The Tragic Story Of Floyd Collins at Mammoth Cave

I'm Ranger Jon and I'm gonna give you that they had story of Floyd Collins in the Sam cave Almanac and the way this works is we do it in three legs so you can do one leg you can do two legs you can do all three legs but it's a driving tour the first leg is right here the second leg will drive you and your car I'll take the van that I brought came in with and we'll go way back in the middle of nowhere to Floyd's farm his cave his property then the third leg is to his us the cemetery where he resides today okay so that's basically how it works Lloyd Collins there's Floyd Collins I go back up a little bit so vacancies everybody boy all right so here's Floyd Collins right here and Floyd Collins was alive and well in the 1920s okay so this story happens about a hundred years ago it's not quite the 20s but 2018 getting close look at this map and you'll see US highway 31 W okay that was the main artery is called the Dixie Highway that went from the north down to the south before the interstate okay and back in the 20s travel was in its infancy and so were roads in their infancy so there's only one main road from cave City right here to go to Mammoth Cave now who in their right mind would want to go to a lesser cave after they saw the grandest cave and even a hundred years ago Mammoth Cave already had that tradition and so here was Floyd Collins Crystal Cave he had a wonderful cave a very beautiful cave but he had very bad location Location Location so roads here were rough but roads beyond that we're almost like like a cow path and and impassable during certain times because of the weather so this this story right here happens 1925 On January 30 okay so remember that day so here's what happened manic look in the clearing in the forest right there and you can see kind of like an opening right there maybe uh all 200 feet in and so forth that was the old road dead right there currently the roadbed clearly is right here and just why we're standing here you can hear cars running law and so forth well here was what floyd did he had a beautiful cave on his farm but nobody came to his farm because again location location location but he knew that farmer doyle now he's your imagination here and a hundred years ago this was not the worst was reforested by the Splane Conservation Corps during the 1930s and so forth but this was a farm and the man that owned it was a guy named Dean Doyle okay and the Doyle had a cave on his property called Sam cave and so Floyd knew about Sam cave and Floyd knew that this was right on the main road so he had better locations so Floyd goes to be Doyle and says you've got a cave on your property let's say I see if I can develop it to make it into little show cave and if we can we'll split the profits 50/50 well boy B Doyle says yes absolutely a great idea let's do it why would they do all that in the first place because if you look around here I'm from Northern Iowa this is not farmland to me this is like scratching out a living just trying to make ends meet here so if you are blessed to have a little cave opening on your property you could be on the road beckoning people off the road saying hey you're going to Mammoth Cave want to come see my little mom-and-pop cave and if you are successful and had great location you could make as much money or maybe a living showing your little cave as you could trying to scratch our living us racing tobacco or trying to Hume trees into meritocracy just a going rate was like a dollar a tie so I don't care how strong you are you pick any tree here and you tell me in one day how many railroad ties could you make to the to the railroad specification it would be a lot of hard work for very little money so Floyd goes in to the cave on January 30 and he goes in he breaks God every caving rule that there is he goes in alone yes from light and so forth well he looks around inside the cave and on his way out of the cave in a very narrow passageway the boys and the young thing here they could party get out but an adult had a real tight fit for you you were squirming like this and exhale and and moved what he knocks open his open flame lantern a lantern goes out so now he's in pitch-black darkness okay so now he's flailing around and in doing so he kicks Iraqis from behind him and the rock falls on the small of his ankle and pins him so now he's deep inside the cave and he can't move forward he can't lose backwards and he has no wife and nobody knows that he's there so now the next day the next day the next day his mother starts to worry saying you know what you know two brothers and a special-needs sister he says to Marshall and mother sister Marshall and Homer go check up on Floyd and see what's going on so the boys come down here from way far away and I'll show you if you want to do the next leg of the journey and they see Boyd's coat outside now have you guys been in the cave yet have you been in the cave yeah you have you just said you did the historic so you know that it's comfortably cool inside the cave and in the wintertime you would not need a winter coat until you get to the cave but you could take it off because it's like spring-like weather inside the cave and hot humidity anyway they seat Boyd's post so they know he's in the game and so they y'all--y'all blood and sure enough I they hear a very faint you know help I get help I'm stuck and so for the next couple of days local people you know only brothers help me I'll get neighbors and they try to get Boyd out and they simply can't do it so in the meantime the word spreads young gossip and so forth that that there's a man Fort Collins and he's stuck inside the cave so that is the first chapter of the first section of this storm so come on this way and I'll tell you the next one then we go right to Sand Key where Floyd Collins instructor okay none of you are from Chicago but I bet you've heard of the paper the Chicago Tribune and it is like a nationwide major paper well here's the Chicago Sunday Tribune new cave may save Collins well before we go there look at this carnival