Sir Elton John, blind fish, the unique Twinkie, President Ronald Reagan's mystery provider element, and mummies do not frequently arise within the similar dialog -- except you are at massive Cave nationwide Park! domestic to the earth's longest recognized cave procedure, this UNESCO global historical past web site is without doubt one of the oldest vacationer sights in North the United States. even though this impressive position has been immortalized in works starting from Herman Melville's Moby Dick to H. P. Lovecraft's "The Beast within the Cave," the realities of existence at colossal Cave should be stranger than fiction.

In this fascinating publication, Colleen O'Connor Olson takes readers on a travel via a labyrinth of themes. She discusses medical matters resembling the fossils of prehistoric animals and the key lives of subterranean critters, and he or she offers crucial details on relationship within the cave (the age of rocks and artifacts, no longer courtship). Olson additionally explores monstrous Cave's wealthy heritage, masking its use because the world's first tuberculosis hospital in addition to its operation as a saltpeter mine through the battle of 1812, and stocks the inspirational tale of the park's first girl ranger.

Throughout, Olson bargains up funny money owed of star visits and mind-blowing adventures or even contains a bankruptcy devoted to jokes informed within the cave through the years. even if you are traveling the nationwide park, considering vacationing, or simply taken with a spot famous as one of many world's maximum typical wonders, do not leave out this pleasant advisor to the wild and lovely subterranean international of substantial Cave.