SPELUNKING—

About 19 tourists are shown in a narrow tour boat in a portion of Penn’s Cave while the guide spotlights a feature. The ceiling is said to be 50 feet above the water’s surface. The deepest pool in the cave has been measured at 25 feet and the cave’s overall length is approximately1,000 feet.

A white man who was a distant relative of poet Edgar Allen Poe first owned the cave, near State College, PA. This was as the result of a survey in 1773. But, it was not explored by a white man until 1860.

The cave was initially formed in two phases beginning millions of years ago when water dissolved the below ground limestone formations then disappeared from those cavities when the water table lowered to its current level.

Other major changes in the cave’s interior have occurred over time as portions of the ceiling have collapsed. It is considered a live cave because the process continues to this day with the formation of stalagmites, stalactites and other geological features.

Legend has it a young explorer, Malachi Boyer, in the early 1700s fell in love with an Indian maiden, Nita-nee, but their marriage was prohibited because of tribal customs. They fled into the wilderness, were captured and Malachi was ordered entombed in the cave where he died, his body was found, weighted with stones and dropped into the deepest water in the cavern.

Those who have heard the legend declare that on still summer nights an unaccountable echo rings through the cavern, which sounds like”Nita-nee – Nita-nee”.

One wag on our tour was heard to ponder whether ageless Penn State Football Coach Joe Paterno was Malachi’s father.