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Hart, Edmonson counties · Prehistoric · 1000 BCE – 200 BCE

Salts Cave (15Ht4)

Inside Mammoth Cave National Park, Salts Cave was one of several passages Early Woodland people used most intensively about 1000–200 BC.

Research notes and sources for the Salts Cave

AI illustration: An Early Woodland caver scraping gypsum from a cave wall by cane-torch light, Mammoth Cave area
This picture is an AI illustration reconstructed from the available archaeological evidence for the Early Woodland period in Kentucky; details without direct evidence are informed guesses. See the evidence for this picture AI illustration · Kentucky History Drive

They mined wall sulfates—gypsum for pigment, mirabilite as medicine and seasoning—leaving shell scrapers, hammerstones, and battered ledges, and carried cane torches, textile slippers, baskets, and gourd containers deep underground. After about 200 BC that mining and exploration faded as beliefs and practices shifted.

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Published . Last revised .

Chicago

Snowden, Shannon. "Salts Cave (15Ht4)." Kentucky History Drive. Published September 18, 2026. Last revised October 13, 2026. https://kyhistorydrive.com/stories/salts-cave-15ht4/.

MLA

Snowden, Shannon. "Salts Cave (15Ht4)." Kentucky History Drive, published 18 Sept. 2026, last revised 13 Oct. 2026, https://kyhistorydrive.com/stories/salts-cave-15ht4/.

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