Disputed Underground Railroad Cave Requires Second Opinion

Inside Kentucky’s Wentworth Cave. Photo via Kentucky Division of Waste Management

Additional research is warranted was the outcome of a private meeting last week to decide the fate of a cave, and suspected stop on the Underground Railroad, which has held up plans to build a coal ash landfill in Kentucky.

Louisville Gas and Electric, who hopes to build a 218-acre coal ash landfill near its Trimble County Power Station, met with U.S. Army Corps last Thursday to discuss a wetlands destruction permit as well as recent findings by historian Alicestyne Turley, that a cave on the property may have been a stop on the Underground Railroad.

Wentworth Cave has been a thorn in LG&E’s side since the fall of 2011, when the existence of the cave, potentially protected by Kentucky’s 1988 cave protection law, came to light.

LG&E argues that the cave is only a “karst feature,” and is not protected.

Although the Corps were unable to confirm the caves connection to the Underground Railroad, they determined that there was enough activity in the region to warrant a more in-depth investigation.

Considering the use of caves in Underground Railroad activity, the presence of an abolitionist, and the prominence of Trimble County as an escape corridor, the corps, in consultation with the Kentucky Heritage Council, felt that additional research was warranted. Leiellen Atz, Corps Regulatory Branch, Contract Archaeologist

LG&E has been directed to hire a consultant to get a second opinion on the cave.

Corps seeks second opinion on escaped slave cave [Courier-Journal]