becomes legally disqualified to act.” city during their gilded age. Their coping Lawyers should be brought in, not from mechanism was to become even more Kentucky, but from Washington or Boston. exclusive and not to accept any new members She summed up the situation by warning the into their inner circle. Marietta Minnigerode other heirs “that the only legal control of Andrews, a twentieth century author and Cave affairs is now in the hands of Mr. Janin illustrator, called Violet the “Queen of the whose health and mind are waning fast.” “If Cave Dwellers” claiming that her “colonial the owners do not soon find strong shoulders traditions…conservative standards…her to relieve Mrs. Janin…they may lose the entire beautiful profile, have never changed; she lies control and income from the Cave.” in the same atmosphere as in her youth.” One Mary Sitgreave’s concerns were can only imagine how put off Violet would justified; in 1924 the state of Kentucky began have been with the farmers and laborers she to use the court system to legally gain control encountered at Mammoth Cave. of the cave. An article in the “Edmonson In June 1925, Violet returned to County News” claims that during the trial to Mammoth Cave, staying with Albert determine the property value of Mammoth throughout the fall. Over the next few years Cave the heirs brought in expert witnesses to she adopted the practice of spending the busy testify that they would pay exorbitant sums of summer season at the cave and returning to money for the land. Major Brown, owner of Washington in the winter. By 1925, Albert Endless Caverns in Virginia, testified he had become very difficult to care for. One would pay $3,333,500 for the cave. By now caretaker wrote, “he is getting so bad that we the family seemed resigned to the fact that the can’t do anything with him at all. There will cave was going to be sold; they just wanted to have to be something done. I have done all boost the property value as much as possible that I can do. He just raves all night. He will before the final sale to the government. It not listen to what we tell him. In fact he will wasn’t until the fall of 1927 that Violet was not let us do anything for him.” Letters from able to move Albert from Mammoth Cave to the Blair family sympathetically discussing Washington. Laas explains that Violet loyally Violet and Albert’s plight may have had more and tenderly cared for him until his death on to do with their financial stake in the cave May 29, 1928. Prior to Albert’s death the than genuine concern. Mary Sitgreaves wrote Croghan heirs fought tooth and nail to a letter in September 1924 about visiting the maintain control of the cave. A.C. Swinnerton cave, and her grave concern that Kentucky, writes that “the subject of a national park was greeted on all sides with annoyance and

JSH 133 19 resentment—even counter propaganda.” After Albert died, Mammoth Cave held little 8. Ibid., 115. importance to Violet, and she completed 9. Ibid. arrangements to sell to the federal government her family’s interests in the cave. 10. H.C. Hovey, "Mammoth Cave in March." Science 21, On December 31, 1928, the transaction was no. 531 (1893): 189-190. completed for the sum of $446,000—not the 11. Daisey Nokes. Personal letters (1923-1925). millions the Croghan heirs had expected. With Albert gone, and this chapter of 12. Laas, 115. her life closed, Violet began writing less and less in her diaries. Although she mourned his 13. Ibid., 116. death, she was probably relieved to be rid of 14. Lucy Croghan Browne. Personal letters (1906). the burden the cave presented. It’s a pity she was never as interested in Mammoth Cave as 15. Laas, 116. her ancestor John Croghan was. If Violet had thrown her energy into the cave as she did 16. Ibid. with other philanthropic organizations such as 17. Ibid., 117-118. Daughters of the American Revolution and the National Woman’s Suffrage Association 18. Ibid., 118. she might have been able to boost the image and reputations of the Mammoth Cave Estate. 19. Nokes. When the property was finally sold it was a 20. Laas, 118. shabby relic of its once magnificent past. Violet’s lifelong concern with appearances 21. Ibid. would certainly have changed that. At the very least, the cave did for a brief time, serve the 22. Spencer Browne. Personal letter to Violet Blair. purpose of reuniting Albert and Violet. On April 29, 1925.

January 14, 1933, Violet died where she was 23. Lucy Croghan Browne. Personal letters (1906). most comfortable, at her home on Lafayette Square, far away from Mammoth Cave. 24. Nokes.

NOTES 25. Laas, 107.

1. William Hayden English, Conquest of the Country 26. Laas, 118. Northwest of the River Ohio 1778-1783 and Life of Gen. George Rogers Clark (Indianapolis: Bowen-Merrill 27. Miss Mary J. Sitgreaves. Personal letter to a cousin. Company, 1897), 991-1019. September 4, 1924.

