Great Onyx Cave

Useful Information

Location:	5km northeast of Mammoth Cave, near Cave City.
Open:
Fee:
Classification:	Karst cave
Light:	Coleman lanterns provided
Dimension:
Guided tours:
Bibliography:
Address:
Last update:	$Date: 2008/07/01 20:32:27 $

History

Description

Great Onyx Cave is one of numerous caves in the Mammoth caves area. It was opened to the public in the 1920s, as a direct competitor to Mammoth Cave, which started the so-called Kentucky Cave Wars. Numerous cave owners of the area tried to get rich with a show cave. This escalated, and ticket offices were burned, false cops redirected the tourists to other caves, signposts were stolen or replaced and so forth. The whole situation became worse and worse, so in 1941 Mammoth cave was closed completely for the public.

Another strange story from this times is famous amongst lawyers. The owner of Great Onyx Cave charged tourists to enter the cave entrance on his land and then guided them through the cave extending below both his own surface land and that of his neigbour. His neighbour sued him, and so Great Onyx Cave became the subject of a famous restitution case. Kentucky's highest court was called for restitutionary compensation. (Edwards v. Lee's Adm'r, 265 Ky. 418, 96 S.W.2d 1028, 1936).

Today things have settled, and there are no wars any more. Great Onyx Cave is toured on lantern tours only, guided by the Mammoth Cave staff. The guides tell legends of the 19th and early 20th century explorations and the disputes which preceded the installation of the Mammoth Cave National Park. And of course the story of Floyd Collins is told, who was trapped in a cave quite near Great Onyx for 17 days. Rescuers attempted unsuccessfully to save him and so he finally died in the cave. Obviously a story which is very impressive if told in a dark cave in the flackering light of lanterns.

See also

• Search Google for "Great Onyx Cave"
• Entrance to Great Onyx Cave, vintage postcard.
• Great Onyx Lantern
• Meta americana, a picture of a common cave spider taken in Great Onyx Cave.
• Eurycea lucifuga, a colorful entrance zone troglophilic "cave salamander", common in the Midwest and eastern USA. Picture taken in Great Onyx Cave.
• First artificial entrance, said to have been discovered by the upright blocks between the boys., historic photograph.

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