Lester Howe's Legacy

"If Lester's loss of ownership (of the cave) bothered him in later years... he should not be remembered in this context. Lester's real importance to Howe Caverns was not his discovery and one-time ownership but his exploration, development, and presentation of those phenomena to the world. By contrast, which individual or group achieved ultimate ownership is trivial. The latter will pass, but Lester Howe's idea and the efforts he made to make the cave an opportunity for human wonder, delight, and learning will live on." -- quoted by descendant Warren Howe.

 

From 1890 until the turn of the century, as visitors steadily decreased, a small community  of management, quarry workers and their families sprang up in the hamlet now known as Howes Cave. In 1898, The Howes Cave Association, which had purchased the site from Lester Howe, reorganized as the Helderberg Cement Company. The firm discontinued tours, and cement manufacturing went into high speed.

 

In place of the visitors coming to see the caverns, a constant succession of owners quarried limestone from the hillside for cement. While the Cave House Hotel had been rebuilt and had a heyday from 1871-1890, the wooden portion  called the Pavilion Hotel, burned in 1909. The remaining Cave House became a boarding house and later office space for the cement company.

 

While the precise year is unknown, sometime between 1910-1925, the first charges in the limestone walls of the quarry face blasted into Howe's Cave. Over the years, about 875 of the "old" cave have been destroyed. Today, visitors see less than half of the original underground passage.

 

Please note: historical excerpts taken from The Remarkable Howe Caverns Story by Dana Cudmore, The Overlook Press, Woodstock, NY, Copyright 1990.