Tytoona Cave - History

History

Tytoona has a lengthy recorded history, dating back to the arrival of white men in the Sinking Valley area in the 1750s. Local folklore states that around this time, Bedford Rangers chased Indians who had killed two settlers into the cave; the Indians supposedly never emerged from the entrance where the Rangers waited, and it is said that they either died in the cave or found another way out. Since no passable way in or out except the main entrance has ever been found, the likely explanation is that the Rangers, afraid to enter the cave, just did not wait very long.

The first published account of the Sinking Valley area, by Emollit Mores, was published in the Columbian Magazine in 1788. The account gives a history of Sinking Valley and nearby Fort Roberdeau, and mentions the end of the Tytoona system at Arch Spring:

"a rude arch of stone hanging over it, forms a passage for the water, which it throws out with some degree of violence, and in such plenty as to form a fine stream, which at length buries itself again in the bowels of the earth."

It also gives the first known description of the entrance to the cave:

"This opening in the hill continues about four hundred yards when the cave widens, after you have got round a sudden turn, which prevents its being discovered till you are within it, to a spacious room, at the bottom of which is a vortex, the water that falls into the whirling round with amazing force; sticks, or even pieces of timber, are immediately absorbed."

More recently, there have been two attempts at commercialization, in 1947 and in 1972; neither venture lasted long and today little trace remains of them. The 1972 venture failed when Hurricane Agnes caused floods throughout the region; Tytoona, at that point called Indian River Caverns, was completely filled with water, and all the steps, railings, and pathways were washed away into the cave. The remains of this failure make up much of the logjam which lies in a bend in the cave, about 400 feet in.

A tragedy occurred in the cave in 1988. A number of cave divers were surveying and mapping the cave from the Arch Spring end, and they found two sumps. The second was extremely long and deep: about 1000 feet long and 105 feet deep underwater. On June 20, 1988, cave divers John Schweyen and Roberta Swicegood were mapping from Arch Spring; after Schweyen left the cave, Swicegood went back in for the solo dive. When she did not return, several divers attempted to rescue her but were unsuccessful. Her body was recovered four days later. She had apparently lost her guideline in the second sump; with visibility near zero, she was unable to find the line again before her air supply ran out and she drowned. In the aftermath of this tragedy, the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, who owned the cave at that time, banned further cave diving indefinitely. Cave diving remains forbidden at Tytoona without express written permission from the Tytoona Cave Preserve management.