Beyond C-3

What is the Beyond C-3 book series about?

Several years ago, Dave Hughes, a long-time member of the National Speleological Society (NSS), was visiting the NSS library in Huntsville, Alabama and found a battered wooden box with the name “J. D. Lawrence Jr.” stenciled on the side. When Dave opened the box, he discovered a treasure trove of documents from the 1950s about the very first NSS cave expedition to Collins Crystal Cave, a cave the legendary cave explorer Floyd Collins discovered in 1917 near Mammoth Cave in Kentucky.

This historic cave expedition got its start in 1953 when the owner of the Collins Crystal Cave invited members of the NSS to explore and study the cave. The caving community of course accepted the invitation. As a result of this invitation, in February 1954 the National Speleological Society conducted its first large-scale, multi-day expedition devoted to the comprehensive exploration and study of a single cave system. In doing so, it set the stage for what is now known in America as “project caving.” The project is widely known as the C-3 Expedition.

During this week-long expedition, 64 people participated in a project to explore and map the cave, and to provide a variety of above-ground support. Most expedition participants worked at an above-ground base camp, with one (or more) forward operating posts located inside the cave. Major responsibilities of the base camp included providing reliable voice communication throughout the chain of command, and executing an uninterrupted flow of food and supplies working inside the cave. After the expedition, Joe Lawrence leader and expedition member Roger Brucker compiled an official history of the project. The resulting book, The Caves Beyond, remains a classic in American caving literature.

This expedition took place many years before the internet or smart phones existed, so all communication happened over the telephone or through letters mailed back and forth between participants. Instead of sending out a quick text message, people involved in this expedition would sit down and write out a note by hand or type a letter (on a typewriter) then send the information via the US Postal Service. There was even an occasional telegram. Joe Lawrence saved everything he sent and received inside a wooden box for Dave to discover almost seven decades later.

Dave decided to scan all of the documents and compile them into books to preserve these fascinating pieces of correspondence for future generations of cavers. There are over 1,000 documents here, and they are divided into six volumes. Each volume contains scanned copies of expedition records. There are also dozens of photos of the expedition.