2. Virginia Jean Laas. Love and Power in the Nineteenth 28. “Mammoth Cave Worth Millions Say Owners of Century: The Marriage of Violet Blair. The University of Other Wonders, $400,000, Says Park Board.” Edmonson Arkansas Press, 1998, 20. County News. 1920’s.

3. Ibid., 22. 29. Laas, 119.

4. Ibid., 37. 30. A.C. Swinnerton. “The Proposed National Park in the Mammoth Cave Region and the Kentucky 5. Ibid., 22. Geological Survey.” Science 68, No. 1759. 1928, 254.

6. Ibid., 73. 31. Laas, 119.

7. Ibid., 80. 32. Ibid.

20 JSH 133 THE CAVE CURE: OLD AND NEW IDEAS ON THE HEALING PROPERTIES OF CAVES

Colleen O’Connor Olson

Caves have long been associated with mystery, though kept at constant labour; and more fear, and…good health. Here are some past joyous, merry fellows were never seen. The and present examples of underground oxen, of which several were kept, day and attempts to improve health. night, in the cave hauling the nitrous earth, Two stone huts sit along the Violet were after a month or two of toil, in as fine City Lantern Tour route at Mammoth Cave condition for the shambles as if fattened in National Park. These huts are what remain of the stall.”4 the world’s first tuberculosis sanatorium.1 In spite of the reports of healthy Cave owner Dr. John Croghan set up this saltpeter workers, there was at least one illness underground hospital in 1842 in hopes of in the cave. In 1814, Mammoth Cave manager curing the terminal disease then called Archibald Miller wrote to slave owner John consumption or phthisis. By January, 1843, 15 Hendrick about a slave he had leased to work to 20 patients lived in the cave waiting for the in the cave mining operation: “your Boy cave’s healing powers to cure them. In 1843, Tambo is very sick and I wish you to come Dr. Croghan wrote, “I am convinced they over and see him…. I Have bled him Twice would all return to the land above with greatly and will give him A swett to day I have got no improved health.”2 medican at present.”[sic]5 We don’t know if He was wrong. Some of the patients Tambo recovered. died in the cave. Those who survived failed to Even after the failure of the recover, causing Croghan’s “resort for tuberculosis hospital, the Mammoth Cave air invalids” as he called it, to close in 1843. was believed to be good for the health. What encouraged Dr. Croghan to Horace Hovey stated in his Guide Book to the attempt such a scheme? He wasn’t the first Mammoth Cave in 1887, “The air is slightly person to think Mammoth Cave had healing exhilarating and sustains one in a ramble of properties. Accounts of great health among five or ten hours, so that at its end he is hardly slaves who mined saltpeter for gunpowder in sensible of fatigue.”6 Dr. Charles Wright Mammoth Cave in the early 1800s may have wrote in 1860, “short and easy trips have been influenced him. known to effect a cure in chronic dysentery Ebenezer Meriam visited the and diarrhea, where all other measures had Mammoth Cave mining operation during the failed. …It is not an uncommon occurrence War of 1812. He wrote, “During the whole for a person in delicate health to accomplish a time this cave was wrought in for saltpeter, journey of twenty miles in the Cave, without there was no case of sickness among the suffering from fatigue, who could not be numerous workmen. They all enjoyed prevailed upon to walk a distance of three excellent and uninterrupted health.”3 Robert miles on the surface of the earth.”7 In spite of Montgomery Bird mentioned Mammoth these testimonials, modern park rangers don’t Cave’s miners in his 1838 book Peter Pilgrim; or recommend cave trips for people with a Rambler’s Recollections. “The nitre-diggers dysentery, diarrhea, or delicate health. were a famously healthy set of men: it was a The cave–health nexus goes back long common and humane practice to employ before people associated Mammoth Cave with labourers of enfeebled constitutions, who good health. The healing properties of were soon restored to health and strength, crushed stalactites were mentioned in Chinese

