Trapped in Sand Cave
The Collins family owned Crystal Cave, a tourist cave in the same general area as the Mammoth Caves. Although beautiful, Crystal Cave attracted a disappointingly low number of tourists because of its remote location. Collins hoped to find another entrance to the Mammoth Caves or possibly a new cave along the road to the Mammoth Caves and to draw some of the visitors to them. He made an agreement with three farmers who owned land closer to the main highway. If he found a cave with commercial potential on their land, the owners would pay to develop the cave, and Collins would share in the profits from operating it as a tourist attraction. Working alone over three weeks, he explored and expanded a hole that would later be named "Sand Cave" by news media.
On January 30, 1925, after several hours of work, Collins managed to squeeze through several narrow passageways; he claimed he had discovered a large chamber, though this was never verified. Because his lamp was dying, he had to leave quickly before exploring the chamber. He became trapped in a small passage on his way out. He accidentally knocked over his lamp, putting out the light, and in the dark he dislodged a rock from the ceiling, pinning his left leg. The rock weighed only 26½ pounds (12 kg), but it was wedged in where neither he nor rescuers could reach it.
Collins was trapped just 150 feet (50 m) from the entrance. After being found the next day by friends, crackers were taken to him, and an electric light was run down the passage to provide him light and some warmth. Collins survived for over a week while rescue efforts were made. On February 4, the cave passage used to reach Collins collapsed in two places. Rescue leaders, chief among them being Henry St. George Tucker Carmichael, believing the cave impassable and too dangerous, began to dig a shaft to reach the chamber behind Collins. The 55-foot (18 m) shaft and subsequent lateral tunnel intersected the cave just above Collins, but when he was finally reached on February 17, he was already dead from exposure and hunger. As they did not reach him from the rear, the rescuers could not free his leg. The rescuers left his body where it lay and filled the shaft with debris. A doctor estimated he had died three or four days before he was reached, February 13 being the most likely.
Read more about this topic: Floyd Collins
Famous quotes containing the words trapped in, trapped, sand and/or cave:
“You have been trapped in the inescapable net of ruin by your own want of sense.”
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“You have been trapped in the inescapable net of ruin by your own want of sense.”
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“The desert encroaches on the garden. No matter. Sand will do as well as flowers.”
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“The whole cut impressed me as if it were a cave with its stalactites laid open to the light.”
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