The late Kenneth Lee many years ago gave me permission to keep his books in print. One of these books is Jacob's People referring to Jacob Lock(e). Since I have been working with the records of Mammoth Cave reference the law suit against George D. Morrison; I thought I'd take another look at the history of the caves in Edmonson Co. The following is taken from pages 21 thru 23 of Mr. Lee's book and will be shown in more than one post. Chapter 3 - A Look at the Caves. In most countries of the world, caves have preserved the remains of ancient people as well as many articles pertaining to their way of life such as clothing, ornaments, food, tools and weapons. The aboriginal would find the cave to be the safest and most comfortable abode. From the fire-pits, ash heaps and debris left behind in caverns we can determine what kind of person he was and how he lived. I have been told that no findings in caverns of America correspond with prehistoric caveman findings of Europe. Many Kentucky caverns were used by the aboriginals as depositories of their dead. Articles found in these caverns indicate ancient families lived there either as comfortable semi-permanent homes or as temporary refuge from some kind of enemy. Beneath the grassy fields and green forests of south central Kentucky lies the most remarkable structure of limestone caverns. They are to be found in an area of at least eight thousand square miles. Layers of limestone in this area are found to vary from only a few feet to sometimes three hundred feet or more. In Edmonson County wonderful caverns have been cut between those layers of underground streams and their contents. One of those forces is carbonic acid gas to which nature has added the grinding effect of sand from the sandstone above and pebbles from the flintbeds of the limestone itself. In a triangular area of Edmonson County and Hart County, Kentucky have been found three very interesting caves, one of which is the world-famous Mammoth Cave. One of these called Colossal Cave we will discuss more about later. The other was named Salts Cave and contained some of the most interesting relics to be found anywhere. When examining some of the pieces of textile fabric found in that cave it is difficult to imagine how those prehistoric people could have made such a thing. In another nearby cave called Short Cave there was found a so-called American mummy, not just a skeleton of bones but skin and all, but of course, dried up. They told me it was possible for that to happen because of the germ-free atmosphere and constant low temperature of the cave. For a while that mummy was put on display at Mammoth Cave and later placed in the National Museum in Washington, D. C. Connected with Colossal Cave is a cave called Bed Quit Cave, so named because of the finding of an ancient mat resembling a quilt in the long ago. Salts Cave was very rich in prehistoric relics but never received much publicity until a study was made by Professor F. W. Putnam of the Peabody Museum of American Archeology and Anthropology together with members of the Kentucky Geological Survey. They visited and partly explored Salts Cave then revealed to the world some of the wonderful things which through this cave were traced to the people who lived in Kentucky centuries ago. Very little was written about that cave for a hundred years while Mammoth Cave received visitors from all over the world. It was a custom for early Kentucky explorers to place their names or dates in places where they thought others of their kind might later follow. Sometimes these men might use a rock to scratch names and dates on the walls of the caves or write such information with smoke from the flames of their lantern held close to the ceiling overhead. One of the earliest dates place in this cave was 1818 and the next was 1843 along with the names of people known to be living in that area at that time. To be continued next week. Sandi To post to lists: [email protected] or [email protected] Sandi's Puzzlers: http://www.gensoup.org/gorinpuzzles/index.php Sandi's Website: http://ggpublishing.tripod.com/