Have you ever been to Howe Caverns? Well, we went there as the first field trip. It was fun! <\/p>\n
We walked on the cat-walks over the river Styx, the river that carved out the caverns. We walked under Balancing Rock, walked past Rocky Mountains, Solomon’s Temple, the Bronze Room, the Pipe Organs, and the Bridal Altar. We took a ride down the river Venus and went down the Winding Way. But the really interesting part is its history.<\/p>\n
The caves are named after Lester Howe, who supposedly found the caverns. The true finders were his cows. Cows like to sit in the shade, but Lester’s cows stayed in the same clump of bushes every day. One day he went over to the bushes and felt cool air coming out of the ground (a natural form of air conditioning). He got a rope, tied it to a tree, jumped down, and discovered Howe Caverns.<\/p>\n
For the next two years, he searched the caverns. For the next 20 years, he gave 8-hour tours of the cave for $2 a person. In the tours they put thick clothing on and had to wade through 29-degree water and 59-degree air. They walked under Balancing Rock, eventually over Rocky Mountains, and under tunnels to Solomon’s Temple. The Bronze Room in Solomon’s Temple is the biggest room in the caverns. It’s also the midpoint of the tour, and there Lester Howe had lunch.<\/p>\n
At the Pipe Organs, if you blow into a certain hole it will come out of the rocks that look like (you guessed it!) pipe organs in an echo-ey way. Back then you could break off parts of the Pipe Organs, so there are big chunks missing.<\/p>\n
Then they would go into a canoe and boat ride down the river Venus, turn around, and go back a different way. They would stop at the Bridal Altar, which is really only a heart-shaped stepping stone. Legend says that if you are of age and you step on the stone you will get married within one year, or if a husband and wife stand on it they will have a long and lasting relationship. Over 400 couples got married in Howe Caverns, but the first was Howe’s daughter.<\/p>\n
Then they would go down the Winding Way (50 s-like curves combined), turn around, and go out. Eventually, Howe went bankrupt and sold the caverns. After years of changing hands, Howe Caverns was bought by Howe Caverns, Inc (ironically). That is how it became the way it is today!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Gabriella (Age 12 | Tribe of Issachar) Have you ever been to Howe Caverns? Well, we went there as the first field trip. It was fun! We walked on the cat-walks over the river Styx, the river that carved out the caverns. We walked under Balancing Rock, walked past Rocky Mountains, Solomon’s Temple, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":172,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6056],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gilgal-gazette-2005","post-preview"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/jforj.org\/campgilgal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/jforj.org\/campgilgal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/jforj.org\/campgilgal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jforj.org\/campgilgal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/172"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jforj.org\/campgilgal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11730"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/jforj.org\/campgilgal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11730\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11731,"href":"http:\/\/jforj.org\/campgilgal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11730\/revisions\/11731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/jforj.org\/campgilgal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jforj.org\/campgilgal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jforj.org\/campgilgal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}