<pano_description><![CDATA[The solid rock located beneath unconsolidated surface materials (such as soil).]]></pano_description> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> </pano>
<pano_description><![CDATA[Calcium nitrate (nitre) in a cave is a by-product of nitrogen-fixing bacteria. Nitre can be converted easily into potassium nitrate, or salt petre. Salt petre, combined with charcoal and sulfur, resulted in a powerful explosive known as black gunpowder.
<pano_description><![CDATA[A block of rock that has fallen from the cave roof or walls. At Mammoth Cave this commonly occurs as underground rivers create lower levels of passage and abandon an upper level. The roof and walls lose some of the buoyant support of the water and rocks that cannot support their own weight may fall.
<pano_description><![CDATA[Clearly a grand party, a meal was served for two hundred guests in Audubon Avenue, including silverware, table linens, chandeliers and candlelight. This particular event was provided by the West Tennessee State Normal University, on June 25th, 1915.]]></pano_description> <pano_filename>audubon_dinner_party.jpg</pano_filename> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> <pano_photo_caption>Dinner party in the cave </pano_photo_caption> </pano>
<pano_description><![CDATA[A passage that originates along a parting between rock layers or highly fractured bed above the water table with its floor dissolved downward by running water. Unless there is significant breakdown the ceilings are generally flat. Canyon passages are typically taller than wide.
]]></pano_description> <pano_filename>canyon_passage_new_discovery.jpg</pano_filename> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> <pano_photo_caption>A canyon passage in New Discovery</pano_photo_caption> </pano>
<pano>
<pano_data_type>glossary</pano_data_type>
<pano_title><![CDATA[Cave Beetle]]></pano_title>
<pano_description><![CDATA[The Surprising Cave Beetle (Pseudanophthalmus), is a small (4 mm), eyeless, reddish-brown insect that belongs to the ground beetle family Carabidae. They feed upon other small invertebrates like spiders, mites, and millipedes. ]]></pano_description> <pano_filename>cave_beetle_onyx.jpg</pano_filename> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> <pano_photo_caption>A cave beetle in Great Onyx Cave</pano_photo_caption> </pano>
<pano_description><![CDATA[Hadenoecus subterraneus. Important in Mammoth food webs; they feed in surface habitat, transporting nutrients (guano) to areas where food is nonexistent. Their eggs and feces support subsurface communities, including rare cave-dwelling invertebrates.]]></pano_description> <pano_filename>cave_cricket_long_cave.jpg</pano_filename> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> <pano_photo_caption>A cave cricket in Long Cave</pano_photo_caption> </pano>
<pano>
<pano_data_type>glossary</pano_data_type>
<pano_title><![CDATA[Charcoal]]></pano_title>
<pano_description><![CDATA[A soft, lightweight carbon material obtained by slowly heating wood and other organic matter in the absence of oxygen--this process is also known as slow pyrolysis.
<pano_description><![CDATA[Formed in 1933, a program established by President Roosevelt as a way to provide work for the thousands who were unemployed due to the Great Depression. The CCC built many buildings and structures in National and State Parks and was part of the 'New Deal.' There were four segregated CCC camps at Mammoth Cave, one of which consisted of all African American enrollees.]]></pano_description> <pano_filename>ccc.jpg</pano_filename> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> <pano_photo_caption>March District CCC group in CA, 1933</pano_photo_caption> </pano>
<pano>
<pano_data_type>glossary</pano_data_type>
<pano_title><![CDATA[Column]]></pano_title>
<pano_description><![CDATA[A calcium carbonate speleothem produced over a long period of time, after a stalactite (ceiling formation) and its reciprocal stalagmite (ground formation) are joined.]]></pano_description> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> </pano>
<pano>
<pano_data_type>glossary</pano_data_type>
<pano_title><![CDATA[Consumption]]></pano_title>
<pano_description><![CDATA[An early term for pulmonary tuberculosis,an infectious disease typically affecting the lungs. Symptoms include coughing up blood, night sweats, and rapid weight loss.]]></pano_description> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> </pano>
<pano>
<pano_data_type>glossary</pano_data_type>
<pano_title><![CDATA[Crawlway]]></pano_title>
<pano_description><![CDATA[A cave passage that is large enough to be negotiated on hands and knees or so small as to require a caver to squeeze through on back or belly.]]></pano_description> <pano_filename>wild_cave_tour2.jpg</pano_filename> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> <pano_photo_caption>A caver negotiating a crawlway</pano_photo_caption> </pano>
<pano_description><![CDATA[The Cuban Missile Crisis was a confrontation between the United States, the Soviet Union, and Cuba from October to November 1962, during the Cold War.]]></pano_description> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> </pano>
<pano>
<pano_data_type>glossary</pano_data_type>
<pano_title><![CDATA[Deep Time]]></pano_title>
<pano_description><![CDATA[The concept of geologic time first recognized in the 11th century by the Persian geologist and polymath, Avicenna. (c. 973-1037)]]></pano_description> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> </pano>
<pano>
<pano_data_type>glossary</pano_data_type>
<pano_title><![CDATA[Dome-Pit]]></pano_title>
<pano_description><![CDATA[Also called vertical shaft; formed by underground water dripping or flowing straight downward through the limestone along vertical cracks.]]></pano_description> <pano_filename>cathedral_domes.jpg</pano_filename> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> <pano_photo_caption>Dome-Pit of Cathedral Domes</pano_photo_caption> </pano>
<pano>
<pano_data_type>glossary</pano_data_type>
<pano_title><![CDATA[Dr. John Croghan]]></pano_title>
<pano_description><![CDATA[(b. 4/23/1790 - d.1/11/1849). Louisville physician and geologist; also nephew of Gen. George R. Clark and Wm. Clark (Lewis and Clark Expedition). Bought Mammoth Cave, 200 acres, and slaves from F. Gorin in 1839 for $10k. He left his estate to his nieces and nephews.]]></pano_description> <pano_filename>john_croghan.jpg</pano_filename> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> <pano_photo_caption>Dr. John Croghan</pano_photo_caption> </pano>
<pano>
<pano_data_type>glossary</pano_data_type>
<pano_title><![CDATA[Ed Bishop]]></pano_title>
<pano_description><![CDATA[(b. April 14, 1866 - d. Jun 17, 1931); grand-nephew of enslaved guide Stephen Bishop; guided at Mammoth Cave from 1887 to 1917; assisted German cartographer Max Kaemper with exploration, surveying and development of the 1908 Kaemper Map.]]></pano_description> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> </pano>
<pano_description><![CDATA[A plant or animal species whose numbers are so small that the species is at risk of extinction. May also be at risk due to environmental changes or increased predation. The Federal Endangered Species Act of 1973 enables agencies to prevent further destruction caused by human impacts. ]]></pano_description> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> </pano>
<pano>
<pano_data_type>glossary</pano_data_type>
<pano_title><![CDATA[Exposure]]></pano_title>
<pano_description><![CDATA[Vulnerability to the elements, including the destructive action of heat, cold, wind or rain, resulting in illness or death.]]></pano_description> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> </pano>
<pano>
<pano_data_type>glossary</pano_data_type>
<pano_title><![CDATA[Flowstone]]></pano_title>
<pano_description><![CDATA[A calcite formation, deposited as water flows over bumpy floors, shallow slopes, from the ceiling or out from layers of rock to form features that hang like sheets or draperies from ledges and ceilings.]]></pano_description> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> </pano>
<pano_description><![CDATA[Floyd was one of several brothers who enjoyed caving and was part owner of Crystal Cave. While attempting to find a cave more suited for tourism, he became stuck in Sand Cave, dying after a lengthy entrapment in 1925 which, ironically, brought many tourists to the area. ]]></pano_description> <pano_filename>digging_rescue_shaft_collins.jpg</pano_filename> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> <pano_photo_caption>Floyd Collins rescue attempt, 1925</pano_photo_caption> </pano>
<pano>
<pano_data_type>glossary</pano_data_type>
<pano_title><![CDATA[Fracture]]></pano_title>
<pano_description><![CDATA[A break in the rock layer/mass, whether or not there has been relative movement across it. Faults, thrusts, and joints are all fractures, but bedding planes, which are primary features, are not.]]></pano_description> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> </pano>
<pano_description><![CDATA[Freshwater bivalve mollusks. The Green River contains the most diverse population of freshwater mussels in North America, and one of the most diverse populations in the world. Some species found here include the Ring Pink, Rough Pigtoe, Pistolgrip, Fatmucket, Spectaclecase, Plain Pocketbook, Washboard, Sheepnose, and Snuffbox. ]]></pano_description> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> </pano>
<pano>
<pano_data_type>glossary</pano_data_type>
<pano_title><![CDATA[George D. Morrison]]></pano_title>
<pano_description><![CDATA[(July 29, 1866 - August 11, 1937): A mining engineer who came to Kentucky and became interested in developing his own commercial cave in the 1910s. He successfully created the first commercial entrance to Mammoth Cave that was not owned by the Mammoth Cave Estate. George's entrance was called the New Entrance to Mammoth Cave and was a profitable venture until 1931 when his land was sold to the Kentucky National Park Commission.]]></pano_description> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> </pano>
<pano_description><![CDATA[Prehistoric people who used Mammoth Cave cultivated gourds and made them into containers or bowls; many of these have been found inside the Mammoth Cave System.]]></pano_description> <pano_filename>gourd_bowl_jw.jpg</pano_filename> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> <pano_photo_caption>Portion of an ancient gourd vessel</pano_photo_caption> </pano>
<pano>
<pano_data_type>glossary</pano_data_type>
<pano_title><![CDATA[Gypsum]]></pano_title>
<pano_description><![CDATA[(CaSO4,2H2O) Forms some of the most delicate speleothems within the Mammoth Cave System. It forms primarily in dry passages where gypsum-bearing moisture is evaporated from the limestone, resulting in its deposition in the form of crusts, flowers and snowballs among others.]]></pano_description> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> </pano>
<pano_description><![CDATA[Biosphere reserves are protected areas that are meant to demonstrate a balanced relationship between man and nature (e.g. sustainable development). The designation is granted by the United Nations, following a complex nomination process.]]></pano_description> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> </pano>
<pano>
<pano_data_type>glossary</pano_data_type>
<pano_title><![CDATA[John J. Audubon]]></pano_title>
<pano_description><![CDATA[Primary wildlife artist of the 19th century, renowned for a compilation of 435 life-size images, 'Birds of America' (last printed in 1838, in England.) He traveled extensively in search of birds to record, study and paint.]]></pano_description> <pano_programs>drto, maca</pano_programs> </pano>
<pano_description><![CDATA[The very old Karnak Temple Complex — usually simply called Karnak — comprises a vast conglomeration of ruined temples, chapels, pylons and other buildings (ca. 1391-1351 BC). It is located near Luxor, Egypt.]]></pano_description> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> </pano>
<pano>
<pano_data_type>glossary</pano_data_type>
<pano_title><![CDATA[Karst ]]></pano_title>
<pano_description><![CDATA[Topography shaped by dissolution of layers of soluble bedrock, usually carbonate rock; limestone or dolomite. Due to subterranean drainage, there may be limited surface water, even an absence of rivers and lakes. Features include sinkholes, caves, springs and seeps.]]></pano_description> <pano_programs>seki, wica, jeca, maca, grca</pano_programs> </pano>
<pano>
<pano_data_type>glossary</pano_data_type>
<pano_title><![CDATA[Karst Window]]></pano_title>
<pano_description><![CDATA[From the surface, a depression in the ground that reveals part of a subterranean river flowing across its floor. Underground, a portion of a cave that has no ceiling, opening to the surface.]]></pano_description> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> </pano>
