The sandals whose impressions appear in some passages have also been found as actual objects.

The woven fiber sandals from Mammoth Cave and nearby Salts Cave — many now preserved in institutional collections — are made from the fibers of rattlesnake master, and the technology of their construction is sophisticated.

They were not simple flat pieces of braided material.

They had construction features that suggest a tradition of sandal-making developed specifically for underground work: features that would grip rocky surfaces, that would protect the sole from the sharp edges of cave breakdown, that would survive extended underground travel.

Some of the sandals were found in caches — not on feet, not scattered randomly, but deliberately placed.