The Woodsman's Journal Online: Rock Shelters or Half-Caves, That Home Away From Home, Part One ©

Photograph taken October 12, 2020 in the Allegheny Highlands, this rock shelter faces east and is within 100 feet (approximately 30 meters) of the summit of a 1,700 foot (518 meter) high hill. From the author’s collection.

The two articles in this series can both be used both by Experimental Archaeologists and Historical Trekkers of the late 18^th and early 19^th centuries, and by people who are interested in wilderness survival. For a video, watch “Sleeping Rough Old-School: How to Overnight in a Rock Shelter ©”, HERE. – Author’s note.

You are trekking through the woods along a ridgeline, when ahead of you, you see a cliff and a shallow cave, under an overhang. As you walk closer, you notice that it has both an excellent view of the valley below and a dry, sheltered spot under the overhang.

Maybe you thought as you walked closer, “I wonder what this type of shallow cave is called?” You might also have thought, “how was this shallow cave formed?” Or maybe you thought, “in the past did wilderness travelers ever camp in a shelter like this?”

These are all good questions, so sit back and “ruminate, whilst I illuminate”².

That shallow cave at the base of the cliff is a rock shelter. Rock shelters are also sometimes called, slant-rocks, overhangs, rock-houses, or half-caves; and are different from caves.

Figure 3-1, from “Prehistoric Rockshelters Of Pennsylvania: Revitalizing Behavioral Interpretation From Archaeological Spatial Data”, by Joseph Allen Burns, page 72.

Rock shelters are a sheltered space, made when a harder rock lies on top of a softer rock, which has been eroded away by flowing water or by the frost wedging of the freeze-thaw cycle, leaving an overhanging roof. Rock shelters have five areas, an overhanging ceiling, a sheltered floor, a dripline, an outside slope and most importantly, a backwall. The dripline is the boundary between outside of the shelter and the protected interior. The most important area in a rock shelter is the backwall, which will radiate heat back from the fire and is the most protected spot in the shelter.

Rock shelters found in the Appalachian Ridge and Valley system of the Middle Atlantic United States are formed of sandstone, quartzite, limestone, conglomerate, granite, or gneiss, and are found either, along lowland valley rivers or uplands where the rocky outcrops are exposed. Throughout the Appalachian Ridge and Valley system, rock shelters began when a river cut steep or vertical valley walls and undercut weaker rocks to create an initial overhang. This overhang is then slowly enlarged by frost wedging of the roof and back walls throughout the centuries. Upland rock shelters throughout this region are created by frost wedging and are typically shallow, while lowland rock shelters, due to the greater erosive force of rivers and streams, are usually larger.

True caves are different from rock shelters in several significant ways, but most importantly caves have extensive “dark zones” which were often visited during both the historic and prehistoric times but were seldom inhabited. And while caves are different from rock shelters, cave mouths or vestibules, as they are sometimes known, offer similar advantages for shelter as do rock shelters. Generally, rock shelters are wider than they are deep, and caves are deeper than they are wide³.

Hikers camping in Slant-Rock Camp, in the Adirondacks, in the early 1900s. An excerpt from The Conservationist, August 1920, Vol. III, Number 8, page 114.

Rock shelters or half-caves, whether they are shelving rocks, overhanging ledges, piles of boulders, or a wide shallow cave at the base of a cliff, all are a ready-made, natural shelters. Many rock shelters require no modifications, although they can be made more comfortable and weatherproof by closing off the open front or sides with branches, bark, skins, or mats and by building a fire and a reflector. Our ancestors have used rock shelters as campsites for thousands of years. Rock shelters have provided dry places for people to live for a few days, weeks, or even for months: they are warm in the winter and cool in the summer. Rock shelters come in many different sizes, some are small, and others are surprisingly quite large. They were first used by Native Americans, who were following game or travelling at a distance from their home villages, and later by Euro-American explorers and travelers of the late 18^th and early 19^th centuries. Both groups made extensive use of these shelters whenever they could be found. The Mohegan, Lenape and other Algonquin speaking Native Americans, who travelled throughout the area between the Ramapo and the Hudson Rivers, in the American states of New Jersey and New York, called these shelters “asiniwikams”, which translates as “stone-hunting-houses”⁴. Euro-American travelers and hunters, during the late 18^th and early 19^th centuries, called them over-hangs, rock-houses, or half-caves.

An excerpt from Shelters, Shacks and Shanties, 1914, by Daniel Carter Beard, page 9.

