Chapter 13
JOEL BUCKNER'S CAVE.--About 10 miles northeast of Munfordville is a large cave with the entrance on a hillside. The roof has evidently extended several rods farther out than at present. The front part of the cavern is wide and high, but is now nearly filled with débris. The roof slopes at about the same angle as loose material within, there being not more than 3 feet of space between the two at any place nearer than 30 feet from the present mouth. Rocks thrown back showed the same uniformity of slope to continue at least several yards and the depth there to be about 20 feet below the top of the detritus at the mouth. This cave was suitable as a habitation before the material now choking the mouth had accumulated, provided water was obtainable. The nearest spring now is more than a mile away. An exploration would require, as a preliminary, the removal of several hundred cubic yards of compacted rocks and clay.
HARRY BUCKNER CAVE.--Half a mile north of the cavern last named is another with a very narrow entrance. The floor, which slopes downward, is solid rock in part, and the place is not adapted for occupancy.
CUB RUN CAVE.--Cub Run is a little settlement 12 miles west of Munfordville, near the Edmonson County line and about equidistant from Green River and Nolin River. Two miles in a direct line south of the village is a cave or rock shelter which has much local notoriety from the fact that three skeletons were found in it. They were imbedded in mixed ashes and earth and accompanied with several pestles, bone perforators, three flint knives, a small celt, and part of a clay pipe stem. One of the skeletons was that of a child not more than 8 or 10 years old. It has been pronounced the frame of a white child on account of the shape of the skull, but is more probably Indian, as the three were found together. Two of the bodies had been laid side by side; the other was near their feet at a right angle to them. In the back of the child's head is an incision somewhat over an inch long. The skull is slightly fractured downward from one end of this cut, and the corner or angle thus formed in the bone is pressed outward.
A flint implement found almost in contact with the skull fits closely into the aperture and may have produced it, as the form of the wound could have been thus caused.
The cavity or chamber of this cavern is about 100 feet across in each direction. There is a small opening near the back which has been examined to a distance of 75 or 80 feet, being there obstructed by large blocks of sandstone similar to those which fill the space from floor to ceiling along the back end of the shelter.
There is another very large block just at the entrance, in which are one shallow and two deep circular depressions which were probably mortars. Bones of deer, bear, and other animals have been found within a foot or two of the surface both outside and inside of the cave. Contrary to what is usual in sandstone cavities of this sort, the outside earth slopes upward from the entrance and after heavy rains considerable water flows into the cave. This makes the earth on the floor quite sticky at times, although it is mainly sand, containing very little clay.
The skeletons were found at a depth of about 16 inches, close to the side wall. A small trench dug where they were unearthed showed, in succession, a layer of ashes 4 or 5 inches thick and not more than 3 feet across, a foot below the surface of the floor; a few inches of earth; a layer of ashes an inch thick, at two feet; below this, yellowish undisturbed sand, apparently fallen from the sandstone roof, and continuing to the rock floor, which was about 32 inches below the top.
Another trench was dug about midway across the cave and the same distance from the front as the skeletons were found. This was on or close to the line of heaviest drainage into the cave and the earth was so wet as to be very sticky. A few little patches of what appeared to be ashes but which had not resulted from fires made on the spot, three or four broken mussel shells, and a chip of flint were found in the first 18 or 20 inches. More than this amount of earth could easily have washed in since they were left here by modern Indians. Below this level the earth contained not the slightest object of human origin, to the rock floor which was found at a depth of 6 feet. On the rock was nearly pure sand, probably the result of disintegration; some clay lay on this; then the mixed loam, sand, and clay composing the outside soil.
It would appear that this cave was utilized as a place of shelter at irregular intervals by Indians in tolerably recent times; that at least one of those found, perhaps all three, had died or been killed during a somewhat protracted sojourn; and that only a slight covering of earth, if any at all, had been placed over them.
Two similar caves are within 8 or 10 miles, but were not visited.
EDMONSON COUNTY
MAMMOTH CAVE.--For miles from the entrance saltpeter workers have dug down to a level where the amount of loose rock rendered further excavation too expensive. In many places walls of stone are piled against the sides of the cavern. They were among the earth that was removed and have been so piled to get them out of the way.
As far back as "Chief City," 3 miles from the mouth of the cave, the floor is littered with fragments of canes (reeds) and saplings, which, from the appearance of the ends, were broken, twisted, or bruised off with blunt tools like stone hatchets. Most of those remaining are lying on massive loose rocks now forming the floor, though the ends of some are seen projecting from beneath stones much larger than two men can lift. It is possible the latter have recently slid or slipped from higher up the slopes, but the indications are that they have dropped from the roof since the time of these early explorers. If this be the case, it points to a considerable antiquity for the remains, because no such downfalls are known to have occurred since the cave was first explored by white men.
