Casparis Mine

History
?}	The quarrying of the stone at Casparis was a tedious job that involved drilling and dynamiting. The larger stone was broken up by pneumatic drills into smaller pieces. These were loaded into small rail cars which were hauled to the crusher, a short distance from the drilling area. After the stones were crushed, they were transported down the mountain by incline and loaded in railroad cars for shipment.Some years later the quarry was purchased by Vang Crushed Stone Company and a new process was implemented for securing the stone. A method of tunneling for the stone was developed and tracks were laid to bring the quarried stone from the tunnels by a small rail buggy. Under the new arrangement, the quarried stone was transported to the bottom of the mountain by aerial buckets, transferred to a crusher, and then into a screener which graded the stone into stone dust, crushed stone, railroad ballast and larger stones used for highway construction. The various stone was stored in designated bins in the tipple. Railroad cars were placed on the siding, and cars were shifted under the tipple for loading as needed.The "caves" (Casparis Mine) as they are called today, still stand. Receding approximately a quarter mile into the mountain, with thirty-foot entrance ways and forty-foot high ceilings, they are a monument to nature and to man's ingenuity to control his environment. Approaching the "caves" on a hot summer day, one is delightfully surprised by a cool airflow from the entrance ways. A visitor in winter is astonished by the seeming warmth of the flow of air coming from the openings. The truth is the caves maintain an almost constant temperature winter and summer. Although Casparis, as it is called, is located in Connellsville Township, PA, it is a well-known landmark that has always been associated with South Connellsville, PA.
?}	Casparis Mine is made up of four large (thirty to forty foot tall) tunnels dug a quarter of a mile into a portion of Chestnut Ridge for the purpose of obtaining blue limestone. The mine was dug at the Casparis Quarry.PA State Game Land officials had the entrances all but sealed in August of 2005, citing safety concerns and the need for a bat habitat as the reason. Two of the tunnels were left open but sealed with metal gates to allow bats and authorized personnel entrance into the mine, but the gates were vandalized and destroyed within a year of their construction. As of this writing, the PA State Game Land were raising money to have additional gates constructed.Prior to being sealed the "Casparis Caves," as locals call them, were popular as a destination on the remote jeep trails crisscrossing the Casparis mountain area. Illegal camping was common along the entrances of the Casparis Mine.Campfires inside of the tunnels were blamed for a major roof collapse back in the 1980s, as the extreme heat changes caused fracturing in the rocks. The collapse left a large almost perfectly sphered dome in the ceiling of the largest tunnel.