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THE AUDUBON BULLETIN 



Clarence Bonnell — Photo. 

 TYPICAL CAVE NEAR STILL-HOUSE HOLLOW 



found, but everything points 

 to the fact that the site had 

 been chosen and the wall had 

 been erected as a means of 

 defense by the predecessors 

 of the Indians. 



Leaving Saline county, a 

 section in Hardin county be- 

 tween the towns of Eliza- 

 bethtown and Cave-in- Rock, 

 is of special interest. Fol- 

 lowing the old stage route 

 which was a star route for 

 the United States mails until about ten years ago, the site of the old iron 

 furnace is passed. Iron was smelted in considerable quantities at one 

 time and pigs of iron are yet found in the region used to weight down har- 

 rows or lying about barnyards. Want of transportation facilities was the 

 death of this once prosperous industry. 



Leaving Elizabethtown, the county seat of Hardin county, two roads 

 lead to Cave-in-Rock, a few miles up the river. The upper road, the one 

 furthest from the river, should be taken. This is a limestone region and 

 is evidently honey-combed with subterranean passages. For several miles 

 along the road almost every field is punctured with sinkholes where the 

 roof of the cavern below has fallen in. In some of these, the opening is 

 clear so that the water goes through at once, in others the passage has 

 become blocked and ponds are formed. At one place the roadway has been 

 built across one of the larger of these ponds. Another which I visited had 

 a pond in the edge of a cornfield. A number of years before, the hole 

 was a dry one. After a season of heavy rains the sink was found filled 

 with water and so remained, the opening having been clogged so as to 

 prevent further drainage. The fence which was built through the sink 

 when it was dry still remained, mostly submerged. 



Caves of considerable extent and fabulous reputation are said to exist 

 near but I have not had a chance to explore them. One such passage opens 

 into the river bluff at Cave-in-Rock and forms the famous cave about 

 which clusters so much tradition and some of the early history of the 

 region. The enterprising manufacturers of St. Jacob's Oil, years ago, 

 painted their sign in six foot letters above the entrance to attract the eye 

 of the traveler on passing boats. Though obstructed by a sink hole one 

 hundred and fifty feet from the mouth, the arched entrance and rocky 

 walls make it a wonder to those who do not read among the names carved 

 and painted on the walls the deeper written story of its origin. 



It is said of this cave that it was the headquarters of bands of river 

 pirates and horse thieves who once infested the region. Tales are told of 

 flat-boat men who mysteriously disappeared here and it is certain that 

 notorious bands of horse thieves made their headquarters in the vicinity. 

 Within the roof there is an opening, leading to a chamber above in which 

 booty could well have been hidden. Last summer a stockade had been 

 built across the mouth and timbers were cluttering the passage. The whole 

 idea seems to have been to charge an admission fee, whereas the in- 

 quisitive wayfarer heretofore had come and gone as he chose. 



