Sleeping Giant, Hamden
By Ray Bendici | Category: Damned Investigations, Legends
The Damned Story: Sleeping Giant in Hamden has a long recorded history, and as such, there are many tales associated with it, the most famous of which is how this unique stretch of trap rock ridge got its name in the first place.
According to the Quinnipiac Indians who inhabited the area before European colonists arrived, the story of Sleeping Giant is the story of Hobbomock, a giant who contained the spirit of the souls of the dead.
As it turns out, Hobbomock was not an especially nice or jolly behemoth, threw temper tantrums and tended to do things that pleased only him. Once, he got so angry and stamped his feet so violently in a river that it caused a flood that destroyed many villages and created much distress among the mortals. He was also fond of oysters, so the story goes, and quite often gorged himself on every one that could be found, making sure to leave none for everyone else.
He was a giant jerk, really.
Anyway, Keihtan, the creator-god, took pity on the plight of the mortals and decided he needed to deal with Hobbomock. But as Hobbomock was a divine creature, Keihtan could not kill him, so he waited for the right opportunity to take care of the giant. One day, after Hobbomock went on a particularly zealous oyster-eating binge (think of your Uncle Joe showing up for Thanksgiving with his “eating pants” on), he grew weary and fell asleep. Keihtan, seizing the moment, cast a spell on the giant so that he would never awaken again. Over time, the earth and trees have come to cover the slumbering Hobbomock, peace has returned to the area, and all have been spared the giant’s wrath.
Moving from ancient legend to more recent reality, another well-known story about the mountain is the tale of Dead Man’s Cave. Essentially, on Good Friday in 1873, a pair of boys went up to the mountain to look for what was then called Abraham’s Cave — an impressive hollow on the “left hip” of the giant, large enough to hold a dozen men. When the boys got to the cave, however, rather than find old Abraham, they found … well, a dead man. The badly decomposed corpse’s identity was a mystery for a time before authorities were finally able to determine that the dead man was Edward Barnum, a nephew of the legendary P.T. Barnum.
Over the centuries, the mountain has been home to grist and saw mills, quarries, private cottages and other small buildings. In 1888, John Dickerman opened a small area of the mountain as a recreational park and built the tower that is popularly visited now; by the early half of the 20th century, over 1,500 acres were protected and devoted to public recreational use.
For a detailed history of Sleeping Giant, you can check out Born Among the Hills: The Sleeping Giant Story by Nancy Davis Sachse.
Our Damned Experience: Steve has hiked the Giant numerous times, but on a sunny spring day in late May 2009, we set out for the tower and hopefully to find Dead Man’s Cave.
When we arrived, we decided to ask one of the park rangers what was the best way to get to Dead Man’s Cave. He sort of scratched his head, looked around and said, “Uh, if you want to know that, you can try and go ask my supervisor over there in the office.” In other words — “You boys are on your own.” Understood.
As the weather was perfect and the trail traffic was fairly light, it was only a matter of time before we reached the summit. After the obligatory visit to the top of the tower for a few photos, we attempted to follow directions provided us by our pal Sherpa Bob and others. After a bit of guessing and tramping around, we were able to find it!
Of course finding it and exploring it are two different things, especially because it was in a veritable sea of poison ivy! Seriously, the stuff was everywhere, and as both Steve and I are highly allergic, by the time we got to the cave, we were both starting to freak out a bit as we had repeatedly come in contact with it.
The next factor going against us was the fact that to go all the way into the chamber, you have to crawl down into a small opening, then crawl back under the entrance on your belly through a small opening to get into the main cave. Essentially, when you are standing in front of the entrance to Dead Man’s Cave, you’re actually standing on top of Dead Man’s Cave itself. Think of it as having to negotiate yourself into a blocky letter “C” from the top. We both were wearing shorts and T-shirts, were covered in poison ivy oils and only had a small headlamp between us . . .
Despite this, we started to enter the cave before we saw a number of very large spiders! Now, I’m by no means arachnophobic, but the eight-legged specimens hanging in wait across the cave’s entrance were big enough to saddle.
Feeling itchy, sweaty and not properly equipped (like with flamethrowers!), and suddenly leery of whatever fauna might be waiting in the dark, we decided that discretion was the better part of valor and –
Okay, we wimped out, ran home and scrubbed ourselves with Tecnu (which works amazingly — woohoo!)! We’ll return when cooler weather arrives, the ivy is gone, the spiders will be fewer and we could be dressed and equipped to investigate the right way. We know where the cave is and we will be back!
If You Go: If you haven’t already visited, Sleeping Giant State Park is located at 200 Mount Carmel Avenue in Hamden, directly across from Quinnipiac University. It is open daily year-round from 8 am to sunset. In the summer, there is a charge to park in the main lot; many people park on Mount Carmel Avenue for free.
