Old Mammoth Cave Road into Mammoth Cave National Park is pictured along with the sign for the park. James Brown/Glasgow News 1
By JAMES BROWN
Glasgow News 1
Terry Smith stands outside the north entrance to the Mammoth Cave National Park visitor center. The lights inside the building where people can usually buy cave tours are dark. Terry is helping visitors find other things they can do while in the area.
Terry represents the Hart County/Horse Cave Tourist Commission. He stands behind a couple of tables on the walkway handing out brochures for other attractions in the Caveland area, and talking to people who have come from far away to tour the mammoth cave. He is telling those who visit his tables about other attractions because a federal government shutdown has closed the national park cave tours since 12:01 a.m. eastern Wednesday, Oct. 1.
“The cave itself is closed and all the things inside the visitor’s center are closed. The rest of the park is open,” Terry says. “And you can actually walk down and see the entrance of the cave.”
He tells a couple at the table they can walk the trails in the park, and that the camp ground is still open.
“I’m usually set up on the inside — we have a booth in there. Sandra Wilson said we need to set up and I said lets do it,” Terry explains. Wilson also works with the tourist commission.
“We started yesterday morning around nine o’clock and it was non-stop … until 5,” Terry says. “As I was putting the brochures in the back of my car, they were coming over to the car and getting the brochures.”
He says visitors to Mammoth Cave National Park travel hundreds of miles to visit, and the cave tours are why they come.
“One guy from Montana said this was the focal point of their trip,” Terry says. “People come and they are disappointed because obviously they wanted to go on the cave tours, but we have a lot of different options.”
As of Thursday morning, there was no indication when the shutdown will end. Congressional members in Washington, D.C. — the nation’s capitol — were unable to pass a continuing budget resolution before the end of the federal fourth quarter deadline. That deadline was midnight eastern, Oct. 1.
Until then, Terry has some ideas for visitors.
“We have a lot of interesting things around here,” he says. “Everything on my table is open, and they’d be glad to have you.”
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