Beyond C-3: Volume III
Beyond C-3
Historic Documents from the 1954 Collins Crystal Cave Expedition
Volume III
ISBN 979-8-218-84584-1
324 pages, 8.5″ x 11″ format, hardbound
by David W. Hughes and Jennifer Pinkley
© 2026
Foreword by Thomas A. Brucker, son of expedition member and The Caves Beyond co-author Roger Brucker
This book will be available from the National Speleological Society (NSS) bookstore. Visit www.caves.org then select Our Work > Shop to access the online bookstore. Search for “Beyond C-3” to find the book series.
- Meticulously researched
- Includes many large format photographs
- Printed on glossy, heavy-weight, archival paper
- Book is individually shrink-wrapped
- Limited edition printing … when they are gone, they’re gone
Description
The National Speleological Society’s 1954 Collins Crystal Cave Expedition helped to establish parameters for serious project caving in the United States. Lingering in storage for seven decades, a treasure trove of the expedition’s correspondence, reports, and transcripts has been uncovered and curated. Most of the associated documents are being published in this series for the very first time. These irreplaceable artifacts afford a “behind the scenes” glimpse into the inner workings of an adventure that unfolded, struggled, and triumphed under rural Kentucky.
Volume III of this six-volume series provides commentary and reproduces documents germane to the participation of expedition sponsors, daily rosters of work assignments, specific instructions to officers and other personnel, and details of the underground telephone system. Explicit telephone logs and transcriptions of the associated telephone traffic also appear in this volume.
A few documents from Volume III
A few photographs from Volume III
Captions identifying the people and photographs are included in the book.