So much work has been done about the entrance of late years for improving the approaches that excavation would be useless, even if allowed, unless carried to a depth of more than 20 feet. Such work would greatly interfere with the plans of the management.
WHITE'S CAVE.--This is about three-fourths of a mile from Mammoth Cave. The entrance, quite small, is near the crest of a ridge, and the floor descends abruptly. Only a narrow chamber exists within reach of daylight, and the cave is wet all the time a short distance back.
COLOSSAL CAVE.--It is said to be 4 miles from Mammoth Cave, but is really only a little more than 2 miles. The present entrance is entirely artificial, the descent to the floor being about 120 feet. The original entrance was in a crevice which explorers descended by means of ropes. It is said that another entrance is known to one man who, however, has to crawl a long distance.
SALT CAVE.--This is 4 miles from Mammoth Cave, though belonging to the same company. The entrance is at the bottom of a conical sink hole draining about an acre. Not much water runs into the cave from this cause, as the surface slopes outward from the margin except on one side, where a ridge leads to the hills. A spring which comes out near the top of the sink falls over a ledge at the bottom into the entrance to the cave. It is said that this water soaks into the ground within a few rods and that just beyond are large, dry rooms, well adapted for habitation, which formerly contained many evidences of aboriginal occupation. Exploration is impossible now, as the entrance was effectually closed some years ago by throwing in logs, brush, rocks, and earth, in order to protect the formations from relic hunters. The water from the spring falls directly on and flows into this, and can not now be turned aside. Even if it could, all excavated material would have to be carried up a steep slope and deposited in the field surrounding the sink hole.
DIXON'S CAVE.--It is supposed, with good reason, that this was at one time connected with Mammoth Cave. It can be easily entered, through a large crevice, where the surface rock has fallen in. Approach to the bottom is down a steep and rugged slope of about 60 feet vertically. Within, no earth is visible, it having been entirely removed by saltpeter miners, who left the rocks piled in great rows from side to side across the cavern.
MAMMAL CAVE.--This is so named because a tusk was formerly exhibited at the hotel which was reported to have come from here. It was afterwards learned that the specimen was imported from another State. The cave is small and damp, not suitable for living or even for stopping in.
PROCTOR'S CAVE.--This is 6 miles from Mammoth Cave. The present entrance is artificial and so far as could be learned the cave is a recent discovery.
HAUNTED CAVE.--The name is given to commemorate the fact that human bones were found in it. Physicians, it is said, pronounced them bones of a white person. The cave, which is on Green River, some miles below Mammoth Cave, was not visited, as the entrance is described as a crevice through which a man has difficulty in squeezing his way, while the interior is nowhere more than 8 feet wide. The cave soon connects with another narrow vertical crevice which reaches the surface at the top of a ridge.
BRIGGS'S CAVE.--About 6 miles west of Cave City, and 4 miles west of north from Glasgow Junction, is a cave on land of Ike Briggs, which was described as fit for habitation. Its entrance is in a small sink hole, on a hillside. The approach is easy, and entry not difficult; but the cave receives the drainage of several acres and the floor is always muddy.
POYNER'S CAVE.--This is a mile east of Briggs's. While a large cave, the entrance is at the foot of a sink hole an acre in area. It is necessary to stoop for some distance on entering, and the bottom here is rough and wet. Farther in it is dry and roomy--so much so, that people in the neighborhood use one chamber as a "ballroom." This part is some distance beyond daylight. As in all caves which are entered from a sink, it would be very difficult to dispose of any excavated earth, as it would have to be carried up the steep slope to the outside.
SHORT CAVE.--Chaumont is a station on the road to Mammoth Cave, 3 miles from the Glasgow Junction. The cavern, which is so named from its limited extent as compared with Mammoth, is a mile from the station. The entrance, reached by a winding way along the ridges, is on one side of an irregular depression comprising 3 or 4 acres. At present there is a heavy bank of earth, several feet high, across the entrance, nearly closing it to the top, except at the middle where a wagon road has been cut through to allow fertilizers for mushroom beds to be hauled in. This earth, so it is stated, was not there when the cave was discovered, but has been carried from the interior partly by saltpeter workers, and partly by the present owner in order to cover up some rocks and to make the floor smooth and level. In front of the cave and of the earth piled at the entrance is a level space of 25 or 30 feet to a deep sink hole. Some water and mud, in time of wet weather, runs into the front part of the cave but its effect is not noticeable for more than 30 or 40 feet. Beyond this is a reach of more than 200 feet of perfectly dry level floor. It was not so smooth before some grading was done for the mushroom beds, but was at no time rugged or difficult to travel over. At 300 feet from the entrance is a slope about 20 feet high, at the foot of which begins another floor so dry as to be dusty in places. Whether this apparent thickness of 20 feet is of earth, or earth and stone mixed, or is indicative of a dip in the rock floor, is not known, as no excavation has ever been made except for the plant beds. There is a slight descent, not more than 3 or 4 feet, from the entrance to the point where the flood water seems to reach. This is seemingly due altogether to the wash. The width of the cave is about 50 feet, and notwithstanding the partial closure of the entrance there is sufficient light as far back as 200 feet to enable one to read ordinary print. So there is ample room within reach of daylight for several hundred people to gather without inconvenience.
