Cave Spring Caverns


Useful Information

Location: Cave Spring Farm Bed & Breakfast, 567 Rocky Hill Rd, Smiths Grove.
18 km north of Bowling Green. I65 exit Smiths Grove, north through Smiths Grove's Antique District on Main St., keep right.
Open: After appointment.
[2008]
Fee: free for B&B guest.
[2008]
Classification: SpeleologyKarst cave
Light: LightIncandescent Electric Light System
Dimension:
Guided tours:
Photography:
Accessibility:
Bibliography:
Address: Cave Spring Farm Bed & Breakfast, P.O. Box 365, 567 Rocky Hill School Rd, Smiths Grove, Kentucky 42171, Tel: +1-270-563-6941, Cell: +1-270-791-6345.
Cave Spring Caverns, Tel: +1-270-563-5863.
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then.
Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

2008 purchased by the Hoffman Environmental Research Institute, Western Kentucky University.

Description

Cave Spring Caverns is located in a 2 ha bird sanctuary and reached on a nature trail. The huge entrance portal was used by Native Americans as a ceremonial site and is a major archeological site. The excavations revealed artifacts and ceremonial drawings of the Indians, but also pioneer artifacts. The tour shows the Blue Hole Lake Room, a chamber with a cave lake, which is home to a blind cave fish. The river cave has canyon passages, waterfalls and cascades.

The tours of Cave Springs Caverns were offered by the owners of the site and the Cave Spring Farm Bed & Breakfast only to guests. This is a pre-Civil War home and farm settled in 1810 by Jacob and Mariam Wright. The Country Estate, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, was transformed into a B&B with 13 rooms.

In 2008 the cave was purchased by the Hoffman Environmental Research Institute, an institute of the Western Kentucky University (WKU). They received a grant from the Kentucky Heritage Land Conservation Fund (KHLCF) for this purpose. The new owner plans to establish the Cave Springs Caverns Educational Preserve. The goal is to protect the important historical and archaeological content of the cave as well as the bats. But the cave will also offer practical student learning opportunities and provide a living laboratory for sustainability studies. We guess this means the cave will not be open to visitors except students and school children for educational and research purposes.