THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE was printed in the March 15, 1934 issue of the Wayne County Outlook, the weekly newspaper published in Monticello since 1904. It was signed as being written by Shad Nickels, which would have been brought to the newspaper as he was not on the staff. It describes a trip taken in June the previous year (1933) from Monticello through the countryside to the cave, described as located near Slickford in the southwestern part of the county, near the Tennessee border. I discovered this article in the late 1970s while rummaging through stacks of old newspapers stacked helter-skelter in the empty upstairs of the newspaper's office. Until the late 1960s, every issue of the Outlook was printed in the main office downstairs. I saved the article because I thought the writing was interesting and the historical data significant. The southwestern portion of Wayne County is honeycombed with a massive cave system. It was here that the largest underground room in Kentucky was discovered in 2000. However, that was not in the cave described in this article. This cave has since been explored and documented by cave experts. I don't know if any exit in Tennessee was discovered, but the mapped length would make it possible that it does go under the state line at some point. I've never been to the cave myself, but I did go looking once, by myself, in a vehicle that had no chance of getting me close to where I thought it is located. Note that Nickels labels it Winn Cave. In a set of Wayne County topographic maps I had at the time, there was a feature labeled "Wind Cave" on the side of the mountain up Dry Hollow Road from the very tiny community of Slickford. From the article and the similarity in names, I figured that's a good a chance as any. Also, it is located relatively close to the Tennessee state line. As I retyped this article into the computer, I made very few changes in the original text, punctuation and grammar, and those were only tiny cosmetic effects. Though the article mentions photographs were taken, sadly these were not printed in the newspaper. To me, the tale of the drive out there on the old roads existing in the 1930s is as fascinating as the description of the cave itself.

Wayne County Outlook, March 15, 1934
By Shad Nickels

I have visited many of the wonderful works of nature in Wayne County, gone through many of her caves, but none so awe-inspiring as the Winn cave, with its miles of passages, wonderful formations, spacious rooms (some with ceilings over 100 feet from the floor), and its winding hall-ways.

It is yet unexplored, though one party a few years ago followed one passage until they finally came out near "The Three Forks of the Wolf" and near the home of Sgt. York of World War fame, the distance being over nine miles, and every foot of the way through was filled with beautiful formations and interesting studies of geology.

We have been unable to get the exact date of the discovery of the opening to this cave, but the older settlers have had it handed down to them that during the Revolutionary War, gun powder was made from the vast beds of saltpeter, which even yet is in abundance, and the writer saw the old hopper like vats in which the saltpeter was leached, and found one square of wood which we were told was used to make charcoal from, said charcoal being used after pulvering as one of the ingredients in the making of gunpowder.

News article from same March 15, 1934 issue of Wayne County Outlook, Monticello... NOTICE TO MOTORISTS The City Council has demanded that we rigidly enforce the laws against speeding, reckless driving, driving without mufflers and bad parking; and this is due notice to one and all to obey these ordinances and laws, or we will be compelled to make arrests we do not wish to make. J.J. Sandusky, City Marshall

This wonderful cave is in the southwestern part of Wayne, and about sixteen miles from Monticello and only about 8 miles off No. 90 State Highway, and will be directly on the survey of the highway which will connect with the York Trail at the Tennessee line, and is surveyed from Cooper, Ky., to which place we already have a good road.

The writer, in company with Col. C.M. Work, Capt. George Blaydes and the right honorable Larry L. Smith, left Monticello in Capt. Blaydes Ford with rumble (seat) early one Sunday morning last June for a trip to this cave. The above gentlemen hold the lease to all the land over the cave, and we are enclosing snapshots of this trio. We shall strive to impress on the readers of this article just what a wonderful trip it was, on a wonderful day in June. We left Monticello over No. 90 State Highway, and 9 miles out at Alpha, Ky., we left No. 90, and followed a country road (graveled) to Powersburg, where the graveled road ended, and we were on a typical country road for the last four miles.

To a lover of nature, and a perfect June morning, each moment of the trip is filled with such thrills as will compensate for the last four miles of the bumpty bump over the ruts and stones. No. 90 to Alpha is eight miles of joyful thrills gotten from the wonderful land-scapes, towering foothills, laughing, singing brooks; these foothills of the Cumberlands are on your left and on the right you get those wonderful landscapes which fill the soul of the poet with song and rapturous joy.

Two miles before turning off Ky. 90 you drive down a wonderful grade to the bridge crossing at Otter Creek; this place is of some historial interest, as it was here that some Union soldiers were fired upon by "bushwhackers" from across the valley, and while the distance across is within rifle range, the way the old road ran, it was almost a mile around the hill, so the "whackers" after firing had ample time to make their escape before the soldiers could cross over.