Cave souvenir shops cited for illegal sales

Associated Press

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LOUISVILLE -- Kentucky State Police have cited eight Mammoth Cave-area souvenir shops for selling cave formations. The citations followed visits to 13 shops in Barren County. A state police investigator was accompanied by a geologist from the Kentucky Geological Survey and a Cave City police officer. Cave formation sales have been illegal for years, but it took the vandalism of Floyd Collins Crystal Cave in Mammoth Cave National Park to focus attention on the problem. The three men who pleaded guilty last month to the vandalism sold hundreds of pounds of cave formations to area rock shops. On May 22, the three were sentenced to federal prison. The next day, acting on a complaint from Barren County Attorney Ben Rogers, a state police detective cited Debbie's Rock & Gift Shop for selling cave formations such as stalactites. Rogers notified state police after being told by a TV reporter that the shop sold cave formations. State police Capt. Kenneth Hardin said Wednesday that the latest raid was a follow-up to the visit to Debbie's. The geologist went along to help identify the cave formations, he said. Hardin also said the crackdown came in response to the widespread publicity over the Floyd Collins' Crystal Cave case. Mammoth Cave National Park officials have said rock shops have indirectly encouraged the looting of caves by creating a market for cave formations. Officials would like to see stricter enforcement of the law and support making the offense a felony. That view is shared by David Foster, executive director of the American Cave Conservation Association. The group has its headquarters in Horse Cave, where it operates Hidden River Cave and a museum. Foster said the sale of cave formations threatens the resource that draws people to the area. If rock shop owners "really care about the resource that they're making their living off of," they'll comply with the law, he said. "There are 1,001 other things they can sell." The shops cited Tuesday were The Old General Store, Wild Wonderful Gifts, Tom's Teepee, Coon Shine Cabin, Mammoth Cave Knife Works, Hillbilly Hound Fun Park, Nuttin Fancy Indian Artifacts and Relics and Big Mike's.

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