Cold Open

It’s January 30th, 1925, in Southwest Kentucky.

Cave explorer Floyd Collins is fifty-five feet underground. By the flickering light of a kerosene lantern, he scrapes rock from the sides of a narrow crevasse with a crowbar.

It’s painstaking work to give Floyd just centimeters more space. He’s in such tight quarters, it would give the average person instant, intense claustrophobia.

But for Floyd, It's just another day at work. He has been exploring caves around Kentucky since he was six years old. Now thirty-eight, he’s been working for weeks to expand this tunnel, in search of a cave so beautiful and majestic that tourists will come from all over the world to see it - and pay him good money for the privilege.

Floyd scoops up the loose rock he’s chipped away and puts it in a burlap sack. He sets it aside to be taken to the surface, and with this section of the cave slightly widened, he decides to move deeper in.

Floyd wriggles first down a narrow fissure through the limestone. A trickle of cold water dribbles down alongside him, dampening his shirt.

At the bottom, Floyd finds a hole with a cool breeze whistling through it. It’s a promising lead in his search for a larger cave. But it can wait. Floyd is tired, and decides to call it a day.

Pulling himself back up the limestone fissure, he comes to a specially tight spot. But as he’s maneuvering his limbs to squeeze through… he drops his lantern. The flame goes out and Floyd is left in total darkness.

Undeterred, Floyd tries squeezing up the narrow space headfirst. He lifts his right foot to push himself up a rocky outcrop. But in the dark, he can’t see that he’s actually putting his foot on a loose boulder. His body weight dislodges it, and it tumbles on top of his other foot. Floyd tries to move, but he can’t budge. His ankle is pinned to the floor of the tunnel. He begins to panic. He kicks and struggles, but that only has more rocks and gravel falling down on top of him, partially pinning down his left arm as well.

Floyd stops moving and lies still, realizing too late that the more he moves, the more loose rock he dislodges onto himself. He’s on his back, alone, in the cold, wet, pitch-black crevasse. He can’t sit up. He can’t roll over. He is hopelessly trapped.

Floyd Collins will fight for survival in this exact spot for the next fifteen days. The enormous effort to save him will become the biggest news story in America, before rescuers finally dig deep enough to reach him on February 16th, 1925.

Introduction

From Noiser and Airship, I’m Lindsay Graham and this is History Daily.

History is made every day. On this podcast—every day—we tell the true stories of the people and events that shaped our world.

Today is February 16th, 1925: Rescuers Reach Trapped Cave Explorer Floyd Collins.

Act One

It’s the winter of 1917, eight years before cave explorer Floyd Collins is trapped underground.

It’s a cold, clear night on Flint Ridge, in Kentucky, and thirty-year-old Floyd is running across his family’s farmstead toward home.

It’s after midnight when he bursts into the house. He rushes from one room to another in his heavy work boots, hollering to wake up his father, stepmother, and six brothers and sisters. They all shuffle out of their bedroom to find Floyd delirious with excitement. He tells them he’s found a cave, one that’s gonna change all their lives. And he wants them to see it right now.

Some of the Collins family want to go back to bed, but Floyd is insistent and won’t take “no” for an answer. So, they all put coats on over their pajamas and follow Floyd out into the night. With a flickering lamp, he leads them across the fields to a narrow opening in a rock wall. It’s too tight of a squeeze for Floyd’s father and stepmother, but his brothers and sisters follow him inside.

After the claustrophobic entrance, the cave opens up into an enormous 65-foot-high cavern. The walls are encrusted with beautiful crystal formations known as gypsum flowers. Floyd's brothers and sisters are stunned. He wasn’t kidding. He's discovered a magnificent, breathtaking cave - and it might make them all rich.

Caves are big business in this part of Kentucky, so much so that the surrounding area has even been named Cave City. The star attraction is the Mammoth Cave. The world’s longest, it draws visitors to Kentucky from all over the country. But that popularity means the cave business is highly competitive.

Several people own land with entrances to Mammoth Cave and they all vie with one another to win tourists' dollars. Other locals have found separate cave systems and try to promote those. And no one seems to have any reservations about using dirty tactics. Some insist that theirs is the “original” Mammoth Cave, and post fake signs to redirect tourists to their land. Others bribe locals to recommend their cave over others or make false claims that rival caves are closed. This period will later become known as the Kentucky Cave Wars, and with Floyd’s new discovery, the Collins family is enlisting in it.

