Fern Cave
Fern Cave NWR is named after the profusion of ferns the original explorers found in the Surprise Pit sinkhole. Another entrance used to feature the federally endangered American Hart's-tongue fern (Phyllitis scolopendrium). The fern population has disappeared since 1985 from a high of twenty due to the actions of illegal plant collectors.
Fern Cave itself is described as a "vertical and horizontal maze". There are 12 different levels connected by canyons and pits. The cave is approximately 15 miles (24 km) long and the system is 450 feet (140 m) deep. The cave remains very inaccessible. At least one experienced spelunker has died in the cave.
There are five entrances to the cave although only four of them are within the Fern Cave NWR. The fifth entrance is owned by the Southeastern Cave Conservancy.
Read more about this topic: Fern Cave National Wildlife Refuge
Famous quotes containing the word cave:
“Do you know how poetry started? I always think that it started when a cave boy came running back to the cave, through the tall grass, shouting as he ran, “Wolf, wolf,” and there was no wolf. His baboon-like parents, great sticklers for the truth, gave him a hiding, no doubt, but poetry had been born—the tall story had been born in the tall grass.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)