111: Floyd Collins Is Trapped in a Cave (Part 1)

111: Floyd Collins Is Trapped in a Cave (Part 1)

From An Old Timey Podcast by An Old Timey Podcast

July 8, 2026 · 1h 12m · Episode 111

About this episode

This episode discusses the story of Floyd Collins and his ill-fated attempt to find a cave during the Kentucky Cave Wars.

Floyd Collins had a dream. He dreamt that one day, he’d emerge victorious in the Kentucky Cave Wars. In that era, people made easy money turning beautiful, awe-inspiring caves into tourist destinations. The tough part was *finding* the cave. Finding a cave took months of dangerous, exhausting work, but Floyd Collins was up to the task. In January of 1925, he felt certain that he was digging his way toward a magnificent one. Then he got stuck. Remember, kids, history hoes always cite their sources! For this episode, Norm pulled from: Collins, Homer, and John Lehrberger. The Life and Death of Floyd Collins . Cave Books, 2001. David R. Kem. “The Kentucky Cave Wars.” The Kentucky Cave Wars, July 5, 2025. https://kentuckycavewars.wordpress.com/ . “George Morrison (U.S. National Park Service).” https://www.nps.gov/people/george-morrison.htm . Kem, David Randolph. The Kentucky Cave Wars: The Century That Shaped Mammoth Cave National Park . David Randolph Kem, 2014. Murray, Robert K., and Roger W. Brucker. Trapped! The Story of Floyd Collins . University Press of Kentucky, 1982. https://archive.org/details/trappedstoryofst0000murr . Reilly, Lucas. “The 1925 Cave Rescue That Captivated…

People in this episode

Host: Norm

Topics covered

Keywords

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: U.S. National Park Service

Books & works: The Life and Death of Floyd Collins, The Kentucky Cave Wars, The Kentucky Cave Wars: The Century That Shaped Mammoth Cave National Park, Trapped! The Story of Floyd Collins

More episodes of An Old Timey Podcast

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the An Old Timey Podcast podcast page.