Kentucky Hauntings by Roberta Simpson Brown Read Free Book Online

Some of the original news articles may still be found in newspaper archives or on the Internet. To find them, just type the subject of the story into your computer and search the Internet.
The Ghost of Floyd Collins
    A Kentucky death that made national headlines back in the 1920s was the death of Floyd Collins. Sand Cave in the Mammoth Cave area of central Kentucky is said to be haunted by Collins, an explorer who was trapped and died in the cave in 1925. This was exciting news to our families because it happened not too far away from us. We had relatives in the area. Thus, the story of Floyd Collins was close to our community and our hearts.
    The Collins family owned Crystal Cave near Mammoth Cave. Crystal Cave was beautiful, but it attracted few tourists because of its isolated location. The owners of the various caves in the vicinity competed for tourists in those days, and Collins wanted to find another entrance to the underground cave system that might result in more tourists visiting his family's cave.
    For three weeks, Floyd Collins worked on his plan to find an entrance or connection. During that time, he worked alone, exploring and expanding a hole that the news media would later call “Sand Cave.”
    Collins worked a few hours in Sand Cave on January 30, 1925, and managed to squeeze through some narrow passageways that he claimed led to a large chamber. His lamp was dying, so he decided to leave before exploring this chamber.
    As he was leaving, Collins accidentally knocked over his lamp, extinguishing his light. That made his attempted departure even more difficult. Unable to see where he was going, he dislodged a rock from the ceiling, pinning his left leg and making it impossible for him to get out. Later, it was determined that the rock weighed only 26½ pounds, but the way it was lodged prevented him and his rescuers from reaching it. It was also discovered later that he was trapped just 150 feet from the entrance to the cave and 55 feet below the surface.
    When Collins didn't come home, friends searched and found him the next day. They took him hot food and ran an electric lightbulb down into the passage to give him some light and warmth. Rescue efforts were started, but the unstable passage collapsed in two places on February 4. This eliminated his food and water supply and all contact except by voice. The rescuers believed the cave to be dangerous and impassable at this point, so they began to dig an artificial shaft and lateral tunnel in an attempt to reach Floyd through another chamber. Their efforts failed, but they kept trying to find something that would work.
    Soon the life-threatening predicament of Floyd Collins caught the attention of the media, and people came from all over the country to visit the site where Floyd was trapped. A kind of carnival-like atmosphere took over as Floyd was trapped and dying. His own family is said to have made a nice amount of money from selling Floyd Collins souvenirs. Reporters sent stories to their papers across the country, and everybody waited and prayed for his rescue. Tragically, that was not to be. Rescuers finally reached him on February 17, but by then he was dead from exposure, thirst, and starvation.
    At that point, rescuers decided that it was too dangerous to attempt to remove the body, so they left it as they found it and filled up the shaft with debris. Later, a doctor estimated that Floyd had died three or four days earlier, probably on February 13.
    A funeral service was held for Floyd Collins on the surface of the cave, but this did not seem right to his brother Homer. Sand Cave did not seem to Homer Collins like a proper resting place for his brother, even though notable explorers in Europe were often buried in the caves they discovered. Two months later, Homer and some friends reopened the shaft, dug a new tunnel, and were finally able to remove Floyd's body on April 23, 1925. On April 26, Floyd's body was buried on the Collins homestead