America's Largest Underground Lake Located 140 Feet Below Ground-Level In Tennessee And Hidden Within A Cave System
A glass-bottom boat ride across a lake may not sound too special. But what if the 4.5 acre lake was underground? The Lost Sea is located 140 feet below ground-level, hidden within a cave system known as the Craighead Caverns in Sweetwater, Tennessee. America's largest underground lake, the Lost Sea is surrounded by a large collection of rare anthodites - “cave flowers” - and other stunning rock formations. Still, silent and surreal, a boat ride across the Lost Sea is an underground experience like no other.
“I was amazed at just how big the cavern itself was. It was almost a mile to get to the lake itself,” recalls Janet McDonald, a Connecticut native, who visited the Lost Sea earlier in the summer. “While on the boat ride, it was really neat seeing all of these large fish emerging when the tour guide fed them. You could see these big silhouettes of the fish, these 13 pound rainbow trout, coming to the surface to eat dog food. And some were even bigger than that. The tour guide said there was about 200 fish in the lake. It was a really interesting experience.”
Tours of the Lost Sea begin with a tour of the caverns, including a descent into the deepest part of the cave, where the Lost Sea resides. Visitors will be surrounded by 50% of the US' anthodites, cave formations composed of long, thin crystals situated in clusters. Walls filled with these rare flower-like phenomena make the Lost Sea even more of a sight to see, as well as the varying stalactites and stalagmites, including some that look like curtains, others that are bigger than the average person. The image of the stalactites hanging from the cave is mirrored in the Lost Sea below.
The Lost Sea also offers overnight excursions, where groups can crawl through cracks, crevices, nooks and crannies, exploring the cave even further. Flashlights and water are required on this underground adventure, where “bumped heads and dirty faces are inevitable” since the dim lighting used during the day tours will not be available at some points, leaving the cave pitch black.
The absolute darkness can fascinate many guests, as well as make others wonder: Before there were lights down here, how did the Lost Sea get discovered by a 13 year old boy? “Kids were a lot tougher back in 1905,” jokes Lost Sea Park Supervisor Annie Presley.
While the caves were well-known in the area, the underground lake was just a rumor. More apt to explore out on their own back in the early 1900s, Ben Sands and his friends had been traveling around the caves as part of their daily adventures. Sands wiggled through a small, muddy opening 300 feet underground at one point and found himself in a huge room half-filled with water, a room so large that his small light was unable to view it in full.
For a while nobody believed Sands. He told his family about the strange discovery. His father went down into the caves with him but they couldn't find the lake because there had been so much rain at that time. Sands kept telling stories about the lake for years but nobody believed him.
Sands was in his 50s when the lake was officially discovered by surveyors in the 1940s. The townspeople recalled Sands' stories from back when he was 13 and, to prove he was the true discoverer, Sands led them directly to the lake, which he had first found as a boy.
“For the rest of his life,” reads the Lost Sea's history page, “Sands delighted in describing how he threw mud balls as far as he could into the blackness and heard nothing but splashes in every direction.”
Meanwhile, by 1915, the idea of developing the cave for the public was in full swing. There was even a dance floor installed in one of the cave's larger rooms. Other areas were being utilized by moonshiners, deep within the vast cave system to ply their wares.
“The bar only stayed open for a very short amount of time,” explains McDonald, recalling a tour guide's story. “When you're down under the ground it takes a lot more alcohol to feel intoxicated. But as the people would ascend they would become sick because they drank way too much. They had to close the place because there were so many injuries. People were getting too drunk. They thought the people selling them alcohol were diluting it. They felt cheated. Turns out, it was the atmosphere itself.”
Despite the Lost Sea being discovered over 100 years ago, the full extent of the Lost Sea is still not quite known. The visible portion of the lake is 800 feet long by 220 feet wide, but divers armed with modern exploration equipment still do not know too much about the rest of the calm, stoic lake.
While more than 13 acres of water have been mapped so far, no end to the lake has been found. “One diver ventured into the water-filled rooms with a sonar device,” continued the Lost Sea's history. “Hugging the wall to assure his ability to find his way back, he took soundings in all directions and found nothing but more water.”
With so much still unknown about the Lost Sea, it's no surprise that there are many myths and legends surrounding not only the cave itself, but the tours. According to McDonald, before she even reached the Lost Sea she had heard rumors that the Lost Sea was filled with giant, albino rainbow trout. People told stories of the albino fish jumping out of the water, blind, in search of food.
When she arrived at the tour, the guides told her that there were actually no blind, albino rainbow trout, but the fish were just as big as the rumors stated. It was also confirmed that the tour guides and guests fed the fish dog food, making the fish giant and friendly. And the tour guides were full of high tales themselves.
“As we were floating on the lake, the tour guides told us a story about one of the giant fish flopping onto the boat during a tour,” recalled McDonald. “The giant fish landed on a woman's lap, they said. The woman started screaming and in her panic she ended up beating the large fish with her purse and killing it. Supposedly the tour guides allowed the woman to take the fish home, where she later cooked it for dinner.”
Tall tale or true story? That's up to visitors to decide.
The mysteries surrounding the Lost Sea are deeper than the lake itself, but that hasn't stopped families from enjoying what is already known about the local phenomenon. People of all ages delight in traveling underground to witness something that they've never seen before and may never see again anywhere else on earth.
Olivia Richman
A graduate of East Connecticut State University in Journalism, Olivia has written for Stonebridge Press & Antiques Marketplace among others. She enjoys writing, running and video games.
Make Sure To Stay At:
Sweetwater Valley KOA, offering stay for overnight campers as well as families enjoying an extended vacation or weekend getaway. Their sites are Big Rig friendly with cabins that make your stay feel a little more like home.