Visitors to Bluff Dwellers Cave were able to see the cavern in a new light last month. During the Lantern Tours on Oct. 19 and Oct. 25, adventurers were invited to take a haunting tour through Bluff Dwellers Cave with only lantern light to lead the way. Tour guides tantalized tourists with legends, lore and true tales of mysterious occurrences underground -- from national headlines to abandoned blogs.
In the early 1900s, Floyd Collins was a respected caver who specialized in the exploration of virgin passageways during the initial survey of Kentucky's Mammoth Cave system. Collins was known for finding and commercializing Crystal Cave in 1917 but continued his search for unidentified caverns.
On Jan. 30, 1925, Collins was working to excavate a tight passage in Sand Cave when a rock fell and pinned his left leg, trapping him 55 feet below the surface of the earth. News of Collins' dire situation and the daring rescue attempt to save him captivated the nation -- blaring over radio waves, headlining every newspaper and attracting onlookers from far and wide. After three days, another rock collapsed, blocking the entrance to where Collins lay stranded.
Rescuers spent the next two weeks attempting to bore into the cavern from a different direction to reach Collins. Sadly, Collins died of thirst, hunger and hypothermia just days before a rescue team reached him. Due to the danger of removing his body from the cave, two months passed before his body was exhumed and buried in his family's cemetery.
Soon after, the Collins Family sold the property and the enterprising new owners decided to remove Collins' body to display in a glass coffin for visitors to Crystal Cave. In 1929, jealous cave competitors stole and discarded Collins' corpse in a nearby field. His body was eventually recovered, sans his left leg, and returned to Crystal Cave; this time in a chained casket. After more than 70 years, in 1989, Collins was laid to his final resting place in Mammoth Cave Baptist Cemetery.
Ted the Caver was an anonymous blogger in the early 2000s obsessed with enlarging and exploring a tight passage in a mystery cave. For security purposes, Ted never provides his full name or the location of the cavern. He diligently blogs each of his trips into the cave, his progress and experiences.
Over months of working with a friend, called B, to slowly remove rock and debris to clear the passageway, the pair encounter a number of strange occurrences including shrill shrieks, intermittent airflow and items moved with no explanation.
Upon opening and entering the passageway, Ted attempts to photograph the cavern and a number of hieroglyphs that cover the walls. After leaving the mystery cave, the photos failed to develop and both cavers are left with lingering depressive side effects with seemingly no apparent cause.
Several weeks pass before the pair decide to return. Ted blogs, saying the two must document the cave and promises to update readers upon his return. He never posted again.
Recreational purposes aside, caves have been utilized for a variety of chilling reasons over the years, serving as nuclear fallout shelters and event tuberculosis quarantines.
General News on 11/14/2019