For the majority of the 1.5 million people who visit Mammoth Cave National Park each year the cave, forest trails, and Green River are the major attractions. Little known are the small isolated communities that were inhabited for more than a century before the park's creation. Traces of forgotten homesteads, now almost indistinguishable from the surrounding forests, are that remain of these small communities. Taken from court documents and personal interviews, the author writes about the struggles and livelihood of the people who inhabited the region now within Mammoth Cave National Park. These stories sketch the early pioneers and human interest stories of their descendants- their schools, industries, tragedies, and humor that surrounded their lives.