The Sleeping Giant Park Association also has a lot of great information about the park, including hiking trails, organized hikes and more.
I have been in there and went all the way to the back when I was a wee teen. I would say you need less than a 32 waist to get through there (unless they cut it wider somehow). It was very claustraphobic in there and very slimey too.
You have to do that move from the Army training where you are on your back and you shimmy through using your shoulders to propel you under a rock. Lets just say that you will come out of there dirty, itchy, bitten, and scared. My worst fear was if the rock shifted a few inches I would have been trapped forever.
Enjoy!!
Great post, really brings me back. Should have called me first though, I’ve logged so many hours in that cave it would make David Blane jealous. Great place for a 12 year old kid to hang out for the day (in 1972). Today we don’t let our 12 year old out of our sight. The only spooky thing about DMC would be two 40 year old men in shorts complaining about spiders and their sensitive skin, blocking my escape route out of the cave.
Damn Ray, he just blew us up!
Your statement “In 1888, John Dickerman opened a small area of the mountain as a recreational park and built the tower that is popularly visited now;” – is incorrect.
John Dickerman, in hopes of creating a summer recreational community did in fact build a road up from Mt. Carmel, now traversing a part of the Red Circle Trail before branching off into an unmarked trail that ends up on the White overlooking New Haven Harbor (the fourth ridge). On this scenic outcropping he built a wooden pavillion which opened on July 4, 1888, hoping to attract picnickers and families out to enjoy nature. He called the area Blue Hills Park. Today there are no remains of any structures.
The Tower was a WPA project, conceived in 1935 and completed in 1939 using the stones of a former home on the third ridge, also the highest spot on Sleeping Giant. It was built after the Sleeping Giant Park was established as a State Park.
Thanks HikeaGiant, not sure where we got this information….FYI is nothing left to the old structure- I hiked the white trail and found a small foundation just off it with some trees growing up through it.
On the White Trail in that area, there are foundations of two of the cottages that Dickerman had built near the site of his original pavillion. The one you mentioned, now sometimes referred to as “Ned’s Cabin” , is the remains of the first stone house built on the Giant. It was constructed in 1888 by Jonathan Dickerman for a woman named Jamison from Lake Como, Florida, as part of his attempt to build a recreational commuity the area. It was called the Stone House, 14 feet square inside with walls 2 feet thick. The other ‘remains’ are bit off the White and a bit harder to discern. This is the remains of a cottage built in 1889 for Reverend Robert Bell and his family from Granby, Bell having served an minister of Mt. Carmel Congregational Church from 1879 to 1891. There are two iron pipes driven into the rock, which are presumed to be part of the foundation. For photos of each and some historical photos, which I hope to be able to replace with better copies at some point soon, and GPS coordinates, check out http://hikeagiant2.wordpress.com – under Giant Lore.
I have searched for the cave before with no luck with a few friends does anyone know if they could tell how to get to the cave?? email me at ajm0236@comcast.net I would appreciate it
I recall the workd “FOTCH” and “BONE” with a a white arrow pointing the way to the cave in the 60′s.
Hey folks,
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but what you found here is not Dead Man’s cave. Dead Mans is about 200 yards farther down the green trail (where the yellow trail bisects it) and is MUCH bigger. What you have discovered here is actually named “Spider Cave” for the unpleasantly large species of Cave-Dweeling Orb spider (Meta Ovalis) that lives there. I have gotten in there with those bad boys, and believe me – they are not all that happy to receive visitors. I never got down into the actual lower part of the “C” since that is where the spiders breed. Personally, I kind of like spiders, but this is… uhhh… too much of a “good thing” in too cramped a space, if you know what I mean.
The “official” Dead Man’s Cave is about parallel with a 100 foot telephone pole pine tree (use it as a marker) and can be reached by climbing up the talus pile (watch out for Copperheads. Seriously) or down the 100 foot cliff. It does not look like a cave entrance. It looks more like a crooked, sideways, ‘slash’ in the side wall of the cliff. You climb up on some rocks to get to the angled entrance, then down inside.
