Cheney's funeral is today - maybe right now as I write this. I hope they remember to shove a silver stake through where his heart should have been before they plant him (it's not his heart; they had to give him one via transplant).
I hope no one gets the impression I don't think he was one of the most evil people in the history of the US government.
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The longest (known) cave system in the world is in south-central Kentucky. The Mammoth Cave - some 425 known miles of connected caverns - is now a national park. New passages are continuously discovered. Evidence of human activity within the cave goes back at least 5000 years. (37°11'13.0"N 86°06'04.0"W)
A body crushed by a large rock was discovered in 1935; the victim was a pre-Columbian miner. The cave environment appears to have been stable for thousands of years. The cave contains many ancient human remains and artifacts - most being hidden from the public.
The first Europeans visited the cave in 1797 when a hunter chased a wounded bear to the site. A saltpeter mine (potassium nitrate, a gunpowder component) was established in the early 1800s. The mining activity ended after the War of 1812 and became a tourist attraction using the owner's slaves as tourist guides. Viewing the mine workings are still part of the visitor's experience.
A tuberculosis center operated for a short while before the war; the thought being the cave atmosphere had curative effects.
Photos of the cave were produced after the war, increasing tourist interest. As the region is pockmarked with smaller caves, a "war" for tourists broke out in the early 1900s, increasing with the advent of auto traffic.
Land ownership was a contentious subject until the last of the majority land owners died off in the 1920s. Interested parties became interested in forming a park in 1924; the Mammoth Cave National Park Association was formed and led to the forced removal of a variety of land owners in the area under eminent domain. CCC camps were set up in the '30s and '40s; the government declared the formation of a national park in 1941.
The park is so popular that advance reservations to enter the cave are highly recommended.
One thing that sticks in my memory from the almost 40 years since I visited was southern-style Coca Cola in the 6oz bottles for 5¢. Tasted far better than the usual Coke. Doubt those are available anymore.