Journey to the Bottomless Pit
The Story of Stephen Bishop & Mammoth Cave
Open Road Integrated Media, Inc. · Print & ebook · March 19, 2019
“A fascinating story.” —LeVar Burton The thrilling adventures of a slave who became known worldwide for his explorations of Mammoth Cave.
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- Who it’s for
- A young reader’s biography brings Stephen Bishop’s Mammoth Cave explorations into view.
- Themes
- Cave exploration, Enslavement and Black history, Mammoth Cave
- Pacing
- Fast
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Start with this bookAbout this book
“A fascinating story.” —LeVar Burton The thrilling adventures of a slave who became known worldwide for his explorations of Mammoth Cave. If you toured Mammoth Cave in Kentucky in the year 1838, you would have been led by candlelight through dark, winding tunnels to the edge of a terrifying bottomless pit. Your guide would have been seventeen-year-old Stephen Bishop, an African American slave who became known around the world for his knowledge of Mammoth Cave.
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Bishop needed bravery, intelligence, and curiosity to explore the vast cavern. Using only a lantern, rope, and other basic caving equipment, he found a way to cross the bottomless pit and discover many more miles of incredible grottoes and tunnels. For the rest of his life he guided visitors through the cave, showing them how to stoop, bend, and crawl through passageways that were sometimes far from the traditional tour route. Based on the narratives of those who toured the cave with him, Journey to the Bottomless Pit is the first book for young readers ever written about Stephen Bishop. New to this edition: A free teacher’s guide to this book, as well as an interview with current-day Mammoth Cave guide Jerry Bransford, great-great-grandson of Stephen Bishop’s fellow guide, Mat Bransford.
Into the Cave
A young reader’s biography brings Stephen Bishop’s Mammoth Cave explorations into view.
Come here for
- Candlelit passages, daring exploration, and a real-life guide’s remarkable expertise
- A glimpse of Black history through one man’s work in Mammoth Cave
Expect
- A narrative grounded in accounts from people Bishop guided
- A straightforward account of exploration and the barriers of enslavement
Where it sits
| Historical Biographies for Kids | 72% |
|---|---|
| 19th Century U.S. | 36% |
| Adventure & Explorers | 34% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- US Biographies
- US: African American Stories
- Exploration & Discovery
- Authors
- Elizabeth Mitchell
- Publisher
- Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.
- Published
- March 19, 2019
- Format
- Print & ebook
- Theme
- Cave exploration · Enslavement and Black history · Mammoth Cave
- Reading lane
- US Biographies