Mammoth Cave in Kentucky carries the title of the world’s longest cave system, at 420 miles of passageways (that they have surveyed and therefore, know about). The park rangers explained even as recently as last year, 8 miles were added thanks to new discoveries, so the number will continue to grow.
One thing was immediately clear– the natural cave entrance was one of the biggest I’d seen (Mammoth, even. OK, OK, I promise I won’t do that again). In caves like the Lehman Cave System in Great Basin National Park, the natural entrance was so small, the park service could not use it for entry, and had to create a more accessible one.
THIS entrance, on the other hand, gaped wide to the point of intimidation: it loomed so large and so black, it seemed like a whale’s mouth that could swallow everything in its path.
Heading into the cave, the analogy of the whale felt even more apt– the void seemed to grab up and deaden any sound, and the air grew noticeably cooler.
The size of the cave itself shouldn’t have been a surprise (given the name)– but somehow, it was. The grand scale was disorienting in a way, as being within it felt like being in a massive building, or man-made tunnel. Especially because there was a “roof” of sorts– the limestone cave (fun fact: most if not all large cave systems in the world are limestone), was capped with a sandstone layer that appeared to be so flat and smooth, it could seem like an immense ceiling of a crafted dwelling.
The rangers pointed out the silence was due to the sad fact of White Nose syndrome, a disease that decimated the bat population in the caves– eliminating fully 90% of them in just a few years. The result was an doleful silence and an eerie emptiness.
The cave was utilized by native peoples throughout antiquity, as the rangers explained that clear evidence of their lives, and even a few deaths, were discovered within. The first person to document their experience within the cave was Stephen Bishop, an enslaved African-American man, who arrived there in 1838. Exploring the cave with nothing but a lit candle, Bishop would go on to create a hand-drawn map that served as the definitive guide to the cave for decades.
Bishop also led guided tours through the cave for much of his life– teaching himself both the science of geology, and the discipline of reading and writing, which he learned from tourists who marked their names into the walls of the cave, often with smoke from their lanterns. Bishop would cleverly ask them how to spell their names to learn the letters. These markings still exist today, as evidenced above.
Bishop mapped out all the major features of the cave, venturing deeper and farther than anyone else dared to go. He also discovered the eyeless fish species within, and continued to explore the cave and property around it until his death.
The National Park Service did an excellent job as presenting Stephen Bishop as the hero of the Mammoth Cave National Park story– the brave and spirited explorer and documenter who helped preserve its existence through his tours. But Bishop’s story, while unique and bold, is not as sunny as that– he remained enslaved until just months before his death, freed through the will of his former master.
Ultimately, he had hoped to return himself and his family to Liberia, where he was from– but never got the chance, passing away after beginning preparations.
Emerging from the cave, fresh air hit differently. Even the longest cave system in the world could feel confining, especially when one understood the plight of its greatest explorer and advocate.
Posted by Sun
