Floyd Collins Final Resting Place

What if the dark allure of the underground world could spell both fortune and doom? Join me, Carole Townsend, as we uncover the riveting and sobering tale of Floyd Collins, a passionate cave explorer whose dreams of discovery turned into a harrowing tragedy in Kentucky’s Sand Cave in 1925. We’ll traverse the era of the Kentucky Cave Wars, a time when spelunkers fiercely competed to unveil the next hidden gem, transforming natural wonders into profitable tourist attractions. Floyd’s astonishing find of the Great Crystal Cave in 1917 set the stage for his final, fateful adventure—one that captivated the nation and underscored the perils of this dangerous pursuit.

And that's not all—brace yourself for a chilling exploration of Lake Lanier, Georgia’s largest man-made lake with a haunting past. Created by damming the Chattahoochee River and flooding 38,000 acres, this lake has claimed over 700 lives, earning its grim moniker as a "watery grave." Through tales from reputable sources like the Kentucky National Guard and the National Park Service, we’ll delve into the eerie lore and tragic stories that surround this infamous body of water. From the tragic fate of Floyd Collins to the mysterious depths of Lake Lanier, this episode promises a captivating journey through history, tragedy, and the relentless human spirit. Subscribe and share these haunting stories with your friends—trust me, you won't want to miss this.

Chapters

• 0:04 Kentucky Cave Wars and Tragedy
• 4:46 Floyd Collins Enters Sand Cave
• 20:15 Tragic Story of Floyd Collins
• 29:30 Georgia's Deadly Lanier Lake

Transcript

Carole Townsend: 0:04

In the early 1920s, cave exploring, or spelunking, was a favorite pastime in the United States. In fact, caves had become big business, with tourists flocking from all over the country to explore new and undiscovered underground challenges. The state of Kentucky is home to Mammoth Cave National Park, the world's longest known network of caves. The largely limestone underground structures and passages have been formed over millions of years, with acidic groundwater slowly but relentlessly licking and carving away at the stone walls. The temperature inside the caves always remains a steady 54 degrees. Back in 1925, all that was known was that spelunking was a national craze and a big tourist and therefore big money business. This fad sparked what became known as the Kentucky Cave Wars, and competition was fierce so fierce, in fact, that it caused men to risk everything just to find the next big discovery.

Carole Townsend: 1:28

Here in the South, we love our stories. We begin in childhood huddled around campfires, whispering of things best spoken in the dark, confiding in our small, trusting circles. Why is that, do you suppose? I have researched and investigated Southern history for more than 20 years and I believe it has to do with this region itself. There's a lot that hangs in the ether here and much that is buried deep in the soil. There's beauty here in the south. There's beauty here in the South and shame and courage. And make no mistake, there is evil. There's always been the element of the unexplained, the just out of reach that we can all feel but can never quite describe. And the best place for telling tales about such things is the comfort and safety of an old front porch. So I invite you tonight to come up here with me, settle back into a chair and get comfortable, pour yourself a drink if you like, and I'll share with you some of the tales best told in the company of friends, tales that prove that truth really is stranger than fiction. And I'll turn on the light You're going to want that. I'm Carole Townsend. Welcome to my Front Porch. The following podcast contains material that may be disturbing Listener. Discretion is advised.

Carole Townsend: 3:10

Floyd Collins was born in Logan County, kentucky, in 1887. From a very young age he loved the outdoors and soon developed a favorite hobby cave exploring. This pastime led him to his 1917 discovery of Great Crystal Cave on his family's farm. Floyd, understanding that people of the day were always looking for the next new underground adventure, developed Crystal Cave as an inviting tourist stop in Kentucky, developed Crystal Cave as an inviting tourist stop in Kentucky. Unfortunately, his find made him little to no profit, as Collins' new cave was not as easily accessible to travelers as were other caves in the state. Undeterred Collins knew of another cave that had money-making potential. This hollow, which eventually became known as Sand Cave, was located on his neighbor's property. The two struck a business deal, agreeing to share in the profits should the cave prove accessible and navigable for the average spelunker. Collins was optimistic. As Sand Cave was situated on prime real estate right beside Cave City Road, travelers would have to pass his cave on their way to explore other already charted destinations. It would surely prove to be a profitable find.

