Beyond Mammoth Cave: A Tale of Obsession in the World's Longest Cave

Buy this great book. You won't be able to stop reading it once you
start, even if you want to (and many might).

Give this book to everyone who thinks people are idiots for going caving.
As I remark above, once they read it, no longer will they be in doubt.

Now if you really want to bomb people out, you should give them all three
volumes of the AMERICAN CLASSIC CAVE TRIOLOGY;

THE CAVES BEYOND by Joe Lawrence, Jr. & Roger W. Brucker
(St. Louis: Cave Books, 1975 in print), in which the
famous fruitless Floyd Collins' Crystal Cave Expedition
is documented. Sixty people spent a week underground
and discovered exactly 13 yards of new cave, but even
so, several of them got lost.

THE LONGEST CAVE by Roger W. Brucker and Richard A. Watson
(Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1987, in print)
in which strong men quail as wire muscled Patricia Crowther
squeezes through the Tight Spot to nail the connection of the
Flint Ridge Cave System to Mammoth Cave, and John Wilcox utters
those immortal words, "I see a tourist trail!"

BEYOND MAMMOTH CAVE by James D. Borden and Roger W. Brucker
(Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2000, in print).
Buy it now before the last remaining copies go to the shredders.

--Red Watson, past-president of the Cave Research Foundation
and co-author of THE LONGEST CAVE


Real Life Adventure / Intrigue   December 7, 2001
 5 out of 5 found this review helpful

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. If you like adventure, you'll enjoy this book. At a time when it seems like we've discovered nearly everything about the world around us, this book helped me realize there are plenty of discoveries to be made right here in our own backyard.

I like the way the first chapter of the book describes the connection trip between Roppel cave and Mammoth cave, then the rest of the book takes you back to the beginning and steps you through the events which culminated in that connection... discovering new cave entrances... exploring passages which lead to vast new discoveries... pushing the limits of human endurance... and narrowly averting serious injuries.

I enjoyed reading the honest accounts of how these modern day adventurers looked for new cave entrances, then how they explored the caves they found. Don't wait! Buy this book now!


A Real Life Adventure by Real Human Beings   December 28, 2000
 5 out of 5 found this review helpful

This book arrived on a Friday and I could not put it down until I finished it. It's a truly amazing story of determination, obsession and political intrigue.

One piece of helpful background information is that the Cave Research Foundation has had a monopoly on exploration within Mammoth Cave National Park for nearly fifty years. The CKKC held a virtual monopoly on the exploration of Roppel Cave. As these two large cave systems grew toward each other, it was inevitable that there would be a conflict of interests between the two organizations. While some reviewers have been disturbed by certain events in the book, the authors have been very up front about having done some things that they were not proud of later in the course of this intense competition.

The Caves Beyond and The Longest Cave tell the story of the explorations that took place between 1950 and 1972. The cave itself is the central player in these books. Beyond Mammoth Cave looks more deeply into the minds of the cavers involved and - for the first time - shows them warts and all. This made them more rather than less human and was a side effect of the drive and determination to the point of obsession needed to explore this great cave system. I highly recommend this book as a chronicle of real people involved in a real life adventure with both genuine heroics and significant missteps along the way.


A Real Life Adventure by Real Human Beings   December 27, 2000
 2 out of 2 found this review helpful

This book arrived on a Friday and I could not put it down until I finished it. It's a truly amazing story of determination, obsession and political intrigue.

One piece of helpful background information is that the Cave Research Foundation has had a monopoly on exploration within Mammoth Cave National Park for nearly fifty years. The CKKC held a virtual monopoly on the exploration of Roppel Cave. As these two large cave systems grew toward each other, it was inevitable that there would be a conflict of interests between the two organizations. While some reviewers have been disturbed by certain events in the book, the authors have been very up front about having done some things that they were not proud of later in the course of this intense competition.

The Caves Beyond and The Longest Cave tell the story of the explorations that took place between 1950 and 1972. The cave itself is the central player in these books. Beyond Mammoth Cave looks more deeply into the minds of the cavers involved and - for the first time - shows them warts and all. This made them more rather than less human and was a side effect of the drive and determination to the point of obsession needed to explore this great cave system. I highly recommend this book as a chronicle of real people involved in a real life adventure with both genuine heroics and significant missteps along the way.


Hungry Soul, Weak Body   December 9, 2000
 9 out of 9 found this review helpful

The book is a well-written page turner written in an informal and approachable style. The two authors, who experienced much of the story first-hand, achieve an exciting dynamic by alternating chapters back and forth; each chapter dealing with similar events and topics but from the distinct perspectives of the two authors. Some may criticize the opinionated tone, but I think few will disagree that it is poignant and clear. The book is important because it will have general appeal and edification to the caver populace, most of whom are recreational-cavers not involved in project-surveying. Hopefully it will create empathy and understanding of the project caver experience among the general caver community. Moreover the book may, as much as is tenable, make caving vicariously comprehensible to non-cavers. The authors have accurately portrayed the ingloriousness of caving and avoided romanticizing caving to noncavers. The book honestly portrays the frequently unbalanced mixture of hardships, and joys that go into long-term project caving: the personal conflicts, the bouts of frustration, the physical exhaustion, the incredible ego-inflation, the tedious agonizing work of surveying, the costs to other aspects of the caver's life, work, and relationships, and the occasional elation of an accomplishment. The book strikes a balance between humility and open-mindedness. There is recognition that project-caving, in the grand scheme of human-experience, is irrational and insignificant. At the same time, the book does not short-change the power of the personal experience of obsession with project-surveying, and the potential significance of this liminal experience as a study in the best and worst in human nature.