Doubling Gap

History & local legend

David “Robber” Lewis hid in the mountains above Doubling Gap while officers pursued him in the early nineteenth century. Local tradition describes a rock shelter along the route toward Flat Rock, high enough for him to watch the hotel below. Hotelkeeper Nicholas Howard, said to be a friend, hung a flag in an upstairs window when the officers had left. Lewis could then come down for food and company.

Stories about Lewis often cast the highwayman as a protector of poor families. In one, he gives a household money to pay its overdue taxes, then robs the collector after the payment has changed hands. Such tales helped explain why people might shelter him from the law.

Lewis died in Bellefonte jail in 1820. A letter attributed to him later encouraged treasure hunters to search for another hiding place overlooking a woolen mill near Spruce Creek.