Mammoth Cave: Forgotten Stories of It's People

2nd Printing - For the majority of the 1.5 million people who visit Mammoth Cave National Park each year the cave, forest trails, and Green River are the major attractions.  Little known are the small isolated communities that were inhabited for more than a century before the Park's creation.  Traces of forgotten homesteads, now almost indistinguishable from the surrounding forests, are all that remain of these small communities.  Join the author as you open up many pages that will bring that history that was almost forgotten back to life for you and others.

Author - Norman Warnell

MAWS - coming to a BIG National Park near you!

First printing (1976) mint edition copy of a comical book, that is purely fictional, absolutely pointless, but simply put a joy to read, if you are they type that likes this kind of book.  Written by Erd Noswat, aka, Red Watson, and artwork done by Ergor Rubreck, aka, Roger Brucker, you will want to see this book to truly believe it!  36 Pages.

ESSO Grotto : 25th Anniversary Book (68-93)

             Competed for - Carter County Weekend - 1993

A compiling of many stories, articles, updates, and vital information about the first 25 years of this growing and active grotto.  A must for anyone wanting to take a walk down memory lane.  A must for new members wanting to know more of how this grotto got to where it is today.  A must for anyone wanting to know some of those "good stories" about members of the grotto, both active today, and those who have moved on in one way or another.  81 pages.

Fiction (or is it?)  
This is a story of government secrets and caving, written by a man who was involved with both.

The principle character --named "Fred Wefer" -- is pursued into the cave by a group of people trying to kill him because of something he knows or something that they think he knows. They have him outnumbered and are confident that they will soon eliminate him. Fred uses his knowledge of the cave to avoid capture while trying to eliminate those who are pursuing him.
Nine sections of the map of the Butler Cave-Sinking Creek System are provided, so the reader can follow the in-cave action on the maps.  Fred used his knowledge of the cave in writing the book, so the cave areas are accurately described. Those familiar with the cave will find this makes the book even more real to them.

Fred L. Wefer,  former NSS President, passed away in October 1999.  Fred had been writing this book off and on over many years, but very few people were aware of it. A few months before his death he contacted Tom Rea to assist him with its publication. The book was almost lost, as Tom did not have the final few chapters when Fred died. Fortunately, Fred's wife, Ann, found a printed copy of the final section a few days after his death and forwarded it on to Tom so the book could be completed.

Fred was a founding member of the Butler Cave Conservation Society and was intimately familiar with the cave due to his many years of trips in the cave system.

Fred L. Wefer
2000
ISBN 0-9663547-1-0
213 pages, softbound

No, not electric! A collection of very humorous essays, stories, and oddments. Insight into the world of caves and caving. Illustrated by Mary Ann Siron.

Thom Engel
1992
152 pages, softbound

In 1994, an elite team of international explorers with the combined skills of mountaineering, caving, and diving set out to go further into the earth than anyone had before. Led by larger-than-life, driven cving pioneer Bill Stone, the expedition faced some of the most severe -- and most deadly -- conditions ever encountered, as it attempted to bottom Mexico's Huautla Cave System via the San Agustin Sump.
This gripping story has all the suspense and intrigue of a novel, but it is a true account of the expedition, told by those who survived going Beyond The Deep.

William Stone and Barbara am Ende, with Monte Paulsen
2002
0-446-52709-2
i-xvi + 351 pages, hardbound
8 color plates

A 1987 reprint of the 1976 classic, with two pages of updates added as an afterword. This books tells the tale of the modern exploration of Mammoth Cave, Kentucy, through the connection in 1972 that brought its length to 144 miles, longest in the world. Includes an appendix on the earlier history of caving in the area. One of the classics of American caving literature.

Roger Brucker and Richard Watson
second edition, 1987
ISBN 0-8093-1322-7
xx+331 pages, softbound

This 1978 classic novel by Red Watson is now conveniently reprinted for rereading, gifting, or discovering for the first time. The story of a man devoted to cave exploration, from his first cave to his metamorphis into a master caver. The book echoes to some extent the real quest for the connection between Mammoth Cave and the Flint Ridge Cave System under Houchins Valley.

American Geological Institute's Environmental Awareness Series. An excellent introduction to karst geology, with an emphasis on geologic hazards. A poster-size, two-sided summary is included. Good source of practical information for those in land use and development professions, landowners, educators, environmentalists, and cavers.

This long awaited report contains four articles and describes more than 150 caves in 12 western Kentucky counties, with maps of about half of them.

Edited by John Ganter, et al.
2005
199 pages, spiral bound

Caves of greater or lesser merit, extent, and beauty are found world around; but few are so awe-inspiring, unique, and beautiful as those that exist in the limestone hills of Old Kentucky, in Carter County. In the midst of the mountains these caves invite the sightseer on an excursion into their silent confines.

Jonathon F. Lewis
2004
94 pages, softbound

Second Edition. Useful for novice cave mappers and a nice lead-in to longer publications on the subject.

John Ganter
2000
28/pb

 

Access All Areas - A User's Guide to the art of Urban Exploration

Discover a hidden world in your own city!

From Ninjalicious, the author of Infiltration zine, comes Access All Areas, the the first published guide to the exciting art of urban exploration, a rapidly growing hobby that allows participants to personally experience their cities’ hidden and off-limits spaces. Through chapters on topics like sneaking around, equipping and training, readers will learn the basics of the hobby, as well as about the most popular sites for urban exploration, such as abandoned buildings, construction sites, storm drains and utility tunnels.