Sunday okay Boyd was trapped January 30 but now it's February 8 so he's been down there 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 days and so on carnival Sunday here's what it looked like that there are hamburgers dance people selling balloons and food like a carnival atmosphere and it is part of the country if you have that many people is going to be moonshine if you that gets sold and consumed there's gonna be fights break out and so it look at the Cave City Road that is sown you about people just we're curious they stopped us it was so jammed they got out and they walked to this site right around the bend where we're going next and to the point where the governor of the state of Illinois Illinois of Kentucky said that's it we're calling out the National Guard we've got to have order restored because there's a man that is trapped down here and all this folderol on the surfaces is distracting and counter productive so that what was that's what was going on so they brought in a man named Carmichael and this guy Carmichael is a driller and he drills young oil wells and and he excavates rock the roads and so forth so he was the man that hopefully could be the job and drill a shaft and that's why it says new cave may save Collins because they're gonna drill a shaft down and see if they could get underneath Floyd and pull the rock off his ankle and slip him out and bring him up so there's carnival Sunday honestly and I do this twice do this take a look right over the edge cause right there is sand cave that's where Floyd Collins was crap take a look and then death oh well if we lean him over upside down the boys okay all right so here's the story everybody all right we saw what day was Floyd trapped inside sand cave but there's the 30th of what what year 1995 right you are very good and carnival Sunday was one day February 8th of 1925 very good so now look at the days here in red and so forth these were the days that this Carmichael guy was going to be drilling a shaft next to it matter of fact you can still see the depression out at the mouth of the cave right there and here's Homer and Marshall or Marshall and a homer his two brothers that attempted to go down and talk to Floyd and get a rope around Floyd pull it out and so forth look at this mason jar right here a mason jar was a way to bring maybe hot coffee or hot chicken soup down deployed to grab food boosted spirits and Tom yes we'll work hard to get you out and hang in there Floyd and so forth well eventually what they do is they dig and they finally get through to Floyd on the 16th of February after being census xxx what they find unfortunately is bad news Floyd is no longer life he died so they lower a doctor inside in the shaft to pronounce him so they give you know take his vitals and so forth and doctor says yes he is dead and I sign his in a sedated or death certificate that yes he died and appears to the doctor that he died about three days ago well no this you you guys are all blessed in all the ways that matter you have the money to travel and nice cars and and provide for your beautiful family your children and so forth but the Collins family were very very dirt poor people they had nothing they had no money so when they came to them with the bad news and said okay mister mrs. Collins what should we do and they said we have no way of paying for anybody to extract the body we're just gonna have to cover up that shaft and this will be the final resting place for our son then what happened was this you know if I went around right here and asked the adults of a horrible way to die everybody could think of a horrible horrible ectric you to being me or drowned or you know fire well for some people the worst thing that could ever happen to you is being trapped alone in a cave and dying in a cave while people from around the nation have heard this worldwide story or a nationwide story at least we're doing this to write a note in a and of sympathy and and and support and hope put a dollar in the envelope and send it to the Collinses anonymously well now you know about a month and a half like in April and they had enough money about $150 that they went back and contacted this this Carmichael guy and he roses workers right up here and said we have enough money would you extract our son's body out of the cave and allow us to take his body and bury it on our farm and it's the course they did well here comes here comes the start of the darkness of the story and I mean emotionally darken and hormones despicable things when the count Wendy Carmichael crew went down there guess what they found they found that these jars full of coffee in these jars full of chicken suits and so forth never made it down to Floyd after all what happened where the people that went down and they had to go down on a 45 with just about and come back on a 45 too too tight to turn around the people just lost their nerve they they they basically chickened out and instead of you know odd dishonouring their pride they said you know they they didn't say yeah I got afraid and I didn't help Floyd they basically said yeah Floyd's fine and you know he's in good spirits and so forth so all of that was found and it was untouched by Floyd and the other thing that they found in and maybe you know this if you've ever been on a trip to the emergency room you know somebody gets hurt and they're bleeding profusely the first thing you do is you know you have tunnel vision is like okay you know wrap the looming you know above your above your heart you know direct pressure let's get to the ER well in in the panic of the moment they didn't realize that there was another passageway and the other passive voice would have gone around and they could have gotten Floyd out but did in the panic of the moment they never found that passageway so a month and a half later they found it and they thought mmm that would have worked we could I got that rock off slid him around and away we go so that ends the first chapter of this dark story but the story gets much much darker when we go to roads right so if you want