<pano_description><![CDATA[Troglobites found only in base level streams include the endangered Kentucky Cave Shrimp (Palaemonias ganteri). The more adaptable cave crayfish Orconectes pellucidus occupies habitats from base level to tiny streams, and can travel out of water. ]]></pano_description> <pano_filename>cave_shrimp_clark.jpg</pano_filename> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> <pano_photo_caption>Kentucky Cave Shrimp</pano_photo_caption> </pano>
<pano>
<pano_data_type>glossary</pano_data_type>
<pano_title><![CDATA[Land Grant]]></pano_title>
<pano_description><![CDATA[A land grant is a gift of real estate —land or privileges— made by a government or other authority as a reward for services to an individual, especially as a reward for military service. At Mammoth Cave, land grants were gifted for service in the American Revolution, or they were purchased by individual settlers.]]></pano_description> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> </pano>
<pano>
<pano_data_type>glossary</pano_data_type>
<pano_title><![CDATA[Limestone]]></pano_title>
<pano_description><![CDATA[A sedimentary rock composed primarily of calcium carbonate (CaCO3). Limestone in the Mammoth Cave area may have formed in a shallow marine environment from the accumulation of the remains of coral, crinoids and brachiopods among others, and the precipitation of calcium carbonate from the water.]]></pano_description> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> </pano>
<pano_description><![CDATA[The generally accepted title for the Mammoth Cave property left to the nieces and nephews of owner Dr. John Croghan.]]></pano_description> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> </pano>
<pano>
<pano_data_type>glossary</pano_data_type>
<pano_title><![CDATA[Max Kaemper]]></pano_title>
<pano_description><![CDATA[(b. Dec. 16, 1879 - d.Nov. 10, 1916)Explored, surveyed and mapped Mammoth Cave in 1908, assisted by guide Ed Bishop; his map represents the first accurate instrumental survey of portions of the cave system. He was killed in trench warfare during the closing days of the Battle of the Somme in World War I.]]></pano_description> <pano_filename>max_kamper.jpg</pano_filename> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> <pano_photo_caption>Max Kaemper</pano_photo_caption> </pano>
<pano>
<pano_data_type>glossary</pano_data_type>
<pano_title><![CDATA[Millennia]]></pano_title>
<pano_description><![CDATA[Many centuries; beyond recorded human history; the plural of millennium, which represents a 1,000 year block of time.]]></pano_description> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> </pano>
<pano_description><![CDATA[(b. about 1820 - d. 1894); Enslaved guide who was leased by Dr. John Croghan to work at his Mammoth Cave property; Nicholas was the son of an enslaved man named Joe and an unidentified enslaved woman who were brought to Glasgow, Kentucky, by their owner, Thomas Bransford of Virginia.]]></pano_description> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> </pano>
<pano_description><![CDATA[A collection of water that is separated from another water-bearing rock layer by an impermeable layer; at Mammoth Cave National Park, an example of this is at Three Springs, where water sits above the caprock, which separates the aquifer from the water-bearing limestone bedrock.]]></pano_description> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> </pano>
<pano>
<pano_data_type>glossary</pano_data_type>
<pano_title><![CDATA[Pump House]]></pano_title>
<pano_description><![CDATA[A house where pumps (e.g. to irrigate) are installed and operated; in the case of Mammoth Cave, existing pump houses were built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s, and are considered historic structures.]]></pano_description> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> </pano>
<pano_description><![CDATA[The surface area where water is absorbed, then routed naturally underground to cave passages. The Sinkhole Plain is a recharge area for Mammoth Cave.]]></pano_description> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> </pano>
<pano>
<pano_data_type>glossary</pano_data_type>
<pano_title><![CDATA[Rimstone]]></pano_title>
<pano_description><![CDATA[Calcium-rich deposits formed around the rims of overflowing basins, especially in caves. Rimstone dams often delineate basins dry for years in undulating patterns.]]></pano_description> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> </pano>
<pano>
<pano_data_type>glossary</pano_data_type>
<pano_title><![CDATA[Salt petre]]></pano_title>
<pano_description><![CDATA[Potassium nitrate is a chemical compound with the chemical formula KNO3. A naturally occurring mineral source of nitrogen, potassium nitrate constitutes a critical oxidizing component of black gunpowder. In the past it was also used for several kinds of burning fuses, including slow matches. Potassium nitrate readily precipitates from mixtures of salts.]]></pano_description> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> </pano>
<pano>
<pano_data_type>glossary</pano_data_type>
<pano_title><![CDATA[Sandstone]]></pano_title>
<pano_description><![CDATA[A sedimentary rock composed of sand-sized grains dominated in most sandstones by quartz, feldspar, and rock fragments, bound together by a cement of silica, carbonate, or other minerals or a matrix of clay minerals.]]></pano_description> <pano_programs>maca, bzcb</pano_programs> </pano>
<pano>
<pano_data_type>glossary</pano_data_type>
<pano_title><![CDATA[Sanitarium]]></pano_title>
<pano_description><![CDATA[A hospital for recuperation or for the treatment of chronic diseases; in the case of Mammoth Cave, a sanitarium for the treatment of consumption (tuberculosis) existed during the winter of 1841-1842.]]></pano_description> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> </pano>
<pano>
<pano_data_type>glossary</pano_data_type>
<pano_title><![CDATA[Shale]]></pano_title>
<pano_description><![CDATA[A fine-grained sedimentary rock made from clay minerals or mud. It is characterized by thin layers breaking with an irregular curving fracture, is often splintery, and usually parallel to the often-indistinguishable bedding plane.]]></pano_description> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> </pano>
<pano>
<pano_data_type>glossary</pano_data_type>
<pano_title><![CDATA[Sinkhole]]></pano_title>
<pano_description><![CDATA[Funnel-shaped depressions formed where cracks in the underlying limestone are widened by the dissolving action, so that soil and pieces of bedrock subside into the enlarging solutional opening. They can also form by the collapse of underlying caves.
<pano_description><![CDATA[A hollow calcite formation that hangs from cave ceilings. Formed by droplets of water depositing rings of calcite: may become a stalactite if the straw becomes plugged, forcing the water to flow along the outside of the formation.]]></pano_description> <pano_filename>sodastraws.jpg</pano_filename> <pano_programs>cave, lech, wica, jeca, maca</pano_programs> <pano_photo_caption>Soda straw clusters in Lower Cave</pano_photo_caption> </pano>
<pano>
<pano_data_type>glossary</pano_data_type>
<pano_title><![CDATA[Speleothems]]></pano_title>
<pano_description><![CDATA[General term for all cave mineral deposits, embracing all stalactites, flowstone, draperies, flowers, stalagmites, etc. ]]></pano_description> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> </pano>
<pano>
<pano_data_type>glossary</pano_data_type>
<pano_title><![CDATA[Stalactite]]></pano_title>
<pano_description><![CDATA[The most common speleothem, generally of calcite, formed by dripping water and hanging from a cave ceiling. Additional deposition of calcite on the outside of the initial cylinder creates an ordinary tapering stalactite. Variations in shape are influenced by changes in water flow, cave air chemistry, evaporation, temperature or dissolved impurities, and by crystal growth blocking flow paths.]]></pano_description> <pano_programs>cave, lech, wica, jeca, maca</pano_programs> </pano>
<pano>
<pano_data_type>glossary</pano_data_type>
<pano_title><![CDATA[Stalagmite]]></pano_title>
<pano_description><![CDATA[Speleothem, normally of calcite, formed by upward growth from a cave floor, and therefore the complement of a stalactite. Stalagmites form when dripwater that is still saturated falls from a cave roof or stalactite and, when or after it lands, loses more carbon dioxide to the cave air, causing precipitation of calcite. They vary in size and shape, from tall thin towers to wide domes that grade into flowstone, the main controls being drip rate and height, and saturation levels of the water.]]></pano_description> <pano_programs>cave, lech, wica, jeca, maca</pano_programs> </pano>
<pano_description><![CDATA[(b. about 1820 - d. June 15, 1857); famous enslaved Mammoth Cave guide who was brought to the cave by owner Franklin Gorin in 1838; Stephen was a favorite with visitors and it was common for visitors from other countries to request him as their guide; Bishop died of unknown causes at age 37, one year after being granted his freedom.]]></pano_description> <pano_filename>stephen_bishop.jpg</pano_filename> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> <pano_photo_caption>An engraving of Stephen Bishop</pano_photo_caption> </pano>
<pano>
<pano_data_type>glossary</pano_data_type>
<pano_title><![CDATA[Sulphur]]></pano_title>
<pano_description><![CDATA[An elemental mineral found in nature; used to make black gunpowder and matches; sometimes called brimstone.]]></pano_description> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> </pano>
<pano_description><![CDATA[Starting in the late 19th Century, guides whittled sticks to a taper, then drove in a nail. Rags were twisted tightly, and soaked in lamp oil. The flaming bundle was flung from the stick into distant passages. The last torch was thrown on 12/31/90.]]></pano_description> <pano_filename>cane_reed_torches.jpg</pano_filename> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> <pano_photo_caption>Torch sticks made from cane reeds</pano_photo_caption> </pano>
<pano_description><![CDATA[A major conduit for existing or former river drainage in a cave; these are the largest passages in the Mammoth Cave System.]]></pano_description> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> </pano>
<pano_description><![CDATA[A cave passage that has typically developed at or below the water table. The complete filling of the passage by water creates the characteristic elliptical shape of the tunnel as water dissolves not only the sides, but upward into the ceiling.]]></pano_description> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> </pano>
<pano>
<pano_data_type>glossary</pano_data_type>
<pano_title><![CDATA[Underground River Tours]]></pano_title>
<pano_filename>echo_river_11.jpg</pano_filename> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> <pano_photo_caption>Guides and tourists on Echo River</pano_photo_caption> </pano>
<pano_description><![CDATA[(b. 1848 - d.1933); Upon the death of her mother, Mary Jesup Blair, Violet became one of several surviving heirs to the Mammoth Cave Estate, per the directives of the will of her great-Uncle, Dr. John Croghan. Violet's husband, Albert Covington Janin, was a Louisiana attorney who took over the management of the Mammoth Cave Estate early in the twentieth century.]]></pano_description> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> </pano>
<pano>
<pano_data_type>glossary</pano_data_type>
<pano_title><![CDATA[Water Gauge]]></pano_title>
<pano_description><![CDATA[Large measuring stick, similar to a substantial yard stick, marked in increments and permanently installed in the river passage inside Mammoth Cave, and on corresponding surface locations along Green River; used to measure the change in water elevation.]]></pano_description> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> </pano>
<pano>
<pano_data_type>glossary</pano_data_type>
<pano_title><![CDATA[Water Table]]></pano_title>
<pano_description><![CDATA[The surface between the Earth's zone of water saturation and the air above it.]]></pano_description> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> </pano>
<pano>
<pano_data_type>glossary</pano_data_type>
<pano_title><![CDATA[Watershed]]></pano_title>
<pano_description><![CDATA[Also known as a drainage basin or catchment area. Collects water from precipitation and often snow melt, routing it into streams, rivers and underground aquifers. Catchment size, topography, shape and types of soil and ground use all inform likelihood of flooding.]]></pano_description> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> </pano>
<pano_description><![CDATA[Climb, crawl and canyonwalk through passageways no other tour sees. Expect to free-climb cave walls, walk in a crouched position, crawl over jagged rocks and dirt, crawl through wet areas and twist into and out of tight crawlway openings!This ranger-led tour requires reservations and is limited to 14 adults.]]></pano_description> <pano_filename>wild_cave_tour.jpg</pano_filename> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> <pano_photo_caption>NPS Cave Guide J. Wheet</pano_photo_caption> </pano>
