Horse Cave is a home rule-class city in Hart County,

Kentucky Kentucky (, ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north, West Virginia to the ...

, United States. Randall Curry currently serves as mayor of the city and is assisted by a city council that is composed of six members. As of the 2010 census, the population of Horse Cave was 2,311, making it the most populous community in the county.

History

The town was settled by Major Albert Anderson in the 1840s. The landowner donated land for a

Louisville and Nashville Railroad The Louisville and Nashville Railroad , commonly called the L&N, was a Class I railroad that operated freight and passenger services in the southeast United States. Chartered by the Commonwealth of Kentucky in 1850, the road grew into one of ...

station in 1858 on the provision that it be named after nearby Horse Cave.''The Kentucky Encyclopedia''
pp. 442
"Horse Cave". University Press of Kentucky (Lexington), 1992. Accessed 30 July 2013. The community around the station developed quickly, so that a post office was erected in 1860, and the city was formally incorporated by the state assembly in 1864.Commonwealth of Kentucky. Office of the Secretary of State. Land Office. "Horse Cave, Kentucky". Accessed 29 July 2013. The cave for which the city is named is located on the south side of Main Street. Various explanations are given for its unusual name. One is that Native Americans or outlaws hid horses in the cave; another is that an early carriage may have lost a horse when it fell into the opening by accident; a third reason involves the 19th-century use of "horse" as slang for anything big or huge, related to a similar use of the Swedish ''hoss''. The cave has also been known as "Hidden River Cave", for an underground stream located inside. That stream was used to power a

dynamo "Dynamo Electric Machine" (end view, partly section, ) A dynamo is an electrical generator that creates direct current using a commutator. Dynamos employed electromagnets for self-starting by using residual magnetic field left in the iron cores ...

, and for a while in the late 19th century Horse Cave was the only city in Kentucky apart from

Louisville Louisville is the most populous city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, sixth-most populous city in the Southeast, and the 27th-most-populous city in the United States. By land area, it is the country's 24th-largest city; however, by populatio ...

and Ashland to have electric lights. Around

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, the only air-conditioned tennis courts in the world were located near the entrance of the cave. The stream also provided the town's water supply, but mistaken development caused raw sewage to seep into the water and forced the closure of the cave for fifty years. The stench was so bad in the 1960s that pedestrians typically crossed to the other side of Main Street rather than walk near the entrance and birds would sometimes fall from the sky. The problem has been largely solved in recent years. The town changed its name to "Caverna" in 1869 but the inability to change the name of the railroad station prompted the community to reconsider and restore the name "Horse Cave" in 1879. Owing to its early rail connection, Horse Cave was a major center of agricultural commerce for Hart, Metcalfe,

Green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a com ...

, and Barren

counties A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

since the 1870s.

Tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...

warehouses provided the majority of the income. Since the 1970s, some factories have relocated to the area, including Dart Container Corporation, T Marzetti Company, and Sister Schubert's Bakery. Tourist attractions include Kentucky Down Under/Kentucky Caverns, Hidden River Cave/American Cave Museum, and the nearby

Mammoth Cave National Park Mammoth Cave National Park is a national park of the United States in south-central Kentucky. It encompasses portions of Mammoth Cave, the longest known cave system in the world. The park's are located primarily in Edmonson County, with sma ...

. Civil War Days are an annual tourist event, during which time parades down Main Street and reenactments of the Battle of Rowlett's Station between Horse Cave and Munfordville are staged. A local theatre formerly known as the Horse Cave Theatre and/or the Kentucky Repertory Theatre once operated in Horse Cave but is no longer in business. Horse Cave serves as filming location for several films, including "Runaway Romance" and "Never Forgive." Artist Joseph Dudley Downing (1925–2007) was born and grew up in Horse Cave, where he graduated valedictorian of his class. In 1980, an exhibition of 150 of his paintings was held in the People's Loose Leaf Tobacco Warehouse No. 2.

Geography

Horse Cave's southern border is the Barren County line and the border of Cave City. U.S. Route 31W (Dixie Street) is the main road through Horse Cave, leading north to Munfordville and southwest through Cave City to Park City near the entrance to Mammoth Cave National Park.

Interstate 65 Interstate 65 (I-65) is a major north–south Interstate Highway System, interstate highway in the central United States. As with most primary interstates ending in 5, it is a major crosscountry, north–south route, connecting between th ...

passes west of Horse Cave, with access from Exit 58. I-65 leads north to

and southwest to

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...

. According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...

, the city of Horse Cave has a total area of , of which , or 0.74%, are water.

Demographics

As of the

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

of 2000, there were 2,252 people, 977 households, and 601 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 1,091 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 80.91%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 17.94%

Black Black is a color that results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without chroma, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness.Eva Heller, ''P ...

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 0.27% Native American, 0.04% from other races, and 0.84% from two or more races. 0.58% of the population were

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

or Latino of any race. There were 977 households, out of which 28.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 40.2% were

married couples Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...

living together, 18.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 38.4% were non-families. 34.8% of all households were made up of individuals, and 16.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.21 and the average family size was 2.84. In the city, the population was spread out, with 21.8% under the age of 18, 8.8% from 18 to 24, 26.4% from 25 to 44, 22.6% from 45 to 64, and 20.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 40 years. For every 100 females, there were 81.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 72.5 males. The median income for a household in the city was $21,134, and the median income for a family was $28,026. Males had a median income of $25,905 versus $18,457 for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...

for the city was $17,861. About 24.1% of families and 27.9% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...

, including 36.8% of those under age 18 and 22.5% of those age 65 or over.

Arts and culture

Horse Cave has a library, the Horse Cave Public Library.

Notable people

Simon Bolivar Buckner Simon Bolivar Buckner ( ; April 1, 1823 – January 8, 1914) was an American soldier, Confederate military officer, and politician. He fought in the United States Army in the Mexican–American War. He later fought in the Confederate State ...

, 30th governor of Kentucky * Clarence Glover, former

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...

player * Tom Moran,

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

player * John Stanley Palmore Jr., former Chief Justice of Kentucky's Supreme Court

References