We went on a hike to Bower Cave and Diana Falls today - New Years Eve 2017. It was a beautiful sunny, mid-60's day.
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| All locked up - fine of $5000 for entering |
Bower Cave, perhaps most accurately described as a grotto, has been well-known to Indians for hundreds of years. People of the Me-Wuk culture called it "Oo-tin" or Home of the Evening Star. Just who among the early miners and settlers saw it first is a matter of dispute. One of the first known to have written about it was Belgian miner Jean-Nicolas Perlot, who lived in the vicinity in 1852-1857.
Miners Nicholas Arni and Frederick Schoebel were the first to lay claim to the land around the grotto and the first to promote it as a tourist attraction.
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| Jim and G looking down into the cave - they could see the old dance floor |
Visitation to the cave grew steadily with the area's growth due initially to mining. In 1874, a tollroad from Coulterville to Yosemite was completed. Bower Cave was directly along this route, providing cool respite for stageline travelers on hot summer days and becoming a favorite spot for picnics and Saturday night dances.
Originally, people were lowered into the grotto in a bathtub-size bucket and windlass. A long, steep wooden staircase was later constructed to the grotto bottom where a dance floor was also built. The attraction led to construction of an eight-room hotel in 1874. Guests and locals continued to use the grotto as a dance and party place into the 20th century. After changing owners several times, Bower Cave was closed in the mid-fifties when an individual was killed in a fall after part of the rotting staircase gave way.
In 1991, the US Forest Service acquired Bower Cave and the nearby Linkletter Ranch, as a part of a land exchange.
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| View from the cave |
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| Looking down into the cave |
Follow the Bower Cave exploration, we hiked to Diana Falls. It was running despite our lack of rain.
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| Sporty Weener |
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| Diana Falls |
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