For Immediate Release
Vickie Carson, 270-758-2192
(See attached file: World_Heritage_at_Mammoth_Cave.jpg)
Credit: NPS image
Caption: On October 12, 2012, members of the Cave Research Foundation joined
Mammoth Cave National Park staff for a photo at the Historic Entrance, to
commemorate the Park’s 31st World Heritage anniversary and the 40th anniversary of
the World Heritage Convention.
Mammoth Cave NP celebrates World Heritage
(MAMMOTH CAVE – November 5, 2012) Thirty one years ago, the world took
notice of Mammoth Cave National Park when it was inscribed as a World
Heritage site, joining the ranks of the Great Wall of China, Australia’s Great
Barrier Reef, the Palace of Versailles in France, and the Acropolis in Athens,
Greece.
On October 12, 2012, staff and supporters of Mammoth Cave National Park
gathered for a photo at the Historic Entrance, to commemorate the Park’s 31st
World Heritage anniversary and the 40th anniversary of the World Heritage
Convention.
In 1972, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
(UNESCO) adopted the World Heritage Convention to ensure that properties
of outstanding universal value to mankind would be recognized and protected.
The original World Heritage List contained twelve sites. When Mammoth Cave
was inscribed as a World Heritage Site on October 27, 1981, the list grew to
112 sites in 32 countries. Today there are 962 properties in 190 countries.
“Often we are so busy seeing to the needs of visitors, that we forget the park’s
status and importance as a world-wide treasure,” said Bruce Powell, Acting
Superintendent at Mammoth Cave National Park. “It is good to recognize
anniversaries like this, and remind ourselves of the remarkable place that is
entrusted to our care.”
Why is Mammoth Cave important to the world?
“It is a geologic time capsule of earth’s ongoing development,” said Bruce
Powell, Acting Superintendent at Mammoth Cave National Park. “In the cave,
you can see things that happened a million years ago and things that
happened yesterday.”
The ancient river sediments in Mammoth Cave’s passageways contain
remnants of the earth’s history that washed underground millions of years
ago. The shapes and sizes of its passageways are evidence of erosion that
formed surface hills, hollows and plains of Kentucky. It is located at the
intersection of northern and southern ecosystems, allowing habitat for a vast
number of plant and animal species, including ten endangered species.”
Formally, Mammoth Cave was inscribed as a World Heritage Site under three
of the Convention’s criteria:
vii – to contain superlative natural phenomena or areas of
exceptional natural beauty and aesthetic importance;
viii – to be outstanding examples representing major stages of
earth's history, including the record of life, significant on-going
geological processes in the development of landforms, or
significant geomorphic or physiographic features; and
x – to contain the most important and significant natural habitats
for in-situ conservation of biological diversity, including those
containing threatened species of outstanding universal value from
the point of view of science or conservation.
In April 1980, the Cave Research Foundation submitted Mammoth Cave to
the Convention as a prospective World Heritage Site; the NPS concurred and
also submitted a nomination. Mammoth Cave National Park was inscribed as
a World Heritage Site on October 30, 1981.
www.nps.gov/maca
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Vickie T. Carson
Public Information Officer
Mammoth Cave National Park
270-758-2192
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