HOWES CAVE, NY - Legend had it that on the hottest of days, a cool breeze came from "Blowing Rock," a strange stony ledge. No one knew where in the hillside "Blowing Rock" was precisely as the 19th century began. There were tales, though, from the early 1700s in which the Native Americans spoke of "Otsgaragee," translated as "Cave of the Great Galleries" or "Great Valley Cave".

It was near this "Blowing Rock" that Lester Howe, his wife Lucinda (Rowley) Howe, and their three infant children - Hulda Ann, Harriet Elgiva and Halsey John - settled.

On his farm in the valley east of Cobleskill, Lester Howe found fascination with the story of the "Blowing Rock," with reports placing its location about 10 miles west of the Schoharie River, on or near his property.
Twenty years before the outbreak of the Civil War, the alert farmer noticed that his dairy herd always pastured in the same spot, not on his land, but land owned by his neighbor and friend Henry Wetsel.

As Howe approached his herd, he noticed the change in temperature. It was getting cooler. Slowly and carefully, he pulled aside the bushes. Lester Howe had found "Blowing Rock," giving credit for the discovery to his cow, Millicent.
On May 22, 1842, Howe entered the cave with Wetsel. Day after day, the two entered the caverns. Each time, they would go a little farther. Each time they would emerge wet and muddy but exalted by the thrill of their discoveries. They hammered a piece of tin into a lamp to burn whale oil as their light source. They explored about one and a half miles of underground passageways - all by the dim, flickering light of the small oil lamp. They built a raft and crossed what we know today as the Lake of Venus.

In February, 1843, Howe purchased the property from Wetsel for $100. At age 33, Lester Howe opened Howe's Cave as the country's third commercial cave venture. Improvements in the cave began almost immediately, with Howe's announcements to the press rivaling his cave with the great Mammoth Cave of Kentucky.
The treasure that was 156-feet below the earth's surface, that had so delighted Howe and Wetsel, had begun its mission of thrilling millions more.

EARLY ADVENTURES

The earliest paid explorations in 1843 through Howe's Cave were real adventures.

Howe charged 50 cents to take visitors on a torch-lit, eight-to-10-hour tour of the caverns. Torches, flambeaus or lanterns were the most common lighting used. Visitors were provided with suitable clothing for the caverns trip through mud, clay and 42-degree water. Sometimes they would be given a box lunch at the halfway point, today known as the Bronze Room. Lester Howe would, as one newspaper reporter noted, "petrify his guests into speechlessness." He would take, from under his arm, "a mysterious box, shaped like a baby's coffin, from which he took out a violin. Howe, the fiddler, made the caverns' visitors caper about him in wild excitement…and the magic of the place transformed his humble instrument into something divine…"

In 1843, Howe built his first cave house hotel at the natural entrance site. When it burned in 1847, it was rebuilt with the new hotel directly above the caverns' entrance. Visitors entered the cave through a stairway in the basement. Cool air from the cave circulated through the hotel. This innovation gave guests of the Cave House a treat - the first form of natural air conditioning.

Through the years, Howe's Cave grew in popularity, especially with the advent of the Albany and Susquehanna Railroad in 1865. Visitors could arrive and depart from the station established at Howes Cave, an easy walk to the Cave House Hotel. The number of guests to the cave increased steadily. Howe's Cave became a leading New York attraction, second only to Niagara Falls, as it still is today.

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