photos by jerone anderson
recently i had a chance to go on a road trip to oxford, mississippi -- the mythical land inspiring william faulkner's yoknapatawpha county, where in 1962 the african-american veteran james meredith had to fight for admission to ole miss university to become its first black student, and overly caring waitresses call you honey when serving fried catfish with hush puppies.
before returning to ohio from out trip to mississippi we stopped at mammoth cave national park located in central kentucky.
according to the united nations educational, scientific, and cultural organization (unesco) mammoth cave is "the world's largest network of natural caves and underground passages." the list of cave tour is indeed long and we had only had time to pick one: the historic tour with its original natural entrance.
the vastness of the "rooms" we walked through was amazing and hard to capture in photos. a but jerone managed to shoot some that will give an impression. he had not only to battle the darkness but also the strict instructions by the ranger about putting down the camera: "only on man-made objects." it wasn't helpful that many banisters were round and that he needed long exposures.
remnants of saltpeter mining shortly after the cave was rediscovered in the late 1790s. before paleo-indians used the cave over 10,000 years ago, one of them was found with food left overs in his stomach.
vastness was followed by tight passages. we had so squeeze through "fat man's misery" (the official name of this part of the cave above) and downstairs without bumping our heads on the ceiling (below).
along the tour we saw kidney shaped pits created by water streaming vertically down in place where gaps in the the limestone and shale of the cave layers above did not seal up the water.
the most prominent man-made object in the cave: a restroom in midst the cave blending perfectly into its natural environment,
almost hard to discern on the outside from the rest of the cave. this friendly ranger herded us along as we were almost always dragging behind because of the high expose times needed to take pictures. he told us stories of stephen bishop, a famous slave and mammoth cave tour guide who began giving tours when he was age 17 in 1838. bishop was the first to explore many mile of the cave by himself, helping himself over pits and gaps with ladders.
a high metal stair construction led us back into the outer world, where we finally started the last leg of our trip to reach athens, ohio, after about another six to seven hours of driving.
to mississippi and back, part 1: a pretty piece of land -- where lincoln was born
to mississippi and back, part 2: the romantic south -- oxford & ole miss
to mississippi and back, part 3: unavoidably ubiquitous -- the world of william faulkner
to mississippi and back, part 4: honey, sweetie & fried fish -- our southern food history
to mississippi and back, part 5: mammoth cave: "the world's largest network of natural caves"
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