Cave Spring Caverns

Crumps Cave Research and Education Preserve

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. (37.061881, -86.19750)
Open:	closed. [2024]
Fee:	closed. [2024]
Classification:	Karst Cave
Light:	Incandescent
Dimension:
Guided tours:
Photography:
Accessibility:
Bibliography:	Chris Groves, Carl Bolster, Joe Meiman (2003): Spatial and Temporal Variations in Epikarst Storage and Flow in South Central Kentucky’s Pennyroyal Plateau Sinkhole Plain, Waste Management, January 2003. researchgate
Address:	Crumps Cave Research and Education Preserve, Western Kentucky University CHNGES, 1906 College Heights Blvd., EST 304, Bowling Green, KY 42101, Tel: +1270-745-5015.
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 tours of Cave Springs Caverns were offered by the owners of the site and the Cave Spring Farm Bed & Breakfast, but only to guests. The building 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. The tour which they offered showed 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 cave was developed with trails and electric light, though not as extensive as a real show cave. The trails were wooden planks with wooden railings, which is nowadays not political correct any more. There was a touch of adventure on any visit.

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 shut down any tourist tours and established the Cave Springs Caverns Educational Preserve. Later they even renamed the cave in Crumps Cave and the site in Crumps Cave Research and Education Preserve. "Cave Spring" is completely dull and if you search Google Maps you will find about 30 Cave Springs in Kentucky. On the other hand, "Crumps Cave" is completely unknown, which is probably a result of the fact that it is closed to the public. While we support the new name, which allows to distinguish, it is also quite problematic, because there are numerous older publications using the old name, and it's hard to realize the connection. Once a paper is printed, it's basically impossible to edit it, so it is not possible to add a comment about the new name. We listed one paper above, which is quite interesting, but uses the old name, unfortunately.

The goal of the Crumps Cave Research and Education Preserve is to protect the important historical and archaeological content of the cave as well as the bats. But the cave also offers practical student learning opportunities and provides a living laboratory for sustainability studies. This means that the cave is closed to visitors, except for students and schoolchildren for educational and research purposes.