The Geography 360 class
from the University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire took a one day
field studies trip to Crystal Cave. The class was broken
up into five groups, each groups explaining different aspects of
the cave they thought were important.
Crystal Cave was
discovered in 1881 by two teenage brothers in the town of
Spring Valley, Wisconsin. Spring Valley is located in
the middle western part of the state, about 50 miles west of
Eau Claire. One of the brothers was hiking through the
woods near his house one day and stumbled across an entrance
to the cave. The next day the two brothers went back
to the cave entrance and one lowered the other into the
cave. The two brothers only explored the first two
caverns of what has come to be known as Crystal Cave.
In 1941, exploration of the lower caverns began and
eventually lead to Crystal Cave reaching a depth of 70 feet
below the earth's surface.
