No container of gypsum with clear evidence of its intended use has been found at any ancient habitation site connected to the Mammoth Cave mining period.

Other proposed uses include trade as a commodity — the gypsum or other cave minerals being carried along the trade networks that characterized Early Woodland communities, exchanged for other materials, used as currency in a broader economic system that archaeologists have documented but cannot fully map.

Agricultural use has been proposed for some of the sulfate minerals.

Epsomite — magnesium sulfate — is a mineral that farmers today use as a soil amendment, and its presence in sufficient quantities in soil can affect plant growth.

Whether ancient communities understood this relationship and deliberately applied cave minerals to agricultural plots is speculative.