Those of you who watched HBomberguy’s magnum opus on plagiarism last year may remember that one of his examples involved a fellow YouTuber ripping off an article about Kentucky speleologist Floyd Collins. I’ve finally managed to sit down and read that article and it is just as good as HBomb said it was.
The author Lucas Reilly does a great job portraying the dramatic and ultimately unsuccessful rescue of Floyd Collins from Sand Cave back in 1925. I won’t try to re-summarise the story but I will share some interesting tidbits that caught my attention:
- In 1917, Floyd discovered a cave on his own family’s property (which he named “Crystal Cave”) that he tried to promote as a tourist attraction. This didn’t pan out because not only was the cavern difficult to access, other people kept trying to sabotage him – one night, hired goons turned up at his house to demand he hand over the lease and they had to be scared away with a shotgun!
- Floyd’s notoriety made the rescue more difficult that it needed to be – spectators with nothing better to do in the cold Kentucky winter gathered around the entrance of the cavern, lighting fires and melting the surrounding snow. This caused Sand Cave to become warmer and more humid over time, undermining the integrity of the walls and making it harder to reach Floyd.
- The huge publicity storm that surrounded the rescue efforts (helped along by the then recent invention of commercial radio) contributed to Congress’ decision to turn the Mammoth Cave system into a National Park the following year.
In short, Lucas’ article is a masterclass on how to make history accessible and informative, and I highly recommend that you give it a few minutes of your time.