Trapper Fortune Teller - Center Hall, PA
Posted by: 
94RedRover
N 40° 52.886 W 077° 36.389
18T E 280387 N 4528865
The Seneca Indians discovered Penn's Cave centuries ago. Like the French Trapper of the Cave's Legend, this "Trapper" has a fortune for you.
Waymark Code: WM5ZZP
Location: Pennsylvania, United States
Date Posted: 03/09/2009
Views: 4
Just off Route 192 in Centre Hall, Pennsylvania, Penn's Cave and Wildlife Park is a great family attraction. The limestone cavern is an all water cavern, and guided tours are conducted on flat bottom boats for an underground view of the cavern, and a tour through their 1,500 acre wildlife preserve.
The Seneca Indians found this cavern in the Valley of Karoondinha (Penn's Valley). There is a famous legend of an Indian maiden, named Nitanee, who fell in love with a French trapper, named Malachi Boyer. Their marriage was forbidden, so the lovers ran away. Unfortunately, they were captured, and were brought back to Chief O-Ko-Cho, Nitanee's father. Malachi was thrown into Penn's Cave to die. Swimming the springs that flood this cavern, searching for an entrance not guarded by Indians, Malachi died. Lengend speaks of the name "Nitanee" being echoed through the caverns on still summer nights. The Indian maiden of local history is honored today, offering her name to the famed Penn State Nittany Lion.
Penn's Cave was opened as a show cavern in 1885, when the 30 room Penn's Cave House also opened to the public. The hotel was used for overnight guests until 1919, and meals were served to cavern patrons until 1929. It was then used for visitors center and gift shop, until alterations in the 1960's, when a seperate Visitor Center was built.
Now, the historic Penn's Cave Hotel is used for administrative offices and special events. Penn's Cave and Hotel were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. The third story of the building never underwent alteration and is maintained in it's original beauty.
Guests can take a 1 hour boat tour of the cavern and a 90 minute motor vehicle tour of the wildlife park. Saturdays and Sundays in November, December and February, they offer unique Bat Tours. This tour is a bout 1 hour of facts and folklore on this important, yet misunderstood animal.
The Trapper Fortune Teller sits in the Visitor's Center, aside the food court, in the hallway back to the restrooms. It costs $.50 in quarters only. The Trapper looks into his lit crystal ball, and a paper fortune is ejected from a slot in front of the machine.
Type of Fortune Telling Machine (animated character, palm reader, horoscope, etc.): French Trapper
Cost to Operate: $.50
Reveal Your Fortune!: Not listed
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