The book came out in 1955, a short 30 years after the death of the legendary caver, Floyd Collins. If you don't know about Floyd look him up. I have mentioned him here many times.... VERY BRIEFLY, he was exploring a cave and got his foot stuck. He would not make it out of the cave alive.
When this book came out, he was still buried/on display inside of this books subject, Crystal Cave. Again, an entirely different story, but Floyd would not find his hopefully final resting place until 1989.
Anyway, the purpose of this book was to cover a very large scale exploration/mapping/research expedition into Crystal Cave. The authors cover the logistics of the week long project. Food, medicine, equipment, and a PHONE LINE would need to go in to the cave!
Having read up on Floyd Collins and this area before, I was excited to read this one. I had read some of Bruckers other books on exploring caves in this area, and glad to find this volume, that I had somehow over looked before. In all fairness though, a whole lot of people contributed to this one. There are even reports in the back from different contributors to the mission.
The adventures of the cavers, their successes in finding new areas of the cave, and even their short comings make this simply a fun read. Again, as someone fascinated with the Floyd Collins story, I felt a little excitement when it was revealed that Skeets Miller was on the scene! Skeets was probably the most notable player in the whole Floyd Collins story in 1925 (other than Floyd himself). His appearance in the book was comparable to bringing in a surprise big name guest star to an exciting movie. AND, I am sure anyone interested in caves would feel some excitement with Russ Gurnee who is noted as being one of the explorers too!
This is just a fun book for anyone interested in caves or the Mammoth Cave area. I was especially happy to have a nice old copy to read.
This is a nice, small book that gives some quality info on the development (and end) of the railroad to Mammoth Cave. It is under 70 pages, and is written in a way that it can be appreciated and understood by young readers, or mature readers wanting to know the basics about the railroads at Mammoth Cave. It is a quick read, but you will get a lot out of it.
I thought it was interesting reading about how Glasgow Junction (now Park City) had a train that stopped by. Tourists wanting to see Mammoth Cave could get off there, but they still had a ways to go (9 miles) to get to Mammoth Cave. A bumpy stage coach was available to make the three hour trip... but a group finally put in a train system to make the ride better- and it would make the 9 mile trip to the cave only an hour. Of course the automobile would eventually put an end to all of that.... but the steps to get there were fascinating.
There are some other great nuggets of info scattered in the book, and the author brings up trivia connecting Bette Midler and even Mussolini to the area!
If you care about Mammoth Cave, you need to make sure you pick up all of the books that Colleen O'Connor Olson put out.