The owner, Capt. J.B. Briggs, who lives in Russellville, has granted permission to make any excavations desired, provided the floor be left in good shape when done. It is evident that any satisfactory examination will demand a large expenditure. If only a preliminary trench were made, the necessary slope would require a considerable width at top, while if anything should be disclosed that called for extensive research, the earth must be wheeled or otherwise removed to the sink hole in front, and the whole floor brought to a nearly uniform level.
So far as appearances go, this cavern is better adapted for occupancy than any other which has been examined. The depth of earth shows it to have been open for a long period. If nothing can be found here, denoting extreme antiquity of man, it would seem useless to make further search in central or western Kentucky.
BEAR CREEK.--A very large rock house is on the right bank of Bear Creek, 3 miles above its mouth. It would afford good shelter to a large number of people, except in rainy seasons when they were most in need of it. After heavy storms the creek covers the entire floor.
Other rock-shelters exist along Green River above and below Bear Creek. They are not worth investigating. Some are flooded; others difficult of access; still others become muddy after rains; while in none of them is there any great depth of earth.
WARREN COUNTY
CRUMP'S CAVE.--A mile north of Smith's Grove is a large sink hole, from one side of which extends a cave nearly a mile long. There is abundant room and a good light near the front, and it is reported that quantities of ashes were formerly to be seen on the earth a short distance in. A considerable outside area drains into the cave, and the floor at the present time is everywhere so wet as to be quite muddy. Much water also falls from the roof. A hydraulic ram, not far from the entrance, formerly forced water from one of these falls to the farm residence. A descent of 6 feet, over large rocks and wet earth, brings one to the nearly level floor, 40 feet from the mouth. The amount of flood water running into the cave is indicated by a gully 4 feet deep and the same in width, while trash and driftwood litter the floor from wall to wall for more than a hundred yards.
THOMAS CAVE.--This is a mile north of Bowling Green. The roof of a cavern has fallen in and forms a high mound of rocky débris, down which a path winds on each side, giving access toward either end of the cavern. There is scarcely a possibility that it was ever occupied.
MILL CAVE.--Three miles south of Bowling Green a stream emerges from the foot of a slope, flows a hundred yards through a canyon-like open channel, and disappears under a cliff. This is another instance of an open cave due to a falling roof. The open end is large and forms an excellent shelter for cattle. On either side of the stream, under the cliff, is a shelf or projecting ledge, covered with loose stones. Neither is 2 feet higher than the water level in a wet season.
BARREN COUNTY
PAYNE CAVE.--This, also known as Saltpeter Cave, is near Temple Hill, 9 miles southeast of Glasgow. The bluff in which it is situated is a conglomerate limestone, rising from the waters of Skagg's Creek. The cave has three different entrances, 100 feet or more apart, and each entrance is broken into three or four by columns or masses of stone that have resisted erosion. None of the entrances is large, or opens into spacious chambers within daylight. Flood marks are visible in all, and it is said that after prolonged or heavy spring rains the water covers the floors.
BEN SMITH'S CAVE.--This was discovered while digging out a fox den. It is a tunnel-like cavity, not more than 6 feet high or wide, and not suitable for habitation. It lies a mile and a half south of Temple Hill.
FORD'S CAVE.--This is between Freedom and Mount Hermon, about 14 miles southeast of Glasgow. Originally the entrance was about 8 feet high and 20 feet wide, and opened into a well-lighted chamber probably 40 feet wide and 60 feet long. The floor was of earth and level, with ample space between it and the roof, as shown by marks on the walls, for people to move about readily in any part of the room. The entrance is now artificially closed by earth and stone, except for a space 4 feet square in which a door is hung. Old men in the neighborhood claim they can remember when the floor was 20 feet lower than at present; a manifest impossibility, for that measure would bring it several feet lower than the bed of Mill Creek just in front of the cave. They also claim that blocks of conglomerate and travertine 5 to 10 feet in each dimension have formed from "drip" within their recollection; which, if true, would prove these persons to be almost contemporaneous with the cave men. The more probable statement is also made by them that in early days saltpeter workers dug up and leached all the earth in the cave, filling the entrance and the narrow space before it with the leached earth from the front part of the cave and throwing that from farther back into the cavities and pits left by the prior workings. Inside the cave, near the entrance, is a never-failing spring whose waters flow through a short, narrow crevice at one side. While easily accessible, the water does not reach any of the earth floor.
