Old Man’s Cave

Old Man’s Cave is the park’s most famous feature, a recess in a vertical cliff 75 feet above the stream that measures 250 feet long and 50 feet high. The recessed caves throughout the park were formed as water and wind carved the softer middle layers of blackhand sandstone. This sandstone consists of layers of silt, sand, and small pebbles compressed into a loose rock, while iron oxide and silica cement it into hard upper and lower rock layers. As water seeped through the rock, it carved the softer middle layers and left behind a roof and floor, a process called sapping. The cave takes its name from Richard Rowe, a hermit who lived in the recess cave of the gorge. His family moved to the Ohio River Valley around 1796 from the Cumberland Mountains of Tennessee to establish a trading post. He and his two hounds traveled through Ohio along the Sioto River in search of game, found the Hocking Hills Region on a side trip up Salt Creek, and lived there in the cave for the rest of their lives.

Ohio · United States