writings as early as the 4th century B.C. Cave syndrome, lupus, multiple sclerosis and other formations are made of calcium carbonate, disorders. A testimonial from Irving the cat which is used today in antacids (if you get states, “I’d like to tell all felines to go to the heartburn, don’t head to a cave for calcium Mine. It sure changed my life around. My carbonate, it’s easier to stop at the drug store humans are doing great too!”11 and buy Tums or Rolaids). The Chinese also The effects of radon are controversial. took powdered cave formations as sedatives, It is considered a carcinogen by the EPA, the cough medicine, to stop bleeding, and to World Health Organization, the National encourage milk production in wet nurses. Academy of Sciences, and other health Europeans also used powdered organizations. The National Academy of stalactites. In the 1600s (possibly earlier) it Sciences BEIR VI Report estimates 15,000 to was taken to strengthen broken bones and 22,000 people die of lung cancer due to radon treat fever (the calcium-bone nexus is clear, every year.12 The concern about radon is bad but who knows where they came up with for business at the radon mines; visitation at fever?). Powdered Mondmilch, another calcium the Free Enterprise Mine dropped from 5,000 carbonate cave formation, was eaten or used people per summer season prior to 1978, to as a poultice to treat people and animals. It 400 people in 2000.13 was believed to heal eye diseases, dry wounds, Yet some scientists believe exposure prevent mange, and get rid of evil spirits. In to low-level radiation (including radon) is Europe, taking cave formations medicinally beneficial; this idea is called hormesis. Dr. petered out in the 1700s. In China, “dragons’ Bernard Cohen, professor of physics and teeth” (fossils from various animals) from environmental and occupational health at the caves are still used as heart medicine.8 I don’t University of Pittsburgh, states his studies know if any of this works or not, but instead show U.S. counties with high radon levels of breaking cave formations to cure your have a lower lung cancer rate than counties ailments, I recommend sticking with modern with low radon levels.14 Toxicologist Edward medicine. J. Calabrese of the University of The idea of caves having the power to Massachusetts at Amherst believes that with heal is still around. In former uranium mines hormesis, cells adapt to the stress of the near Boulder, Montana, people seek health radiation and go into repair mode.15 instead of uranium. In the Free Enterprise, In the United States, radon tends to Merry Widow, and Earth Angel mines, people be viewed as more dangerous than healthy. with various ailments sit and read, play cards, Sitting in a mine to expose yourself to radon or chat while surrounded by radon gas, which for your health is thought of (at best) as they believe to be the healing agent in the harmless but worthless, or (at worst) “health mines.” The radon level at the Free downright unhealthy. But in Europe, some Enterprise Mine fluctuates between 1100 and doctors consider exposure to radon (or other 2700 picocuries;9 the level at Mammoth Cave things mentioned below) in caves to be is between 60 and 400 picocuries.10 A one legitimate medical treatment; they call it hour session at the Free Enterprise Mine costs speleotherapy. The hypothesis is that negative $7.00 (as of 2007); a two hour trip in ions from the radon reduce inflammation in Mammoth Cave costs $12.00 (as of 2007), so the airways, which allows easier breathing for you get more radon for your money at the asthma patients.16 Aggtelek National Park in mine. Hungary offers not only recreational cave The Free Enterprise Radon Health tours for tourists, but speleotherapy for Mine has testimonials from guests (human, children with asthma in Beke Cave, which was canine, and feline) who say the radon helped declared a medicinal cave in 1965. or cured their arthritis, carpal tunnel Speleotherapy is also available in Szemlohegyi

