Endless Caverns (eBook)

An Underground Journey into the Show Caves of Appalachia

Douglas Reichert Powell (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2018
232 Seiten
The University of North Carolina Press (Verlag)
978-1-4696-3864-5 (ISBN)

Infos

For generations, enterprising people in the southern Appalachians have turned the regions extensive network of caves into a strange, fascinating genre of tourist attraction. Visitors pay admission to take a tour deep underground, learning a little about history and geology while puzzling over lit-up rock formations said to resemble anything from Niagara Falls to the Capitol dome. Then off go the lights, enveloping the travelers in total darkness until the guide flips them back on and welcomes folks back into the safety of the inevitable gift shop. Show caves, as Douglas Reichert Powell explains in Endless Caverns, are at once predictable and astonishing, ancient and modern, eerie and sentimental. Their story sparks memories of a fleeting cool moment deep underground during a hot summer vacation, capturing in microcosm the history and culture of a region where a deeply rooted sense of place collides with constant change.Reichert Powell takes readers along on his journey through the past and present of Appalachias show caves, highlighting the characters who have owned and operated them, the ways the attractions have developed and changed over the years, and the odd intrigue that still leads people to buy their ticket and head underground. Tourist tastes may shift as interstates whisk travelers past the backroads and on to trendier destinations, but the show cave like Appalachia itself endures.

Autor

Douglas Reichert Powell is associate professor of English at Columbia College Chicago.

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 20.3.2018
• Zusatzinfo: 16 halftones, 1 map, index
• Verlagsort: Chapel Hill
• Sprache: englisch
• Maße: 160 x 160 mm
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Freizeit / Hobby ► Sammeln / Sammlerkataloge
• Themenwelt: Reisen ► Reiseführer
• Schlagworte: Appalachian history and culture • asset-based development in Appalachia • caverns • caves • commercial caves • critical regionalist nonfiction • cultural ecology in southern Appalachia • ecotourism in Appalachia • history and culture of the mountain south • landmarks and historic sites in the southern Appalachian mountains • nature and culture in the southern Appalachians • show caves • show caves of Appalachia • southern Appalachian creative nonfiction • southern Appalachian cultural geography • southern Appalachian ecocriticism • southern Appalachian travel writing • southern creative nonfiction • southern history and culture • the history of tourism • the history of tourism in Appalachia • the history of tourism in the US South • the history of US landscape • Tourism • travel writing in/ • travel writing in/about the southern Appalachian region
• ISBN-10: 1-4696-3864-9 / 1469638649
• ISBN-13: 978-1-4696-3864-5 / 9781469638645