Ghosts of Mammoth Cave: What ‘you’ might see.

Last week, for some reason, I decided to write about the ghosts one might encounter in the depths of Mammoth Cave, from a narrative perspective of ‘you’ taking a solitary tour starting at the Historic entrance.

This week, I thought I would explain the ghostly encounters on that fictional tour, and the ghosts it’s rumored might be found in Mammoth Cave.

But first. I should preface this with the fact that I am not the expert on ghostly stories from Mammoth Cave. I chose to focus on The Specters of Mammoth Cave for my Junior Rangers Investigators Club because it seemed like a fun angle to enjoy the cave, my favorite season in Kentucky is Fall, my favorite holiday is Halloween, I wanted to save my cave rescue adventure for a later Junior Rangers Investigative Club Novel, and the Halloween timing fits with where the kids were at the time.

However, there are much better sources for ghost stories from and about Mammoth Cave, and I will shout them out in a later blog.

Today, I just wanted to translate last weeks narrative into the stories I have heard which inspired it.

The Historic Entrance

Starting at the Historic Entrance and heading into the Rotunda.

There are no real stories I know about the entrance itself: except that nearby, for a time, several different Mummies were brought in from other caves and used as macabre attractions and added embellishment to cave tours. ‘Fawn Hoof’ the queen of Mammoth Cave is probable the most well known. Like an odd number of stories from Mammoth Cave, her afterlife is not as peaceful as most. She and several other mummies were discovered in nearby caves, and removed from their final resting place. Her journey did not end in Mammoth Cave, but for a time she was set near the entrance of the cave and used as an attraction to draw in more crowds.

There was a mummy found in Mammoth Cave. Another man from the woodlands period was discovered resting in the early depths of Mammoth Cave, in the spot where it’s believed he met his end. According to the reports, his life was cut short while he was mining gypsum. An unfortunate cave collapse landed atop his head, and he remained where he died until he was discovered hundreds of years later.

There aren’t many ghost stories about these mummies. Several gigantic misconceptions, due to the usage of the term ‘mummy:’ Looking it up today, you can still find people who draw links between these indigenous people and Egypt because of the term. I might go a bit more into that topic later, but the long and the short of it, is that these were people buried in the cave, and preserved due to the dry and cool environment. They did not undergo an Egyptian mummification process, and are instead tied to their own ancient and distinct culture, one about which we are still learning.

I don’t know if it counts as a ghost story, but in the big room called the Rotunda, visitors will find their first signs of mining equipment abandoned in the cave centuries ago. It’s easy, seeing the old mine carts, tools, and the remnants of the sluice used to pump, to imaging that some aspect of the minors remains down in the depths with their equipment.

Abandoned Mining Equipment

The Methodist Church

But the first real haunting location, according to everything I have read, is in or near a small alcove along the central cooridor known as the Methodist Church, where once a preacher would climb to a rock above the main floor and from there give sermons to the miners. According to the rangers on several of my tours, he would stand up there, lit by the light of a lantern (soot from the lantern smoke still stains the walls) and give sermons to a crowd mostly standing in the darkness. This is a common place on some tours to turn the lights out to experience the true darkness which comes inside a cave, and apparently there are stories of rocks thrown with surprising accuracy in the pitch black, and sounds and tugs from people not there.

There is also story of added visitors. Extra people appearing on some of the ranger guided tours, people who stand on the outskirts of the crowd, and slip away into the shadows before they are added to the tally of tourists. I’ve heard people speculate that these could be spirits of old miners coming to observe the modern tours, or possibly even guides long gone to see how the current rangers are continuing their legacy.

The Tuberculosis Ward

Moving on along the main corridor, tours eventually reach the Tuberculosis Ward. It was a hopeful misconception by the man who owned Mammoth Cave at the time that the air inside Mammoth Cave would cure consumption. A small village was built for Tuburculosis patients who lived for days and weeks miles deep into the darkened cave. The environment did not cure thier disease, and several of the deathly ill died in the cave, placed on a rock now named for their temporary repose. The roofless rock walled buildings are distinctive enough within the cave to cause the hairs on the back of ones neck to stand up. But there are stories of eerie coughs and shuffling feet populating the Tuberculosis Ward.

Moving down, deeper into the cave, tours pass a common cave feature: the ‘Bottomless’ pit. This one was first crossed by Stephen Bishop on wooden ladders. There’s a metal bridge now, but the inky blackness below can be intimidating.

Melissa

One of the most enduring ghost stories from Mammoth Cave is set deeper still, in and around the underground rivers. A woman named Melissa, overcome with Consumption herself, confessed to abandoning her tutor in the darkness of the cave when she was young. She was enamored with the man, and when he didn’t return her affection, she decided to play a prank on him. Knowning his fear of the dark, she lured him into the maze -like passages near Echo River, and blew out their lights.

She expected him to panic and retreat into her arms. Instead he shrunk away, marching deeper into the pitch black. She never found him, and felt guilty when he was eventually reported missing, but only guilty enough to confess upon her own death bed. Writing a letter admitting to her crime, and resolving to return to the cave herself to find him down in the darkness.

This letter does exist. But it was an anonymous submission to a literary fiction magazine, meaning that the chance of it being a real story are very low. Still, stories of Melissa, and a lost man, persist in Mammoth Cave. And one of the first hand accounts I have heard about hauntings in Mammoth Cave, come from a ranger, who, with a fellow ranger, were down near echo river, when they heard voices, and the sounds of shifting clothes from someone else, who couldn’t be there echoing through the dark passages of the cave.

This is much cooler in person, I highly reccomend the River Styx Tour.

These Rivers are typically the turnaround point on these deeper tours, as we would have to take boats across to go further, and there are no more boat tours in Mammoth Cave. So most tours come back through Mammoth Dome, passing the Ruins of Karnak. There are no ghost stories, here, just steps to take you back to the main corridor and to the surface. No ghost stories at all about Mammoth Dome, wouldn’t it be nice if that were to change?

A potentially haunting place!

Stay Tuned for The Specters of Mammoth Cave!!!!!!