Mammoth Cave: Ghosts on the Surface
Let’s get existential: What is a ghost?
Let’s immediately jump back from that existential rhetorical question without answering. (Even though I’m the one that posed the question in the first place.)
Where do you expect to find ghosts in Mammoth Cave National Park?
Trick question this time. If you have been there, You know that the park is as beautiful above ground as it is mysterious below. Most people who think of ghosts in Mammoth Cave National Park, probably think of ghosts in Mammoth Cave. However, that’s leaving out the entire history of the area itself, the lands above that ground below.
So let’s talk about some of the hauntings and haunting places you may find without every entering the depths of Mammoth Cave itself.
Historical locations lost:
This is not an article on the formation of Mammoth Cave as a National Park. That would also be interesting. (Pause to make note about future blog here.) But I do need to mention one aspect of that park formation. People lived in the area which is now Mammoth Cave National Park, formed communities, raised families, started businesses, lived, and died, right up to, and beyond, the formation of the National Park.
Relics of those past communities and lives are strewn throughout the land above ground. Wells, stacked stones, collapsed chimneys, and other less obvious structures. (at least one abandoned car) Plants brought to the region long ago to decorate homes now mark their remains and grow wildly but help to identify old homesteads. There are more than eighty cemeteries in Mammoth Cave. (when I tried to search that number- because I’m always forgetting it, the search helpfully autocompleted as: How many cemeteries are in a meter? - which, while I didn’t look up that answer, I would guess would depend on the method of burial.) Some of these are easily accessible, others are now lost in deeper woods.
And that only calls to mind recent history. People have lived in the area for at least 12,000 years, and those early inhabitants left traces as well.
Walking around the park grounds, these old remnants are ghosts themselves, echoes of lives and times now gone, easy reminders of what once was. Historic routes we can still trace, to find those echos.
A few of the notable examples include:
Mammoth Cave Baptist Church and Cemetery. - Built to serve the lost Flint Ridge community. The building, which is still accessible today, was built in 1927, to replace an older structure. The church was established in 1827. The Cemetery outside stands as memorial to those who lived in Mammoth Cave, and to several families who still live in the region. Find it along Flint Ridge Road inside the park.
The Collins Residence - including “Floyd Collins House.” Which was probably not Floyd Collins house, but instead simply named for him. Still the home, which is in surprisingly good condition, and the visitor center for Crystal Caverns, which is not a building I reccomend entering, stand as a reminder of one of Mammoth Cave’s most famous figures. Last time I was there, the windows of the visitor center were lined with scraps of newspaper from the 1950s. Advertisements for corduroy shorts, and books on line dancing, available for mail order, and articles about the Pope visiting Kentucky, rot away as legacy of the final days the building was in use. Also found on Flint Ridge Road, and is a bit of a hike.
The site of the Proctor Hotel - The building is gone, all that’s left is a sign, heavily covered shaft, and cleared land now being overgrown by trees. But once there was hotel here, a stop along the rail line which carried people to Mammoth Cave, and an entrance into the Cave which is no longer used. (find this along the bike route which traces the old railway, near Sloan’s Crossing Pond.
Homesteads - Scattered throughout the park, some near the road, some far into what is now forest. (much of the park used to be clear for farming,) are traces of old homes and businesses. Sometimes the marks of these places are only found in the form of early growing daffodils, and other exotic plants once brought in and cultivated by people decorating their former homes. Sometimes you’ll find whole chimneys, wells, or other marks of previous settlement. You can find these throughout the park, although North of the River, they stand out a bit better, (especially in the late fall or early winder, before the undergrowth grows in, or after it receeds.
But you didn’t come here just for stories of past places, and remembrances of people now gone, what about the paranormal?
Ghost stories above ground -
These are surprisingly, or perhaps unsurprisingly, scant. People have been mystified by the cave for a long time, and although it is well hidden from sight, it’s on everyone’s mind when they think of Mammoth Cave. So perhaps the dearth of ghost stories above ground comes from storytellers fascination with what’s below that ground, or perhaps the spirits themselves are also captivated by the cave.
Still there are a few stories which come to mind.
The Mammoth Cave Church - already the location is haunting, an empty one roomed church building surrounded by the buried parishioners who once attended service there. But stories have grown up about shadowy figures, moving objects, and odd noises. Some recount leaving objects in the pews, and returning to find them moved. Others claim to have seen people through the windows, only to discover the interior empty. A strange tradition has grown up in the cave as well, perhaps tied, by loose connection to the cave below, of leaving coins on the pulpit. Perhaps as marker to show that someone has been there, perhaps as offerings for services no longer attended, or perhaps to pay the way for guidance of lost souls along Mammoth Cave’s River Styx.
The Old Guide’s Cemetery- Despite the name, there are more than just guides buried in the cemetery near the Mammoth Cave visitor center. A very prominent guide, Stephen Bishop is buried here, his grave marked by a headstone which gets some of the dates wrong, but remarks upon his accomplishments inside Mammoth Cave. Also buried here are former patients of the failed Tuberculosis ward inside Mammoth Cave. It was thought that cave air would prove beneficial to those infected with consumption. As proven by these graves, that was not the case. People have reported strange shadows, figures, and lights. There are photographs of the first, and the last. Shadows and ghost orbs. (although I don’t have any as I never caught anything there.)
Above Sand Cave - This is a vibes thing, a feelings thing, and might have more to do with my knowledge of the area, but I’ve never felt more goosebumps walking through Mammoth Cave than when I was walking the short trail above Sand Cave, where Floyd Collins was trapped nearly a century ago. I’ve been there multiple times, (getting pictures of the park sign, and also figuring out how to describe it for the upcoming book The Specters of Mammoth Cave,) but I get an eerie feeling every time I’m there. Other people have more substantial, (but not really substantiated) tales of voices echoing from within the cave, the sounds of excavation as people long gone continue their failed rescue work, and more sounds coming as though from out of the past.
There may be other specters lurking throughout the grounds of Mammoth Cave National Park. After all, there are nnumerous stories to tell, and perhaps spirits lingering to tell them, but that’s all I’ve got for the day,
Next time, we’ll continue, with talks about the ghost which populated the more famous parts of the park. The Specters of the Cave themselves. so stay tuned for part 2: Ghosts Beneath.