Always an adventurer, Toronto author Ninjalicious began his intensive, thoroughly documented approach to exploration during a lengthy hospital stay, when boredom motivated him to explore the beautiful old building’s every nook and cranny. He began publishing the zine Infiltration in 1996, in conjunction with the website infiltration.org, which, with nearly 2,000 visitors a day, is widely considered to be an authoritative source on the hobby of urban exploration. Ninjalicious completed Access All Areas shortly before his untimely death from cancer in summer 2005.

Ghar Parau - A Iranian Everest in Caving Story Untold

The story of an two year expedition into one of the worlds deepest caves.  -The spectacular massif of Kuh-e-Parau, just north of Kerman-Shah, contains Ghar-e-Parau, Iran’s deepest cave, or the Everest of the world caves. It is situated just 300 meters below the 3,357 meters summit of the mountain in the Karst of the south plateau. The cave is a strenuous proposition, being a continuously narrow, with single passage and twenty-six pitches up to 42 min. depth. It was explored by British expeditions in 1971 and 1972 with Mr. John Middleton as the supervisor to travel 1,360 meters to reach a sump at a depth of 751 meters. The exact resurgence of water is not known, but all the risings are around the base of the massif, about 100 meters further down. But none of them could be entered. This group has written a book in the name of “Ghar-e-Parau” by David Jonson in 1973.

Adaptation and Natural Selection in Caves

Review of the Book:

The evolution of Gammarus minus is the subject of a remarkably interesting text published by Harvard University Press. Gammarus who? Gammarus what? Gammarus minus is a little freshwater crustacean, an isopod, that inhabits surface streams, springs, and caves.

We all have some knowledge of the theory of natural selection and evolution, and yet, I suspect that few fully recognize the complexity and difficulty in conducting research in evolutionary biology. Just how does one go about proving or disproving some aspect of evolutionary theory?

David Culver, Thomas Kane, and Daniel Fong argue that caves and cave animals are valuable empirical models for the study of evolution, particularly for the study of adaptation. The unusual morphology of cave fauna makes them "quintessential examples of evolutionary tradeoffs, a recurring theme in the study of adaptation". Also, as the cave environment is more uniform and less complex than most habitats, the analysis of environmental effects on selection is accordingly less difficult. And convergent evolution in many isolated cave systems offers a degree of repeatability that is often absent in evolutionary studies.

This text, Adaptation and Natural Selection in Caves, is remarkably well-organized and clearly written, and is accessible to the layman interested in cave biology and ecology.

However, I caution the reader. This is not a popular book on evolution for the layman. This is a detailed, well-documented, thoughtful, multidisciplinary scientific study whose primary audience is active researchers and graduate students in the biological sciences.

Evolutionary biology requires a wide background. The reader will encounter biospeleology, ecology, electrophoresis, genetics, isopod morphology, karst geology, stream hydraulics, and systematics. As advanced statistical techniques are commonly used in genetic and evolutionary studies, the reader will meet the F statistic, dendrograms, k-means clustering, rank-3 biplots, correlation matrices, and short discussions on determining the optimal splines for curve fitting.

The glossary was quite helpful with terms like adaptive radiation, allozyme, apomorphic, exaptation, electrophoresis, gene flow, homoplasy, neoteny, and vicariance.

While this text may require some persistence, it is well-worth the effort. I commend Culver, Kane, and Fong for providing an intriguing look at a complex, interdisciplinary research topic.

I recommend first reading, chapter by chapter, the concise introductions and the concluding summaries. Then return to the beginning of the book to study the chapters in more detail. The summaries are clearly written and allow the reader to quickly and easily develop an overview of each chapter.

As a final comment, Adaptation and Natural Selection in Caves would be an excellent choice for a reading assignment for undergraduates in biology, ecology, genetics, morphology, and limnology. Culver, Kane, and Fong clearly answer the question: Just how does one go about proving or disproving some aspect of evolutionary theory?

 

Caves of Rockcastle County, Kentucky

This is a copy of the first edition of the Caves of Rockcastle County Kentucky.  This book was published in 1972 with very limited amount of copies in circulation (I’ve been told 40 was the initial printing).  However many photo copies of this book are available due to technology and demand for the relevant content. 

 Caves of Rockcastle County Kentucky is an excellent resource for anyone studying the caves of Rockcastle County.  Cavers who either frequent this area or plan to visit should use this resource to prepare you for all the opportunities for caving that can be found there.  It is important to note however that information in this resource is dated and should be used cautiously.  For instance property ownership could have changed hands or other things of that matter changing access to the caves over the last 35 years. 

 The ESSO copy is of poor quality due to being a copy of a copy I assume however it is pleasing to note that the author is currently working on a 2^nd edition of the book due to be available in the next few years.  Dr. Gary O’dell is a professor of Geography at Morehead State University.

The Grand Kentucky Junction

On September 9, 1972, a team of six cavers, five men and one woman, enter Unknown Cave through the Austin Entrance within the Flint Ridge Cave System in Kentucky. Their goal is to follow a newly found passage, if possible, to the end. Fourteen and a half hours later their dream comes true as they emerge in Mammoth Cave, over seven miles away, connecting these two caves into one, making it the longest cave in the world.

The Grand Kentucky Junction is the story of that final trip as told by those who were there, including Thomas Brucker, who was not, but who only days before had discovered the passage that leads this team to Mammoth Cave.

The Grand Kentucky Junction is the companion book to The Longest Cave. This is the second chapter in an exciting story that began over 40 years ago with the idea of connecting these two cave systems. Once connected, the Flint/Mammoth Cave System totaled 144.4 miles in length. This magnificent achievement has been compared to the conquest of Everest.