Travel to the remote cave region of Kentucky has changed time and time again during Mammoth Cave’s history as a tourist attraction, each time changing Cave Country and revolutionizing business around the world famous cave. In its early history, Mammoth Cave was far from the civilized world. Roughly half-way between Louisville and Nashville, very few roads existed in the wilderness of Kentucky in the early nineteenth century and travel was slow and arduous. Most people did not have the means to stray far from home and even fewer could afford to leave their work behind to visit far-off attractions in the frontier lands of western Kentucky. Yet somehow, Mammoth Cave was able to draw enough visitors to grow their cave business. As times changed, so did travel. Over time, Mammoth Cave became more and more accessible, more left home to experience the underground wonders of rural Kentucky, and a world-class tourist destination was born.
For the first forty years of tours at Mammoth Cave, horses were the most effective means of travel to and from the remote cave attraction. The nearest decent road to Mammoth Cave was several miles east of the entrance and hotel, extending between Louisville and Nashville, and passing through the towns of Cave City and Three Forks (i.e. – Glasgow Junction, Park City). Eventually known as the Dixie Highway, the road allowed for travel through the remote stretch of Kentucky but still did not deliver travelers all the way to Mammoth Cave’s doorstep. Instead, visitors had to leave the highway at one of the two towns and brave the unimproved, often hazardous trails leading to their destination. Businesses soon popped up to cater to the needs of travelers along the rough road to the cave, including the famous Bell’s Tavern in Three Forks, Bear Wallow Tavern in Bear Wallow, and stagecoach services departing from both Three Forks and Cave City. Despite the challenges along the road, visitors continued to arrive. As time went on and conditions slowly improved, so did visitation at both Mammoth Cave and the newly-spawned businesses surrounding the famous attraction.
In the late 1850s, travel to Cave Country was revolutionized. As the Industrial Revolution took hold in America, railroads were being constructed throughout the nation. In 1859, a railroad line was built that linked Nashville to Louisville, the south’s northernmost city. Visitors could finally ride in relative comfort from across the nation to the L & N Railroad’s stations at Cave City and Glasgow Junction (the name was changed when a spur of the railroad was completed, linking Three Forks to the nearby city of Glasgow). From there, visitors were forced to board a carriage for the remaining nine miles to the cave, but it was still a vast improvement. As a result, more people began arriving at Mammoth Cave, business improved, and more locals began finding ways to exploit the increasing number of travelers on the region’s roads.
More visitors brought greater prosperity to Mammoth Cave and the surrounding area. Soon, businessmen began searching for ways to bring visitors all the way to Mammoth Cave’s doorstep by rail. Expanding the services of the railroad was no easy feat, though. Soon after the completion of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, the Civil War brought travel to a screeching halt and damage to rail stations was common during the war. Also, other businesses continued to spring up along the road to Mammoth Cave and many demanded that they, too, have stations if a Mammoth Cave Railroad was to be built. Larkin Procter, former lessee at Mammoth Cave, held the charter on the line and refused to allow its construction without stops at his other businesses en route to his former employers’ cave. For decades, attempts were made to resolve the disputes over the proposed rail line until finally, in 1886, the railroad gave into Procter’s demands and the Mammoth Cave Railroad was constructed. Dummy engines, smaller than the typical engines on the L & N’s main line, made regular trips from Glasgow Junction to Mammoth Cave and included stops at Diamond Caverns, Grand Avenue Cave, Chaumont, Union City, Procter’s Hotel, Sloan’s Crossing, and Ganter’s Hotel along the way. As it had before, improvements to travel brought more and more people to Cave Country and revolutionized business in the rural communities surrounding Mammoth Cave.
The early twentieth century brought even more change to Mammoth Cave and the surrounding area than the Industrial Age and the railroad had done in the century before. In 1904, the first automobile arrived at Mammoth Cave. No longer did travelers have to depend upon railroad excursion agents to deliver them to their destinations. No longer were businesses dependent upon rail stations to ensure that visitors had the opportunity to visit their attraction on their way to their ultimate destination – Mammoth Cave. Slowly, automobiles became more common and began to do to the railroad business what the railroad had done to the horse and carriage decades earlier.
In 1906, another method of bypassing the railroad became an option for travelers. The corps of engineers completed a lock and dam system along the Green River, allowing steamboats to finally deliver travelers all the way to Mammoth Cave’s doorstep. For years, steamboats had been a popular means of travel. Steamboats regularly departed Evansville, Indiana for Bowling Green, Kentucky, yet visitors were forced to then board a train or carriage to complete their journey to the cave. Despite concerns about water rise in the cave, the lock and dam system was completed and travelers could take an even more scenic trip to the cave, entirely by boat. Although relatively short-lived, steamboat travel on the Green River showed that improvements to travel not only impacted business around Mammoth Cave, but the higher water levels in the cave impacted wildlife, exploration, and tour routes in Mammoth Cave itself.
Changes in travel continued to shape Mammoth Cave and the rest of Cave Country throughout its history. As travel improved, more and more people arrived. Outdated methods to reach the cave fell to the wayside and became forgotten. The automobile took over in the early twentieth century, ruining business for the Mammoth Cave Railroad, yet creating opportunity for less-advantaged business owners in Cave Country, and even setting the stage for the creation of a national park. Carriage rides to Mammoth Cave were discontinued long ago, yet their paths were eventually paved and used for the automobiles which continue to arrive from Cave City and Park City today. The railroad was closed by 1931, yet its former path is still used today as a Bike and Hike Trail through Mammoth Cave National Park. Steamboats on the Green River are also a thing of the past, and today there is debate on whether or not to remove the locks and dams, which would restore natural water levels in Mammoth Cave and allow for better recreational use of the rivers through the national park. Regardless of their decision, Mammoth Cave National Park will continue to bear the scars of the changing methods of reaching the world’s greatest subterranean attraction. Those scars are a part of Cave County’s heritage. They are reminders of our past and how we got here, and certainly helped to shape Mammoth Cave National Park.
The Kentucky Cave Wars 