Crystal Cave (Wisconsin)

Crystal Cave
Crystal Cave
	Travertine soda straw stalactites and bulbous stalagmites in Crystal Cave
Coordinates	44°49′57″N 92°15′07″W / 44.832567°N 92.251950°W
Discovery	1881

Crystal Cave is a cave located in Wisconsin’s Pierce County, near the Town of Spring Valley on Highway 29. The cave was discovered in 1881 by local brothers George and William Vanasse. Crystal Cave is a multi-level solutional cave formed in dolomite bedrock in the Prairie du Chien Group. The dolomite was formed 485 million years ago during the Lower Ordovician Period when a warm shallow ocean covered much of Minnesota and Wisconsin. It is Wisconsin’s longest known cave.^[1]

^ Cunningham, Jean; Dolliver, Holly A. S.; Cordua, William S. (2011). "Flaming meteors, dark caves, and raging waters—Geological curiosities of western Wisconsin". Archean to Anthropocene: Field Guides to the Geology of the Mid-Continent of North America. Vol. 24. Field Guides. pp. 411–424. doi:10.1130/2011.0024(19). ISBN 978-0-8137-0024-3.

[auto1-1] Cunningham, Jean; Dolliver, Holly A. S.; Cordua, William S. (2011). "Flaming meteors, dark caves, and raging waters—Geological curiosities of western Wisconsin". Archean to Anthropocene: Field Guides to the Geology of the Mid-Continent of North America. Vol. 24. Field Guides. pp. 411–424. doi:10.1130/2011.0024(19). ISBN 978-0-8137-0024-3.

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