E.P Tom Sawyer Park Cave
E.P. Tom Sawyer Park was originally part of a parcel of land given to Isaac Hite, a Virginia Militia Officer who fought in the French and Indian War. Hite lived on the land and ran a mill and was most likely the one who began altering and using Sauerkraut. After Issac Hite was killed by Native Americans, the land ended up in the hands of Lakeland Asylum for the Insane, sometimes called Central Kentucky Lunatic Asylum, Lakeland Hospital or Central Kentucky Asylum for the Insane. In the days of the hospital (from around 1900 to 1986), the cave was used as a storage place for tiles, pipes and perishable goods, such as giant cans of sauerkraut – thus the name.
Lakeland Asylum has stories connected to it that are typical for other “lunatic asylums” of the early twentieth century: reports of ice baths, electric shock therapy, lobotomies, ill treatment, wrongful death, and escapes run through the history of the hospital.
By the 1940s, the facility was hundreds of patients over capacity and there was an unknown number of people buried on the grounds. According to Samuel W. Thompson’s The Village of Anchorage, “In these institutions are housed 4,571 unfortunate people, occupying quarters designed to accommodate no more than 3,500; people of both sexes and of all races and colors; people of high and low degree, educated and ignorant, talented and feeble-minded, farmers, merchants, musicians, artisans, engineers, lawyers, clerks, cooks, teachers, doctors and wives of all classes of men.”
The general legends surrounding Sauerkraut Cave claim it was a point of escape for inmates. The tunnel in the back of the cave could perhaps lead them to freedom beyond the grounds of the asylum, but was dark and flooded. Without today’s gear and flashlights, fleeing patients may have been more likely to drown or freeze in the flooded tunnel than to make it to the other side.
For patients who successfully escaped, being sent back was likely, as the facility was isolated and anyone to stumble across them would know where they had come from. Nick Prices explained that “Patients were escaping all the time. Anyone who lived around here would call all the time, wanting to get a glass of water, use the phone, get a ride to Louisville or Anchorage.” Newspaper clippings from the era of the Asylum support his statement.
Some stories say the cave was where pregnant patients (who had not been pregnant when they entered the facility) were taken to give birth. Some even go so far as to say that the illegitimate babies were disposed of in the cave.
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During our investigation, we had a feeling of someone watching us, and heavy breath. Our cameras picked up some orbs of different shapes plus on traveling down a brick wall captured on video. One instance was a tall dark shadow passing by Lyinn with her back turned to the wall, which I didn't get on video but may have captured it on my camera, you decide.
Go to the video and the EMF pages that correspond to this investigation.
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