Rock shelters of the Appalachian Ridge and Valley system of the eastern United States, during both the prehistoric and historic time periods, were mainly used as short-term campsites by hunters or foraging groups for a few hours up to a few days. Additionally, archaeologists and ethno-archaeologist believe that these shelters were most often used when the weather was cold or wet: during good weather open air sites were preferred.

Photograph taken November 12, 2017 in the Allegheny Highlands, this rock shelter faces west to southwest and is within 300 feet (approximately 90 meters) of the summit of a 2,100 foot (640 meter) high hill. From the author’s collection.

Don’t forget to come back next week for “Rock Shelters or Half-Caves, That Home Away From Home, Part Two ©”, where we will talk about how to safely overnight in a rock shelter, if ever you become “misplaced”.

I hope that you continue to enjoy The Woodsman’s Journal Online and look for me on YouTube at Bandanaman Productions for other related videos, HERE. Don’t forget to follow me on both The Woodsman’s Journal Online, HERE, and subscribe to BandanaMan Productions on YouTube. If you have questions, as always, feel free to leave a comment on either site. I announce new articles on Facebook at Eric Reynolds, on Instagram at bandanamanaproductions, and on VK at Eric Reynolds, so watch for me.

That is all for now, and as always, until next time, Happy Trails!

Notes

² I love the 1992 movie, Aladdin, and my favorite song is a “Friend Like Me”, and I just couldn’t resist sliding a quote from the song into my article.

³ From “Prehistoric Rockshelters Of Pennsylvania: Revitalizing Behavioral Interpretation From Archaeological Spatial Data”, by Allen Joseph Burns.

⁴ From Meade C. Dobson, “Indian Rock Shelters In Interstate Park”.

Sources

Beard, Daniel Carter; Shelters, Shacks and Shanties, [Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1920], p 7-9, https://books.googleusercontent.com/books/content?req=AKW5QadpEyDmXt5kfeKp90NdM4S_HNL-UyglNES6KwpPBSe9gsUnUnwGm9E5F-HkPLJx6bXXqFk_fOcAjx-JQZeN8XIWYJDWBDPVOthfeExZBWogDoYhDuyZQyW9e00iGBXRDYJt9RUeOMwUGJQ8sntxGZJtYHf4IWYcX0TIDvpbW85MCR6dMFja691Oi9rO95mwDXIaHDv63PZPsqARVdoYg5SFVn2iLh0iBQcg5IxR71IEUOXK78iFiwNrfHQziuVHHl6E2c-bVoK9W5IySSH-gj38AIJTmg, accessed November 4, 2020

Burns, Allen Joseph; “Prehistoric Rockshelters Of Pennsylvania: Revitalizing Behavioral Interpretation From Archaeological Spatial Data”, August, 2009, https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1OKWM_enUS921US921&ei=da6FX5vbD72JytMP0JCMkAM&q=rock+shelter+drip+line+hearth&oq=rock+shelter+drip+line+hearth&gs_lcp=CgZwc3ktYWIQAzIFCCEQoAE6BAgAEEc6BQghEKsCOggIIRAWEB0QHjoHCCEQChCgAVC9R1ipU2DiWGgAcAJ4AIABVogBxgOSAQE3mAEAoAEBqgEHZ3dzLXdpesgBBcABAQ&sclient=psy-ab&ved=0ahUKEwjb6ZKK2bHsAhW9hHIEHVAIAzIQ4dUDCA0&uact=5, page 72, accessed October 13, 2020

Dobson, Meade C.; “Indian Rock Shelters In Interstate Park”, The Conservationist, January 1921; Vol. IV. Number 1, [New York State Conservation Commission, Albany, NY; 1921], pages 11-13, https://books.google.com/books?id=P_owAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA191&dq=%22the+conservationist%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjw3pqSkbjdAhUlh-AKHdauAL4Q6AEIPDAE#v=onepage&q=%22the%20conservationist%22&f=false, accessed September 18, 2018

“Slant-Rock Camp on the Marcy Trail”, The Conservationist, August 1920; Vol. III, Number 8, [New York State Conservation Commission, Albany, NY; 1920], Page Frontispiece, https://books.google.com/books?id=P_owAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA191&dq=%22the+conservationist%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjw3pqSkbjdAhUlh-AKHdauAL4Q6AEIPDAE#v=onepage&q=%22the%20conservationist%22&f=false, accessed September 18, 2018