Great Onyx Cave is a

cave A cave or cavern is a natural void in the ground, specifically a space large enough for a human to enter. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground. The word ''cave'' can refer to smaller openings such as sea ...

located in

Mammoth Cave National Park Mammoth Cave National Park is an American national park in west-central Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper Sout ...

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...

, United States. The

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propertie ...

offers a commercial tour of the cave.

Discovery

Great Onyx Cave was discovered in 1915 by Edmund Turner. According to one story, Turner made a proposition to Flint Ridge landowner L. P. Edwards, knowing through his cave explorations that there was a cave under Edwards' land. Turner asked Edwards if he could have a share in the cave's ownership if he showed Edwards where to dig. Edwards agreed, and the resulting cave was named Great Onyx Cave because of its

cave onyx Flowstones are sheetlike deposits of calcite or other carbonate minerals, formed where water flows down the walls or along the floors of a cave. They are typically found in "solution caves", in limestone, where they are the most common speleoth ...

formations. Turner continued to explore the cave while Edwards rushed to commercialize it. Shortly thereafter, when Turner died (probably of

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severity ...

), Edwards claimed that he discovered the cave.

History

The owners of Great Onyx Cave refused to sell their land when the

federal government A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government (federalism). In a federation, the self-governin ...

was purchasing property for

during the 1930s. When the National Park was established in 1941, Great Onyx Cave remained a privately held "island" within the Park's borders. The cave was finally sold to the National Park Service and became a part of the National Park in January 1961.

Court case

The Great Onyx Case was also the subject of litigation that reached Kentucky's high courts in 1929 (232 Ky. 791, 24 S.W.2d 619). Edwards was successfully sued by a neighboring landowner (Lee) who alleged that the cave ran underneath his property. Invoking the ad coelem et ad inferos principle, the court ordered restitution of all profits derived from running tours on the plaintiff's property. However, the basis of this ruling has been subject to much controversy: invoking the user principle of damages for trespass, the plaintiff ought to have been due only reasonable rental value of the land. It is for this reason that unjust enrichment theorists at

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

believe the case to have been one of unjust enrichment, the enrichment of the defendant having been at the expense of the plaintiff's proprietary right, thus severing the link between enrichment and loss and thereby confirming the unjust enrichment analysis of cases such as

Trustee of FC Jones and Son v Jones is an English unjust enrichment law case, concerning to what extent enrichment of the defendant must be at the expense of the claimant. Facts Mr Jones transferred £11,700 in cheques from his potato growing firm’s bank account to Mrs Jones. ...

Foskett v McKeown is a leading case on the English law of trusts, concerning tracing and the availability of proprietary relief following a breach of trust. Facts In breach of trust, Mr Murphy took £20,440 from a company he controlled. Over 200 investors ( ...

and the doctrine of

equitable tracing Tracing is a legal process, not a remedy, by which a claimant demonstrates what has happened to his/her property, identifies its proceeds and those persons who have handled or received them, and asks the court to award a proprietary remedy in resp ...

Lack of connection

Great Onyx Cave is unusual in that it has not yet been connected to nearby Mammoth Cave; it is the only major Flint Ridge cave which has yet to be connected with the Flint Ridge Cave System, despite exploration efforts. In fact, passages in the Flint Ridge Cave System pass beneath

surveyed Surveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, art, and science of determining the land, terrestrial Two-dimensional space#In geometry, two-dimensional or Three-dimensional space#In Euclidean geometry, three-dimensional positions of ...

passages in Great Onyx Cave. Rocks and sand were piled against the walls of the cave to make trails when the cave was commercialized, possibly blocking off passages which might connect to Mammoth Cave. Legend has it that this was the revenge of Turner, who was never able to profit from his discovery of Great Onyx Cave, against Edwards.

References

External links