The Covington Family and Mammoth Cave

From its rediscovery in the late 1700s to its dedication as our 26th national park in 1941, the nearby city of Bowling Green, Kentucky and its citizens maintained a close connection to Mammoth Cave .  Just south of Mammoth Cave, Bowling Green was a hub for travelers in south central Kentucky.  Its location at the intersection of the Dixie Highway, the Barren River, and the Louisville and Nashville Railroad made it an important stopping point in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.  Any visitor headed north by stagecoach in the 1800s would have surely stopped and spent time in Bowling Green along the way.  In the early days, those arriving by steamboat often departed from Evansville, Indiana to arrive in Bowling Green and finish their journey via horse and carriage.  Later, railroad stations in Bowling Green also helped shuttle visitors to the cave.  The citizens of Bowling Green, Kentucky were tied to the success of Mammoth Cave as a tourist attraction and became more and more involved in its promotion and management.  One family in particular maintained close ties to the rural cave for well over a century and played an integral role in the formation of Kentucky’s first national park – the Covingtons of Bowling Green.

The steamboat Chaperon near Bowling Green. Photo courtesy of Karen Logsdon Phillips.

In 1798, a man from Logan County named Valentine Simons claimed 200 acres of land south of the Green River, which included the entrance to Mammoth Cave and neighboring Dixon Cave.  Upon claiming his land, Simons had a survey conducted to establish the borders of his new property.  The land survey was completed on September 3, 1799, by the county surveyor of Warren County, Kentucky (which, at the time, included today’s Edmonson County and Mammoth Cave).  The county surveyor in 1799 was also one of the three founders of nearby Bowling Green, Elijah Moorman Covington.

Elijah M. Covington’s cabin at Elm Grove, on the property of Steve and Jeannie Snodgrass. Photograph by Jessica Snodgrass Kem.

Along with Robert and George Moore, Elijah Covington founded the city of Bowling Green in 1798 and he settled into a log cabin just out of town, near today’s Covington Woods Park.  In fact, the park and the surrounding neighborhoods were all once part of Covington’s sprawling farm and his cabin still stands on the property of Steve and Jeannie Snodgrass (the author’s parents-in-law).  In 1804, Elijah married Harriet Baldwin and the two had twelve children together, seven girls and five boys.  Many of Elijah and Harriet’s children remained in the area (Euclid Avenue named for their son, Euclid) and remained connected to the fascinating cave to the north of their hometown.

Erasmus F. Covington’s name in Ganter Avenue of Mammoth Cave. Photograph by David R. Kem.

Generation after generation of Covingtons continued to visit the cave and built a stronger connection to Kentucky’s greatest attraction.  Erasmus F. Covington, Elijah and Harriet’s fifth child, left his name on the walls of Mammoth Cave in several locations during the early 1830s, indicating his fascination with the cave.  His nephew however, Albert Covington Janin (Juliet Covington’s son), became even more involved than the generations before him and ensured that the Covington name would live forever in the hallowed halls of the world’s greatest cave.

Judge Albert Janin was one of the most important figures at Mammoth Cave during the Kentucky Cave Wars.  Added to the board of directors for the Mammoth Cave Estate in 1904, Janin lived on-site, oversaw the day-to-day operations at the cave and hotel, and fought valiantly to save the cave business from the competition closing in around it.

His position at Mammoth Cave also paved the way for the Covingtons to become even more involved in the cave’s management, when his cousin Robert Wells Covington (Albert Covington’s son) was added to the board of directors.  Robert Covington (often referred to as Wells) was a powerful businessman in Bowling Green and lived on his grandfather’s land, where he had built a larger house next to Elijah’s old cabin.  Several locations in Mammoth Cave, discovered during his tenure on the board, were named in honor of him and his children, including Covington’s Cabinet, Margaret’s Fountain (Margaret Covington Shackelford), and Wickliffe’s Domes (Wickliffe C. Covington).

Margaret’s Fountain in Kentucky Avenue of Mammoth Cave. Photograph by David R. Kem.

The Covington connection to Mammoth Cave, however, ended with the private ownership of the cave and the beginning of the end of the Kentucky Cave Wars.  On October 7, 1924, a meeting was held at the Moorehead House in Bowling Green to discuss the creation of a national park at Mammoth Cave and resulted in the formation of the Mammoth Cave National Park Association.  Over 125 years of Covingtons shaping the events at Mammoth Cave were coming to an end as a new national park began to grow.  From its rediscovery to its development, and from its promotion to its defense against a slew of ruthless competitors, the Covingtons remained loyal admirers of Kentucky’s greatest treasure.  Thankfully, as their stewardship of the property ended, so too ended the most destructive and tumultuous era in Mammoth Cave history – the Kentucky Cave Wars.