The Entrance to the Cave of American History

Welcome to the Cave of American History!

  • Right now you are at the entrance. Congratulations if you found your way out after a long exploration.
  • To move to a new room, simply click on a button below. If you're ready to start, try clicking on George Washington, for instance.
  • Once inside, each room contains information on an important subject. This is how you can uniquely identify a cavern, and you might even learn something in the process. Note that external links open in a new window so that your game is not interrupted.
  • A few of the rooms have point values. Some have up to 5 points. See how may points you can accumulate in 50, 100, or 500 moves. Or play for as long as you can and try to score an all-time high.

This should be everything you need to start. Some final points are below

  • There will never be two rooms with the same subject. If you end up in the George Washington room 10 different times, it is the same room every time.
  • This cave is abstract. There are no directions. Only connections.
  • We do not wish to reveal exactly how many rooms are in this cave system, but rest assured it is at least a few thousand.
  • This cave has the same structure every time you visit, and it always will. Thus, you can slowly map it out if you like. We'll leave it to you to handle that. Be warned that you would need a lot of time to completely finish such a project. We'd much rather have too many rooms than too few...

FAQ

  • This cave is stupid. Can I just go somewhere and read the articles?
    All content comes from Wikipedia. If you enjoy this game please visit and support Wikipedia.
  • How many points is it possible to get?
    If you went to every room in this cave, you would get 2,548 points. It is impossible to visit every room (or even close) within 500 moves, which is the largest number that we keep high scores for. As you learn the layout you can triage and prioritize to maximize your high score potential.
  • Should my kid be playing this game?
    We believe this game offers a valuable educational and spatial reasoning exercise for people of all ages. However, it is our philosophy to not shy away from the unsavory aspects of this nation's history. A small number of rooms deal with topics like slavery, minstrel shows, the KKK, and other related topics. If you are worried about your child coming across this type of content at their particular age or development stage, it is probably best that they not play this game.
  • Any clues as to the structure of this cave?
    It's complicated.
  • Why are room X and room Y connected? Why is room Z worth 5 points? Are you trying to make weird, subliminal statements to support some esoteric political or religious ideology?
    No. The layout, connections, and point values are 99% random. The only small exception is that a few key, important rooms are weighted to the front of the cave -- i.e. George Washington, Martin Luther King Jr., The Declaration of Independence, etc.
  • I love this game.
    Good news, there is another version which does not limit itself to American history-related topics. Try The Cave of Knowledge to learn about luminaries such as Leonardo da Vinci and Isaac Newton.