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State
Department of Conservation, who had an idea that a spelunker from
"Miss Kemp had written that "a
group of us are planning to visit the east this summer and wish to explore
caverns known as 'the
"It took but a few minutes of research
in the geology department of the State Museum to discover that there actually
are some caves east of Syracuse, and that they are curious ones, indeed, and
deep and some of them quite long, for in 'The Geology of the Syracuse
Quadrangle' by Thomas Cramer Hopkins, published as 'New York State Museum
Bulletin 171,' in 1914, there was found not only an elaborate study of the
"East Caves of Syracuse," but photographs taken, exteriorly, of some
of the odd crevices, with people perched in them.
"These crevices are in Onandaga
limestone, which is the hardest kind found in New York State and which spreads
clear across the Syracuse quadrangle, in some areas forming large, level floors
of rock swept free of residual matter by glaciers and the wash of water, and
with deep clefts in the rock.
"One of these areas lies along the top
of a cliff that borders what is known as the Clark Reservation, a state park,
about three miles southeast of Syracuse...
"This officially confirms Miss Kemp's
long-distance tip on caves which, until June, 1947, had completely escaped the
attention of present-day geologists, speleologists, and spelunkers as well as
the usually alert boosters of the
