Featured News | March 20, 2015
From a Casper College news release:
The Tate Geological Museum will be co-sponsoring a talk by Mark Jenkins titled “Vietnam Underground: The Viet Cong, Spelunkers and the Biggest Cave on Earth’ on Tuesday, March 24 at 7 p.m.
Jenkins, a field staff writer for National Geographic and a writer-in-residence at the University of Wyoming, “will take audiences across Vietnam, culturally and geographically – exploring its violent history, remarkable recovery and vibrant present in addition to descending into the acknowledged Mount Everest of caves,” according to the University of Wyoming.
“Hidden deep in the jungles of central Vietnam, near the infamous Ho Chi Minh trail, is a network of massive caves. Created by underground rivers cutting their way through limestone, these caves were used as shelters by the Vietnamese during American bombing campaigns in the 1960s. Over the past two decades, a team of British spelunkers has been penetrating deeper into the gigantic caverns. I joined them in descending into what turned out to be the largest cave ever discovered, Hang Son Doong – so vast that a skyscraper could fit inside,” said Jenkins. “Exploring the cave was so treacherous and difficult, (we) the team lived underground for days to complete the first descent,” Jenkins added.
The free talk will be held in the Wheeler Concert Hall located in the Music Building on the Casper College campus. The talk is sponsored by UW’s Center for Global Studies, UW’s Global and Area Studies Program, the Wyoming Humanities Council, the UW Outreach School, the University of Wyoming at Casper, and the Tate Geological Museum at Casper College, with additional support from the Ruth R. Ellbogen Foundation, the Homer and Mildred Scott Foundation, and InterConnections21.
The Wyoming Arts Council believes that experiencing the arts should be accessible for all, including people with mental and/or physical disabilities, older adults, military/veterans, people living in institutions and those who lack access to the arts due to geographic isolation, cultural difference and economic hardship.