22 JSH 133 Cave in Budapest.17 Dr. Tibor Horvath of the Ukrainian Allergologic Hospital23 and the Department for Speleotherapy and Troilus mine in Romania24 also provide Respiratory Rehabilitation at the Municipal speleotherapy. Hospital in Topolca, Hungary, states that For those who can’t make it to salt speleotherapy patients show long-lasting caves or mines, artificial salt “caves” are improvement, reduced request for medicines, created by covering the walls of a room with and less need for hospitalization.18 A study of salt and blowing salt aerosol into the room for asthmatic children at Cave Javoricko and a treatment called halotherapy. This is Zlate Hory mine in the Czech Republic available at the Versme Health Resort in showed 60% of the patients needed less Lithuania.25 Not going to Eastern Europe any medication and missed less school after one time soon? No problem. Salt lamps that or more years of speleotherapy.19 produce the same effect can be purchased to Gasteiner Heilstollen (Gastein Healing make your home into your own private salt Gallery) in Austria charges 513 Euros (about cave.26 $691 as of 2007) for three weeks of the Other factors believed to contribute “Classical Healing Gallery Cure” in a radon to the healing power of caves are the stable filled mine turned spa. Can’t afford it? Your temperature, high humidity, lack of air Austrian or German National Health pollution, and the relatively high amount of Insurance will cover part of the cost.20 carbon dioxide, which is believed to If you’re seeking a good dose of radon encourage deeper breathing and calm but don’t want to sit in a cave, you aren’t left spasms.27 out. You can soak in radon pools at the There is evidence that cave air can Radonia spa in Schlema, Germany. Spa reduce the severity of asthma for many employees claim the radon will not only cure people, but is the benefit worth the negative your illnesses, but jazz up your sex life.21 effect of radon? Do radon, salt or carbon Radon isn’t the only thing believed to dioxide in caves or mines cure or help other be a healing agent in caves. Salt caves in ailments? Evidence that caves help illnesses Eastern Europe are also used to promote other than asthma is lacking; more research health. The salt, like radon, is believed to give such as that done on asthma patients is off negative ions that are beneficial. In needed. But in the mean time, we know caves Armenia, people suffering from allergies, tend to lack pollen and other allergens that asthma, and respiratory problems ride an plague us above ground. Caving is good elevator 700 feet underground into a salt cave exercise, fun, and rewarding—which makes us called Republican Speleotherapeutical feel good. Considering that, the cave cure may Hospital (the chamber is referred to as a cave, not be a bad idea. but at 700 feet underground it may be a mine). The Hospital’s director and Chief NOTES Doctor, Andranick Voskanyan, says, “The salt environment has an amazing healing impact 1. Letter from Oren A. Beatty, Medical Director and Superintendent of State Tuberculosis Hospital, on the respiratory system.” While taking in Louisville, Kentucky, October 13, 1954. the healing properties of salt, patients pass the time visiting, playing ping-pong, strolling 2. Letter from Dr. John Croghan to General Jesup, along the cave passages, and exercising. January 13, 1843. Treatment lasts three to nine hours a day, five 3 Meriam, Ebenezer, Mammoth Cave. days a week for a month. Before the collapse 4. Bird, Robert Montgomery, 1838. Peter Pilgrim: or a of the Soviet Union and government health Rambler’s Recollections. Philadelphia: Lea & Blanchard, p care, the hospital was very popular, now few 109. Armenians can afford it.22 The underground

JSH 133 23 5. Sallee, Scott E. 1997. Tambo. Unpublished Paper. 17. Personal communication with Dr. Stanley Sides, 6. Hovey, Horace C. 1887. Guide Book to the Mammoth member of the Speleotherapy Congress and attendee of Cave. Cincinnati: Robert Clark and Co., p. 30. the 12th International Speleotherapy Symposium at Aggtelek National Park in Hungary, September, 2001, 7. Wright, Charles W. 1860. A Guide Manual to the April, 2004. Mammoth Cave of Kentucky. Louisville: Bradley & Gilbert, p. 15. 18. Horvath, Tibor. “Speleotherapy: A Special Employment of the Cave Microclimate.” 8. Shaw, Trevor R. 1992. History of Cave Science. Sydney: Sydney Speleological Society, pp 223-224. 19. Weigl, E., Z. Hermanova, and J. Szotkowska. 1999. “Immunological Analysis of Children’s Asthmatic 9. Personal communication with Patricia Lewis, Patients After Speleotherapy”, from Proceedings from owner/operator of Free Enterprise Radon Health the 11th International Symposium of Speleotherapy. Mine. February, 2004. 20. Gasteiner Heilstollen Pricelist, 10. Personal communication with Bobby Carson, www.324.a5.brauser.at/pricelis.htm. Mammoth Cave National Park. February, 2004. 21. Tanner, Adam. “German Radioactive Spa Says, 11. Free Enterprise Health Mine ‘Hail, Radonia!’” Planet Ark website, website,www.radonmine.com. www.planeark.com.

12. Environmental Protection Agency website, 22. Hakobyan, Julia. 2001 “Speleotherapy: Salt of the www.epa.gov/radon. Earth Helps Asthma Patients Breath Easy”, from Armenia Week, September 2001. 13. Dansak, Ryan L. Mining for Relief, RT Image, December 11, 2000. 23. www.saltlamp.com

14. Lehr, Jay. 2001. “Risk in Perspective: Radiation, 24. Beamon, Sylvia P. “Gone to the Salt Mines – Reactor accidents, and Radioactive Waste, an Interview Whatever For?” from Souterrains website, with Bernard Cohen”, from Environment & Climate wwwlxs4all.nl/~jorbons/souterrains/art/saltrome.htm News, June 2001. l.

15. Renner, Rebecca. 2003. “Nietsache’s Toxicology”, 25. Birstono Sanatorija Versme website, from Scientific American, September 2003, pp. 28-29. www.versme.com/english/gydymas3.htm.

