"Joy and Ray's Mammoth Cave Page" Mammoth Cave by joyellen

KENTUCKY

Mammoth Cave National Park, Kentucky May 24, 2000
Yes, we went underground again. Since we visited Kartchner Caverns and Carlsbad Caverns, we certainly couldn't pass up the opportunity to visit the granddaddy of them all. Mammoth Cave is nothing like Carlsbad, as it doesn't have stalactites and stalagmites or dripping water on formations. But it has 350 miles of surveyed passageways and is at least three times longer than any cave known. Estimates of a possible 600 miles are yet undiscovered. What is especially interesting is that tourists have been visiting here for almost three hundred years.

As early as 4,000 years ago, for a period of 2,000 years, early cavers entered the cave. Then they suddenly ceased with no evidence of exploration until it was rediscovered in 1798. During the War of 1812 the cave was used to mine salt peter used in the making of gunpowder. After the war, some slaves who had worked in the mines thought it would be something people might visit. By 1816 it was a tourist attraction, and in 1926 it became a national park.