I had visited this park when I was a very young child but really didn’t have much of a memory of it. My wife has never been and a chance to visit a National Park was another reason we chose Kentucky.
First let me just say Wow!! I didn’t know all this. Mammoth Cave is the longest cave in the world. There are just over 400 miles of surveyed passages but scientists suspect there are another 600 MILES. The next longest cave is in Mexico and stands at about 234 miles. Spelunkers very recently found 6 new miles of this cave. So much unexplored!
The park is also designated as a World Heritage Site and Biosphere Reserve. It was authorized as a National Park in 1926 and fully established in 1941. About 130 forms of life can be found in the cave but most are quite small. It is best to tour the cave but also the surface trails and waterways which form a complete ecosystem. So that is what we set out to do.
Edmond Lee created the first surveyed map of the cave in 1835 but it was Stephen Bishop, an enslaved African American guide who added many more passages to that original map. In 1891, Frances Benjamin Johnston, using a camera, a lantern and some pyrotechnic powders created the most successful and elaborate illustration of Mammoth Cave
We took the historic tour, following in the footsteps of other tourists dating back to the early 1800s. The tour was 2 hours and led by a National Park Service Ranger. Most of the passageways are very wide but there was one challenging part named Fat Man’s misery. It was a great tour, focusing on the history of the park and the cave.
Limestone caves like Mammoth are formed by water acting on rock over a very long period of time. South-central Kentucky perfectly combines these factors to form such a long cave system. Because this part of the cave is dry, you do not see the magnificent formations found in other parts of the cave and many other caves I have toured.
One of our favorite national parks to return to.