The West: The Cave-in-Rock on the Ohio River

From early in the nineteenth century boaters traveling downstream between Shawneetown (Gallatin County) and Golconda (Pope County) were fascinated by Cave-in-Rock (Hardin County), known in those early days as Rock and Cave, or in more colorful language, as the"House of Nature." This cave from a bluff on the north side of the Ohio, as it had Native Americans for centuries before, beckoned those who sought a brief respite and/or temporary shelter from the elements in their travels. During the early nineteenth century as well, it became notorious as a"hole in the wall" for river pirates.

One of the earliest, if not the first, extant descriptions of Cave-in-Rock comes from Fortescue Cuming's Sketches of a Tour to the Western Country (1810), as reprinted in Reuben Gold Thwaites, ed., Early Western Travels, 1748-1846 (vol. 4), who, along with a companion or two, recounted:

Rowing along shore with the skiff, we were soon undeceived as to that's [another opening] being the Rocking cave, as a third of a mile lower down, one of the finest grottos or caverns I have ever seen, opened suddenly to view, resembling the choir of a large church as we looked directly into it. We landed immediately under it and entered it. It is natural, but is evidently improved by art in the cutting of an entrance three feet wide through the rock in the very centre, leaving a projection on each hand excavated above to the whole breadth of the cavern, the projections resembling galleries. The height of the mouth is about twenty-two, and that of the rock about thirty. It is crowned by large cedars and black and white oaks, some of which impend over, and several beautiful shrubs and flowers, particularly very rich columbines, are thickly scattered all around the entrance. The length (or depth) of the cavern is fifty-five paces, and its breadth eleven or twelve (p. 272).

From a fine photograph of Cave-in-Rock, as it appears (p. 165) in C. William Horrell, Henry Dan Piper, and John W. Voight, Land Between the Rivers: The Southern Illinois Country (1973), one can tell the description of Cuming's was quite accurate. Not more than twelve years ago, I saw, and spent a few minutes in , this natural wonder, which as I have intimated above, soon became a well-known landmark on journeys down the Ohio. It was obvious too, at the time of my visit, the cave was little changed, if at all, from pioneer days.

The day of my visit (ca. 1990) was occasioned by a long-time friend Vera Frank of Fairfield, Illinois (now deceased), who had asked me to motor her to the town Cave-in-Rock, named after the cavern itself. That I did then, in her brand-new Oldsmobile. The two of us, along with another older woman, Marie (a mutual friend, also dead now), had delicious catfish dinners at a local restaurant. It is worth appending, the little towns of southern Illinois, especially those bordering the Ohio, like the one at Cave-in-Rock, often serve what is to be expected--freshly-cooked catfish taken from the river. And, let me assure the reader, such fine fish (and not filleted either), but less the heads, provide some of the best cuisine to be tasted in the entire Midwest.

To return to the nineteenth century though once again, let me present another fine description of Cave-in-Rock, followed by a glimpse at old camp-meeting days, spent from time to time in frontier Illinois at and near the"House of Nature." Major Stephen H. Long of the United States Topographical Engineers, who headed an expedition to the Rocky Mountains in 1819-1820, left an account of the cave, as given in Early Western Travels, edited by Thwaites, and as recorded by Edwin James, a botanist, as well as geologist, on the expedition (vol. 14:80):

It is a perpendicular fissure, extending about one hundred and sixty feet into the horizontal limestone cliffs, which here form the north bank of the river. At times of high water, the Ohio flows in, and fills the cave nearly to its roof. In this cave, it is said, great numbers of large bones were some time ago found, but we saw no remains of any thing of this kind. Impressions and casts of the shells of submarine animals are seen in the rocks, forming the sides of the cave, as in all the strata of compact limestone, in this region.

To the foregoing, it should be added--from the bluff in front of the cave's mouth (some fifty yards from the precipice), one can to this day also get a fine view of the Ohio. And, at times the scene is nicely picturesque should a barge float lazily by, plying freight to or from the Mississippi River from Cairo, Illinois. Such hauling of goods in bulk has long since replaced the once highly colorful trafficking up-and-down stream of the steamboat era, ushered in on the Ohio, when the first such vessel (in 1811), heading for the mighty Mississippi and destined for New Orleans, had to pass below Cave-in-Rock en route.

It remains to treat camp-meeting times at Cave-in-Rock, in the example given here, by Methodists. As early as the territorial period for Illinois (1809-1818), that denomination, led by the likes of Jesse Walker and the great Peter Cartwright, the latter perhaps being the Midwest's most renowned circuit rider, began to hold camp meetings here and there in southern Illinois. On 18 April 1818 Walker, along with J. Patterson, and John Scripps, set out for the Massac camp meeting, to be held at Cave-in-Rock. On the 22nd they arrived, where ensued that day services, which Scripps described in an unforgettable way:"we had precious seasons of refreshing from the presence of the Lord, several conversions, and many accessions to the Church" (p. 176 of Solon Justus Buck's Illinois in 1818, published in 1917 by the Illinois Centennial Commission).

To elucidate (provide a"picture," as it were) of what must have been a spiritually-charged meeting there at Cave-in-Rock on that distant day in time, I must resort to an account in some detail of another Methodist camp meeting, witnessed by George Flower and described by him in his History of the English Settlement in Edwards County Illinois, Founded in 1817 and 1818, by Morris Birkbeck and George Flower (1882; 1968), pp. 174-77. As Flower related:

It [the camp-meeting site] was in form of a hollow square, on the two sides opposite and on a portion of the third, were the log-huts, with roof sloping outward, occupied by families from a distance, . . . In the centre of the third side was an elevated platform for the preacher, . . . in front and below what was called"the anxious-pew," a space about fifteen feet square, enclosed by a light post-and- rail fence (p. 175).

Flower then noted the squared-in area, having"light and even-sized logs, smoothed on one side by the axe," which provided seating for some 300 people (p. 175). From beyond the square,"strangers were continually arriving, some in buggies and some on horseback, fastening their animals, to the branches of the trees, that in a semi-circle stood round the camp" (pp. 175-76).

To which Flower appended an observation, to which I want to make another reflection in closing this vignette of Methodism on the Illinois frontier. He noted the beauty of the scene, for"the camp itself, standing as it did in the little prairie," was encircled by a timbered grove, amongst which had assembled youthful"and gay maidens, with many-colored scarfs and ribbons, streaming in the wind, [giving] to the whole an air of cheerfulness not to be exceeded" (p. 176).

To my way of thinking, as it relates to modern-church life, Catholic and Protestant alike (but not so much for the Pentecostal sects), much, if not most, of the spirituality and depth of feeling, as evinced by John Scripps at Cave-in-Rock in April 1818 or, as given by George Flower (though admittedly he was but an observer, not a communicant) have faded away, perhaps never to be restored. With that sobering thought, ends my tale of Cave-in-Rock on the way West.