Craighead Caverns is an extensive cave system located in between Sweetwater and Madisonville,

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

. It is best known for containing the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

' largest and the world's second largest non- subglacial underground lake, The Lost Sea. In addition to the lake, the caverns contain an abundance of crystal clusters called anthodites, stalactites,

stalagmites A stalagmite (, ; from the Greek , from , "dropping, trickling") is a type of rock formation that rises from the floor of a cave due to the accumulation of material deposited on the floor from ceiling drippings. Stalagmites are typically ...

, and a waterfall.

History

Located in the

foothills Foothills or piedmont are geographically defined as gradual increases in elevation at the base of a mountain range, higher hill range or an upland area. They are a transition zone between plains and low relief hills and the adjacent topograp ...

of the

Great Smoky Mountains The Great Smoky Mountains (, ''Equa Dutsusdu Dodalv'') are a mountain range rising along the Tennessee–North Carolina border in the southeastern United States. They are a subrange of the Appalachian Mountains, and form part of the Blue Ridge ...

, the caverns are named after their former owner, a

Cherokee The Cherokee (; chr, ᎠᏂᏴᏫᏯᎢ, translit=Aniyvwiyaʔi or Anigiduwagi, or chr, ᏣᎳᎩ, links=no, translit=Tsalagi) are one of the indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, t ...

Native American, Chief Craighead. The caverns were used by the Cherokee as a meeting place for their councils. During the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

, the caves were mined by

Confederate Confederacy or confederate may refer to: States or communities * Confederate state or confederation, a union of sovereign groups or communities * Confederate States of America, a confederation of secessionist American states that existed between 1 ...

soldiers for

saltpeter Potassium nitrate is a chemical compound with the chemical formula . This alkali metal nitrate salt is also known as Indian saltpetre (large deposits of which were historically mined in India). It is an ionic salt of potassium ions K+ and nitrat ...

, a commodity necessary to the manufacture of

gunpowder Gunpowder, also commonly known as black powder to distinguish it from modern smokeless powder, is the earliest known chemical explosive. It consists of a mixture of sulfur, carbon (in the form of charcoal) and potassium nitrate (saltpeter). ...

. The major cave and lake area was also used as a hideout for moonshiners, especially during the Prohibition era. In 1939, explorers found the fossilized remains of a

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...

jaguar The jaguar (''Panthera onca'') is a large cat species and the only living member of the genus '' Panthera'' native to the Americas. With a body length of up to and a weight of up to , it is the largest cat species in the Americas and the th ...

. The persons who made the discovery were cave guides Jack Kyker and Clarence Hicks, who were exploring in the cave during their off hours. They reported their find to Dr. W. J. Cameron and W. E. Michael of Sweetwater, who then owned the cave. The owners submitted the bones to the

American Museum of Natural History The American Museum of Natural History (abbreviated as AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. In Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 26 inter ...

in New York City, where they were identified as bones of a very large jaguar and an

elk The elk (''Cervus canadensis''), also known as the wapiti, is one of the largest species within the deer family, Cervidae, and one of the largest terrestrial mammals in its native range of North America and Central and East Asia. The common ...

fawn.

George Gaylord Simpson George Gaylord Simpson (June 16, 1902 – October 6, 1984) was an American paleontologist. Simpson was perhaps the most influential paleontologist of the twentieth century, and a major participant in the Modern synthesis (20th century), modern ...

, a

vertebrate Vertebrates () comprise all animal taxa within the subphylum Vertebrata () ( chordates with backbones), including all mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish. Vertebrates represent the overwhelming majority of the phylum Chordata, ...

paleontologist Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...

at the museum, subsequently visited Craighead Caverns in May 1940. During his visit, he recovered additional jaguar bones and made casts of several jaguar footprints in the mud floor of the cave. His excavation and findings are reported in ''American Museum Novitates,'' No. 1131 (August 6, 1941) on pages 1–12. The report includes photographs of the bones and footprints. Simpson referred the fossils to the large ''

Panthera onca augusta ''Panthera onca augusta'', commonly known as the Pleistocene jaguar or simply the giant jaguar, is an extinct subspecies of the jaguar that was endemic to North America during the Pleistocene epoch (1.8 mya–11,000 years ago). History and dist ...

'', at that time the remains from Craighead Caverns were some of the best known of the subspecies. A

mushroom farm Fungiculture is the cultivation of fungi such as mushrooms. Cultivating fungi can yield foods (which include mostly mushrooms), medicine, construction materials and other products. A ''mushroom farm'' is involved in the business of growing fu ...

was operated in the cave from 1939 to 1940. The

manure Manure is organic matter that is used as organic fertilizer in agriculture. Most manure consists of animal feces; other sources include compost and green manure. Manures contribute to the fertility of soil by adding organic matter and nutri ...

for this operation was supplied from Fort Oglethorpe, where many horses were stabled. The mushroom beds were located in the Big Room, a few hundred feet northeast of the historic entrance. In 1947, a wooden dance floor was built in this same area of the cave, and a nightclub, known as the "Cavern Tavern", was operated there. Craighead Caverns was added to 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 ...

list of

National Natural Landmark The National Natural Landmarks (NNL) Program recognizes and encourages the conservation of outstanding examples of the natural history of the United States. It is the only national natural areas program that identifies and recognizes the best ...

s in 1974.

The Lost Sea

The lake was discovered in 1905 by a thirteen-year-old boy named Ben Sands. He was said to often play in the cave and, when he happened upon a small opening, crawled through. The room was so large he was unable to see the ends of the space with his lantern, so he threw balls of mud in all directions and heard splashes. When he went back home and told people of his discovery, they were hesitant to believe him. By the time Ben convinced his father to go back down with him to explore further, the water level had risen, hiding the cave entrance from them. It was rediscovered several years later by local explorers. The visible surface of the lake measures long and wide () at normal "full" capacity. Cave divers have explored several rooms that are completely filled with water, without reaching the end of the cave. This exploration was conducted in the 1970s. For many years The Lost Sea was considered the world's largest underground lake; it is the largest in the United States and is still recognized as the world's second-largest, non- subglacial underground lake, after

Dragon's Breath Cave Dragon's Breath Cave was discovered by Roger Ellis during a caving expedition to the area in 1986. The cave is located northwest of Grootfontein in the Otjozondjupa Region of Namibia. It is named for the moist air rising from its entrance which r ...

, in

Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...

. Commercial boat tours of the lake are still given and for many people are the highlight of the cave tour. In times of extreme drought (such as 2007-08), the lake recedes significantly. Tour management had to extend the walkway and the boat dock in order to continue the boat tours. At the height of the drought, management of the Lost Sea said that the water level in the lake dropped 28 feet below its normal level. At such times visitors see a much larger cavern above the lake surface. The sea was featured on

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

's ''America Wonders'' series.

References

External links

The Lost Sea website

Jim Wyatt's account of his underwater exploration
By Jim Wyatt on http://www.thedecostop.com 08/24/2005 {{authority control Caves of Tennessee East Tennessee Tourist attractions in Monroe County, Tennessee National Natural Landmarks in Tennessee Underground lakes Show caves in the United States Landforms of Monroe County, Tennessee

History

The Lost Sea

References

Further reading

External links