16. Personal communication with Dr. Stanley Sides, 26. www.saltlamp.com member of the Speleotherapy Congress and attendee of 27. Horvath, Tibor. “Speleotherapy: A Special the 12th International Speoeotherapy Symposium at Employment of the Cave Microclimate”, pp. 129-130. Aggtelek National Park in Hungarty, September, 2001. April, 2004.

24 JSH 133 CAVE CLIPPINGS

JSH 133 25

From Science, April 7, 1893, pp. 189-190.

REPRINT SECTION

Early Comments on Chattanooga Area Caves

Donald B. Ball

The personal travelogue literature of the survived nine minutes. The entrance to the cave is nineteenth century is replete with accounts of abrupt, and a tree trunk had been thrust down, perhaps by a curious Indian of the tribe of John Ross that once the travelers’ impressions of visits to one ranged those lovely valleys and raised “a far cry” from memorable cave or another (though not the summit of Mission Ridge; thrust down so [pg. 178] infrequently a tour of Mammoth Cave) in the long ago, that a dendrologist—a tough word for a course of their excursions across America. An writer of plain English—would be puzzled to class it. intriguing exception to this is a series of Well, one of our soldier boys, with an inch of candle in hand, bestrode the trunk, as coolly as he would have comments appearing in Benjamin F. Taylor’s mounted a mule, and slid down into the under world. Pictures of Life in Camp and Field. Among other His venture was rewarded, for far under the hill, upon a observations regarding the people and region shelf of rock, he found the bones of a man, and beside of post-Civil War Chattanooga, Tennessee, him, within reach of the crumbling hand, an Taylor observed and documented several of extinguished torch. The story was meagre but it was all there: “there lived a man;” he set out to explore that the caves surrounding the town. As recorded hollow artery of the mountain; he grew bewildered, by Taylor (1875:176-178): wearied, and the light of his torch and the light of his life went out pretty nearly together. No matter for his All the region around Chattanooga is so rich in caves name; he died so long ago that nobody remembers that that it seems almost invested in a cellular tissue. You he ever lived; they that mourned him have been find them in unexpected places. Remove the little wash mourned in turn. So, in caves and out of them, “runs of earth at the base of a ledge and there yawns a cell, the world away.” The soldier generously offered me a the entrance worn smooth by unknown feet in some memorial bone, —say, of the forearm—as he told the forgotten time. In the sides of the mountains are story. I declined the bone but kept the story. But of caverns, often of great extent, and yet waiting the torch course the boy managed to grave his autograph at the of the explorer. Lookout has two; to one of [pg. 177] entrance of the cave, for the American man has a them a large number of women and children fled for passion for scribbling. He begins by scrawling his name refuge, on the approach of the swarm from the in every fly-leaf of his spelling-book—“Jim Boggs–his Yankees’ northern hive, and there some of them are book”—he goes on by writing for the newspapers, and said to have died. This is of so great extent, and works he ends by tracing that same illustrious patronymic its way into the gloom by passages so numerous and upon everything he can reach... uncertain, as if it would feel out the secret of the mountain, that although adventurous boys—and what Taylor’s comments are hardly a surprise in will thev [sic; they] not dare to do!—have groped their way into it, yet its recesses remain a mystery. Some of light of fifty some caves having been these caves have figured in the story of the rebellion, subsequently reported in Hamilton County, from the “villainous saltpetre” they supplied. Others, Tennessee, by Barr (1961) and Matthews within a half hour’s stroll of the heart of Chattanooga, (1971). It is certainly possible that Taylor that have evidently failed to awaken the lazy visited caves in the Chattanooga area which indifference of the former residents, had they been within Yankee reach would have been long ago have not yet been formally documented. explored and christened, had their little legends, and borne upon their rocky lintels the names of many a pair of pilgrims. I visited one, where, perhaps a month ago, a discovery was made, that anywhere else but in the Front would have been a nine-days’ wonder. Here it

JSH 133 27 LITERATURE CITED Matthews, Larry E., 1971. Descriptions of Tennessee Caves. Bulletin 69, Tennessee Barr, Thomas C., Jr., 1961. Caves of Tennessee. Department of Conservation, Division of Bulletin 64, Tennessee Department of Geology, Nashville. Conservation, Division of Geology, Nashville (reprinted 1972). Taylor, Benjamin F., 1875. Pictures of Life in Camp and Field. S. C. Griggs & Company, Chicago.

