The Caves of Burnsville Cove, Virginia Fifty Years of Exploration and Science [Hardcover]

This book highlights some of the most difficult and persistent exploration ever undertaken in the United States  in Burnsville Cove, a small limestone valley in west-central Virginia  while at the same time reviewing the scientific discoveries made in the areas 116 km of caves in the course of 50 years. Overall, the book offers a unique combination of exploration and science by a conservation organization specifically dedicated to the preservation and study of the caves.

Burnsville Cove.- The Discovery and Exploration of the Butler Cave-Sinking Creek System.- BCCS: The Organization.- Exploration of the Outlet Caves. In Memory of Ronald W. Simmons.- The Discovery and Initial Exploration of the Chestnut Ridge Cave System.- The Bobcat Camps.- Finding the Blarney Stone.- Burns, Baby, Burns.- Pancakes and the Saga of Our Maple Sugar Digs.- Exploration of Barberry Cave and the Construction of Big Bucks Pit.- Caves of the Water Sinks Depression.- Helictite Cave.- Probing the Wishing Well.- The Homestead and Other BCCS Properties.- Scientific Research in Burnsville Cove.- Geology of Burnsville Cove, Bath and Highland Counties, Virginia.- Hydrogeology of Burnsville Cove.- Geology of Breathing Cave.- Geology of the Butler Cave  Sinking Creek System.- Geology of the Chestnut Ridge Caves.- Geology of the Caves in the Northern Cove.- Meteorology of Butler Cave.- Minerals and Speleothems in Burnsville Cove Caves.- Geomorphic Evolution of the Burnsville Cove Caves.- Afterword: The Future.- Appendix: The Stratigraphic Nomenclature of Burnsville Cove, Bath and Highland Counties, Virginia.Dr. William B. White developed an early interest in caves and karst and started serious caving with an undergraduate summer job at Lincoln Caverns in 1951. In the 1950s he conducted investigations of many caves in central Pennsylvania and the Greenbrier Valley in West Virginia and has continued world-wide karst research projects for fifty years. Dr. White frequently collaboratelã(