Haunted Over How To Celebrate Halloween This Year?
Weary of all those scream spectacles with garishly made-up characters jumping out of fields and corridors? Bored with the same old ghost walks with the all-too-familiar tales? Tired of trying to find or create just the right costume to entertain fellow party-goers?
If you really want to do something truly different this Halloween season, how about considering a foray into time travel? You can do that right here in northern Berks County.
There’s a place to enter a portal that will transport you to the late 19th century, replete with lanterns and candles lighting 525 feet of pathways 125 feet deep into the earth.
The place is a familiar spot to thousands of locals for more than a century and a half: Crystal Cave.
Located in Richmond Township, off Route 222 on the aptly named Crystal Cave Road, the multi-level cavern has been open to the public since May of 1872.
Quite The Find
The cave itself was “discovered” on Nov. 12, 1871 when William Merkel and John Gehret were blasting for limestone. The blasting opened up a hole on the hillside. Entering it cautiously, crawling hesitantly, the men discovered they were at the entrance to a vast cavern that would prove to hold an abundance of limestone formations — known as stalactites and stalagmites — in various sizes and colors. Word spread and soon the curious, a.k.a. trespassers, began to explore the cave, often putting themselves at risk.
Realizing the tourism profit potential of the cave, Samuel D.F. Kohler purchased it for $5,000 (about $122,000 today) and opened it to the public with great fanfare, including a concert by the Greenwich Cornet Band. The highly publicized opening was known as the “Grand Illumination.”
Kohler’s prescience regarding the tourism potential has proven wildly realistic: according to Tripadvisor, more than five million individuals have visited Crystal Cave since that spring celebration so long ago. Complementary attractions have been added to the property over the years, beginning with a hotel in 1874. Walkways were constructed in the first two decades of the 20th century and electric lighting was added in the 1920s. Through it all, the cave remains a cool 54 degrees Fahrenheit.
As the years passed, ownership of the cave has changed. In 1886, Kohler sold it to his son, David, and daughter-in-law. The aging couple, in turn, sold the property in October 1922 to J. Douglas Kaufman and attorney Edwin L. DeLong. Through the Commonwealth, they sought and cemented the incorporation of the new Crystal Cave Company Inc. And, over the course of these past 100 years, it has remained a family concern. Jim DeLong, Edwin’s grandson, is the current president. He is the first in either family to work full-time at the cave.
A Walk Back In Time
It was under Jim’s leadership that the “Grand Illumination” marked its centennial with a day of celebration – and more than 900 visitors – on July 16. And this time, rock and roll courtesy of the featured local band Condor marked a very different day. The original “Grand Illumination” meant that the adventurous visitor, often wedging themselves through crevices or semi-crawling through low-ceiling passages, could experience the cave first-hand. The experience, as Jim notes, wasn’t a pristine one. Guides carried candles or wrapped kerosene-soaked rags on posts to provide light. The smoke and fuel smell were both distasteful and dangerous. Then along came electricity and its lighting of the cave made not only for safer travels along man-made paths, but also enabled better visibility of the rock formations. But the artificial light, for some, took away a bit of the cave’s mystery. And that mystery is part of what this season is all about.
To that end, DeLong and his co-workers are again presenting the Halloween Ghost Lantern Tours for three weekends – Oct. 14 and 15, Oct. 21 and 22 and Oct. 28 and 29. Tours start at 6pm on Fridays and 5:30pm on Saturdays.
For these guided tours, the electricity is turned off. Tour groups of 15 are led by guides with lanterns to show the way and the cave. Tealights placed on steps help visitors navigate the many stairways within the cave.
“We’re giving tours like folks would experience in the late 1800s,” says DeLong. “It was totally different than today.”
Guides dressed in period clothes – long dresses for the women, top hats for the men – help recreate those bygone days. And, fortunately for the guides and the guests who also opt for the period apparel, there’s no longer the need of squeezing through small spaces with formal clothes as many of the first guests had to do.
DeLong recalls that the concept of the lantern tours started more than 20 years ago when Crystal Cave featured them Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights throughout the summer.
“They created very long hours for our employees,” DeLong says.