28 JSH 133 BOOK REVIEWS

HOLLOW EARTH: The Long and have long puzzled cavers but have influenced Curious History of Imagining Strange much modern science fiction. The supposed Lands, Fantastical Creatures, Advanced Rosicrucian caves of Mount Shasta are barely Civilizations, and Marvelous Machines mentioned. The well-known Churchward, and Below the Earth’s Surface (2006) by David other writings about subterranean Mu and Standish. Da Capo Books, Cambridge, Lemuria (except for all-too-brief mention of MA. Hardcover, 303 pages, 8.5” x 6.5” the Shaver Mystery) are missing, as are the format. ISBN 72: 978-6-81373-3. Available musings of H.P. Lovecraft, reflected in the for $24.95. Reviewed by Bill Halliday. names of so many cave passages. It is almost as if Standish got tired of dealing with so Many cavers have much unsettling paranormality, and quit early. encountered Or perhaps he is simply planning a sequel. occasional odd- There’s plenty of material for it, extending as seeming people far as deepest schizophrenia. with alternative mind sets about the ICE-CAVES OF FRANCE AND fundamental nature SWITZERLAND: A Narrative of of caves and the Subterranean Exploration (2006) by strange, mostly George Forrest Browne. BiblioBazaar. hostile para-humans who supposedly inhabit Charleston, SC. Paperback, 255 pages, 5" them. This book offers tantalizing insights x 8" format. ISBN 1-4264-7480-6. Available into this parallel world, but although it is a for $12.59. Reviewed by Danny A. Brass. useful library reference book, I found it unsatisfying. One special problem is that George Forrest obscure publishers like Da Capo Books Browne received commonly lack hard-nosed editors who will his degree in require their hopeful authors to cut theology from comprehensive but windy manuscripts (and Cambridge in 1857 subtitles) by 40% (Harpers did it to me, and and was ordained the result was a much better book). This book in 1858. After is badly imbalanced, with comparatively little some time as a content that is relevant to the ordinary 21st parish priest, he century reader. Far too much space is devoted returned to to the 17th century hollow earth delusions of Cambridge. Well Edmund Halley (of Halley’s Comet fame) and known as a to hollow earth sci-fi of whatever century. distinguished John Cleves Symmes and Jules Verne are archaeologist, he given their due, but discussion of Edgar Rice received an Burroughs’ Pellucidar novels seems excessive. appointment as Professor of Archaeology and Except for the largely forgotten served in that capacity from 1887 - 1892. In “Koreshanity” (the subject of an entire the summer of 1861, while vacationing with chapter), little consideration is given to hollow his family at Arzier in the Jura Mountains earth delusions of the later 20th century which (along the Franco-Swiss border) near Geneva,

JSH 133 29 Browne visited a limestone cave filled with Survey and began a lifetime of underground permanent ice formations. Intrigued by the exploration in the state. There are year-round presence of ice within the cave, he approximately 6200 known caves in Missouri spent the next several years exploring and and the number continues to grow. This is the studying this and more than two dozen similar author’s sixth book on Missouri caves. caves in the area. Ice-caves of France and Weaver begins his odyssey through Switzerland, published in 1865, is a detailed underground Missouri by placing the region in account of his investigations. The book is suitable historical context. The book opens narrative in nature and Browne is extremely with a brief description of the Ice Age descriptive in his writing, sometimes to the megafauna that once roamed the landscape of point of complicating the flow of text and what is now Missouri. This is followed by a ease of reading. Much of the volume is consideration of the Paleo-Indians who had devoted to descriptions of adventure and settled the area and the various archaeological hardships during the course of his travels to investigations of their artifacts and burial sites. various caves; although, detailed descriptions As his story of Missouri caves unfolds, of the caves and ice formations are also Weaver offers some tall tales of early settlers present. Historical (from the author’s as well as a few bizarre stories about some of perspective) accounts of visits to several caves the more outlandish uses that pioneers found as well as a history of various theories of ice for caves. He also draws attention to the fact formation at these sites are also included. that Missouri was once known as “the Outlaw Online copies of this book are available at State” because of its many bank robbers— numerous websites and I recommend reading most notably Jesse James—and counterfeiters through portions of an online edition to gain a and describes the rich history of caves being familiarity with the writing of the period prior used as hideouts. During the Civil War, to making a purchase. Individuals interested in people hid in caves to avoid conscription or historical aspects of caving may find much to as a refuge from raiding Guerilla parties. In interest them in this volume. the early part of the twentieth century, Missouri caves were home to many Ku Klux MISSOURI CAVES IN HISTORY AND Klan meetings. And during the Cold War, LEGEND (2008) by H. Dwight Weaver. Missouri’s civil defense authorities were University of Missouri Press, Columbia, MO. interested in caves as potential fallout shelters. Paperback, 157 pages, 6" x 9" format. ISBN In a classified post World War II military 978-0-8262-1778-3. Available for $14.95. enterprise known as Project Cavern, the Reviewed by Danny A. Brass. Office of Naval Research actually surveyed

