Lincoln Caverns

After a 10 hour drive from New Hampshire to Pennsylvania that included 3 separate stops plus a half-hour scavenger hunt to find beer (sadly, convenience stores in PA cannot sell alcohol, you need to find an authorized dealer), all we wanted to do was relax on our hotel's balcony and enjoy the Sam Adams that some nice distributor had re-opened his business to sell us. Our plan was to sleep late the next morning so we'd be well rested for that afternoon's scheduled bike ride.

Then we found a brochure for Lincoln Caverns, a cave in nearby Huntingdon PA, and decided that some things were more important than sleep. We set our alarms to get up early and the next morning made the trip over.

This cave was discovered in 1930 during construction of a nearby highway, and just over a year later the owner began touring to the public under the name Hi-Way-May Caverns. It changed hands a few years later, changed names a few times, and eventually settled in as Lincoln Caverns under the ownership of Myron Dunlavy. Myron's life ambition was to own his own cave, to the point that he would put out advertisements in newspapers looking for anyone with a cave to sell. This is something I may or may not have tried myself on Craigslist.

In those early days before nuisances such as safety regulations, visitors would park on the other side of the highway and walk across both lanes of traffic to enter the cave through a doorway cut into the rock. That entrance has since been sealed and this new one created, now accessible from an adjacent parking lot.

One day per year, however, on the caverns anniversary, the staff offers a special tour which includes going through the original entrance. This special one day a year anniversary date? Just the day we happen to be visiting. Here I am standing alongside the highway, looking in at the precise spot this cave was first discovered.

Also on this special tour, instead of having one guide take us through the entire system, the theme was that various guides were stationed throughout the cave playing the part of the original owner & staff. We would walk to each of them as they explained their area of expertise. Another cool thing - because we arrived so early that morning we were the only two people in our group, meaning we got to go entirely at our own pace and pepper each guide with all our questions. Here is one of them leading us down a winding stairway.

That was just one staircase out of many. I would have enjoyed seeing how this tour was done in the old days prior to their construction.

And although it's not one of the larger commercial caves, Lincoln Caverns has some impressively tall ceilings, such as this winding hallway.

And what cave wouldn't be complete without at least a small pool of water at its lowest level?

The bonus of all this? After exiting Lincoln Caverns there's a part two to the tour into a second cave called Whisper Rocks, the entrance to which lies just a few hundred feet from the original cave. This bonus cave is nearly as impressive as the first one.

Workers have yet to find a way the two caves connect, but they believe they somehow meet and exploration continues to this day. Additionally, newer cavities have been found in Whisper Rocks which are in the process of being excavated so that someday they'll be added to the tour.

Lincoln Caverns was not only a fascinating cave to visit, but the staff was friendly, informative, and very patient. This was advertised as a one hour tour, but with all our poking around and asking questions nearly an hour and a half passed before we were wrapping up with our last guide, and not one of them I felt rushed us along. That's a business doing something right.

Some people go to work as people greeters after retiring in order to stay busy and contribute to society. Me, my post-retirement career is going to be underground working as a tour guide in someone's cave.

That is, unless I'm able to buy my own cave first.

Links:
Photo Album
Official Website