History & local legend
Durham Cave, also called Devil’s Hole, lay in the limestone near the mouth of Cooks Creek in Bucks County. Air rushing from its entrance and flights of bats helped give the cavern its ominous reputation. In local tales, the Doan Gang used it as a meeting place to plan robberies.
In 1835, a Durham boy named David Steckel and his friends went looking for the cave. Outside its opening they found two barrels filled with bones embedded in rock. Recalling the visit decades later, Steckel said he learned that collectors from New York had gathered the fossils for a scientific institution.
Quarrying began destroying the cavern around 1850. By the time Henry Chapman Mercer surveyed it in 1893, much of its series of chambers had disappeared. He explored the surviving passages, using a stepladder to reach the route toward Queen Esther’s Chamber. His work recorded animal bones and Indigenous artifacts in what remained of the once-celebrated cave.
Sources
- Mercer Museum, Bucks County Caves Map, the local Doan Gang meeting legend at Durham Cave
- Carl LaVO, Bucks County Adventures, David Steckel’s recollection of his 1835 visit
- Henry C. Mercer, An Exploration of Durham Cave in 1893, published 1897, excavation and 1896 photograph
- Delaware River Water Trail, Durham Furnace canal public access coordinates
