Journey to the Bottomless Pit

If you toured Mammoth Cave in Kentucky around the year 1838, you would have

been led by candlelight through miles of dark winding tunnels, to the edge of

a terrifying bottomless pit, and curiously, a church built underground. Your

tour guide would have been seventeen-year-old Stephen Bishop, an African

American, and a slave. Bishop had a job he found truly thrilling--exploring

and recording every inch of his exciting adventures at Mammoth Cave and

escorting tourists to show them his discoveries. Luckily, by being so

successful in this job, Bishop was able to avoid the grueling labor most

slaves endured.

Full of adventure and fascinating details about cave exploration Journey to

the Bottomless Pit is the first book for young readers ever written about

Stephen Bishop. Through Stephen Bishop's story, author Betsy Mitchell takes

readers on a tour unlike anything they've experienced.