Tennessee's
longest
mapped cave with over 35 miles of surveyed passages. Although
its natural entrance has been known since prehistoric times, only 500
feet of
cave had been explored as recently as 1989. In that year a group of
cavers pushed a tight, blowing crawlway at the rear of the cave and
discovered
miles and miles of fantastic, virgin cave passages. Exploration still
continues as this book goes to press.
Follow
along with the modern
explorers as they describe their exploration of this underground
wonderland,
mile by mile. The path was not simple or easy and required long-term
perseverance to slowly unravel this underground labyrinth. In the
process
huge passages and rooms were discovered along with rare and beautiful
cave
formations. Divers have recently pushed in from Blue Spring for over a
mile in flooded cave passages. A connection has not yet been made to
the
air-filled passages, but they are getting close. The story of their
exploration is exciting and dangerous.
This
book is lavishly
illustrated with photographs and maps. Each chapter will actually show
you where the explorers have gone and what they found. The maps will
enable you to follow them further and further from the entrance. This
book will treat you to the complete exploration of Blue Spring Cave
since the
breakthrough in 1989 up to the present.
By
Larry E. Matthews and Bill Walter
2010
346 pages, Hardbound
A review by NSS Member Bill
Mixon:
Blue
Spring Cave, the longest in Tennessee with over thirty-five
miles of passages, is one of the few exciting finds in Tennessee since
the
exploration of Cumberland Caverns back in the 1950s. Long known as just a
500-foot cave, Blue Spring exploded after a tight, blowing crawl was
pushed and enlarged in 1989. Most of the major passages
were surveyed during the first half of the nineties, although work
continues, including making a new entrance in 2001. During all this
time, cavers enjoyed the hospitality and support of interested landowner
Lonnie Carr. The cave is mostly horizontal, although
there's a blind 150-foot pit located 4.7 miles from the entrance. Divers
have
penetrated a significant distance into the resurgence spring, but
have not connected it to the cave so far.
As is the case with all the NSS books on the history of
Tennessee caves, the authors should really be considered editors, as
most of
the text is quoted. In this case, there are some reports previously
published, but also a lot of new material written for the book by
many participants in the exploration. Sometimes more than one person has
written about the same trip, giving different perspectives. Almost
every page contains a large black-and-white photograph, generally
well printed. Most are very nice photos taken recently by Bob Biddix;
some
by Elliot Stahl are also praiseworthy. There is a twenty-page section
of color photographs. I prefer the black-and-whites, because the
color balance in many of the color photos is suspicious. There is a
small-scale map of the cave spread over two pages, and a few detail
maps. I
wish there'd been more of the latter and that more place names
mentioned in the text, including landmark station numbers, had been put
on them. The book ends with a glossary, a chronology, a
gazetteer, and an index.
It's nice to be able to recommend an NSS book without many reservations
for a change.