Floyd names his find Crystal Cave, and he works for months digging and dynamiting out a path to make it more accessible to tourists. Finally, in the spring of 1918, Crystal Cave opens to the public.

But unfortunately for Floyd, by then, the United States is embroiled in World War I. Tourism in the area has declined, and Floyd’s new attraction is too far from the main road to entice many. Although moderately successful, Crystal Cave isn’t the boon to the family that Floyd dreamt it would be. But he isn’t giving up - he just has to find another cave. A better cave.

And one day in 1925, Floyd happens upon a hole in the ground with cold air coming up through it. Floyd is immediately excited - that breeze is a telltale sign that there’s a cave below. The land it’s on belongs to a neighbor, Arthur Doyle. And after studying maps and geological surveys of the area, Floyd finds an entrance to this new cave. He wonders if it might lead to a larger tunnel connecting the world-famous Mammoth Cave to Floyd’s struggling Crystal Cave. If it does, Floyd could potentially find a new entrance to the longest cave in the world in his neighbor's backyard. It would be a lucrative discovery, so Floyd makes a deal to split the profits with his neighbor Arthur and moves into his house while working on the cave.

Floyd gets to work digging and dynamiting. His family is skeptical after the failure of Crystal Cave and warns him to be careful. Floyd’s stepmother is especially worried - she claims to have had dreams of him being trapped in a cave. But Floyd has complete faith in his new project - he believes this is going to be the one that works out. And for three weeks, he makes good progress.

Until on January 30th, 1925, when Floyd Collins heads underground for the last time. He doesn’t come home that night. The next day, neighbor Arthur Doyle raises a search party to go out looking for him. And eventually, Floyd and his new cave will become famous, but not for the reason he hoped. Instead, the news of him being trapped underground will become a national media sensation.

Act Two

It’s January 31st, 1925, in Cave City, Kentucky. Floyd Collins has been trapped underground for about 24 hours.

His youngest brother, Homer, is driving back from a trip to Louisville in his Model T Ford. It’s a drizzly and cold day. Getting closer to the home, Homer stops for gas. Cave City is such a small town that the gas station attendant recognizes Homer and casually asks if his brother has been freed from the cave yet. But Homer had no idea Floyd was even stuck. He fills up his tank and races off to help his brother.

A few hours earlier, the landowner Arthur Doyle and his search party found the cave and heard Floyd crying out for help from inside. Now, a makeshift rescue site has been erected by the cave entrance, but it's little more than a tent and a campfire when Floyd’s brother Homer arrives.

No stranger to caves himself, Homer goes in without hesitation and deep in the limestone, the brothers are reunited. Floyd is relieved to see a familiar face, and explains to Homer how he got stuck. Although he’s cold and hungry, it’s clear Floyd is doing his best to stay hopeful. And Homer calls up to the rescue workers for food and hot coffee.

The crevasse Floyd is trapped in is so narrow that he can’t move his arms, so when some sandwiches are brought down, his brother Homer helps him eat. Homer also uses some of Floyd’s burlap sacks to try to dam up the running water that’s soaking Floyd. There’s more of it now that it’s raining, and it’s very cold. Homer works tirelessly throughout the night and the next day to dig out some of the rock around Floyd. And finally, enough rock is cleared so that Floyd can move his arms above his head.

Despite the progress, though, Floyd is still stuck. The boulder that’s pinning down his left foot weighs just 27 pounds, but no one can reach it, and even if they could, there’s nowhere for it to go. Hammers, chisels, and blow torches have all had little effect on the thick limestone surrounding Floyd, who is beginning to suffer hypothermia from the cold rock and constant trickle of rainwater soaking his back. His teeth are chattering, his limbs are numb, and his eyes are sunken. If Floyd is to survive, the rescuers have to get him out soon.

But on the surface, news of Floyd’s predicament is spreading. On February 1st, a reporter from the Louisville Courier-Journal arrives on the scene. At just 5 feet 5 inches and 120 pounds, William B Miller is nicknamed “Skeets ” because he’s as tiny as a mosquito. But he’s brave enough as well as being small enough - to wriggle into the cave and conduct a one-on-one interviews with Floyd himself.

