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Howe Caverns
Upstate New York show cave with an underground boat ride
On hot summer days in 1842, farmer Lester Howe noticed his cows crowding around a patch of bushes on a hillside in Schoharie County, New York. Investigating, he felt cool air pouring from a hole in the rock and on May 22 followed it underground into the cave that now bears his name. Howe opened it to paying visitors the following year, guiding them by lantern through passages carved by an underground stream in limestone laid down in shallow seas more than 400 million years ago, during the Silurian and Devonian periods.
Howe Caverns closed in the late 1800s and reopened in 1929 with an elevator that carries visitors 156 feet (48 m) down. Today the tour covers about 1.5 miles (2.4 km), and it ends with a boat ride across the underground River Styx, a feature few show caves offer. The cave stays at 52°F (11°C) all year, and couples still marry beside a heart-shaped calcite formation called the Bridal Altar. It is the largest show cave in the Northeast, about 40 miles west of Albany.