“Anybody Ever Die Down There?”

World-famous since the mid-1800s, Howe’s Cave had been modernized for visitors in 1927-29 with an elevator entrance, clean paths, and electric lights.  A grand reopening on Decoration Day, 1929 made Howe Caverns, Inc. one of upstate New York’s most popular tourist destinations.

As a college-age tour guide during the Seventies, author Dana Cudmore faced this question often enough during the hundreds of tours he conducted through the famous caverns.  Unknown to most, the answer is yes.  The Cave Electrician’s Widow delves into that tragic story and the courtroom battle that sought to redress the deaths.

Less than a year after the cave was reopened, two of the new corporation’s employees died in the cave under baffling circumstances in the early morning hours of April 24, 1930. They collapsed near the postcard-worthy formation, The Bell of Moscow.

When the two men failed to return that morning, a third was sent into the cave to find why.  This 25-year-old tour guide returned alone minutes later, warning of “poisonous gases,” and then collapsed, later recovering in an Albany hospital.

At 5 a.m. that same morning, 7½ tons of dynamite knocked 60,000 tons of limestone from the hillside at the old cement quarry, just southeast of the cave. Had fumes from the blast found their way through the maze of caverns’ passages and killed the men more than a mile away? Or had it loosened dangerous gases lurking in the cave for eons?

The Cave Electrician’s Widow: The Tragedy at Howe Caverns & Courtroom Battle for Justice is part David vs. Goliath; part mystery, part courtroom drama, part travelogue through the fascinating underground realm of the caverns, and much more. YOU’LL BE KEPT GUESSING UNTIL THE JURY’S VERDICT IS READ.

From Purple Mountain Press/NYSbooks.com.

This is the untold story of that tragedy: the rescue attempts, the investigation and coroner’s report, and finally, the legal recourse sought by the widows of the two men. Much of the story is told in vivid, first-hand accounts taken from court records of one of the cases.  The testimony—by rescuers, cave experts, quarrymen, explosives engineers, doctors, and chemists under the dueling questioning of the widow’s attorney and his adversary —unravels the mystery of who was responsible and illuminates unfamiliar avenues of the dark, remarkable cave. YOU’LL BE KEPT GUESSING UNTIL THE VERDICT IS READ.

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News from the Heyday of Howes Cave

QUARRY BUSINESS:

THE COBLESKILL INDEX, JUNE 16, 1898 = Howe’s Cave—For the week ending June 11 the Howe’s Cave Association has loaded and shipped from this station fifty-three cars, with a net tonnage of one million eight hundred and eighty-nine thousand and sixty pounds [1,889,060] and the aggregate tonnage received for same time three hundred twenty-eight thousand, seven hundred and fifty-six pounds [328,756]. Their payday is on Thursday of each week, when each and every man receives cash for his labor.

HOWES CAVE COMMUNITY

THE ALBANY ARGUS, SEPT.19, 1888:– On Friday the old powder house of the Howe’s Cave Association caught fire in some mysterious manner. Fortunately, it was used only as a storehouse. The new one. a short distance away, has just been filled with powder. Had that burned, a portion of Howe’s Cave would have been wrecked.

THE ALBANY ARGUS, APRIL 27, 1889 – The Post Office was moved Thursday evening into its new quarters, the store of the Howe’s Cave association.

THE ALBANY ARGUS, MAY, 1889 – The Howe’s Cave Depot Burned. The freight house at Howe’s Cave was burned at eleven o’clock last night. But little freight was burned, except two carloads of hay.

THE ALBANY ARGUS, JANUARY, 1894 (day unreadable) – The store of Palmer Slingerland, at Howe’s Cave, was burglarized on December 29, and several pairs of shoes, four boxes of cartridges and other articles in small amounts were stolen. Eleven dollars in money was also taken belonging to the Howe’s Cave association.

THE CAVE HOUSE

The following news items, although short, share some important information about the history of the Cave House.

The first article, from July 9, 1872, helps pinpoint the opening date of the third Cave House, built of stone from the nearby quarry of the Howes Cave Association. It was built to replace the aging wooden, three-story hotel built and operated by the Howe family. That hotel was destroyed by fire in January of that year.

This new Cave House, opened within seven months of the fire, suggests it had been planned well before the blaze that claimed two lives.

The next two articles follow the building’s transition from hotel to privately-owned boarding house.

The Cave House operated as at boarding house through about 1929 when it became office/laboratory for the new owners of the Howes Cave quarry, the North American Cement Company.

A more thorough history of the Cave House is told in Underground Empires: Two Centuries of Exploration, Adventure & Enterprise in New York’s Cave County.

THE ALBANY MORNING EXPRESS, JULY 9, 1872 The Howe’s Cave Association, a company of which Hon. J, H. Ramsey, of this city, is President, will throw open to the public in about a month, a fine new hotel at Howe’s Cave.

THE COBLESKILL INDEX, JUNE 16, 1898 – Howe’s Cave—J.W. Meagher has leased the Cave House, and that institution is now open to the public.

The Cobleskill Index, October 13, 1898 – The former Howes Cave Association office is being converted into living rooms.

MISCELLANEOUS

From THE ALBANY ARGUST, AUG. 29, 1881 – (clipped from larger article) “Some of the leading pottery makers of Philadelphia, convinced by experiment of this fact, last week, after many endeavors and tempting offers, succeeded in inducing Mr. Ramsey to part with some of this valuable clay.”

Quarrymen Earn 1927 Safety Award

THE COBLESKILL INDEX, APRIL 5, 1928 – Honor is Awarded to Howes Cave Workers