Floyd Collins had a dream. He dreamt that one day, he’d emerge victorious in the Kentucky Cave Wars. In that era, people made easy money turning beautiful, awe-inspiring caves into tourist destinations. The tough part was *finding* the cave. Finding a cave took months of dangerous, exhausting work, but Floyd Collins was up to the task.

In January of 1925, he felt certain that he was digging his way toward a magnificent one. Then he got stuck.

Remember, kids, history hoes always cite their sources! For this episode, Norm pulled from:

Collins, Homer, and John Lehrberger. The Life and Death of Floyd Collins. Cave Books, 2001.

David R. Kem. “The Kentucky Cave Wars.” The Kentucky Cave Wars, July 5, 2025. https://kentuckycavewars.wordpress.com/.

“George Morrison (U.S. National Park Service).” https://www.nps.gov/people/george-morrison.htm.

Kem, David Randolph. The Kentucky Cave Wars: The Century That Shaped Mammoth Cave National Park. David Randolph Kem, 2014.

Murray, Robert K., and Roger W. Brucker. Trapped! The Story of Floyd Collins. University Press of Kentucky, 1982. https://archive.org/details/trappedstoryofst0000murr.

Reilly, Lucas. “The 1925 Cave Rescue That Captivated the Nation.” Mental Floss, July 13, 2018. https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/544782/1925-cave-rescue-that-captivated-the-united-states-floyd-collins.

“Stephen Bishop (U.S. National Park Service).” https://www.nps.gov/people/stephen-bishop.htm.

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