Old Guide’s Cemetery

Old Guide’s Cemetery is a small, wooded burial ground beside Heritage Trail near Mammoth Cave’s visitor-center area. It’s a quick stop worth a few minutes if you want the cave’s history to include the people who guided tours and lived nearby. A short side path leaves near the start of the accessible half-mile trail; the cemetery is wheelchair accessible.

Stephen Bishop led Mammoth Cave tours for almost 20 years. He began guiding while enslaved and continued as a free man, becoming one of the cave’s best-known guides and explorers. His burial is what gives this small cemetery its particular significance. If you’re interested in who knew the cave and helped early visitors understand it, this is the grave to look for.

During the winter of 1842–43, a tuberculosis treatment experiment brought patients into Mammoth Cave. Three who died in the experiment are buried here. Some of the stone huts where patients lived remain inside the cave and can be seen on public tours, making this cemetery part of a strange chapter in the cave’s history.

The grounds also hold local community burials dating from the early 1840s through the late 1850s. It’s one of about 80 cemeteries in the park and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.