The tourist era also established the patterns of cave use that would eventually create conflict with the preservation of the ancient evidence.

Tourists entering the cave walked on the same floors where ancient footprints were preserved.

They handled — and in some cases removed — artifacts they found.

The cave popcorn and gypsum formations that nineteenth-century visitors broke off as souvenirs were the same mineral formations that ancient miners had scraped and collected for purposes that mattered to them.

The destruction of formation by souvenir hunters was significant enough that the cave’s eventual managers repeatedly documented and lamented it.

The NPS took over management of Mammoth Cave when the park was established, authorized in 1926 and formally established July 1, 1941, and began the systematic effort to protect both the natural formations and the archaeological record.