First Part of a "Haunted Mammoth Cave Story"

Hello, all of you out there tonight. I realize that it has been about 2 months since I last threw a blog up on here. Between being backed up with work messing around with changing my schedule and being busy spoiling rotten a cute baby here last month, I haven’t really had time to really start working on a blog about haunted stuff in the great Commonwealth of Kentucky. So trust me when I say that I have not forgotten you all here that were looking forward to a new blog from me here on this page.

I have a ghost story (or actually a series of short ghost stories) from Kentucky’s own national park – Mammoth Cave National Park. I often joke with Joe that I have been inside of Mammoth Cave itself enough to where I could give a tour myself, if I was in better health – especially the tour that is called “The Historical Tour” there at the national park. I have been to the national park more times than I can remember and I have been on that “Historical Tour” enough times to where I could tell my husband just about every detail about the tour blindfolded while on the tour itself.

In fact, I remember telling Joe right before I took him down there to Mammoth Cave National Park that there’s a part of the tours where the tour guides will sit everybody down on some benches; then the tour guides will turn off the lights to show everybody how damned dark that the cave really is without the lights on normally. Apparently, Joe thought that I was joking about it being darker than shit inside of the cave when the tour guides turned off the lights, because Joe was like: “Yeah right, it gets really dark in there, honey! I’ll be able to see my own hand in front of my face when the tour guides do the ‘Lights off’ part of the tour!”

(Let’s just say Joe found out when that part of the first tour that we went on back in 2004 that I wasn’t shitting Joe on it being so damned dark that you couldn’t see your own hand in front of your own face when the tour guides turn off the lights inside of the cave!!)

I have a photo here of Joe actually from that very tour, as a matter of fact. This photo below is the one that I took with 800 speed 35mm film down inside of the cave, right when the tour guides turned off the lights inside of the cave and Joe found out that I was certainly not shitting him on it being darker than shit inside of that cave. (See below for one shocked future hubby here!!)










You know, it still cracks me up that Joe didn’t believe me on the whole “You won’t be able to see anything at all when those tour guides click off the lights inside of the cave, honey,” when I told him about it originally. Nowadays, of course, Joe knows that it is coming and it happens on every tour that goes through the cave now, (no joke!) At least I do not have Joe act shocked to be sitting in the dark and hearing me laughing at him over it in the dark.

Of course, Joe also knows that my knowledge of the cave itself is extensive, because I have told Joe some interesting trivia facts about the cave itself. For example, pre-historic people used the cave for the gypsum that grows naturally on the walls for heaven only knows what now. A very long time passed and back in the 1800s, a man was chasing a bear and the man rediscovered the original historical entrance of the cave itself, when the man chased the bear in to the cave. As time passed, there were tours inside of the cave, guided by slaves, such as Stephen Bishop, (who helped discover most of the modern day tour that goes on the “Historical Tour” now) and other slaves of the man who originally owned what is now the historical entrance inside of Mammoth Cave National Park.

There are tuberculosis huts that are still inside of the cave itself now, because there was a Doctor John Croghan who believed that the cave’s naturally dry air would help heal the victims of tuberculosis heal and get better from the dreaded disease, (yeah, right, dude, whatever you say!) In fact, those same tuberculosis huts (or at least a few of them) are still standing today inside of the cave itself right now. There is a tour that will actually take you down to see the tuberculosis huts now and it is called “The Violet City Tour,” and you have to be 18 years old or older to go on it and hold a lantern while on the tour.

“The Violet City Tour” is a tour that is done by only oil lamp light, (that is why you have to 18 years old or older to go on it and hold a lantern) and it is only offered on a very limited basis every day. (In fact, I am going on that very same tour in June with Joe for my birthday and I will let you all know what that tour is like when I get home from my trip in June.)

