Skip to main content

Horse Cave, Kentucky

Image
By

Many American towns and cities typically sprouted up along a railroad, a river, river crossings, a stop along a trading path, or a stagecoach trail.  Horse Cave, Kentucky is different.  Horse Cave is built above a cave and surrounds a three-story-deep sinkhole that leads into Hidden River Cave.

The town was settled and laid out by Major Albert Anderson.  Anderson asked that it be named 'Horse Cave' - it is suggested that in the mid-19th century, the word 'Horse' and 'Hoss' was used to name large-sized things.  Other explanations include that Native Americans used the cave to corral horses or after a nearby horse trough.

The name Horse Cave was not always popular - attempts to rename the town to 'Caverna' in the 1860s were unsuccessful.  The cave's owners - the family of Dr. George A. Thomas - did not like the name 'Horse Cave' and renamed the geological formation Hidden River Cave.

The home of Dr. George A. Thomas - former owner of Hidden River Cave.

Hidden River Cave was a natural and economic resource for Horse Cave.  The water from the underground streams served as drinking water.  Later, a turbine was installed, providing electricity to the community.  Hidden River Cave would become a tourist attraction, with the first public cave tours starting in 1912.

Unfortunately, the cave was also where residents would dump garbage and sewage.  Townspeople and outside residents would dump the waste into sinkholes and other passages within the cave system.  The water system would be undrinkable by the mid-1930s, and the public tours of Hidden River Cave halted in 1943.

A well-intended sewage treatment plant opened in the 1960s led to more pollution within the cave system.  Wastewater pumped into dry wells funneled into the cave, expanding the problem.  The stench from the polluted cave drove away patrons to many of the downtown businesses.

A new sewage treatment plant opened in 1989. A few years later, species native to the cave began returning.  By 2015, the groundwater was near drinking water standards.


With the cave system recovering, efforts began to return Hidden River Cave to public tours.  The American Cave Conservation Association moved its headquarters to Horse Cave and continued the preservation and restoration efforts.  The cave reopened in 1993, and as a result of successful restoration efforts - tours were extended to the ultimate goal of reaching Sunset Dome.

Downtown Horse Cave is home to over 50 structures currently listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In addition to Hidden River Cave and the American Cave Museum, there is an above-ground walking tour of Downtown telling the story of the Horse Cave, Hidden River Cave, and the people and events of the community's colorful history.


Horse Cave is a community of roughly 2300 people and is the largest town in Hart County.  Along with the caverns, Horse Cave sits on the old Dixie Highway, which attracts many roadtrippers all year.

All photos taken by post author - June 23, 2024.

Sources & Links:
How To Get There:

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Morgan Territory Road

By
Morgan Territory Road is an approximately 14.7-mile-long roadway mostly located in the Diablo Range of Contra Costa County, California.  The roadway is named after settler Jerimah Morgan who established a ranch in the Diablo Range in 1857.  Morgan Territory Road was one of several facilities constructed during the Gold Rush era to serve the ranch holdings.   The East Bay Regional Park District would acquire 930 acres of Morgan Territory in 1975 in an effort to establish a preserve east of Mount Diablo. The preserve has since been expanded to 5,324 acres. The preserve functionally stunts the development along roadway allowing it to remain surprisingly primitive in a major urban area. Part 1; the history of Morgan Territory Road During the period of early period of American Statehood much of the Diablo Range of Contra Costa County was sparsely developed.   Jerimah Morgan acquired 2,000 acres of land east of Mount Diablo in 1856 and established a ranch in 1857. Morgan Territory Road is
2 comments
Read more

The 1915 Fine Gold Creek Bridge (Madera County)

By
The 1915 Fine Gold Creek Bridge is an early era arch concrete structure found alongside modern Madera County Road 200.  The structure was modeled as a smaller scale of the 1905 Pollasky Bridge (still in ruins at the San Joaquin River) and was one of many early twentieth century improvements to what was then known as the Fresno-Fresno Flats Road.  The 1915-era bridge was replaced with a modernized concrete span during 1947 but was never demolished.  The original concrete structure can be still found sitting in the brush north of the 2023 Fine Gold Creek Bridge.     Part 1; the history of the 1915 Fine Gold Creek Bridge The 1915 Fine Gold Creek Bridge lies near the site of the former mining community of Fine Gold.   Mining claims were staked at Fine Gold during the Mariposa War during 1850. The community was never very large but became a stopping point on the stage road between the original Fresno County seat at Millerton and Fresno Flats (now Oakhurst). The stage road eventually bypas
Post a Comment
Read more

San Francisco's Broadway Tunnel

By
The Broadway Tunnel in San Francisco is a structure at Russian Hill which connects the neighborhood Chinatown to North Beach. The tunnel was included in the 1948 San Francisco Trafficways Plan as a connector between the Central Freeway and Embarcadero Freeway. The structure was completed in December 1952 and spans 1,616 feet through Russian Hill. The Broadway Tunnel was designated as the Robert C. Levy Tunnel in 1986. Part 1; the history of the Broadway Tunnel Following the discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill in 1848 San Francisco would see a major population boom.  The city would expand from the shores of San Francisco Bay inland towards the many steep hills.  The hills of San Francisco would prove to be a major hinderance towards the expansion of city.  Roads were generally plotted over the tops of hillsides and had steep grades.  Russian Hill in particular was one of the steepest and contained numerous streets with grades in excess of twenty percent.  Broadway can be seen cros
Post a Comment
Read more