Kentucky by Heart: Mammoth Cave served as home to TB experiment; fond memories of Alexandria fair

By Steve Flairty
NKyTribune columnist

The contagious infection called tuberculosis, which usually attacks one’s lungs, has been around for three million years, according to medical reports. As late as 2020, about 600 people died in the U.S., but many more worldwide.

Recently, I discovered an interesting story about a tuberculosis cure experiment in Kentucky taking place in the 1800s, and it happened in Mammoth Cave.

It started in 1839 when John Croghan, a Louisville physician and nephew of renowned explorer George Rogers Clark, purchased the Mammoth Cave for the reported price of $10,000. He believed the cave’s air to have powers to cure, and he ordered his slaves to build a “consumption sanitorium” — consumption being the former term for tuberculosis — in a section of the caves.

According to Smithsonian Magazine, the sanatorium consisted of “two stone cabins and eight wooden huts, each measuring 12-by-18 feet, built upon a tongue-in-groove floor and capped by a canvas roof.” A total of sixteen participated. Some patients were wealthy and came great distances, and “synched their watches to the outside world to maintain a semblance of time; they lined the sanitorium with fresh foliage to bring life to the barren landscape and prayed for relief.”

The cottages had a stove and thermometer to allow patients to regulate temperatures. Medical thinking in that era believed that coolness was healthiest, so patients were instructed to keep temperatures as low as they could bear. Dr. Croghan, according to online magazine Atlas Obscura, noted that the community had a “picturesque, yet at the same time, a gloomy and mournful appearance.”

Tourists continued to come for sightseeing and Croghan’s slaves served food to the patients. They reported seeing the patients as being pale, thin and hacking and coughing and speaking in muttered conversations, describing it as “a bizarre scene.”

At first, the patients seemed to improve and with that, Dr. Croghan started drawing up plans for an in-cave hotel to house the anticipated masses who would come to seek healing. The National Park Service noted that the “improvement” didn’t continue:

…As winter progressed, it became clear that the dank, dark conditions worsened the patients’ symptoms. Smoke and ash from lard oil lanterns and a large fire used to light the cave continuously filled the chambers while the dampness of the air further degraded damaged lungs.

The experiment was short-lived, lasting only about five months, from fall 1842 to early 1843. Sadly, it was a colossal failure. Five patients died while in the cave community and the rest perished shortly after coming to the surface.

Croghan passed in 1849. Cause of death? Tuberculosis.

We’re approaching Labor Day Weekend, and the event recalls childhood memories of time spent at the Alexandria Fair and Horse Show in the 1960s and early 1970s.

During Labor Day Weekends, the Flairty family was always smack dab in the middle of harvesting our tobacco crop. At the same time, Dad was a member of the Fair Board and chair of the floral hall where locals showed their flowers and vegetables. Our family, including Dad, Mom, my brother Mike, and me—participated in both happenings.

The mornings saw us in the fields with our helpers, rushing to get the tobacco cut and stacked tightly on a wagon or smaller trailer, then to move it to our small barn or a neighbor’s barn in the Claryville community. Afternoons and evenings meant being at the Fair, where we mixed work with fun activities.

They were hectic but enriching times that helped shape the Flairty family, and always memorable ones.

The 2024 Alexandria Fair and Horse Show starts on Wednesday, August 28, and runs through Monday, September 2. Visit www.alexandriafair.org for details.

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