Location
Situated beside the Green River Valley and south central Kentucky, USA, it is the longest cave system ever known in the world. With 400 miles of passageway explored, discoveries are made each year that bring into light hundreds of miles, to be added to this distance. In 1926, The Mammoth Cave National Park was established under a group of private citizens to preserve the cave. The Mammoth Cave National Park was declared a World Heritage Site in 1981.
How Was It Formed?
The caves were created as result of ‘Karst topography’. Karst topography is particularly seen in areas that has an abundance of limestone. Lime stone is a sedimentary rock that is highly susceptible to chemical weathering and erosion. So, water from rain, rivers and streams dissolve the limestone and thus catering it to form magnificent cave systems. The cave remains stable to this day as the limestone strata is capped by a layer of sandstone.
Name
The name ‘Mammoth Cave’ ironically has nothing to do with the extinct mammal the ‘Woolly Mammoth’. The name was used long ago even before completely exploring the cave, to describe the colossal length of the passageways.
Human Occupations
The earliest humans to inhabit the caves were the native Americans between 3000-1000 B.C. Remains of the dead, and cane torches found as far as two miles trace to their occupation.
It is believed that the first European to visit Mammoth cave was either John Houchin or his brother Francis Houchin in 1797.
In the ‘War of 1812’, When America faced a deficit of gunpowder, the slaves became the unsung heroes of war by mining Saltpeter (Potassium Nitrate) for producing explosives.
Stephen Bishop, an African American slave who worked in the cave from 1938 to 1956, unrecognized at the time established himself as one of the legends of the mammoth cave by probing into the unknown extends of the cave. He made extensive maps and named many of the cave’s features. He is acknowledged to have discovered various areas in a time when there was no lighting or rescue facilities. Without Bishop’s risky exploration, it would be unsure about how much knowledge could have gathered about the cave that is available today.
Sights Within the Cave
Every year out of the 2 million people that visit the national park, more than 500,000 of them set out to explore and behold the splendid sights of the cave. Experienced and trained tour guides take them through limestone labyrinths, palatial chambers, compact passageways and steep shafts that seem impossible to pass through, describing the cultural past of the caves. All these to experience in the glow of a lantern.
The shallow cave system begins with the ‘Rotunda’. The circular ceiling contributes to its name. The saltpeter mining sites during the ‘War of 1812’ can be seen here.
It then leads to The Methodist Church room. The reason why it has the name is that the preacher and the parishioners used to walkthrough here using lanterns and the preacher would collect all the lanterns and hang them at a point (causing to create the soot in the walls which exists as the proof for it) and would give sermons.
One can see little stone huts in the middle of these caves. It is said that in the 1940s, patients suffering from tuberculosis were sheltered in these little huts as Dr. John Cron believed that the atmosphere of the cave had restorative and curative properties and would ease the breathing of the patients. But unfortunately the patients and even the doctor eventually died as they had to light fire and cook food resulting in smoke constantly filling the area.
Moving ahead one can see the ‘Bottomless pit’ (105 feet deep), the terrifying place which Stephen Bishop discovered and adventurously crossed.
There are several other areas in the cave, though hysterically named are actually pretty much hard to pass through -The Fat Man’s Misery and The Tall man’s misery. One cannot pass through these areas without being claustrophobic.
Numerous sights in between the places capture the eye of the visitors. The mystifying works done by water are unbelievable. One can see ‘The Frozen Niagara’ area with thick beautiful formations of intricate patterns and rooms decorated with sparkling white Gypsum crystals.
The colorful sculpted shapes of Stalagmites and Stalactites are one among the sights that makes the visitors awe. Stalagmites are structures that point up from the floor and stalactites are icicle like structures dripping down. One feels as if these were frozen in time. These magnificent structures were created overtime when water seeping through the ground, deposited crystals of lime stones little by little. A cubic inch of these structures takes a 100-300 years to form!
A Rich Habitat of Flora and Fauna
The Mammoth Cave is home to several distinct species. Bats, rare and unusual animals including the eyeless fish, blind beetles and ghostly white spiders reside in the darkness of the cave. The cave was recognized as an International Biosphere Reserve in 1990.
Several species of bats inhabit the caves, with ‘the Gray Indiana Bats’ being the prominent. These bats are highly important to the ecosystem as they feed on several moths and mosquitoes. Sadly, a devastating disease called ‘the White Nose Syndrome’ has been detected in the Mammoth cave bat population. It is a disease caused by a fungus and has killed over 7 million bat species in the U.S.
The cave is home to 14 species of troglobites (animals that live within the cave) and troglophiles (animals that can live both inside and outside the cave).
Rare animals that inhabit the cave include The Eyeless Fish, Cave Salamanders and an endangered Albino Cave Shrimp. Two genera of crickets can also be found in the Cave.
One of the interesting and unusual creatures found in the underground streams of the cave is the Eyeless Cave Fish, which lacks eyes as a part of adapting to the lightless Environment.
Fossils of crinoids, blastoids and gastropods and more than a dozen species of shark have been discovered from the cave. The latest discovery being the detection of a part of a species comparable in size to the modern Great White Shark.
Even after all these years the Cave still remains true to the words of Stephen Bishop: “grand, gloomy and peculiar”.
Written by: Afra Meera Ahamed
Edited by: Gunika Manchanda
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