270-854-3054
 Listen to the
Cellphone Tour for
Stop #1
spoken by Mayor Randall Curry
Click to Read the Tour Script for
Stop #1
Stop # 1 Rich Heritage of Horse Cave -
Narrator: Randall Curry
Welcome to Horse Cave Stories – a walking tour of our Cultural District. You can complete the tour in thirty minutes, but you'll be spanning thousands of years of history. Pre-historic Native Americans explored Hidden River Cave, and Horse Cave's early settlers were attracted to the abundance of clean water available at the cave's mouth. Beginning in the late 1800's thousands of visitors arrived by train to visit the cave.
But cave tourism was fraught with feuds and controversy, as you will soon learn.
Horse Cave has an intriguing African American history. The Horse Cave Colored High School (as it was known before integration), was renowned for its high academic standards as well as its outstanding basketball team, which won the state championship four years in a row. Graduates of the team went on to play for the Harlem Globetrotters.
More information about our town’s history can be found at www.horsecavestories.com but for now, let's begin your tour. Stop #2 is the Heritage Arts Center, just a few steps down Water Street.
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Oral Histories about the
"Rich Heritage of Horse Cave"
Sandra T. Wilson, Executive Director
Hart County Tourist Commission
"Tobacco, commerce, and
narrow streets"
"Off-kilter streets and
triangular buildings"
 Ken Russell,
President
Horse Cave Development Corporation
"Tobacco town"
Newton Thomas, Principal of "Horse Cave Colored School" (retired)
"Basketball champions and academic achievers"
Curtis Wilson
"Growing up in Horse Cave
in the 1930's and 1940's"
"The championship team"
"Clarence Wilson and the
Harlem Globetrotters"
Randall Curry,
Mayor of Horse Cave
"Horse Cave Colored
School"
"Basketball champions play
for Harlem Globetrotters"
"Professor Thomas - it takes
a village"
"Athletics and academics"
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See Historic District Designation Map 
