Mammoth Cave really is mammoth! On the Historic Tour, we learned that the first people to be in Mammoth Cave were the Woodland Indians. They came to collect gypsum from the surface of the rocks. We saw the scrape marks from their tools. There's a myth about how the cave was discovered. A man was hunting when he shot and wounded a bear. He followed the bear into the cave.
After the Indians, the cave was used for saltpeter mining. There are still wooden pipes from the mining. One of the girls on a tour many years ago put out her hand to touch a what she thought was a hairy rock. It turned out to be the head of an Indian who had been killed by a falling boulder. Yuck. The cave had preserved the Indian perfectly. That was cool!
The main entrance to Mammoth Cave
No comments:
Post a Comment