"Dripstone Wall" by NPS Photo , public domain
Mammoth CaveStephen Bishop |
featured in
National Parks Pocket Maps |
Mammoth Cave
National Park
National Park Service
U.S. Department of the Interior
Stephen Bishop, Cave Guide
of his courage, intelligence, and
untiring zeal. He is extremely
attentive and polite, particularly
so to the ladies, and he runs
over what he has to say with
such ease and readiness,
and mingles his statement
of facts with such lofty
language, that all classes,
male and female, listen
with respect, and involuntarily smile at his remark.
His business as a guide
brought him so often in
contact with the intellectual and scientific, that he has
become acquainted with every
geological specimen in the cave, and
hen Franklin Gorin and
having a prodigious memory, has at
A.A. Harvey purchased his tongue’s every incident of interest
Mammoth Cave in 1838, that has transpired during his adminGorin brought his young slave, the
istration.”
17-year old Stephen Bishop, to be a
new cave guide.
“Stephen and Alfred belonged to
Dr. Croghan, the late owner of the
In October of 1839, Stephen met his cave, and are to be manumitted in
new master. Gorin had sold Mamanother year, with a number of other
moth Cave to Dr. John Croghan.
slaves. They are now receiving
wages, in order to enable them to
begin freedom with a little capital, in
Liberia, their destined home.”
Stephen became a free man the
following year, but he chose to
remain at the cave.
Stephen died during the summer of
1857. He is buried in the “Old
Guide’s Cemetery” on the ridgetop
south of the cave entrance.
Quoted material taken from Stephen
Bishop, the Man and the Legend
W
“Stephen, handsome, good humored, intelligent, the most complete
of guides, the presiding genius of this
territory. He is a middle-sized mulatto, owned, as they say here, of
handsome, bright features. He has
occupied himself so frequently in
exploring the various passages of the
cavern, that there is now no living
being who knows it so well. The
discoveries made have been the result
Using a tallow candle, Stephen would
smoke his name on the ceiling of the cave.
To avoid wax dripping in his eyes, he would
use a mirror – and sometimes get the letters
backward.