Mammoth Cave Question

[Tony Anders]

When I was in 8th grade my geography teacher had a thought that Mammoth cave and Eastern Kentucky was connected somewhere in the underground. I was curious if anyone on here might know how far east Mammoth cave does come. If it might possibly be connected with the Sloans Valley cave system.

Anyone that has any thoughts on this let me know somehow.


Thanks

[L Roebuck]

Gosh, it has been a long time since I have heard an update on the Mammoth Cave Survey but I don't recall anyone ever saying it connected to Sloans Valley Cave System.

A story I have often hear says that Mammoth Cave has a connection to Tennessee's Jack Daniels Cave.

[Azurerana]

It is 100 miles from Cave City (mostly east, slightly south) to the Sloans Valley. The most recent (admittedly old) map you can buy commercially shows the cave continuing off the map to the south and east from the Frozen Niagara section, but at the lowest level of the cave, and what looks to be 3 to 4 thousand feet before the red lines run off the map in Barren County (likely the Kentucky version of 'continues low and wet'.) NPS is only admitting to 360 miles of passage, and most of that is present and accounted for beneath Park land. The Mammoth map looks like strands of loosely arranged spaghetti on a plate, not a telephone wire strung into the distance.

In general, unless the people are correct, and Kentucky only really has one cave, I don't think I'd hold my breath for a Mammoth/Sloans connection trip anytime soon. Or maybe if you held your breath, or were a cave fish, it might be possible.

Seriously, if I were interested, I'd start with some isopach maps (these show what geological layer occurs at what elevation) of Kentucky for the area between and including both Mammoth and Sloan's and try to find a route which the water could follow.

Oops. Make that pretty much a certainty that you need to be a cavefish. Looking in the 2001 NSS Guidebook, they warn that Sloans floods internally, depending on the levels of Lake Cumberland (see the Wolf Creek Dam thread elsewhere on this board.) Even the passage which trends towards the Northwest.

Happy hunting...

[ajr]

I would have to say that it's impossible. I've been to Sloan's Valley many times (and will be back in a couple of weeks) and taken many different trips in it, so I'm pretty familiar with the system...well...as familiar as a someone from Cleveland, Ohio, can be with a cave system...

I just looked at the map that I have and use, which is from 1971 and it shows that the system is approx 22.5 miles long. From what I've heard recently, it's up to 26 miles, so there hasn't been alot of new discoveries in 35 years. I'm not sure exactly how much square mileage the system covers above ground, but I've been in 8 of the 10 entrances (there's really 15, but some entrances have multiple passages) and I know that you can walk from one end of the cave to the other in less than and hour, so at most, the system covers 5 square miles. Therefore, I can't image it could possibly go 100 miles or so to Mammoth Cave...but anything is possible.

Also, after looking at the map, the only passage that seems to have a chance of connecting to Mammoth is the Northwest passage. While this area is always wet and muddy due to above ground runoff (not lake level), it actually has one of the highest elevations in the cave at over 800 ft above sea level, which is a height that Lake Cumberland can never get to or it would flow over the dam. Around late spring, winter, or early fall, the lake level is around 700 ft, so I'm sure that any possible passages would have been pushed by now. There are some lower passages that may go somewhere, but since they're always under water due to the dam, they'll never be discovered, unless someone's crazy enough to get out the SCUBA gear.

I'm sure if anyone did discover a connection, they'd be a legend in the caving world. My expectations are much lower. When I'm down there, I'll be checking out some of the several sink holes that exist in the area, which I've been looking at for years, to see if there's any possibility of finding a new entrance (which I can name...sweet!). Of course, that's if I can get my butt of the chair and away from the beer.