Western Kentucky’s Mammoth Cave is the longest known cave on Earth, with over 412 miles of passages currently explored & mapped, as of fall 2017. The name “Mammoth Cave” does not refer to its world-record length, nor to the early discovery of mammoth or mastodon fossils here (actually, fossil proboscidean skeletal remains have been reported from this locality). Rather, the name refers to the immense size of many of the rooms and passages.

It is not certain exactly when Mammoth Cave was discovered. A story about its 1797 discovery by a man named Houchins (or Hutchins) is fictional - the park service knows this, but still tells the story during cave tours. However, Mammoth Cave’s earliest acknowledgement in available historical records dates to 1797.

Shown above is the oldest dated signature I have seen in Mammoth Cave. Early tourists often left their names on passage walls or ceilings. This practice (= vandalism) continued well after the area became a park. One method of leaving a signature was making scratches. These are the scratch signatures of three ladies who toured the cave in 1811. The early 1800s was a time of saltpeter mining in the cave. "Saltpeter" is an ingredient of gunpowder. It is known that these are very old signatures, not more recent fabrications. The scratches were made so long ago that gypsum fibers have grown out from the former scratches - they now project slightly from the wall. Click on the photo to zoom in and examine the "1811" date.

The oldest known dated signature in Mammoth Cave is a 1798 scratch signature in Ganter Avenue. I have not yet visited that area - it is not part of modern cave tours.

The three names are "Mrs. M.A. Grafton", "Mrs. J.S. Evans", and "Mrs. E.A. Walker".