Tag Archives: UpstateNY

CAVE COUNTRY SHORTS

Another Marriage in Howe’s Cave—Howe’s Cave, in Schoharie Country, was recently the scene of a marriage ceremony.

On the 9th last, at 10 o’clock at night, Henry M. Northrup, of New York, and Huldah A. Howe, daughter of the proprietor of the cave, were joined in wedlock by Rev. Dr. Wells of Schoharie.

The cave was brilliantly illuminated. After the ceremony, there was a display of fireworks in the cave which was at once pleasing and grand.

This, we believe, is the second ceremony performed by Dr. Wells in Howe’s Cave. The first was determined upon the moment; the second had been previously arranged – hence the illumination, fireworks, and other “fixings.”The Buffalo Daily News, Aug. 28, 1854

Howes Cave, April 21—When the stream running from the subterranean lake in Howes Cave here rose suddenly, fourteen men engaged in laying out paths through the cavern were almost cut off from the exit through a temporary shaft late yesterday.

They were aid[ed] to safety by Roger Mallery, contractor in charge.

The men were at work in a passage but four feet high and seventy-five feet from the surface when the rising water threatened to bar their way out. Two of the party reached the shaft and informed Mallery of their fears that their comrades would not be able to get out.

Mallery, seizing a handline and descending through the swirling waters to the higher level where his men were at work, and one by one, they were guided to the shaft.

None was reported any worse for this experience.

Howes Cave, which was once one of the wonders of the eastern United States, and was visited annually by thousands of tourists, has been closed for more than a score of years.

An organization of capitalists was recently formed under the name Howe Caverns, Inc. to seek a new way to the cave about a mile north of the original entrance and to again invite the attention of tourists.

Two shifts of workers have been engaged for several weeks in sinking the main shaft to the cave on the farm of John Sagendorf and the work of restoring the paths through the cave is practically completed.

To facility the work, a temporary shaft was sunk a few hundred feet north of the original entrance. —The Schoharie Republican, April 28, 1928

During the first two years of business for Howe Caverns, Inc., owners supplemented the $1.50 cave tours by opening the new, picturesque lodge overlooking the valley for ballroom dancing most Friday nights during the off-season. 50 cents for ladies, 75 cents for gentlemen.

The dances were likely meant to be a class affair, initiated by the Syracuse men who organized the caverns’ corporation, held lots of stock, and managed the day-to-day operations. 

The “opening dance at the lodge was Friday July 26, 1929, with respectable hours of from 9 p.m. to midnight. 

Ladies and gentlemen could dance to the music of Loren Cross and his orchestra, nnder the direction of Leo M. Snell, all of Syracuse. The director’s ballroom, said the caverns’ publicity, “is the finest private ballroom in the state.”

Of course, music at the cave, or rather in the cave, was nothing new.  Lester Howe was known for his occasional subterranean violin playing, and the Howes Cave Association hosted performances in the cave’s “Music Room.” —The Cobleskill Index, July 28, 1929