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Cave Books
The Cave Research Foundation (CRF) is an American private, non-profit group dedicated to the exploration, research, and conservation of caves. The group arose in the early 1950s from the exploration efforts at Floyd Collins Crystal Cave, now within Mammoth Cave National Park. Its stated goals were: to promote exploration and documentation of caves and karst areas, initiate and support cave and karst research, aid in cave conservation and protection, and to assist with the interpretation of caves and karst to the public. Growth CRF officially incorporated in 1957 under the laws of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. The Guadalupe Cave Survey, explorers at Carlsbad Caverns National Park, New Mexico, became part of CRF in 1971. In 1976, cave survey at Sequoia National Park/Kings Canyon National Park, California, and Buffalo National River, Arkansas, became CRF projects. Additional cave projects in Cumberland Gap National Historic Park, Kentucky; Lava Beds National Monument, California; ...
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Non-profit
A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in contrast with an entity that operates as a business aiming to generate a profit for its owners. A nonprofit is subject to the non-distribution constraint: any revenues that exceed expenses must be committed to the organization's purpose, not taken by private parties. An array of organizations are nonprofit, including some political organizations, schools, business associations, churches, social clubs, and consumer cooperatives. Nonprofit entities may seek approval from governments to be tax-exempt, and some may also qualify to receive tax-deductible contributions, but an entity may incorporate as a nonprofit entity without securing tax-exempt status. Key aspects of nonprofits are accountability, trustworthiness, honesty, and openness to eve ...
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Ozark National Scenic Riverways
The Ozark National Scenic Riverways is a recreational unit of the National Park Service in the Ozarks of southern Missouri in the U.S. The park was created by an Act of Congress in 1964 to protect the Current and Jacks Fork rivers, and it was formally dedicated in 1971. The park's are used for many forms of recreation and are home to abundant animal and plant species. 1.3 million recreational visits are estimated annually. Canoeing is one of the most popular activities. Kayaking and inflatable rafts and tubes add to the volume of river floaters. Motorized boating with jonboats is also a popular activity of locals and nearby Missourians. Other activities include horseback riding, hunting, hiking, fishing, camping, birdwatching, nature photography, and sightseeing. The park service promotes the Current River as one of the midwest's best float streams, in part due to the contributions of some of the nation's largest springs. The headwaters of the Current River begin at the con ...
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Will Crowther
William Crowther (born 1936) is an American computer programmer, caver, and rock climber. He is the co-creator of ''Colossal Cave Adventure'' from 1975 onward, a seminal computer game that influenced the first decade of video game design and inspired the text adventure game genre. Biography During the early 1970s, Crowther worked at defense contractor and internet pioneer Bolt Beranek and Newman (BBN), where he was part of the original small ARPAnet development team. His implementation of a distributed distance vector routing system for the ARPAnet was an important step in the evolution of the internet. Crowther met and married Pat Crowther while studying at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he received a B.S. in physics in 1958. Adventure Following his divorce from his wife, Crowther used his spare time to develop a text-based adventure game in Fortran on BBN's PDP-10. He created it as a diversion his daughters Sandy and Laura could enjoy when they came ...
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Patricia Crowther (caver)
Patricia ("Pat") P. Crowther (born 1943), later known as Patricia P. Wilcox, is an American cave explorer and cave surveyor active in the 1960s and early 1970s. She also worked as a computer programmer. Crowther was well-known among Kentucky cavers for her slight frame (she weighed 115 pounds) and her extreme dedication. These two traits led her to pursue promising leads that other cavers were unwilling or unable to attempt. Of particular note is her traversal of a narrow canyon known as " The Tight Spot" in the portion of the Flint Ridge Cave System underlying Houchins Valley. The Tight Spot proved to be the critical juncture leading to the passages connecting Mammoth Cave and the Flint Ridge Cave System. Both Patricia Crowther and her then-husband Will Crowther, also a computer programmer, participated in many expeditions that attempted to connect the caves. She was part of the September 9, 1972 expedition that discovered and surveyed the historic final connection. Crowthe ...
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Roger Brucker
Roger W. Brucker (born July 27, 1929) is an American cave explorer and author of books about caves. He is most closely associated with Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, the world's longest cave, which he has been exploring and writing about since 1954. Early life and education After graduating from Oberlin College with an art degree in 1951, Brucker enlisted in the U.S. Air Force and was stationed at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio where he wrote and directed documentary, technical and training films. While in the Air Force, Brucker was temporarily stationed in New York City, where he became friends with some people who introduced him to caving, through the National Speleological Society (NSS). He participated in Floyd Collins' Crystal Cave (C-3) Expedition in Kentucky in 1954, in which dozens of explorers spent one week underground, in an effort to determine if Crystal Cave might be connected with other caves. Although such connections were not found at that time (th ...
