January 23, 1999 to May 28, 2000
California Underground:
Our Caves and Subterranean Habitats
Natural Sciences Special Gallery
Presented by the Natural Sciences Department

California Underground Interactive Website

Rappelling into a cave lake.

The family-oriented exhibition California Underground: Our Caves and Subterranean Habitats runs through May 28, 2000. The exhibition, occupying nearly 5,000 square feet of museum space, includes a junior speleologists section with such interactive exhibits and physical experiences as feeling through a completely dark cave, squeeze boxes, demonstrations of how animals are adapted to living in caves and a special activity area on bats. Other exhibit areas illustrate techniques and equipment for caving, cave mapping and cave photography, including a selection of dramatic color photographs by California cavers. The featured section displays extraordinary 16-by-20-inch color photographs of the five "realms" defined by the processes of cave formation: fire &ice, solution & decoration, surf & shore, wind & rain, and slip & slide. Images by such acclaimed cave photographers as Peter and Ann Bosted and Dave Bunnell along with others, and 3-dimensional photographs by Dick LaForge, depict the different types of caves in California, illustrate cave ecology and reveal how, why and where caves are formed. The exhibition includes an explanation of the highly specialized techniques of making photographs in caves, and allows aspiring cave photographers to experiment with manipulating the lighting in a model cave.

Simulated cave experiences allow visitors to explore their fantasies and fears. Children explore the challenge of moving through caves without breaking the fragile formations by crawling among simulated stalactites that buzz when touched. In the "Man in Caves" area, visitors explore the physical sensation of squeezing through tight spaces, learn about the different techniques used for climbing and crawling through caves and the equipment used by cavers, and investigate a cave surveying and mapping activity. In the "Be a Bat" corner, visitors are invited to compare their perceptual capacities to those of bats, creatures naturally adapted to this environment.

Rounding out the exhibition are specimens of native cave vertebrates and invertebrates; display panels on the timeline and geography of California cave formation; a section on subterranean resource conservation issues relating to cave-dwelling animals, cleanup and cave damage; and a resource center containing books, a "virtual cave" website with further cave information and other information resources.

Cresent shelfstone, formed by water dripping down a stalactite into a pool.

For most people, exploring caves means walking along roped-off, lighted paths through giant caverns, while a guide explains how thousands of years of water dripping has formed colorful stalactites and stalagmites. But these "show caves" are only a small part of the underground landscape of California. The sense of adventure that overtakes a caver when he or she crawls blindly through muddy darkness, or squeezes breathlessly through a tight passage into a crystalline palace, or drops by rope into a deep underground lake -- these are the experiences of the true caver.

From sea caves to lava tubes, mud caves to caves of limestone or marble, the diversity of California's nearly three thousand caves is unsurpassed. The stories played out in these underground habitats include fascinating examples of geological, evolutionary, human-historical and paleontological events.

California's caves have not received their due attention from museums or other natural history media. Yet people are fascinated by caves. The exhibition has two interacting purposes: to spark the sense of adventure and wonder-and fun-that is inherent in the caver's experience, and to educate visitors about the beauty, complexity and fragility of a part of California's natural environment that most of us never see. In addition, with the recent passage of the Federal Cave Resource Protection Act of 1988, issues of cave conservation, appropriate use and public access have been thrust to the fore among resource managers and the conservation community.

Made possible with support from the Oakland Museum Women's Board, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, Crosby Heafey Roach & May, Dean Witter Foundation, J.M. Long Foundation, Natural Sciences Guild, True North Foundation, National Speleological Society, and Bureau of Land Management.

© 1999 Oakland Museum of California | Credits |Phone: 510-238-2200