McCampbell’s Epic Dig was the Origin of Mammoth Cave School

The one-teacher schoolhouse known as Mammoth Cave School served families in southeast Wichita for nearly 100 years, from the late 1870’s until 1965.
The Wichita Beacon, May 27, 1954

Mammoth Cave School wasn’t named after a cave. When the school closed in 1965, The Wichita Beacon reported many speculations about the origin of the schools name, but only one of those speculations was true.

History tells us that the school didn’t get its name from a cave, but from a huge hole near the school that measured 6 feet by 10 feet wide, and nearly 450 feet deep. The massive hole was the project of early settler and Wichita pioneer Thomas “Mac” McCampbell who dug and blasted into the ground hoping to find coal. He didn’t find coal, but he did find gas, and then later salt water.

Why Mammoth Cave?

No one really knows. Locals were referring to School House No. 22 as “Mammoth Cave” as early as 1878, the nickname stemming from “the terrible hole that McCampbell has dug in the ground out here.” But there’s no documented explanation for why locals chose the words “mammoth” and “cave” to describe it. None of the reporting from the time refers to McCampbell’s hole by those terms, but I guess “Failed Coal Shaft School” or “Terrible Hole School” didn’t have the same ring to it.

One thing is for sure: Mac’s ‘mammoth’ efforts and his epic dig could have been forgotten forever if not for Mammoth Cave School.

The Wichita Eagle, Apr 22, 1965

McCampbell’s Epic Dig

Many years ago, a salt mine was started near the location of the present school. There was a big cave-in and machinery was swallowed up. For some time a large hole remained and when the school was built it was called Mammoth Cave after the salt mine project.

Maybe a more proper name would have been Mammoth Cave-in.
Arch O’Bryant, The Wichita Beacon, April 22, 1965

Thomas McCampbell believed that he would find coal on his land because a medium told him that he would. So in March of 1874, the devout Spiritualist started digging in search of black gold.

Mac employed his sons, some local men, and a mule to do the digging, and they to use dynamite and other methods to go deep into his land. After about a year of digging and blasting, and at around 100 feet, he found some small veins of coal. What would eventually prove to be an insignificant find was enough to convince Mac that the medium was right, and that he was about to be rich.

The Wichita Weekly Beacon, Jul 7, 1875

The coal shaft was big news around town. The community believed that Mac, who had funded most of the excavation himself to that point, was going to find coal. The belief in his efforts was so strong that he was able to secure money from different investors to fund his epic dig.

The methods used and conditions for excavation were incredibly risky, and it’s amazing that no one died. In March of 1876 it was reported that Mac had blasted down nearly 200 feet and struck gas, burning and injuring one of his workers.

Imagine the old man at the bottom of that pit arranging a half dozen blasts with such care and precision that they may explode at the same moment, he jumps into the bucket, rings the bell as a signal for the horse to be put on the jump. While Mac runs a race with the spitting fuse below.

Mr. Editor, let the future historian of Sedgwick county be a patriot. Let him give honor where it is merited. Let him note with care the great achievement of our early settlers. And as he enrolls the names of those who have played their part in developing our county’s resources unselfishly and well, let him place at the head of that list the name of Thomas McCampbell.
The Daily Republican, Jul 6, 1880

At the end of 1877, Mac’s “coal shaft” was 350 feet, and while he was certain that he had struck coal again, he did not. This same year, a geologist examined samples taken at each stratum of rock and informed Mac that he was doing the work for nothing. The collected samples proved that coal never would exist in these conditions. “Old man McCampbell” didn’t believe the geologist, and continued to put his faith in the medium who told him he’d find coal.

Five years into the project, it was reported that the “shortcut to China” was now 450 feet deep and still “going down toward the center of the earth.” Mac didn’t get much deeper before he finally struck a lot of something, but it wasn’t the coal that the medium promised. He struck salt water that filled up half of his hole.

“McCampbell’s Folley School” wasn’t as catchy as Mammoth Cave School.
National Weekly Monitor, Wichita, Kansas, Feb 7, 1880

McCampbell’s Folley

According to William G. Butler’s History of Kansas published in 1883, Mac’s mine had “200 feet of salt water, which, by evaporation produces a fourth part of pure salt.” And he tried to “earn his salt” by transforming his hole-turned-mine into a business: the Wichita Salt Works.

