Violet City Lantern Tour of Mammoth Cave

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For reviews of all Mammoth Cave National Park tours, how to get tickets, what to wear, and rules for the tours, see the Cave Tours web page here on National Park Planner. Keep in mind that not all tours are offered year-round, and the schedule of what tours are available changes often. Be sure to check the National Park Service’s official Cave Tours web page for the current schedule.

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OVERVIEW

The Violet City Lantern Tour at Mammoth Cave National Park is unique for two reasons. One, the most obvious, is that it is a lantern tour, which allows visitors to experience Mammoth Cave just as all early tourists did before electric lighting was installed beginning in 1917. Two, it covers parts of Mammoth Cave that are not seen on any other tour, and there is very little overlap of its route with other cave tours. The only tour that you don’t have to do if you take the Violet City Lantern Tour is the Star Chamber Lantern Tour. Violet City covers everything on Star Chamber except the stop at Gothic Avenue, and there is a separate Gothic Avenue Tour.

The Violet City Lantern Tour also overlaps some of the Historic, Extended Historic, and Grand Historic tour routes, but it does not make the trip down to Fat Man’s Misery as these tours do, which is one of the coolest sections of Mammoth Cave. If you also plan on taking one of these historic tours—and every visitor to Mammoth Cave should—there is more than enough difference between these tours and the Violet City Lantern Tour that you won’t be kicking yourself for wasting time doing both.

In addition to taking one of the history-oriented tours, I also recommend that all visitors to Mammoth Cave take a lantern tour. The Violet City and Star Chamber tours are held inside Mammoth Cave. A third, the Great Onyx Lantern Tour, is held in another cave altogether, so it does not overlap with any tours at Mammoth Cave National Park.

Of the Violet City and Star Chamber tours, Violet City is by far the better. However, it is also one of the few truly STRENUOUS tours given at the park. It goes up and down very steep hills, which is the last thing I expected to find inside a cave. I literally almost fell over backwards going up one of the hills—my arms flailed like a cartoon character teetering on the edge of a cliff—and one guy’s feet slipped out from under him as he was pushing off on the balls of his feet to climb a hill. While the uphill segments got my heart pumping, it was the downhill segments that I feared the most because the trail is made from a clay-like substance that looks like it is very slippery. There are no handrails to hang on to. It really stands out from any of the other tours in terms of difficulty.

If the Violet City Lantern Tour sounds a little too much for you or members of your group, take the Great Onyx Lantern Tour before the Star Chamber Lantern Tour. Great Onyx Cave is a beautiful cave full of stalactites, stalagmites, flowstone, and other calcite formations that tourists want to see. If you have time for the Star Chamber Lantern Tour as well, fine, but if not, you are not missing much.

The Violet City Lantern Tour lasts three hours and covers three miles. It begins at Mammoth Cave’s Historic Entrance and exits at the manmade Violet City Entrance that was created in 1931, so there is no backtracking on this tour. Participants must be at least six years old. Those carrying lanterns must be at least 16 years old. There are not enough lanterns for everyone, so you don’t have to be bothered with carrying one if you don’t want to. However, if you are on your own, I highly recommend getting one. When the hills start, it’s good to have a clear view of the trail. Without a lantern you will find yourself trying to keep up with somebody who has one, otherwise you may end up walking in the dark.

TOUR HIGHLIGHTS

The first part of the Violet City Lantern Tour covers a section of the cave that has electric lighting, so while lanterns are carried from the start, they aren’t necessary until later in the tour.

Giant’s Coffin

The Violet City Lantern Tour, and just about every other tour that starts at the Historic Entrance of Mammoth Cave, proceeds down the main passageway to a large slab of rock originally called Steamboat Rock, but by the 1850s guides were calling it the Giant’s Coffin because the name was more theatrical, and theatrics sold cave tour tickets. The slab is 40 feet long and 20 feet tall, and it fell from the ceiling above. If it were possible to lift it up, it could be matched to the exact spot where it was originally located. It was a popular feature even on early tours, for guides using their lanterns could make it look as if the lid of the coffin was being opened and closed by casting shadows on the wall behind it.

Giant’s Coffin in the main passageway of Mammoth Cave

Ranger uses a flashlight to cast a shadow from the Giant’s Coffin inside Mammoth Cave

Very little of Mammoth Cave near the Historic Entrance was spared of graffiti, even something like the Giant’s Coffin. Some of the graffiti is modern vandalism. Note the two signatures from 1967 in the photo below.

Modern graffiti on the Giant’s Coffin in the main section of Mammoth Cave

Tuberculosis Hospital Ruins

Many tours that begin at the Historic Entrance of Mammoth Cave take the passageway to the left of the Giant’s Coffin down to Fat Man’s Misery, but a few, including the Violet City Lantern Tour, continue farther down the main passageway to the ruins of what was once a tuberculosis hospital. The trail switches from pavement to a hard-packed dirt path, and while the surface is fairly smooth, there are some uneven areas. Lanterns are now lighting the way, so if you are not carrying one, be sure to stick closely to somebody who is so that you can see where you are stepping.

