Bear Cave

(Editor’s Note: Tom and Kim Metzgar of Export, Westmoreland County, in May of 2001 acquired Bear Cave after a ten-year estate settlement process. They are both fellows of the National Speleological Society. Kim has been a Sierra Club member for over a decade. They are among the founders of the Mid-Atlantic Karst Conservancy. The cave is open to experienced persons who register at the parking lot from dawn to dusk only. For permission contact them at kimmakc@aol.com.)

By Kim Metzgar

Owning Bear Cave has always been a part of my life — my grandfather spent many years working to acquire and pay off the cave and other properties in the immediate area. He moved to Hillside when he was 10 or 11 years old with his dad, who moved there from Indiana County to better himself. (The rest of the family came later, after they got established). His dad was John Smith, my grandfather was Albert Smith. They and several other Smiths took jobs at the Casey quarry (known to cavers as the quarry containing Con Cave). Of course all boys moving to Hillside at an early age heard about Bear Cave, and my grandfather and his brothers spent many hours there. It was his dream to someday own it, and he did.

Albert Smith explored many local caves and was always willing to share a minute with cavers (if they got permission and didn’t destroy or spray paint the cave he loved). He discovered Copperhead Cave in 1940 after three years of ridgewalking looking for the sinkhole an old-time ridge resident told him about, and there are photos of him lowering a cave dog down into Rattlesnake Sink on a rope. He died November 15, 1991. My grandmother, Marion Smith, and my uncle Cal (who operates the parking lot), took over ownership. Shortly after my grandfather’s death Tom and I signed an agreement with my grandmother and uncle to buy the cave as part of the estate settlement. The estate was complicated by a bonding issue related to a coal strip mine my grandfather had operated and was very complex. Coupled with the snail-like pace at which some attorneys work, it took nearly a decade to have it settled, and Tom and I ended up in a protracted negotiation with the bonding company and now have three mortgages, the title to Bear Cave, and 150 other acres in various parcels near the cave. When those debts are paid off we have a verbal agreement to acquire the 70 or so acres cavers walk through for most of the way to the cave.

So this May when we finally got the deed it really seemed like the denouement of a very long drama, which included a successful quarry protest and countless other scenes and mini-dramas. We did have a bottle of champagne to celebrate, but otherwise have gone back to our normal maintenance schedule cleaning garbage from the cave area, undamming the stream and checking on spray paint damage. (Although the feeling that we finally have the cave is starting to sink in.)

Aside from playing a large part in my family history, Bear Cave was the cave that got me into caving, and also was one of the reasons Tom and I met. Back in the 1970s, when women’s sports and women’s equality was just coming to the forefront, my grandfather still wasn’t convinced. As girls, my sister and I weren’t allowed to cave because “caving wasn’t for girls,” according to my grandfather. My cousin Skip could go, my cousins from New York could go, but we couldn’t. So of course this, along with Caves of Western Pennsylvania, piqued our curiosity. We eventually got Skip and our Boy Scout neighbor to take us to the cave. Once we started going, my grandfather was proud and anxious to share his cave stories, and took us there many times. But that actual first denial piqued my curiosity and made me wonder about the caves people described. That curiosity has never left me. Anyway, once I started caving, I met up with Bob Eppley and started going to grotto meetings where I met Tom. As it turned out we had both been working on a history book of Bear Cave, but I didn’t know he was, and he didn’t know I was. So we decided to combine efforts and the rest is history. By the way, the history book is about half-done (it may be larger than MAR 20, but it’s a winter project).

Anyway, that’s a little introduction about us, Bear Cave, and the acquisition. As far as management, we’ve had numerous headaches created by campers over the last few years, including chopping down live trees, damming the stream, spray paint graffiti, lots of trash, and the problem of what to do with human waste. Since banning camping, the trash is about 75 percent less, there have been only a few minor incidents of litter, no major problems. So we plan to continue with the dawn to dusk visitation policy and leave the cave open to appropriately equipped and educated folks. It’s a hard line to take, but it’s for the good of the cave.

For a lengthier history of Bear Cave refer to MAR 20, Caves of Westmoreland County, Pa., available from the MAR website or from its treasurer Bette White. (Or wait for our complete history, maybe next year).

Otherwise, I’ll hit a few highlights.

One of the top five largest mapped caves in Pennsylvania at 8,500 feet. At the time MAR 20 was published in 1996 it was the third longest mapped cave. It has since been surpassed by Alexander Caverns, and could be surpassed by a few others down the road. In any case, the 1993 map shows over a mile and a half of passageways.

The first map of the cave was published in 1839, and subsequent maps were done in 1934 and 1960, although there are several variations of the Vic Schmidt Pittsburgh Grotto map.

Newspaper articles from the nineteenth and twentieth century abound, as does local lore of the cave.

The cave has been rumored to have been used by moonshiners, Indians,
gypsies, and bears, of course.

The landowners include a pre-Civil War era free black man, a postmaster and shopkeeper, a surveyor and a boy’s school principal, as well as a signer of the Declaration of Independence.

The first account of a rescue at the cave occurred in 1875.

An all-female trip occurred in 1877.

The first mention of photos taken of the cave appeared in 1895.

In 1896 an article was published detailing an account, most likely fictitious, of someone attempting to start a monastery at the cave.

In 1877 it was rumored to be a hideout of notorious robber Clint Hamilton.

I uncovered an incredible series of articles on a rape in Derry Township which had racial overtones, and included a search, with bloodhounds, of Bear Cave. It will be published for the first time in the Bear Cave history book.

Several newspapers in July of 1900 carried accounts of a man shot in the cave.

In 1904 was the first mention of a man taking an auto to the cave.

The first published sketch of the cave appears in 1899, although it doesn’t resemble the cave entrance area all that much.

The first photos appearing in a newspaper article on the cave were published in 1913.

Bear Cave isn’t blessed by formations, although a careful inspection shows it was once decorated with draperies, stalactites, stalagmites and other calcite formations. Many of the early newspaper articles note that cave visitors took souvenirs with them, a.k.a. formations and anything they could hack away at. Modern-day cavers cringe at this type of vandalism, which occurred long before conservation ethics envisioned what would happen if every visitor defaced the object of his interest over a period of many years.

Even though none of us will live to see the formations grow back, the cave is home to a small bat population, a healthy salamander population, woodrats and is being inventoried for other living creatures. And a large number of cleanups, begun by Loyalhanna Grotto over a decade ago, and continued by the MAKC, with many participating grottos and organized cavers, has allowed the cave to return to a more natural setting.

The MAKC has usually done a major cleanup in the spring, however, will organize one whenever there is interest. To volunteer contact Kim Metzgar at kimmakc@aol.com.