Mammoth Cave National Park will open its doors Friday and Saturday to people interested in tracing their roots.

The park is offering Roots in the Cave, a two-day event full of activities, said Greg Davis, general manager of the Mammoth Cave Hotel, an event sponsor. The weekend event will give people whose ancestors called the Mammoth Cave area home, before it became part of the national park system, a chance to celebrate family heritage, he said.

“We are looking forward to this weekend,” Davis said.

Events will start at 5 p.m. Friday and run until around 10 p.m. Saturday, Davis said. He said accommodations are available, although most who come are local residents and stay at their own homes or with family.

Davis said early registration for the event produced about 15 participants, and he said more people are expected to register by Friday – and even some to register Friday evening. Last year, about 25 people registered, he said. There is a flat $45 registration fee.

“We are really trying to find out what people really want out of this weekend,” Davis said.

The event will kick off Friday with a session on knowing the basics of how to begin tracing your roots, Davis said. On Saturday morning and afternoon, there will be two walks, he said. The first will be to the Davis-Slemmons Cemetery, one of the more than 100 cemeteries in the national park. The other walk, he said, is to the Red Buck tree, which holds the state record for size for a white pine tree. Participants will also pass by some other cemeteries and historic areas of Mammoth Cave.

This year, he said, two cave tours will be given in addition to the walks. Friday, participants will tour the Star Chamber. Capping off the event, participants can spend Saturday evening touring the Crystal Cave, the cave owned by the Collins family, Davis said.

Floyd Collins discovered Crystal Cave, and his family owned and operated it as a tourist site. After Collins’ death, the cave was sold to a local dentist and operated privately prior to its becoming part of the national park.

“It’s a part of this weekend and it’s a chance for people to see this very historic cave,” Davis said.

The Crystal Cave tour is limited to 20 people, Davis said, but other activities will be going on in the hotel’s rotunda room for those who may not physically be able to take the cave tours.

This marks the second year the hotel is sponsoring such an event.

“It’s an opportunity for those local people to reconnect with their ancestors,” he said. “This is for people who are interested in where their great-grandparents lived and worked and fed their families. It’s a chance that they might share stories handed down.”

Davis said he thinks participants connect to this weekend. He said during last year’s event, a woman found where one of her ancestors was buried in Eaton Valley – “so that made the trip worthwhile for her.”

“There is a lot of history here. It is the oldest tourist attraction in the United States next to Niagara Falls,” Davis said. “More than 1,000 families once lived in what is the park now, so this is important.”

— Accommodations are available at the Mammoth Cave Hotel, (270) 758-2225, or online at www.mammothcavehotel.com. For complete information on Roots in the Cave, call Mary Anne Davis at (270) 773-5099.