many Missouri caves in an attempt to find a H. Dwight Weaver suitable site at which to construct a jet has been exploring propulsion laboratory (for another intriguing Missouri caves since account of military applications of cave he was seven years resources, see Jack Couffer’s, Bat Bomb: World old. By 1956, he War II's Other Secret Weapon, 1992). was old enough to Consideration is also given to the one- join the NSS. In time importance of many Missouri caves as touch with sources of saltpeter—an important ingredient organized caving in the manufacture of gunpowder—and to the for the first time, he various other domestic or economic uses that quickly joined the were found for many caves in the state. In this nascent Missouri regard, caves were mined for onyx and guano, Speleological used as underground cold storage for long-

30 JSH 133 term preservation of food, as “barns” or anywhere in the country. The book is well “corrals” for housing livestock, and even as written, very well organized, and quite sites of experimental mushroom farms. They informative. By gathering this material were also widely used by brewers and together in one publication, the author moonshiners. St. Louis, in particular, was presents a great deal of interesting historical home to a large number of breweries, which information that would otherwise be quite depended heavily on caves for the aging and difficult to come by. It is also an excellent storage of lager beers (for more detailed selection for sale by show-cave gift shops and information on this particular aspect of will help to provide tourists with a greater Missouri cave use, see Hubert and Charlotte appreciation of the rich and varied history of Rother’s Lost Caves of St. Louis: A History of the Missouri’s underground environment. City’s Forgotten Caves, 2004). Apart from providing an interesting In view of the fact that Weaver historical synopsis of Missouri caves, Weaver himself was a former show-cave operator, a offers a view of how attitudes towards caves relatively detailed discussion on the history of have changed over the past two centuries. A Missouri’s many commercial caves, as well as once pervasive sentiment that caves were the state’s colorful cast of pioneering, show- essentially worthless pits—except, of course, cave entrepreneurs, is not surprising and for those from which something valuable speaks to the author’s own special interest in could be harvested—resulted in widespread this aspect of Missouri history. destruction of Missouri’s underground. Some Two chapters are devoted to the of the most beautiful caves in the state have historical development of Missouri’s been irreparably damaged by reckless mining organized caving activity and one to the and prospecting operations, devil-may-care mystique of caving. The latter is a particularly treasure hunting, a craze of wanton cave interesting chapter that is applicable to cave partying, and a growing lust for collecting explorers of any generation. Readers should speleothem souvenirs. In time, however, these note, however, that this is not a book about trends eventually gave way to a more general the early history of cave exploration or of appreciation of caves as valuable and early survey and mapping endeavors. And irreplaceable natural resources and the author there are no tall tales of legendary Missouri impresses upon readers the importance of cave explorers—like Kentucky’s Stephen safeguarding our underground heritage. As Bishop—to be found here. Nevertheless, an such, Weaver leaves his readers with an informative appendix provides details about important conservation message, one that Missouri’s 12 major cave regions, including should be taken to heart by cavers salient surface features, a county-by-county everywhere. cave count, and a brief description of one or more representative area caves. A CONFEDERATE NITRE BUREAU bibliography of relevant reading is provided, OPERATIONS IN ALABAMA (2007) by each citation accompanied by a short note Marion O. Smith. Byron’s Graphic Arts, about its content. Louisville, TN. iii + 123 pages, including Although discussion is clearly focused Sources and Index. $17 postpaid from on caves of the “Show-Me” state, this Marion O. Smith, 2023 Bone Cave Rd, shouldn’t suggest that only Missouri cavers Rock Island, TN, 38581. Reviewed by would find something of interest here. Joseph C. Douglas Missouri Caves in History and Legend will appeal to anyone interested in the historical aspects This work on the Confederate States of of caves, especially in the era prior to America’s Nitre Bureau activities in Alabama establishment of organized caving activity between 1861 and 1865 represents the