This would have been an excellent site for aboriginal residence, but there is now no undisturbed earth within daylight nor for some distance beyond, and no one can remember that anything of an artificial nature was ever exhumed.
THE ESMITH CAVES.--Two caves situated on Peters Creek near Dry Fork post office, 14 miles southeast of Glasgow, were reported to be admirably suited for shelter purposes. The smaller is not more than a foot high, from floor to roof, and is filled with flood water after every heavy rain. The larger is above flood line, but the entrance is not over 2 feet high, and the "cave" is scarcely sufficient for a sheep shelter. If the floor were cleared off to a depth of 4 feet from its present level, it would be covered whenever the creek reached high-water mark.
BONE CAVE.--Five miles east of Glasgow human bones were found in a cavern. Particulars could not be obtained. The cave is on a hillside and is entered through a narrow crevice by straddling the walls or going down a ladder. Rocks and trash form a mound in this, the top being 15 feet below the outside surface. On either side of this mound one can make his way continuously downward to darkness, and a rock thrown ahead can be heard going on down some distance over loose stones. If human bones were ever found in here, either they were thrown in or some person fell in and was unable to escape.
SLICK ROCK CAVE.--This is near the post office of Slick Rock, 7 miles east of Glasgow. The entrance is in a narrow crevice at the brow of a low hill. The descent is steep and rugged to beyond daylight.
LOVE'S CAVE.--This is located on Dr. Love's farm, 3 miles north of Slick Rock. It is now used for storing apples and potatoes. The entrance is through a large sink hole, formed by the falling in of the roof of a cave which was at least 50 feet wide at this point. As is usual, the débris has blocked the cave in one direction. Descent is regular, though steep, along the slope into the other end of the cave. The floor is wet and muddy the entire year on account of the drip from roof and overhanging rock at the mouth. The vertical distance from top of the débris to the level floor is about 30 feet, and from the top to the outer surface about 20 feet more. Any attempt at excavation would be difficult and costly, and conditions are such as to make it probably fruitless.
MONROE COUNTY
Four caves in this county were represented as being worth investigation. All are north of Tompkinsville, the county seat.
(1) A rock house in the conglomerate sandstone on the land of Dr. E.E. Palmer, 7 miles north of Tompkinsville, shows smoke stains on the ceiling, and some flint chips among the gravel and earth in front where they have been exposed by water dripping over the face of the cliff. There is, however, only 2 to 4 feet of space between the earth floor and the roof, across the cave from side to side, a distance of 20 feet, and from the front to a point 10 feet back. From this rear portion the earth slopes downward, parallel with the roof of the cave, to the wall behind. The amount of descent could not be accurately ascertained owing to the cramped space, but seems to be 5 or 6 feet. At about that level on the outside a ledge was found on both sides of the entrance and appears to continue across. If so, the earth covers the part immediately in front of the cave. Neither tools nor men could be found to do any trenching, but it is not probable the shelter was ever high enough for a man to stand erect in, because most, or all, of the floor earth must have come from the ceiling.
(2) A mile north of Dr. Palmer's is the McCreary Cave. The entrance is from 60 to 70 feet across and the cavern reaches back fully a hundred feet without any diminution of breadth. Two branches then start under the hill. Each has been explored more than a mile. From each branch flows a considerable brook. They unite near the entrance, sink into the floor, and reappear as a strong spring 30 feet lower in the ravine leading from the cave. The earth is not more than 3 feet deep near the front. It becomes greater in amount farther back, but is wet everywhere below the level of the running water, consequently no excavation was practicable. Flood marks show that the whole floor, except in places a strip along the side walls, is completely submerged at times. On one side a rock ledge or shelf above reach of the water is covered with dry loose earth from 1 to 3 feet deep. This has been dug up in nearly every part by treasure seekers, but nothing of human workmanship has ever been found.
(3) The Belcher Cave is 7 miles northwest of Tompkinsville. It is also called Mill Cave, because a gristmill near the foot of the hill below it is run by the outflowing stream. The entrance is wide and high; the front chamber or vault is fully a hundred feet across each way. But the bedrock is exposed in places and the earth is not more than 2 feet thick anywhere. Water from the brook percolating through this keeps the lower portion saturated.
(4) On John Black Tuley's land, on Meshach Creek, 6 miles northeast of Tompkinsville, two human skeletons were found in a small opening, which has since been known as the Bone Cave. It is a room not over 10 feet across at any part, in a limestone conglomerate, and may be of quite recent origin. Being inconvenient of access, it is not in a position for residence purposes. The skeletons, which were less than 2 feet below the surface, were probably those of Indian hunters. The material in which the little cave is formed will crumble easily in cold weather, being rather wet from the soil water soaking through the hill above it.
There are other caves in this county, but from the descriptions they do not seem at all suited even for temporary camping needs.
LOGAN COUNTY