to here's what we'll do we'll go back up on their cars drive and you're thinking I'll be driving you to the middle of nowhere and to this day a hundred years later it truly is the middle of nowhere and then well there's a road game I've got to stop open the road gate I'll let you guys pass through then I go through then I close the road gate so nobody else can come in with us and we drive two more miles to this farm and to his ticket office which is pretty interesting indeed so here's Floyd's family home now know this Floyd was never married Floyd was the son his mom and dad lived here with Homer Marshall Floyd and a special needs sister very modest symmetrical house bigger the government since we own this now look what we've done we've stabilized it put on the tin roof stabilized it over here didn't remodel it but just stabilized it but if you look at old pictures of Lloyd Collins and his farm and so forth that is it right there yes we painted it green maybe we stabilized the floors a little bit but that's basically his house where the the symmetry has to do with inviting your friends or family so family would use one door and honored guests yell if you had guests stay over they would use another door and they might have their own room might have their own commode in this case they did not have indoor plumbing so that was not something I could offer go and hear half of this the right half where the big window screen encounter is that was Floyd's ticket office right there it was added onto when another man bought that from Floyd and operated this but that's part of the story that I want to tell you that gets real dark so do this if you want to you are welcome to go into Floyd's house I think the right side is open not all about the left but if you want to go in take a look ground perfectly fine last person out just close the door and of course it's somebody else's home be respectful that was the chimney that was up there before they before they stabilized the house so they took the chimney off and put down at timber star this king take a look [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] all right here comes the dark start off part of the story and moms and dads is this darkness I think we'll be okay for children to hear but if you say Ranger Joe and I'll stop okay so here goes so let's review quickly Floyd died in San Cave correct and he was buried in sand cave because the Collins family had no money for plays buried for about a month and a half then through the generosity of strangers money appeared and they were able they the columns were able to employ this shot of this Carmichael got to extract Floyd's body and bury him on that on the family farm and that their burial plot was right in that tree line right there so be I Floyd was a the only man I know if that was buried two times okay most people are buried once he's buried twice well now here comes a man a doctor his name was dr. Thomas and he was from horse cave now you're not from around here but if you get on the interstate and you go north on i-65 about nine miles you're gonna go right through horse cage well he was the doctor okay he was a dentist so he comes this dr. Thomas knocks on the door and said Collins family I know of your troubles your heartache your your your a terrible situation your son's death I'm I'm gonna be an answer to your prayer I would like to buy your farm from you and the money that I pay you for your farm your property and so forth you can live on with it you know with modesty the rest of your life and they think what a answer to our prayers what an angel what a good man he is so they do but what they don't realize is in the fine print of this contract this deed and so forth is that the doctor now has given himself the rights to Exuma or to dig up Floyd's body and to put it on display so now the boy how despicable it gets darker than that but how despicable that now the doctor takes his body Floyd's body out of his grave puts it in a casket and takes off the lid of the casket and puts on a glass top so now he takes it with it with the help of workers they take it down in Floyd's cave and they put it on display in Floyd's key so now people that before and you remember what I said people never came here location location location well now people had this morbid sense of curiosity it's like Floyd Collins the man that died we can see his body let's go so now people came in droves the doctor made no other his business went like that made a fortune now in very short order all their little mom-and-pop cave owners are trying to scratch on living what do you think happened to their business it basically dried up and so in very short order like three months afterwards a mysterious happening happened where somebody breaks into this cave the doctor owns it now and somebody steals Floyd's body steals it right out of the glass case and disposes of the body well three days later a search in the woods they find Floyd's body propped or hung in tree like someone was gonna go one two three he pull and throw his body into the green river and float through Floyd would float away never to be seen again well their attempt didn't either backfired whatever it didn't happen so now they have Floyd's body again they call an undertaker they bring Floyd back clean him up a little bit put him in another casket this time it is a conventional top chain around it so now Floyd has been buried four times once and cave once right here once here with glass and once now with chains over it but the guides that were running this operation if you were to tip them they would go to the casket and they would lift it up because there's enough slack in the chain that you can lift the lid of Floyd's casket and still period and see for his body and so that is the the despicable story of this of this area of this farm and that was his ticket office the doctor added on to it and put on bathrooms like in the late 40s 50s and so forth and as you know any news story any news story is news like right now what is the big news about caves and rescue right now exactly and I heard