<pano_description><![CDATA[Seen on the Grand Avenue Tour, the Aerobridge cable VIEW stretches across Aero Canyon and into Woodbury Pass. In 1922, the metal cable was rigged by George D. Morrison's work crew for a short period of a few months to transport trail construction materials into Woodbury Pass. According to stories passed from guide to guide, it was also used a few times to give visitors a thrilling box ride across the void. One of the larger canyons along Kentucky Avenue, this one measures a maximum height of ninety feet. In 1908, German cartographer Max Kaemper named the canyon 'Blair's Dome.' In modern usage, this name now refers to a high solutional dome in a cut-around south of the Aero Canyon, and was named for the family of Mammoth Cave Estate heir Violet Blair Janin.]]></pano_description> <pano_latitude>37.15505433601119</pano_latitude> <pano_longitude>-86.06582047753533</pano_longitude> <pano_filename>pano_aerobridge</pano_filename> <pano_north>7</pano_north> <pano_credit><![CDATA[Four Chambers Studio]]></pano_credit> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> <pano_category>maca</pano_category> </pano>
<pano_description><![CDATA[Dr. Croghan and his Louisville family were close friends of wildlife artist John J. Audubon and his son, Victor. Perhaps he named this cave area after his friends. Henry Bransford, son of slave guide Mat Bransford, helped care for a short-lived mushroom farm in this room in the 1880s. His sons, Louis and Matt Bransford, both recalled the practice of offering dinners here, including once in 1915 when tables for two hundred guests were set here! They dined by candlelight, on a table set with linens, and were then taken on a cave tour. While tourism was low in the first hundred years of commercial Mammoth Cave, the trail used today is representative of more than twelve miles of trail improvements accomplished by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the late 1930s and early 1940s.]]></pano_description> <pano_latitude>37.1850901142826</pano_latitude> <pano_longitude>-86.10231997481698</pano_longitude> <pano_filename>pano_audobonave</pano_filename> <pano_north>345</pano_north> <pano_credit><![CDATA[Four Chambers Studio]]></pano_credit> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> <pano_category>maca</pano_category> </pano>
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<pano_title><![CDATA[Boone Avenue]]></pano_title>
<pano_description><![CDATA[Boone Avenue bears witness to the fact that a subterranean stream ran its course through rock and, over time, created an exceptional cave passageway. The avenue is long and narrow, with ceilings towering dozens of feet overhead. The curves and bends illustrate the ancient stream's path through the tall, slender canyon it created. This type of dynamic passage tends to be formed by fast-moving water. While there is no longer a running stream present in Boone Avenue, the walls are dimpled with scallop-shaped indentations made by the rushing water. Their small shape and size indicate the stream's direction and speed of flow. These unaltered walls - still standing in the shapes the water carved - reveal the river's ancient, sinuous course forever reflected in stone.]]></pano_description> <pano_latitude>37.16564839783301</pano_latitude> <pano_longitude>-86.07621590741125</pano_longitude> <pano_filename>pano_booneave</pano_filename> <pano_north>139</pano_north> <pano_credit><![CDATA[Four Chambers Studio]]></pano_credit> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> <pano_category>maca</pano_category> </pano>
<pano_description><![CDATA[As water forms Mammoth Cave, the development of vertical shafts transect the existing (older) horizontal passages. The water makes its way into surface cracks in the sandstone cap rock, channeling down to the rivers. When this occurrence is seen along toured cave trails, the carved rock feature is referred to as a dome, or a dome-pit. From the days of saltpetre production to 1838, when slave Stephen Bishop was brought to the cave, Bottomless Pit and corresponding Shelby's Dome were considered the terminus of the cave. To continue exploration of the cave, teenager Bishop braved the 105-foot deep pit, crossing on a ladder thrown across the 30-foot expanse. Bishop, renowned as far as the east coast and even to Europe, possessed perfect skills for his life as a cave guide.]]></pano_description> <pano_latitude>37.17825</pano_latitude> <pano_longitude>-86.09335</pano_longitude> <pano_filename>pano_bottomlesspit</pano_filename> <pano_credit><![CDATA[Four Chambers Studio]]></pano_credit> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> <pano_category>maca</pano_category> </pano>
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<pano_title><![CDATA[Bridal Altar]]></pano_title>
<pano_description><![CDATA[The trail opens up to a wide area, about 12 feet high and 60 feet wide, with a natural column called the Pillar of Hercules to the left, VIEW and the Bridal Altar at center. VIEW This large feature, shaped like two arches, is a combination of stalagmite and drapery formations. In September of 1882, according to a local newspaper, Miss Mattie Barr and Mr. P.P. Huffman were married in the room. "The bride's dress was short, and a beautiful blue trimmed in black, and upon her head she wore a small cap made of peafowl feathers. She had a very costly silk outfit made in Louisville but was persuaded not to wear it into the cave." Early postcards of Mammoth Cave depict mock weddings at the Bridal Altar. The Bridal Altar and Gothic Avenue are seen on the Star Chamber Tour.]]></pano_description> <pano_latitude>37.181745801182544</pano_latitude> <pano_longitude>-86.09654726493976</pano_longitude> <pano_filename>pano_bridalaltar</pano_filename> <pano_north>180</pano_north> <pano_credit><![CDATA[Four Chambers Studio]]></pano_credit> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> <pano_category>maca</pano_category> </pano>
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<pano_title><![CDATA[Cataracts]]></pano_title>
<pano_description><![CDATA[The large Main Cave passage is typically a very dry world where nothing but darkness and complete silence reside. One exception to this is found at the Cataracts, where water's perennial flow surges into the cave, shattering the silence. Fed by an overlying sinkhole, water moves down through tiny tunnels too small for human entry. Eventually, this building stream enters the cave at the Cataracts. The water continues its journey, pouring from a hole in the ceiling and quickly disappearing through openings in the rocky floor. It enters another large avenue more than 100 feet below. From this point, the water joins a subterranean stream that soon coalesces into a spring that feeds the sunlit Green River in the surface world. ]]></pano_description> <pano_latitude>37.17721887309859</pano_latitude> <pano_longitude>-86.09380734637203</pano_longitude> <pano_filename>pano_cataracts</pano_filename> <pano_north>27</pano_north> <pano_credit><![CDATA[Four Chambers Studio]]></pano_credit> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> <pano_category>maca</pano_category> </pano>
<pano_description><![CDATA[Rising 130 feet above the cave floor, Cathedral Domes reigns as one of Mammoth Cave's supreme features. Those who venture on the Wild Cave Tour are rewarded for their effort, as it is the only tour that visits this magnificent room. For millennia, vertical cascades of water have relentlessly cut through the surrounding limestone rock like a slow-moving band saw. The result of such endless wearing away is a complex of interconnected shafts. Despite the majesty of Cathedral Domes, water has still not completed its work here. It continues to slowly modify this masterpiece as it persistently chisels and removes the solid stone, leaving embossed etches of delicate and decorative flutes along the cave walls.]]></pano_description> <pano_latitude>37.161604255036146</pano_latitude> <pano_longitude>-86.06891591494278</pano_longitude> <pano_filename>pano_cathedraldome</pano_filename> <pano_north>155</pano_north> <pano_credit><![CDATA[Four Chambers Studio]]></pano_credit> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> <pano_category>maca</pano_category> </pano>
<pano_description><![CDATA[The rolling hills of south central Kentucky conceal a secret. Obscured in darkness, the slow, fluid movement of an underground stream gradually dissolves the rock below from the inside out and continues to develop the features of Mammoth Cave. On rare occasions, one of these subterranean rivers may briefly resurface to sunlight, and then quickly ebb back underground. This is called a karst window. VIEW Cedar Sink possesses such an area. At the bottom of this enormous sinkhole, a hidden river briefly reveals itself. After nearly seventeen miles of traversing underground, the flow of water breaks through the earth's surface - is briefly glimpsed - and then vanishes again. Hikers who visit this picturesque surface feature may witness this natural event.]]></pano_description> <pano_latitude>37.14884630600391</pano_latitude> <pano_longitude>-86.15319756101734</pano_longitude> <pano_filename>pano_cedarsink1</pano_filename> <pano_north>64</pano_north> <pano_credit><![CDATA[Four Chambers Studio]]></pano_credit> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> <pano_category>maca</pano_category> </pano>
<pano_description><![CDATA[Cedar Sink offers more than the chance to see underground rivers briefly appear on the surface. The walls of this vast sinkhole display limestone bedrock year round, and sandstone cap rock is visible as one drives to this location. In spring, the lush flora of the sink boasts many varieties of wildflowers. Park Rangers often show visitors this hike, because of the many varieties of flowers in bloom; also, this location is easily accessible from a nearby road. Local oral traditions share stories of farmers planting corn crops in the bottom of the sink. At harvest time, they used mules to carry the corn up to a dirt road. Farmers brought up water from the exposed cave river for household use. Many animals continue to visit Cedar Sink to obtain water in all four seasons.]]></pano_description> <pano_latitude>37.14914219167091</pano_latitude> <pano_longitude>-86.15317610334593</pano_longitude> <pano_filename>pano_cedarsink2</pano_filename> <pano_north>164</pano_north> <pano_credit><![CDATA[Four Chambers Studio]]></pano_credit> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> <pano_category>maca</pano_category> </pano>
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<pano_title><![CDATA[Chief City]]></pano_title>
<pano_description><![CDATA[In the days before gasoline lanterns, guides struggled to light this large room for visitors. They employed torch throwing, flinging bundled rags from the ends of tapered wooden sticks. Magnesium flares were placed around the room and ignited in an effort to showcase the lofty ceiling and distant walls. Guides in three centuries have noted hundreds of artifacts scattered about the rocky breakdown - torch sticks made of tall, fleshy stalks of river cane, remnants of woven slippers, and broken gourd containers - all left behind by the cave's first explorers 2,000 to 4,000 years before modern man even knew about the cave. Chief City remains the largest room shown on public tours, still illuminated only by the light of kerosene lanterns on the Violet City Lantern Tour.]]></pano_description> <pano_latitude>37.174027358838266</pano_latitude> <pano_longitude>-86.09017003836284</pano_longitude> <pano_filename>pano_chiefcity</pano_filename> <pano_north>219</pano_north> <pano_credit><![CDATA[Four Chambers Studio]]></pano_credit> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> <pano_category>maca</pano_category> </pano>
<pano_description><![CDATA[Cleaveland Avenue speaks of a distant time when an ancient river flowed through the limestone, completely filling this channel. Over time the rock was smoothed into an elliptical tunnel, creating a textbook example of a tubular passage. When the river receded to lower levels, Cleaveland Avenue began a new stage of development. Chemical reactions of rock, along with oxidizing minerals, imperceptible amounts of water and evaporation formed delicate gypsum deposits. VIEW Their tendrils twist and curl, resembling frosted flowers on cave walls. On the Grand Avenue and Cleaveland Avenue Tours, this beautifully ornamented cave passage provides visitors a chance to stroll through an age-old underground garden of salt and stone.]]></pano_description> <pano_latitude>37.16839481432916</pano_latitude> <pano_longitude>-86.08427126056151</pano_longitude> <pano_filename>pano_clevelandave</pano_filename> <pano_north>358</pano_north> <pano_credit><![CDATA[Four Chambers Studio]]></pano_credit> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> <pano_category>maca</pano_category> </pano>
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<pano_title><![CDATA[Dead Sea]]></pano_title>
