Customer Reviews

The Longest Cave

5 star:		(6)
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3 star:		(2)
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Caves have been intertwined with Kentucky history since a man named Houchins chased a bear into Mammoth cave in the late 1700s. Later on, the valley north of Mammoth Cave was named after this early settler, and the ridge north of Houchins' Valley was called Flint Ridge. Starting in the early 1950s a group of cavers began a lifelong ambition of connecting the caves on the northern ridge (Flint Ridge) to the caves on the southern ridge (Mammoth Cave Ridge). Their goal was simple: To map the Longest Cave. This book covers that time. Along with 'The Caves Beyond' and 'Trapped', this book constitutes an informal trilogy about Mammoth Cave. It is a story of determination over hardship, of perseverence over fatigue, of triumph over nature. Roger Brucker and Red Watson write this book with the confidence of people that were there. From the very beginning, their influence on the project helped mold it into what it was to become. We see them age, from young men in their ealry twenties, to grizzled Flint Ridge veterans to seeing their children caving alongside them. There is a real sense of the passage of time here; people come, people go, the cave is eternal. Fiction should hope to be so true. Dominating all this is the cave. It is all pervading. Over three hundred miles of passage lies under their feet, and the reader fells as if he is crawling, climbing and squirming along with them. We feel the explorer's chill they wade through Hanson's Lost River, we feel their pain as they crawl through Agony Avenue. We satand alongside them as they are awed by the vastness and remoteness of Unknown Cave. Above all else, it is the story of the people who explore the cave. For fourty years, cavers have been gathering in Central Kentucky to explore this cave. To mankind, the cave is eternal. We may choos to protect it, we may, in our ignorance deface it. Either way, we live our lives by interacting with it. Or to put it in the books words: "That is where life is, that is where your friends are".

Read this b! ook.

I bought this book about 15 years ago while visiting Mammoth Cave National Park. I still enjoy rereading it from time to time. It is the sort of book one hates to see end.

The book narrates the history of the discovery that Kentucky's Flint Ridge-Mammoth Cave system of caves is by far the world's longest known series of continuously-connected caverns. The writers and their many cohorts are not only daring adventurers, but a collection of cavers who deeply appreciate the mystery, beauty and science of caves.

A very interesting part of the book is the well-developed character sketches of the many explorers, a good number of whom participated in parts of the long, arduous struggle to discover the connections between five different large caves so as to make them one.

The overriding star of the show is the cave system itself, and the book contains many facinating portions about the beauty, danger, wonder, and history of the things found there by explorers dating back to prehistoric Native Americans, forward.

After a frustrating series of events, including an initial startling lack of interest/resistance by National Park personnel, progress begins to be made in leaps and bounds. When the Ohio cavers find that the Flint Ridge system is the longest then know, an effort is taken up to connect it with Mammoth Cave.

In a spine-tingling narrative about going past the "Tight Spot", a very small passage, the cavers eventually make the connection by going down in Flint Ridge and emerging in a well-known Mammoth Cave tourist gallery. The sense of truiumph and relief is overwhelming and excellently captured.

My size and age prohibit me from doing the things described in this book, and I have never done them. But I was captivated from start to finish by the story of these brave, resourceful people and the cave system they explored and charted. It is as if I am there myself.

My only quibble is that the photographs are limited and in black and white, but the excellent descriptive writing overcomes this factor. I love the book. Very, very highly recommended.

If you like adventure, if you like caves, if you like drama and suspense, or if you breath in and out regularly and have a pulse, you really ought to read this book. The story of the years it took to connect the Flint Ridge/Mammoth cave systems, it sweeps the reader into the wonderfully obsessive world of the Flint Ridge Cavers. A great book. Strongly reccomended.

