Cave may have sheltered fleeing slaves

James Bruggers,The (Louisville) Courier-Journal

LOUISVILLE — A cave in Trimble County, Ky., that is holding up construction of a coal ash landfill may have been a hiding place for the Underground Railroad, a network that helped slaves move from the South to freedom in northern states in the 1800s.

"In the opinion of this investigator, the 'Wentworth Lime Cave' serves as a very real example of a 'holding' or way station to aid slave escapes along the Ohio River," concluded Alicestyne Turley, a historian and contractor hired by Louisville Gas & Electric Co. (LG&E) consultants to review markings found inside the cave.

The Army Corps of Engineers is reviewing the study and other information as part of a wetlands destruction permit required for the landfill. "We will just have to look at the options to see what can be done," said Todd Hornback, a corps spokesman.

LG&E's ash storage ponds at its Trimble County plant are filling up along the Ohio River, so the power company has been planning on stockpiling its ash and scrubber waste in a new, more environmentally friendly landfill on 218 acres of company-owned property nearby.

Those plans have been in question since fall 2011, however, when state officials learned of the cave. Caves are generally protected by a 1988 law that makes it "unlawful to remove, kill, harm or otherwise disturb any naturally occurring organism" in them.

State officials have been grappling with what to do ever since, while LG&E continues to say it's not really a cave, only a "karst feature."

Corps officials will meet with state historical preservation officials and others Thursday to discuss a resolution, Hornback said.

He said that even if the corps agrees that the cave was part of the Underground Railroad, it could still allow construction to destroy the cave, but some form of documenting the cave could be required.

Because Kentucky shared a border with the free states of Indiana, Ohio and Illinois, a number of escape corridors passed through Kentucky, moving about 300 slaves to freedom through the state each year, according to corps officials.

Because Trimble County is so close to Madison, Ind., and its large community of abolitionists, it was one of the most used escape corridors, Turley wrote.

Inscriptions on the cave may have been written by slaves or others, providing evidence of their presence there, or even directions to a church, she concluded.

"My report is not necessarily going to save the cave," Turley said, lamenting its potential significance. "We are losing our historical places."