The Cave Man

Did you know that there was a series of events known as the “Kentucky Cave Wars”? Neither did I, until I went searching for a good rescue story. A rather unusual one centers on William Floyd Collins, who had two distinctions—he was viewed as America’s greatest cave explorer ever and attempts to rescue him that began 99 years ago riveted the nation.

Floyd (as he was called) specialized in exploring and reporting his discoveries about the region of Kentucky that houses hundreds of miles of interconnected caves, today a part of Mammoth Cave National Park, the longest-known cave system in the world. During the Kentucky Cave Wars, spelunkers and property owners entered into bitter competition to exploit the bounty of caves for commercial profit from tourists. Floyd discovered and commercialized Great Crystal Cave in the Flint Ridge Cave System, but the cave was remote and visitors were few. He had an ambition to find another cave he could offer the public closer to the main roads and entered into an agreement with a neighbor to open up Sand Cave, a small cave on the neighbor’s property.

On January 30, 1925, while working to enlarge the small passage in Sand Cave, Floyd became trapped in a narrow crawlway 55 feet below ground. The rescue operation to save him became a national media sensation and one of the first major news stories to be reported using the new technology of broadcast radio. After four days, during which rescuers were able to bring water and food to Floyd, a rock collapse in the cave closed the entrance passageway, stranding him inside, except for voice contact, for another 10 days.

Collins was born on July 20, 1887, on the family farm four miles east of  Mammoth Cave near Green River in Kentucky. He was the third child of Leonidas “Lee” Collins and Martha Jane Burnett, who gave birth to eight children. Floyd began entering caves by himself at the age of six in search of Indigenous artifacts to sell to tourists at the Mammoth Cave Hotel. In 1910, Floyd discovered his first cave, Donkey’s Cave, on the Collins farm. Two years later, Edmund Turner, a geologist, hired Floyd to show him caves of the region. Consequently, Turner and Floyd assisted with the discovery of Dossey’s Dome Cave in 1912 and Great Onyx Cave in 1915.

In September 1917, while climbing up a bluff on the Collins farm, Floyd felt cool air coming from a hole in the ground. Upon widening the hole, he was able to drop down into a cavity that was part of a passage blocked by breakdown. In December, after further excavation of the breakdown, Floyd discovered the sinkhole entrance to what he would later name Great Crystal Cave. He and his father immediately decided to commercialize it. After preparation by the entire family, the transformed show cave was opened to tourists in April 1918.

As the years went on, Floyd hoped to find either another entrance to the Mammoth Cave or an unknown cave to draw more visitors and reap greater profits. He made an agreement with three farmers who owned land closer to the main highway. Working alone, Floyd explored and expanded a hole that would later be called Sand Cave by the news media. He managed to squeeze through several narrow passageways, one of which was reported as being no larger than nine inches tall, and discovered a large grotto chamber. He worked on creating a more practical entrance to the grotto for several hours a day for weeks on end.

On January 30, 1925, after several hours of work, his gas lamp began to dim. He attempted to leave the passage quickly, before losing all light to the chamber, but became trapped in a small passage on his way out. Floyd accidentally knocked over his lamp, putting out the light, leading to misplacement of his foot on what seemed to be a stable wall of the cave. The passage shifted and he was caught by a 26.5-pound rock that fell from the cave ceiling, pinning his left leg; additionally, torrents of loose gravel fell and completely buried his body. He was trapped 150 feet from the entrance.

Neighbors began to worry for Floyd the next day and fanned out to find him. Though none of them wanted to try the smaller passages it took to reach Floyd, they were able to get close enough to communicate with him and learn he was trapped. His younger brother Homer was soon brought to the scene and was the only person able to make it through the small passages to get to Floyd. A reporter, William Burke “Skeets” Miller of The Courier-Journal in Louisville, arrived. Homer brought Floyd food and liquids to retain his energy, and many ideas were thought up by locals and tourists alike as techniques to get Floyd out of the cave.

