How Two Early Show Cave Promoters Pitched Potential Investors

Two of Schoharie County’s hardest-working cave entrepreneurs had bigger dreams than they were able to realize in the early days of the area’s show cave boom.

Roger H. Mallery, Sr., the owner of Secret Caverns, and Delevan Clarke—”D.C.” or “Dellie” — Robinson, owner of Knox Cave, both boldly announced plans that, if brought to fruition, would have changed forever the business of touring caves in upstate New York.

Competition was tough. They faced Howe Caverns, famous for almost a century, and a bigger, more decorative cave, run by a well-heeled corporation with a big advertising budget.

The opening of Secret Caverns in August 1929 (late in the tourist season) wasn’t greeted with a lot of fanfare. About 100 people toured the cave, most likely family, and friends of the owner.

Mallery’s operating budget for Secret Caverns for the following season was probably as strained as any first-year business. Undaunted, he wrote “In spite of the fact that lack of capital has permitted little advertising, ground improvements, building construction, or conveniences for public comfort, Secret Caverns were visited during the season of 1930 by several thousands of people who were astonished to find that there existed in this section of the county such a truly merited natural wonder.”

That was the opening pitch in a sizeable ad that ran in January 1931 to announce the sale of $200,000 worth of stock in Secret Caverns. The ad ran several times in the Schoharie Republican and Cobleskill Index, the two local weekly newspapers.

In comparison, Howe Caverns, Inc. (in which Mallery owned about five percent of the stock) was capitalized at $225,000.

Mallery offered 5,000 shares of stock in Secret Caverns to raise funds for ambitious plans that included:

• Opening “recently-discovered, large, beautiful chambers”
• Creating a second entrance at the end of the cave, “so that several thousands of people can be handled orderly and efficiently each day”
• Enlarging and completing the entrance lodge, including a “large new pavilion.” (An artist’s sketch of the “Cavern Cabin” is included in a 1930 brochure.)
• Landscaping the grounds to “made as attractive as possible.”

“But by far the biggest undertaking,” Mallery continued, “will be an advertising campaign handled by experts that is certain to attract many tens of thousands of visitors annually.”

It is easy to admire some of the bravado of a show cave showman. Mallery adds: “It was the general opinion among those familiar with the more important caverns of the country, that Secret Caverns is without exception one of the finest and most interesting attractions of its kind in the north.

Then humbly, and without mentioning the competition by name, Mallery closes the pitch: “We have faith in and believe that the people of this community are broadminded and big enough to give their support to more than one of their caverns, providing they are satisfied that it is worthy.”

History doesn’t publicly record how well stock in Secret Caverns sold. The cave today is still a Mallery-family company, now it its third generation.

Mallery also tried to open Schoharie Caverns, off Shutters Corners Road between Schoharie and Gallupville. He announced the opening in September 1935, but a severe storm and flooding closed the cave almost immediately after and the project was abandoned.  The story is told in my book, “Underground Empires: Two Centuries of Exploration, Adventure, and Enterprise in NY’s Cave Country.”

Gambler Wanted

“Wanted – A Gambler,” announced Dellie Robinson in late January 1947 in the Cobleskill Index.

Robinson had run Knox Cave nearby in Albany County for the dozen years prior and must have felt it was time to expand his empire. He too had his eyes on Schoharie Caverns.

Robinson started by convincing the owner to sell the cave, cave [surface] rights and 20 surrounding acres. The owners (likely the Cook Family at that time), agreed to the sale for $3,500 cash. That’s about $46,500 today.

“I have studied this cave and its floods for 17 years and believe that I can develop it.” Robinson’s ad read.

He described the deal: “I will give any person, or group, who will buy and own and permit me to develop and operate, a royalty of 10 cents each on the first 100,000 admissions,” adding a caveat: “if they will agree to deed the property to me when they receive the $10,000 [the total of royalties on 100,000 admissions] in full.”

In exchange, Robinson would develop the cave, and pay all operating and advertising costs. He didn’t provide an estimate of what those costs might be.

Royalties would be paid monthly, Robinson stipulated, and closed, “Your only gamble is in time it takes to draw 100,000 paid admissions to that cave.”

Robinson never found his gambler. About eight years later Attorney James Gage purchased the well-known wild cave, developed it, and may have opened it in July 1958. It closed almost immediately.  That story is also told in “Underground Empires.”

Today the property is the Schoharie Caverns Nature Preserve of the National Speleological Society.”

POSTED SEPT. 29, 2023