Carole Townsend: 4:46

Floyd Collins first entered Sand Cave on January 30, 1925, though he had been preparing the site and the cave entrance for weeks. Despite his thorough understanding of safety rules when exploring caves, he took with him that day just a single kerosene lantern. Hanging his coat on a tree limb at the cave entrance, collins entered Sand Cave Soon enough, he saw that the cave offered many challenges. Some passageways were so tight that he had to inch through crawling on his belly, extending one arm ahead of him and holding the other close to his side. Once he reached a more open space. His lantern began to flicker and, knowing the dangers of being deep inside a cave without light, collins turned to make his way back to the entrance. Going back through the tight passage and his light growing ever more dim, collins pushed against what he thought was the cave wall to speed his exit. He had actually pushed against a large rock to try to squeeze through the narrow space. This was a mistake, as the rock became dislodged and pinned his ankle underneath it. As he struggled, loose gravel rained down on him from the cave's ceiling, burying him up to his waist. He could not move and became trapped.

Carole Townsend: 6:22

55 feet underground and just 150 feet from the cave entrance. The light from his lantern dimmed, then flickered and sputtered a time or two and then winked out completely In the black darkness of Sand Cave. Floyd Collins understood that he was buried alive almost 60 feet underground. He alternated screaming for help with exhausted sleep for an entire day. It was indeed a full day before anyone realized Collins was missing.

Carole Townsend: 7:08

His neighbors, knowing that Collins had gone inside the cave the day before, were used to such a prolonged absence when Floyd would go exploring. But they became worried when he was not home the next day. They began looking for him and, before the day was through, learned that he was trapped inside Sand Cave. While none of them was brave enough to try to navigate the narrow passages, they were able to communicate with him. He told them that he was trapped and could not move, and soon his brother, homer, was summoned to the scene. He was able to squeeze inside the cave to get to his brother, but he could do nothing to help him except bring him food, coffee and a blanket. The gravel and then the large rock that had trapped Floyd's foot had to be removed. Homer tried digging his brother out with his hands, but to no avail.

Carole Townsend: 8:09

Rescue efforts ramped up, with engineers, geologists and explorers arriving on the scene to help One man. A respected firefighter offered the idea to pull Collins out with a harness, but the effort nearly broke his back and was simply too painful. Both Collins and the firefighter also knew that if the effort were to be successful, collins could very possibly leave his foot in the cave under the rock. Reportedly he said he didn't care. The rock, reportedly he said he didn't care, no matter. His body could not have survived the pulling and maneuvering, so he waited.

Carole Townsend: 8:57

Conventional efforts failing, miners decided to dig a shaft to reach the injured man. However, torrential rain, cave collapses, bitterly cold temperatures and boisterous disagreements about the best way to free Collins hindered the already disorganized efforts. Precious time was slipping away. No one was leading the teams or directing the rescuers. Tension mounted With every day that Floyd Collins was trapped in Sand Cave. The news story became bigger. Within just a few days it became too big for small cave city.

Carole Townsend: 9:40

People from all over the country began arriving on the scene and before long the atmosphere took on a circus-like feel. Vendors set up areas to sell food, cheap souvenirs and liquor mostly moonshine pickpockets and con artists abounded. A preacher spoke to the crowd of thousands and people sang hymns. Unscrupulous opportunists passed collection cups. At the same time, lee Collins, floyd's father, begged onlookers for money to support the rescue efforts. Thousands crowded the rescue site and this day became known later as Carnival Sunday.

Carole Townsend: 10:27

By Monday, february 2nd, reporters began showing up, the most notable being William Burke Miller, whose nickname was Skeets, because it was said that he was no bigger than a mosquito. Miller was able to crawl far into the bowels of Sand Cave, actually conducting several interviews with Collins through the rubble and the rock. These interviews would later earn Miller the Pulitzer Prize. But the reporter became so dismayed by Collins' predicament that he put the career-changing story aside and volunteered to become a member of the rescue party. On Tuesday, february 3rd, floyd Collins had become the nation's top news story.