A Change In Direction
When the Halloween tours originated, they were more “spirited.” DeLong recalls the many seasonal decorations added to the cave and all the folks involved.
“We literally had all the employees working those and many of their mothers, cousins, friends – everyone wanted to be part of the fun,” he says. “It almost got too big – we couldn’t accommodate everyone who wanted to visit.”
But the costumed participants were a loyal lot. “I still get calls to this day saying: ‘I’ll help out,’” DeLong says.
However, the Halloween decorations, including black draped sheets of plastic and other large-scale pieces, became as much of a problem during normal hours as they were a pleasure during the special tours. September and October are the prime time for school student tours as well as the usual visitors. It was unworkable to remove the decorations for the daytime and replace them by evening, so they stayed up.
The result was a significant impact on what Crystal Cave is famed for – the astonishing limestone formations, many of which have nicknames, such as the “upside down ice cream cone” near the entrance.
So, the lantern tours replaced the goofy goblins of the Halloween-themed tours.
The lantern tours offer lessons of history and nature as well as providing a fun experience. And, he says, the availability to have that experience is somewhat limited.
Advertising for the tours begins after Labor Day. Reservations must be made by calling the main number at 610.683.6765. There is a limit of 45 attendees per evening and the guides take 15 persons through per tour, spaced 10 minutes apart. Prior to the tours, visitors see a 13-minute video about the cave. DeLong says the tours are best experienced by adults and older children.
“The tours have to be small because of the limited lighting,” he says. The number of stairs can be of concern for those with ambulatory issues. The cave is neither really stroller- or wheelchair-friendly for that reason.
New to the tours this year are individual battery-operated lanterns for visitors – keepsakes with the Crystal Cave label – that are part of the ticket price yet to be set at press time. Tour guides will carry the larger, brighter lanterns (also battery operated); the smelly and dangerous open flame kerosene lanterns have been relegated to the cave’s history.
DeLong stresses that reservations must be made for the special tours. It is highly unlikely there will be an opening for anyone just showing up on site.
Taking Care Of The Cave
The cave’s mystical formations are maintained and cleaned by a volunteer with the Geological Society of America who learned of Crystal Cave while he was visiting a cavern in Ohio.
“He goes to many caves and is joined by volunteers to do this,” says DeLong. “They clean the formations with water and toothbrushes and sometimes do power washing. The formations need that protection because visitors can carry spores on their clothes and when exposed to the light (electric lighting) in the cave, you can start finding small ferns growing in the cracks. A regular cave wouldn’t have light and wouldn’t have that happen.”
Most of the cleaning is done in the off months (Crystal Cave is open to the public March 1 through Nov. 30, seven days a week). Routine maintenance is also a priority as the state Deep Mining Commission inspectors show up unannounced to make sure all safety measures are intact.
DeLong estimates more than 75,000 visitors traverse the cave annually. The numbers, he says, were higher in the old days of the Blue Laws when Pennsylvanians had few other places to be on a Sunday. Numbers also dipped when Interstate 78 was completed, diverting most traffic off Route 22 closer to the cave.
And, to be sure the pandemic was impactful.
DeLong now sees that as pretty much in the rear-view mirror as families and school, church and civic groups are returning in big numbers.
“It’s feeling much more normal,” he says, noting over the years that visitors have come from all 50 states and more than 20 countries. To attract more visitors and to keep them on location longer, DeLong and his colleagues have created more attractions in the 125-acre park. There is an historical exhibit, a gift and souvenir shop, panning for gemstones (a new sluice was added February), a miniature golf course, shaded picnic area, museum, ice cream parlor and a small restaurant. He notes that the restaurant has not opened this season due to a lack of staffing, a situation faced by many entrepreneurs. DeLong waxes nostalgic about the days when his daughter Erika and son Jake, now both in their 20s, would work various positions and bring along their friends for summer employment.
“That lasted about 14 years, and it was great,” he recalls.
The generational appeal of Crystal Cave extends well beyond the DeLong and Kauffman families.
“A lot of people tell me they came here with their grandparents and their parents and now they’re bringing their grandchildren,” he says. “Come to think of it, I hear that nearly every day.”
crystalcavepa.com | 610.683.6765