that they got those kids out and I heard they got the the coach out there fighting me held up a for for all that vegetal that remains to be seen but at least the kids are stay safe thank goodness but I mean a story like that is like news and it's like as soon as the news breaks you're like wait stop I want to hear this you know stop doing everything but you know that that story will peak it'll subside well the same thing happened here yeah after a few years you know Lindbergh crosses the Atlantic that's big news this little baby Jessica you know falls in a well there's big news in the 1920s and so forth and eventually the stock market crashes and so forth so I mean there are other stories that that overtake it and overlap that employs a story begins to decline so what happens then is this is that in the early 1940s the National Park Service comes and wants to buy this property from this doctor and eventually a horse trade they come up for the price any buys the property so now it is part of the National Park even though it's not a point that we show there's no electricity out here I'd be surprised if your cell phones work if somebody had a cry bloody murder cry all you want I doubt my radio would transmit from here to get health and so forth we're in the middle of nowhere and here it is almost a hundred years later but they buy it and so now Floyd was never married but he did have nieces and nephews so the nieces and nephews contact the Park Service and say look our uncle is still buried inside this cave you've hooked by that despicable doctor Thomas if you the park service start to ever show this or people come here and so forth it would not be right that our uncle is still buried right there in a casket and chains and look in and so forth so in 1989 not that long ago 1989 you know none of these children were alive but you know all of the adults were they take boy's body out of the cave one last time and they take them and in a procession they bury him in the mammoth a Baptist Church Cemetery which would be our last stunt and so if you want to now you asked so politely and now the answer is if you want to walk around you can peer in but be careful because there might be roosting bats and also there might be Hornets or those mud dauber things than if you deserve them they're going to you know be angry because it's warm and they don't like to be irritated and also that is the path down to Floyd's key it is open if you want to I personally do not go down there because I tend to be a tick magnet and when I go home from this day my wife says I you know take your uniform off and sure enough two or three I grew in in high or private places they like to be around here the waistband of your underwear and stuff like that so if you want to you can I'll wait for you but I'm gonna wait right here for you if you want to go down it's about a hundred yards about the length of a football field and it's a treacherous walk down but his cave is down there and you can see what his attraction was that he had for people so go ahead and take a look over there and then meet here and website if say anybody wants to go or if you don't want to go you poor conductor Shackleford that was the person that owned the hotel back in the day and he owned the hotel you own the cave so that's not ploys here is Lloyd Wright you and look what people do they honor him with flowers there's a solar light there sometimes there's cans of food sometimes something to drink in this case I'm gonna take a cross with pennies right here edition when people come and honor look they pray for somebody grade they'll put some kind of mark or maybe a stone or something why we follow pennies and stuff on the grave what did you yeah they all read point on there you go somebody came in and honored that person or remember that person that that's why they do it so it's a tradition ah you got the Jews did you remember a Schindler's List momentum of it what did they do what do they leave you know what they left they leave a stone or a wrong yeah if they honored the person there there's you know degrees with piles of rocks so let's read we in Floyd Collins born July 20 1887 but buried April 26th 1925 usually on a headstone it's born and died so why would this say born and buried and why the date why the April what do you think's why final resting place weights final resting place but he was buried how many times well four four times actually five times why do you think young lady what day he died well this day right here is a special day for Floyd because that was the day that the day Carmichael and the family had some money that was the day that they they took his body out and buried him on his property so they thought they thought yeah I don't want to do that don't do it right here all right that's kind of disrespectful you can look at the pennies but just don't put toys on top yeah you're welcome to look at the pennies so that was the day when they they took Floyd out and buried him in sand kids all right so let's review Floyd was first buried where in the case indicate second place is buried was where farmed in on a family farm then after that despicable dr. Thomas third place is buried was where last coffin inside his own cave then the fourth time he was buried where yeah why not yeah in a chain with chains around it and then the fifth time he was buried right here right here on so let's read the body trapped in sand cave January 30 1955 discovered crystal cave January 18 of 1917 greatest caver Explorer ever known so this is the final resting place and what they did in 1989 when Floyd was taken out of that cave and brought here it was by by the invitation of blood relatives only so they didn't want it to be another media event or some big circus like that that Carnival Sunday again so here is the rest of Lloyd's family like I said Floyd was never married so don't think family like I had children like you know sons and daughters he did not but he was Floyd's mother right here and she never knew any of this because she died before any of this happened so when I said Floyd's mom and dad