The Cave of Ghosts

They don't tell you about the ghosts on the tour of Cathedral Caverns. They talk about the cave's history and about Mr. Gurley who discovered the cave.  Although, Cathedral Caverns are ancient,  the enormous mouth of this cave was completely hidden from human view by thick overgrowth and enormous trees.   It was first discovered by Hans Kennamer in 1803 but it wasn't until Mr. Gurly discovered in 1952 that the cave became famous.  Of course, the tour guides don't tell you this either.  In fact, most of what the guides tell you is not true at all.  A cave statistical site I visited confirmed that much of the information you will hear and find about the cave is false.  This false information may be entirely believed by the tour guides, but it is still untrue.
For example, the cave is advertised as having the widest commerical cave entrance in the world, which is a record held in reality by Deer Cave, 100m wide and 120m high, and the largest single cave passage in the world,

As you sort through the many lies and tall tales and strange fantasies your tour guide will tell you about Cathedral Caverns,  you will eventually begin to tune the guide out and study the beauty of the cavern itself.  The cave is incredibly beautiful and doesn't need lies to capture the imagination of visitors.   The caverns are hauntingly beautiful and if you can sense the otherworldly you will feel a chill run down your spine.  You'll know that there is more to Cathedral Caverns than you can see.  If you pull the guide aside,  you'll find the mysterious and true story of the ghosts that wander this cave.  The ghosts that hide here are not human.  They don't speak or interact with visitors.  For the larger part of Cathedral Cavern's history, it was not a place for humans.  It belonged to the animals and when the lights shut off and darkness settles back on the cave, the ghosts of dead animals retake this ancient cavern.  According to one guide I spoke with,  every morning he sees footprints leading back into the darkness of the cave, but none come out.   He also reported strange noises and movements when he is alone in the cave.  Yet despite this, no animals are ever seen in the cave and the cave is far to dark for any animal, except bats and a few bugs, to be able to navigate alone.  The footprints change in shape and size, but every morning they are there,  serving as a reminder of  a time when the cave belonged to the wild and not to the tour guides.

Three Caves

I have been trying all week to find any shred of evidence that Three Caves is haunted.  They should be haunted.   Three Caves is located in Huntsville, Alabama at the base of Monte Sano Mountain.  It is, as the name would imply,  three very large caves in the woods.   The caves are man made and were used as a limestone quarry until 1955.  When the quarry closed the land was donated to the Huntsville Land Trust.
Since that time these very accessible caves have become a local haunt for wierdos, wiccans, and spelunkers.  The caves are quite large and go back over a mile into the ground and have ceinlings of up to 40 ft.  Three films have been shot in these caverns.

In the seventies and eighties, the caves were also quite popular amongst wiccans and satanists and were the site of many dark rituals and summonings.  They have also been the site of at least five suicides and many accidental deaths.  Inexperienced spelunkers often crawl into the caves and find that they didn't know what they were up against.  Despite all this, the caves are still used by many nature lovers and urban adventureres.

I have dug and looked and researched and found nothing to indicate that these caves, filled with darkness, satan, ghost summoning rituals, and death, have even a whisper of a ghost.  So this brings me to the question,  if death, darkness, and black magic can't summon a haunting what is it that causes hauntings.  It can't just be the presence of tragedy and horror alone.  There has to be other qualities in the location that create a more suitable location for a haunting.  I have heard many theories about geomagnetic and solar activity and hauntings, but I tend to veer away from these thinking that the supernatural would have its own laws that would not be governed by the rules of our world.

My favorite book is Shirley Jackson's "The Haunting of Hillhouse".  It is the best haunting book ever written and if you have seen the terrible movie made several years ago based on this book, please try to forget the movie.  The book is singular in its subtle and completely psychological description of a haunting.  In this book,  Shirley Jackson says that some places are just "born bad".  She says that the very soil is evil.  I wonder if there isn't a seed of truth in this.  Horrible things happen every day without leaving a whisper of a haunting behind them, but a peaceful death can leave a violent haunting.  Perhaps some places draw these ghosts and hold them.  Apparently three caves isn't one of these places, because no matter how many people call forth the demons of hell in the mouth of these caves, the spirits seem to avoid it like the plague.