Discovered by a bear hunter in the late 18th century, the owner discovered the cave had an abundance of saltpeter, an essential ingredient for gunpowder, an essential ingredient for the US victory in the War of 1812. With the British naval blockade during the war, internal production of gunpowder was crucial and Mammoth Cave provided the saltpeter for Mr. DuPont to make the gun powder.
Perhaps most interesting of all, the slaves (the cave is in Kentucky) tired of hauling water into the cave to make the slurry from which the saltpeter was produced. So they took the poplar trees in the area, cut them into 8'-12' section, bored them out, tapered the ends, and created a conduit or pipeline to transport the water into the cave from the spring at the entrance. Brilliant! And lucrative!
The cave has 27 entrances, but we went into the main, or largest, entrance for this tour. The tour passages are huge, the size of subway tunnels, except for a passage known as Fat Man's Misery. They forgot to mention Tall Man too...
One long-standing tradition at the Cave has been for the area residents to donate a Christmas tree and light it up at one of the trail intersections. Then, on the first Sunday in December, the Park allows visitors into the Cave free of charge to sing Christmas carols. Except, unfortunately for our guide, Ranger Joe, he now has to call it a holiday tree and refer to them as seasonal songs ... and you could tell it pained him to do so.
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