How an explorer stuck in a Kentucky cave for 17 days captured the world's attention
Remarkably, the cave explorer's journey attracted national, even international, attention.
But he never made it out of Sand Cave alive.
For 17 days in 1925, the Western Kentucky man unwittingly ballooned into an unexpected media sensation, when a cave-in trapped him by his feet in a dark muddy pool 80 feet into a cavern. In the earliest era of in-home radios, listeners nationwide clung to hope and whispered prayers for Floyd. His horrific story captivated Americans and dominated frontpage headlines of The Courier Journal and other newspapers for more than two weeks.
The jarring spectacle drew a military review, the supervision of the Kentucky's lieutenant governor, tens of thousands of spectators and even well wishes from then President Calvin Coolidge. About a week into the attempted rescue, The Courier Journal produced a film of the volunteer effort and showed it at the old Alamo Theater on South Fourth Street. Cub reporter William Burke 'Skeets' Miller won a Pulitzer Prize for venturing into the cave and interviewing Floyd in the final days of his life.
Floyd's entrapment and death became arguably one of the biggest news stories in the world between the end of World War I and the beginning of World War II.
And it all happened about 85 miles south of Louisville, during a period known as the Kentucky Cave Wars.
A century later, Floyd is remembered among cave explorers as a hero, and unthinkable details of his death live on in The Courier Journal archive as well as in several books and even a 1990s off-Broadway musical. His homestead is also preserved of the Flint Ridge Road, in the Eastern Portion of Mammoth Cave National Park.
When I stumbled upon this gripping collection of stories two months before the 100th anniversary of his death, I genuinely couldn't stop reading. I picked up the phone a few weeks later and called David Kem, the author of 'The Kentucky Cave Wars," who helped me understand why.
'He's relatable to so many people,' Kem explained. 'We can see ourselves in Floyd. We can see ourselves struggling to make a living.'
That struggle is part of the reason Floyd was exploring Sand Cave in the first place. The Kentucky Cave Wars refers to a period when Western Kentucky farmers were drawing on Mammoth Cave's internationally known reputation as the longest cave in the world as a means to make money.
Neighboring Crystal Cave, which is now known as Floyd Collins Crystal Cave, is one of the most beautiful and impressive caves in Western Kentucky. Even so, the Collins family had a hard time drawing in customers. Crystal Cave was located down a little back road on the far end past Mammoth Cave's historic entrance, said David Foster, the President and CEO American Cave Conservation Association. Many visitors didn't see a need to keep traveling all the way to the Collins' cave when there were so many others before it to see.
'Every poor person that had a plot of land that had a cave on it thought they had a gold mine,' Foster said.
Floyd needed to find a cave closer to the crowd. He made a deal with a neighbor further up the road, who owned the land where Sand Cave was located. They agreed that if Floyd found something big, they could commercialize it and split the profits.
'Floyd had a reputation as a pretty tough caver, and he'd go a lot of places that other people wouldn't go,' Foster said.
Wading into the dark unknown of Western Kentucky's cave wasn't uncommon for Floyd, but when he didn't return on Jan. 30, 1925, friends and family went out to look for him. The search party discovered the entrance to Sand Cave had collapsed and they could just faintly hear Floyd calling out for help.
The group dug for hours, and by noon the next day, more than 150 people were working to free him. By the time they made a hole small enough for a young boy to crawl through, Floyd had already been trapped for at least 36 hours.
'RESCUERS ARE UNABLE TO FREE COLLINS ... Loose stones falling may bury him in the cave,' was the headline on the front page of the Feb. 2, 1925 edition of The Courier Journal.
Two days later, Courier Journal reporter Miller becomes part of the story, and he ends up leading a few rescue attempts because of his slight frame.
'It is terrible inside,' Miller wrote for the Feb. 4, 1925 edition of The Courier Journal. 'The cold, dirty water numbs us as soon as we start in. We have come to dread it, but each of us tell ourselves that our suffering is as nothing compared to Collins. His patience during long hours of agony, his constant hope when life seemed nearing the end, is enough to strengthen the heart of anyone.'
But while the cave felt ominous and grim, Floyd remained optimistic.
'Death holds no terror for Floyd Collins, he told me, when I fed him tonight more than 115 hours after he was trapped in Sand Cave, but he does not expect to die in the immediate future," Miller wrote.
On that trip, Miller took a pint bottle of milk and a small bit of whiskey that Floyd had specifically requested.
'I'm cold all over,' Collins had told Miller. 'I believe a drink of whiskey would help.'
Then, a second cave-in was reported in Sand Cave on Feb. 5, and Miller felt certain Floyd hadn't survived.
'A corpse now lies in a relentless trap down in a rocky tunnel where, but a few hours ago, an undaunted man lived on his faith and hope,' Miller wrote. 'Through the hours of agony, he kept his eyes on an imaginary ray of light, but the light is dark forever.'
Still, the world was gripped by the story. And the headlines kept coming.
On Feb. 7 in bold letters across the top of the page, The Courier Journal reads 'BROTHER RISKS HIS LIFE FOR COLLINS, GOES BACK IN CAVE BUT HITS BLOCK."
Two days later, hope flickered again. Days before, the rescue team had tied an electric lightbulb around Floyd's neck. Even though he'd gone four days since his last meal, a radio test showed that the filament in the bulb moved from 22 to 26 times per minute. These ever so slight movements were a sign that Floyd could still be breathing.