By now, I've forgotten how many times I have read THE LONGEST CAVE, by Richard Watson and Roger Brucker. I actually quit counting after 25 times completely through the book. Admittedly, I have some vested interest in the subject, having lived in cave country in Indiana, and having been in Mammoth Cave several times. This book is about an obsession by a core group of explorers to connect all of the separate caves in the Mammoth Cave area. Working against the difficulties presented underground is often not as hard as the problems they had with the beaurocracy of the National Park Service. Because of their opposition, all of the connection work had to be done from the other caves, rather than from Mammoth Cave itself. The story leads you from one connection to another until finally, the big one is made: Mammoth Cave is connected with all of the other caves, making the system the longest cave in the world, at least in surveyed length. That final connection is the last of my personal ties to the story that made it great for me...on the day that the connection was made between the Flint Ridge Cave System and Mammoth Cave, I was actually in Mammoth Cave, as a tourist, completely unaware of the history being created around me. Roger Brucker and "Red" Watson tell their tale in personal terms, noting the humor, hard work and sacrifices of the exploration, building some people into larger-than-life icons while still showing them as human. During my latest crawl through the cave by way of this book, I found myself wondering what these people are doing now, Bill Austin -- the manager of Floyd Collins Crystal Cave, Dr. Robert Pohl -- Bill's boss at Crystal Cave, Jack Lehrberger -- a "far-out" caver whose drive and stamina enabled many of the discoveries, and of course Watson and Brucker, who thought to tell the story. I hope that each of them is writing a book about their adventures, whether in Mammoth Cave or elsewhere. If it comes close to being as good as THE LONGEST CAVE, I'll read it many times.

This is a good book for the events it documents. However, it tends to drag on at times, just like the exploration did, and can be hard to follow if you're not familiar with the area. Of course the big connection moment is incredible and you won't be able to put it down. "Beyond Mammoth Cave" is much more fast paced and entertaining overall. A must read for cavers either way.

The Longest Cave is a book which will hold you spellbound and wishing it would never end! Roger Brucker and "Red" Watson were young men 50 years ago when they first toured what was then known as Floyd Collin's Crystal Cave. This book is the story of how they and so many others dedicated days, months and years to seek out new passageways deep underground. In the case of Roger and Red, they dedicated decades and continue to work to preserve the very fragile cave environment.

This book has everything that you would want not only in a book but in a feature blockbuster movie! Adventure, Suspense, Humor, Friendship, Excitement, Discovery, Danger, and around every corner lurks the Unknown which would leave any movie-goer on the edge of their seat! All this without the gore and crime which seems to be the standard in so many books and movies today.

I HIGHLY recommend this book for anyone of any age!!! What makes this even more amazing is that this is a true story.

What these men and women accomplished is the equivalent of climbing Mount Everest in the DARK and without ever having seen a map of it! This is the American Dream of hard work, dedication, comraderie, and perseverance.

We have movies of Everest and Space Exploration and I look forward to the movie based on this book!
Without a doubt "The Longest Cave" will far surpass any movie on the above-mentioned topics.

Thanks Roger and Red for an AWESOME book!

This book is written by cavers for cavers and if you're not a fanatic caver it will probably be a little boring. After the first pages , the description of expeditions look all the same and it is easy to loose interest. To keep a non-caver entertained would have been a hard task even for very talented writers and these authors do not seem to stand above the average.
The most interesting part is the first appendix, which narrates the history of past Mammoth Cave expeditions (back to ancient times). As stated also in the preface of the book, it is better to read this appendix first to have a better picture.
3 stars.

This book is the best book I've ever came across! Outstanding adventure of how the World's Largest Cave System ever came about. The discoveries in this book are amazing! Suspence to the fullest! The people in this book who made this discovery should be noted as the best exploration team of all time! I can only amagine the feeling they got knowing they had made the biggest connection in cave history to this day. It would be almost impossible for anyone else to top the discovery in this book. An amazing adventure!! I couldn't stop reading this book over and over. The authors of this book should give the story to Hollywood to make into a motion picture. I could imagine this story making the best adventure movie of all time. Ron Howard or Steven Speilburg should be given a copy of this book! It would be a hit! I wish I had the full video tape of this expidition. National Geographic's short segment in "Mysteries Underground" was a tease. If anyone knows where or if there is such a tape, please post it! This is a must read if you like adventure to the fullest!