CAVES, QUARRIES, HISTORY, FOLKLORE, RARE PHOTOS, AND MORE!

Author Dana Cudmore’s books on the Cave Country of Upstate New York have been read by thousands. This is the official website for the author’s collective works, including just-published The Cave Electrician’s Widow: Tragedy at Howe Caverns & the Dramatic Courtroom Fight for Justice; Underground Empires: Two Centuries of Exploration, Adventure, and Enterprise in NY’s Cave County; 1990’s The Remarkable Howe Caverns Story and 2005’s Unearthing Howes Cave: A Community and a Quarry from 1842 On.

“Welcome, you’ll find a lot to explore here. No tipping necessary.”

This is the only online site for the true, untold or little-known tales about Howe Caverns, Secret Caverns, the Quarry industry and other fascinating stories from NY’s Cave Country.

You can follow the author’s ongoing dive into the history of the area’s long-lost limestone quarries, which fed the stone boom of 1890-1905 and helped build the Brooklyn Bridge and NY State Barge Canal System. This story is told in ‘FARMING WITH DYNAMITE,’ self-published in October 2023. Available in Schoharie County bookstores or by contacting the author through this website.

You’ll find new articles, rare photos, and links to where you can contact the author, buy books, and find other resources for the world of caves, caving and quarries. You can also report sightings of the BLENHEIM MONSTER using the contact information here. (Never heard of the monster?  See Section IV, chapter 5 of Underground Empires).

FREQUENT UPDATES let you be the first to read:

New True Tales from The Cave Country

  • Newly-uncovered Historical Research on the caves and quarries
  • News and Photos
  • Comments and Tips from Our Readers
  • Dates for Presentations and Book Signings
  • Memorabilia for Sale

Need a Program?

Professional quality, audio-visual programs are available on a number of topics from Cudmore’s books. Topics include:A history of Howe’s Cave from 1842-1929

  • History of the Howe’s Cave cement industry
  • –‘Farming With Dynamite,’ the abandoned quarries of Schoharie County
  • — Howe’s Cave and the Railroad, and coming soon –
  • — The Cave Electrician’s Widow, the April 24,1930 tragedy in Howe Caverns AND MORE – JUST ASK!
  • Email cavewriter@howecavernstales.com
PROGRAM AT THE CAVE HOUSE — From left, old friend and caving mentor Bob Addis, a mannequin replica of Lester Howe, and author Dana Cudmore following a program on The Cave Electrician’s Widow at the Cave House Museum of Mining and Geology in September 2024. Bob portrays an attorney in the program, which includes a reading from the court records of the tragic case. Need a program? Use the contact information on this page, above. (Photo by Kevin Berner)

READY TO PUBLISH YOUR BOOK? Get the professional editing, design, and printing services you’ll need to bring your words and images to life. Marketing and consulting services also available to present you book to the widest possible audience and increase sales.

AND, SPECIAL THANKS to Ashley Hurlburt-Biagini, a fellow author with Black Dome Press, without whose expertise this webpage may never have gotten off the ground.  Ashley and Susan Stessin-Cohn are co-authors of In Defiance: Runaways from Slavery in New York’s Hudson River Valley 1735–1831, now in its second edition.

All material property of Dana Cudmore, 2023, except for some items in the public domain.

Use of any portion of this website, please use this citation: Copyright from HoweCavernsTales.com by Dana Cudmore