The Other Mummies — And What They Tell About How The Cave Was Used

Lost John was not the only ancient Native American whose remains were found in the Mammoth Cave area, and the others tell a different story — one of deliberate burial rather than accident.

In 1813, decades before Mammoth Cave was established as a tourist destination, workers discovered the remains of a Native American woman inside the connected Short Cave system.

Her body had been placed in a sitting posture, encased in flat stones standing on their edges, covered with a flat stone — the description comes from a letter written by Charles Wilkins, who owned Mammoth Cave during the early 1800s.

The careful preparation of her burial, the intentional placement, the use of stones to create an enclosure — these indicate that the cave was seen as a meaningful place for the dead.