Appalachian History

Floyd Collins was first to explore Sand Cave. Fallen rock trapped him in narrow passage 150 ft. from entrance, Jan. 30, 1925. Rescuers reached him with food and heat for short time. Aid cut off by shifting earth closing passage. Engineers sank 55-foot shaft but were unable to reach Collins' body until February 16. Rescue attempt publicized worldwide. Aroused sympathy of nation.

--Historical Marker at Sand Cave, KY erected in 1970 by The Kentucky Historical Society and the Department of Highways.

In 1925, Floyd Collins, one of the world's premier cavers, met a tragic and bizarre end in part of what is now known to be Mammoth Cave. Collins, determined to find a "show" cave as a source of family income, had signed a contract in the middle of January with a man named Doyle and another man named Ed Estes to explore a rock overhang called Sand Cave on Doyle's farm. Doyle and Estes agreed to give Floyd half rights to anything he found there. There was a story that men who worked for Mammoth Cave had once dynamited the overhang. The day before Floyd went down, he showed Estes a skull he’d found in a cave and then gave it to Estes’ son, Jewell. He said he was afraid of not coming out alive. His fears were well founded.

Floyd Collins examines fossil remains in Great Crystal Cave, several years prior to being trapped in Sand Cave. From commercial postcard.

On Friday, January 30, he went into the cave. He crawled down into the dark, on his belly, into a narrow passage. He slid fifteen feet straight down, then twisted through a hundred feet of loops that sloped at 30 degrees. He dropped straight for eight feet and then crawled for fifty feet more between loose rock walls until he reached a small cavern. He lay on his belly, looking down into a fifty-foot pit, twenty-five feet long and ten feet wide.

He went down into it, looking for a passage, but it was closed. He scaled the walls and headed back the way he had come. He kicked a rock that knocked some stones that started a slide that trapped him. He was caught a hundred and twenty five feet deep in the ground, in a space eight inches high and twelve feet long. The temperature was 16 degrees. He was facing up in the direction from which he’d come, but there was a seven-ton boulder on his left foot. He lay in mud and black night, with water dripping on his head.

Considering Floyd Collins' experience and reputation as a caver, it is astonishing that he broke what are considered today cardinal rules of safe exploration:

1) Went exploring alone.
2) Had only one light source.
3) Was poorly clothed.
4) Had no helmet or hard hat.
5) Did not tell anybody where he was going or when he would be back.

Relatives eventually noticed that he was missing, and a quick check in Sand Cave confirmed the worst. The rescue effort that ensued quickly turned into a publicity carnival. It lasted for 18 days and captured the interest of the whole nation through the relatively new medium of radio.

Rescuers tried everything—digging and hacking at the passageway, sinking a new shaft, feeding Collins to keep up his energy, and sending down reporter Skeets Miller to chronicle the drama. At one point, rescuers even considered amputation. Nothing worked. Eventually, a passage just above Collins collapsed, cutting him off from aid. Fifteen days after being trapped, Floyd Collins pushed his last crawl.

The authorities decided it was too dangerous to remove the body and left it in the cave. Eventually, his body was put in a glass-topped coffin in Crystal Cave where cavers from around the world paid their respects to him for many years. Then in the most dramatic and grotesque twist to the story, his body was stolen—and later found in a nearby field missing a leg. After this incident his body was placed in a chained casket.

Eventually, the National Park Service absorbed Crystal Cave and closed it to the public. In 1989, Collins was properly buried in Mammoth Cave Baptist Church Cemetery on Flint Ridge. Today Floyd Collins' final resting place has an extraordinary array of tokens on it -- coins, sunflower seeds, stones, and other objects left by cave explorers and others for whom Floyd Collins was, and is, a legendary symbol.


sources: www.ohranger.com/mammoth-cave/floyd-collins
www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/1976/6/1976_6_34.shtml
www.nuttyputtycave.com/LFloydCollins.html
http://www.nps.gov/maca/historyculture/index.htm

Claude W. Hibbard was the first naturalist at Kentucky's Mammoth Cave National Park (June 1, 1934 to August 22, 1935). His job was to evaluate the area and record the types of wildlife he found in this region. Hibbard was to look at various habitats in this region and evaluate them to help determine what should be included in the new national park.

Journal Entry- Area 4
October 24, 1934

The day was spent in Strawberry Valley, which is a small valley along the Edmonson, Hart, and Barren County lines. This is a region in which intensive farming has been practiced, in that field after field has been turned into pasture. Due to farming and pasturing, much erosion has resulted. The day that I was in this valley, Camp #2 started their erosion work for planting.

The valley is made up of a series of sinks which is typical of all Hollows and Valleys south of Green River. In the Valley is a large natural pond which affords a permanent water supply for wildlife. A large blue heron was at the pond, and from the tracks, it had been a regular visitor.

