Professor John C. Cook produced “Limestone Caverns of Eastern New York” for the 60th annual report of the New York State Museum, published in 1906. His report documents the karst development of the Onondaga, Becraft and the Manlius limestones in Schoharie and Albany counties1. He produced nine maps with surveyor James. F. Loughran, and 40 photos on 4×5” glass-plate negatives, with his brother, Harry C. Cook.
In all, Prof. Cook mentions 19 caves, most of them familiar to cavers of the northeast.
“[Cook’s] work was prosecuted with vigor though it was arduous and venturesome, involving risks to persons which few would care to take,” wrote Museum Director John M. Clarke for the report’s 1906 publication. “The results have been entirely satisfactory. . .”
SEE THIS SITE’S PHOTO GALLERY FOR COOK’S PHOTOS FROM HOWE’S CAVE
Cook’s work in old Howe’s Cave is particularly noteworthy. His map of the cave’s portions that were lost to quarrying is all historians have to help recreate the famous cave in its entirety. With the report are several photos of the cave’s outstanding features prior to its 1927-29 development and reopening as Howe Caverns, Inc.
Chuck Porter of Troy and the late Jack Middleton saved the photos from Cook’s work from obscurity in the bowels of the NYS Museum and painstakingly reproduced them for the 21st Century. In the mid-1990s, Jack was working with the museum’s Geological Survey and had access to the original 4 x 5-inch glass plate negatives.
Writes Chuck: “Jack and I placed these glass plates on a light table at the museum and took close-up photos with 35mm SLR cameras held on tripods. Attempts to print from these closeups with film techniques at that time were very disappointing, but years later, digitally scanning the filmstrips—and then adjusting with Photoshop—made a huge difference. I processed 40 plates in all.”
Perhaps the most well-known photo from Cook’s report is of a solitary young man in muddy duck-bibbed coveralls and beaten pork-pie hat, his eyes closed, resting next to a huge and beautiful stalagmite. Twenty-plus years later, Howe Caverns’ developers placed this formation—nearly 12 feet high—upright on a solid base and named it “The Chinese Pagoda.” This story is told in the February 2024 Cave Country Tales blog post, “Á Century Later, Prof. Cook’s Mystery Caver is Revealed.”
FEATURED IMAGE is of two nearly pure white stalagmites, today known as “the Sentinels.“
1 The Onondaga limestone is found primarily in the Cobleskill area; the Manlius in Howes Cave and the Beacraft in Albany County, most notable in the Thatcher Park area.