Mammoth Cave National Park
Mammoth Cave National Park is an area in south-central Kentucky, encompassing Mammoth Cave, the most extensive cave system known in the world. The complete name of the cave system is the "Flint-Mammoth-Joppa-Toohey Ridge Cave System", named for the ridges under which the caves have formed. It was established as a National park on July 1, 1941. It became a World Heritage Site on October 27, 1981, and an international Biosphere Reserve on September 26, 1990.
The park's 52,830 acres (214 km²) is located in Edmonson County, Kentucky, with small areas extending eastward into Hart County and Barren County. It is centered around the Green River, with a tributary, the Nolin River, feeding into the Green just inside the park. The Green River is dammed near the western boundary of the park, so that the river only flows freely for a small section in the eastern part of the park.
Almost two million people visit the park every year.
Mammoth Cave is a system in thick limestone strata capped by a layer of sandstone, making the system remarkably stable. It currently comprises over 365 miles of passageway, with new discoveries and connections adding several miles per year to this figure. The cave was a significant source for saltpeter production for the manufacture of gunpowder at one time, especially in the War of 1812.
Mammoth Cave was mapped and named extensively by Stephen Bishop, a slave guide to the cave during the 1840s and 1850s.
The sandstone capping layer has collapsed in one area in the southern park, resulting in Cedar Sink, a massive sinkhole which features a small river entering one side and disappearing back underground at the other side.
The caverns of Mammoth Cave National Park are also home to the endangered Kentucky cave shrimp, a sightless, pigmentless shrimp found in only three counties of Kentucky.
Park service
The park service offers several cave tours to visitors. Many of the most famous features of the cave, such as Grand Avenue, Frozen Niagra, and Fat Man's Misery, can be seen on lighted tours ranging from one to six hours in length. Two lantern tours, lit only by visitor-carried paraffin lamps, are a popular alternative to the electric lit routes. Several wild tours venture away from the developed parts of the cave into muddy crawls and dusty tunnels.
Interested members of the public can join an Earthwatch.org sponsored field survey of the history of Mammoth Cave [1]. However, due to Mammoth Cave park regulations, participation on this project is restricted to U.S. citizens only. The Echo River Tour, one of the cave's most famous attractions, used to take visitors on a boat ride along an underground river. The tour was discontinued for logistic and environmental reasons in the early 1990s [2].
History of the cave
Legend has it that in 1790s a hunter, John Houchin, pursued a wounded bear to a large pit near the Green River and stumbled upon bat-guano clogged entrance. By the War of 1812 the cave was being mined for Guano, which was in demand to make saltpetre for gunpowder. A half interest in the changed hands for ten thousand dollars (a huge sum at the time). After the war when prices fell, the workings were abandoned and it became a minor tourist attraction centering on a native american mummy discovered nearby.
The cave is linked with computer games (see interactive fiction) one of the first computer games ever, Adventure, is based on parts of the cave (the Colossal section and the Bedquilt Entrance).