Journey to the Bottomless Pit: The Story of Stephen Bishop and Mammoth Cave

Book Description:

If you toured Mammoth Cave in Kentucky around the year 1838, you would have been led by candlelight through miles of dark winding tunnels, to the edge of a terrifying bottomless pit, and curiously, a church built underground. Your tour guide would have been seventeen-year-old Stephen Bishop, an African American, and a slave. Bishop had a job he found truly thrilling--exploring and recording every inch of his exciting adventures at Mammoth Cave and escorting tourists to show them his discoveries. Luckily, by being so successful in this job, Bishop was able to avoid the grueling labor most slaves endured.

Full of adventure and fascinating details about cave exploration Journey to the Bottomless Pit is the first book for young readers ever written about Stephen Bishop. Through Stephen Bishop’s story, author Betsy Mitchell takes readers on a tour unlike anything they’ve experienced.