The Kentucky Caver Quarterly Proceedings of the
Bluegrass Grotto: the North Central Kentucky Area Chapter of the National Speleological Society
Page 13 [contents] ||   ||  ||
  vol. 41. iss. 1, March 2006
was still distant; I looked, too, and found we’d arrived just short of the pool where Ben found a baby salamander the previous week. Ben – perhaps for the first time in the caving we’ve done – voted that it was time to stop surveying and head out, since it was nearly 4pm and we had a dinner date at 6.

“It’ll probably only take us 20 minutes to get out,” he said. “We’re only, like, five minutes from the entrance!” I countered, slightly smug that perhaps he understood why I always got cranky and tired of sketching in Dunbar, but we took our time exiting the cave by collecting trash along the way. I took Charles’ trash bag since he was carrying the tape, and in the big room I double-bagged it with mine and proceeded to fill it with lengths of wire, chunks of metal and broken glass, cyalume light sticks, cans and bottles. When our bags were nearly bursting and the room was pretty well cleaned up we made our way to the entrance; it was all I could do to not drag my bag in the water. A gray afternoon light greeted us outside, and as soon as Ben and Charles were out of the cave I started up the bluff with my load, whose weight nearly pulled me down the steep incline several times! I hadn’t sweated all day – why’d I have to  start now? Ben’s bag of trash did burst, so he emerged from the woods cradling it carefully in his arms, and we double-bagged it to get it home. While we changed, Ben added up the footage: around 400 feet, in four hours – not bad at all! – and lots of passage still awaits us, probably much more than the 2000 feet estimated by the Tennessee Cave Survey. So far – especially at a whopping 10 minutes from our house – Eclipse Cave seems like a very worthwhile and entertaining new project.
History
Under Harrodsburg?

Apparently there have been rumors off and on about caves under Harrodsburg. These rumors first will not die. If anyone knows anything about this please contact the editors.

Sept. 27, 1912…. While excavating on the ‘local Panama Canal,’ better known as the School sewer, which runs from the school building to the town creek on Warwick Street (College), nearly a mile distance, the workmen opened the ground in to a cavern of immense depth on North Main Street. The cavern which they discovered is supposed to be the big cave that runs under so much of the ground on which the city of Harrodsburg is built.
(Through 200 Years, Geo. Chinn, 1974, Mercer Humane Society, p. 113)

Harrodsburg’s Newest Tourist Attraction Is Waiting To Be Developed

                The following appeared in The Harrodsburg Herald of September 3, 1903. Perhaps there is someone who may consider the efficacy of such an idea.
               
(Harrodsburg Herald, Thu May 11, 1995)
Under Harrodsburg's main streets and business houses is a cave of immense proportions that has three, if not more routes, some large enough to run street cars through. This cave has been partly explored several times, and while no extraordinary wonders have been discovered, still there is room enough under the town to be utilized for various purposes. There are rooms, 

Page 13 [contents] ||   ||  ||