Logsdon and Hunt

In 1938, there were 7 families who had sons on guide duty at Mammoth Cave that could trace their lineal tree back to forefathers of the third and fourth generations who were cave guides. Perhaps the most intricate heritage is that of the Hunt family, for this line had become associated with the families of Archibald Miller whose connection with Mammoth Cave goes back to the saltpetre mining of 1812.

Smith Hunt, the ancestor of the Hunts of the Mammoth Cave region, was born 1794 in Washington Co., East Tennessee, to Uriah Hunt (1775-1824) and wife Sarah. Uriah was a Baptist minister, a contemporary of Jonathan Mulkey of the Mulkeys who came to Barren County, KY in the late 1790's. He married first to Patsy Allison, granddaughter of Capt. Jack (John) Allison of the Battle of Kings Mountain. After Patsy's death, Smith married Jane Long. He came to Kentucky and settled in Monroe County in the late 1840's and removed to Edmonson County near Mammoth Cave prior to 1860.

Smith was the progenitor of a large family including Margaret Hunt who married Dimenon Adwell. During the Civil War, Dimenon was commandeered by the Confederates, but soon contracted small pox and was released to go back home about 1864. When he returned, he infected other members of the family with the disease, including his father-in-law, Smith Hunt, who died, and was buried in what is now known as the Smithy Hunt Cemetery located right off the road to the Great Onyx Cave. In those days, if you died from an infectious disease, you couldn’t be buried in a public cemetery.

Smith’s son, I.S. Hunt married a granddaughter of Archibald Miller further strengthening ties to the cave area. He ran a general store in Mammoth Cave area like his father. I.S. Hunt operated a couple of stores one of which was located where the parking lot at MCNP Hotel is now. The other was at the turn from Flint Ridge to Great Onyx Cave Road.

Other children of Smith Hunt included Holbert T. Hunt, father of Mrs. Sarah Warnell, Jim Hunt, famous guide at Mammoth Cave, and Colossal Cave. Smith’s sons Schuyler, Charles, and Morris were cave guides. Schuyler's sons Young Hunt, Leo Hunt, and Roy Hunt along with a nephew Claude, were also guides.

Young Hunt suffered a heart attack while guiding a party through Mammoth Cave and died shortly afterward - June, 1964 at age 60. He had been a cave guide for 43 years. Leo, his brother, who served in the same capacity, died a few years prior to Young after suffering a series of heart attacks. (March, 1960 at age 48, having been a guide for more than 30 years.) Leo's widow, Grace is still living in Louisville.

A cousin "Monk" William Lynn Hunt, also a cave guide, succumbed to a heart attack about one year prior to Young's death, (June, 1963 at age 59) while leading a party of tourists along Frozen Niagara route in the cave. He had been a guide for 36 years.

Morris Hunt, while working in the cave, suffered a heart attack and had to be carried out. He died a few days later (March 1930, age 50's).

Schuyler Hunt, Claude Hunt, Young Hunt, Roy Hunt and Charlie Hunt were companion guides at Mammoth Cave. Basically, the whole family worked at Mammoth Cave - the men anyway. The only other work available in that area was logging. Logging was harder and being a cave guide paid better. The Hunt’s and Logsdon’s were close friends and neighbors of the Collins family and Floyd Collins, whose tragic death from being trapped in the Sand Cave made nationwide news in the 1920's. My Grandfather, Alva and Great Uncle Oscar were both friends of Floyd. Uncle Oscar is mentioned in the book written by Floyd’s brother as being one of the first to go in after Floyd although he couldn’t get through the last crawl space as his body was too ‘thick’. Oscar went on tour with Homer Collins after Floyd’s death to help the family raise money to get Floyd’s body out of the cave and give him a proper burial.

But as life is full of contradictions, there is a letter in the MCNPA files that gave the name of Rector Johns and Oscar Logsdon as being involved in the body snatching of Floyd. Elkanah Kline's daughter-in-law, who is died recently, is very positive about the identities of the men who stole Floyd Collins' body......Alva and Oscar Logsdon and Troy Burnette.

A Dr. Thomas bought Crystal Cave and in so doing Lee Collins signed an agreement that Floyd’s body could be displayed but Lee didn't understand it exactly the way it turned out. Lee Collins eventually took Thomas to court over the whole matter but later dropped the suit.

