Matterson Bransford:
Matterson Bransford was one of the first three enslaved, teenage tour guides of Mammoth Cave when it first started offering its tours in 1838. As I've mentioned in our previous article, "Mammoth Cave National Park: Ancient Meeting Place, Modern Marvel.", the tours provided at Mammoth Cave were of a very different nature, focusing much more on the mummified remains of pre-historic Native Americans buried in the cave thousands of years before, and using the impressive nature of Mammoth Cave as more of a backdrop. This was the era of Mammoth Cave that Matterson Bransford worked in as a slave, and following the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863, Bransford chose to purchase his own home in the town surrounding Mammoth Cave and voluntarily chose to work in the cave once again, this time for a wage.
Bransford would go on to work in the cave until his death, making impressive discoveries in the cave's exploration, and showing many visitors their first glimpse of Mammoth Cave's true wonder. Upon Bransford's death, his role in the cave was continued on by his son, further continued by his son, and so on in this cycle until there was an abrupt and unjust halt to this family legacy in the year 1939 when Mammoth Cave became a US National Park.
One of the first, and most egregious actions taken by this new administration, was to enforce the policy of segregation and dismiss all non-white members of staff, and in the case of the Bransford's, ignored nearly 93 years of storied service to Mammoth Cave. With the firing of Bransford's last continuous working descendant in 1939, it's impossible to know just how much first-hand knowledge, oral tradition, and generational experience was lost in the process. But unlike other legacies disrupted and lost to the injustices of segregation, the story of the Bransford's was renewed, thanks to the efforts of one driven Mammoth Cave Ranger, who was able to track down one of Matterson Bransford's modern descendants, a Mr. Jerry Bransford, who was a featured keynote speaker during a 2009 National Parks Conference.
From 2009 to today, Jerry Bransford still works providing tours and insightful history at Mammoth Cave, mostly coming in to work during the summers. Along my own tour of Mammoth Cave, the story of Matterson Bransford, and this renewed family connection to the site was spoken on with incredible pride, and thankfulness. The mark of the Bransford's on Mammoth Cave is an incredibly important footnote in the site's history of tours, and will very literally remain marked in stone for presumably the next several thousands if not millions of years.
If this story interests you, I strongly suggest you call the staff at Mammoth Cave to see if you can attend a tour given personally by Jerry Bransford, or simply ask your tour guide about the extensive Bransford Legacy.
Bransford would go on to work in the cave until his death, making impressive discoveries in the cave's exploration, and showing many visitors their first glimpse of Mammoth Cave's true wonder. Upon Bransford's death, his role in the cave was continued on by his son, further continued by his son, and so on in this cycle until there was an abrupt and unjust halt to this family legacy in the year 1939 when Mammoth Cave became a US National Park.
One of the first, and most egregious actions taken by this new administration, was to enforce the policy of segregation and dismiss all non-white members of staff, and in the case of the Bransford's, ignored nearly 93 years of storied service to Mammoth Cave. With the firing of Bransford's last continuous working descendant in 1939, it's impossible to know just how much first-hand knowledge, oral tradition, and generational experience was lost in the process. But unlike other legacies disrupted and lost to the injustices of segregation, the story of the Bransford's was renewed, thanks to the efforts of one driven Mammoth Cave Ranger, who was able to track down one of Matterson Bransford's modern descendants, a Mr. Jerry Bransford, who was a featured keynote speaker during a 2009 National Parks Conference.
From 2009 to today, Jerry Bransford still works providing tours and insightful history at Mammoth Cave, mostly coming in to work during the summers. Along my own tour of Mammoth Cave, the story of Matterson Bransford, and this renewed family connection to the site was spoken on with incredible pride, and thankfulness. The mark of the Bransford's on Mammoth Cave is an incredibly important footnote in the site's history of tours, and will very literally remain marked in stone for presumably the next several thousands if not millions of years.
If this story interests you, I strongly suggest you call the staff at Mammoth Cave to see if you can attend a tour given personally by Jerry Bransford, or simply ask your tour guide about the extensive Bransford Legacy.