Finally, someone has been in this other than me! I used to live over the mountain outside of Dayton TN (Evensville, if you want technical) and I always used to stop when on TN 111 to check this out. Very cool.

Thanks for the refresher.

Samurai

Are you sure this isn't a quarry? The openings seem a little big for a mine. In Huntsville Alabama, there is 3 caves quarry and it looks very similar to this.... take a look.

http://www.uer.ca/...ow.asp?locid=21021

It looks like a mine. Not sure what they were taking out there. I have always thought of a quarry as a open hole and a mine as a tunnel. I know that there is a place called Quarry Cave that looks something like this place but it bisects a cave. Is is called a mine or a quarry because of what they are removing (ore vs limestone) or by the type of dig (pit vs tunnel)?

In France, and I believe, other European countries as well, a mine is where they mined minerals, and a quarry is where they dug out the stone. They are rather precise about differentiating these.

In the US, the differentiation isn't so clear. I think technically that is still true, but it seems that most Americans, including the people at the USGS who edit topo maps, call both underground mines and underground quarries mines, and only call surface quarries quarries. Surface mines are still mines, more specifically strip mines.

To make things even more confusing and unclear, Americans also have a tendency to call underground mines caves. Technically, a cave refers to a natural underground void. At least, if you ask cavers, it does. The mayor of St. Paul recently called a group of underground sandstone quarries "limestone caves." Fuckin' dumbass. At least call them sandstone caves, if you can't handle sandstone mines.

I like the French designation because it's more precise. But whatever works, as long as the idea is communicated correctly. In Kansas City, they have "caves" all over the place. The limestone quarrying industry is big around there. The abandoned ones are fun to explore too, but I've never seen one that looks like a cave.

Posted by Samurai Finally, someone has been in this other than me! I used to live over the mountain outside of Dayton TN (Evensville, if you want technical) and I always used to stop when on TN 111 to check this out. Very cool. Thanks for the refresher. Samurai

How far does it go back????