These interviews soon make Floyd Collins the biggest news story in America - and not just in print, but also in the new medium of radio. For the first time, Americans don’t have to wait for the morning edition of their local paper to catch up on the latest news. Radio broadcasts live updates on Floyd’s rescue every hour, on the hour.

But unfortunately, these updates aren’t good. Pulling Floyd out with a harness doesn’t work - and instead, it nearly breaks his back. Amputating his foot isn’t an option, either - no tools can fit past Floyd’s chest. Worst of all, Floyd is beginning to lose hope. He begs rescuers not to leave his side, sometimes openly sobbing, sometimes apparently hearing voices.

The mood above ground is a bit different. By February 7th, warm weather and the growing public interest in Floyd’s story have turned the rescue site into a sort of carnival.

Ten thousand people gather hoping to see a miraculous rescue. Ladies wear their finest dresses, while men drink their best moonshine. Merchants make huge profits selling hamburgers, soda, and slapped-together souvenirs to the masses.

Even Floyd’s father joins in, selling pictures of his trapped son for a dollar a piece, and recommending to the crowds of well-wishers that they visit the family-owned Crystal Cave for the two dollar tour.

All the while, the rescue attempts continue without success. Those efforts are complicated by a partial cave collapse which cuts off access to Floyd, meaning rescue workers can no longer deliver him food or water. Tensions rise as arguments break out over the best approach and the site descends into chaos, until finally the Kentucky state government steps in to take over. Their plan will involve digging a new tunnel straight down to to reach the crevasse. But Floyd has been trapped for over a week now, and time is running out. It won’t be long before his fate is decided - and, when it is, the whole country will be listening in.

Act Three

It’s February 16th, 1925, outside of Cave City, Kentucky.

The fields echo to the sound of pickaxes and shovels. A rescue team is excavating a shaft deep into the earth in order to free the trapped cave explorer, Floyd Collins.

The rescuers have been working virtually non-stop for over 30 hours. They’ve already dug 55 feet straight down and are now finishing their 12 foot lateral tunnel moving horizontally toward Floyd. At long last, they break through the final wall of rock. One of the rescuers finds an inch of a quilt that was sent down to keep Floyd warm. They must be in the right place. And following the quilt, they keep digging until eventually, they find Floyd himself. His cheek is resting on the floor of the tunnel, cold rainwater runs over his face, and one of his eyes is open. It’s clear that the rescuers are too late. And Floyd Collins is dead.

At 2:42 PM, the death is announced to the press. Floyd died of a combination of hypothermia and starvation. Within minutes, the news has spread across the country as radio reports broadcast that the rescue attempt has failed. The following day, Floyd’s obituary runs on the front page of the New York Times. And the news media soon moves on to the next story, but William “Skeets” Miller later wins a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting in the cave.

And he’s not the only one to benefit from Floyd’s tragic end. Arthur Doyle, the first person to notice Floyd was missing, takes possession of the boulder that trapped Floyd’s foot, as well as the shoe that was stuck underneath it. He puts them both on public display. Even Floyd’s body is eventually exploited for commercial gain. At first, Floyd is buried on the Collins family farm, but when a new owner buys the land in 1927, he digs up the corpse and places it in a glass coffin as a morbid tourist attraction. There it remains for decades, until 1989, when Floyd is finally put to rest in a real cemetery, beneath a tombstone reading: “Greatest Cave Explorer Ever Known.”

Floyd’s story was one of the biggest media sensations of the 1920s. The live interviews and minute by minute updates helped cement radio as a new form of mass media. The following year, in 1926, NBC radio began airing its first scheduled nightly news programs. And the age of real-time news had begun.

In the decades to come, through times of peace and war, Americans would gather around their radio sets to hear the latest news from home and abroad, just as they did when cave explorer Floyd Collins’ body was discovered after 18 days trapped underground, on February 16th, 1925.

Outro

Next on History Daily. February 19th, 197 C.E. Septimius Severus' victory at the Battle of Lugdunum firmly establishes him as a sole ruler of the Roman Empire.

From Noiser and Airship, this is History Daily, hosted, edited, and executive produced by me, Lindsay Graham.

Audio editing by Muhammad Shahzaib.

Sound design by Gabriel Gould.

Music by Lindsay Graham.

This episode is written and researched by Jack O’Brien.

Edited by William Simpson.

Managing producer Emily Burke.

Executive Producers are William Simpson for Airship, and Pascal Hughes for Noiser.