TB Huts

The TB Huts marks the end of the tour route.

NPS Photo/ Thomas DiGiovannangelo

Quick Facts

Amenities

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Information - Ranger/Staff Member Present, Scenic View/Photo Spot

These two stone huts are the last that remain of an experimental treatment to cure a disease in the early 1800s known as ‘Consumption’. The same illness is still around today but we know it as Tuberculosis. In 1839, Dr. John Croghan purchased Mammoth Cave from Franklin Gorin for $10,000.00. He became fascinated with the preservative qualities of the cave environment and thought the cave air might be the key to curing this disease. 

Inside the cave two stone huts and eight wooden huts were built, to function as a sanitorium where patients could “take in the airs.” Sickened individuals lived in the cave for up to five months without seeing the light of day. In the beginning the patients claimed to be feeling better but it was simply the improved morale. Long exposure to cooking and heating fires in the cold clammy cave wrecked havoc on their weakened conditions. The cure for consumption would not be found in the depths of Mammoth Cave. 

The eight wooden huts are no longer standing due to development of tourist trails and people venturing too close to the historic buildings. The second stone building in the distance had to be stabilized. The reconstruction of the shelter left some of the walls incomplete.