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Richard Watson (philosopher)
Richard Allan Watson (23 February 1931 – 18 September 2019) was an American philosopher, speleologist and author. Biography Watson taught philosophy at Washington University in St. Louis for forty years. He was considered one of the foremost living authorities on Descartes. He was an Emeritus Professor of Philosophy for Washington University. Watson earned a degree in geology specializing in "paleoclimatology of 10,000 years ago." This involved the development of agrarian societies in the Fertile Crescent. From July 1965 to July 1967, he was president of the Cave Research Foundation. His book, ''Cogito, Ergo Sum: a life of René Descartes'' is a travelogue in the form of following Descartes's travels around Europe. It was chosen by the New York Public Library as one of its "25 Books to Remember from 2002." Criticism of animal rights Watson authored the article ''Self-consciousness and the Rights of Nonhuman Animals and Nature'', which argued that most animals do not have ...
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Patty Jo Watson
__NOTOC__ Patty Jo Watson (born 1932) is an American archaeologist noted for her work on Pre-Columbian Native Americans, especially in the Mammoth Cave region of Kentucky. Her early investigations focused on the origins of agriculture and pastoralism in the Near East. She is now Distinguished University Professor Emerita, Archaeology at Washington University in St. Louis. Until her retirement in 2004, she was the Edward Mallinckrodt Distinguished University Professor of Archaeology at Washington University in St. Louis. Education In 1952, Watson, a junior at Iowa State, transferred into a three-year master's program at the University of Chicago. In 1953, Watson attended the University of Arizona's Point of Pines field school where she became interested in flotation techniques. Later from 1954 to 1955, Watson participated in the Iraq-Jarmo Project in Northern Iraq as a field assistant to Robert Braidwood. Watson earned her M.A. in 1956 and her Ph.D. in 1959 from the Universi ...
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Speleology
Speleology is the scientific study of caves and other karst features, as well as their make-up, structure, physical properties, history, life forms, and the processes by which they form (speleogenesis) and change over time (speleomorphology). The term ''speleology'' is also sometimes applied to the recreational activity of exploring caves, but this is more properly known as ''caving'', ''potholing'' (British English), or ''spelunking''. Speleology and caving are often connected, as the physical skills required for ''in situ'' study are the same. Speleology is a cross-disciplinary field that combines the knowledge of chemistry, biology, geology, physics, meteorology, and cartography to develop portraits of caves as complex, evolving systems. History Before modern speleology developed, John Beaumont wrote detailed descriptions of some Mendip caves in the 1680s. The term speleology was coined by Émile Rivière in 1890. Prior to the mid-nineteenth century the scientific valu ...
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Cave Cartography
A cave survey is a map of all or part of a cave system, which may be produced to meet differing standards of accuracy depending on the cave conditions and equipment available underground. Cave surveying and cartography, i.e. the creation of an accurate, detailed map, is one of the most common technical activities undertaken within a cave and is a fundamental part of speleology. Surveys can be used to compare caves to each other by length, depth and volume, may reveal clues on speleogenesis, provide a spatial reference for other areas of scientific study and assist visitors with route-finding. Traditionally, cave surveys are produced in two-dimensional form due to the confines of print, but given the three-dimensional environment inside a cave, modern techniques using computer aided design are increasingly used to allow a more realistic representation of a cave system. History The first known plan of a cave dates from 1546, and was of a man-made cavern in tufa called the Stufe d ...
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Cavers
Caving – also known as spelunking in the United States and Canada and potholing in the United Kingdom and Ireland – is the recreational pastime of exploring wild cave systems (as distinguished from show caves). In contrast, speleology is the scientific study of caves and the cave environment.Caving in New Zealand
(from Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand, Accessed 2012-11.)
The challenges involved in caving vary according to the cave being visited; in addition to the total absence of light beyond the entrance, negotiating pitches, squeezes,
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Cave Mapping
A cave survey is a map of all or part of a cave system, which may be produced to meet differing standards of accuracy depending on the cave conditions and equipment available underground. Cave surveying and cartography, i.e. the creation of an accurate, detailed map, is one of the most common technical activities undertaken within a cave and is a fundamental part of speleology. Surveys can be used to compare caves to each other by length, depth and volume, may reveal clues on speleogenesis, provide a spatial reference for other areas of scientific study and assist visitors with route-finding. Traditionally, cave surveys are produced in two-dimensional form due to the confines of print, but given the three-dimensional environment inside a cave, modern techniques using computer aided design are increasingly used to allow a more realistic representation of a cave system. History The first known plan of a cave dates from 1546, and was of a man-made cavern in tufa called the Stufe d ...
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Mammoth Cave
Mammoth Cave National Park is an American national park in west-central Kentucky, encompassing portions of Mammoth Cave, the longest cave system known in the world. Since the 1972 unification of Mammoth Cave with the even-longer system under Flint Ridge to the north, the official name of the system has been the Mammoth–Flint Ridge Cave System. The park was established as a national park on July 1, 1941, a World Heritage Site on October 27, 1981, an international Biosphere Reserve on September 26, 1990 and an International Dark Sky Park on October 28, 2021. The park's are located primarily in Edmonson County, with small areas extending eastward into Hart and Barren counties. The Green River runs through the park, with a tributary called the Nolin River feeding into the Green just inside the park. Mammoth Cave is the world's longest known cave system with more than of surveyed passageways, which is nearly twice as long as the second-longest cave system, Mexico's ...
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