Many times I have told family members of the days when I was 5 or 6 years old and my Grandparents Taylor took me to visit the Alma Hill Ice Cave.
The reason I am
repetitive to family about this cave is that I remember a trip with them going "rock hunting". My Grandmother Taylor, having been born and raised within a quarter mile of the ice cave on Alma Hill, knew exactly what she wanted for her flower gardens and was constantly making
my Grandpa haul heavy stones so she could place them "just so" and plant her many varieties of flowers around them.
When you enter the road (private property) into the area where the path leads to the ice cave, there was an old
quarry of rocks....not just any rocks....these were like green glass and they contained rounded milk-white pebbles. My Grandpa owned a Terraplane automobile which had a fender well for spare tire. Shedding all doubt, Grandpa was forced to leave the spare tire home so he could
haul stones in that well!
I'm not sure that any of my family truly believed me about the green stones with white pebbles embedded.
Now, my friend Mary Rhodes has
discovered an 1897 clipping from the Wellsville Reporter which sheds some authenticity on the subject.
If anyone ever finds one of those stones around Allentown laying in the sod please call me, it's probably one that my
Grandmother dragged into town and I'd like the stone.
Flash!!!! I had only published this story for about two hours and friend, Brian Lynch emailed me the picture of his rock, shown below the clipping.........
