History & local legend
Stories of a lost silver cave have circulated around Tionesta in Forest County since at least the nineteenth century. In February 1877, the town’s Forest Republican mentioned a rumored mine somewhere in the county and encouraged renewed efforts to find it. Later storytellers placed the entrance in the woods west of town.
One version follows a member of the Hill family who took shelter in a cave during a storm. Inside, he noticed silver running through the rock and loose pieces scattered on the floor. He reached home safely when the weather cleared, but could never retrace his steps to the entrance.
Another version centers on a trader who persuaded Seneca guides to show him their source of silver. They blindfolded him for the journey, allowed him to take as much ore as he could carry, and concealed the route again on the way out.
Sources
- The Forest Republican, Tionesta, February 7, 1877, local mention of a long-rumored Forest County silver mine
- The Pennsylvania Rambler, original field interview and review of the Hill and trader variants, including Patrick Reynolds’s 1979 newspaper illustration
- Forest County Historical Society’s Tionesta marker and its coordinates
- Library of Congress, digitized 1877 newspaper page