Stephen Bishop was an American cave explorer and geologist who became one of the first people to explored Mammoth Cave located in the Edmonson, Hart, and Barren counties, Kentucky. The Mammoth Cave is considered the longest cave system in the world. In 1842, Bishop created a map of the cave which was hand drawn from memory off site that became the authoritative map of the Mammoth Cave for cave explorers for four decades during the 19th century.
Bishop was born enslaved in 1821. Much of his early life is unknown. In 1838, 17-year-old Bishop was brought to Mammoth Cave by lawyer and enslaver Franklin Gorin, who had acquired ownership of Bishop as a repayment for a debt, that most likely came from the divorce of Bishop’s possible white father Lowry Bishop. Gorin also had purchased Mammoth Cave from a previous owner in the spring of that year for $5,000. While working at Mammoth Cave, Bishop was able to explore, discover, and named large areas of the cave including the River Styx, Great Relief Hall, Fat Man’s Misery, Tall Man’s Misery, and Lake Lethe. Numerous authors wrote about the Mammoth Cave tours giving to them by Bishop in books and magazine. Author Robert Barnwell Roosevelt who wrote for the newspaper The Knickerbocker, mentioned Bishop as “Stephen, the best guide in the cave.” Writer Nathaniel Parker Willis, in A Health Trip to The Tropics, described his working uniform as “a chocolate-colored, slouch hat, a green jacket, and striped trousers.” Bishop gave tours at the Mammoth Cave to known 19th century figures like Jenny Lind, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Benjamin Silliman Jr. He was also credited to discover the eyeless fish, which is are specimens of Amblyopis spelaea or the Northern cavefish in the cave.
Map of Mammoth Cave
In 1839, Dr. John Croghan bought the Mammoth Cave from Gorin for $10,000. The sale also included Bishop and several other enslaved people. Croghan was known to organize some tuberculosis medical experiments and tours at the Mammoth. In 1842, Bishop was sent to Croghan’s Kentucky plantation, Locust Grove, where he stayed for two weeks. While he was there, he drew a map of the Mammoth Cave from memory. The map was published in 1844 by Morton and Griswold as a pull out insert in Alexander Clark Bullitt’s Rambles in the Mammoth Cave in the Year 1844 by a Visitor.
During the time he was at the Croghan’s plantation, Bishop met Charlotte Brown, an enslaved domestic worker for Croghan family. They married at Croghan’s Locust Grove plantation and the couple gave birth to a son, Thomas Bishop, in 1843. In 1856, Bishop gained his freedom from slavery. A year later, he and wife sold their 112 acres plot of land near the cave. Bishop died in 1857 at the age of 35 or 36 and was buried on the south hill about the cave in what became known as The Old Guides’ Cemetery.