Many killdeer were also around the pond. This is the ideal place for the study of shore birds during migration. Mammals were scarce only cotton-tail rabbits were observed. A few grey fox tracks, one opossum was observed and one skunk. Song birds were numerous in old fields and along the wooded slopes and ridges.

related post: "I heard rumors about the blind fish"

source: www.nps.gov/maca/learnhome/web4_5.pdf



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The World Heritage Committee (WHC), meeting in Quebec this week, on Monday added 8 natural sites and 19 cultural sites to UNESCO's World Heritage List of cultural, natural, and mixed properties that have "outstanding universal value." This brings the total to 905 sites listed: 697 cultural, 182 natural, and 26 mixed properties, in 145 states parties. It's a good time to take stock and reflect on just how appreciated the three World Heritage List sites in Appalachia are, not just in the region, not just in America, but worldwide.

World Heritage sites are acknowledged to belong to all the peoples of the world, irrespective of the territory on which they are located. Here in America the WHC has identified 20 such sites (including two sites jointly administered with Canada), starting in 1978 with the Mesa Verde National Park, most administered by the National Park Service.

The inscription of these 20 American properties as World Heritage Sites formally recognizes the respect they hold in the world community. They are linked today through the contemporary successor to the ancient list of the Seven Wonders of the World - the World Heritage List.

The three Appalachian sites that make the list are: Mammoth Cave National Park (1981), Great Smoky Mountains National Park (1983), and Monticello and the University of Virginia in Charlottesville (1987).

The mere mention of the above names on the World Heritage list evokes our nation's heritage and the universal human values we stand for. Thomas Jefferson's designs for Monticello and the University of Virginia are recognized worldwide as exceptional examples of Neoclassical architecture. The earth's longest underground passageways at Mammoth Cave, and the astonishing variety of flora and fauna (more than 3,500 plant species) found in the Great Smokies, amaze millions of visitors annually.

But making the WHC list is more than just a pat on the back and a plaque on the wall. Through the World Heritage Fund, the WHC can provide countries requesting assistance with studies, advice, training, and equipment in order to eliminate problems, restore damaged areas, and set up safeguards.

The Secretary of the Interior, through the National Park Service, is responsible for identifying and nominating U.S. sites to the list. Proposed U.S. sites must be either federal property, such as national parks, or sites already designated as national historic landmarks or national natural landmarks. Properties not owned by the Federal Government are nominated only if their owners wish to do so and pledge to protect their properties in perpetuity.

The WHC program was founded with the Convention Concerning the Protection of World Cultural and Natural Heritage, which was adopted by the General Conference of UNESCO on November 16, 1972. Since then, 185 states have ratified the convention.


Sources: nps.gov/oia/topics/worldheritage/worldheritage.htm
http://whc.unesco.org/en/list
ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/e-resources/ebooks/records/7151-1.html



World Heritage Committee, List, Mammoth Cave National Park, Great Smoky Mountains Monticello, appalachia, appalachian history, mountains history

Claude W. Hibbard was the first naturalist at Kentucky's Mammoth Cave National Park (June 1, 1934 to August 22, 1935). His job was to evaluate the area and record the types of wildlife he found in this region. Hibbard was to look at various habitats in this region and evaluate them to help determine what should be included in the new national park.

Journal Entry- Area 2
July 25, 1934

The first day that I arrived at the park, May 31, I heard rumors about the blind fish, especially that no authentic record was known of blind fish from Mammoth Cave and the Park area; though all roadside stands have blind fish to sell. At present the owners of the stands are paying local men and boys $1. per inch for blind fish and selling them for $2.50 to $5.00 apiece. While working at Stockholm I came in contact with Mr. W. E. Constant who had always lived in this region and had collected arrowheads, other Indian material, and digging up graves for Indian bones, and collecting blind fish to sell to tourists visiting this region.

He told me of two places that blind fish occured [sic] in the Park area where they were collected and sold as coming from Old Mammoth Cave in Echo River; one was Cedar Sink, and the other was Sanders’ Spring on the north side of Green River just north of Sander’s Ferry crossing. Sanders [sic] Spring was visited the forenoon of July 25, by Clumbo Hyde an assistant C.C.C. enrollee, Mr. Constant and myself. Here a permanent spring runs through a small cave at the entrance one may stand erect, but following the stream one must soon crawl. Blind crayfish are common throughout the stream.

Blind fish were observed the ¾ of a mile traveled after we were in the cave, beyond the influence of light. They were hard to observe. If one wades in the stream they will take refuge under rocks when vibration is set up in the water. When a pool could be approached freely about. Only Typhlechthys subterraneus (Girard) [blind cave fish were found and collected. They are white in color with the blood of the gills and heart showing through, giving it the effect of a pink color. They are both beautiful and graceful in their movements in clear streams.

The temperature of the water was 56° F. Along the entire stream bed were tracks of coon and evidence of their feeding upon the crayfish in the stream. In the entrance of the cave. Rana patustris [pickerel frog, spring frog] was common and adult Plethodon glutinosus [slimy salamander] and Eurycea longicauda [long-tailed salamander] were taken. Pipistrellus subflavus [bat– Eastern Pipistrelle] were observed in the opening leading to the left upon entering the cave. They were hanging singly from the low ceiling. Over three hours were spent in the cave.

Source: http://www.nps.gov/archive/maca/learnhome/cur_45_fin.htm

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