Mammoth Cave is also the world’s longest natural made cave. There is only one other cave in the world that comes somewhat close to Mammoth Cave. That other cave is located somewhere in Russia. Mammoth Cave is still an active cave with at least two known (to me, any way) active rivers inside of it that are still tunneling down in to the middle of the earth. One of the two rivers that are still flowing inside of Mammoth Cave is called the River Styx. The second still flowing river that is inside of the cave itself (and I have been on it) is called the Echo River. Speaking of the Echo River – the national park use to offer the Echo River tours, right up until 1992, but discontinued those tours, due to flooding, (or so I was told by a tour guide a few years ago on a different tour in 2000.) It is a shame that the Echo River tours were discontinued, because that was actually a pretty cool tour. Although at point on the Echo River tour (as I jokingly put it) you had to “Double up to kiss your own ass” at one point during the actual tour. (The reason why you had to “Double up to kiss your own ass” on the Echo River tour is because you were on the boats all the way down on the actual Echo River itself and there was like maybe 3-4 inches or so between the ceiling and the top of the boat, which made it interesting for everybody aboard the boat.)

Here are also some more interesting facts about Mammoth Cave that people might not know about here. For example, H.P. Lovecraft paid a visit to Mammoth Cave once and he wrote the short story “Beast in the Cave” about a guy who gets lost inside of the cave and goes crazy from the experience of getting lost inside of the cave. H.P. Lovecraft really enjoyed his tour inside of the cave and it is said that Lovecraft was fascinated by the tales that he was told about people actually getting lost inside of Mammoth Cave – these tales that Lovecraft were told is why he wrote that short story “Beast In the Cave.”

Speaking of historical events surrounding Mammoth Cave National Park in the 20th Century – there is a man named Floyd Collins who really made the cave system in the Cave City, Kentucky area famous (and not in a good way, to be honest.) “What did Floyd Collins do that made the caves so famous and in a bad way?” you might ask. Well, what happened is that Floyd Collins did the one thing that all tour guides on all of the tours tell you to never, ever do – go caving by yourself. As all good cavers (and tour guides) will tell you the first rule of caving is to go caving in groups no smaller than four. The reason why you should not go caving in groups smaller than four people is because in the event that something happens to somebody in the party, (such as somebody falls and breaks an arm or a leg, etc.) Of course, Floyd Collins took off to go to the Sand Cave with only his trusty dog with him (which the Sand Cave’s entrance is now closed off and is located near the Cave City entrance to Mammoth Cave National Park on a marked trail.)

What then happened is that Floyd Collins went in to the Sand Cave by himself to go caving alone. As Floyd started his trek through the cave, there was suddenly a rockslide inside of the cave. When that rockslide happened, some of the bigger rocks fell on Floyd and trapped his legs underneath them. When a few hours passed and Floyd had not come home or contacted anybody that Floyd knew in the community in a while, Floyd’s family started getting concerned for Floyd’s safety and started looking for Floyd. After a long search, people discovered Floyd trapped behind and under a pile of rocks inside of the Sand Cave.

The whole saga of extricating Floyd’s person from out of the cave and out from underneath those rocks took a whole ten days and several man-hours to accomplish. Unfortunately, by the time that the workers managed to get to Floyd to get him out, Floyd had tragically passed away. In fact, the whole saga about getting Floyd out of the cave made national news all over America. People from all corners of the country were doing everything from writing letters and sending money to showing up to help get Floyd out of the cave itself or to even gawk at the whole thing.

The problem back in the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s was that the technology that they had for extricating people from caves was far more primitive than it is today, if somebody gets trapped inside of a cave or even a mine. The reason why I know that this process for extricating people out of mines or caves has gotten somewhat faster is because I had a cousin be trapped inside of the mine that the cousin was working in at the time. My cousin had a 2-ton bolder fall on top of him back in 1998. The people who were there at the mine where my cousin was trapped were able to extricate my cousin quickly from inside of the mine and get my cousin quickly air lifted up to Lexington, (Kentucky) to UK’s hospital to be operated on there at the hospital.

Fortunately, for my cousin, the world’s best neurosurgeon happened to be working at the University of Cincinnati’s School of Medicine in 1998. The reason why I know that this lady doctor was at the University of Cincinnati back in July of 1998 was because where I live, there was this huge write up about this lady neurosurgeon in the Cincinnati Enquirer back in July of 1998 about her being there for teaching purposes. What happened is that the folks at the University of Kentucky contacted the folks at the University of Cincinnati’s School of Medicine and let the folks in Cincinnati know what was up with my cousin. The good people at the University of Kentucky had the lady doctor flown down in a helicopter to work on my cousin from the Cincinnati area.

