Gurnee Guide to American Caves
A Comprehensive Guide to the Caves in the United States Open to the Public

Author: Russell and Jeanne Gurnee
Publisher: R. H. Gurnee, Inc., Closter, NJ. 1990.
ISBN: 0-931402-08-5
Number of Pages: 288

The Gurnee Guide to American Caves is the only guide for the eight million visitors who travel to the caves of the United States each year. The book is small enough to be taken along on a trip, yet contains all the information that might be useful to the traveler planning to visit a cave. The opening section introduces the world of caves. It describes the types of caves - limestone caverns containing stalactites and stalagmites, lava tubes formed by the molten flow from volcanoes, sea caves carved from stone by the action of waves, boulder caves composed of rocks pushed by moving glaciers, and others - and also the unusual and strange kinds of minerals found underground, some of which science still cannot explain and which are seen nowhere else on earth.

This book reports on all caves in the 50 states and Puerto Rico that are currently open for visitors. For each cave the following information is provided: location on state map * mailing address * telephone number * directions by car * detailed description of the cave (its natural history, discovery, features and programs of special interest - such as candlelight tours, boat rides on underground lakes, wild caving trips, wheelchair cave trips) * yearly schedule of times the cave is open * facilities on premises and nearby * other tourist attractions within a 30-mile radius. Photographs accompany many of the 200 cave descriptions, and the authors - who have been exploring, studying and writing about caves for over 30 years - advise the visitor on the degree of difficulty of each tour.

There is no other book offering comparable information. It is an indispensable guide for travelers, for those interested in Americana or natural history, as a library reference, for show cave owners and administrators, and of course for speleologists and cavers.