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IMAGES
From
Nostalgiaville |
NOTE: A Click of your Mouse on most of the pictures will enlarge them for better viewing
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Lost River
Cave, Kentucky |
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Climbing Wall |
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River Walk |
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CHARLIE MILLER BUTTERFLY HOUSE Dedicated to Charles W Miller 1945 - 1996. Miller's Bottled Gas, Inc, Treasurer. Bowling Green - Warren County Jaycees, President 1978 - 1979. Kentucky Jaycees, President 1981 - 1982. JCI Senator Number 26702. Advocate of the Lost River Cave Valley and member of the Board of Directors of the Friends of Lost River, Inc. |
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BLUE HOLE This "Blue Hole" and three others exposed in the valley are the only ground water windows in the 85 square mile Lost River karst drainage basin. For over a century, this "Blue Hole" has been thought to be bottomless. This assertion said to be based on railroad engineer's soundings setting the depth at 437 feet. Cave credence to the claim in Ripley's Believe It or Not that Lost River is "the shortest and deepest river in the world. |
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THE OLD MILL DAM Rebuilt in 1933, the historic Mill Dam impounded water used to power the water wheel. For over 20 years, the water powered a turbine driven hydroelectric generator which produced 15 kilowatts and produced 14.8 horsepower from a head of 13-1/2 feet. The electricity provided light and power for the "Nite Club" and cave tours. |
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THE CAVE MILL Operated at this site for more than a century by an undershot water wheel. The last cave mill burned in 1915. Located first inside the cave entrance. The mill was moved to the Nashville Road level in 1874. To power this mill the drive shaft was extended through a hole made in the cave ceiling. Historically utilized for milling grain, wool carding and lumber sawing. The 1874 mill building also housed a large brandy and whiskey distillery. |
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JESSE JAMES James and his infamous gang are believed to have hidden in the cave following their robbery at the Southern Deposit Bank of Russellville, Kentucky on March 18, 1868. A Bowling Green physician reported to his wife that he had been taken to the cave to treat a sick or injured man by none other than Jesse James in person. |
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| UNDERGROUND NITE CLUB The opening of this unique "Nite Club" was heralded in billboard magazine in 1933. Many dances featuring big bands of the period were held here to about 1960. Collegiate, high school and local social clubs held formal dances here, and many organizations had meetings and picnics in the cave and valley. The first wedding to be solemnized here was held December 1934. |
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In memory of E S, W L, and Eunice Perking Smith, owners of Lost River Cave 1917 - 1973 donated by their family. |
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| Lost River Cave |
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| A Civil War Site |
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JOHN HUNT MORGAN The leader of "Morgan's Raiders," a special Confederate unit which operated behind Union lines during the Civil War, hid with his force in the Lost River Cave following their burning of the depot at South Union in Logan County. Morgan recounts this episode in his memoirs. |
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John Hunt Morgan as a young businessman about 1850 |
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Captain Thomas Hinds |
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| FALL 1861 On September 20, 1861 John Hunt Morgan left Lexington, Kentucky with two wagons full of arms he had taken from the Lexington Armory. Eight days later he and his men, the Lexington Rifles, arrived in Bowling Green and began is service in the Confederate Army. Morgan and his men were organized into an independent company. Morgan was elected captain and his brother-in-law, Basil Duke, first lieutenant. Morgan's company was ordered to Camp Burnham, one mile south of Bowling Green where two more companies were added and Morgan's Squadron was formed.. Initially, the men in Morgan's command were undisciplined and knew little or nothing about being soldiers. According to Howard Swiggett, author of Rebel Raider, the Life of John Hunt Morgan. "The camp at Bowling Green was a mad drunken hole, full of wild outfits... impatient of drill or control." This state of affairs was short lived, however. After a skirmish with well-trained Union infantry, in which Morgan's Company fared badly, Morgan and Duke decided that their men must be rigorously drilled. For several weeks Morgan's small command was trained in both cavalry and infantry tactics, first at Camp Burnham and later at Camp Allen, near Woodburn. The documents regarding Morgan's time in Bowling Green are as varied as their authors. No one knows for sure if Morgan or his men camped at Lost River Cave. However, in February 1863 a small detachment of Morgan's men commanded by Captain Thomas Hinds, 9th Kentucky Cavalry, burned the depot and several freight cars at South Union. Hinds' men escaped Federal pursuers and, according to local tradition, they hid at Lost River. We do know that both sides used Lost River Cave or Cave Mill, as it was called during the Civil War. Its location on Louisville-Nashville Turnpike and an abundant water supply made Lost River Cave the perfect camping ground. |
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