Great Onyx Lantern Tour- Mammoth Cave Kentucky

I have been trying to figure out all of the tours I have taken at Mammoth Cave over the years.  Many overlap.  Some tour routes are covered in their entirety on other, longer tours.  Anyway, as far as the publicly accessible tour routes go, I think I have been through almost all of the cave.  I know I have taken some of the tours multiple times.

AND, as I have said before, we have taken trips to Mammoth Cave and not even stepped foot inside of the cave.  Its a nice area.

I did realize, however, that I never visited Great Onyx cave.  This cave has a lot of interesting history, though it is not known to connect to Mammoth Cave.  The cave is, however, owned by the National Parks, and it is part of Mammoth Cave National Park.

We called about tickets and bought them ahead of time as it seems that the lantern tour through the cave often sells out.

We had a great guide named Gregg who reminded me a lot of Jerry Garcia (it's the hair).  Anyway, Gregg welcomed the group and told us all about the cave.  Gregg explained clearly that Great Onyx Cave was technically not a part of the big cave- just incase anyone had come from a far distance hoping to mark Mammoth Cave off of their bucket list.

We got on the bus at the visitor center and made our way out to the cave.  I went with my wife and niece, who sat together.  I ended up with a seat next to a charming 8 year old lady from Louisville.  We had a nice chat.  She said that she enjoyed going to caves.  Also, even though she was from Louisville, she had never heard of the Louisville Mega Cavern!  I got to tell her about it!

Our guide pointed out, from the bus, the remains of an old hotel/lodge that used to be on the property for guests visiting the cave.

We got out of the bus near the main entrance.  Gregg gave us some more info on the cave as our bus driver and another ranger prepared the lanterns.

A lantern was given to about every third person.  We made our niece carry the lantern.  I think she enjoyed having the job.


Gregg pointed out many formations, and told us a lot about the cave itself.  There are actually several different stories about how exactly the cave was discovered.  Our guide got into a lot of discussion, as the tour went on, about boundary issues. 

There were a lot of issues over who owned the cave early on, but a death ended the dispute.  Later on, the cave owner was involved in a conflict with his neighbor.  The neighbor pointed out that some of the cave must be under his property.  There was some legal battling....  and it was settled that the neighbor had about a third of the cave under his property.  It was also settled that he owned a third of it.

The original owner had tried to say that, since he owned the entrance, he owned the cave.  The courts found that the property owner owns their land and whats under it. 


Gregg actually showed us original boundary markers inside of the cave!

Gregg told us more of the caves history.  He covered the National Parks acquiring the cave (from each owner).  Adding to the story of this cave, is a spot where "Floyd Collins" is written in the cave, possibly by Floyd himself.  One of the discovery stories involves the legendary caver.  Unfortunately, the signature is farther back in the cave than the tour goes.

Towards the end of our tour, Gregg and his colleagues confiscated our lanterns and walked away, leaving all in total darkness.  They came back, shortly afterwards, showing us a sunrise and a sunset in the cave.

Anyway, this was a very nice cave tour!