Conrad's Cave

It wasn't so long ago, in a place not too far away, that a cave once existed. Conrad's (or Conrad, as one source admonished me) Cave was one of those attractions during the Victorian Age and located in the world famous cliffs of Newport, Rhode Island. The cave's name most likely was derived from a character in the ballet "The Corsaire" (Pirate), which was first produced in 1837, and in turn, was based on the 1814 poem by Lord Byron. In the romantic story, Conrad did indeed have his cave!

But just where did Conrad have his cave at Newport remained somewhat of a mystery. An old atlas had it one block south of the famed Forty Steps. GNIS data, slightly farther to the south in an area out in front of Salve Regina University that is sometimes known as "Cave Cliff". By the early part of this decade, I was already quite familiar with sifting through historical documents, and just getting into antique images, that I decided to make a go of it. It was also around this time, Boston Grotto had a parallel interest and visited a site out in front of, and just slightly south, of the University.

History provided a couple written references (most notably: 1892) to the Cave, but mostly just a passing mention as to one of the sites on your things to see while visiting Newport. There are countless postcard views of the Cliffs and certainly there are a few showing what appear to be a recess - or recesses - within those cliffs. But which one - if any - was Conrad's? Inquiries to more modern authorities only yielded a small, near illegible blurb, about past visits to the site and how, by approximately the 1940's, the trail to the cave had become too dangerous to traverse.

Slowly, over the last couple years, a few clues began to trickle forth. In what was the earliest recorded reference to date that I've found, was the mention of Conrad's in the immediate vicinity of Ellison's Rock. The source was a set of pen and ink drawings done of the Newport area and published in 1848. It was a much easier task to locate Ellison's as the famed Forty Steps makes it's descent to this rock. Another modern day source surface through an eBay dealer selling a postcard view looking out (south) from the Forty Steps and (in the dealer's own words) looking out, and over, the former site of Conrad's Cave. However, the clincher came in the form of an antique piece of photography - a stereoview - showing a rocky cave entrance by lesser know Newport photographer F. Kindler, probably done during the 1860's. And the title? "Forty Steps and Conrad's Cave, Newport, R. I."

So in going back and looking over several old postcards, an entrance - or part thereof - can be seen in that section of the Newport Cliffs. In present time, at low tide, the approximate area does hold a slight shadowy section in the cliffs. The area is heavily riprapped and contains large gravel deposits. A remembrance to Conrad and his Cave.

A circa 1870 view of the Newport Cliffs

This article originally appeared in the Northeastern Caver

4/4/2021: If you haunt the internet long enough, you never can tell what may turn up! The following is a very nice depiction of the Newport Cliffs in the area just described.

Anatomy of a Profile II

The Stone Face - or Profile Rock - in more modern times.

Perhaps one of the more intensive investigations over the previous decade was that of the Stone Face on Pelham Brook in northwestern Massachusetts. It was originally brought to my attention by Matt B. over at the Stone Face Gazetteer during the early part of the decade with the arrival of a curious image in my e-mail of an old postcard. Subsequent trips to the Town of Rowe brought forth another postcard of Profile Rock also reported to be along Pelham Brook. The whole investigation was complicated in that both images bore little resemblance to one another.

Perhaps the easier part was hypothesize they were the same rock - despite the obvious difference - due to the matching backgrounds. Next came the Herculean task of finding the proverbial needle in a haystack - one rock along a very long mountain stream. Despite the enormous nature of this task alone, a likely suspect was located. Two trips to this rock alone, with numerous photographs taken, still left me wanting for a better prospect.

A renewed search was made towards the of 2008 after a night of heavy downpours. Pelham Brook is typically your normal sleepy mountain stream but on this day it had become raging torrent. Indeed, at some point in the past once such torrent took out the local bridge downstream also leaving me to wonder if the old location of Stone Face/Profile Rock was somehow affected. Despite the obstacles a second candidate in my search was found perched in the bank just alongside the torrents of water making their way through the ravine. A quick photograph taken, I climbed on out to research my find further while at home the following winter.

The winter passed and another visit to my hypothetical boulder in the Spring of '09 for another - more extensive - set of photographs still yielded nothing definitive. Finally in the waning days of 2009 a breakthrough! Careful, intensive examination, of the more recent photographs revealed several matching points of reference on both postcards. So although this was quite the chore - it has finally paid off.

