MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
A national park in Kentucky has the longest known cave system in the world. This week, Floyd Collins is being remembered there. He was an explorer whose death a century ago became an international sensation. Reporter Michael Collins - no relation - from WKYU (ph) in Bowling Green, reports the tragic way he died led to the creation of Mammoth Cave National Park.
MICHAEL COLLINS, BYLINE: One hundred years ago this week, one story dominated the headlines - the rescue of Floyd Collins.
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UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Collins had been trapped in the Kentucky cave by a falling boulder, and the whole nation wanted to know from hour to hour what progress his rescuers were making.
COLLINS: From a 1950 Times documentary on the most impactful events of the 1920s. Collins lived in Cave City, Kentucky. He was one of many landowners who took part in the Cave Wars of the early 20th century. They explored the extensive Mammoth Cave system, which had only been partially discovered at the time. Rick Toomey is a geologist and tour guide for the cave system. He tells visitors how Floyd Collins wanted to draw more business from tourists visiting Mammoth Cave.
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RICK TOOMEY: So Floyd was constantly looking for a cave closer to the main road to try and find some place that they could get more visitors to come to so they could make a better living.
COLLINS: He soon scoped out Sand Cave on January 30, 1925, but as another park guide, Jackie Wheet, explains, Collins would never leave.
JACKIE WHEET: His foot actually kind of bumps against a loose rock. This rock becomes dislodged and kind of rolls into the passageway, right over top of his ankle and foot, and he can't pull his leg beyond this rock.
COLLINS: Collins sat alone in the dark for roughly a day before locals found him trapped. Neighbors and family came quickly to try and free him.
WHEET: People begin to take turns going in and out, in and out. And this goes on for a couple of days, and they're just not making any progress.
COLLINS: All this action weakened the cave walls, and they collapse. Collins is cut off from the world entirely. The ensuing rescue effort became a national sensation. Congress took hourly breaks to listen to updates over the radio. Thousands came to gawk, pray and help. Here's the mood described in that 1950s documentary.
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UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The nation felt a genuine sense of frustration and defeat.
COLLINS: Wheet says rescuers continue digging to Collins until they reached him on February 17, 1925.
WHEET: But this was Day 17. They see him, and he's gone. He had passed away they believe a couple days before that.
COLLINS: Sand Cave is now shut off completely. Collins' grave next to Mammoth Cave Baptist Church has an inscription that reads, greatest cave explorer ever known. A year after the failed rescue, Congress authorized Mammoth Cave as a national park, in part due to the tragedy of Collins' death. Wheet says we can't ignore the role Floyd Collins played in the park's history.
WHEET: The national park is also about preserving the stories of the pre-park families that lived here and not forgetting those people because they played a vital role in what we have today.
COLLINS: To celebrate the 100th anniversary, the park is hosting special tours, visiting Collins' homestead, his grave site and an overlook of Sand Cave, where he was trapped for 17 days.
For NPR News, I'm Michael Collins in Cave City, Kentucky.
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