The Making of a Local Legend

Much to the concern of his wife, Howe, "with commendable curiosity," returned to his discovery day after day with Wetsel. There is no first-hand account of Howe's first explorations. He and Wetsel ventured a little farther into the cave on each trip and emerged wet, muddy, and exalted by the thrill of their discoveries. A piece of tin was hammered into a lamp to burn whale oil as their source of light. Eventually they explored nearly a mile and a half of underground passageways, all by the dim, flickering light of a small oil lamp. They also built a raft to cross the lake as we know it today.

Improvements in the cave began almost immediately, and Howe's announcements to the press compared his cave to Kentucky's great Mammoth. By the end of 1842, Howe and Wetsel had cleared the property near the entrance and cleared mud, clay and stone from the cave's stream passage to make it more easily traversed. Howe hit on an ingenious plan for utilizing the water. He first loosened the clay, gravel and broken rocks; then stopping the other outlets, he flooded the main channel and thus forced the stream to sweep out its own deposits.

Howe purchased the property from Wetsel in February 1843 for $100. The land records use the name "Howe's Cataract Cave" in the description of the transaction. At age 33, Lester Howe opened Howe's Cave as the country's third commercial cave venture. What became of Henry Wetsel is not part of the historical record, and Wetsel is rarely mentioned in any connection with Howe's Cave. Nearby, Wetsel Hollow Road still winds its way from his former property over the hill to the village of Schoharie.

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