By Dave Lavender
The Herald-Dispatch

CAVE CITY, Ky. -- One of my favorite black history stories out of Kentucky is about the courageous cave guides who explored many of the passages at Mammoth Cave National Park, the world's longest known cave system at 365 miles and counting.

Just inside the historic entrance of the cave (one of 25 entrances at Mammoth Caves), you feel American history's dismal yoke on people of color as you pass the saltpeter mines. There, about 70 slaves and oxen were forced to mine out the potassium nitrate to make gunpowder to fight the British

But a little further on the historic tour, and you find out about how a young black guide named Stephen Bishop who crossed the 120-foot-deep Bottomless Pit on Oct. 20, 1938, opening up scores of new passageways and forging a new slice of freedom underground for dozens of black cave guides for the next 100 years.

Bishop, who was brought to the cave by Dr. John Croghan of Louisville, had a thirst for exploration. Bishop discovered the Roaring and Echo rivers and in them the eye-less fish, a bizarre inhabitant of this light-less environment that he called "a grand, gloomy place that tests the limits of your own imagination."

In 1840, Bishop found what many would call his greatest discovery, the 192-foot-high Mammoth Dome.

Just as importantly, Bishop, who passed away at the age of 37 in 1857 (a year after gaining his freedom), shared his secrets of the trade with two Nashville slaves, Materson "Mat" and Nicholas Bransford.

Both would guide for more than 50 years. Mat Bransford's grandson Will would represent Mammoth Cave at the 1892 World's Fair.

Not only were they discovering new routes, rooms and passages, but the guides were also introducing legions of people from around the world to the cave.

Since news of the Mammoth Cave had reached Europe as early as 1817, the caves were drawing as many as 30,000 to 40,000 visitors a year by the 1860s.

Above ground, you can take the Heritage Trail (located beside the Mammoth Cave Hotel) at Mammoth Cave National Park. The easy 0.3-mile boardwalk and paved trail leads to the old guides cemetery, where Stephen Bishop is buried.

Make sure you check out the short history film that talks about the cave's rich history.

And Elizabeth and Betsy Mitchell's book, "Journey to the Bottomless Pit: The Story of Stephen Bishop and Mammoth Caves," is available at the park's bookstore and online at www.amazon.com.