Haunted Caves

There seems to have been a special relationship between humans and caves for quite some time. It is apparent that early man and maybe his ancestors before him used caves as shelter. The use of caves by early man has been proven by not only the ancient art work found in them, but also by the artifacts found in the caves. We have found out important things about our ancient relatives by finding out what they ate, how they used fire and how they lived, among other things. We have even found out who they were in some instances as we found bones and teeth, but caves were not always used as just shelter. Sometimes caves were thought to be  a means of entering the underworld, such as the Mayas believed. They even conducted some of the most holy ceremonies in the deepest caves they could find. When it became illegal for citizens to brew their own alcoholic drinks, moonshiners sometimes moved their operations into caves. Caves have always fascinated us and thousands of people pay good money to go on cave tours every year all over the world, but one group of people is especially interested in caves and they are paranormal investigators.

Why this interest? It is the fact that many strange things have been reported in caves, mines and underground catacombs. The City of Caves is located in Nottingham, England. It is famous for being haunted by many different restless souls. It is said there have been dark figures seen from time to time roaming the caves along with the apparition of a woman who is dressed in Victorian clothing. The Victorian woman spirit seems to be very sad, according to witness statements. Others have heard loud explosions above them and it is believed this is significant, because these caves were used as air raid shelters in World War II and people went into them while bombing took place.

There are a lot of claims of paranormal events occurring in the Mammoth Cave National Park in south central Kentucky. How many you might ask? It is claimed there have been at least 150 paranormal events reported in the cave. In all fairness I have to ask if anyone has ever seen the inside of this cave? If you have you know how spooky it looks inside with its stalagmites and stalactites and low light situations. The cave was discovered in 1798 and since then all sorts of paranormal events were reported. This cave is over 300 miles long and many think some of the ghostly appearances are of the spirits of people who got lost in the cave and died. I suppose if one believes in ghosts this could be a good explanation. It is said a black slave named Stephan Bishop died in the cave and still walks its long tunnels. There is a story about Bishop who had become an expert explorer, it is said he worked the cave for his master Dr. John Croghan and was offered his freedom, but refused, because he liked working in the cave so much.

Adams Tennessee is the location of the famous Bell Witch Cave. It is said to be heavily haunted and has quite a story attached to it. Supposedly in the year 1817 an evil spirit began to terrorize the Bell family and this went on until 1821. The Bells began to notice strange animals on their property and began hearing choking and gasping in their cabin. The spirit began to physically abuse some of the family. The legend states the neighbor sent the evil spirit to the Bells to prevent their daughter Betsy from marrying and to kill John Bell and this is exactly what happened. The Bells and the neighbor had a feud over the purchase of a slave. The cave is on what was Bell property and not far from the cabin. It is said many visitor are unable to take photos of the cave’s entrance, because they come out blurry. Some visitors state they hear voices telling them to get out of the cave. It is said if you take a rock from the cave bad luck will follow you. There are those who also believe the spirits of Native Americans are also in the cave. One man claimed Indian spirits followed him to his car from the cave and the Indian trail of tears ran through the cave.

Sand cave is associated with an attempt by a man named Floyd Collins to find another entrance to Mammoth Cave in 1925. He was an experienced explorer. When he entered Sand cave a large rock fell on him pinning his left leg while he was in a tiny passageway. Friends tried for two weeks to reach him, but their efforts were in vein. Three days after he died rescuers did reach him, but were unable to move the rock to retrieve his body so they sealed off the cave with his body in it. After a long period of time his brother managed to retrieve the body and buried in on family property. It was a turbulent period for the body because the property was sold, the body was put into a glass coffin for years before it was stolen. He was recovered later minus the injured leg and finally buried again. Could all this be the cause for the stories of Floyd Collins’ ghost haunting Sand cave? People in the cave who got near to the tunnel that had contained Collins’s body and was sealed, stated they could hear screams and pleas for rescue coming from the area. One caver stated she tripped and started to fall when someone pulled her back. She thought it was her partner, but the partner never did it. Caves are eerie just by their nature. People tend to imagine a lot of things in them, but can everything which happens out of the ordinary be chalked up to imagination?

The city of St. Louis is built upon a huge cave system. There is no other city in the world which has so many caves under it. Anheuser-Busch used caves to cool its beer until the brewer had artificial refrigeration installed. It is said that the caves might be responsible for some of the hauntings in the city of St. Louis, such as the haunted Lemp mansion which was built over the Lemp cave. Strange shapes have been seen walking in the area and strange sounds have been heard. There are other areas of the city where other hauntings are said to have taken place and caves were to blame. Another one is the Lost cave. It was originally known as the English cave. It is said that every owner has suffered terrible misfortune. It is also said not only is it haunted, but it is cursed. The story goes a Native American was in love with an Indian woman who had been promised to a vicious tribal chief. The man convinced the woman to run away with him and they were pursued by the tribal chief and his men. They hid in the English cave and the chief surrounded the cave waiting for them to come out. They stayed in the cave until they starved to death. Crying and weeping sounds have been reported coming from the cave.