Cave In Rock, IL -- Pictures and Travelogue
The very first place my son Matthew and I went on vacation was Cave in Rock, iL... We drove over, following the Trail of Tears to the place where the Cherokee crossed the Ohio River, on their way to Oklahoma. But there are many layers of history here...
Long about 10,000 years ago, the continental glacial sheet began to melt and all that melt water had to go somewhere... A mile thick layer of ice makes a lot of water, and it all had to drain down to the sea, so the water carved a nice deep channel into the rocks of Ohio, Kentucky, and Illinois to the Mississippi River. Kentucky's geology is such that when the water hit hard rock, the Devonian limestone, it met with more resistance, and had a harder time carving out a channel-- leaving two sets of rapids on the Ohio River-- one up by Louisville, and one down here, near Marion, KY-- the other side of the Illinoian basin. (Happy to explain below...)
The rapids were a natural barrier to the wildlife and native peoples of the time, so they had to find relatively easier areas to cross the river. This place was a natural buffalo trail, where the immense herds crossed the river. The years and years of buffalo crossing, broke down the sides of the banks, to allow for a more shallow place to cross...
Fast forward to the time when the settlers were traveling down the river... Prior to the sad story of the Cherokee, the Cave was a place where thieves and other gangsters hid out, waiting for hapless settlers to try to cross the horrible rapids. Once the settlers wrecked, the thieves would gather up their goods that scattered all along the shore, and often murdered the few survivors.
This scene was depicted in the movie How the West Was Won -- a John Ford epic, filmed in 1962. The people of the area are still talking about this influx of Hollywood into their small towns! If you want to see the horribleness of these rapids, watch the movie, available on YouTube, and the first set of scenes, where everyone in the family drowns, but the two girls, THIS IS IT.
Then, in 1839, or thereabouts, the Cherokee crossed here, at a natural crossing created by the buffalo, just downstream from the rapids. I can't imagine their fear, crossing here with the fierce currents, on a log flatboat or raft. There is still no bridge here-- likely not enough population to support a real bridge, but there is a ferry...
Then, long about the late 1960s, the Corps of Engineers dammed up the Ohio River below the falls, to raise the level of the water high enough for riverboat traffic to pass through. This drowned the rapids, but did not still the terrible currents completely.
This is a picture from the ferry-- where we weren't allowed to get out of our cars... The currents were so strong, the boat eddied around and the ferryboat chugged it's best, but for a while there, I thought we were going on a "Missouri Boat Ride"-- shades of Josey Wales...
The river is much wider than it used to be, but you can't turn back time and see how narrow and fierce the current was back then. But one can imagine!
The little town over there in the distance is Cave In Rock, IL... Population 320. Go to the main road and turn right, it takes right to the Cave in the rock...
There are multiple caves here, all in this Devonian Limestone, overlain by a layer of chert... Not that you care, but this is the same Devonian formation that creates the Falls of the Ohio, up in Louisville. The caves are too open to the air to offer any coolness, and there are multiple places where one could look out from to see the wreckages below...
We got there and it was HOT. TOO hot for an arthritic, ailing old woman to do much climbing, so Matthew climbed for me, and got pictures...
This is the "bowl rock", christened by my son, Matthew, who was amazed at its size and shape... This must be a part of the rapids as the river cut its way down into the valley... Long about 10,000 years ago.
At any rate, the shore line was cut a lot deeper then, than now...
Out from the shore here, the river water swirls and eddies, there are still terrific currents here, and the river traffic keeps to the other side.
We stopped to say a prayer for our Cherokee brothers and sisters, who must have felt, at the time, that they were at the stepping off point to the end of the world. (I have had that feeling a lot lately, especially in Western KY...)
This is the Ohio River from the middle of the river... Granted, it wasn't this wide when the Cherokee came through, but it was certainly pause-worthy as we crossed over on the rickety ferry, and eddied about and heaved up and down...
Our next stop was to go back south to Marion, KY to the Ben E. Clements Mineral Museum... More pictures to come!
Thanks for coming by!
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We waved to you, Gunny, and wished that you and your wonderful wife were with us! You could have told us a lot more stories about this place than we heard! They opened the park restaurant for us, (I mean the moved up their opening time by about 5 minutes), after they saw I was on my last legs in the heat...
WE'll be in Ironton, MO tomorrow night, and I'm not sure we can even find a hotel, much less a place with wifi... OR phone service... I'll try to check back, but it may be difficult... My question: Does ironton have a Walmart? If so, there is civilization of some sort...
Thanks for the photo-travelogue. it's a welcome and calming respite from the political world (US election, Brexit, the Middle East...etc).
Thanks, dear Buzz! My pictures just aren't as good as yours are, but we've been snapping them anyway... The next stop was fascinating, too!
Thanks for being here!
Great photos and travelogue Dowser. Looking forward to more travelogue's.
Next stop: Ben E. Clements Mineral Museum. And farm implements... I hope you like those pictures-- I worked on quite a few last night!
Thanks so much for coming to see this! I loved the history of the place...
Wonderful trip. It may be old, but so am I so here's to bringing it back to life one more time since I see the first comment was at 130am. It was probably sputtering by the time the sun came up.
But those are wonderful photos. Glad you were able to make the trip even though I'm sure it was an ordeal as you explained at times.
Well, thanks!
It's been sort of an awful day... So, I appreciate your comment! We had a great time, and I'm ready to go again, but I want Matthew to drive next time. It's getting beyond me to drive much...