Epilogue

With the arrival of snow and cold in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts, the end of another season comes to a close - at least as far as this explorer is concerned. The yearly hiatus is a chance to rest from the travels of the past year and to plan for those of the coming. Does not mean I won't be poking my nose out the door on occasion but that will be the exception rather than the rule. For those interested in continuing to see new information, I would direct you to the basic, long running (almost twelve years now), version of my website Jim's Page. An ever changing selection of images rotates through this site as opposed to the blog where a few static pictures remain on display.

And speaking of this blog, it is fairly new at less than a year old, but started as an experiment - an experiment I intend to keep on with. Earlier this year I archived past adventures into it and hope to continue on with that. Another possibility is to use it as a forum for writings other than just documenting trips. This - to some degree - could replace the assortment of web pages that once were connected with Jim's Page up until earlier this decade.

Author exiting Ladder Cave
Photo by T. Hoffman mid 1990's

The Grand Tour

An unusually wet Coon Hollow Cave entrance

One other trip I wanted to get in before the inevitable end to this year's outdoor season was a tour of a large section of karst within the central Berkshires. It is one of the more amazing pieces of geology in Massachusetts, from the speleological perspective, with a least a dozen solution formed marble caves located in a 'corridor' just over two miles long.

Taking my usual back road approach, I traveled down through the northern portions of this 'cave corridor', turning into the less inhabited woodlands, to finally come out overlooking the side of a valley. Several mountain streams drain down the sides of this valley setting up a classic cave karst scenario where waters flowing off the less soluble schists, onto marbles, eventually makes it's way underground. Not far from these 'contact zones' is often a likely site that caves might want to form. It this particular area three caves - Coon Hollow, Dolo, and Coffin Caves - are diversionary routes from the surface streams. Sometimes the surface stream beds (or sections thereof) run and sometimes can carry running water.

My first destinations were Coon Hollow and Dolo Caves where one might say they are geologically connected if not physically. They are both underground channels for the same surface stream. On this day, waters were high and normally dry sections of streambed were carrying water - right on into the cave entrances. Moving on to another section of forest, a second stream draining into the karst lands was also running water in sections not normally found and right by the entrance to Coffin Cave. Descent into the caves under these conditions would be ill advised. Somewhere within the earth the hydrological flows of the two cave systems, Coon Hollow/Dolo and Coffin, do meet and exit through a major spring - my next stop.

Waters from this spring travel a ways down through a beautiful section of wilderness and on into a geologically separate section of karst. Paralleling close to the main stream is one running underground where a small section can be accessed through Blanket Cave. Eventually a couple hundred feet farther along - much further than one can travel through the cave, the underground waters issue forth and travel somewhat alongside the main brook. Eventually a second stream coming from a slightly uphill resurgence joins the Blanket Cave stream. And even farther along the hillside a third resurgence can be located.

Some of all this 'resurged water' comes from an upland plateau of sorts - another less obvious example of karst topography. Waters coming off the shoulder of the valley highlands do eventually make their way underground upon the plateau, in the insurgence once know as Temper Hole. Beyond Temper the plateau exhibits characteristics of underground features with sunken ravines and sinkholes.Most of these features end in the area where Bill Blankey's Cave is found (whomever Bill Blankey is/was - is lost to time) preceded by newly discovered Skeleton Cave found higher on the ravine's wall.

With all caves visited and accounted for, it was only left to make my way back up and out the valley of karsts. Returning to my car I find an eager group of orange clad men pouring out of their SUV in preparation for the next day's beginning of shotgun deer hunting season. Retracing my route home by way of the woods road, I passed more streams diving into the ground providing warm memories of past excursions into the nether regions of this expansive karst.

Monadnocks and Pulpits

Pulpit Rock: circa 1870

The gray, cold skies of late autumn portends the coming of winter but offer up some of the best outdoor experiences of the year. Before closing my season out for another year, I wanted to visit the rocky formations within the Connecticut River Valley one more time. Having such a beautiful day this late in the year is certainly a gift not to be taken lightly so I extend my journey to climbing Mt. Toby.

