USA / KentuckyMammoth Cave is Kentucky's only national park and the world's longest cave system.
In 2019, more than half a million tourists visited the 53,000-acre park, but in 2020, that number halved to just 290,000. This was partly due to coronavirus-related precautions. The park limited its usual roster of nearly 20 cave tours to one self-guided tour and provided timed tickets for groups of no more than 32 people. (As required by current federal guidelines, all visitors and staff wear masks in federal buildings and the cave system.)
But this year, the constant search for outdoor activities could bring greater popularity to Mammoth Cave National Park—at least according to AirBnB, which ranked the area among the top 10 most popular destinations in March. Molly Schroer, a spokesperson for Mammoth Cave, says one of the main draws for visitors is the park's diversity of experiences: more than 100 miles of elevated trails and riverways for hiking, biking, horseback riding, and canoeing, as well as more than 400 miles of limestone labyrinths underground.
This photograph, taken around 1892, shows 15 people enjoying a meal in Mammoth Cave. By the 1850s, the caves had become famous, attracting nationally renowned visitors, including writers, artists, and naturalists.
Photograph by Ben Haynes, Library of Congress
An old photograph of a black man
Black guides played a vital role in the early mapping of the cave, first working as slaves and then alongside whites as paid guides. Some families worked for generations. The federal government refused to hire Black guides when the area became a national park in 1941.
Photograph by Mandeville Tam, New York Public Library (left) and photograph by Mandeville Tam, New York Public Library (right)
Learn more about visiting Mammoth Cave National Park.
This year, the only available tour (reservations recommended) takes guests on a two-mile trail through a cool, shaded cave, where natural air conditioning provides a steady breeze and the temperature hovers around 54 degrees Celsius. All the while, interpreters are on hand to share stories about the cave's long, colorful history.
Depths of Time
Much has changed since humans first discovered Mammoth Cave more than 4000 years ago. The ancestors of seven tribes associated with the park's historic use, including the Cherokee Nation and the Shawnee Tribe, once used the cave system to extract minerals such as gypsum, using mussel shell scrapers collected from the Green River. They told their own stories in petroglyphs, pictographs, and burials, leaving behind mummified remains.
These cave discoveries suggest that people may have lived in the Americas twice as long as we thought.
Settlers began exploring the caves in the late 18th century. Many discoveries were made by Black explorers; some were enslaved in saltpeter mines to produce black powder, while others worked as maids and cooks at nearby hotels. The legendary Stephen Bishop arrived at Mammoth Cave as a teenager in 1838 and quickly became one of the park's most popular geologists and guides. One visitor said Bishop was "almost as famous as the cave itself." Like a bygone Indiana Jones, Bishop discovered new underground portals, including Mammoth Dome and the ruins of Carnac, overcoming obstacles such as the Bottomless Pit.
Bishop remained a slave throughout this time, gaining his freedom only before the Civil War. Although he decided to stay and work as a paid guide, Bishop once described the cave system he loved as "a majestic, gloomy, and strange place."
Mammoth Cave is the only national park in Kentucky.
But the importance of Black guides, who had worked alongside white cave guides for a century, diminished when the National Park Service began managing Mammoth Cave in 1941. The federal government decided not to hire any of the park's Black guides, including those who were fourth-generation.
Some of these guides were descendants of Matherson Bransford, the son of his own enslaver, who was "leased" to the owner of Mammoth Cave in his early twenties. Matherson's great-great-grandson, Jerry Bransford, continued his legacy in 2004 when he was hired to work at Mammoth Cave, half a century after his last relative left the park.
Cave Wars
In the years between the first explorers and the national park we know today, the region was engulfed not only by Reconstruction and Jim Crow laws, but also by competitive upheavals, legal battles, and the disastrous feuds known as the Cave Wars.
White wooden hut on the side of the road
The advent of the automobile brought a new wave of tourists to the caves of south-central Kentucky.
Open Park Network/National Park Service (left)
A sign reading "Body in a Cave"
Black and white road signs
Other locals advertised their own caves, seeking to profit from the fame and wealth of the Mammoth Cave owners.
By the early 1900s, more than 20 additional caves had been opened to the public. Landowners made more money from tourists than from farming. They filled the roads with giant signs and tents, where advocates—known as "cave caps" because of their hats—directed tourists from the world-famous Mammoth Cave to their own lesser-known grottoes.
Plan an epic journey through Tennessee's coolest caves.
Competitors soon turned their attention to finding a "back door" to Mammoth Cave. As the automobile age began to attract unprecedented numbers of tourists to south-central Kentucky, farmers and landowners seized on the potential profits, engaging in legal battles over ownership of caves hundreds of feet below the surface. But in 1925, the cave wars ended tragically when an explorer named Floyd Collins, attempting to expand his unprofitable family caving business, died after becoming trapped underground. The dangers spurred local property owners to work with federal officials in the already growing movement to manage Mammoth Cave as a protected park; it was incorporated the following year.
By the 1960s, the cutthroat competition of previous decades had been replaced by cross-promotion and accommodation.
In this 1960s photo, visitors listen as a park ranger interprets the cave's history.