The upper room slants down to a “hole” in the right wall with a log against the back wall to help you down about a six foot drop. Once you lower yourself in (feet first, please) you will see that the floor of the hole angles down into a ‘trough’ with another man-hole sized opening at the lower end. (Basically you are now zig-zagging with the way you just entered the cave) push yourself along, feet first and CAREFULLY lower yourself into that second hole, and you will find yourself dropping into a LARGE
ROOM with room for about five or six people! there is a passage at the far end that drops into yet another (!) big room, and you will see bats clinging to the cieling. There are other passages as well that may even lead to other rooms. I dont know, since they did not seem to agree with a 6′ tall 200lb frame…
The whole place is covered with ridiculous ammounts of graffiti, but it is still pretty cool. The hardest part is shimmying down into the drop-in room, so you may not want to go alone – as getting back out without a rope is possible, but it will tear you up a bit in the process. I would reccomend people not leave rubbish and stuff inside (only footprints) and try to imagine what it looks like without all the spray paint tagging, but cool nonetheless.
Now…. there is also a drop down pit that leads to another cave called “Black Well” on the other side of the mountain, not far from the blue trail………………
(Sorry about the wierd spacing on this. I must have accidentally hit “submit” before completing my ramblings.
Chuck is correct. The real Dead Man’s Cave is a treat for all, with few spiders. You can actually go even lower than the drop-in room by crawling in a ridiculous, tight passage and reach yet another room below that one (it’s smaller). I don’t recommend it unless you’re a caver or very skinny, though.
I used to take students to Dead Man’s Cave as extra credit. I only had 2 (out of maybe 50) freak out and not do it. But if they had seen that many spiders, no doubt more would have balked. So, I think we can give the Damned Connecticut crew a break here. They just had the wrong cave! (P.S. The first time I went up we found a smaller cave inhabited by copperheads, too)
Now, I’ve never heard of this Black Well cave! Please, Chuck, tell me more!
Each Spring the Trails Crew of Sleeping Giant does its annual trash ‘clean out’ of Dead Man’s Cave (once know as Abraham’s Cave, until the body of P.T. Barnum’s nephew was found there on Good Friday 1873 by two boys ‘out for adventure’). The graffiti is another matter. I’ve been down once; climbing out gave new meaning to the term “rebirth”.
Eric,
I think I read your article on Dead Man’s cave. That’s what made me go back there! I realized that I had only gotten into the upper room the first time, and had not gone deep enough! I wondered what the big deal about Dead Man’s cave was! (lol) I tried to send you an email via the Quinnipiac address that the article had (If memory serves me) but the link was dead. I’ll add in the URL of my website – it has a contact link for my email.
Trust me, I dont mind spiders at all, but I totally agree with our Damned CT guys in leaving this place behind… The Meta Ovalis species in Spider Cave is a daunting creature indeed. They are harmless, but they are about 2.5 inches or so in size, brick red with long legs and brown belly, and they build big webs that feel like old electrical wire strung through the cave. You don’t (usually) see these puppies until after you are inside the cave and then you notice their somewhat intimidating shadows on the wall, skittering around in your head lamp, rushing across their broken web to climb up the rocks and stare at you. Yeahhh… I’ll take the bats, please!
In any event; I was typing too fast when I posted my earlier comment, and gave the wrong trail for my statement… the “Cave of the Black Well” is NOT located on the blue trail, it is on the WHITE trail. In fact – if you know where to look – very close to the white trail…
Also, it is ostensibly part of the “Esophagus Cave” system from what I can determine. Apparently ( I am finding these things out through a lot of research online) that whole [small] cave network over by “Canyon Pit” has about a million different names. Ray Wilson’s list calls it “Cave of the Black Well”, and I kind of like the tone of that, but the most prevalent monniker I keep seeing is, of course, Esophagus. (the “Black Well” part of it?) From the way I piece it all together, Esophagus is the vertical pit that you chimney down for about 15 feet. It looks like a man-hole in the rock-pile, and is very easy to miss; Until you look down and see how far the darkness goes… At the bottom there is a fairly good sized cave that you can squeeze into with about a 7 foot high, sloped cieling. There’s probably room for about three or four adults. I have not seen so much as a spider down there, and the area is not secluded enough for bats, so if you dont mind dropping into a pit to get to it, it seems fairly empty.
There is a cave off the green trail with copperheads? Wow, I might know where it is. Believe it or not I have actually gone to the Giant to deliberately take photos of copperheads. Beautiful snake, and hey – they are only venomous if they bite you. As long as you keep that from happening, they’re not so bad. LOL
Chuck
http://www.seefranke.com
We need to head back it looks like. Thanks all for the great info.
Steve
Hey guys, the cave is amazing. It’s rumored by alot of the guys at the local high school that Jerry Garcia as been down there, seeing as his signature is on the wall.
However the one thing i will say is, on more than one occasion I’ve been “welcomed” by quite a few bats.
Me and my friends have visited Dead man’s Cave, Spider cave, and the third one on that cliffside, but we can’t find the caves on the white trail. Is there anyone that can elaborate a little on the location, if it isn’t asking too much.
Joe