Many of the Hunt and Logsdon families left the area after the Park took over their land. We have copies of land ownership maps that show the Hunts and Logsdon’s owned over 800 acres directly over Mammoth Cave when it was "acquired" by the National Park Service. Roy Hunt left Kentucky in the late 1940's out of disgust when the government park service took over their family lands, and gave them almost nothing for it. He always said, with great bitterness that "they stole it". He moved to Monmouth, IL.

My Grandfather felt much the same way except he got some revenge after he sold his land by being nominated for a position on the board that helped regulate the amounts that people were getting for the land sold later on in the park. He helped Perry Cox get a high price for Great Onyx Cave and also helped him hold on to the land for a while longer than expected. Perry was my Grandmother’s first cousin. Elizabeth Cox Hunt was Grandmother’s mother, a sister to Perry’s father.

My father, Edmond T. Logsdon, Sr. was a younger generation guide and came in on the heels of many great guides and expeditions. He accompanied the Hunt’s on a few of their explorations. He once told me that he had spent almost a week underground on one trip with them. He was proud of his job at Mammoth Cave and of his family and enjoyed being around people. An illness forced his early retirement from the Park Service, but he eventually went back to work just to be around people. He was a guide for nearly 37 years and took great satisfaction in that accomplishment.

Leo, Young and Roy (brothers) along with their friends and kinsmen Claude Hunt, and Peter and Carl Hanson (Peter and Carl were sons of Pete Hanson and Mary Elizabeth Hunt) were the 4 men who actually discovered the "New Discovery" at Mammoth Cave in 1938. It involved exploration of Roaring River. This discovery led to miles of new passages under the Jim Lee ridge. There are loads of newspaper clippings on the discovery in the park's files and some nice photos as well. This is also documented in National Geographic, I'm not sure what year or month. They discovered huge sections of cave never before known because they could only be reached by going down the underground river. It was called the Roaring River due to its tendency to have dramatic and unexpected flooding underground. This is documented in the book " Mammoth Cave National Park - A History", written by Tres Seymour who is a researcher and guide at Mammoth Cave currently. Schuyler Hunt was also involved in the discovery of Robertson Avenue in 1921. Carl T. Robertson, Editor for the Cleveland Plain Dealer was writing an article about the cave and did some exploration with Schuyler. There is documented information about that discovery as well.

The Park has never allowed access to the New Discovery to the general public due to its extremely pristine, unspoiled condition, and it is currently and will hopefully, always remain off limits to tourists. Roy Hunt actually explained to some of the guides at Mammoth Park the way to reach certain parts of the cave when he visited in the late 1960's. The Park Service people had "lost" the routes over the years, and only the Hunts, and the Hanson's knew the way. And of course, they never wrote it down - they all had the routes memorized. “If you forget the way, you died. So you just plain made sure you didn't forget!" They taught my Dad and he would train new guides coming to work at Mammoth Cave. A couple times a year he would take them into the “New Discovery”. I was privileged to be among those special groups that got to walk in that pristine, underground grotto.

My Grandfather, Alva Logsdon and his brother Oscar bought almost 700 acres in 1918 off Flint Ridge bordered by Great Onyx on the NE and Mammoth Cave and Green River on the SW. They acquired this property from the estate sale of their stepfather, James W. Dennison. Both of them worked at times helping solicit for L.P. Edwards and Perry Cox of Great Onyx. Uncle Oscar had one of the first cars in the area and ran a taxi service between the Gate at Mammoth Cave and Great Onyx. According to the records, he made pretty good money transporting folks to see the Caves and stay at the Hotel.

There were others of my family that worked for Caves other than Mammoth. Morris Hunt was long time Manager of Colossal Cavern, followed by his brother Charlie. There was also Elkanah Kline/Cline who guided at Crystal Cave. (Now that’s a side that I haven’t done much research on.) The records from Great Onyx Cave show others. I have a picture of William A. Logsdon hawking cave souvenirs. We haven’t determined where this store was but this gives you a glance of how immersed the area was in the Caving industry.

Unfortunately, the family never kept track of their ancestors, so I have to find most of my information from outside sources. Isn’t it a shame when we have such illustrious and interesting ancestors? I haven’t tracked down all of the family who worked there but you can see that there is quite a Mammoth Cave Connection.

Karen Logsdon Phillips
With lots of help from magazine articles, newspaper pieces and Norman Warnell.