Skip to main content

Horse Cave, Kentucky


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:

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Pollasky Bridge

The Pollasky Bridge near modern day Friant is a ruined highway bridge which was completed during early 1906 as part of the Fresno-Fresno Flats Road.  The structure is one of the oldest known arch concrete spans to have been constructed in California.  The bridge briefly carried California State Route 41 following the destruction of the Lanes Bridge in 1940.  The Pollasky Bridge itself was destroyed by flooding during 1951, but the ruins can still be found on the Madera County side of the San Joaquin River.   Pictured as the blog cover is the Pollasky Bridge as it was featured in the 1913 book "The Concrete Bridge."  The structure can be seen crossing the San Joaquin River near Friant below on the 1922 United States Geological Survey Map.   Part 1; the history of the Pollasky Bridge The Pollasky Bridge site is near modern day Friant of Fresno County.  The community of Friant was established as Converse Ferry during 1852 on the San Joaquin Rive...

Trimmer Springs Road (Fresno County)

Trimmer Springs Road is an approximately forty-mile rural highway located in Fresno County.  The corridor begins near in California State Route 180 in Centerville and extends to Blackrock Road at the Kings River in the Sierra Nevada range near the Pacific Gas & Electric Company town of Balch Camp. The roadway is named after the former Trimmer Springs Resort and was originally constructed to facilitate access to the Sanger Log Flume.  Trimmer Springs Road was heavily modified and elongated after construction of Pine Flat Dam broke ground in 1947.   Part 1; the history of Trimmer Springs Road Much of the original alignment of Trimmer Springs Road was constructed to facilitate access to the Sanger Log Flume.   The  Kings River Lumber Company  had been established in 1888 in the form of a 30,000-acre purchase of forest lands in Converse Basin.  This purchase lied immediately west of Grant Grove and came to be known as "Millwood."  The co...

When was Ventura Avenue east of downtown Fresno renamed to Kings Canyon Road? (California State Route 180)

California State Route 180 was one of the original Sign State Routes designated in August 1934.  The highway east of Fresno originally utilized what was Ventura Avenue and Dunlap Road to reach what was then General Grant National Park.  By late year 1939 the highway was extended through the Kings River Canyon to Cedar Grove.   In 1940 General Grant National Park would be expanded and rebranded as Kings Canyon National Park.  The Kings Canyon Road designation first appeared in publications circa 1941 when the California State Route 180 bypass of Dunlap was completed.  Kings Canyon Road ultimately would replace the designation of Dunlap Road from Dunlap to Centerville and Ventura Avenue west to 1st Street in Fresno.   The Kings Canyon Road would remain largely intact until March 2023 when the Fresno Council designated Cesar Chavez Boulevard.  Cesar Chavez Boulevard was designated over a ten-mile corridor over what was Kings Canyon Road, remaini...