The Legend of
Penn’s Cave

The Legend of Penn’s Cave

As told by Isaac Steele, an aged Seneca Indian, to Henry W. Shoemaker, in 1892

In the early eighteenth century, long before settlements reached beyond Sunbury, Pennsylvania, a young Frenchman from Lancaster County, Malachi Boyer, set out to explore the wilderness. He roamed into the forests peopled by redskins, with whom he was friendly.

One beautiful April in about 1749, Malachi camped at Mammoth Springs, near the Indian Camp of Chief O -Ko-Cho, on the shores of Spring Creek near Bellefonte. He made friends with the old chief and sent him small gifts as tokens of friendship.

O-Ko-Cho had seven sons and one beautiful daughter, Nita-nee, whom the sons guarded carefully all the time. One day Malachi caught sight of Nita-nee washing a deer skin in the stream and immediately fell in love with her.

Since the Indians would not permit their marriage, they decided to run away, and late one night, they departed for the eastern settlements. They were later captured by the seven brothers and were returned to Chief O-Ko-Cho.

O-Ko-Cho commanded his sons to take Malachi into a yawning cavern filled with water and thrust him in. Every day for a week he swam back and forth searching vainly for an entrance other than the large one guarded by the merciless Indians. Then, exhausted from his efforts and vowing that the Indians should not see him die, he crawled into one of the furthermost recesses of the cavern and breathed his last. The brothers did not touch the body except to weigh it with stones and drop it in the deepest water in the cavern.

After these many years, those who have heard the legend declare that on still summer nights an unaccountable echo rings through the cavern, which sounds liken“Nita-nee - Nita-nee”.

Today in Central Pennsylvania, we honor the beautiful Indian maiden Nita-nee by bestowing her name on Nittany Mountain and Nittany Valley, as well as our world famous Nittany Lion, located on the Pennsylvania State University Campus.