Snail Shell Cave

Snail Shell is part of a vast, underground drainage system in Rutherford County, Tennessee, that begins near Eagleville then flows northeast for 13 miles to emerge as a huge spring on the bank of the West Fork of the Stones River.  Although most of the currently known, mapped passages are air-filled and accessible by conventional methods of cave exploration, it appears that much of this cave is underwater and will only be explored by cave divers.  Already cave divers have explored and mapped several sections of these underwater passages.  Entrance to these water-filled passages is through Blue Holes that dot the landscape.

The cave system has a complex, three-dimensional, dendritic pattern and it is conservatively estimated that at least 50 miles of cave passages exist in this system, probably more.  Dye traces run during evaluation for the proposed Superconducting Super Collider in the 1980's revealed startling information about the extent and complexity of this system.

This book is lavishly illustrated with photographs and maps.  It begins with the early exploration in the 1950's by Tom Barr and other local cavers, follows exploration and mapping throughout the 1970's and 1980's, and continues up through the current daring and exciting exploration by cave divers.  Exploration still continues today.

Written by Larry E Matthews and Bob Biddix
ISBN:  978-1-879961-44-9
241 pages, Softbound