The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1905-03-16
DISCOVERY OF MARYLAND CAVE.
Found by Workmen Who Were Blast
ing in a Quarry Near Cavetown.


Cavetown, Washington county, IAN ex-
/ plosionexposed a hole in hillthrough
which several men passed into a large
room or cave. In this cave they found
some bones andIndian relics. AS there
was no direct entrance to the cavesave
that opened by the blast, it is sup
posed that the room was once con
nected with the big cave from which
! Cayetown takes its name but that
the passageway had been closed by
nature.
This discovery leads to the belief
that the big cave may have many
qualifications that have not yet been
explored by white men.
The big cave which gave Cavetown
its name is one of the natural won
ders of MARYLAND. 1t is situated ten
miles north OF Hagerstown, at the
base of South Mountain. The main
room is about $50 feet wide and sew
eral hundred feet in length. The walls
and ceiling are solid rock, smooth in
places and elsewhere rough and rug
ged. Through the ages that have
passed nature has embellished the
cavern with beauty. Stalactites
hang like pendants overhead, while
stalagmites rise from either side at
| the base of the walls.
The uneven walls Of the big room
rise in places to'a height of forty or
fifty feet, gradually decreasing as one
progresses toward the farther side,
where are two openings thu lead into
smaller rooms. An opening in the
room to the left is one of the mysti-
! flying passages in the cavern. After
entering it becomes rough, and turns,
and by following its course to the end
about fifty feet farther on. At the
far end of one of the small rooms is
an opening and here one comes to a
stop, owing to sudden decline down
about twenty feet into another large
room of almost the dimensions of the
main room. Much of the same forma-
lions exist in this room but the visitor
realizes that he is deeper in the earth.
Proceeding to the far side of the
room, one is brought to an abrupt
halt upon the edge.of large pool.
Tradition lends its charm to the in
terest that attaches to the cave and
legends entwine tales of romance and
daring about it. 1t was in this room,
and while attempting to cross the
water, that a young girl is said to
have disappeared many yearsago and
was never heard of afterwards.
Beyond the fifty feet of placid wa
ter rises a bare wall of rock, blocking
further progress. The pool is formed
by water that finds its way through
the hill, and appears to be the same
depth all the time. The water is clear
as a crystal, which is accepted as evi,
dence that there is an outlet some
where, but has meyer been located
1t is told, but not vouched for, that
chaff thrown into the pool has reap
peared in a stream at Beaver Creek,
at the foot of the mountain, about
twenty or more miles away
Following the other of the two large
passages leading from the first room,
several smaller rooms are reached
One OF these is known as the smoke
house" SO called by reason of the
ham-shaped formationson the ceiling
Small opening and crevices here and
there in the walls, through which it
is impossible to pass, indicate that
the cave extends some distance be-
You'd, but it remains for time and the
result of exploration to develop what
natural wonders lie hidden there.
1t has been learned that the cave
was occupied by the Indians when
the grain-tields, orchards and vine
yards now around it were a vast for
est and the savage tribes held undis-
puted sway. Within its recess the
red men smoked around their council
fires, sought refuge from their enc
mics or rest after the chase The walls
that now echoed the tread of white
generations once echoed the gutteral
tones of the painted warriors and the
laughter OF their women and children.
Though the fires have long since gone
out, the ashes have been found in the
bottom of the cave, together with
numbers of stone i'm plements, pieces
of pottery and other relics of the days
before tie white men came and wrest-
ed the land from its red owners and
made the wilderness blossom as the
rose.
Thirty years or more ago the first
discovery of Indian relics was made
there. The finding of arrowheads
and bones whetted the desire of the
relic hunters and explorers to make
deeper research, but nothing Of i'm
portance was done in this direction
until recently. Several years ago the
finding of more relics in the cave caus-
/ oI I.o b.. g q, NJ