The Caves of Burnsville Cove, Virginia

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xii

   PDF

2. Burnsville Cove

   • William B. White

   Pages 1-16

3. Early Exploration: Breathing and Butler Caves

   • William B. White

   Pages 17-36

4. BCCS: The Organization

   • Fred L. Wefer, Keith D. Wheeland

   Pages 37-46

5. Exploration of the Outlet Caves

   • William B. White

   Pages 47-65

6. The Discovery and Initial Exploration of the Chestnut Ridge Cave System

   • Gregg Clemmer

   Pages 67-77

7. The Bobcat Camps

   • Gregg Clemmer

   Pages 79-97

8. Finding the Blarney Stone

   • Gregg Clemmer

   Pages 99-111

9. Burns, Baby, Burns

   • Tommy Shifflett

   Pages 113-131

10. Pancakes and the Saga of Our Maple Sugar Digs

    • Gregg Clemmer

    Pages 133-149

11. Exploration of Barberry Cave and the Construction of Big Bucks Pit

    • Benjamin F. Schwartz, Nevin W. Davis

    Pages 151-166

12. Caves of the Water Sinks Depression

    • Philip C. Lucas

    Pages 167-203

13. Helictite Cave

    • Philip C. Lucas

    Pages 205-236

14. Probing the Wishing Well

    • Nathan Farrar, Philip C. Lucas

    Pages 237-275

15. The Homestead and Other BCCS Properties

    • Keith D. Wheeland

    Pages 277-287

16. Scientific Research in Burnsville Cove

    • William B. White

    Pages 289-298

17. The Geology of Burnsville Cove, Bath and Highland Counties, Virginia

    • Christopher S. Swezey, John T. Haynes, Richard A. Lambert, William B. White, Philip C. Lucas, Christopher P. Garrity

    Pages 299-334

18. Hydrogeology of Burnsville Cove

    • Nevin W. Davis

    Pages 335-352

19. Geology of Breathing Cave

    • George H. Deike III

    Pages 353-364

20. Geology of the Butler Cave—Sinking Creek System

    • William B. White

    Pages 365-384

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 area’s 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.

• Aqua Cave
• BCCS
• Barberry Cave
• Burnsville Cove
• Butler Cave
• Cave Exploration
• Cave Minerals
• Cave camping
• Cave weather
• Chestnut Ridge Cave System
• Helictite Cave
• Water Sinks
• Wishing Well Cave
• hydrogeology

• Department of Geosciences, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, USA

  William B. White

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 collaborates with his wife, Dr. Elizabeth L. White, on karst hydrology studies and has been the advisor to numerous graduate students working on karst related topics. Dr. White authored numerous research papers and books dealing with karst. He was one of the first researchers in the United States to directly apply the laws of chemistry and physics to explain many of the seemingly mysterious characteristics of karst landforms. His papers on karst related topics cover a remarkably diverse range of specialties including geomorphic studies of karst drainage basins, hydraulics of water flow through limestone caves, kinetics of carbonate dissolution, transport of sediments through caves and the mineralogy of cave formations (speleothems). He is now retired from his dual appointment in the Department of Geosciences and in the Materials Research Laboratory at the Pennsylvania State University.

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