Carole Townsend: 11:18

A crew of men from a monument and headstone company in Louisville arrived on the scene ready to chisel away the rock above Floyd, giving rescuers better access. Floyd's friend, john Gerald, wouldn't hear of it as the move he said would be too risky of it, as the move he said would be too risky. This interference started a rift between groups trying to free the entombed man. Locals felt like they were being excluded from the rescue efforts, while outsiders who had no knowledge about the local caves were taking over. Resentment and anger were simmering, often boiling over. The bickering and arguing again slowed rescue efforts. Later, a man from a Kentucky asphalt company offered his assistance by scouting out a suitable location to dig a rescue shaft. His was the first attempt to organize the hundreds of rescuers on the scene in a coordinated effort. However, Collins brothers and other locals disagreed with that approach again, feeling that the move would be too dangerous. Instead, the crew from the asphalt company agreed to simply help remove rocks from the tight passageway to assist in the rescue.

Carole Townsend: 12:43

It was on this date that the National Guard arrived for crowd control, since fights, and even a shooting or two, had broken out. Amid the chaos, skeets Miller and other volunteers rigged an electrical cord and some light bulbs to a generator and then strung them through the cave to give Floyd some light and a little warmth. This seemed to lift his spirits. Since the first known day of Floyd Collins' situation, volunteers were tasked with getting food, water and blankets to him while he waited to be freed. He was cold, his voice shaky. He vacillated between states of lethargy and lucidity, with dehydration and exposure to the elements taking their toll. Later, rescuers found the food and the blankets that were supposed to be passed to Floyd hidden in crevices along the cave walls. The interior of Sand Cave was unstable, water had begun covering the floor and people were afraid to be inside the shifting cave walls. They would come out of the cave telling onlookers that, yes, they had delivered the food in the blankets and that Floyd was wrapped snugly in a warm, dry blanket drinking coffee when they left him, knowing all along that he was alone and cold and hungry, and cold and hungry. Churches across the nation began holding services for Floyd Collins and the rescuers.

Carole Townsend: 14:27

On Thursday, february 5th, kentucky Governor William Fields placed National Guard Brigadier General Henry Denhart in command of the rescue. Engineer Henry Carmichael would supervise the digging of a six foot by six foot vertical shaft to rescue Collins. Confusion and disagreement regarding the placement of the shaft delayed the project until midday. Since the use of pneumatic tools, drills and dynamite could easily collapse the cave walls, the men could only use picks and shovels. It was slow, tedious work. A mobile hospital was set up to treat bruises, contusions and exhaustion while everyone waited for the now-famous Floyd Collins to emerge alive and well.

Carole Townsend: 15:22

By February 6th. Floyd had been in the cave for an entire week. The digging was slow. Rain, mud and cold winds made the work slower and even more difficult made the work slower and even more difficult. More volunteers and onlookers crowded the site. The National Guard had set up barbed wire fencing to keep the rescue site clear and safe.

Carole Townsend: 15:49

Locals were being kept away and they did not like that. Tempers flared and fights broke out, often over the best way to extricate Collins from his tomb. No matter the method chosen, it would be dangerous. What many didn't realize was that Sand Cave, unlike the many other limestone caves in the area was relatively untouched before Collins began his exploration. It was a rather fragile environment. The walls were mud, rock and, of course, sand, making them very unstable. In February, ice played a role in holding the walls steady and strong, but the throngs of people, their campfires and their body heat, the digging, walking and bumping against those walls turned the cave into a melting house of cards.

Carole Townsend: 16:56

The situation was precarious not just for Collins but for everyone working to free him. Still more automobiles arrived, jamming area roads. Movie crews showed up hoping to capture the drama. Floyd's brother and good friend were banned from the site site as their presence seemed to instigate arguments and dissension. All the while, floyd Collins waited, begging the men to hurry and to keep talking to him. The isolation and hopelessness must have been heavy for the trapped man. And hopelessness must have been heavy for the trapped man. I'm reading here a passage from the Farmer's Almanac dated February 16, 2024.