Toby is a monadnock standing close to the mighty Connecticut River. I used one of the old mountain roads that comes in from the west ascending past a fallen in sugar shack. The last one-third of a mile provides a nice challenging climb of about 450 feet in elevation. Views on the summit are quite limited until one climbs the fire tower (seen from the valley on the drive in) and is rewarded with a breathtaking vista. Leaving the mountain top, I checked the remains of the sugar shack seen on the ascent (just downhill from here a couple of faults trending south to north run through the area) and looked into a couple side trails.

But before pulling out of the Valley, I decided to focus on the section of rocks known in the Victorian Age as the Rock Shelter. This is the impressive territory of rock formations photographed some 140 years ago. Walking past my well known rocky acquaintances Rock Roof and Kittie' Nook, I arrived at (yet another) Pulpit Rock. In this version, Pulpit Rock is section of the grandiose ledges that has given way leaving a free standing boulder. Trying to photograph the modern day version of the antique photograph was nearly an impossible chore with today's forest all around. Although many 'quasi-cave' formations exist in the area, I finished off the day with a very real - but very small - cave, dubbed Graves' Cave when I first came across it a few years back.

Finally: The Quarry

With the end of another season bearing down (I generally don't do winters) I wanted to finish up what was started locally on two recent trips: the location of the major stone quarrying operation near Pulpit Rock and formerly associated with the Sikes/Sykes Family in central Berkshire County. The first stop took me to a the picturesque St. Helena's Chapel in New Lenox. Here, it has been reported to me, that stone from the aforementioned quarry was used in its building.

Moving on to find suitable parking, I ascended into the mountains. Typically, I use a crisscross pattern to cover large sections of land when doing reconnaissance work and in this case I worked lower to higher elevations. Not much was seen initially except a few rubble piles that may be due to small time stone cutting. Finally - at the higher elevations - I arrived at Pulpit Rock.

A quick spin by the Rock and caves and I decided to descend, covering another section of forest, only to arrive back near the mountain road I made my initial ascent on. With still nothing much to show I was weighing my next move when Fate once again smiled down upon me. A man was making his way through the forest and that person was the landowner. After some discussion on the local area and history, he took me around to show his land boundaries and point out the beginning of the old quarrying operations which indeed lay upon his property. After bidding adieu to my acquaintance, who had to move on, I began exploration of the quarry site. What went on here were a number of shallow cut operations over a large section of (now wooded) mountainside.

When finished with the quarries, I returned once again to the old mountain road to look for any possible evidence of a former homestead site. Recent information came to light that H. B. Sikes' home had burned long, long ago. My own observations sadly found little to nothing that H. B. was ever here. Then it was down the mountainside once again, feeling content that the major areas of interest on the Sikes - and their mountain - had been well sought out.

Stone to Cartoons

This time of year brings the annual recreational trek on down into Connecticut. Per usual, some historical and geological adventures may get into the mix but that tends to be secondary. However, with dawn just breaking, I made my way out of the central Berkshires to my first stop. St. Andrews in Washington is a chapel whose stone is said to have originated from an area of recent studies: Skyes Mountain. At some point in the near future the exact quarry will have to be located but for now I could only gaze at the chapel walls which consisted of a vast assortment of stone - including quartzite - mortared together. These definitely were not precision cut blocks of stone.

Eventually arriving in the Bristol, CT area, I sought out a bit of a mystery. A stone cross - a memorial to a man's departed daughter - once stood on a ledge overlooking town. A few local people remember visiting it in the past (even myself) but it has not been seen in recent times. A good mount of searching has left me believing it may now be gone. Possibly fallen to the construction of a modern day home.

Arriving at my host's home we took on one thing natural and one thing historic. The first being Sessions Woods in the town of Burlington followed by the Barker Character, Comic and Cartoon Museum. The latter is a virtual Mecca for all us aging Baby Boomers who remember - and revel - in indulging ourselves in past memories of cartoons and old TV shows.

The rest of the two day stay was a washout with tropical storm remnants roiling around. However, a visit was made to the local library where I confirmed a stash of caving newsletter publications once left by a prolific cave explorer/friend no longer resides there. Timexpo Museum in Waterbury was one of the last stops before retreating from the rains for a spell then making my way home.