Well, the lady doctor was able to save my cousin’s life, after she opened my cousin up to see the extent of the damage on my cousin’s back, spine and other organs. One thing that I remember about the whole affair is that this happened after I moved back up here to the Northern Kentucky area from living in North Carolina. I also remember that it was July of 1998, because that is when my parents and I were heading back down to North Carolina to go through the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina. My parents and I stopped by the hospital in Lexington, Kentucky to see my cousin and this cousin’s wife and parents on the way down to Asheville, North Carolina.

One thing that I have to mention about my cousin is that when the lady neurosurgeon worked on my cousin in that first initial surgery, she took one look inside of my cousin and closed him back up. After the doctor looked at my cousin’s insides, the lady doctor came out and told my cousin’s parents and wife that my cousin was a lucky bastard, because my cousin was alive and that she could fix him. There was a second surgery on my cousin a day or two later and the good lady doctor fixed my cousin’s back up properly.

Any way, I digress back to Floyd Collins and what happened to him back in 1925. Well, it is believed that poor, old Floyd bought the farm from exposure and starvation on or about February 13, 1925. The doctor examining Floyd’s body wasn’t 100% sure of how long Floyd had been dead exactly after people were able to get in to actually get close enough to Floyd to get Floyd out of the cave itself, so the doctor couldn’t put the exact date of death at an exact date.

After a few years, Floyd Collin’s body was put on display inside of the Crystal Cave, (which Floyd’s family owned then later sold to somebody and it finally ended up in the government’s hands when the national park was started up.) The sad thing is that between the time that Floyd’s family sold the Crystal Cave and that second owner had the cave, some jerk up and stole Floyd’s body from the cave and Floyd’s body went missing for about 10 years or so, when people out in a field found 90% of Floyd’s body, laying out in the field. The part of Floyd’s body that was missing was Floyd’s broken left leg and it was missing from the knee down. That part of Floyd’s leg was never found by anybody (and heaven only knows where it is now), but Floyd’s body was buried for the fifth and final time on the national park property, near the Mammoth Cave National Park Baptist Church. (So I don’t recommend trying to up and steal Floyd’s body again, ‘cause that’s a federal offence to destroy government property!!)

Now here’s the rub, folks – it took me all of this time to get around to telling you the ghost story. Granted, I know that I’ve been going on about the history of the cave, but trust me, this small ghost story is one of many and it’s a good one, not to mention that it’s worth the wait for it.

This ghost story involves Floyd Collins. See, Floyd isn’t very happy about being not being 100% in his grave. Therefore, if you go to the Crystal Cave entrance, where there’s an overlook to the cave’s entrance now, it is said that sometimes you can see a ghost of a man fitting Floyd Collins’ description. It is said that the ghost mentioned here is missing his left leg from the knee down, who will come up to you, looking for his leg or something like that, folks.

There are more stories involving slaves and other interesting things, but I am saving them for the next blog, because I am saving them for the part where I talk about more of the gypsum exporting part and the War of 1812. There are also more stuff that is about the cave that is just too interesting to just put in one blog as well, folks, and some of involves the candy called “Twinkies.” I will post those stories and other fun stuff in a second blog here soon, folks. I also have some stuff to share with all of you about Stephen Bishop, (the slave guide that I mentioned above in this blog) as well that I am saving for that second blog as well.

Oh, and folks – I deliberately saved this detail for now (at the bottom of this blog) about my cousin that I mentioned above who had the 2 ton bolder fall on him inside of that mine in Harlan, Kentucky. The good news is that not only is my cousin still alive, but that lady neurosurgeon did such a fine job with fixing my cousin’s spine and spinal cord that my cousin can stand up, walk and basically have something close to “Normal human function” in that capacity now. My cousin can walk almost completely on his own (and he has been since 1998), but with the help of a cane. I just thought that I would share some happiness with you all at the end of this blog here.