National Parks Of The World Codexery

Mammoth Cave National Park

Preserving the world's longest known cave system.

Last updated

Where it is

Street map of the area around Mammoth Cave National Park; the red dot marks 37°11′13″N 86°06′04″W
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors

Coordinates: 37°11′13″N 86°06′04″W (37.1870, -86.1010) · Open in OpenStreetMap

Coordinates and connected clubs: the infobox of Wikipedia: Mammoth Cave National Park (CC BY-SA 4.0). Map: drawn by Codexery from OpenStreetMap tiles.

Mammoth Cave National Park contains the world's longest known cave system, with over 426 miles of surveyed passageways as of 2025.[1] The cave system has been formally called the Mammoth–Flint Ridge Cave System since a connection was discovered between Mammoth Cave and Flint Ridge in 1972.[1] The park covers nearly 53,000 acres and is divided by the Green River, which flows east to west through its center.[2]

Geography and history

Mammoth Cave developed about 330 million years ago in Mississippian-aged limestone strata capped by a layer of sandstone that made the system remarkably stable.[3] The land containing the historic entrance was first surveyed in 1798 under the name of Valentine Simon, who began exploiting the cave for saltpeter reserves.[4] The park was authorized on May 25, 1926, and declared a national park on July 1, 1941, after a minimum of 45,310 acres had been assembled.[5][6] Thousands of people were forced to move to form the park, and eminent domain proceedings were often bitter.[7]

The Big Clifty Sandstone is the name given to the upper sandstone member.[3] Approximately 10 million years ago, water first began to infiltrate the Girkin limestone layer, and the cave's upper sections were formed around 3.2 million years ago.[3]

What the cited sources add

The National Park Service states that the park's visitor center and most services are located on the south side of the Green River.[2] A 2004 Deseret News article notes that Mammoth Cave entered recorded history around 1798 when John Houchins followed a wounded bear into the cave entrance.[8] The same article reports that archaeologists determined artifacts found in the cave were up to 4,000 years old, preserved by the cool, dry air.[8] The NPS account adds that Bishop drew a map from memory of the explored passageways in 1842, which was published in a book the following year.[9]

The same source notes that smoke from cooking and heating fires in the cave worsened patients' lung conditions.[10] The NPS "TB Huts" page details that Dr. Croghan bought the cave in 1839 for $10,000.00, which included enslaved people, and had a sanitorium built inside the cave.[10]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Mammoth Cave National Park" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Exploring the World's Longest Known Cave (U.S. National Park Service)", www.nps.gov; "Mammoth Cave National Park FAQ", nps.gov, May 22, 2018; "Mammoth Cave just got a little more "Mammoth"", National Park Service, September 8, 2022; Bob Gulden, "Worlds longest caves", Geo2 Committee on Long and Deep Caves, January 7, 2018 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  2. "Directions & Transportation - Mammoth Cave National Park (U.S. National Park Service)", www.nps.gov. facts only, no text reused. nps.gov
  3. Wikipedia, "Mammoth Cave National Park" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Geology of Mammoth Cave National Park U.S. Geological Survey", United States Geological Survey (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Mammoth Cave National Park" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Pheltius Valentine Simons - Pioneer Owner of Mammoth Cave", The Journal of Spelean History, 1997, p. 73 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Mammoth Cave National Park" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Mammoth Cave: Mammoth Cave National Park, Kentucky", Government Printing Office, 2003, p. 35 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Mammoth Cave National Park" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Mammoth Cave NP: Master Plan", National Park Service (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "Mammoth Cave National Park" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Geographical Perspectives on Sustainable Rural Change", Rural Development Institute, 2010, p. 405–06 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  8. "Mammoth Cave has ancient human ties", Deseret News, 28 March 2004. facts only, no text reused. deseret.com
  9. "Stephen Bishop", www.nps.gov. facts only, no text reused. nps.gov
  10. "TB Huts - Beneath Your Feet", www.nps.gov. facts only, no text reused. nps.gov

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Mammoth Cave National Park (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

Related entries

Named in this entry

Kentucky

Ranked in

National parks by year established

Also in the Codexery

Mammoth Cave National Park · Caves And Karst Formations

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Sources

Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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