Shapiro opens Pa.'s 125th state park - its first underground

The state's newest park - and its first underground - was officially opened by Gov. Josh Shapiro and Department of Conservation and Natural Resources Secretary Cindy Adams Dunn on Monday.

Perched atop Chestnut Ridge in Farmington, Laurel Caverns have been a longtime privately owned tourist destination with more than 4 miles of underground trails through unique geologic features created naturally by limestone, water and other elements.

Laurel Caverns State Park, about 68 miles southeast of Pittsburgh, is Pennsylvania's 125th, and hosts the state's deepest cave, at 474 feet.

It could be even deeper than that.

Unexplored sections of the caverns could add to the cave's depth, according to "Caverns in the Clouds: The Story of Laurel Caverns" by Ryan R. Maurer, published by Under a Rock Photography in 2025.

"Our outdoor recreation is an incredibly important part of life here in Western Pennsylvania," Mr. Shapiro said during Monday's grand opening.

A promoter of the state's recreation economy, the Shapiro administration noted that outdoor recreation businesses and related groups have created 12,000 jobs and boosted the outdoor workforce by nearly 25%.

"This is a real peak day in our history," said state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources secretary Cindy Adams Dunn during the event. "We have never seen the DCNR staff so excited about a single thing like bringing Laurel Caverns in as the 125th state park."

Laurel Caverns will stay closed until later in the month - public tours will begin on Earth Day, April 22 - because some bats use the cave for winter hibernation.

The 400-plus-acre site's owner, David Cale, of Uniontown, and two generations of his family have accomplished their goal: preserving the subterranean labyrinth for future generations.

"The ownership of a place like Laurel Caverns in my philosophy of life is different from owning farmland, or a car, or anything else," Mr. Cale said in an interview with the Post-Gazette.

"Your responsibility is not explicit for making money but to preserve it and use it for the public in a way that doesn't destroy it."

The Cale family bought the site nearly a century ago and sought to preserve the "geologic wonderland" and prevent the site from being mined for its limestone.

Opening up the site for public tours in 1962 was a way to save the caverns from damage and mineral extraction.

In the long run, though, Mr. Cale knew the site would need protection after he was gone.

"The only way I knew I could guarantee that was to get it out of private hands. As long as that property was owned by individuals, it ran the threat of being sold or being turned into something else, like a quarry."

The caverns average about 50,000 visitors a year, including many school children, Mr. Cale said.

The first Laurel Caverns park manager is Corie Eckman, who, on Monday, said that she first fell in love with the Laurel Highlands when she was a manager trainee at Ohiopyle State Park.

"Laurel Caverns has long been recognized as one of Pennsylvania's most unique treasures," she said.

The first owner of the cave was Richard Freeman, in 1794. Farmer John Delaney bought nearby property, and, in 1814, he purchased the 36 acres around the cave's entrance, according to Mr. Maurer's book.

Mr. Cale's grandfather Norman Cale and his cousin Roy Cale bought the caverns in 1933. Although the family sold the site decades ago, David Cale and his wife, Lillian, repurchased it in 1986 and later established a nonprofit, the Laurel Caverns Conservancy.

Mr. Cale had to persuade his grandfather, one of the founders of the present-day tourism group Go Laurel Highlands, to change the cave's name from its prior moniker, Delany's Cave, to Laurel Caverns.

Laurel Caverns Conservancy was founded by Mr. Cale, who is also its president, and the nonprofit will still manage the site's tours as a concessionaire for the state parks, he said.

Show caves

Laurel Caverns is an excellent cave for the state to preserve, said Kevin Patrick, an Indiana University of Pennsylvania geography professor and author of Pennsylvania Caves & Other Rocky Roadside Wonders.

"Laurel Caverns has a long history because it has a natural entrance," Mr. Patrick said.

Settlers were familiar with it, he said, as it was only a few miles south of the National Road.

"It was locally famous. Settlers who lived in the area and had farms were familiar with it and would visit it. It was a place for a Sunday picnic or an outing, back in the 19th century."

Laurel Caverns, before offering educational tours for students and becoming a destination for spelunkers, was known as a "show cave" - a destination for tourists able to access the site by train.

When the automobile became ubiquitous, it ushered in the "golden age of show caves," Mr. Patrick said.

The first show cave in the state is the Crystal Cave in Berks County, which started operations around 1872.

Close to 20 show caves opened in the 1920s and 1930s; now there are about eight, he said.

Show caves possess certain attributions, Mr. Patrick said. They need large enough passages for people to enter easily, to possess some unusual visual details or great backstory, and to be accessible by car or train.

The Great Depression and World War II dampened show cave tourism. But the baby boom in the 1950s and 1960s and economic prosperity institutionalized the family vacation, Mr. Patrick said.

"Everyone had a station wagon filled with kids, and they went on vacations. This created another boom for the show caves."

Some show caves have become state parks in other parts of the country, Mr. Patrick said.

Many caves were owned by generations of families as a way to preserve the sites.

"Laurel Caverns has a great history, and its footprint is big." With the state owning the site, Mr. Patrick said, there is growth potential.

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This story was originally published April 6, 2026 at 3:47 PM.