Gap Cave
Gap Cave is located just underneath Pinnacle Overlook in the Cumberland Gap National Park, Lee County, Tennessee. This is just one of the 24 entrances into the limestone caverns and the best known. These limestone caverns vary in length from twenty feet to six miles; they have 497 feet of relief and are located throughout Tennessee, Kentucky and Virginia.
History
Throughout the years the Gap Cave has had many names. It was named first by Dr. Thomas Walker, who named it Gap Cave. An adjacent cave, sometimes referred to as Soldiers Cave, was explored by Confederate and Union soldiers as well as Gap Cave. Local historians say armies used Soldiers cave as a military hospital and for storage. Names and dates inscribed along the cavern walls document military presence. There is evidence that the greater part of the Gap Cave system was used to mine for Saltpeter in the later 1800’s and became known as the Saltpeter Cave.[1]
In the later 1890’s commercial tours of the cave system began in Gap cave, then known as King Solomon’s Cave. Electrical lighting was installed in Soldiers Cave and a tunnel was dug to later connect King Solomon’s Cave with Soldiers Cave.[2] In 1893 the fiction novel Cudjo’s Cave was published about a slave that had escaped from slavery and was hiding out in a cave in the Cumberland Gap, thus gaining the name Cudjo’s Cave.
In March of 1920 Lincoln Memorial University bought the caverns and surrounding land from private owners.[3] In 1934 the Gap cave was opened to the public.[4] In 1947 the title was transferred to the commonwealth of Virginia. Commercial tours of the caverns began by the National Park Service in 1992. From 1992 until somewhat recently cave tours were not being held. Gap Cave had been vandalized, broken light bulbs were around every corner, graffiti was on nearly every wall, and the stairs and bridges were very unstable.[5] In the early 1990’s a concept plan was drawn up to restore the Cumberland Gap, including Gap Cave. The restoration was completed in the late 1990’s to the early 2000’s; now the cave is nearly back to its original condition and tours now run off lantern light instead of electricity.
References
- ^ http://www.nps.gov/archive/cuga/cudjo.htm Cudjo Cavern
- ^ http://www.nps.gov/archive/cuga/cudjo.htm Cudjo Cavern
- ^ http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/infrastructure/back0204.cfm The Cumberland Gap- Back in Time
- ^ http://www.lmunet.edu/museum/collection/Cudjos.htm Lincoln Memorial University
- ^ http://www.nps.gov/archive/cuga/cudjo.htm Cudjo Cavern