Details as to the layout of the downtown caverns vary widely in historical sources. Several accounts describe a grand subterranean network reminiscent of Kentucky's Mammoth Cave. During the mid-1800s the City Hotel, which backed up to the Cumberland River bluff on the east side of Public Square, reportedly hosted cock fights in an underlying natural grotto. At around that same time, a long-haired man who lived in a cabin near the old Davidson County jail, reportedly gave 25-cent candlelight tours of large underground caverns said to run all the way beneath City Hall. By some accounts, a cave mouth was once present along the Cumberland River bluff at the foot of Union Street. That opening was situated below the Enterprise Soap Works, and described as 50 feet wide and 10-12 feet high, and large enough inside to accommodate lumber storage. According to an 1874 article in the Republican Banner , the riverbank entrance connected to a network of large, sandy-floored chambers lit by gas lights, with sitting areas, a ballroom, and a bar. It is a stumbling block in historical research that early newspaper accounts are often prone to sensationalism and hyperbole. There was little or no fact checking by media outlets in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and details, informants, or even entire stories might be created out of whole cloth. In the case of Nashville's downtown cave, there is unfortunately no direct evidence confirming that a passable cave network, or even the opening beneath the soap works, are anything other than tall tales. Excerpted from Mastodons to Mississippians by Aaron Deter-Wolf, Tanya M. Peres All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
