The Urban Legend of The Lemp Brewery and The Cherokee Caves

One of the biggest Lemp urban legends concerns the Cherokee Caves.  Ever since I learned about the Lemp Mansion, people have told me it's connected to the Cherokee Caves and that William Lemp Sr. used the caves daily to travel between the mansion and the brewery.  Over the years, I have spoken to several people who claim to have seen the walkway William Lemp Sr. used to travel through the caves.  There is even a map in the Lemp Mansion Gift Shop and Museum that shows the Cherokee Cave running under the mansion.  I’ve also heard of special bridges and walkways that were created to enable William Lemp Sr. to travel through the caves without getting his shoes wet or muddy.

The photograph is actually a map of the Northernmost portion of the Cherokee Cave System that runs under the Lemp Brewery.  The intersection of Cherokee Street and 13th Street (now DeMenil Place) is shown.  13th Street is the street that the Lemp Mansion is located.  You can see a branch of the cave running West.  This branch ran to the First Lemp Mansion.  This cave entrance still exists and is now located in the parking lot of the cannabis grow facility.  There is another branch of the cave that runs southwest.  This branch runs to the Lemp Brewery’s Brew House.  This entrance is located in the fourth sub-basement. The last cave branch runs east and then makes a ninety-degree bend under Building Three of the Lemp Brewery.  There are at least three cave entrances to this branch, all of which have been sealed.   The one thing you don’t see in this map is a cave branch running North to the Lemp Mansion.

I have seen a map of the Cherokee Caves that showed the construction of a cave tunnel that would have connected the current Lemp Mansion to the Brewery.  Construction of the tunnel was proposed to begin in 1947.  It is rumored that a small passageway or shaft in the Cherokee Cave System, too narrow for a person to fit through, connects the cave system to the basement of the Lemp Mansion.  Evidence of this small shaft is a plywood cover that is located in one of the Lemp Mansion’s basement dining rooms.  This is the only possible connection between the Lemp Mansion and the Cherokee Cave system.

So, did William Lemp Sr. travel between the current Lemp Mansion and the Lemp Brewery? I would have to say “NO.”  Is it possible that William Lemp Sr traveled between the First Lemp Mansion (which no longer exists) and the Lemp Brewery?  “YES,” there is a branch of the Cherokee Caves that would have connected the First Lemp Mansion to the Brewery House.  If anything, it was this route that started the urban legend of William Lemp Sr. traveling between the “current” Lemp Mansion and the Brewery.