JSH 133 31 culmination of decades of research by author For the Ninth Nitre District, Smith Marion O. Smith, the Dean of saltpeter cave examines the activities of Superintendent historians, into the surviving records of the William Gabbett and his assistants, the period, especially the Confederate Citizens fourteen caves the government directly mined Papers and various Confederate saltpeter (as well as related potash and Epsom salts cave, potash, and nitre bed payrolls, all housed works), and the private contractors operating at the National Archives. This archival in the area. For the Tenth District the author research is supported by intensive field also looks at the role and movements of the research at specific cave sites. Based on this Superintendent, William Price, and his research, Smith has produced the best and assistants. Smith includes fascinating most complete study of the Nitre Bureau’s information about the District Office’s agents, utilization of Alabama caves (and domestic messengers, and purchases of everything from sources and nitre beds) to produce office supplies to needed metals to the gunpowder for the Southern war effort. He steamboat St. John, refitted to transport also sheds light on many related topics, Alabama saltpeter for the Nitre Bureau. The including as the acquisition of related military author discusses the private contractors who supplies (sulfur, potash, charcoal, iron), the produced nitrates from caves and cliffs in the transportation difficulties confronting the Tenth District and sold them to the Nitre C.S.A., and the identities and work lives of the Bureau. Lastly, he analyzes the Confederate miners engaged in extracting and refining the artificial nitre bed production facilities much needed nitrates. scattered across seven sites in the state, which Alabama was a major producer of represented a large-scale, sustainable, solution saltpeter for the Confederate States of to the saltpeter supply problem, but one America throughout the Civil War. Divided which ultimately came too late for the into two nitre districts, Number Nine and Confederate States of America. Number Ten, by the Nitre Bureau, Alabama There are some blemishes in the work, saltpeter production compared favorably with as with any book. Some of the photographic that of the five nitre districts in Virginia/West images are blurred or appear to be too low in Virginia, the largest home-front source for the resolution, unfortunately including the image South. Smith’s work focuses on operations of on the front cover. A Table of Contents is the two Alabama districts throughout the lacking. An expanded discussion of where the conflict, including the disruptions caused by study fits into the historiography of the field Union advances. After examining early nitre would have been useful. But these are minor production in the crisis of 1860 and early defects, more than made up for by the book’s 1861, prior to the establishment of the positive contribution to American and spelean Confederate Nitre Bureau, the author history. Smith’s work shows clearly that lack discusses the history of each district of gunpowder was not the cause of the separately, which is logical in that the Ninth South’s defeat, and that the Confederate Nitre District, centered around the Tennessee River Bureau worked mightily to adapt to, and and the northern tier of counties, focused overcome, the serious transportation and exclusively (and successfully) on cave saltpeter other difficulties which emerged during the production, while the Tenth District, war. These are important points for the larger comprising the central and southern parts of history of the Civil War. the state, turned equally to caves and domestic The book contains much useful sources, such as old plantation houses and material for anyone delving into the history of slave cabins. The latter district also put great a specific Alabama cave, or of American caves emphasis on building artificial nitre beds. more generally. For example, my own research in the history of American slaves and

32 JSH 133 the cave environment has profited enormously by reading this study. In sum, although it is not an easy read with a flowing narrative, due to the thorough archival research and fine detail, the book is essential for students of the history of American caves, the mining industry, the Civil War, and Alabama.

GROTTE CASTERET: An Annotated and Illustrated Bibliography (2007) by David St. Pierre. Caves Studies Series 17. British Cave Research Association, Buxton, UK. Softbound, 48 pages, A4 size (8.5” x 11”). ISBN 0-900-265-32-9. Available from Speleobooks (speleobooks.com) for $12 or the publisher (bcra.org.uk) for £4.50, plus postage in both cases. Reviewed by Bill Mixon.

The Grotte Casteret, high on the Spanish side of the Pyrennes near the French border, is an ice cave (glacière) that was first reported by Norbert Casteret in a 1926 letter to E.- A. Martel, which gives it historical interest. It is the subject of a chapter in Casteret’s Ten Years under the Earth. Half of St. Pierre’s book is a bibliography of the cave, with about three hundred references, arranged chronologically. Some references from before 1926 presumably just cover the vicinity of the cave. There are introductory sections on the history of the cave and caving in the area, as well as a description of the cave, illustrated by many nicely produced black-and-white photos. Several maps of the cave are presented, including Casteret’s 1926 map and the editor’s 1965 map.

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