Photo by David S. Boyer and Arlan R. Weicker, Nat Geo Image Collection
KentuckyMammoth Cave is Kentucky's only national park and the world's longest cave system.
In 2019, more than half a million tourists visited the 53,000-acre park, but in 2020, that number halved to just 290,000. This was partly due to coronavirus-related precautions. The park limited its usual roster of nearly 20 cave tours to one self-guided tour and provided timed tickets for groups of no more than 32 people. (As required by current federal guidelines, all visitors and staff wear masks in federal buildings and the cave system.)
But this year, the constant search for outdoor activities could bring greater popularity to Mammoth Cave National Park—at least according to AirBnB, which ranked the area among the top 10 most popular destinations in March. Molly Schroer, a spokesperson for Mammoth Cave, says one of the main draws for visitors is the park's diversity of experiences: more than 100 miles of elevated trails and riverways for hiking, biking, horseback riding, and canoeing, as well as more than 400 miles of limestone labyrinths underground.
This photograph, taken around 1892, shows 15 people enjoying a meal in Mammoth Cave. By the 1850s, the caves had become famous, attracting nationally renowned visitors, including writers, artists, and naturalists.
Photograph by Ben Haynes, Library of Congress
An old photograph of a black man
Black guides played a vital role in the early mapping of the cave, first working as slaves and then alongside whites as paid guides. Some families worked for generations. The federal government refused to hire Black guides when the area became a national park in 1941.
Photograph by Mandeville Tam, New York Public Library (left) and photograph by Mandeville Tam, New York Public Library (right)
Learn more about visiting Mammoth Cave National Park.
This year, the only available tour (reservations recommended) takes guests on a two-mile trail through a cool, shaded cave, where natural air conditioning provides a steady breeze and the temperature hovers around 54 degrees Celsius. All the while, interpreters are on hand to share stories about the cave's long, colorful history.
Depths of Time
Much has changed since humans first discovered Mammoth Cave more than 4000 years ago. The ancestors of seven tribes associated with the park's historic use, including the Cherokee Nation and the Shawnee Tribe, once used the cave system to extract minerals such as gypsum, using mussel shell scrapers collected from the Green River. They told their own stories in petroglyphs, pictographs, and burials, leaving behind mummified remains.
These cave discoveries suggest that people may have lived in the Americas twice as long as we thought.
Settlers began exploring the caves in the late 18th century. Many discoveries were made by Black explorers; some were enslaved in saltpeter mines to produce black powder, while others worked as maids and cooks at nearby hotels. The legendary Stephen Bishop arrived at Mammoth Cave as a teenager in 1838 and quickly became one of the park's most popular geologists and guides. One visitor said Bishop was "almost as famous as the cave itself." Like a bygone Indiana Jones, Bishop discovered new underground portals, including Mammoth Dome and the ruins of Carnac, overcoming obstacles such as the Bottomless Pit.
Bishop remained a slave throughout this time, gaining his freedom only before the Civil War. Although he decided to stay and work as a paid guide, Bishop once described the cave system he loved as "a majestic, gloomy, and strange place."
Mammoth Cave is the only national park in Kentucky.
But the importance of Black guides, who had worked alongside white cave guides for a century, diminished when the National Park Service began managing Mammoth Cave in 1941. The federal government decided not to hire any of the park's Black guides, including those who were fourth-generation.
Some of these guides were descendants of Matherson Bransford, the son of his own enslaver, who was "leased" to the owner of Mammoth Cave in his early twenties. Matherson's great-great-grandson, Jerry Bransford, continued his legacy in 2004 when he was hired to work at Mammoth Cave, half a century after his last relative left the park.
Cave Wars
In the years between the first explorers and the national park we know today, the region was engulfed not only by Reconstruction and Jim Crow laws, but also by competitive upheavals, legal battles, and the disastrous feuds known as the Cave Wars.
White wooden hut on the side of the road
The advent of the automobile brought a new wave of tourists to the caves of south-central Kentucky.
Open Park Network/National Park Service (left)
A sign reading "Body in a Cave"
Black and white road signs
Other locals advertised their own caves, seeking to profit from the fame and wealth of the Mammoth Cave owners.
By the early 1900s, more than 20 additional caves had been opened to the public. Landowners made more money from tourists than from farming. They filled the roads with giant signs and tents, where advocates—known as "cave caps" because of their hats—directed tourists from the world-famous Mammoth Cave to their own lesser-known grottoes.
Plan an epic journey through Tennessee's coolest caves.
Competitors soon turned their attention to finding a "back door" to Mammoth Cave. As the automobile age began to attract unprecedented numbers of tourists to south-central Kentucky, farmers and landowners seized on the potential profits, engaging in legal battles over ownership of caves hundreds of feet below the surface. But in 1925, the cave wars ended tragically when an explorer named Floyd Collins, attempting to expand his unprofitable family caving business, died after becoming trapped underground. The dangers spurred local property owners to work with federal officials in the already growing movement to manage Mammoth Cave as a protected park; it was incorporated the following year.
By the 1960s, the cutthroat competition of previous decades had been replaced by cross-promotion and accommodation.
In this 1960s photo, visitors listen as a park ranger interprets the cave's history.
Photo by David S. Boyer and Arlan R. Weicker, Nat Geo Image Collection