The tuberculosis hospital was the brainchild of Dr. John Croghan, who in 1839 purchased Mammoth Cave for $10,000. While in Germany, he learned of a theory that tuberculosis could be cured by breathing drier air. He also noted that people who went into Mammoth Cave, either to work or on a tour, often told him that they felt much better breathing the air inside, which was typically drier than the air outside. These two events gave him the idea of setting up a tuberculosis hospital inside the cave during the winter when the humidity was at its lowest. Two living quarters made of stone and eight made of wood and canvas were built, and sixteen patients came to live in the cave for five months in late 1842 through early 1843. In the end, the experiment was a failure and the hospital was closed. A few patients actually died in the cave, and one is now buried in the Old Guide’s Cemetery that you can see when hiking the Heritage Trail. Today all that remains of the tuberculosis hospital are the two stone quarters, one of which is in poor condition.

Ruins of the Tuberculosis Hospital inside Mammoth Cave

Star Chamber

The Violet City Lantern Tour continues a little farther into the cave, next stopping at the Star Chamber. This is a section of Mammoth Cave where the once-white gypsum-covered ceiling has been darkened from the soot of cane reed torches used by prehistoric people who came this far into the cave to mine the gypsum on the walls, and later the more modern oil lanterns used by cave guides who brought paying tourists into the cave. The guides discovered that if they threw stones at the ceiling, the stone would knock off the dark outer layer and expose the white of the gypsum, and in a cave lit only by lanterns, these spots looked like stars. The guides also realized they could charge male tourists for the privilege of creating a star for their girlfriends or wives who were also on the tour. What guy is going to say “no thanks” with his wife or girlfriend standing right next to him?

Ranger talks about the Star Chamber on the Violet City Lantern Tour of Mammoth Cave

The only other tours that go this far into the cave are the Star Chamber Lantern Tour and the Grand Historic Tour. Neither ventures farther, so from here on out, the sections of Mammoth Cave that you will see are only explored on the Violet City Lantern Tour.

Devil’s Looking Glass

The next stop is the Devil’s Looking Glass, a large slab of rock that has figures and symbols that were drawn 2,000 years ago. Nobody knows what the art represents, though experts on the subject speculate that it might be some sort of cave map. Modern graffiti has been added to the stone as well, some drawn right over the prehistoric cave art.

Devil’s Looking Glass inside Mammoth Cave

Wright’s Rotunda

Wright’s Rotunda is thought to be the second largest chamber in Mammoth Cave. It is somewhere between an acre and an acre and a half. Of course being lit only by lanterns, it is impossible to take in the magnitude of the room. To put it into perspective, the large room near the Historic Entrance called the Rotunda, which is clearly lit by electric light, is only about a quarter acre in size. The Rotunda is the sixth largest chamber in the cave.

Violet City Lantern Tour of Mammoth Cave stops at Wright’s Rotunda

Lost John

Prehistoric people did get this deep into the cave. One of the most famous is known as Lost John, a man who was crushed by a large boulder approximately 2,400 years ago while mining gypsum from the cave walls. Because his tools were still with him, it is thought that he was working alone and simply “disappeared,” never to be found again. Valuable tools would certainly have been taken by anyone who tried to rescue him. Because of the low humidity and temperature in the cave, Lost John was preserved just like a mummy. He is not the only mummy found in Mammoth Cave, which is why I refer to him as “one” of the most famous of the prehistoric people who entered the cave.

Lost John was discovered in 1935 by two cave guides who were helping the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) clear new trails within Mammoth Cave. The CCC was an organization created by the Franklin D. Roosevelt Administration to get men back to work during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Common work done by the organization was the creation of parks and trails. Many of the rocks piled along the trail you see today were put there by the CCC workers.

Once found, workers rigged a cable system to lift the boulder and retrieve Lost John. The straps around the boulder remain today.

Boulder that crushed Lost John inside Mammoth Cave

Lost John was studied and then put on display inside a glass case next to the Giant’s Coffin so that visitors could see him. Within a few months the body began to deteriorate due to the heat caused by the lamps in the display case. A new box was designed to be air tight. It also had a removable tray filled with thymol and calcium chloride to help with preservation. In 1975, a law was passed forbidding the display of prehistoric remains, and Lost John was reburied near to where he was found. Not even today’s Rangers know the exact location.

Violet City

Violet City gets its name not from the color violet—no such color exists in the cave—but from socialite Violet Blair Janin. Dr. John Croghan, the owner of Mammoth Cave until his death in 1849, ironically from tuberculosis, had no children, so he left the cave in trust to his nine nieces and nephews under the condition that the cave could not be sold until all of them had died. The last heir did so in 1926, and at that point the family was ready to sell the cave. Violet was Croghan’s grand niece, and she inherited a majority share in the cave from her mother (one of the nine nieces and nephews). She sold her share to the National Park Commission in 1929, and the rest of the minority shareholders soon did the same.

The chamber named after her was discovered in 1908 by Max Kämper and Ed Bishop. The last passageway before exiting the cave is called Kämper Hall. There is a crack of some sort in the roof of the cave in this section, and as a result, a small waterfall plummets from the ceiling. This is right at the end of the tour, and after climbing a rickety staircase, you will be on the same level of where the water first appears.

Waterfall inside Kämper Hall near the Violet City Entrance to Mammoth Cave

Upper level view of the waterfall inside Kämper Hall near the Violet City Entrance to Mammoth Cave

Modern stairs lead up to the manmade Violet City Entrance. Once out of the cave, there is a hill to hike up to where a bus waits to take tour participants back to the Mammoth Cave Visitor Center.

The Violet City Lantern Tour exits Mammoth Cave through the Violet City Entrance

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