On February 2, a plan was devised to hoist him from the cave using a harness, rope, and the strength of multiple men. This attempt failed and it injured Floyd, pulling his torso directly upwards and against the ceiling of rock. Rescuers ultimately decided the best way to get him out was to dig out each rock that surrounded him and leverage the large rock off his foot. Eventually, an electric light was run down the passage to provide him lighting and some warmth.

Because of the attention the event gained, spectators began to gather outside the mouth of the cave. The cool winter air caused them to light campfires that disrupted the natural ice within Sand Cave, causing it to melt and create puddles of cool water; one of which Floyd himself lay in. On February 4, the cave passage collapsed in two places due to the ice melting. Attempts were made to dig the passages that led to Floyd back out, but rescue leaders, led by the impressively named Henry St. George Tucker Carmichael, determined the cave impassable and too dangerous, which prompted the decision to dig a shaft straight down to reach the chamber behind Floyd.

He survived for more than a week while rescue efforts were organized. The cave drew air inward, meaning no engineered equipment could be used to dig into the cave, as the fumes would suffocate Floyd in the process. A 55-foot shaft would have to be dug downwards with nothing but pickaxes and shovels. It was estimated that the team of 75 volunteer workers would be able to dig this shaft within 30 hours, at a rate of two feet per hour. By 15 feet, workers hit boulders under the surface and began to use pickaxes. A series of pulley systems were used to remove rocks from the hole, but the pace of work slowed as they dug nearer to Floyd. A radio amplifier had been jerry-rigged to the copper wire that connected his light bulb to detect vibrations whenever Floyd moved. The amplifier crackled 20 times every minute, a hopeful sign that he might be breathing.

On February 11, tests showed that Floyd’s light bulb had gone out, meaning there was no way to tell if he was still alive. The 55-foot shaft and subsequent lateral tunnel intersected the cave just above Floyd, but when he was finally reached on Monday, February 16, by miner Ed Brenner, he was cold and apparently dead. It was later estimated Floyd had been dead for three to five days.

The nation had been riveted by the reporting of “Skeets” Miller. A man of small stature, he had been able to remove a lot of earth from around Floyd. He also interviewed Floyd in the cave and would receive a Pulitzer Prize for his coverage as well as helping to try to rescue the trapped cave man. Miller’s reports were distributed by telegraph and were printed by newspapers across the country and abroad. The rescue attempts were also followed by regular news bulletins on the new medium of broadcast radio.

At one point the number of spectators was in the thousands. Floyd’s neighbors sold hamburgers for 25 cents. Other vendors set up stands to sell food and souvenirs, creating a circus-like atmosphere. The Sand Cave rescue attempt grew to become the third-biggest media event between the World Wars. The two bigger media events of that time both involved Charles Lindbergh—the trans-Atlantic flight and his son’s kidnapping. Lindbergh actually had a minor role in the Sand Cave rescue, too, having been hired to fly photographic negatives from the scene for a newspaper. Since the nearest telegraph station was in Cave City, some miles from the cave, two amateur radio operators provided the link to pass messages to the authorities and the media.

The story of William Floyd Collins and the national fascination with him did not end with his death. While his body remained in the cave, funeral services were held on the surface. Homer Collins was not pleased with Sand Cave as his brother’s grave, and two months later, he and some friends reopened the shaft. They dug a new tunnel to the opposite side of the cave passage and recovered Floyd’s remains. Following a two-day visitation at a funeral home, the body was transported to the Collins family farm and buried on the hillside over Great Crystal Cave.

In 1927, Lee Collins sold the homestead and cave to Dr. Harry Thomas, a dentist and owner of Mammoth Onyx Cave and Hidden River Cave. The new owner placed Floyd’s body in a glass-topped coffin and exhibited it in Crystal Cave. One night in March 1929, the body was stolen. It was later recovered, having been found in a nearby field, but the injured left leg was missing. After this desecration, the remains were kept in a secluded portion of Crystal Cave in a chained casket. In 1961, Crystal Cave was purchased by Mammoth Cave National Park. For decades the Collins family had objected to Floyd’s body being displayed in the cave and finally the National Park Service re-interred him at the Mammoth Cave Church Cemetery in 1989. It took a team of 15 men three days to remove the casket and tombstone from the cave.