the scale and orientation, of the map is accurate, that is, the indications of junction layouts correspond to reality. Carol Ely, executive director of Croghan's Locust Grove estate, said that the map was "very accurate in terms of the topography and relationship of the various aspects of the cave’s many branches, less accurate in terms of exact distances." In September 1972 a group of explorers discovered a connection between the Flint Ridge Cave system to the northeast and Mammoth Cave itself. Later it was realized that the Mammoth Cave end of the connection was actually indicated as a passage lead on Bishop's 1842 map, as a long thin line branching off from the eastern end of the Echo River complex. The construction in 1905 of a dam on the Green River had caused the passage to be flooded (and therefore inaccessibly hidden by murky water) most of the time after the dam's completion, and the passage was rediscovered backwards, from its remote end, by the cavers entering the Flint Ridge Cave System. Although he never knew its significance, Bishop had actually shown the key to connecting two major components of the longest cave in the world, 130 years before the connection was made in 1972. Family During his time at Croghan's estate in 1842 Bishop met Charlotte Brown, an enslaved domestic worker for Croghan's family. They were married at Croghan's Locust Grove plantation. Charlotte gave birth to their son Thomas Bishop about a year later. Bishop's nephew Eddie followed in his uncle's footsteps and became a guide at Mammoth Cave also. Freedom and death In 1852, Bishop guided author Willis to Echo River. On the trip, Willis learned that, despite knowing that he would be freed in five years, Bishop intended to buy his and his wife's and son's freedom and move to Liberia. Bishop was freed in 1856, seven years after the death of his enslaver, in accordance with Croghan's will. While there are several accounts of Bishop speaking of planning to move to Liberia, he never went. In July 1857 Bishop and his wife sold their plot of land near the cave but Bishop died sometime late that summer. Bishop was buried on the south hill above the cave in what became known as "The Old Guides' Cemetery." After Stephen Bishop died, his widow Charlotte Brown Bishop married cave guide Nick Bransford, who served as a guide at