Cave City, Kentucky

There is so much to the U.S. state of Kentucky.  We think about Kentucky Fried Chicken although the first restaurant was not in the state.  It is a state known for its bourbon.  In Bardstown, you have my Old Kentucky Home.  We have the Kentucky Derby, a famous horse race run in Louisville that is the first race of three races that make up the Triple Crown.  You then have Mammoth Cave, the largest known cave system in the world.  Not too far from Mammoth Cave is a small town known as Cave City.

Some of you are saying, “Wow!  That is nice.  In honor of Mammoth Cave, they name a small town in the cave’s honor.”

Actually, Cave City does not get it name from the nearby Mammoth Cave but from a cave that is within the town limits.”

Some of you are saying, “Well, I did not know that.  Anyway, this is not a railroad town.  Therefore, I will not cave into visiting here.”

What is special about Cave City, Kentucky?  Although a railroad does pass through the town, it has never been a railroad town.  Why visit the town.  Although it has never been a railroad town, the town does have a history with the railroad.

Although the town does not get its name from Mammoth Cave, it did have a connection to the cave itself.  How?  In 1859, the Louisville and Nashville Railroad arrived, and the town began to grow.  The Mammoth Cave Railroad was later established to bring passengers from the Louisville and Nashville Railroad to the cave itself.  However, that service ended in 1931, and the old railroad line is now a rail trail in the park.

Then came the American Civil War.  The war began in a small town called Manassas in the U.S. state of Virginia, but the war eventually made its way into Kentucky, and it made its way to the town of Cave City.  On May 11, 1862, General John Hunt Morgan of the Confederate Army led his troops in the capture of the train depot in Cave City in what was ‘The Cave City Raid’.  A train stopped at the depot.  It was said that the train has some of his captured men, but the train was carrying railroad employees who were later released.  General Morgan and his men destroyed the train burning the passengers and freight cars and blowing up the locomotive.  They did not use explosives to destroy the locomotive but used fire wood to clog the firebox which caused the boiler to explode sending pieces of the locomotive through the area.

The next day, General Morgan and his men robbed a train that was going from Louisville to Nashville in the U.S. state of Tennessee.  The train was also carrying two Union Officers and other enlisted men who were taken into captivity.  The train itself was allowed to return to Louisville.

Even though Cave City, Kentucky is not a railroad town, it has a history with the railroad.  The train depot no longer stands, but the railroad line still passes through the town.

Cave City, Kentucky is located in the central region of the state.  U.S. Route 31W passes through the town with Interstate 65 nearby running northwest of the town.  You can read more about the town at https://cavecity.ky.gov/Pages/index.aspx.