'COLLINS BELIEVED ALIVE ... RADIO TEST SHOWS HIM STILL LIVING.'
Meanwhile, the country continued to rally around the Kentucky man. A crowd estimated to be as large as 50,000 held vigil at the site, while soldiers kept the group back from the cave's entrance.
The American Red Cross offered to pay the cost of all the materials needed to free Floyd. A church in Colorado raised money for his cause. The military began looking into a growing conspiracy theory that Floyd's rescue was purposefully botched. Rescuers even tried pumping a pungent banana oil down into the cave, hoping to find another viable entrance above ground.
All the while, people kept working to save him with nothing but the filament of a lightbulb to suggest he was alive.
When that powerful odor from the banana oil was detected in a nearby pit, America held its breath as this bold message appeared large letters in the Feb. 11 edition of The Courier Journal: COLLINS MAY BE OUT BY DAWN
Unfortunately, it wasn't so simple.
A rescue crew was ready to drop into the cave that day. The shaft they were building for the rescue was already 44 feet deep, but a crevice in the structure kept the team from going any further.
Two days later, on Feb. 14, the excitement returned: COUGH HEARD FROM COLLINS TRAP; SHAFT TO REACH VICTIM AT NOON
Finally, Miller, the Courier Journal reporter, went down into the rescue shaft on Feb. 15, fearing all the hiccups up to this moment might make him too late to save the man, who he now considered a friend. As the rescue team inched closer to Floyd the next day, the dangerous conditions in the cave slowed them again.
Until finally horror fills the front page of the Courier Journal on Feb. 17: "COLLINS LEG TO BE CUT OFF IN CAVE TO FREE DEAD BODY." The paper featured eight-column photo of the rescue team declaring that 'FUTILE ENDING OF LONG WORK SADDENS MEN."
'The quest is over," the paper read. "Mother Earth after clinging grimly, in life and in death, to Floyd Collins for more than seventeen days, finally surrendered at 2:45 o'clock this afternoon and without warning opened a tiny hole between a rescue shaft and a natural tomb of a cave explorer."
'Peering down this tiny fissure into Sand Cave, the brave workers who had wade an unequal combat with the natural forces of earth, saw that what they had fought so hard for had been lost. Collins was dead.'
The earth shifted again, and several more months would pass before a team could retrieve his body.
For as much fandemonium as Floyd had drawn in the last two weeks of his life, his funeral was remarkably simple. About 150 people came to the the bluff of the cave on Feb. 17 for a quiet and unusual ceremony. His body still rested in the cavern below, and his friends and family paid their respects outside the entrance.
The next day — for the first time since the cave rescue began more than two weeks before — Floyd wasn't mentioned anywhere on the front page of The Courier Journal. The only photo ever taken of Floyd in the cave ran on page three.
While cave explorers and the Mammoth Cave region at large would always remember his name, the world moved on from, arguably, the first viral news story of the 20th century. Today, Floyd is best known for a horrible accident that cost him his life, Kem told me, but he was also remarkably talented and years ahead of his time in exploring the longest cave in the world.
The Sand Cave incident wasn't the first time Floyd had a close call. He'd needed rescuing at least one other time before, but he kept going back, kept following caves into the deepest and darkest parts he knew.
Staring at that dark, blotchy, bleak photo of Floyd in an old edition of The Courier Journal, I marveled at how he stayed as composed as he did during those first conscious days of the rescue when death held 'no terror' for him.
Which is how I ended up asking Foster, if the rescue had succeeded — if he thought Floyd would have gone into a cave again.
'Oh, you betcha he would have,' Foster assured me. 'I guarantee it.'
Features columnist Maggie Menderski writes about what makes Louisville, Southern Indiana and Kentucky unique, wonderful, and occasionally, a little weird. If you've got something in your family, your town or even your closet that fits that description — she wants to hear from you. Say hello at mmenderski@courier-journal.com. Follow along on Instagram @MaggieMenderski.
There are numerous Floyd Collins attractions at Mammoth Cave National Park. More information on these activities is available at kygetaway.com:
1. Visit the Sand Cave site at Mammoth Cave National Park. As a UNESCO World Heritage Site, it offers a look at the underground world Floyd Collins loved to explore. You can also explore the Sand Cave observation deck, where you can see the entrance to the cave where Floyd was trapped.
2. Mammoth Cave National Park is offering a Floyd Collins History Tour on select days in February. Visit nps.gov/maca/ for more details.
3. Visit the Collins' Homestead and old ticket office for the Great Crystal Cave, which was owned by Collins and his family.
4. Travel to Floyd Collin's final resting place at Mammoth Cave Baptist Church Cemetery on Flint Ridge Road.
5. Tour the American Cave Museum at 119 E Main St., in Horse Cave, Kentucky, which is home to artifacts and newspaper articles about Floyd's life, his days as an explorer and his entrapment and tragic death. Guest can discover the history and science of America's natural caverns through educational and informative exhibits. Admission is free.
6. The Southern Kentucky Performing Arts Center, 601 College St. in Bowling Green, will feature "Floyd Collins The Musical" on March 8.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Remembering Floyd Collins, explorer trapped at Sand Cave, Kentucky
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