Offering Boat Tours Through A Cave Carved From A Foundation Of Limestone By Water Over Millions Of Years
Formed over millions of years, Penn’s Cave & Wildlife Park in Pennsylvania’s Hill Country, was literally carved from a foundation of limestone by water over the course of time… a process that is still taking place today.
However, before Penn’s Cave became a world-famous attraction and listed on the National Registry of Historic Places, the rural environment where the cave was located was a problem.
The attraction opened in 1885, giving tourists a guided boat tour through half a mile of flooded caves. The rub of the situation is that it took a really long time to get to Centre Hall. The remoteness of Penn’s Cave, and the lack of modern travel by automobile, was the cave’s undoing for first nearly three decades of its existence, relates Terri Schleiden, marketing director for the attraction.
“It takes thousands and thousands of years for the stalactite and stalagmites to form,” Schleiden continues. “People ask why water drips from the ceiling. It’s not like a waterpark. [It is] still an active, living cave [which] means that there are going to be drips. [Without] seepage or any dripping nothing is going to grow in the cave.”
Traveling on a flat bottom skiff, visitors can see room after room of natural wonder, illuminated currently with modern lamps and lights. The atmosphere and shadows created by the light, according to Schleiden, make the rooms look alive.
But in 1885, few were coming to the cave. The land was valued more for its rich, fertile soil than for what was under that soil.
The early owners, a whole parade of them, tried in vain to market the attraction, even building a hotel, called Penn’s Cave House (which is still on the property) but due to the lack of transportation to the area at that time, the cave remained frozen in time, and the farm empty, until the Henry and Robert Campbell bought the property in 1909.
Before the Campbell brother’s bought the land it was developed by George Long.
“Mr. Long’s sons, Jesse and Samuel Long (brothers) constructed the 30-room Penn’s Cave Hotel (now known as the Penn’s Cave House),” said Schleiden. “Sadly, problems eventually caused the enterprise to fail, and in 1905 the land and buildings were sold at sheriff’s sale to John Herman of Pleasant Gap, PA, who then, in 1908, sold the property to Robert and Henry Campbell.”
Robert Campbell thought he could use the cave as a way to bring people to the area and make a few dollars at that. Transportation was morphing. A day’s journey in horse and buggy was now a few hours via automobile.
Campbell used hammer and chisel to enhance the limestone cave, connecting it to Lake Nitanee so the small skiffs could travel out from the cave into the lake. Although it is unknown how long it took to make the cavern, construction started in 1927, Schleiden said. Eventually business picked up and the attraction began to turn a profit.
“We do believe that the brothers’ were able to grow the business following the opening of the tunnel,” she said. When Robert Campbell passed in 1931, his wife, Edith and their son, William, operated the cave and farm until 1963. William Campbell purchased the property in ’63 from his mother (William and his wife, Sara, operated the cave and farm from 1938 until 1968.) William and Sara Campbell’s daughter and son-in-law, Jeanne and Russell Schleiden, joined the business in 1968, and a corporation was formed.”
Schleiden says it is always surprising for many when they drive onto the 1,600 acres working farm to think that there is such a wonder, just beneath them.
The most notable feature of this particular cave experience is that the entire tour has to be taken on a boat. The boats are the original design of what was created when Campbell enhanced the cave. It was necessary for him to construct narrow skiffs to be able to get into tight spots in the cave.
“Because we are an all water cave, it makes us unique. [However] in order to access the dock area, there are 48 steep steps that you have to walk down and back up again.” This, by definition, makes the tour not handicap accessible.
Schleiden continues, “Because it is an active cave, [its] conditions are always changing. The water is fed by underground springs, so when we’ve had a bit of rain, the current [becomes] a little bit stronger The boat drivers switch between either electric or gasoline engines to power the skiffs…but, sometimes, the only method of movement is using a long pole, much like a gondola in Venice, Italy.
There are a lot of interesting attributes to this particular cave system. Penn’s Cave stays at a constant temperature year around of 52 degrees.
“It can be 90 degrees outside [but it will still be] 52 in the cave,” adds Schleiden.” It can be freezing out and it’s still 52 degrees in the cave. Steam [even comes] out of the entrance [sometimes].”
“I think when you enter the cave, and when the boat pulls away from the dock and you enter the first room, even though you’re riding with other people there is something soothing about being in that environment,” she said.
Visitors are not alone in the cave. Because it is connected to a lake, rainbow and speckled trout populate the cave.
The cave itself is only about a half mile in length. The tour takes a little less than an hour.
Penn’s Cave & Wildlife Park also highlights the farm above that helps sustain it. In keeping with the Campbells’ idea of a working farm, the attraction also showcases many native North American animals, including bobcats, bison, cougar, foxes, timber wolves, big horn sheep and goats among others. The farm grows crops to raise food for the exhibited animals and the preserve itself is self-sustaining.
“I would like to think that [the Campbells] would be pleased because we try very hard to preserve the integrity of the cave and the farmland,” continues Schleiden. “Everyone that is here has such great respect for this region. Robert Campbell would be very pleased. He was a progressive thinker and was ahead of his time. [And], in a world where people have become jaded with technology, experiencing [a cave like this] is humbling.”
Jason Ogden
A graduate of Central Michigan University in Journalism, Jason has served as a news reporter for the Oscoda County Herald, Oscoda Press and Iosco County News-Herald. He is also an avid fisherman.
Make Sure To Stay At:
Buttonwood Campground, offering family camping at its finest in the beautiful Juniata River Valley of Central Pennsylvania. One of the region’s largest campgrounds.