The Devil's Den

NEAR THE CENTER of the town of Sterling, there is a large and curious cave with features so strange that residents from the time of the earliest settlement called it the Devil's Den. Situated within a rock ledge, the cavern had a circular area almost one hundred feet in diameter. Early explorers who tried the acoustics in this enormous main room came out to tell stories about the place being fit for the King of the Underground. Some whispered and many of those devout Puritan settlers believed them -- that they had actually seen the Prince of Evil seated upon a natural throne in the cavernous den, thundering orders about the disposition of the souls of sinners.

The rock of Devil's Den is also split in two places (just like the Devil's cleft hoof) and these cracks form fissures fifty feet deep. Through one bubbled a small stream of water. The other served as an entryway to a room about twelve feet square, in which there was a depression like a fireplace, and above it, extending through the rock to the outside, an opening about three feet square -- a perfect, natural chimney. In the cavern, too, was a natural staircase, winding down along the rock wall of the room, from top to bottom. The folk imagination worked overtime explaining how the Devil used that staircase from above and the fireplace below.

Despite the stories about the Devil's activities in the cavern, Devil's Den was notable during all seasons of the year for the extraordinary chill which permeated the place. In the cold months, a constant stream of water entering the room with the fireplace through the "chimney" would build up a massive iceberg, which often never completely melted, even during the hot months of summer. The sun, of course, never reached the icy underground recess. All of this is ironic, of course, in light of the Devil's reputation for preferring hell-fire and brimstone!