<pano_description><![CDATA[The Dead Sea is the first body of water seen on the River Styx Tour. Located within sight of River Hall, this pool and all the watery areas beyond were discovered by Stephen Bishop in the early 1840s. Massive mud banks slope downward to the reflective waters of the Dead Sea, making traversing the area hazardous without a manmade bridge. Yet Stephen Bishop managed to make his way beyond Dead Sea to a wondrous underground world beyond. Drawing on mythology, and perhaps with help from cave owner John Croghan, the eerily dynamic areas were given names like Echo River, River Styx, Lake Lethe, and Charon's Cascade. Bishop soon discovered that the Dead Sea and passageway beyond teemed with aquatic cave life - including eyeless fish, Kentucky cave shrimp and crayfish.]]></pano_description> <pano_latitude>37.18352374427159</pano_latitude> <pano_longitude>-86.10101046059044</pano_longitude> <pano_filename>pano_deadsea</pano_filename> <pano_north>216</pano_north> <pano_credit><![CDATA[Four Chambers Studio]]></pano_credit> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> <pano_category>maca</pano_category> </pano>
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<pano_title><![CDATA[Doyel Valley Confluence of Logsdon & Hawkins Rivers]]></pano_title>
<pano_description><![CDATA[The Mammoth Cave area is among the best examples of a developed karst system anywhere on earth. Additionally, in karst areas it is uncommon for explorers to have access to underground streams at the water table. Having met those criteria, Mammoth Cave is a peculiarity among those unique places. Not only are numerous subterranean streams accessible within the cave, but in this instance two streams can be seen in one passage. The Logsdon and Hawkins Rivers flowing beneath Doyel Valley demonstrate the draining of two different watersheds, and are part of the world's longest underground navigable waterways! Not only are both readily visible, but at the confluence, these two rivers merge together in an accessible location, creating one of a karst landscape's rarest phenomena!]]></pano_description> <pano_latitude>37.139917881895556</pano_latitude> <pano_longitude>-86.07182802748962</pano_longitude> <pano_filename>pano_logsdonhawkins</pano_filename> <pano_north>4</pano_north> <pano_credit><![CDATA[Four Chambers Studio]]></pano_credit> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> <pano_category>maca</pano_category> </pano>
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<pano_title><![CDATA[Doyle Valley: P. Strange Falls]]></pano_title>
<pano_description><![CDATA[A large, fifteen-foot deep hole normally captures the entire flow of Logsdon River, forming a short but spectacular waterfall. VIEW It is situated just 500 feet east of the Doyle Valley Entrance. At high water, the Logsdon fills this pit, and water overflows towards the entrance. At the bottom of the falls, another very wet drop can be descended by cavers to a short section of stream passage. The water reemerges as the Hawkins River, located at the base of the Logsdon River breakdown. The P. Strange hole was discovered on April 21, 1979, and the waterfall is named for cave explorer Pete Strange, whose initials are found on the wall of historic Morrison's Cave. Strange was a guide on Morrison's New Entrance Tours in the 1920s.]]></pano_description> <pano_latitude>37.13930208966026</pano_latitude> <pano_longitude>-86.05964007013579</pano_longitude> <pano_filename>pano_pstrangefalls</pano_filename> <pano_north>359</pano_north> <pano_credit><![CDATA[Four Chambers Studio]]></pano_credit> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> <pano_category>maca</pano_category> </pano>
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<pano_title><![CDATA[Drapery Room]]></pano_title>
<pano_description><![CDATA[While on the Frozen Niagara Tour, visitors have the option of taking the stairs down into the Drapery Room, which is the underside of the Frozen Niagara drapery formation. This room is a marvelous combination of colorful warm hues. The most photographed room in Mammoth Cave, this was the first toured area where visitors could find a collection of stalactites, stalagmites, flowstone, soda straws and columns in what is largely a dry cave. Along with the beauty of the room, visitors always experience the sounds of water trickling (or even gushing) from Shower Bath Springs far overhead. Mammoth Cave is an International Biosphere Reserve. As such, it is part of the NPS mission to educate neighbors about the importance of keeping the region's groundwater clean.]]></pano_description> <pano_latitude>37.15004352411149</pano_latitude> <pano_longitude>-86.05959715479295</pano_longitude> <pano_filename>pano_draperyroom</pano_filename> <pano_north>7</pano_north> <pano_credit><![CDATA[Four Chambers Studio]]></pano_credit> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> <pano_category>maca</pano_category> </pano>
<pano_description><![CDATA[One of the most magnificent views inside Mammoth Cave, Elizabeth's Dome was named after the sister of German cartographer Max Kaemper. Kaemper arrived in February 1908 and departed in December of the same year. The beautiful vaulted ceiling of the Dome terminates in a waterfall that runs year round. This room is seen on the Violet City Lantern Tour, and includes a walk up Albert's stairway, a series of chiseled rocks of various sizes stacked in graduated degrees up the side of the room. VIEW The tour exits through the Violet City Entrance, a manmade opening, named for Violet Blair Janin, an heir to Dr. John Croghan's Mammoth Cave Estate. Upon his death in 1849, Croghan left the cave property to his nieces and nephews.]]></pano_description> <pano_latitude>37.16868347479385</pano_latitude> <pano_longitude>-86.09118284709032</pano_longitude> <pano_filename>pano_elizabethsdome</pano_filename> <pano_north>188</pano_north> <pano_credit><![CDATA[Four Chambers Studio]]></pano_credit> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> <pano_category>maca</pano_category> </pano>
<pano_description><![CDATA[Located at the top of Big Break, this room is fifteen feet high with walls that showcase the layering of limestone bedrock. The ceiling is flat and undecorated, VIEW except for two clusters of thick, one foot long dry stalactites, and a line of smaller stalactites following along a ceiling crack. The decorations stand out nicely from the wide expanse of exposed, light-colored limestone. Visitors on the Grand Avenue and New Entrance Tours frequently stop in this area to rest and experience an interpretive talk, as there is a set of benches available. The origin of the room's name is unknown, but most guides believe that someone imagined the few delicate ceiling formations as a small fairy village.]]></pano_description> <pano_latitude>37.151788007994234</pano_latitude> <pano_longitude>-86.06204332933228</pano_longitude> <pano_filename>pano_fairyceiling</pano_filename> <pano_north>5</pano_north> <pano_credit><![CDATA[Four Chambers Studio]]></pano_credit> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> <pano_category>maca</pano_category> </pano>
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<pano_title><![CDATA[Floyd Collins Home and Ticket Office]]></pano_title>
<pano_description><![CDATA[One of the most popular ranger-led surface activities is the Sand Cave Almanac, which is traveled by car caravan and includes important landmarks from the life of Floyd Collins. The program begins at Sand Cave, where Floyd Collins was trapped for 18 days in January and February of 1925. The next leg of the journey leads visitors around the East Boundary Road to Flint Ridge Road and the home site of the Collins family. In 1917, Collins discovered the entrance to Crystal Cave on his father's farm. Floyd, his younger brothers, and his father, Leonidas, built trails in the cave and began to promote cave tours, competing with the other privately owned caves in the region. The National Park Service manages the Collins home and ticket office as historical structures.]]></pano_description> <pano_latitude>37.211691717477436</pano_latitude> <pano_longitude>-86.05521978982782</pano_longitude> <pano_filename>pano_floydcollinshome</pano_filename> <pano_north>359</pano_north> <pano_credit><![CDATA[Four Chambers Studio]]></pano_credit> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> <pano_category>maca</pano_category> </pano>
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<pano_title><![CDATA[Forks of the Cave]]></pano_title>
<pano_description><![CDATA[Seen on the Grand Avenue Tour, Forks of the Cave is about fifty feet wide, with a flat floor and high ceiling. It forms the eastern end of the large Kentucky Avenue canyon passage, where Jeanne's Avenue joins the larger passage. Kentucky Avenue continues for only a short distance east before ending in breakdown. The Forks, as guides call it, contains a large pile of sediment. VIEW Guides often find tiny cave beetles in the dirt and cave crickets along the limestone walls of this room, and they are more than happy to point them out. The interpretive stop at Forks of the Cave is usually the last one made before visitors begin to hike up and down the trails over landmarks like Mt. McKinley, Grand Canyon and the steep 'Heart Attack Hill' during the tour's second half.]]></pano_description> <pano_latitude>37.16006520647876</pano_latitude> <pano_longitude>-86.07736410671022</pano_longitude> <pano_filename>pano_forksofthecave</pano_filename> <pano_north>359</pano_north> <pano_credit><![CDATA[Four Chambers Studio]]></pano_credit> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> <pano_category>maca</pano_category> </pano>
<pano_description><![CDATA[Most of Mammoth Cave lies beneath a thick layer of sandstone and shale that keeps the cave dry and void of speleothems. There are a few rare areas that extend just beyond the sandstone and shale cap rock, enabling water to reach the cave below. The unique area of the Frozen Niagara and Shower Bath Spring prominently displays water's power to change the cave in two opposing ways. VIEW Shower Bath Spring exhibits water's ability to carve out the cave by dissolving the limestone rock, while the numerous formations are a testament to how seeping water delicately deposits tiny bits of rock over time.]]></pano_description> <pano_latitude>37.150056823943224</pano_latitude> <pano_longitude>-86.05976950387159</pano_longitude> <pano_filename>pano_frozenniagara</pano_filename> <pano_north>19</pano_north> <pano_credit><![CDATA[Four Chambers Studio]]></pano_credit> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> <pano_category>maca</pano_category> </pano>
<pano_description><![CDATA[This large rock was once called the Steamship, due to its size and shape. It serves as the final landmark in the upper passageway, Main Cave Passage, before visitors head down to deeper areas on the Historic and River Styx cave tours. VIEW The rock bears an inscription, "J.N. McDowell 1839." Joseph Nash McDowell was an eccentric physician who knew Mammoth Cave's owner, John Croghan. Early guides used to raise their lanterns at Giant's Coffin in such a way as to give the illusion that the lid of the coffin was being raised. They also pointed out shapes on the ceiling made by minerals that resembled a bear in one spot, and an anteater in another. Modern cave interpretation does not encourage these old ways of showing the cave, but the traditions have not been forgotten.]]></pano_description> <pano_latitude>37.183141088662545</pano_latitude> <pano_longitude>-86.09575188472317</pano_longitude> <pano_filename>pano_giantscoffin</pano_filename> <pano_north>98</pano_north> <pano_credit><![CDATA[Four Chambers Studio]]></pano_credit> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> <pano_category>maca</pano_category> </pano>
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<pano_title><![CDATA[Grand Canyon of Crystal Cave]]></pano_title>
<pano_description><![CDATA[The Collins family had a beautiful cave, but their tourism efforts were hindered by the effort required to get there. Crystal Cave was a geological showcase, boasting spectacular displays of gypsum along with typical speleothems found in other local caves. Floyd Collins named this large trunk passage the Grand Canyon of Crystal Cave. His cave was impressive, but he continued to look for another, more marketable cave. Those efforts ended in the winter of 1925 when Floyd became trapped in a nearly vertical crawlway (in nearby Sand Cave) with a rock pinning his leg behind him. In spite of a variety of rescue attempts, he died of exposure after 18 days, at the age of 37.]]></pano_description> <pano_latitude>37.211110688295406</pano_latitude> <pano_longitude>-86.05504812845666</pano_longitude> <pano_filename>pano_crca_grandcanyon</pano_filename> <pano_north>8</pano_north> <pano_credit><![CDATA[Four Chambers Studio]]></pano_credit> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> <pano_category>maca</pano_category> </pano>
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<pano_title><![CDATA[Grand Central Station]]></pano_title>
