Lost River - Karst Information Portal

2007 NSS Convention Guidebook
The passage leading
off the entrance is
the same size as the
entrance and in 30 feet
opens to form a 50foot-diameter
room
with a ceiling height
of 25 feet. Along the
right wall of the room
is a breakdown pile
and at the top of the
pile is a ledge that
contains a woodland
rat (packrat) nest.
The woodland rat
is classified as a
threatened species in
Holly Cook in Big Mouth Cave. Photo by Dave Black.
Indiana, the northern
limits of its range.
Before the turn of the century, when Another name for this cave is Rat Cave.
Indiana was still a
western frontier,
Tobacco Landing was
a major river port
for Corydon. An old
wagon path can still
be followed from the
landing along the
upper river bank to the
entrance of Big Mouth
Cave. The sediment
in the cave was also
reportedly mined for
saltpeter.
The entrance to Big
Mouth Cave is located
about 50 feet above
Big Mouth Spring
Cave, a wet stream
cave, and 90 feet above
the Ohio River. The
25-foot-high by 30foot-wide
entrance is
a picturesque entrance
overlooking the Ohio
River and the farm
fields of Kentucky.
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