ShowCaveBlog

The Fernbank Museum of Natural History in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.A., shows an exhibtion called In the Dark. The topiy of this exhibition is live in dark habitat. Obviously caves are an important dark habitat, and so there is a impressive part of the exhibition called Darkness Deep within Caves.
The cave display includes the replica of a Kentucky limestone cave where visitors can walk through. There is a diorama of the famous Movile Cave in Romania. Those highlights are completed by detailed information on cvae formatuion, cave habitat, troglomorphism and so forth.
At Fernbank’s IMAX® Theatre the movie Journey Into Amazing Caves will be showing while the exhibition is open. This is a great introduction into the beauty and variety of caves. The film explores karst caves in the walls of the Grand Canyon, ice caves in the glaciers of Greenland and water filled karst caves beneath Yucatan.

In the Dark is a traveling exhibit produced by the Cincinnati Museum Center.

When: 09-FEB-2008 to 04-MAR-2008
Where: Fernbank Museum of Natural History, 767 Clifton Road, Atlanta
Fee: Adults USD 15, Students USD 14, Seniors USD 14, Children (3-12) USD 13.
More: The Weekly Online!

This is so impressive, a beautiful underground place, so we had to write about it. Unfortunately it is not open for the public. So we decided to give at least a glimpse of it on the blog.

Norman and Norah Stone from San Fransisco are obviously very rich, and – among art aficionados – famous collectors of modern art. It seems they still had several millions of dollars after they spent a fortune on modern art, did not really know what to do with this money, and so they burned it by building a private art museum, not open to the public. Changing exhibitions reflect the continually growing collection of the couple.
However, we are more interested in the fact that the whole structure is located underground, inside one of the numerous caves in Napa Valley, California. Generally the caves are used for the Californian wine, which is grown in the valley. But this cave is dedicated to art. The Stones hired three young New York architects – Tim Bade, Jane Stageberg and Martin Cox, of Bade Stageberg Cox. The only thing visible from the surface is the entrance and the exit, both framed in Cor-Ten steel which will soon rust and become almost invisible. The inside has a size of 540m² and  consists  of a  35m long main hall with several smaller rooms branching off. The underground museum  is called stonescape.

The cave is located at the weekend home of the couple, a 70,000m² property, with a modest 1887 farmhouse, a vineyard, a stand of redwood trees, a sculpture by Cady Noland, and a pool and pavilion designed the artist James Turrell and the architect Jim Jennings.

• Art collector couple builds museum-size cave in Napa for collection
• Insider Art

And one more Halloween special. At Cave of the Mounds will be two days of folk stories of southwest Wisconsin. On Friday 26th October between 5 and 7 pm will also be the opportunity for a candle light walk on the Karst View Trail. And on Saturday 27th October between 8 am and 6 pm there will be a scavenger hunt, a falconry presentation and special Halloween treat tours of the famous cave. Costumed children will get gemstones as treats.

Another Halloween inspired event is the Cathedral Caverns Fall Festival. On special guided tours through the cave a scary story is told along the way. But the cave tour is only part of the event. Outside the cave are live performances and games for children.

The event is on 27th October, starts at 5 and ends at 10 pm. The cave tour costs $5, and some other activities cost various charges.

 Cathedral Caverns

As every year, around Halloween many events take place in or at caves in the U.S.A.

On two nights, from 26th to 27th October the Nighttime Cave Tours take place from 5 to 8 in the evening, every 15 minutes. Roxy School of the Arts students will perform dramatizations in the cave and the guides will tell about the cave history and Clarkesville history.

The event is family friendly, children are allowed from the age of three. This is not a spooky or horror event. Entrance fee is $5, and visitors should wear sturdy shoes and bring a torch. There is also the possibility to rent one at the cave.

 Dunbar Cave

Many years ago Dunbar Cave offered a special summer feature: Clarksvillians spent summer afternoons at the cave entrance gathering cool breezes emitting from the cave. The light hearted afternoon fun included board and card games, and live music.

Today the cave is located in a State Park, and there are no more such events, but there are exceptions: on Saturday 28-JUL-2007 there was a delightful afternoon organized by the Friends of Dunbar Cave. Board games like Checkers, Chess, Monopoly, and cards were available.
See also: Clarksville Online

The Iran plans to construct a new cave museum, which will be located inside two caves, Huto and Kamarband Caves, which are about 100m apart. This two small caves are probably the most important archeologic caves in the Iran. There are three main reasons to choose this location: the importance of the location, the fact that it is already completely excavated, and the nice landscape around, with the sea to one side.

The reason for this museums seems to be the hope to draw tourists into the Iran. At the same time caves are explored for development or already developed. It seems all those tourist attractions are mainly for inland tourism, but foreign tourism would obviously be appreciated too.

Huto and Kamarband Cave

St Michael’s Cave is a nice show cave located on Gibraltar, inside the famous rock where apes live outside. It has one huge chamber, which is developed as a sort of concert hall.

On Friday 9th September, as part of the National Week celebrations, Marillion singer Steve Hogarth will be performing in the cave. Steve Hogarth, better known as “H”, is the lead singer of Marillion since 1989. But it will not be a Marillion concert, Hogart will perform solo. It will be a sort of unplugged concert, named “H Natural”, as Hogart will be accompanied only by a piano.

The concert is organized by the Ministry of Culture, Word of Mouth Concerts, and Gibtelecom. They hope it will be a success and be followed by a Marillion concert next year.

‘H’ in the cave as part of National Week

In October 2006 at the Einhornhöhle (Unicorn Cave) in the Harz in northern Germany, for one weekend the Neandertals will be revived. First discovered 300km to the east, in the Neanderthal (valley of the Neander river), this early relative of us humans is found all over Europe. One site with remains is the Harz, a mountain region with many caves.

Neandertaler im Harz (in German)

The Randy Travis Christmas special for 2006 was now filmed at Carlsbad Caverns. It seems the second part of the show takes place at the Rock of Ages in the Big Room.
Randy Travis is joined by 40 members of the First Baptist Church choir. They sing titles like Rock of Ages and Silent Night.
The show will be on TV before Christmas, and most likely it will be sold on DVD afterwards.
Music made in Caverns by Karen Polly