<pano_description><![CDATA[George D. Morrison bought property above this room in the 1920s. After determining that a surface sinkhole was connected to a cave system (later found to be part of Mammoth Cave), he created the New Entrance by detonating 20 sticks of dynamite! He named features and rooms in his cave for famous landmarks of the eastern United States, including New York Subway and the Hippodrome. This one, 250 feet underground, is named for the six different ways to access the room. With the exception of the Introduction to Caving Tour, all visitors must exit via Big Break, the large breakdown hill that leads out of this room. Visitors wind their way up and out of a typical dry cave environment, walking another one-half mile towards dripstone formations and the Frozen Niagara entrance.]]></pano_description> <pano_latitude>37.152418634112124</pano_latitude> <pano_longitude>-86.06303847231038</pano_longitude> <pano_filename>pano_grandcentstation</pano_filename> <pano_north>218</pano_north> <pano_credit><![CDATA[Four Chambers Studio]]></pano_credit> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> <pano_category>maca</pano_category> </pano>
<pano_description><![CDATA[Ownership of Great Onyx Cave was passed on to Levi P. Edwards' daughter, Lucy Edwards Cox, and her husband, Perry. "Miss Lucy" had a reputation among neighbors and guides as a stern taskmaster who was protective of her cave. One early advertisement stated, "Great Onyx Cave is newly discovered, clean, unsmoked and dry. It calls for no stooping or crawling and you can see it in your ordinary clothes at any hour of the day or night." Every point made in the ad was in some way a contrast to nearby Mammoth Cave. Great Onyx was beautiful and boasted stalactites, stalagmites, draperies, and columns. It had curious-looking helictites, and there was gypsum in the very dry areas. Visitors were awed by fancifully named formations, like the Nativity and Miss Lucy's Bonnet.]]></pano_description> <pano_latitude>37.21839715399472</pano_latitude> <pano_longitude>-86.07538141787306</pano_longitude> <pano_filename>pano_onyxnativity</pano_filename> <pano_north>2</pano_north> <pano_credit><![CDATA[Four Chambers Studio]]></pano_credit> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> <pano_category>maca</pano_category> </pano>
<pano_description><![CDATA[Great Onyx Cave was discovered June 12, 1915, by Edmund Turner on the property of Flint Ridge landowner Levi P. Edwards. A short era of dispute surrounds the cave's discovery and ownership, and the story of that legal history is told, in part, on the Great Onyx Tour offered in the fall season at Mammoth Cave National Park. The cave is reached by a bus ride out the winding and narrow Flint Ridge Road and is located on the ridge above Green River. L.P. Edwards offered overnight lodging in his newly built hotel above the cave entrance. Signs along the roads directed visitors to Great Onyx Cave, and local cappers stopped traveling cars and tried to convince the occupants to see Great Onyx instead of Mammoth Cave - and some did. ]]></pano_description> <pano_latitude>37.2188345929562</pano_latitude> <pano_longitude>-86.07800783685215</pano_longitude> <pano_filename>pano_onyxfront</pano_filename> <pano_north>11</pano_north> <pano_credit><![CDATA[Four Chambers Studio]]></pano_credit> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> <pano_category>maca</pano_category> </pano>
<pano_description><![CDATA[While Great Onyx Cave is spectacular, it still has not been proven to connect to the Mammoth Cave system. Though it is located in Flint Ridge, which contains many miles of Mammoth Cave, including Crystal Cave and others, it is not part of the almost 400 mapped and surveyed miles of the world's longest cave system. When Mammoth Cave National Park was established in 1941, privately-held Great Onyx Cave was surrounded by federal land. The property was sold to the federal government in January, 1961. Today's visitors experience a somewhat intimate tour of Great Onyx, seeing it by the light of Coleman lanterns. Today, park rangers continue Miss Lucy's diligence, protecting this splendid cave, its features, and the small cave animals within it.]]></pano_description> <pano_latitude>37.21736506139202</pano_latitude> <pano_longitude>-86.07235118595412</pano_longitude> <pano_filename>pano_onyxback</pano_filename> <pano_north>358</pano_north> <pano_credit><![CDATA[Four Chambers Studio]]></pano_credit> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> <pano_category>maca</pano_category> </pano>
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<pano_title><![CDATA[Green River]]></pano_title>
<pano_description><![CDATA[Kentucky has more navigable miles of water than any other state, excluding Alaska, and is bounded on three sides by rivers. Green River, one of the most biologically diverse waterways, runs through Mammoth Cave National Park for 16 miles. It supports more than 80 species of fish and more than 50 species of freshwater mussels, including several endangered species. Green River has been a source of food and a transportation route since prehistoric times. It was a source of life for American Indians and a popular area for land grants issued following the Revolutionary War. Green River is the base-level stream of Mammoth Cave National Park, and it contributes to the survival of the cave's aquatic animals by bringing both food sources and sediments into the cave.]]></pano_description> <pano_latitude>37.19090859834356</pano_latitude> <pano_longitude>-86.10711057003064</pano_longitude> <pano_filename>pano_greenriver</pano_filename> <pano_north>25</pano_north> <pano_start>204, -40</pano_start> <pano_credit><![CDATA[Four Chambers Studio]]></pano_credit> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> <pano_category>maca</pano_category> </pano>
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<pano_title><![CDATA[Green River Ferry]]></pano_title>
<pano_description><![CDATA[During the nineteenth and early twentieth-centuries, family operated ferries were found along the length of Green River. These ferry boats usually amounted to little more than a nailed timber raft and a pulley system, but this was enough to carry across a few people and a horse or mule, or maybe a small wagon. Numerous ferries were operated along the stretch of river now located inside Mammoth Cave National Park, but only two remain in operation. The motorized Green River and Houchin's Ferries provide a link from the parks south side and headquarters to the north side and backcountry trails and camping. These ferries are not operated as recreational opportunities, but serve as a necessary mode of transportation for local neighbors, park employees and visitors.]]></pano_description> <pano_latitude>37.17938654285839</pano_latitude> <pano_longitude>-86.11264051848799</pano_longitude> <pano_filename>pano_greenriverferry</pano_filename> <pano_north>359</pano_north> <pano_credit><![CDATA[Four Chambers Studio]]></pano_credit> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> <pano_category>maca</pano_category> </pano>
<pano_description><![CDATA[No scenic view within Mammoth Cave National Park represents its natural and cultural resources more than the image of the cave system's first entrance known to man. Set in limestone bedrock layers beneath a surface cap rock of sandstone, this gaping natural entrance leads into a vast underground labyrinth totaling nearly 400 miles of surveyed passages, with the majority of the cave located beneath the surface estate of the national park. The cave was first discovered approximately 4,000 years ago by native Indians who visited the cave for many centuries, then abandoned it about 2,000 ago. The cave sat unnoticed until its rediscovery in roughly 1798, when the underground features of Mammoth Cave once again fueled man's adventurous and creative spirit.]]></pano_description> <pano_latitude>37.18700512838542</pano_latitude> <pano_longitude>-86.10302527588316</pano_longitude> <pano_filename>pano_historicentrance</pano_filename> <pano_north>1</pano_north> <pano_start>206, -52</pano_start> <pano_credit><![CDATA[Four Chambers Studio]]></pano_credit> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> <pano_category>maca</pano_category> </pano>
<pano_description><![CDATA[The largest of the New Entrance dome-pits, King Solomon's Temple is crossed on a causeway partway down the main shaft. The highest section is about 100 feet high. It is called King Solomon's Temple because, according to former chief guide, Lewis Cutliff, "There was neither hammer, nor ax, nor any tool of iron heard in the house, while it was in building." During periods of heavy precipitation outside, visitors on the New Entrance and Introduction to Caving Tours cannot avoid the rain-like water that steadily drops from the domes overhead into the pits and staircases below. After descending the staircase through King Solomon's Temple, visitors enter a tube-like horizontal passageway called New York Subway. ]]></pano_description> <pano_latitude>37.15254564875343</pano_latitude> <pano_longitude>-86.06366982082423</pano_longitude> <pano_filename>pano_kingsolomons</pano_filename> <pano_north>6</pano_north> <pano_credit><![CDATA[Four Chambers Studio]]></pano_credit> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> <pano_category>maca</pano_category> </pano>
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<pano_title><![CDATA[Lake Lethe]]></pano_title>
<pano_description><![CDATA[It is said that slave guide Nicholas Bransford paid for his freedom by selling the small, translucent cave fish that he caught from underground pools and streams. If this is true, Nick must have been a very patient man. The aquatic life found in places like Echo River and Lake Lethe is very small. These creatures do not move quickly, as nature has taught them to move slowly, conserving energy. Deep time has caused them to adapt to the cave's nutrient-poor environment. Food can be scarce; energy use is at a premium. Living in deep darkness, they develop no pigment, and no eyes. They are tiny enough to be held the center of a human palm. Any uncommon reverberation or movement of the water can send them scattering toward shelter underwater. Nick was patient, indeed.]]></pano_description> <pano_latitude>37.18250419128009</pano_latitude> <pano_longitude>-86.10010028689783</pano_longitude> <pano_filename>pano_lakeleathe</pano_filename> <pano_north>1</pano_north> <pano_credit><![CDATA[Four Chambers Studio]]></pano_credit> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> <pano_category>maca</pano_category> </pano>
<pano_description><![CDATA[One of three churches still standing inside Mammoth Cave National Park, this church building and cemetery are reminders of the communities that once existed north and south of Green River. Descendants come to the cemetery to pay their respects to loved ones, especially in preparation for Memorial Day. Along with the Hunts, Holtons, Shackelfords, Cutliffs and others, the Collins family were members of this congregation. The casketed remains of Floyd Collins, previously in Crystal Cave, were moved at the request of his surviving family in the late 1980s. National Park Service officials placed his remains in a gravesite near those of his mother and siblings at Mammoth Cave Baptist Church Cemetery. VIEW Collins' grave is one of the most visited in the national park. ]]></pano_description> <pano_latitude>37.198361098459905</pano_latitude> <pano_longitude>-86.07247175763156</pano_longitude> <pano_filename>pano_mcbaptistchurch</pano_filename> <pano_north>360</pano_north> <pano_credit><![CDATA[Four Chambers Studio]]></pano_credit> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> <pano_category>maca</pano_category> </pano>
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<pano_title><![CDATA[Mammoth Dome]]></pano_title>
<pano_description><![CDATA[Along a forest trail above the cave system, visitors encounter a lovely fern encased, bowl-shaped depression called Mammoth Dome Sink. About the size of a small house, this lush sinkhole directs rainwater to a majestic cave room below. In this instance, the ceiling of the room begins approximately 40 feet below the basin on the surface and is called Mammoth Dome. Discovered by Stephen Bishop in the early 1840s, it was later written that Stephen believed this majestic dome was his most impressive discovery in Mammoth Cave. Colorful, fluted limestone walls surround a rock-filled pit and terminate in the foggy humidity of a dome 192 feet high. In 1953, a stair tower was built in Mammoth Dome to allow visitors to return to the Historic Entrance without backtracking.]]></pano_description> <pano_latitude>37.183606290681745</pano_latitude> <pano_longitude>-86.10290408717549</pano_longitude> <pano_filename>pano_mammothdome</pano_filename> <pano_north>211</pano_north> <pano_credit><![CDATA[Four Chambers Studio]]></pano_credit> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> <pano_category>maca</pano_category> </pano>
<pano_description><![CDATA[After walking for more than two hours on fairly level ground, the height of Mt. McKinley causes visitors to nearly stop in their tracks on the Grand Avenue Tour. This massive mound of breakdown looms ninety feet from floor to ceiling, with a switchback trail winding its way to the top. VIEW At its base, a wall encrusted with delicate gypsum flowers and tendrils interests visitors before they make the first of at least three major hill climbs on the tour. After the steep climb to the top of Mt. McKinley, the group gathers at a set of benches just outside the second, and final, restroom stop on the tour. A brief interpretive talk gives visitors a few moments to rest before they meet the nearly immediate challenges of descending the Grand Canyon.]]></pano_description> <pano_latitude>37.15730420268409</pano_latitude> <pano_longitude>-86.07363204358774</pano_longitude> <pano_filename>pano_mntmckinley</pano_filename> <pano_north>8</pano_north> <pano_credit><![CDATA[Four Chambers Studio]]></pano_credit> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> <pano_category>maca</pano_category> </pano>