The Weekly Eagle, May 5, 1881

Local well-known capitalist Nelson McClees and businessman Arthur Noble (brother of artist John Noble) expressed interest in investing in the salt works in 1881, and Mac needed their help. He had spent all his money (and borrowed more) to dig the coal-turned-salt mine. McClees and Noble invested about $5,000 (about $150,000 in 2024) into testing and excavating equipment in the hopes of having an active salt mine. But after more thorough testing of the water, McClees and Noble discovered the opportunity wasn’t as good as they were led to believe, and they decided not to invest any further.

After that, Mac was on his own.

The 1882 Historical Atlas Of Sedgwick County Kansas shows the location of “Salt Works” on Thomas McCampbell’s property. The green square is the approximate location of Mammoth Cave School, which was not shown on the map.
Image courtesy Dave Rumsey Map Collection

What Mac did with his mine after that isn’t clear, but it what is clear is that it wasn’t a success. Later reports suggest that the gas that was struck in 1876 filled the hole, making it impossible to work in, forcing Mac to abandon the project. The sons who helped him dig the mine moved away around 1880, and interest in the project had faded. Mac was left with a big, useless, gassy hole. He received no other funding from other investors, and if any other progress on the mine was made, it didn’t make the news.

In 1884, the year the McCampbell’s died, they borrowed money under the name “McCampbell’s Coal Shaft”, so it appears that they were still trying to make the mine happen somehow. That year Mac filed a lawsuit against Nelson McClees for $5,000 in a dispute over the salt mine lease. It’s not clear if the dispute stemmed from the investment a few years prior, or something else. It’s also not clear what the outcome was. I couldn’t find any news reports about it, and Mac and Eunice both died a few months later (in significant debt).

The McCampbell’s

McCampbell family stone.
“Gone to a home not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.”

Thomas “Mac” McCampbell and his wife Eunice (née Willard) were both born in Miami county, Ohio. They grew up as neighbors, their family farms separated by a single farm. When they married in 1844, they purchased the farm that separated their family homes and lived there for 30 years.

Euince bore seven known children with Thomas – Martha, Emma, George, Anna, Louella, William, and Susan. The family migrated to Wichita before 1875 and were among the area’s earliest settlers.

Thomas and Eunice died one day apart in 1884 after getting sick from eating the same meal. The Wichita Beacon suggested the family thought they had food poisoning and they refused to call for medical aid until it was too late. A doctor diagnosed the couple with acute malaria. Folks near them assumed Euince would die first because she was more sick, but Mac was the first to go.

“Thomas McCampbell departed this life Oct. 5, 1884, aged 65 Y’s 3 Mos. & 23 D’s.
Passed over.”

Eunice held on for over 24 hours after her husband died, and then she died too. “The two who walked the thorny paths of life for years together will not be parted in death.”

“Eunice, wife of Thos. McCampbell, departed this life Oct. 6 1884, aged 61 Y’s 11 Mos. & 13 D’s.”

One life, one grave and one heaven.

The two aged companions, who have fought out life’s battle to the end, will be buried together this morning. Like a peaceful river have their lives commingled and flown on together and into the great ocean. Hand in hand they lay down together in peace, at rest, at the end.
The Wichita Eagle, Oct 8, 1884

Thomas and Eunice share a gravestone with two of their daughters. Susie, their youngest, was the first of the family to die in Kansas. It’s not clear how she died, but disease or lack of medical care is likely. Since she was the first in the family to die here, the gravestone may have originally been placed for her.

“Susie W. dau. of Thomas & Eunice McCampbell, departed this life Nov. 19, 1874, aged 11 Y’s 8 Mos. & 13 D’s.”

Louella McCampbell is likely not buried here. She died in Indiana, before Wichita was established. And the inscription on her grave provides additional clues. “In memory of sister” suggests this is a cenotaph (a monument to someone buried elsewhere) added by her siblings, perhaps to fill the final blank spot in the stone.