NSS Convention 2026

Bluff Cave is a small cave opening off a large sinkhole in Mammoth Cave National Park. In the early 1970s, Patty Jo Watson and colleagues found evidence for Pre-Columbian Indian use of the cave in the form of "[gypsum] mining and smoke blackening on the walls plus a fairly thick scattering of torch debris." Despite collecting torch remains for radiocarbon dating, a successful assay was not made or published. Lacking solid chronology, the cave has not been included in subsequent scholarly discussions of Early Woodland Period gypsum mining.

While recording historic graffiti in the cave in November 2017, the authors noted the torch debris and photographed the extensive wall mining. In November 2025, as part of larger cave chronology project in the National Park, we made additional observations and photographs, and collected two samples of torch material from the floor of the main mining chamber for AMS radiocarbon dating. Sample #1 was false foxglove (Agalinis sp.) while Sample #2 was river cane (Arundinaria sp.). The laboratory results (Beta-790093 2730+/- 30 BP; Beta-790094 2810 +/- 30 BP) place the activity at Bluff Cave solidly in the Early Woodland Period, contemporaneous with other gypsum mined caves in central Kentucky such as Salts Cave, Mammoth Cave, 15Ed23, and 15Al22.

Based on the amount of floor disturbance, torch debris, and the polished rock surfaces at the crawl into the largest chamber, the latter two of which indicate heavy visitation, it is likely that Bluff Cave was visited for other purposes besides gypsum mining.