<pano_description><![CDATA[There have been many "new discoveries" in Mammoth Cave during the past 200 years. The New Discovery located here was found by cave guides Leo Hunt, Pete Hunt, Carl Hanson, and Carl's son Pete, in the fall of 1938. The men explored upstream in Mammoth Cave's Roaring River, passing through areas of high difficulty like the Keyhole and the Trap Door, both named by these cave explorers. Fossil Avenue averages 25 feet wide and 12 feet high in its largest areas, and is about 3,550 feet in length. It is decorated with small rimstone dams across much of the floor, and gypsum crystals along the ceiling, walls and floor. The passageway gets its name from the many fossils (such as horn coral and fish-tooth) that are exposed in the surrounding limestone.]]></pano_description> <pano_latitude>37.168444091721454</pano_latitude> <pano_longitude>-86.0960322808262</pano_longitude> <pano_filename>pano_fossilavenewfisc</pano_filename> <pano_north>7</pano_north> <pano_credit><![CDATA[Four Chambers Studio]]></pano_credit> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> <pano_category>maca</pano_category> </pano>
<pano_description><![CDATA[The iconic features of the formations located in New Discovery provide a preview of what the future may hold as Mammoth Cave's caprock is eroded. Here, water has slowly lined a vertical shaft with calcite, and then continued its deposition onto the floor, over time creating the huge stone mound now known as the Mushroom Formation. VIEW Nearby is a feature known as the Rimstone. VIEW While most rimstones in Mammoth Cave (and elsewhere) are only a few inches high, this one is nearly three feet tall! It marks the edge of a large, deep basin that held water for many years, depositing the minerals that built this calcite feature. The water has since vanished, but may return in the future as the cave continues to change.]]></pano_description> <pano_latitude>37.16499005156139</pano_latitude> <pano_longitude>-86.09714807973886</pano_longitude> <pano_filename>pano_rimstonemushroom</pano_filename> <pano_north>359</pano_north> <pano_credit><![CDATA[Four Chambers Studio]]></pano_credit> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> <pano_category>maca</pano_category> </pano>
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<pano_title><![CDATA[New Discovery: Little Paradise]]></pano_title>
<pano_description><![CDATA[The National Park Service used CCC enrollees to begin building trails in this area, and planned to open portions of it to the visiting public. With the start of World War II, that never came to pass. Cave guide and explorer Pete Hanson went to war and was killed in action. When the war ended, the CCC was no more, and the NPS managers chose not to pursue New Discovery tours further. Their decision has protected the cave during the past seventy years, and this fragile part of Mammoth Cave warrants special care. One highly touted area is Little Paradise, where the walls are almost completely covered with gypsum in the shapes of flowers, tendrils, needles and cotton. Just heat from lanterns or the movement of air currents can impact these delicate mineral formations.]]></pano_description> <pano_latitude>37.171521816280084</pano_latitude> <pano_longitude>-86.10809149215167</pano_longitude> <pano_filename>pano_littleparadise</pano_filename> <pano_north>2</pano_north> <pano_credit><![CDATA[Four Chambers Studio]]></pano_credit> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> <pano_category>maca</pano_category> </pano>
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<pano_title><![CDATA[New Entrance]]></pano_title>
<pano_description><![CDATA[The geological contact along ridges between Mammoth Cave's sandstone and shale roof and the limestone composition of the cave provides an ideal setting for the creation of vertical shafts. Often occurring long after their horizontal counterparts, these relatively recent cave features occur as water shed from the sandstone flows into fractures and then descends vertically, dissolving the limestone on its journey down to the water table. This process created the many domes and pits of the New Entrance area, and has, over time, enabled water to craft a sensational series of shafts. Even now, sinkholes continue to direct rain water and snow melt flowing down from the surface. This allows the shafts to widen, deepen and grow with each drop cascading into the world below.]]></pano_description> <pano_latitude>37.15157953792112</pano_latitude> <pano_longitude>-86.06423872084538</pano_longitude> <pano_filename>pano_newentrance2</pano_filename> <pano_north>345</pano_north> <pano_credit><![CDATA[Four Chambers Studio]]></pano_credit> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> <pano_category>maca</pano_category> </pano>
<pano_description><![CDATA[An ideal way to understand the karst topography of the area is to view the sinkhole plain north of Mammoth Cave National Park by helicopter, airplane, or an ultra light aircraft. The deep green island that is the national park stands out to the north, while the many square miles south of it are composed of farms, industries, communities, an interstate highway, VIEW state roads, and the CSX Railroad. VIEW The only waterways seen are the Green or Barren Rivers. There are very few small surface streams, as most of the water runs underground toward the river valleys. Anyone who cannot take to the air can find a very good view of the sinkhole plain at this overlook at Park Mammoth Resort in Edmonson County, near Park City.]]></pano_description> <pano_latitude>37.09844334537667</pano_latitude> <pano_longitude>-86.08243424792332</pano_longitude> <pano_filename>pano_parkmammovrlk</pano_filename> <pano_credit><![CDATA[Four Chambers Studio]]></pano_credit> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> <pano_category>maca</pano_category> </pano>
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<pano_title><![CDATA[Rafinesque Hall & Lookout Mountain]]></pano_title>
<pano_description><![CDATA[This massive space was named by former cave owner John Croghan to honor his contemporary Constantine Rafinesque. A master of many subjects who taught at Transylvania University in Kentucky from 1819 to 1826, Rafinesque was also considered an eccentric. Rafinesque's Big-Eared Bat was also named for him, and they are found in Mammoth Cave. During the years following the Cuban Missile Crisis, enough food and supplies for thousands of people were stored in Rafinesque Hall. It was falsely believed at that time that Mammoth Cave would be a suitable shelter during a major disaster such as a nuclear incident. The provisions were removed in the 1970s.]]></pano_description> <pano_latitude>37.18523326546643</pano_latitude> <pano_longitude>-86.10504450281321</pano_longitude> <pano_filename>pano_rafinesque</pano_filename> <pano_north>351</pano_north> <pano_credit><![CDATA[Four Chambers Studio]]></pano_credit> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> <pano_category>maca</pano_category> </pano>
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<pano_title><![CDATA[Rainbow Dome]]></pano_title>
<pano_description><![CDATA[Visitors driving into the Mammoth Cave area pass by rock shops and souvenir shops displaying chunks of glass in various colors on wooden stands along the roadway. Some expect to see red, blue, violet, green, orange and yellow in the cave, especially when a tour description states that the route includes a room called Rainbow Dome. A short distance from the Frozen Niagara Entrance, visitors find themselves in a small, highly decorated chamber. Rainbow Dome is named for the dome overhead boasting a seemingly very flat ceiling. Stalactites, flowstone, stalagmites, soda straws and cave bacon are seen in typical shades of Mammoth Cave colors - tan, cream, orange and rust. The colors are lovely; the cave need not mimic the rainbow of the sunlit world.]]></pano_description> <pano_latitude>37.14994090615924</pano_latitude> <pano_longitude>-86.05938257807897</pano_longitude> <pano_filename>pano_rainbowdome</pano_filename> <pano_north>2</pano_north> <pano_credit><![CDATA[Four Chambers Studio]]></pano_credit> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> <pano_category>maca</pano_category> </pano>
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<pano_title><![CDATA[Register Hall & Kentucky Monument]]></pano_title>
<pano_description><![CDATA[Once called Haunted Chambers by men who sought cave river sediment there to leech nitrates, Gothic Avenue boasts numerous landmarks. Among these is Register Hall, which gives testament to the earliest tours and owners of Mammoth Cave. Making their way through the dark and mysterious cave by lantern light, visitors were often invited to write their names on the smooth white limestone. Using charcoal pencil and candle smoke, they patiently painted their names on the cave walls and ceiling. VIEW Visitors also stacked rocks from the cave floor into cairns, often bringing in ready-made signs to place on them, thus paying homage to their hometowns or social organizations. VIEW The monument to the state of Kentucky has long been the tallest in Gothic Avenue. VIEW]]></pano_description> <pano_latitude>37.18441270012193</pano_latitude> <pano_longitude>-86.09899343947906</pano_longitude> <pano_filename>pano_signature_kymon</pano_filename> <pano_north>4</pano_north> <pano_credit><![CDATA[Four Chambers Studio]]></pano_credit> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> <pano_category>maca</pano_category> </pano>
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<pano_title><![CDATA[River Hall]]></pano_title>
<pano_description><![CDATA[River Hall is the lowest point on the Historic Tour, at a depth of 310 feet. For decades at a time, this large, vaulted room is quiet and dry. But, a quick glance around gives evidence to the fact that this room isn't always so restful. Flood gauges and high water benchmarks installed along the walls tell a different story. VIEW Kentucky occasionally receives a deluge of storms that force the water table to rise. The cave's rivers can swell upward from the normal water table, filling this entire space to a depth of several feet. When these rare occasions occur, National Park Service personnel get to see this room in its former glory - where water is active, shaping the rocks and putting final touches on a chamber that, after thousands of years, still floods. ]]></pano_description> <pano_latitude>37.18459219094324</pano_latitude> <pano_longitude>-86.10097072607032</pano_longitude> <pano_filename>pano_riverhall</pano_filename> <pano_north>356</pano_north> <pano_credit><![CDATA[Four Chambers Studio]]></pano_credit> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> <pano_category>maca</pano_category> </pano>
<pano_description><![CDATA[The water table inside Mammoth Cave can be identified as various rivers - Styx, Echo, Logsdon, Hawkins, Mystic and Roaring. Water enters the ground in a vast recharge area south of the park. The water flows down bedding planes toward Green River inside the national park. The water continues to move and drop inside the cave. Its lowest level is found in the newest passages of Mammoth Cave, where water moving through the dark underground eventually flows out through surface springs and into the sunlit Green River. These underground rivers were a mysterious source of adventure and entertainment on early cave tours. Visitors explored the pools by boat, singing to demonstrate the echoing acoustics, even firing guns to hear the raucous reverberation. ]]></pano_description> <pano_latitude>37.183105146280546</pano_latitude> <pano_longitude>-86.10131192308603</pano_longitude> <pano_filename>pano_riverstyxarch</pano_filename> <pano_credit><![CDATA[Four Chambers Studio]]></pano_credit> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> <pano_category>maca</pano_category> </pano>
<pano_description><![CDATA[A steep, winding hike from Sunset Point down the side of the ridge leads past seasonal wildflowers, autumn leaves, and VIEW long abandoned spring openings to the secretive and beautiful River Styx Spring. One of many cave springs along Green River, this one travels underground to become River Styx, seen on the cave tour of the same name. Depending upon rainfall, the spring can be very shallow or many feet deep, as witnessed by water gauges located at various depths between the spring's opening and the Green River. When the river floods, it backwashes into the cave, and carries in vital nutrients for the aquatic cave animals. These cave-adapted animals won't experience the surface Green River or the naturally lit entrance to this spring, but depend on them for life. ]]></pano_description> <pano_latitude>37.18755</pano_latitude> <pano_longitude>-86.10848</pano_longitude> <pano_filename>pano_riverstyxspring</pano_filename> <pano_north>2</pano_north> <pano_start>194, -37</pano_start> <pano_credit><![CDATA[Four Chambers Studio]]></pano_credit> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> <pano_category>maca</pano_category> </pano>
