Field trips to Howe Caverns for students of all ages, and from around the region, are common in the last few weeks before summer vacation. There were no such luxuries for children attending any of the one-room schoolhouses more than a century ago – unless you lived in the Cave Country.
In my book, “Underground Empires: Two Centuries of Exploration, Adventure & Enterprise in NY’s Cave County,” I suggested the rural, sparsely populated Sagendorf Corners hamlet was the nexus of NY’s Cave Country.
Near the hamlet’s old one-room schoolhouse, “there are quite a large number of rock holes1,” reported the Greene County Windham Journal on Sept. 18, 1876. “. . in which the children often play at noon and recess.”
The article headlined, “Schoharie County: Its Cavernous Character,” was picked up from The Albany Argus and gave a good description of the known caves of that period.
While it didn’t identify which caves Sagendorf Corners school children spent their recess or lunch breaks in, there are several they could have chosen from, including one that later became Secret Caverns. Others nearby were later found to connect to Howe’s Cave, nearly an underground mile away.
1 The author likely means “sinkhole.” A “rock hole,” as any farmer in the cave country can tell you, is a sinkhole where rocks unearthed during plowing are thrown.
