Spelunking

Wednesday, we visited the Mammoth caves in Kentucky.  These caves are the longest caves in the world.  On a map, they look like spaghetti on a plate. We took a 2 hour tour with Park ranger Joe who started working in the Parks in 1961. He led us down into the earth 25stories!!!  The National Park took over the caves from private landowners in 1921. The original owner was a smart business man and named many of the underground landscapes after New York sights like Niagara Falls and Grand Central Station.  Now come spelunking (that means cave exploring) with me!

When we first went down into the caves  it was very scary. The path was so skinny and you couldn't be very big or you could get stuck. Mummy and daddy had to duck their heads a lot too. It was very dark until Joe turned on his light. We went down far and that was kind of creepy when you thought about it.

   Joe our ranger told us that when the government bought the land from the private

owner that they needed to build a safe trail to it to be a national park.So they needed to hire people to build that trail.So sure enough the government made a program for  teenagers aged 17

to come and build the trail whith stones and dirt. A lot of parents snuck in a lot of 15 and 16 years old because there wasn't much work in those days.

The parents signed a contract that each day that their child worked they would earn a 1$ but they needed to send home 70 % of that money so that is like each boy earning 30 cents a day. You can't even buy Jolly Ranchers with that amount today! The first day of work they boys were asked to bring sledgehammers to crush the rock to make a path for the visitors. This took 17 years and they made 14 miles of underground paths.  Geologists are still exploring new parts of the cave all the time. Joe said there are almost 400 miles of caves here.

 

                               

Joe taught us about stallactites and stalagmites. They are rocks that look like icicles but they hang down or up and are thousands and thousands and maybe millions of years old. This is called Niagara Falls because it looks like water falls.

 

 

Here are some stallactites because they are hanging down.  It is so pretty. Joe was really funny and we learned a lot. The Mammoth caves are awesome and so big. I loved the caves. Next time you are in Kentucky you have to go spelunking!
by Finn