Carole Townsend: 17:51

Floyd, who had been crawling into caves since boyhood, had been in tight spots before, but never one in which he felt so helpless. His hands had become scraped and bloody from clawing at rocks. Icy snow melt dripped through the cave ceiling onto his face. The damp ground in the 54-degree chamber chilled him. The 54-degree chamber chilled him, even knowing that it would be hours before family and friends missed him. He yelled for help until he lost his voice, alone with his thoughts. Surely one memory crossed his mind A day earlier he had told his stepmother, miss Jane, that he dreamed about being trapped by a rock in his new cave and angels had come for him About his latest discovery. She had warned don't go back in there, floyd. Later, one rescuer remembered seeing Collins' face covered with a handkerchief and he reached in to remove it. Collins replied weakly no, the water. The steady drip of the icy water was slowly driving him insane. The rescuer was reminded of the dreaded Chinese water torture designed to do exactly that.

Carole Townsend: 19:24

The next few days saw the mayhem spiral downward, with crowds swelling and many setting out on their own to find a way to free Collins. The Red Cross arrived and began feeding the rescuers. Until then, it's been said, the workers only had black coffee, crackers and whiskey to fuel them. Cave City was overwhelmed with reporters there from every state in the Union and some from overseas. The Floyd Collins incident sparked the first-ever transatlantic phone call from Kentucky to England made by an English reporter. Up-to-date news reports went out over radios, also a first nationwide.

Carole Townsend: 20:15

As reporters will often do, members of the media began speculating and painting the entire scene in a negative light in order to create headlines. Rumors began to circulate that rescuers weren't doing enough and that, in their bumbling efforts, they were doing nothing short of murdering Floyd Collins. Another rumor made the rounds that Collins had been murdered by someone inside the cave, his body hidden deep in the cold and dark, not meant to be discovered. Yet another rumor circulated that food and water were being withheld from the trapped man so that he would die. This, some said, would increase interest in this new, possibly lucrative, cave discovery. And then then came the rumor that Floyd Collins wasn't really in Sand Cave after all, that he had staged this entire stunt to drum up business for his newfound tourist attraction. In this version of events, collins was rumored to be traveling to and from the cave each night, hoodwinking the entire world each night, hoodwinking the entire world. This rumor was so disturbing and divisive that it spurred the police to step in and order a grand jury investigation into the matter. Was Floyd Collins trapped deep inside Sand Cave or was this entire drama staged simply to make money?

Carole Townsend: 22:00

On February 10th, a military court of inquiry convened to look into suspicions of criminal activity aimed at blocking rescue attempts and to disprove the rumor that Collins was perpetuating a hoax. Volunteers, dismayed, began packing up and leaving, believing they'd been duped. Rain continued to drench the site and the remaining volunteers, slowing rescue efforts even more. The next day temperatures dropped into the 20s and snow began to fall. The bitter cold slowed efforts even further. And still Floyd Collins waited. By February 12th he had been trapped for 13 days and had not eaten in more than a week. The court's inquiry continued, albeit slowly. The court's inquiry continued, albeit slowly. On February 13th, the court's inquiry moved to the rescue site with officials asking volunteers there whether Floyd was indeed trapped inside the cave. And then another rumor surfaced that Floyd had already been rescued. Washington DC and then another rumor surfaced that Floyd had already been rescued. Washington DC was so overwhelmed with phone calls that business in the nation's capital was suspended for a day just to field those calls and to deal with the situation.

Carole Townsend: 23:31

At 10pm that evening, the rescue shaft had reached 52 feet down into the cave. On Saturday, valentine's Day, the shaft had reached 55 feet. Rescuers were so desperate to reach Floyd that they began digging laterally in an attempt to reach him faster. It had been raining heavily. The walls of the shaft were beginning to soften and slump. Two feet of standing water on the cave floor had to be pumped out for work to continue. By the end of the night on February 15th, the tunnel that had been dug laterally was within just seven feet of Floyd. Everyone stood by anxiously and waited to see him pulled out, worse for his ordeal, but alive.