it was really Floyd's step mom and dad and older grades I don't know if you know this or not but just stand away from their older graves will oftentimes have a headstone and a foot stone so this marks where where mother flora Collins was buried right here so here is a headstone and a foot stone of a grave right here but this is so much smaller why do you suppose right probably a child that died in infancy and and was buried right there but oftentimes is that it was the tradition that if a child was was born and didn't make it or stillborn or lived a year or two or something like that they would be rather like in a blanket with a safety pin and they would be buried on top of Grandma and Grandpa you know there was no dig down a little bit and they'd be buried right a matter of fact my family part of my family was they had a cemetery right around O'Hare Airport Airport in Chicago wanted to expand and so they offered to move out of the graves free no charge and offer a stone and so forth so you know with the negotiations you know we we did all that and they said the strict rules are this is that if we assume your ancestors and we find something of value like if great great grandma was buried with a a brooch or a nice diamond ring or so like that you as the ears cannot Cabot you cannot have it would be considered like grave robbing but if there was a case a pin there would be all that would be left over a little baby in a blanket and so forth and you you know you know history that yes we had a little baby that didn't make it you could have the safety pin does that basically has no value yeah but there be any any jewelry and valuables had to be reinterred back with these other pendants all right now here's the quiz question now think they're hard about this one you knew everything about Floyd but I told you the name of the farmer that Floyd went to see and and he knew that he had Sam cave on his property what was that farmers name yes Wow how did you remember that you're just good at that look who's right over there yeah how about that all right so these people are provincial meaning very born they live they die they stay here now Ranger Jon Here I am from Iowa so if I were to die tomorrow whatever I could not be buried in the cemetery because this is a national park and it's an active cemetery but only partially active if you could prove that you have blood relation to any of these people here and if there is an opening y'all spot then you could be buried here I could not unless I was like killed on the job or something I guess maybe they with but otherwise you this is a cemetery that is maintained by the National Park Service there's 80 cemeteries on our property because this was at one time a farming community and so forth and they only maintained the ones that are by the roads if there is a cemetery deep in the woods like that they just let it go back natural in a wild you might think well that's sad why this and not that and the answer is part of the problem is control like if they if they maintain a road and maintain the grounds and so forth it makes a perfect haven for you know unscrupulous people to be hidden away from road and do illegal things and then please can catch it yeah and so forth so it's it's a regular nuisance so it's not that they don't honor those people and they'll honor these it's just a matter of of you know safety and so forth there's all kinds of strange people in the world that is a active church right there there's two doors in front because men went into one side ladies would enter the other side so you don't have some some beautiful young lady that distracts your attention from your your purpose of worship and so forth obviously it's primitive there's the outhouse right there I would recommend you use it it's pretty gross but there you go and so let me make one generous offer then I'll ask you any questions tonight at 7:30 at the amphitheater the amphitheater is next to the hotel there's a hotel next to the visitor center there's a parking lot then there's an antique train and the rail car and so forth behind that is an amphitheater and there's a big-screen TV tonight at 7:30 there's a program it's on cave art okay and I'm going to be doing the program this is my duty for the night on the night Ranger I guess and you're welcome to come it's about a half-hour program it's a PowerPoint slides you're welcome to come bring a flashlight at the end if you think your children would be up for enjoying a program on cave art cave art around the world cave art at Mammoth Cave and why people created cave art so please come you're welcome you've been a delightful group today and when you're ready if you want to look around if you want to go in the church whatever you're welcome and here's what you do your car is pointed back so if you would take that road back about three miles twisty turny stay on the road and you'll eventually show up right back at the Visitor Center you cannot miss it okay cannot miss it so I have to go back as I've got to get ready for another walk and then the evening program tonight it's been avoid so thank you my pleasure my pleasure thank you for coming thank you for coming sweet Coronis and putting in all your two cents thank you young man thank you I like your chalk take you guys alright thank you guys and I'm glad you find Ruben ops yes thanks alright any questions before I go watermelon y'all are just miss that scoff now sit on Santa phone

Channel: Hook It Up Outdoors

Views: 54,236

Keywords: towing, B & W hitch, ford, f-350, boating, huntng, travel, national parks, vlog, nc, mammoth cave, floyd collins, floyd collins cave, floyd collins death, tragic death of floyd collins, caves, underground caves, mammoth cave national park, mammoth caves kentucky, mammoth cave tour, mammoth cave documentary, mammoth cave historic tour, mammoth cave wild cave tour, adventure, cave explorer dies, cave exploring, cave exploring gone wrong, cave exploring death, cave exploring documentary

Id: huwbY7EDVEI

Length: 33min 13sec (1993 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 21 2020