, 1890-06-24
DUCHESS couNTY,s BIG CAVERN.


An Interesting Hole In the Ground Meas
tho Foot of Mount Riga
Near the eastern boundary Of Dutchess
county, almost in the shadow of Mount
Riga, is one of the greatest natural won
ders of the state. 1t is a cave or passage
way into the mountain, which is called
Cave Hill, and its depth has never beer
known. Its opening resembles a roughly
cut doorway into a great rock. A d.
minutive stream of water trickles down
the mountain and into this opening,
which would seem the only agency by
which such q tunnel could have been
worn into the rock, but the size of the
W. some distance within precludes the
Idea of its having been made by SO small
. stream.
The opening is just large enough for
n person to enter, and the way is a
rough and dangerous one. The rocks
are covered with a Shiny substance that
makes every foot of the way slippery and
treacherous. After much cautious NOV
Ing and squeezing through the narrow
opening the party came TO a large dome
shAped place, which, in the CLEAN Of the
torches. resembled a small ice palace,
while drops of water constantly fell from
some unseen place. The way leading
into the ave is on a sharp downward
incline, and some Of the spaces are very
large, many OF them being about Ave
feet wide and fifty feet high, and, look
Ing up through the dim light OF the
torches, dozens of ugly looking rocks
seem suspended from the gittering
arches by very slender hangings, and the
sight is not calculated to produce a home
like feeling. The party followed this
dark hole in the mountain for nearly
half a mile. occasionally stopping to e1-
plore inches and apartments on either
side that suggested the story Of the cata-
combs.
Finally the amateur explorers came to
a precipice from which nothing but dark
ness could be distinguished. One OF the
party dropped a stone into the darkness,
and the time that expired before It struck
anything seemed almost as long as 1t
takes a stone to reach the river when
dropped from the Poughkeepsie bridge,
and when il did strike there was a pecu-
liar rattle and a sound like a much larger
stone falling into a pond Almost on the
edge Of this precipice are two names cut
into the rock. They are J. c. Dayton and
d. G. Daktn, both dated 1910. Other
names are cut in the rock nearer the
opening Of the cave. one as lately as 1875.
The cave is without doubt perfectly ma
tural. Looking up from its deepest re-
cess 1t looks IS though there had once
been q narrow chasm like that through
which parts OF the Ausable river winds
through the Adirondacks, and that the
rocks had met at the top, thus closing the
chasm and sending huge rocks down,
partially filing the opening and leaving
a ~treacherous footpath through it all.
There are stories and legends con-
nected with this cave which have never
appeared in print, although some of the
people that live in the mountain are
thoroughly familiar with them. Some
New York explorers once visited the
cave, and one of the party, a young
woman, became frightened after enter
ing and nearly lost her life before she
could be rescued. About twenty years
g a stranger inquired from the wood
men where the ave was. When shown
the opening he exclaimed, "Ah, It's
minel It's mine!" and at once prepared
TO enter 1t in search Of hidden treasure,
which he said was there. The poor man
"ho luSdHtf anu III MS WhnueTluBh nAu
heard Of this strange place. and at once
associated it in his mind with untold
fortunes, just a insane men nearly
always do. He built a hut on the hill
side near the ave and went every day
into it's gloomy depths and crawled
about, often without light, even in the
winter. In this weary way he wore his
life away, and was found by some hunt
ers one day dying in his cabin and still
raving for his gold in the cave.
The mountain into which the strange
channel extends is one of the widest in
Duchess county. 1t is covered with
white birch trees 80 thickly set that one
can hardly pass through. Many of thu
trees are dead, and the reporter, not par
.ticularly muscular, easily broke off sew
eral Of them with an ordinary push
Poughkeepsie News Press.