GREAT ONYX CAVE

discovered by Mr. L. P. Edwards June 12th, 1915 is three miles northeast of Mammoth Cave., Ky., on the bank of the picturesque Green River. Follow Great Onyx Cave Signs.

Easily reached from either Mammoth Cave or Cave City, on the Dixie Highway, over graded roads, the tourist is agreeably surprised to find a comfortable mountain inn nestling among the trees with a magnificent view of the river, and what is even more interesting to the average traveler, a profusion of fried chicken, berries, watermelons and fish.

GREAT ONYX CAVE was discovered by Edwards thru a peculiar circumstance. Seeking one day to water his plow horse at a woodland surfing near the cornfield, he found it obstructed by a mass of sawdust and peach stones. As the nearest sawdust was at the mill, two miles away, with a peach brandy distillery adjacent (that was, before Mr. Volstead's rise to fame), he reasoned that the stuff must have come through a subterranean watercourse from the stillhouse and that the water had probably cut out a cave

Immediately Edwards lost interest in his farming operations and became a "cave hunter." He spent all his spare funds for dynamite hired the neighbors to help while his money lasted and when that gave out, paid them in corn and calves and potatoes to help him hunt for the cave he felt sure underlaid his farm. Finally, his efforts and sacrifices were rewarded and the GREAT ONYX CAVE, cut by the action of the water from the soft limestone rock, was opened to view.

Having existed for countless centuries as a "sealed cavern," (that means in cave parlance, a cave that has no natural outlet to the surface) the formations are still growing and glistening in their pristine beauty unaffected by the action of the air. Hence GREAT ONYX CAVE With its millions of stalactites, stalagmites, ….. suspended from the ceiling, growing from the floor and projecting from the walls, is a veritable Aladdin’s Cavern which must be seen to be appreciated, as neither the pen of the writer, the brush of the artist or the lens of the photographer can do it justice.

On entering the GREAT ONYX CAVE the visitor is immediately plunged into a fairyland of delight. Within sixty feet of the entrance are more stalactite and onyx formations than in all the caves of Kentucky combined. On all sides wonders press for attention. Curtains, veils and draperies of transparent onyx and alabaster, glittering and scintillating with all the colors of the rainbow, abound at every step.

Passing on thru the "Colonnade" over paths of, antediluvian and prehistoric sea sand sparkling with particles of mica, the tourist literally “walks on diamonds" thru miles of great vaulted avenues whose walls and ceilings are encrusted with snow white alabaster tracery and coruscating white crystals gypsum formation. Unsmoked, unsoiled, in all It's original beauty GREAT ONYX CAVE "makes all your dreams come true."

Flanked on right and left by rows of giant stalactites, the ceiling overhead blossoming like a flower bed with millions of waving plumes of white crystal gypsum in the form of roses, lilies hyacinths, tulips, etc., and with the roaring of the underground "Cataract of Lodore" ahead in your ears you realize that you are indeed making a “Trip To The Center Of The Earth.” In all the world no sight like this. Dante and Dore could not describe or illustrate it. It is a vast series of underground passages, all of indescribable beauty, which have probably existed since the dawn of creation countless centuries ago, long before the earliest moment of recorded time and whose stalactitic sentinels, standing solemnly and silently before you were hoary with age long before the building of the Pyramids.

See the “Petrified Dinosaur” sprawling his huge bulk across a bed of sand, awaiting discovery since long before the human race was, born.

GREAT ONYX CAVE is newly discovered, clean, unsmoked and dry. It calls for no stooping or crawling and you can see it in your ordinary clothes at any hour of the day or night

WARNING -- Do not be misled into other so called "Onyx” caves with similar names, contrived to deceive visitors. There is only one GREAT ONYX CAVE and it is owned by L. P. Edwards. whose P. O. address is Mammoth Cave, Ky.

For information about GREAT ONYX CAVE call on or address L. P. Edwards,

GREAT ONYX CAVE HOTEL, MAMMOTH CAVE, KY.