<pano_description><![CDATA[The area known as Rocky Mountain was once part of one of Mammoth Cave's largest trunk passages, extending uninterrupted for miles on end. However, as surface erosion progressed, the ridges protecting this avenue eroded away, and valleys began to develop. Here - along the edge of a ridge - a valley has effectively disconnected this cave passage. The ridge is still existent and preserves the Rocky Mountain, Dismal Hollow, and Cleaveland areas. While many long sections remain protected under caprock and within ridges, valleys have formed and punctured the original tunnel, causing it to become a highly fragmented cave passage. What remains is only a fraction of this passage's originally immense size. It serves as a reminder of what will ultimately happen to similarly formed areas.]]></pano_description> <pano_latitude>37.16700381977175</pano_latitude> <pano_longitude>-86.09101495893056</pano_longitude> <pano_filename>pano_rockymtn</pano_filename> <pano_north>356</pano_north> <pano_credit><![CDATA[Four Chambers Studio]]></pano_credit> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> <pano_category>maca</pano_category> </pano>
<pano_description><![CDATA[This is the central dome-pit in the New Entrance. According to previous owner George D. Morrison, "...to the explorers it stood as a bottomless pit" and, looking up the dome, "your gaze rests on a projection some thirty feet above which you readily recognize as a perfect profile of Theodore Roosevelt." The dome is 130 feet high. The wooden staircase first installed in New Entrance ran down through the series of pits and domes, including Roosevelt Dome, and terminated at the bottom of King Solomon's Temple and the New York Subway. The staircase was used for decades, and was then closed for nearly twenty years. Replacing the stairs with a new series of stainless steel staircases, the National Park Service reopened New Entrance and Roosevelt Dome to the public in 1986.]]></pano_description> <pano_latitude>37.15233528876213</pano_latitude> <pano_longitude>-86.06391934288877</pano_longitude> <pano_filename>pano_rooseveltdome</pano_filename> <pano_north>5</pano_north> <pano_credit><![CDATA[Four Chambers Studio]]></pano_credit> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> <pano_category>maca</pano_category> </pano>
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<pano_title><![CDATA[Rose's Pass]]></pano_title>
<pano_description><![CDATA[A narrow canyon, Rose's Pass averages eight to ten feet high and about 1,100 feet long, and is seen on the Grand Avenue and Wild Cave Tours. It is the upstream section of a long, high canyon that drained Kentucky Avenue and Jeanne's Avenue. It is at the same level as the upper levels of Boone Avenue and part of Cleaveland Avenue. The only named feature is Saratoga Springs, a small, intermittent trickle down the left side of the wall as the tour progresses through. Its discovery has been attributed to Max Kaemper and Ed Bishop in 1908. Cave guides generally consider Rose's Pass to be part of Boone Avenue, for the purposes of interpretation during tours. The identity of Rose, for whom the passageway is named, is unknown.]]></pano_description> <pano_latitude>37.16286967148672</pano_latitude> <pano_longitude>-86.07350172585865</pano_longitude> <pano_filename>pano_rosespass</pano_filename> <pano_north>4</pano_north> <pano_credit><![CDATA[Four Chambers Studio]]></pano_credit> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> <pano_category>maca</pano_category> </pano>
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<pano_title><![CDATA[Rotunda]]></pano_title>
<pano_description><![CDATA[One of the largest rooms in Mammoth Cave, the circular-shaped Rotunda measures 42 feet in height, with a diameter of about 142 feet. Early Kentucky pioneers used local caves as a source for nitrates that they converted into salt petre, which they combined with sulphur and charcoal to make black gunpowder. All three ingredients were gleaned from the natural land around them. Along with the natural features of the Rotunda, visitors can see wooden artifacts from a commercial salt petre extraction process that began several years prior to the War of 1812. VIEW The wooden pipes, leeching vats and other structural pieces located here are authentic, and have been in place for about 200 years. A second set of vats exists about a quarter mile further into the cave.]]></pano_description> <pano_latitude>37.18577391322219</pano_latitude> <pano_longitude>-86.10178198004193</pano_longitude> <pano_filename>pano_rotunda</pano_filename> <pano_north>358</pano_north> <pano_credit><![CDATA[Four Chambers Studio]]></pano_credit> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> <pano_category>maca</pano_category> </pano>
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<pano_title><![CDATA[Ruins of Karnak]]></pano_title>
<pano_description><![CDATA[As visitors on the River Styx and Historic Tours make their way up into Mammoth Dome, a separate flight of stairs takes them to a large viewing area at the Ruins of Karnak. A nineteenth-century visitor thought that the high fluted columns along one side of Mammoth Dome VIEW resembled the large columns on the Karnak Temple complex in Egypt. Various mineral colors are apparent in the formations along this scenic wall, where the creamy colors of flowstone can also be seen. Making their way from landing to landing on the staircase, visitors have an opportunity to view the splendid visage of Ruins of Karnak from several locations, noting the tiny, delicate soda straw stalactites as they get closer to the ceiling of the room.]]></pano_description> <pano_latitude>37.18312046967739</pano_latitude> <pano_longitude>-86.10329370495893</pano_longitude> <pano_filename>pano_ruinsofkarnak</pano_filename> <pano_north>2</pano_north> <pano_credit><![CDATA[Four Chambers Studio]]></pano_credit> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> <pano_category>maca</pano_category> </pano>
<pano_description><![CDATA[An ideal way to see the karst topography is to view the area north of Mammoth Cave National Park by air. The landscape is pierced with sinkholes in what appear to be small, rolling hills. VIEW For generations, landowners used them as trash dumps, believing incorrectly that it had little negative impact on their farms. Locals now understand the importance of keeping groundwater clean and, in this Karst area, anything that seeps into an underground stream in the recharge area will make its way into the Mammoth Cave system and, ultimately, into Green River. The Mammoth Cave drainage is protected by the Man and the Biosphere Program, as groups collaborate to educate one another and modify commercial practices for the benefit of the groundwater, land, and its inhabitants.]]></pano_description> <pano_latitude>37.089132407138514</pano_latitude> <pano_longitude>-86.09342875002991</pano_longitude> <pano_filename>pano_sinkhole</pano_filename> <pano_north>174</pano_north> <pano_credit><![CDATA[Four Chambers Studio]]></pano_credit> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> <pano_category>maca</pano_category> </pano>
<pano_description><![CDATA[Guide Stephen Bishop made his way across the mystical rivers he found underground, discovering new dry cave passages. He clambered up and over breakdown, naming landmarks along the way. When he came up from a narrow passage and into this large, open room where passages intersected, he must have stood in the light of his lantern and marveled. The elliptical room is still covered with the crystalline sparkle of gypsum minerals shaped like the first snowballs of a winter snowstorm. VIEW They give the illusion of having been thrown against the ceiling and upper walls, leaving no limestone untouched. The Snowball Room is used for a lunch stop on the Wild Cave, Grand Avenue and Snowball Tours. ]]></pano_description> <pano_latitude>37.167286561767135</pano_latitude> <pano_longitude>-86.07950041398949</pano_longitude> <pano_filename>pano_snowballroom</pano_filename> <pano_north>2</pano_north> <pano_credit><![CDATA[Four Chambers Studio]]></pano_credit> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> <pano_category>maca</pano_category> </pano>
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<pano_title><![CDATA[Star Chamber]]></pano_title>
<pano_description><![CDATA[Seen on the Violet City Lantern and the Star Chamber Tours, this room has impacted visitors since the first guided tours. Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote in 1857: "On arriving at what is called the "Star-Chamber," our lamps were taken from us by the guide, and extinguished or put aside, and, on looking upwards, I saw or seemed to see the night heaven thick with stars glimmering more or less brightly over our heads, and even what seemed a comet flaming among them. All the party was touched with astonishment and pleasure. Our musical friends sung with much feeling a pretty song ... and I sat down on the rocky floor to enjoy the serene picture. Some crystal specks in the black ceiling high overhead, reflecting the light of a half-hid lamp, yielded this magnificent effect."]]></pano_description> <pano_latitude>37.18152573217575</pano_latitude> <pano_longitude>-86.09470693238255</pano_longitude> <pano_filename>pano_starchamber</pano_filename> <pano_north>9</pano_north> <pano_credit><![CDATA[Four Chambers Studio]]></pano_credit> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> <pano_category>maca</pano_category> </pano>
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<pano_title><![CDATA[Sunset Point]]></pano_title>
<pano_description><![CDATA[Located on the Heritage Trail near the Mammoth Cave Hotel and Sunset Lodge, Sunset Point offers a favorite vista of the wooded river valley. Mammoth Cave resident Louise Ferguson Hanson, born a short distance from Sunset Point in 1912, recalled sitting on the ridge up above Green River as a child, watching steamboats and other boats move up and down the waterway or dock to allow Mammoth Cave visitors to disembark or come aboard. She said, "Those river boat captains polished the metal on those boats the same way boys today polish their hotrods." It was common for early visitors to roam the wooded trails just as they do today. On a late afternoon, visitors can watch the sun set over the northern ridge top and hear the Green River Ferry in the distance.]]></pano_description> <pano_latitude>37.1880</pano_latitude> <pano_longitude>-86.1024</pano_longitude> <pano_filename>pano_sunsetpoint</pano_filename> <pano_credit><![CDATA[Four Chambers Studio]]></pano_credit> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> <pano_category>maca</pano_category> </pano>
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<pano_title><![CDATA[The Church]]></pano_title>
<pano_description><![CDATA[As visitors walk down the cave trail toward the Church, they are surrounded by piles of rubble and breakdown rock. This is an early trunk passage, where underground rivers first carved this vast cave system. A smooth dirt floor belies the fact that early visitors were introduced to a dark and wild environment; where rocks littered the chambers and it was necessary to tentatively and slowly make way over a stone path. Several nineteenth-century visitors wrote of church services being held at this room in the cave, where wooden pipes left by slaves and managers of the salt petre works were used as benches for services. VIEW ]]></pano_description> <pano_latitude>37.18508771155246</pano_latitude> <pano_longitude>-86.10060323401355</pano_longitude> <pano_filename>pano_church</pano_filename> <pano_north>357</pano_north> <pano_credit><![CDATA[Four Chambers Studio]]></pano_credit> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> <pano_category>maca</pano_category> </pano>
<pano_description><![CDATA[Also referred to as the New York Hippodrome, this very large, breakdown-floored room is located between Aerobridge Canyon and Grand Central Station; it is the largest single room along Kentucky Avenue. George D. Morrison, who first discovered this area of the cave in the early 1920s, created an entrance and began tours through what he called the New Entrance to Mammoth Cave. He described the Hippodrome in an effort to market his part of Mammoth Cave to visitors: "The Hippodrome is 250 feet in width, 300 feet in length and 85 feet high. On the right wall...will be shown the wonderful gypsum flowers." Morrison's tours began at New Entrance and continued toward Kentucky Avenue. Today's Grand Avenue Tours enter the Hippodrome from the opposite direction.]]></pano_description> <pano_latitude>37.15453942786897</pano_latitude> <pano_longitude>-86.06543966273615</pano_longitude> <pano_filename>pano_hippodrome</pano_filename> <pano_north>226</pano_north> <pano_credit><![CDATA[Four Chambers Studio]]></pano_credit> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> <pano_category>maca</pano_category> </pano>
