Gap Cave facts for kids

Gap Cave is a really long cave system found right under Pinnacle Overlook. It's located in the Cumberland Gap National Historical Park in Lee County, Virginia. This amazing cave is super long, stretching for about 18.5 miles! That makes it one of the longest caves in the United States and even in the world.

Gap Cave has six known entrances. These include the main Gap Cave Entrance (also called King Solomon's Cave Entrance), an entrance made by people called Cudjo's Cave Entrance, the Stream Entrance, the Soldiers Cave Entrance, the Big Saltpeter Cave Entrance, and the Wellhole. All these different entrances lead into the same huge cave system.

A Long History of Gap Cave

Gap Cave has had many names over the years. The first person to name it was Dr. Thomas Walker in 1750. He simply called it Gap Cave. Dr. Walker was also the guardian of young Thomas Jefferson after Jefferson's father passed away.

Later, in 1775, the famous explorer Daniel Boone traveled through the Cumberland Gap. He likely saw the cave's entrance too. Boone and an African American man named Monk Estill were among the first people known to make gunpowder in Kentucky.

Mining for Saltpeter

People started mining for a mineral called saltpeter in the Cumberland Gap area even before the 1800s. Saltpeter was very important because it was used to make gunpowder. A nearby cave, sometimes called Soldiers Cave, was explored by both Confederate and Union soldiers during the American Civil War. Local stories say that these armies used Soldiers Cave as a place to care for injured soldiers and to store supplies. You can still see names and dates carved into the cave walls by soldiers from that time. Most of the Gap Cave system was used for mining saltpeter in the 1800s, which is why it also became known as the Saltpeter Cave.

This postcard from the 1940s shows the entrance to Cudjo's Cave, which is part of Gap Cave.

Becoming a Tourist Spot

In the late 1890s, people started offering tours of the cave system. At this time, Gap Cave was known as King Solomon's Cave. To make the tours better, electric lights were put into Soldiers Cave. A tunnel was even dug to connect King Solomon's Cave with Soldiers Cave, making it easier for visitors to explore.

In 1864, a writer named J. T. Trowbridge published a popular book called Cudjo's Cave. The story was about a character who had escaped and was hiding in a cave in the Cumberland Gap area. Because the book was so famous, the cave owners changed the name of the cave to Cudjo's Cave. They hoped this new name would attract even more tourists!

Ownership Changes and Restoration

In March 1920, Lincoln Memorial University bought the caverns and the land around them from private owners. Then, in 1934, Gap Cave was opened to the public again for tours.

In 1947, the ownership of the cave was transferred to the Commonwealth of Virginia. The National Park Service began offering commercial tours of the caverns in 1992. However, for a while, cave tours were stopped. The cave had been damaged by people, with broken light bulbs and graffiti on the walls. The stairs and bridges inside the cave also became unsafe.

In the early 1990s, a plan was made to fix and restore the Cumberland Gap area, including Gap Cave. This restoration work was finished in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Now, the cave is almost back to its original condition. Instead of electric lights, tours now use lantern light, which gives the cave a more natural and historic feel.

As of October 2015, about 18.5 miles of passages in Gap Cave have been carefully mapped by explorers.