TSGS Cruiser Blog

Monday, August 22, 2011

"Celebrated Pioneer Cave Explorer" - Floyd Collins

'

One of our class trips from Linwood School. This is a bad picture made with my little Brownie Camera taken in Crystal Cave by the tour guide in 1930. - Gladys Terry


[Click on photo for a larger, clearer image.]


The above photo was posted by Gladys Terry on the Hart County, Kentucky MyFamily.com site. Here is an interesting account of Floyd Collins & his adventures in caving and his eventual death. From Wikipedia: "William Floyd Collins (July 20, 1887 – c. February 13, 1925) was a celebrated pioneer cave explorer in central Kentucky, an area that is the location of hundreds of miles of interconnected caves, including the Mammoth Cave National Park. On January 30, 1925, while trying to discover a new entrance to the system of underground caves that were a popular tourist attraction in Kentucky, Collins became trapped in a narrow crawlway 55 feet (17 m) below the surface. The reports about efforts to save Collins became a nationwide newspaper sensation and among the first major news stories to become a major sensation on the new technology of home radio. Collins died of exposure, thirst, and starvation after about fourteen days underground. Collins is also noted for having discovered Crystal Cave in 1917, although someone else received credit for that discovery for many years. Crystal Cave is now part of the Flint Ridge Cave System of the Mammoth Cave National Park. Collins is sometimes referred to as 'The Greatest Cave Explorer Ever Known', and this epitaph is inscribed on his tombstone." Read more about Floyd Collins on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floyd_Collins. Thanks Gladys!!!


- Photo used with permission from Gladys Terry.

No comments: