The Tragic Death Of Cave Explorer Floyd Collins

The Collins family was one of those looking to get in on Kentucky's booming cave tourism industry. As noted by the National Park Service, they owned the Crystal Cave, discovered by their son Floyd in 1917. But their land was too far down the road on which all the tourists were driving their new cars. All the other caves were swallowing up the city folk before they could get out to the Crystal Cave, and it got very few visitors. But Floyd was determined to get a piece of the tourist cave pie. He knew of one called Sand Cave that was located on the road ahead of most of the other show caves, and he made a deal with the landowner, a Mr. Doyel. He'd explore it and see if he could make it profitable. If so, he'd split the profits with Doyel, and they'd all get rich.

Floyd armed himself with a kerosene lantern and headed down into the cave. But it didn't take long for him to come across some difficult challenges. The cavern quickly narrowed, and he was soon crawling along on his belly, pushing his lantern in front of him. When it flickered out, he decided to turn back, despite having seen the cave open up ahead. But on his way back, a 27-pound rock wedged his ankle in place, and Floyd found himself trapped over 150 feet below the earth's surface.

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