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<pano_title><![CDATA[Thorpe's Pit]]></pano_title>
<pano_description><![CDATA[Wide and spectacular, Thorpe's Pit is seen on the Grand Avenue Tour. The pit forms a semicircular channel in bedrock of the passage, dropping about 30 feet into a deep hollow in a huge pile of high-angle breakdown. A stream emerges from a low bedding plane channel at the top of the pit and cascades down to sink into the rubble floor. In wet weather, the stream becomes an impressive waterfall, entering the cave from a point on the opposite wall VIEW and surging across the top of the pit, splashing against the wall just below visitors' feet near the tour trail. The wall and upper ledge of Thorpe's Pit is one of the few locations along the Grand Avenue route where evidence of torch throwing can be seen. The identity of the person for whom the pit was named is unknown.]]></pano_description> <pano_latitude>37.16406459633723</pano_latitude> <pano_longitude>-86.07425342465105</pano_longitude> <pano_filename>pano_thorpespit</pano_filename> <pano_north>25</pano_north> <pano_credit><![CDATA[Four Chambers Studio]]></pano_credit> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> <pano_category>maca</pano_category> </pano>
<pano_description><![CDATA[One of the ranger-led surface hikes takes visitors down Flint Ridge Road to Three Springs Pump House, one of two historic pump houses in the park that are on the National Register of Historic Places. The other is Bransford Pump House further down the road. The walk to Three Springs is easy, terminating at the site where three springs converge, splashing down the face of a rock cliff. The area is a perched aquifer and water from the springs was once piped to the old Mammoth Cave Hotel for years in the 1800s. The pump house was constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps just before World War II. Prior to formation of the national park, local African American families attended nearby Pleasant Union Church. Its large cemetery is located nearby along the ridge. ]]></pano_description> <pano_latitude>37.19145559584331</pano_latitude> <pano_longitude>-86.08655820800716</pano_longitude> <pano_filename>pano_pumphouse</pano_filename> <pano_north>358</pano_north> <pano_credit><![CDATA[Four Chambers Studio]]></pano_credit> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> <pano_category>maca</pano_category> </pano>
<pano_description><![CDATA[When Mammoth Cave was purchased in 1839 by Dr. John Croghan, he made improvements to cave trails, surface roads, the hotel and grounds. After several years of careful thought and study, he decided to use part of Mammoth Cave as a Sanitarium for sixteen of his consumption patients. He had slaves build ten huts, two out of stone, and eight wooden, located in distant passages such as Bottomless Pit and Audubon Avenue. Visitors on tours in 1842 sometimes encountered the patients near Giant's Coffin. After apparent improvement, their health declined further due to smoke from heating and cooking fires, and from the cool cave air. Three died in the cave, and after that, Dr. Croghan admitted that his idea had failed. The remaining patients returned to the surface, uncured.]]></pano_description> <pano_latitude>37.18250985506645</pano_latitude> <pano_longitude>-86.09603841158945</pano_longitude> <pano_filename>pano_tbhuts</pano_filename> <pano_north>140</pano_north> <pano_credit><![CDATA[Four Chambers Studio]]></pano_credit> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> <pano_category>maca</pano_category> </pano>
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<pano_title><![CDATA[Tuberculosis Hut Interior View]]></pano_title>
<pano_description><![CDATA[The sixteen consumptive patients inside Mammoth Cave were housed approximately half a mile beyond the cave's entrance. In addition to their illness, loneliness and boredom were difficulties. Some family members came along, intending to stay in the cave with their loved ones, but they did not remain underground for very long. Oliver H. P. Anderson, a merchant from Frankfort, Kentucky, spent his sanitarium sojourn exploring known passageways with slave guide Stephen Bishop. Both Anderson and Bishop wrote their names on various limestone walls. Anderson left the cave after only a few months, and the consumption hospital was deemed a failed effort soon after. In spite of his efforts to cure the disease with the cave air, Dr. Croghan himself died of consumption in 1849.]]></pano_description> <pano_latitude>37.1822918055098</pano_latitude> <pano_longitude>-86.09547733978214</pano_longitude> <pano_filename>pano_tbhuts_interior</pano_filename> <pano_north>279</pano_north> <pano_credit><![CDATA[Four Chambers Studio]]></pano_credit> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> <pano_category>maca</pano_category> </pano>
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<pano_title><![CDATA[Violet City]]></pano_title>
<pano_description><![CDATA[Discovered by Max Kaemper and Ed Bishop in 1908, this is a breakout room located three miles from the Historic Entrance. It is 80 feet high, nearly 200 feet long and 100 feet wide! The upper dome is decorated with formations, including drapery, flowstone. VIEW The Violet City entrance is located at the southeast end. Named features include Valhalla, the Marble Temple, VIEW the Chimes, Lena's Dome and Wells Dome. The room was named for Violet Blair Janin, the granddaughter of Dr. John Croghan's sister, Ann Heron Croghan Jesup. She was also the granddaughter of Francis Preston Blair, a renowned journalist and member of President Andrew Jackson's "Kitchen Cabinet." A town in Louisiana is named for her, and the Blair House in Washington, D.C. was named for her family.]]></pano_description> <pano_latitude>37.16784</pano_latitude> <pano_longitude>-86.09131</pano_longitude> <pano_filename>pano_violetcity</pano_filename> <pano_north>234</pano_north> <pano_credit><![CDATA[Four Chambers Studio]]></pano_credit> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> <pano_category>maca</pano_category> </pano>
<pano_description><![CDATA[A narrow trail behind Giant's Coffin slopes down into the Wooden Bowl Room, named for prehistoric gourd bowls found there. There is a crescent shaped ceiling, and several low passageways lead off in various directions. VIEW Additionally, when visitors stand in just the right spot, humming at just the right pitch-sound resonates in the room similar to the way sound vibrates inside a guitar. Visitors on the Historic or River Styx Tours pass through Dante's Gateway, Wooden Bowl Room and then down the Steps of Time to see what early guides referred to as the infernal regions of the cave. Mythology has long played a role in the naming of new discoveries inside Mammoth Cave. A trip through the Wooden Bowl Room took one closer to mysterious pits and underground waterways.]]></pano_description> <pano_latitude>37.183463957299075</pano_latitude> <pano_longitude>-86.09669981595246</pano_longitude> <pano_filename>pano_woodenbowlrm</pano_filename> <pano_north>360</pano_north> <pano_credit><![CDATA[Four Chambers Studio]]></pano_credit> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> <pano_category>maca</pano_category> </pano>
<pano_description><![CDATA[About 100 feet wide with a jumbled floor of breakdown, this room is the junction of Main Cave and Black Chambers. It is named for Charles A. Wright, who was a professor of chemistry at the Kentucky School of Medicine. In November, 1842, Dr. Croghan wrote a letter describing his idea to build in Wright's Rotunda "...a Hotel, well supplied with refreshments, chambers on one side for the ladies and the other for gentleman, a handsomely furnished parlor, reading room, dining room, and all brilliantly illuminated.... an excellent carriage road can be made the entire way for an expense of from $50 to $100. A hotel underground...and a stage to convey passengers...would be a means of increasing greatly the number of visitors." The underground hotel was never constructed.]]></pano_description> <pano_latitude>37.177855615500505</pano_latitude> <pano_longitude>-86.09086280143096</pano_longitude> <pano_filename>pano_wrightsrotunda</pano_filename> <pano_north>58</pano_north> <pano_credit><![CDATA[Four Chambers Studio]]></pano_credit> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> <pano_category>maca</pano_category> </pano>
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<pano_title><![CDATA[Caving: Canyon Passage in New Discovery]]></pano_title>
<pano_description><![CDATA[This impressive verticle shaft system is seen only by visitors participating on the Wild Cave Tour. ]]></pano_description> <pano_filename>cathedral_domes</pano_filename> <pano_credit><![CDATA[Jackie Wheet]]></pano_credit> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> <pano_category>maca</pano_category> <pano_photo_caption>Cathedral Domes</pano_photo_caption> </pano>
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<pano_title><![CDATA[Caving: Christmas Tree in Cave]]></pano_title>
<pano_filename>rick_fowler_mystic_river</pano_filename> <pano_credit><![CDATA[NPS]]></pano_credit> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> <pano_category>maca</pano_category> <pano_photo_caption>Mysitic River in Mammoth Cave</pano_photo_caption> </pano>
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<pano_title><![CDATA[Caving: P. Strange Falls]]></pano_title>
<pano_title><![CDATA[Caving: Wild Cave Tour 2]]></pano_title>
<pano_description><![CDATA[The Wild Cave Tour allows participants to experience what cave exploration is like. A challenging tour in which one must overcome natural fears of the dark and tight squeezes.]]></pano_description> <pano_filename>wild_cave_tour2</pano_filename> <pano_credit><![CDATA[Jackie Wheet]]></pano_credit> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> <pano_category>maca</pano_category> <pano_photo_caption>Wild Cave Tour Kathleen's Crawl</pano_photo_caption> </pano>
<pano_description><![CDATA[These SaltPetre Leaching Vats used during the war of 1812 are still preserved in the constant cave environment. Several Tours allow visitors to observe these historic reminders of how Mammoth Cave played a role in the effort and struggle of a young nation trying to defend it's freedom.]]></pano_description> <pano_filename>saltpeter_leaching_vats</pano_filename> <pano_credit><![CDATA[Jackie Wheet]]></pano_credit> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> <pano_category>maca</pano_category> <pano_photo_caption>History: Salt Petre Leaching Vats</pano_photo_caption> </pano>
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<pano_title><![CDATA[Historic Tour Route, Broadway]]></pano_title>
<pano_filename>broadway_historic _tour</pano_filename> <pano_credit><![CDATA[Jackie Wheet / Dave Spence]]></pano_credit> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> <pano_category>maca</pano_category> <pano_photo_caption>Historic Tour Canyon Passage</pano_photo_caption> </pano>
<pano_title><![CDATA[History: Wooden Pipes in Broadway]]></pano_title>
<pano_filename>pipes_broadway_jw</pano_filename> <pano_credit><![CDATA[Jackie Wheet]]></pano_credit> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> <pano_category>maca</pano_category> <pano_photo_caption>Saltpetre Pipes from 1812</pano_photo_caption> </pano>
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<pano_title><![CDATA[Music in the Cave]]></pano_title>
<pano_description><![CDATA[Occasionally the park will host special musical events in the famous chambers of Mammoth Cave. Music in the cave has been preformed throughout the early 1800's and is still a treat for visitors and staff today.]]></pano_description> <pano_filename>concert_church_2</pano_filename> <pano_credit><![CDATA[Jackie Wheet]]></pano_credit> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> <pano_category>maca</pano_category> <pano_photo_caption>Concert in the Cave</pano_photo_caption> </pano>
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<pano_title><![CDATA[Rimstone Dam in New Discovery]]></pano_title>
<pano_filename>mc_baptist_church</pano_filename> <pano_credit><![CDATA[Jackie Wheet]]></pano_credit> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> <pano_category>maca</pano_category> <pano_photo_caption>Cemetery and Church in Park</pano_photo_caption> </pano>
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<pano_title><![CDATA[Surface: Mammoth Dome Sink]]></pano_title>
<pano_filename>mammoth_dome_sink</pano_filename> <pano_credit><![CDATA[Jackie Wheet]]></pano_credit> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> <pano_category>maca</pano_category> <pano_photo_caption>Forest Ferns and Sinkholes</pano_photo_caption> </pano>
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<pano_title><![CDATA[Surface: Mammoth Dome Sink 2]]></pano_title>
<pano_filename>mammoth_dome_sink_2</pano_filename> <pano_credit><![CDATA[Jackie Wheet]]></pano_credit> <pano_programs>maca</pano_programs> <pano_category>maca</pano_category> <pano_photo_caption>Forest with Ferns</pano_photo_caption> </pano>
