Howe Caverns
cave located in upstate New York
Howe Caverns is a limestone solutional cave, operated as a show cave, in the hamlet of Howes Cave, Schoharie County, New York. Howe Caverns is a popular tourist attraction, providing visitors with a sense of caving or spelunking, without needing the advanced equipment and training usually associated with such adventures.
Description
With a tour length of 7,920 feet (2,410 m), Howes Cavern is the largest show cave in the Northeastern United States. Visitors take elevators down to the main passage, a large phreatic tube up to 10 metres (33 ft) tall and 6 metres (20 ft) wide. Guides lead visitors on a 500 metres (1,600 ft) walk parallel to the River Styx, a subterranean river, passing by speleothems assigned names such as "The Sentinels", the "Bridal Altar" and the "Titan's Fireplace". After walking through Titan's Temple, the largest chamber in the cave, visitors embark on a short 402 metres (1,319 ft) boat ride, after which they retrace their steps to a snaking and narrow down-dip tributary canyon, the Winding Way. The tour concludes with an artificial tunnel to the elevator.
Geology
Howe Caverns is a solutional cave formed by the dissolution of limestone rock. The cave, like many on the Helderberg Plateau, such as Secret Caverns, which is also operated as a show cave, and Tory Cave, is composed of thickly bedded Lower Devonian aged Coeymans Limestone and thinly bedded Upper Silurian aged Manlius Limestone, both part of the Helderberg Group. Both formations were formed by sediment buildup under an ancient inland sea, which was eroded in the Cenozoic to become the Helderberg Plateau.
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