Cooper’s Cave is a natural chamber in a small unnamed limestone island at the bottom of Glen’s Falls, open at both ends so that as the water rises below the falls it flows through the cave from the channel on the north side of the island to the channel on the south side. The cave is nationally significant for its association with James Fenimore Cooper’s 1826 novel The Last of the Mohicans, in which he placed his heroes in the cave early in the novel and later made extensive use of the rugged and picturesque terrain surrounding Glens Falls, using the tumbling waters and the many recesses in the rocks for the characters to maneuver and skirmish. In footnotes, Cooper noted that the setting in and around the falls was real. James Fenimore Cooper was a successful novelist who published novels, nonfiction works, a play, and several articles. Five of his novels, The Pioneers (1823), The Last of the Mohicans (1826), The Prairie (1827), The Pathfinder (1840), and The Deerslayer (1841), are collectively called the Leaatherstocking Tales. These narratives depict the American frontier during the second half of the eighteenth century and became the scholarly embodiment of the American spirit, and Cooper’s Leatherstocking Tales and their themes became part of the national heritage in both literature and films.