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Added
February 17, 2008
Last Update
June 15, 2008
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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. |
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