Carole Townsend: 24:28

On February 16th, tunnelers broke through to the narrow chamber that held Floyd Collins. A physician who also served as coroner, went in first and came out uttering only one word dead. Nature had proven to be too powerful an adversary. Floyd Collins had lost his life. Based on the condition of his body, the on-site coroner estimated that he had been dead for one or maybe two days. Starvation, exhaustion and exposure were listed as the causes of death, and exposure were listed as the causes of death. Because his foot and leg were still trapped and because the cave ceiling and walls were crumbling and failing at an alarming rate, officials on site decided to leave the body inside Sand Cave and seal the entrance. Floyd Collins' promising discovery had now become his coffin.

Carole Townsend: 25:40

The Sand Cave rescue attempt became the third biggest media event of the time, second only to the two World Wars. Another interesting point to note here is that Charles Lindbergh himself was hired to deliver photograph negatives from Horse Cave near the rescue site to a Chicago newspaper. Later Lindbergh learned that he had delivered the negatives to the wrong paper. Two years after that he would make his historic transatlantic flight. Now this remarkable and tragic event would be fascinating enough if it ended here, but remember it took place in the South.

Carole Townsend: 26:28

Sand Cave was sealed after Floyd's body was found, as it was intended to be his final resting place. But just two months later Floyd's brother, homer, decided that he was not pleased with these arrangements. He and some friends reopened the cave and dug their way to his brother's body, removing it. On April 23, 1925 the body was taken to Cave City for embalming and then transported to the Collins family farm and buried on a hillside near Great Crystal Cave. Lee Collins renamed Great Crystal Cave Floyd Collins Crystal, but the next year Lee sold the homestead to Dr Harry Thomas, a dentist and the owner of two other caves in the area. Dr Thomas disinterred Floyd Collins' body and put it on display in a glass-topped coffin inside Crystal Cave, where it remained for several years. On the night of March 18, 1929, the body was stolen. A few days later it was found in a nearby field, the injured left leg missing. After this horrendous desecration, floyd Collins' remains were returned to the cave named for him and placed inside a chained casket In 1962, great Crystal Cave was purchased by Mammoth Cave Baptist Church Cemetery in 1989. It took a team of 15 men just three days to remove the casket and the accompanying tombstone from the cave. Tombstone from the Cave.

Carole Townsend: 28:40

Floyd Collins' harrowing entombment and the remarkable events that followed have been memorialized in film, in books and in music. The 1951 film Ace in the Hole starring Kirk Douglas, references the tragedy. Collins' adventurous life and terrible death inspired the haunting musical comedy titled Floyd Collins. A documentary, a few books, a museum and many songs also memorialize the man and those dreadful events that began on a cold January morning back in 1925. Join me next time as we examine the strange and haunting history of Lake Sidney.

Carole Townsend: 29:30

Lanier, georgia's largest man-made lake. Glanier, georgia's largest man-made lake. Since the mid-1950s when the Chattahoochee River was dammed to flood 38,000 acres of land to create the lake. There have been more than 700 deaths on this beautiful deep blue watery grave. Why watery grave why. I'm Carole Townsend, veteran newspaper journalist and six-time award-winning author. You can find me on social media and check out my website at www. caroletownsendcom. As always, thanks for listening, and if you're enjoying these tales of Southern history and lore, I hope you'll tell your friends. Subscribe to this podcast on Spotify, apple Play, iheart and anywhere you listen. My team and I benefited from the following research and writings to bring this tale to you the Kentucky National Guard, military News, national Park Service. Tragedy at Sand Cave. Dreamed of being trapped. Collins had a terrifying vision, his mother says, but did not heed. New York Times, march 7th 1925. The Farmer's Almanac and Wikipedia Floyd Collins.