THE DEFINITIVE WORK ON LAUREL CAVERNS
BY CURT HARLER
CAVERNS IN THE CLOUDS is the show-all, tell-all result of uber-photographer Ryan Maurer’s love affair with Laurel Caverns in Fayette County, PA. Laurel is a commercial operation in the front with significant wild cave beyond the tour route. It is the largest known cave, by volume, in Pennsylvania.
When photography is done correctly it is art. This book, while more than a collection of photos, is art. The quality of photographs speaks for the amount of work Maurer (NSS-65509) put into the book. There are detailed maps of all sections of the cave. There are geological diagrams. Many historic photos round out the collection. There are sections on accidents and incidents in the cave, stratigraphy and rock units, hydrology, speleothems, flora and fauna, and even anthropogenic effects.
What might not show as readily to the casual reader is the amount of research done outside caves. Ryan took full advantage of people long-associated with Laurel as well as local and regional libraries. He spent time at the Mid-Atlantic Karst Conservancy’s Library in nearby Blairsville. He scrolled through microfilm at the Uniontown Public Library which is located at the base of the mountain below Laurel Caverns. He spoke to cavers, especially with Pittsburgh and Loyalhanna Grottoes, with specialized knowledge in geology, cave biology, and history.
“I got a lot of extra information on rescues, activities, and the earliest history of the cave by trolling the microfilm records at the Uniontown Public Library,” he says.
“Every page (of the book) represents hours of research,” says David Cale, current owner of Laurel Caverns Geological Park. “His intensive research has pulled truth from the swamp of myth.”
NSS members with four-digit numbers (or low fives) will remember Laurel as Delaney’s Cave near Farmington. It also was known as Laurel Hill Cave. The human story starts in 1794.
For Maurer, himself, the story starts as he grew up in southwestern Pennsylvania. Laurel was one of the first caves he visited. “My family is friends with David and Lillian Cale and I met them once at a Church Fish Fry event. I think I was eight years old,” he recalls. “David explained to me how stalagmites formed using the salt and sugar at the table.” Maurer became intimate with the caverns later when he worked there 2015-2019 as a tour guide, caving guide, and rappelling instructor.
Library research aside, nothing contributed more than Maurer’s in-person cave trips. While he spent maybe 20 hours at the Uniontown Library and another hundred hours in online archives, he logged 2100 trips into the cave. Of that, over 300 were dedicated trips for this project. “Every trip in the cave was an opportunity to observe and document,” he notes. “I never led a family tour or caving group without my notebook, Suunto tandem, etc. There is not a single inch of the known cave that I have not personally seen or sketched,” he adds.
All told, he figures he spent nearly 10,000 hours in Laurel on trips ranging from 2-12 hours.
Pinning him down to a favorite of the thousands of photos he has taken in Laurel, he will concede that the self-portrait called Petite Falls in Flood Stage is his favorite. Laurel has a small watershed so streams in the cave are usually trickles. In late spring and early summer, thunderstorms cause brief, but significant, flood pulses. He drove to the cave in June 2019 in anticipation of an arriving squall and ran into the cave on a solo trip to photograph the flood pulse. “I got there within 15 minutes of the crest and took the self-portrait,” he says. “In over 2100 trips into the cave I have only ever seen the waterflow this high three times.”
Many sources contributed to the final product. Paul Damon, Sr. (NSS-2939 Fe AL) provided historic information for most of 1740-1815 period and then again from 1850-1970. Everything after 1970 was gleaned from people like Lisa Hall (NSS-24916), Bill Moser, Eric Cale, Jim Kennedy (NSS-26791 FE), Kim and Tom Metzgar (NSS-32145 FE and NSS-24673 FE). David Cale sat for over three hours of taped interviews and contributed several more hours of emails and personal interviews.
Maurer’s underground photography has found many other homes, including in “ALEXANDER CAVERNS: Mifflin County’s Once Spectacular Show Cave” a coffee-table book by Forest K. Fisher where Ryan provided a modern photographic essay to complement the historical photos in the book. Most recently, Ryan’s work graced the back cover of the NSS NEWS (January 2025).
Like most projects, CAVERNS IN THE CLOUDS started and stopped a few times. “The gestalt of the book changed a time or two as well,” Ryan admits. “I originally wanted it in narrative form before switching to the ‘guidebook’ style a few years ago.
The book is published in two versions: full color (historic photos are b&w) and a less expensive version in black and white. In the b&w version, color photos were specifically converted as necessary for reproduction. “Two photos in the book were shot on medium and large format black and white then digitally scanned. They were reproduced to look like what the prints from the darkroom look like,” he says.
Maurer will have these prints on display during a book launch event at Laurel Caverns and at Speleobooks during Convention in New York.
The book is self-published and available at https://www.underarockphoto.com. It is $75 plus $15 for domestic shipping. The launch event will be at Laurel Caverns on Saturday and Sunday of Memorial Day Weekend, May 24-25. Look for a booth where Ryan will do signings, will give a presentation or two, and probably offer a guided trip in both the commercial and caving sections.
“Both the color and black and white versions will be available there at $75 and $35 each,” Maurer adds.
SIDEBAR
IS IT CAVERN OR CAVERNS?
There is a story behind why the book is titled “CAVERNS” rather than CAVERN, singular. After all, it is just one cave. So how did the cave become plural (it was Laurel Hill Cave and Delaney’s Cave, singular, before that).
Maurer originally had “Cavern” in the book’s title because he thought it rolled off the tongue well. The original plural reference was from a poem written in 1965 by Pat Joy in a local paper called the West Penn News. Ironically, he has been unable to find a copy of the original. After that several postcards began to refer to Laurel as the “Caverns in the Clouds.” Some days the cave is literally in or above the clouds since it sits high on Chestnut Ridge. Amazingly, this phenomenon is one of the few aspects of Laurel not pictured in the book. Maurer waffled a while on “Cavern” versus “Caverns.” Then Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro referred to the “Caverns in the Clouds” in his February 4, 2025 speech about turning the cave into the state’s 125th state park and first underground park. “That sealed the deal for me,” Ryan laughs. “If anyone has issues about it, I guess we can blame the Governor! That’s how these things work, right?”
PHOTOS
Ryan Maurer’s favorite photo from CAVERNS IN THE CLOUDS is a self-portrait under a gushing Petite Falls in Laurel.
CAVERNS IN THE CLOUDS is self-published and available from the author at https://www.underarockphoto.com.
Laurel Caverns boasts the largest volume of any known cave in the Commonwealth.
DETAILS
Self-published
Available at https://www.underarockphoto.com
ISBN: 979-8-9927062-0-8
Color version $75, black and white $35 + S&H