Corvette museum to keep giant sinkhole that swallowed up eight cars

Thursday, June 26, 2014, 3:19 PM -

Back in February, a massive hole opened up in the ground in southern Kentucky, swallowing up eight Corvettes.

It happened at the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, and some of the cars were completely destroyed.

According to the museum's executive director, the sinkhole appeared before dawn under the skydome section of the site. The hole is about 12 metres wide and about nine metres deep. 

The building was closed for a while as structural engineers assessed the damage.

When it reopened to the public, a peculiar thing happened: People started flocking to the museum to get a glimpse of the massive hole. 

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Now, attendance is up by nearly 60 percent and that's good news for the museum, which has been struggling to keep its doors open, according to the Huffington Post.

"This gives us one more asset ... to be able to attract those folks that maybe just having Corvettes on display would not get them to come here," museum Executive Director Wendell Strode told the Post.

"We think it will continue for some time to be of great interest."

The cars have been pulled out of the crater and are now on display. 

The sinkhole caused more than $1 million in damages but the museum is recouping some of that through increased attendance as well as sinkhole-themed shirts, postcards and print images that are now available in the gift shop.

The museum plans to fill in about half of the sinkhole in September, but the rest of it will be left on permanent display.

Officials say there's a "strong possibility" that a couple of the damaged cars will be placed back inside the hole.