Atomm wrote:
That looks cool. Is that the place that has the Chapel underground as well? I can't remember where I saw it, but it was on TV. It was incredible Chapel.
I don't remember a chapel. It wouldn't surprise me though. I saw Indian burials there, an old saltpeter mine, a hospital for people with tuberculosis. . . BTW, I forget to add, it's called the Snowball Room because of all the white gypsum flowers that naturally formed on the walls and ceiling. Dunno if the pic made that clear.
There's a cave here in Clarksville that used to be owned by Roy Acuff, the old country music star. They'd have concerts just outside the cave, as it was a nice location for a show, and there was cool air coming out of the entrance. I took a tour of it once. They don't open it very often - only a few times a year. It doesn't look like much, as no one took the time to excavate/build walkways like they did for Mammoth Caves, and it would be too expensive to do it now. "Hippies" used to live in the cave in the late 60's and they let their garbage pile up inside. One day, someone had the bright idea that they should burn it - that would be easier than carting it out. There must've been a lot of it, and because of the way air moved through there, the trash smoldered for several months. Now you go through there, every thing is covered in soot. Not much to see.
I took away 2 things from the tour, though. One, there was a nice round-ish room inside - maybe 30-40 foot across - that was used from the 1800's on for social events. It was nice and cool in there even on the hottest, most humid summer days, something you couldn't have for love or money until the invention of air conditioning. A real luxury, it was, and they said it was commonly used for school graduations & functions.
Secondly, no one really knows how far it goes. On the tour, they said it's thought, by some people supposedly knowledgeable about caves, to connect with the Mammoth Cave system over 100 miles away. 😲
I looked up some info: here's the Wiki article on it. It's nice to see they've opened it for regular tours again. I toured in 2002 during the state budget crisis.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbar_Cave_State_ParkIt's also nice to see they're still exploring it, and they found some Indian glyphs. I was told it was somewhat dangerous, and I had the impression they were just keeping it safe and had little interest in trying to learn anything from it. Hey, it's cool what I learn telling you guys about what I don't know!
